SATURDAY night had some added glamour for 60 Canberra women who underwent makeovers at the Civic Napoleon Perdis store under the watchful eye of Mr Perdis himself.
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Since opening his first studio in Sydney in 1992, Perdis has expanded his brand into 4500 stores internationally and a make-up academy teaching the art to 23,000 people annually.
In between styling supermodels and musicians, Perdis puts in at least two visits a week to his stores.
‘‘I just love doing it,’’ he said as dozens of passers-by crowded around to take photos with him.
‘‘What else would I do? Sit at home and do what? Be behind a desk? How boring – I didn’t start off just because I wanted to have a business, I started because I wanted to do make-up.’’
His trip to Canberra was his first in six years, and he brought with him 10 of his creative team for a special masterclass, with women paying $199 for a 45-minute makeover, a face map instruction sheet of how to re-create the look, and $199 in store credit.
‘‘It’s a bit of a special pamper, it’s been great fun,’’ participant Dani Rolfe said.
‘‘It was very exciting meeting Napoleon and he fixed my eyeliner!’’
Perdis left the most of the making-up to his trusted artists.
‘‘They are literally little Napoleons – they go to all his fashion shows, they do all his magazines, that’s what they do, they’re amazing,’’ area manager Caitlin Didic said.
Perdis’ role was to meet his staff and customers and add a little glamour while updating on the current trends.
‘‘Everything I do I like to have a degree of glamour around. This whole idea of too cool for school, it’s doesn’t matter, there’s something glamorous no matter who you are, what you are – there’s no discrimination in age, colour, sexuality at Napoleon Perdis.’’
The three main trends today are a modern matt radiant skin, lashes – mascara or fakes – and opaque lips. ‘‘Even women who don’t think of themselves doing lipsticks will be doing lipsticks,’’ he said.
