Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991 TAG: 9102140624
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
It's easy as cake - caked makeup.
For $50, artists using makeup in a rainbow of colors create cheekbones where none existed. Luscious lips appear on what was an ordinary mouth. Eyes get bigger. Add hair teased within an inch of its life and a wild outfit and you're ready for the cover of Vogue.
The first shop combining glamour makeovers with photos to take home originated in Hawaii about three years ago. Similar shops have spread all over the world, says L.A. Glamour owner Judi Lee, who worked at that first store called Head Shots. Lee opened two stores, in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, in 1989.
"When we first opened, people would walk by. Their mouths would just be open. It's very much entertainment," Lee said as makeup artists worked on a brunette and a redhead.
L.A. Glamour's stores are in shopping malls, open to walkways in the malls. Lee hopes to expand and said sales are expected to exceed $140,000 this year.
Similar studios include Glamour Shots in southeastern Virginia and in the Richmond area.
When they're finished, customers get a Polaroid "after" photo to take home. L.A. Glamour doesn't need to advertise much, Lee said, because, "that Polaroid goes out to offices, homes. People see that." People pay extra to get a photo package.
Lately, the photos are popular for women to send their husbands and boyfriends serving in the military in the Middle East, Lee said.
"We get all kinds. The average housewife. Whoever walks in the door. Basically we're doing average women, professional women who want to see a different look," Lee said.
"The oldest one was 83 or 86. One we had eight months ago was getting it done for her great-grandchildren," she said. They've also had babies as young as eight months old. Babies and young children don't get the full makeup treatment. Neither do men, who make up about 10 percent of the customers.
First the photographer takes a Polaroid "before" photo. Then Charles Nuckols or one of the other makeup artists begins work.
Nuckols, who works as he talks, first applies foundation - on faces, necks and shoulders. He assures women concerned about the heavy makeup that 80 percent of it won't show up in the pictures. Nuckols said he's never seen someone he couldn't improve.
"Most of the time I look on it as a challenge," he said. "I know I can do something. They usually make the amazing before and after photos. They're usually the ones that go for a 30-by-40 (inch photo). They always say, `It just doesn't look like me.' But it is them, just a lot more glamorous."
"Close your eyes," Nuckols said as he applied powder to make the foundation set.
"See how the dark just made your eyes open up more," he said.
Emily, a customer who didn't want her last name used, wore the sweatpants she had when she walked in. But she had glittering red fabric draped around her for a top, purple eye shadow and fire engine red lipstick. Makeup artists teased her hair.
"People thought it was great," the 31-year-old brunette said after she had shown the Polaroid around her office. The pictures were to be a Valentine's Day present for her husband. "People thought it didn't look like me. I don't wear makeup. The only time I wore makeup was the day I got married."
The husband of a 37-year-old redhead will get photos of his wife as a surprise for Valentine's Day. She was draped in teal green and wearing huge earrings and gold gloves.
"It ended up looking like a head wrap and a very dressy dress," she said. "That was really fun. I'm a more casual style person."
"I never wear anything teal colored," she said. "Since I had that done, I've gone out and bought two sweaters in teal. They used a green eye shadow on me that I never wear. Once I saw it, it brought out the green in my eyes."
The bottom line is: "I look different than when I came in," she said.
by CNB