Working -- Julie Golovkin

Young Chang

HE IS

In the business of making up

PAINTING SMILES

A client descends from her chair -- the chair in which she sat for

more than an hour and for more than a hundred dollars -- and Julie

Golovkin says to the lady, “You’ll still look like you.”

The client looks good -- natural yet colored. As a freelance makeup

artist contracted with the Empire Academy of Makeup in Costa Mesa,

Golovkin’s philosophy is: “Makeup’s just to enhance features, not to mask

features.”

“I love to make people feel good about themselves,” said the

25-year-old.

ANTI-VAMPIRE

Golovkin attended San Francisco State and graduated from Cal State

Long Beach with a degree in liberal studies. Her one-time goal was to be

a family counselor.

She still follows that career path today, but in her own way -- with a

five-tier box filled with more than 200 lipsticks, powders, foundations,

brushes and blushes. Be it for weddings or photo shoots, actresses and

miss-something-or-others, Golovkin is in the business of helping people

look prettier. Which, sometimes, can make one happier.

“It’s like a face-lift without surgery,” she said.

But if there’s one comment her clients will never hear, it’s that they

look too made up or “vampire” like.

“That’s not something I do,” Golovkin said. “And I always ask them, is

this what you were thinking?”

CUSTOM-BLENDED

Her never-fail technique is contouring. Golovkin shades parts of the

face that need highlighting or, for that matter, dulling. She creates

stronger jaws, higher cheek bones, shorter and longer noses.

She recommends quick touches for moms with a household of kids and

whimsical purple glitter eye shadow for the teen who goes clubbing on the

weekends.

“And I usually end up being friends or acquaintances with my clients,”

Golovkin said.

IN THE NUDE

Does she venture out barefaced? Definitely. And it’s not that she has

little time or is lazy. It’s that sometimes she prefers a completely

natural look.

“I don’t feel like I have to wear makeup to feel good about myself,”

she said.