Having once been employed "Sephora-adjacent," I spent almost every lunch hour smudging, applying, testing, and sniffing my way to beauty heaven. In my younger years, I broke beauty rules with abandon: avoided sleep, smoked, drank, and wore tons of makeup (to bed!) without a care. I'm now in that precarious position of aging skin - a hormonal roller-coaster that brings three unwelcome guests: wrinkles and zits, with the odd allergic reaction. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, I'd rather stay in bed and ignore these loathsome entities, but that's not practical. My dermatologist treats more women in their thirties than teenagers and it makes sense - no one wants either one of those problems, and if you get them, you want them gone fast. Finding products that serve all of these problems isn't that simple.

The Beauty Closet, an aptly-named jewel box in Studio City, is the antithesis of Sephora: they only carry select, carefully chosen lines, and rather than get lost in a crowd of cosmetics, you get personalized, friendly attention, along with a cup of herbal tea, cookies, and generous, open samples. Stopping in for a brow-shaping by the unbelievably precise Stacey El-Broche, I was given an invite to a launch of the Pur~lisse product line. Coincidentally, I received the same invitation a few days later from someone who had worked for the line's creator, Jennifer Yen.

These events can be tricky. You don't want to wear any makeup so you can try things on, but then again, you don't want to look bad. Because these events are so personal, you don't have the anonymity of suffering with an allergic reaction or a fragrance that makes you nauseous. What's "hypoallergenic" for one isn't necessarily so for another.

Luckily, Pur~lisse presents none of these problems. Yen is a former model and actress - a Power Ranger no less! - so she knows the grind of heavy stage makeup, long hours and little sleep, coupled with Los Angeles air and stress. She spent almost three years developing the line, based on her grandmother's remedies and French marine ingredients, to meet her own skin care requirements first. Like any seasoned product junkie, I instinctively sniffed after every trial application and was pleasantly surprised - nothing, but a faint whiff of white tea. The entire line is paraben-preservative, petrochemical, propylene-glycol, chemical color, fragrance, and cruelty-free. The ingredients, which include white tea, blue lotus flower, soy proteins and lupine peptides, are chock-full of antoxidants and non-irritants - perfect for aging, irritant-prone, and/or acne-prone skin, as well as those just looking to start "preventative maintenance" now.

As for Jennifer? She's walking proof of her own line, and she's absolutely glowing. Every woman there was given a concise, personalized skin analysis and generous applications (as well as cups of Blue Lotus Flower tea.) I don't know what her grandmother taught her, but it's a long way from cold cream - and if she looked half as fantastic as Jennifer, it works.

The Beauty Closet, 12216 Ventura Blvd., Studio City

Photo courtesy of Pur~lisse.