I just got waxed by a little Romanian lady, and it was hot. Literally.
Eyebrow-waxer to the stars (Jennifer Grey is a star, right?) Eliza Petrescu launched the Dallas outpost of her 5th Avenue brow-a-palooza, Eliza's Eyes, at Hotel Palomar's Exhale Spa yesterday. I took the opportunity to avail myself of some (apparently) much-needed brow shaping, courtesy of her very persistent PR folk. (Note to very persistent PR folk of all ilk: Free booze and beauty is a great way to make time with this poor little journalist; extra points for booze-beauty combos.)
"I put eyebrows on the map," Eliza told me as she ripped tiny hairs out of my forehead. Twenty years ago, Eliza said, waxing never got "best of" awards from magazines like New York. But when socialites started rocking the sweet 'dos of Ms. Petrescu, the press came a-calling. By the looks of Web site, Allure can't print an issue without an Eliza reference.
So what's the big deal? A tweeze is a wax is a pluck, as far as I'm concerned, which is probably why, when I sat down in the chair in front of the diminutive European, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Let me show you what you have done wrong."
Gosh, thanks, Mom. My crimes include over-plucking the ends of my eyebrows near my temples as well as the bits underneath and, oh, yeah, the other ends by my nose too. Meep.
"You have beautiful nose," Eliza cooed before pointing to my potential uni-brow. "But it looks bigger with no hair here."
So she waxed off the rough edges and did a fair bit of coloring in with her magic eyebrow marker and sent me on my burning, stinging way. I'm still not sure how I feel about my new, fuller-looking brows -- like most girls my age, I've been taught that less eyebrow is more -- but I'm willing to give them a shot.
Unfortunately, I'm awesome and you're not. Ladies (or gentlemen) around town looking for a similar brow-beating won't have the pleasure of getting plucked by Eliza, who lives in NYC, but she has trained "e-ssociates" on hand at Exhale. Appointments start at $88 -- a small price to pay if, according to Eliza, eyebrow waxing is an "art." So blessed be the folks who see me today. Behold a thing of red, irritated beauty. --Andrea Grimes
