brilliant disguise; Party season is the perfect excuse to steal the spotlight and see yourself as someone new.

Byline: Lynn Yaeger

Eleven months out of the year, we pretty much feature the same faces, maybe whisking on a little extra mascara or deepening the blush when night falls but otherwise adhering to our own fairly predictable makeup regimens. Then, in the waning weeks of December, something happens: A host of invitations floats into the mailbox, and suddenly even the most timid among us feel an urge to raise the glittery stakes just a little.

But I am not content with merely a dash of twinkle and flash. I call the makeup artist Peter Philips, a graduate of Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the creator of the spectacular couture mask pictured here. When I reach him, Philips, who is an expert on the appropriate accoutrements for nocturnal reveries, is at the Paris collections, creating memorable makeup moments for Paco Rabanne, Junya Watanabe, and Dries Van Noten. But he has only one eye on the runways. Every night, back in his French hotel room, he is crafting magnificent extravaganzas out of peacock feathers and bits of Chantilly lace.

Like me, Philips dreams of a time when going out meant sporting endless white gloves, glass slippers, and a mile-high coiffure. But even if your own fantasy stops short of ...