Carmela Gonzales and her daughter Monique Gonzales-Lewis like being together. They take walks in the neighborhood near Carmela’s Broomfield home. Dinner is at the Gonzales residence each Sunday and Tuesday nights, and Monique brings along her daughters, ages 7 and 10.
Both women are teachers – Monique for middle-school math, and Carmela an elementary school substitute.
They also complain about their appearance to each other. Carmela, 53, never learned to use cosmetics and now frets about sagging skin and droopy eyes. Monique, 35, hates her curly, frizzy hair.
The women made a pact that in 2006 they would work on their physical well-being, exercising more and eating better. When they saw a notice in the Style section for a makeover contest, they jumped at the chance to improve on their image, each sending in applications applying for help. They were among more than 300 people who entered, hoping to win one of six sessions with beauty and fashion experts.
While we didn’t advertise services for mother- daughter pairs, we liked the idea of giving each a chance to get further along on their path to wellness.
Facing the facts
“I guess I’ve always felt a little stupid acknowledging the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing, and/or I haven’t wanted to spend a fortune and maybe not be happy with the results,” Gonzales wrote in applying for a makeup-bag makeover. “I don’t know how to choose a color for my skin tone.”
She also was uncertain how to use foundations, powders, blushes and concealers.
“When I was younger it was easier to get by with a little Cover Girl, an eye pencil and mascara, but now I don’t seem to be able to use the same stuff.”
Michelle and David Dinsmore, owners of Brows on Upper 15th and pros when it comes to makeup, eyebrow grooming and skin care, say they have many clients like Gonzales. As women age and their skin changes and loses suppleness, they don’t know how to change their makeup routine, Michelle Dinsmore says.
Gonzales’ first visit to Brows was for a balancing boost facial to cleanse, lightly exfoliate and hydrate the skin. She also had her brows tweezed and shaped.
Two days later, with daughter Monique in tow, Gonzales returned to Brows for the makeup-bag makeover. Her sparse collection of cosmetics, in a plastic bag, included a bottle of foundation, some concealer, bronzer, eye shadow and an eyeliner pencil. No lipstick.
“You don’t need a lot of makeup because you’ve got strong hair color, dark eyes and lashes, and you have good color in your lips,” Dinsmore assured her.
The makeup artist gave Gonzales a mirror and asked her to watch as she worked, applying products to one side of her face and then having the client repeat the step.
Dinsmore started with eye cream to soften the area and help makeup better adhere to the skin. She used brushes to apply concealer and foundation, and a fine-tipped brush to apply eyeliner. She stroked on several colors of eye shadows and had Gonzales curl her lashes before applying mascara. Bronzer, lip pencil and lip gel followed.
During Gonzales’ makeup lesson, daughter Monique sat a few feet away and watched, nodding approvingly and making occasional comments. When the session was over, it was time for them to head to Cherry Creek North, where Ed Gillespie of Venus Salon was waiting to do Gonzales-Lewis’ hair.
He had read her plea and was ready to help.
Head of the class
“HELP! I have horrible hair,” she wrote. “It doesn’t look good short. It doesn’t look good long. My students at school say, ‘Mrs. why is your hair so big?’ ‘Mrs. I can’t see cause your ‘fro is in the way.’ ‘Mrs. you should straighten your hair.’ Please help my students get their focus back on math.”
Gillespie suggested cutting her hair so that it would work whether she blew it straight or kept it curly. “I’m going to throw some layers in there so that when you dry it it will frame your face. And I’ll show you some tricks so you can scrunch it up when you want to,” the master stylist said.
He also wanted the color more vibrant, a rich reddish brown with highlights in the front. That was the first step, with Gillespie highlighting small sections and folding them in sheets of foil to process. He then brushed a reddish-brown shade over the rest of the head.
Less than an hour later, Gillespie removed the foils and shampooed Gonzales-Lewis’ hair. It was time for the cut. “I’m going to add long layers and texture the ends,” he said, cutting small sections while holding the scissors at an angle.
The lesson came when it was time to use flat and round brushes, and a flat iron to finish the style. Gillespie sprayed on a straightening product and trained the dryer on Gonzales-Lewis’ head until most of the moisture was gone. Then he showed her how to pull hair in sections with a flat brush to make the hair lie down rather than curl.
Next the stylist used a ceramic flat iron, working in small sections and going over each one twice to straighten the hair, giving it a slight bend at the end. The process took about 30 minutes for the whole head, longer than Gonzales-Lewis has been spending, but she said it would be worth it.
“I love this – it doesn’t look like my hair,” she said while studying her reflection in the mirror. Her mother, sitting nearby, laughed.
Gonzales-Lewis’ young daughters thought it was glamorous. “And my kids at school love it,” the teacher says. “They about died when I came back in the next day.
“It takes longer to do, and I need to work on getting the technique down, but the best part is the cut is so good, I can wear it curly or straight.”
As for Carmela Gonzales’ makeover, the real test was in the first couple of weeks as she learned to use makeup. The first day, “I think I spent 30 minutes trying to get it on,” Gonzales says. “But I’ve stayed with routine, and now it takes me about 10 minutes. On the weekends I take a break.”
She says the response from her husband, Richard, and family members has been positive. “It made me decide I need to take more care of myself,” Gonzales says. “I just haven’t put the time in.”
The makeovers have helped mom and daughter stick to their fitness goals, Gonzales says.
“To get the makeup and lesson was the icing on the cake for me,” she says.
Next in the series: A young mother of two loses 100 pounds and gets help dressing her new figure, as well as a shopping trip with a wardrobe consultant.
Staff writer Suzanne S. Brown can be reached at 303-820-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com.
THE TAB
For Carmela Gonzales,
Michelle and David Dinsmore
of Brows on Upper 15th donated
a facial, $55, a sample kit of
dry skin products, $27, eyebrow
shaping, $20, a makeup
lesson, $60, cosmetics and
brushes, $259. Total: $421
For Monique Gonzales-
Lewis, master stylist Ed
Gillespie of Venus Salon and
Spa donated partial highlights
and color, $135, and a cut and
blow dry, $75. Total: $210
EXPERT ADVICE
Brows on Upper 15th:
Use brushes for smooth application of concealer and foundation.
Use the side of your ring finger to gently pat concealer around the eyes.
Place cool wet chamomile tea bags for 5-10 minutes to reduce puffiness.
Apply mascara by wiggling the wand at the base of the lashes and rolling
upward and out.
Ed Gillespie, Venus Salon and Spa:
Colorado’s dry climate can take its toll on color-treated or chemically
treated hair. Here’s a conditioning regime:
Week One: Shampoo hair and apply a cream conditioner. Heat a moist
towel in the microwave for 60 seconds. Place a plastic cap over your hair
and wrap the towel around it. Leave on for 20 minutes. Rinse out and
style as usual.
Week Two: Apply hot oil (he recommends Phytology products) to your
hair, concentrating on the ends. Repeat the towel treatment as described
for Week One. Rinse, shampoo and style as usual.
