The stylish red bags gushed forth a veritable cosmetic counter of goodies for every woman in attendance. There was lipstick, foundation, concealer, face powder and eye shadow, nearly two dozen products in all.
"It feels like Christmas," said one woman as she pulled out item after item.
It would have been a celebratory girls-night-out event, except admission to this event demanded strict entry criteria. This was a free makeup class, expressly for women facing cancer. It was part of the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Look Good...Feel Better program, designed to show women who are facing down cancer how to care for their skin and apply the right makeup. It also provides them with wigs when chemotherapy robs them of their locks.
On April 27, about 10 women sat quietly at the long table at the Comprehensive Cancer Center near Mountain View Hospital, each with a red bag before them. Some wore scarves on their heads, others wore wigs.
Before the session began, a couple of them expressed how chemotherapy affected their looks.
"The first thing I noticed was my skin cleared up," said Karen, who only gave her first name. "I wasn't sure if it was the chemo or if it was all the water they tell you drink to flush the chemo out. After that, the dry skin really kicked in."
Two weeks after her first chemotherapy treatment, Karen, who is battling stage one breast cancer, began losing her hair.
"At least I don't have to shave my under arms anymore," she said.
Tami, who also only gave her first name, sat across from her. She had a double mastectomy in March and began chemotherapy in April.
"My face got really dry," she said. "And my lips were (chapped). I thought I'd get cold sores but I didn't."
The session began with a six-minute videotape. On it were women expressing their concerns about the effects of chemotherapy and how the ACS program helped them. It included before-and-after pictures of women who were bald and how they looked after the makeup session.
One woman said she would not have ventured out of her house had she not been transformed through ACS.
When the tape ended, Karen was chosen to get a makeover and moved to the head of the table. Amy Meccariello, a license aesthetician and stylist, arranged the red bag's makeup in front of her and got to work. She explained the hows and whys as she applied makeup to Karen's face.
She told them new skin is formed every 28 days, a reason for every women to gently exfoliate daily.
"Some people think scrubbing is really good. It's not," she said. "Teenagers think they get acne because their skin is dirty. But it's hormonal. It has nothing to do with dirt."
She went over cleansers, toners and why it was better to use warm water than hot. Most of the women wanted to know how to draw on eyebrows and what head covers -- wigs or scarves -- to wear.
To answer the first, Meccariello produced eyebrow stencils and proceeded to show how to use them. She next put false eyelashes on Karen, her volunteer. Every woman at the table pressed forward to watch. When Meccariello stepped back, the oohs were in chorus.
"You look like you've been to a makeup counter," one woman told Karen.
During the part where Karen selected a wig, everyone's inhibitions fell away and the women impulsively called out questions. Some pulled off their wigs or scarves to show what stage they were in. They shared Web sites, such as paulaschoice.com, where they'd found good products.
Erika Brassington-Stocks, quality life manager at ACS, showed them how to fashion a head scarf out of a regular T-shirt. It was topped off with a flower pin.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, with locations at 10001 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 108 and 2650 N. Tenaya Way, Suite 208, hosts the ACS's Look Good...Feel Better sessions twice each month. As an oncology network, many of its clients are women facing cancer.
The program is expressly for women.
"I had a man say, 'How come I can't go?' and I said, 'You can, if you want to know how to put on makeup,' " said Shannon Southwick, a registered nurse who was there to answer questions.
The session ended with smiles and an obvious sense of camaraderie, with the ladies taking home makeup tricks, their stylish red bags and a newfound sense of confidence.
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