These five stars are fully assigned to Gina Veltri. I will divide this very overdue review into 2 sections: skill and character.
Background: Gina did a makeup trial for me, and just to give you an idea of my unrealistic standards and expectations, I am about $5k long on makeup trials. Due to my horrifically low self-esteem, I've had "several." My friends and family have had enough of me analyzing why "x" job was different from "y" job and where "z" job falls relative to x and y blah blah blah. So Gina had no special edge up when I sat in her chair.
Skill: There are makeup specialists. There are artists. And then there is just magic. Only the magicians can access the magic, and Gina IS a magician. I don't know how to say this, but when she finished my face, I was actually stunned. First, I still looked like me. Completely like me. But second, it was a BEAUTIFUL me. It was the weirdest feeling. Like a movie star me. She used sublime colors and shading, had a perfect hand for shapes, lines, a crystal ball eye for what to go for, and what not to go for. She was anything but mechanical (as many makeup artists go on auto-pilot and do the same face on everyone and it's atrocious) and she worked to my face, as opposed to forcing my face into some standard makeup application. The end result was perfect balance. She emphasized just enough, under-emphasized where necessary, nothing was too dark, too light, and I didn't look like parts of my face had completely changed their natural shape. It was such a refined and well-executed job, I am still marveling at it.
Finding descriptive and helpful words besides amazing, awesome, stupendous is difficult but it behooves all of us to give Gina's skills the courtesy of adequate descriptions. As she applies makeup, she actually observes the direction of how your face takes the coloring and the shaping and will make decisions throughout the process to refine the direction of your look. She does not force looks on your face. She listens to what you want, she provides an opinion but does not force an idea. If what you want is just terrible, Gina will massage your vision into something that will work for you. Don't underestimate that gift - many artists cannot do that. Gina is a person who not only understands that her canvas is living breathing moving and morphing, but whose expertise is such that her talent is at its prime with that type of challenging canvas. It's like Olympians. Yeah, they can jog for miles no problem. But it's the most challenging parts where you see them truly shine and stand out from the rest. That is Gina.
Character: Take all her talents and skills and magic and hide them behind a door. She's just a lovely warm sweet woman working in some crazy fancy salon. That is Gina. She is unassuming, very sweet, respects the beauty of silence, and overall just generally very warm. You would never guess that she is an Olympian makeup artist. Walking into Meche is extremely intimidating and it's not a place I would necessarily choose to frequent because I instantly felt out of place and like I didn't belong. But Gina worked wonders, made me feel welcome, made me feel like a client that deserved to be there like anyone else, but above all, made me feel comfortable. I instantly trusted her, and felt protected in her little area from the various self-proclaimed royalty of Beverly Hills traipsing through the salon.
Nothing against Meche - it's your standard high-end intimidating Beverly Hills salon - not because of the staff, but because of the clientele, that normal people walk into feebly, feeling grateful when they get a smile. I'm definitely going back to see Gina and Meche gets points for finding such an amazing woman and keeping her happy enough to stay. read more