Bronzed and Coiffed at the Style & Beauty Bash

Fashion Week El Paseo serves up a participatory experience

Style & Beauty Bash at Fashion Week El Paseo in Palm Desert

Photos By Adrianne Bonafede

It’s no secret that the desert is known for its beauty- and wellness-promoting properties, with visitors coming to de-stress, de-puff, or for a bronzy, my-heart-is-still-beating glow. Today, those looking to make the mirror a friendlier place could do so with ease at the Style & Beauty Bash at Fashion Week El Paseo in Palm Desert.

Twenty-three salons and cosmetic and beauty companies set up in the Big White Tent on Larkspur Lane and provided treatments for $30 a pop. Local establishments including Chakra Hair Studio and Ana Cetina Salon and Spa offered haircuts, massages, makeup applications, and eyelash extensions — services that typically cost at the Style & Beauty Bash.

National beauty brands also had a presence in the tent, with Sephora, Wella, MAC, Murad, and mineral-based cosmetics behemoth Bare Escentuals displaying their latest colors and potions for body and face.

An extreme hair demonstration birthed creative ’dos that looked like they belonged in a Tim Burton film — including a stiff, bright red pair of lips fashioned completely from a model’s long hair and, shockingly, stationary atop of her head.

The lips provided a sufficient photo op for guests waiting to get their own hair coiffed into something a bit sleeker. But one woman was more interested in snapping a visitor to the Norvell Sunless Spray Tan booth.

Wearing a bikini, the visitor stood in full public view while a Norvell representative bronzed her with a paint gun. She — like those getting face waxes in open view — appeared unfazed.

While public mustache removal was acceptable, it seemed few at the Style & Beauty Bash wanted to be caught eating in public, as evident by the multitude of cupcakes, candies, muffins, and scones in each booth. They went largely untouched, except by a sheepish few.