Beauty Emergency? Time for a House Call

A Story by liker

On New Year’s Eve in 2012, Victoria Eisner realized that she could order everything to get ready for the night from her phone �" food, a car, even a dress �" with the exception of hair and makeup. The idea for Glamsquad, an app that allows you to make appointments for hair stylists and makeup artists to come to your home, was born.

The company, based in Manhattan, was introduced in January and is now one of a number of on-demand beauty apps and websites, among them StyleBee, Priv, City Mani, Stylisted, Uber Beauty and StyleSeat, that offer everything from blowouts and manicures to lash extensions and waxing in the sanctity of one’s own makeup mirror. True to Ms. Eisner’s experience, the holidays have proved to be a boom time.

“December is a social month, so our clients will ramp it up,” said Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, a Glamsquad founder. “They’ll use us before they entertain, before they go out. Many companies are bringing in hair and makeup to glam up employees at their own company party.”

This year they’ve done house calls, so to speak, for the women of AOL, Facebook and the National Football League.

Photo:purple bridesmaid dresses uk

David Benjamin, a founder of Uber Beauty, which was introduced on Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons and is servicing clients in Manhattan, said the holiday season is like going to a high school reunion.

“People want to magnify how good they look and how well they’re doing,” he said. “They want to look like they may have done it themselves, but did an amazing job. They want to look like the cover of a Christmas album.”

Kimry Blackwelder, the director of public relations for Cole Haan, uses Glamsquad roughly every other week. She has had the service come to her home in SoHo, her office and even the Standard Hotel when she was in Los Angeles for work. For the holidays, she will be making appointments at least once a week.

Ms. Blackwelder said she plans on having hair with “more volume and movement,” maybe a braid, and metallic makeup. “I might do a glitter lid and liner for a hint of gold,” she said.

She’s right on trend. Braids, whether they are wrapped like a crown atop the head, loose and undone, or tight to the scalp, are big this season, said Giovanni Vaccaro, Glamsquad’s creative director.

And makeup? “This year, everyone is obsessed with gold,” said Kelli Bartlett, Glamsquad’s director of makeup artistry. “Either layered on top of a crimson lip, swept atop cheekbones as a highlight, or gilded across the eye.”

She is also incorporating glitter in a way that doesn’t appear dated or cheesy by adding a wash of it over a smoky navy eye. The inspiration is “the twinkle of holiday lights in the night sky,” she said, and the desired result is “the perfect pop of sparkle in candlelight.”

In Los Angeles, where Jesse Montana is a stylist for StyleSeat, celebrities past and present are the reigning inspirations. “People are requesting side-swept waves, like Lana Del Rey and Veronica Lake,” he said. “Or a big, textured ponytail à la Ariana Grande.”

Allison Kelly likes that she can show her Stylisted hair and makeup team different outfits she’s considering before she settles on a look. Sometimes she lets them direct her.

“The getting-ready process is almost an event in itself,” said Ms. Kelly, who lives in Chicago and owns a home-entertaining e-commerce company. “You can have a glass of wine or two and pull up pictures in Pinterest.”

New Year’s Eve appointments are already filling up, said Lauren Katzenberg, a founder of Stylisted, which services New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. “Girls are locking in their stylists now.”

At prices that can hover around $50 for a blowout or $75 for makeup, depending on the company, it’s an investment for something that washes out with soap. But Ms. Katzenberg has another way of looking at the benefits of having a beauty professional come to your home in the winter months.

“Salons close at 7 p.m., but you could get a 9:30 blowout in your home in a snowstorm,” she said. “So it’s not a bad deal.”