by Vivian McInery Staff Writer

Peter Lamas is responsible for some of the world's most famous and beautiful women

Peter Lamas is a perfectly nice man. But he makes a lot of women nervous. When he is around, they fuss with hairbrushes or fidget with lipstick like insecure schoolgirls.

"'They say, 'You're looking at my hair, aren't you?' Or, 'You hate my makeup,' " Lamas, 56, said with a laugh and shrug of the shoulders. Beauty is his business.

Lamas divides his time between New York City and Los Angeles as a hair and makeup stylist for some of the world's most famous heads. Since tile 1960s, his client list has included celebrities from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Audrey Hepburn to Cindy Crawford arid Sharon Stone. Lamas also "styles" Josephine Average via the Internet. He was in Portland to promote his Web site, BeautyWalk.com, which offers expert advice, informative articles and step-bystep instructions on subjects such as applying mascara or lip liner. The site, set up in May, logged I million hits in September, according to Lamas.

"Makeup is not about how much you put on, but what you emphasize," he said.

Most American women don't emphasize enough, as far as he is concerned. "They want to be Plain lanes," he said. "Not in Miami or Palm Beach or Los Angeles, maybe. But the rest of the country? They are ahnost puritanical." Lamas frequently travels to Europe and Latin America on business and prefers the more polished look favored there.

"Latin women buy good makeup. And they know how to use it," he said. "From the woman who does the windows to the woman who hires her - they use makeup."

Europeans seem to put more effort into personal appearance, he said, maybe because of the aesthetic influence of centuries of art and architecture. "People look as if they took the time to present themselves visually," he said.

When styling hair and makeup for someone, Lamas said his most important asset is his ears. "I listen," he said. "If she doesn't like to wear much makeup. If she doesn't want to look this way or that, or doesn't want to do this with her hair. I listen."

But he doesn't tell.

So who is the most beautiful woman Lamas has ever met? "My wife of 36 years," he said without hesitation. Women fall in love with Lamas for comments like that. This makes no sense at all, of course, but they do. Lamas knows that. "I like women," he said. "Maybe it's my culture."

Lamas moved from Cuba to New York City in 1961 with his parents at age 17. He began styling hair and makeup to finance an arts education but got hooked on the business.

He worked for Vidal Sassoon and, later, the Kenneth Salon Townhouse in Manhattan in the 1960s, fluffing the likes of Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross, among others. lie then joined Paul Mitchell at the Henry Bendel Salon, where die work involved styling models for fashion photographers Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Francesco Scavullc for editorial spreads in all the glossy fashion magazines.

Kate Winslet? He put the tint it "Titanic," developing makeup for the star. Sharon Stone? He made her "Muse" hair amusing With a scattering of clips. He also styled hair and makeup for the recent "West Side Story" Gap commercials and the Victoria's Secret catalog.

The Web site is his latest venture.

"I'm not pitching product," he said.

At least not yet. Lamas plans to launch a line of BeautyWalk.com products, step by step, beginning early next year to make the site financially sensible.

Until then, his advice is label free and priceless.

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