Former 'May Girl' creates Cosmetic Solutions
By JAN HOGAN
LAS VEGAS VIEW - April 19, 2002

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"Everybody's Got Something to Hide." It's not the motto of J. Edgar Hoover; it's the slogan for the Judith August Cosmetic Solutions line. And the lady who developed it knows a thing or two about hiding problems.

August's hopes for a career as a fashion model almost never made it off the ground because she was born with fatty deposits under her eyes. Her very first test shots revealed them all too well.

She approached a plastic surgeon but he refused to operate because she was only 17. So she dedicated herself to learning about studio lighting and makeup tricks. She learned them so well, she became a top model in the 1960s.

For three years, August was under contract with May Co. as its "May Girl" and was seen in the newspaper every day posing with televisions, linens, fashions, refrigerators, you name it. She went on to steady work as a TV and print model, selling everything from Coca-Cola to Volkswagens, hair care products, furniture and Catalina swimsuits.

In demand for her Audrey Hepburn-like looks, August didn't have time for cosmetic surgery to fix her under-eye problem.

"I learned to conceal it," she said. "It just became a part of my life, putting on the makeup every day."

Still, she experimented and drilled other models about their tricks for hiding flaws. August considered their suggestions, constantly mixing makeup until she had just what she wanted. One thing she wanted was a makeup pencil that "did it all."

When she hit on the combination for the pencil that would launch her cosmetics line, she took it to a lab for analysis and had the components broken down into a formula. Then she was off and running with the Everything Pencil.

After 15 years as a model, she began working for a beauty products company and toured the country giving makeup sessions. Her Everything Pencil was a hit because it covered blemishes, redness, broken capillaries and under eye dark circles. But the pencil was not just for women who wanted to recapture their youth.

"I got very tired with the 'pretty-pretty' stuff," August said. "I mean, one woman called me at midnight to ask what color eye shadow she should wear the next day."

With her pencil selling well in beauty supply shops and through catalogs, August began working with cosmetic surgeons. She used her Everything Pencil on women with facial scars from car accidents. On people with port wine birthmarks. Helped battered woman face the world again.

"I became known as the 'Queen of Camouflage,' " August said.

She recalled one black woman who refused to leave her own house because of how she looked. The woman had Vitiligo, the skin condition that Michael Jackson has, and it left large glaring patches of white on her face and arms. August made a special trip to her home and started mixing cosmetics until she found the perfect tone for the lady. Then she set to work, filling in the patches.

"When I finished, she was in tears," August said. "She told me, 'I thought I could never go out in public again.' "

The woman needed large amounts of makeup in a customized color, so August had her lab make up a huge batch of it for the woman.

After the 1994 Northridge, Calif., earthquake brought her house down around her, August and husband George McKee, who has his own company involving home health care, moved to Las Vegas. They live in the northwest part of town and August added to her modeling resume with TV spots for Lake Las Vegas and Station Casinos. But mostly she's concentrating on her cosmetics business.

The move inspired August to add another line to her company. It's called Showgirl Cosmetics and the first item is a lip lacquer that comes in a bottle shaped like pouting lips. The line will include a gold body glitter.

"New York has apples. Las Vegas has showgirls," August said. "It's endless what you can do with a name like that."

Judith August Cosmetics Solutions can be reached at (800) 528-4878.