"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen." Barack Obama
April 11, 2009
NY Post
Annie Karni
She's America's top "model."
Michelle Obama is the nation's first first lady to add a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, according to stylists who have worked with presidential wives over the past 16 years.
Makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, helped create Obama's signature look on her inaugural trip to Europe last week.
Grimes-Miles, who has been working with the first lady for six years, now splits her time between DC and Chicago, where she dolls up morning-news anchors for WGN TV.
"No other first ladies have consistently traveled with a makeup artist," said hairdresser Bernard Portelli, who styled Hillary Rodham Clinton's blond mane in 1993 and tracks trends in first-lady style.
"It took Laura Bush four years to finally look good. It's taken Michelle Obama two months. She wears fake eyelashes that are beautiful. She can't do those herself."
Style watchers suspect that Grimes-Miles is behind Obama's most prominent beauty reinvention: Her eyebrows. After the first lady drew criticism for looking angry, her high-arched eyebrows were reshaped with a softer arc that gave her a friendlier appearance.
Grimes-Miles has described Obama's makeup as "not an avant-garde look . . . We want her to [look] very natural and polished."
Last week, Grimes-Miles joined "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, aboard Air Force One as official guests of the president, during their six-day trip across Europe.
The Obamas privately paid for the travel expenses of the styling team, according to a spokeswoman for the first lady. But the high-profile jobs don't pay much, say former White House stylists.
"You do it because you know you will have some prestige and you will be able to make money later," Portelli said.
Wright, a former LA-based stylist for Frederic Fekkai, relocated to the capital for his position in January. But he wasn't the first lady's first choice.
Michael "Rahni" Flowers, 54, who has tamed Mrs. Obama's locks since she was 18, said he couldn't relocate from Chicago. "I thought it was better to help train someone to manage her in DC," Flowers told The Post.
Moral of the story - WE can't set our thermostats to 72 degrees but it's okay to have our own private make-up artist!
