As a professional make-up artist, I get close, both figuratively and literally, to women.  When I’m not doing make-up on a genetically privileged model or a radiant young bride, I work with women who come to me to design a beauty routine that will serve them well every day.

There was a time when I could be creative and adventurous with my own make-up.  My 20’s were spent as a professional rock singer and I had to make myself up each night to go on stage.  I was challenged by a truly awful complexion; I had struggled with acne since adolescence and most of my application time, about an hour, was spent covering blemishes on my face and neck.

I must have had some raw talent and ingenuity, because I discovered --without any assistance from YouTube or the Internet--how to cover my acne effectively and in such a way that it would last through three hours of jumping up and down on stage.  I also figured out how to make my eye make-up bullet proof.

I moved to New York City in the mid-1980’s to further my music career.  In 1990 my late, great ex-mother-in-law, had asked me what I’d like to do with myself.  I mentioned that I was “good with make-up,” and what seemed like the next day, she called and said that she had just had a makeover with a make-up artist who was looking for an assistant.  That make-up artist was Laura Geller, of QVC fame.  I worked briefly behind Laura’s counter, and freelanced for her and another cosmetic success story, Kimara Ahnert, for the next 14 years. 

At the same time I completed my undergraduate degree in Religion from Hunter College in New York City with a 4.0 grade point average.  I was Valedictorian and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in my junior year.  I then went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.  So that was cool.

In 2005, I hung up the make-up brushes when the work I was doing for a large, Godless, not-for-profit organization became too burdensome to commit to extra work on weekends.  Being fired confirmed that I was unfit for corporate life and neurotic bosses.  Now I’m my own neurotic boss, but at least I’m a known quantity.

I don’t love make-up.  I love my clients, and have an abiding compassion for women who face the aging process in a world where youthful beauty rules.