Lisa Dunn

korbybanner.com photos

Lisa Dunn before, left, and after her makeover.

What’s your first impression of Lisa Dunn?

She arrived looking bony and underweight in a lime-green halter top, blue low-rise track pants and blue flip-flops. Her long reddish hair was dry and damaged and her skin was freckled and prematurely wrinkled from years of smoking. But that’s not the worst of it. Her teeth were stained, and rotten from years of neglect. Her beauty was being poisoned by nicotine and our jury thought she looked “unhealthy, malnourished, and possibly homeless.”

Lisa has been smoking since she was 17. Now at 34, this unemployed single mother of two is looking for work. But she’s not having much luck, mostly because she makes a terrible first impression and has a poor self-image. “When I look in the mirror, I see nothing.”

Her first stop was to see our life and nutrition coach Alex Gellman (www.wellnessguru.com) who went through Lisa’s fridge and discovered its main purpose was keeping Lisa’s cigarettes fresh.

Alex gave her some tips on putting together healthy, inexpensive meals and warned her that she had to quit.

Our other experts reinforced the message. Cosmetic dentists Dr. Andrew Charkiw and Dr. Arma Afsar showed her how smoking and neglect had ruined her teeth.

Charkiw said, “You’ll need a full mouth reconstruction … a deep cleaning, removing root tips, extracting teeth, root canals, you name it.” They also gave her some bridgework and several Pro-Art dental crowns.

Cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Kucy Pon reminded her that smoking makes the skin look older and more wrinkled. She gave Lisa a treatment with a Cosmelan mask to help reverse some of the damage.

The next stop on Lisa’s makeover journey was to see fashion stylist David Clemmer. He discovered she was either wearing sweats which make her look sloppy, or baggy tops and oversized jeans with big back pockets that were making her butt disappear.

“Lisa is very thin and I need to put her in clothes that make “skinny” work for her.”

David took her shopping to TNT Woman (www.TNTTheNewTrend.com), an importer and retailer of select leading edge designer fashions from around the world. Lisa’s favourite find was a pair of jeans that made her look great coming … and going.

Her long damaged hair was the next to go. Our hairstylist Johnny Cupello gave her a sexy layered cut and blond colour to match her base tones. Make-up artist Korby Banner focused on her best feature — her eyes. He used liquid eyeliner contrasted with highlights to bring out the dazzle.

Lisa was looking great, at least in the outside, but what about her smoking addiction? We took her to see Dr. Charles Chan. He’s a respirologist who told her she had the lung capacity of someone 20 years older. Then he gave her another piece of information that stopped her in her tracks and made her swear off cigarettes forever. But could she stick to her promise?