She Knows Makeup Secrets of Stars

Barbara Guedel looks like she was born with the face of a movie star.

Only if the cameras moved in for a tight close-up would anyone discover the attractive redhead has performed a subtle trompe l’oeil with cosmetics. She artfully enhances her eyes with a bronze eye shadow, draws full lips with a soft-colored pencil and brushes on perfect brows. The red hair, she confesses, is 2 days old--the work of a stylist.

A professional makeup artist who has worked in film and television 15 years, Guedel teaches a seminar on “Hollywood Makeup Secrets” at Irvine Valley College, preaching a “less is more” philosophy one won’t find at most cosmetics counters.

“She would love to get her hands on Tammy Faye,” says her mother, Ruth O’Hara, who assists Guedel in class.

Guedel doesn’t try to transform her students into Hollywood beauty queens. Rather, she shares tricks of her trade that can erase or downplay flaws and accentuate her students’ best features.

“After every class, at least half the students look like completely different human beings,” Guedel says. “Most look five to seven years younger. It’s nothing less than remarkable.

“Women have gotten the idea they can change anything about themselves. They try to be something they’re not and work twice as hard as they need to. I try to take them back to who they are and what looks great on them.”

(Guedel, a Burbank resident, offers her seminars regularly through the college. Her next class will be Dec. 2 from 9 a.m. to noon at Irvine Valley College, Room A303. The fee is $25. To register call (714) 559-3333.)

A dozen women ranging in age from their teens to their 60s arrived at a recent class toting large hand mirrors and makeup bags. Joyce Rodman of Laguna Niguel came to learn how to apply cosmetics.

“Every time I look in the mirror, I say, ‘What can I do with this?’ ” Rodman says. “The problem is all those people at the cosmetics counter are waiting to pile makeup on you, and you come out looking like a clown.”

April Mann of San Clemente was taking the seminar a second time to brush up on Guedel’s make-over techniques.

“My husband liked what she did better than what I normally did,” she says. “I couldn’t stop using blue eye shadow,” something Guedel counsels against.

“I’ve had make-overs before, but this just looked very natural,” Mann says.

Like a true artist, Guedel uses paintbrushes and a palette of foundations, shadows, blushes and lip colors.

“This class is for civilians, people outside the war zone” of Hollywood, she says. “They bill these as Hollywood secrets, but a lot of the techniques are very simple. Women just don’t have the opportunity to learn them.”

Guedel begins by telling the class to wipe off half their makeup--an order that draws groans from the women.

“Clean the right side of your face,” she says. “I wanted you to wear makeup today so I can see what your eye is seeing. Then I want you to remove half of your face so you can see what my eye sees and compare.”

The women peer into their mirrors and rub at their faces with tissue.

One by one, Guedel sits the students in her director’s chair and examines their skin tone, hair, eyes and teeth color to assemble a palette of their best colors. While her mother takes notes, she quickly rattles off the colors she will use on each face.

“Put Mary in No. 155 eye color for day, No. 50 for evening. She’ll look beautiful in the bronze eye shadow. And let’s put her in the 341 powder and give her some brow gel.”

While she studies each student, Guedel dispenses the makeup tips she has picked up during her years in Hollywood:

“Unless you have teeth as white as a porcelain bathtub, fuchsia lipstick will make your teeth look yellow.

“Blue eye shadow doesn’t do anybody any good--and nobody knows that. Pink eye shadow will make you look like you have an eye disease.

“Fairer skin tones can make you look five to seven years younger.

“If you have dark circles under your eyes, stay away from blue, purple or fuchsia eye shadows unless you want to look like you have a black eye.

“All orange cosmetics are horrible.”

Once everyone has a palette covered with dabs of color Guedel has chosen for them, she leads them through her techniques for painting their faces.

She shows them how to mix foundation with moisturizer so it’s less heavy on the skin, then lightly dab it on with a sponge.

“We’re not going to smear anything here,” she says.

Those with flaws such as blemishes or scars learn to “paint them out” using a yellow-toned cream mixed with their base-colored foundation and a highlighting cream used to lighten dark areas of the face.

To enhance the eyes, she teaches, “you don’t need 10 colors, you just need one that looks gorgeous.”

How do you determine the best shade for you?

“With the magnifying side of a mirror and in natural daylight, take a long, good look at the colors in your iris. You will usually find flecks of red, gold or amber. Those subtle colors are your first clue,” she says.

She recommends a shadow to complement those colors. “Don’t compete with the color of the eye. Never wear blue shadow on blue eyes. Your eyes have to remain the stars of the show.”

To shape the eyes, she uses a light-colored pencil and sketches lightly along the deepest crease of the eye, taking care not to stray beyond the eye’s natural borders. The outside border can be traced by placing a pencil from the corner of the nose to the outside corner of the eye, then blending color within the angle of the pencil.

“Painting your face is like painting a Crayola picture. You have to stay within the lines,” she says.

Guedel discovered her makeup “secrets” from her years of “working with old-time makeup men in Hollywood.”

Raquel Welch also proved an invaluable instructor. Guedel served as her personal makeup assistant from 1975 to 1978.

For her very first assignment, Guedel was called on to assist a makeup artist working on Zsa Zsa Gabor for Universal Studios.

“She was truly my worst nightmare. I had her screaming at me,” Guedel says. “We’d worked on her makeup for three hours. I was told to stand by on the stage in case Zsa Zsa needed anything. I thought there was nothing more in the world she could have needed, but she turned to me and asked for a mirror. I got out my compact. I didn’t know to take a big mirror with me on the set. She had a fit. She kept screaming, ‘I want a 12-inch mirror!’ I was mortified.

“Some jobs are more difficult than others.”