She wrote a paper in Grade 6 on Coco Chanel, went to art school in Boston and later attended a beauty atelier in Paris. All of this led Dina Gregg (dinagregg.com) to her current path as a makeup artist living in Los Angeles and working the international runways, as well as with a host of bands and celebrities.
Here, she shares five places to find beauty in L.A.
Personal beauty
"One of my favourite places for makeup and beauty supply shopping is Larchmont Beauty Center. It's really central. They have hair and makeup and manicuring supplies. It's a smaller store, but it's nicely curated.
"They have nice shampoos, soaps and candles and quite a few cosmetics lines. I get my favourite lip balm there – I have a few – but my original favourite is Karite Lips vanilla with shea butter. I also like Nigel Beauty Emporium, which is more of a professional and theatrical makeup supply. They have Stila, Make Up For Ever, NUXE skin care from France, Embryolisse, which is a rich moisturizer that I use on every face. And they carry Kevyn Aucoin, which is amazing."
Larchmont: 208 North Larchmont Blvd., larchmontbeauty.com; Nigel: 11252 Magnolia Blvd. www.nigelbeauty.com
Cultural beauty
"I like to go to art openings at places like MOCA Pacific Design Centre or the OHWOW Gallery. The Annenberg Space for Photography is now showing Helmut Newton. My friends and I like to go to Cinespia screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It's a movie series. Everybody's just having a good time. They bring a picnic. There's a DJ. It's only in the summer, so you're out under the palm trees in this beautiful, quiet place. There's always a photo booth. We do a character each week just to kind of camp it up based on whatever movie is showing."
MOCA Pacific: 8687 Melrose Avenue, moca.org; OHWOW: 937 N. La Cienega Blvd., oh-wow.com; Annenberg: 2000 Avenue of the Stars, annenbergspaceforphotography.org; Cinespia: 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., cinespia.org
Natural beauty
"I love the Huntington. It's in Pasadena. It's this huge estate that has an art museum and library, but it's famous for its grounds. There's a Japanese garden. There's a Chinese garden. There's an English rose garden. There's the giant bamboo forest and there's the tiny bonsai tree courtyard. It's just a lovely, lovely way of spending an afternoon."
1151 Oxford Road., San Marino, huntington.org
Ocean beauty
"El Matador Beach in Malibu is a really nice spot. The beach is down four flights of stairs or so from the parking lot. It's right off the Pacific Coast Highway. It's clean, it's calm, it's quiet. It's got these beautiful rock formations. You feel like you've gotten away."
32215 Pacific Coast Highway, lamountains.com
Outer beauty
"For things that aren't makeup, there's Mohawk General Store, which is in Silver Lake, part of hipster central.
"It's the most beautifully curated store. It has mid-century modern furniture and vintage record players. They also have really interesting designers, like Henrik Vibskov, Comme des Garçons, Rachel Comey and local designer Jasmin Shokrian. I bought these beautiful mustard-coloured Swedish Hasbeens boots there."
4011 W Sunset Blvd., mohawkgeneralstore.net
This interview has been edited and condensed.