HUNTINGTON BEACH : Makeup Artists Bring Out Beast in Clients

Cosmetology majors at Golden West College got an early beat on Halloween by showing how makeup art could transform mild-mannered students into ghouls, vampires, witches and zombies.

The student makeup artists displayed their skills at an outdoor stall near the campus cafeteria.

A sign at the stall read: “Come Have A Bad Scair Day With The Cosmetology Club.”

During Friday’s exhibition, several Cosmetology Club members showed off their skills by painting gruesome cuts, slashes and gashes on the faces and hands of one another. Passersby often stopped to watch, their faces expressing awe and horror.

Two cosmetology students, Angela Becerra, 19, of Huntington Beach, and Debbie Elton, 29, of Westminster, took turns painting wounds on one another. Nearby, another cosmetology major, Kim Poppoff, 27, of Laguna Niguel, fashioned a grotesque nose on student Jennifer Thompson, 20, of Fullerton.

Poppoff smiled as she worked on Thompson’s nose. “I’m using a facial wax, and I’m making her into a nice witchy-poo,” Poppoff said.

Cosmetology instructor Candace Francis said there is a serious side to the Halloween art. Many Golden West cosmetologist graduates find work in theater or motion picture production, she said.

Club President Regina Griffin, 29, of Long Beach said students were charged $4 for such things as scars and $10 for more elaborate work.

The club’s makeup artists will again be offering their services on Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Griffin said.