Jennifer Zealof, 23, is the front-desk manager of a trendy downtown hotel. As one of the first people to greet arriving guests, she is, in a sense, the face of the hotel. Last winter, she decided that face wasn’t quite up to snuff. She worried that her appearance wasn’t living up to the visibility of her position.
“My nose was too long, and went down when I smiled, like a beak,’’ explains Zealof, who commutes daily from Long Island.
Her solution: Natalie Portman’s small, elegant nose.
She went to Manhattan plastic surgeon Alan Matarasso to make the transformation.
“My friends want to look like Kim Kardashian, but I think Natalie Portman is more natural and elegant,” says Zealof.
“She’s so pretty, and now I have a natural beauty like she does. Before, because of my nose, I was a little shy, but now I’m more confident and my interaction with guests is smoother.’’
THE MOUTH: New York model Nadia went to NYC dentist Lana Rozenberg for a Julia Roberts’ smile. (
)
THE HAIR: Jessica Black wanted Anne Hathaway’s effortless pixie cut, but the Upper West Side dancer added her own purple hue. (
)
Tabitha Mazzara says she’s “a bit of a diva, too” like Kim Kardashian and had the salon pump up her luscious lashes. (
)
(
)
Zealof isn’t the only one looking at famous features as a kind of wish list. Everyone from NYC plastic surgeons and dermatologists to dentists, brow groomers and lash specialists are being visited by clients armed with a photograph of the star whose look they covet.
In the past, it was Nicole Kidman’s nose and Jennifer Aniston’s hair that women were after. No more.
These days, New Yorkers covet the dark-and-sultry look.
“People are swinging toward looking more natural, which is one of the reasons they are veering away from blond,’’ says dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank. “That bleached or highlighted look is associated with having work done, and nobody in New York wants to look like one of those ‘Housewives’ from any state. They want to look like they haven’t done anything — and that takes a lot of effort, by the way.’’
One of the reasons many celebrities look so good in photos is due to their sharp, squared-off jawlines.
Twenty-nine-year-old Chelsea resident Melanie Segal was getting married to a man obsessed with Jennifer Garner, so she went to Manhattan cosmetic dermatologist Howard Sobel, in an attempt to look as close to her fiancé’s ideal as possible.
“[My fiancé] thought I looked similar [to Garner], but I didn’t have her really strong jaw, so to surprise him before the wedding, I changed it,” says Segal.
Sobel injected Radiesse, which is made from the same substance as bones and teeth, to create that definition, and then tightened the skin around it with a laser.
“It was a huge difference right away, and I sent my fiancé a photo looking just like Jennifer Garner, with a note that said, ‘I heard you are a big fan of mine.’ ”
Other in-demand celebrity features include Megan Fox’s brows, Angelina Jolie’s lips, Anne Hathaway’s hair, Jennifer Lopez’s glowing skin and cheekbones, Kim Kardashian’s lashes and Julia Roberts’ smile.
“It’s such a celebrity-oriented culture, and people like to feel that they can achieve a version of the glamour for themselves,” says lash expert Alicia Hunter, who makes house calls in NYC.
“Lately, everyone is either asking for [Jolie’s lashes], which are more classy, elegant and smoldering, or the Kardashian over-the-top, in-your-face trash lash, which I do with individual mink extensions,” says Hunter.
Women are also opting to go bold in the brow department.
“They want strong, dark brows,” says brow guru Joey Healy, who has his own salon on Fifth Avenue.
“Even celebrities ask for the brows of other celebrities: Kyra Sedgwick just asked me for brows like Eva Mendes, and model Devyn asked for the Megan Fox brow. In fact, Megan has been so requested that I’ve had days when girls are lining up outside my door with photos of her Rolling Stone cover or Armani ad in their bag.’’
To achieve the thick, dark look, he gives them his Brow Renovation Serum, which stimulates growth, and then darkens the hair with dye.
Mouths are another focus of imitation. For the perfect pout, Jolie is still the gold standard.
“They love Angelina’s lips, but they will say, ‘Get me as close to that without making me look fake,’ ’’ says NYC dermatologist Dennis Gross.
Jolie isn’t the only celeb whose look remains iconic — and coveted.
“People still want Julia Roberts’ smile,’’ says Lana Rozenberg, a cosmetic dentist who helps patients get the grin, with a combination of bleaching and veneers. “They also ask to look like Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Julia is the only one who hasn’t had work done!’’
Perhaps the easiest way to achieve Hollywood glamour is with a new hairdo.
“After the Oscars, we got a lot of calls from people asking for Anne Hathaway’s cut,’’ says Eisaburo Ishikawa, owner of Salon Ishi on East 55th Street, who created Carey Mulligan’s short coif and Zoe Saldana’s current look.
One of those calls came from Jessica Black, a 24-year-old jazz dancer who lives on the Upper West Side.
“Anne Hathaway and I have similar shaped faces, and when I saw her at the Oscars, I thought [her hair] looked so glamorous but effortless. I went to Salon Ishi to have it copied, down to the sideburns,” says Black, who then added a touch of eggplant to her color.
“My haircut was a bit old-fashioned before, but now people stop me in the street. Even the waitress where I had dinner last night told me she thought I looked like Anne Hathaway!’’
Of course, aspirations aren’t always realistic. One plastic surgeon who prefers to remain anonymous had a voluptuous African-American patient bring in a photo of Kate Moss — while pale, thin women often seek the look of Kim Kardashian or J.Lo.
Skin care and lash expert Karina Freedman had a fashion executive client come in just before a big interview in Paris.
“She’s a skinny blonde who grew up in Great Neck [Long Island], and she wanted the Kim Kardashian lashes,” says Freedman, who owns a small skin-care salon on Madison Avenue. While Kardashian’s lashes are popular all over the city, Freedman felt they weren’t quite appropriate for a professional scenario.
“I said, ‘You won’t get the job,’ so she went with something subtler, but as soon as she landed the position, she had them switched for the dramatic long, thick, dark ones.”
Another client of Freedman’s, financial trader Tabitha Mazzara, is also a big Kardashian lash devotee.
“[Kardashian’s] eyes and those lashes are her signature. They make a statement that she is a diva,” says Mazzara, 41.
“I’m a bit of a diva, too, and who wouldn’t want to look like her? I get compliments now everywhere I go. I don’t care for a lot of makeup, so these lashes are all I need.’’
It’s up to the doctor or esthetician to manage expectations and to interpret requests.
“If a pale woman asks me for J.Lo’s skin, I understand that she wants her radiance, not her complexion,’’ says dermatologist Gross.
Cindy Barshop, owner of the Completely Bare skin-care emporiums, claims she can actually duplicate that complexion — temporarily, that is. “Clients are constantly asking for the J.Lo glow, and they can achieve it with spray tan mixed with a little diamond shimmer. They want that exotic, sexy, dewy look.”
However, Sarah Moreno, a 23-year-old model from The Bronx, didn’t want something from a bottle. “She told me she wanted more defined, higher cheekbones, like J.Lo’s,’’ says Matarasso. “Her face was a little round, and she wanted better contouring to improve her appearance in photos for her modeling career.”
Still, not all celebrities’ assets work on everyone’s face.
“A tiny sculpted nose is not going to fit on a large face, for example,’’ says plastic surgeon Dan Baker.
“I discuss it with my patients, and we come up with realistic variations that will actually improve their appearance. Even the celebrities don’t look like their pictures — they’re all air-brushed.’’