Ready for Your Close-up

Put your best face forward with customized makeup

Carolyn Patten Health & Wellness

The modified cat eye and flawless cream-to-powder finishes are hot at Agim Salon.
Agim Salon

Here’s a New Year’s resolution you can keep in style — new look, new makeup, new colors — without breaking a sweat. For every black-tie gala, pool party, art opening, and holiday lunch on your calendar, there’s a talented makeup artist in town ready to deploy the paint pots and get you glowing.

You look so … rested
For Agim Salon’s makeup director, Bruna, the modified cat eye is au courant, with greens and plums replacing neutrals for a hot night out.

“There’s a huge call for special-event makeup in the desert,” she says, “and we specialize in creating different looks that women can’t do on their own.”

Bruna swears by Agim’s Fifth Element Liquid Powder Mineral foundation, an oil-free cream-to-powder formulation with a soft, airbrush-like finish that lasts all night. The next day, a sheer tinted moisturizer with SPF is the magic potion that makes you look as if you really did get a full night’s sleep. Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells Resort & Spa, 44400 Indian Wells Ln., Indian Wells. 760-340-0335; agimsalon.com

Blushing brides and classy Goths
From full-on black-tie airbrush application to a “mini-makeover” for a dinner date when you need to be polished but not look like you tried too hard, the team at J. Russell! The Salon does it all — and they’ll bring the goodies to your home or hotel suite.

Brides and their attendants head here for trial run applications, wedding day perfection, and survival kits to get everyone through the “I-dos” with fluttery lashes and rosy cheeks intact.

This month, they’re riffing on fall’s “cleaned-up Gothic” trend of porcelain skin and deep burgundy/violet lips for nighttime drama. It’s a complete change from daytime’s burnished, California-girl “no-makeup” look (a style that takes more products and more skill to pull off perfectly). Smashbox is the salon’s brand of choice, and Kevin Kersey at the salon says its range of Photo-Finish primers are the “must-haves” for every woman’s makeup kit.

“There’s a primer for every single skin type,” he says. “With one of these, your makeup will go on and stay on flawlessly.” 72996 El Paseo, Palm Desert. 760-340-2638; jrussellthesalon.com

Smoldering eyes, sunny cheeks
Over at the Chanel counter in Saks Fifth Avenue, cosmetics/skin care guru Anastasia Braham is the valley’s smoky-eye genius, teaching  and explaining each step of the artistic process.

“Every woman is different,” she says. “I want to do what’s best for her look.” Chanel’s new Les Beiges glow powders are her choice for a “healthy, warm look without the damage of a real tan.”

Her secret weapon for fashion shoots is the Saks exclusive Sublimage regenerating mask, a rich treat that transforms parched skin into dewy perfection almost instantly. Chanel/Saks Fifth Avenue, 73555 El Paseo, in The Gardens, Palm Desert. 760-837-2900; www.saksfifthavenue.com

Lessons in loveliness
Find your red carpet, photo shoot, or wedding day look with these experts, or book a quick lesson in the newest trends with an artist at cosmetics superstores Ulta and Sephora. Bring along your current makeup stash for a quick review and refresh.

A yummy new lipstick color, a brighter or softer blush, mascara that makes your lashes look yards long, foundation that blurs every imperfection — you’ll sail into 2014 saying, “Hello, gorgeous!” every time you pass a mirror. Ulta, 72369 Hwy. 111, Palm Desert. 760-346-8029; www.ulta.com. Sephora, 73505 El Paseo, Palm Desert. 760-837-1970; www.sephora.com