32 | APRIL 9 • 2020 

brought to you in partnership with 
B I R M I N G H A M
business SPOTlight

Makeup artist returns from devastating 
head injury to build a business that 
empowers and inspires other women.

SUSAN PECK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ABOVE: Lisa Beth North does makeup on Pleasant Ridge resident Sarah Szirtez.

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

A ‘Star’ is Born

P

rofessional makeup artist 
Lisa North teases she 
had her first client when 
she was just 8 years old. As a 
little girl, she used to stand on 
the bathtub and do her grand-
mother’
s makeup — an activity 
they both loved. 
“It’
s amazing she let me do 
that at my age, but that’
s the 
kind of support I have from 
my family,
” said North, 35. “I’
ve 
always been determined to excel 
at the things I’
m passionate 
about, and that’
s helped me 
get through the challenges I’
ve 
had in life — including a tragic 
accident that almost got the best 
of me.
”
The Oak Park resident and 
owner of NorthStar Makeup 
said her grandparents June 
and Lowell Ressler of West 
Bloomfield and parents Judy 
and Sheldon Pearlman of 
Bloomfield Hills were the pos-
itive influences she turned to 
early on, when she struggled 
in school. “My family never 
gave up on me even when the 
teachers did, and they encour-
aged me to follow my creativity,
” 
North said.
At 19, she set out to chase her 
dream of becoming a fashion 
designer at Parsons School of 
Design in New York. But those 
dreams were derailed with a 
devastating accident. 
“I was riding with a friend in 
a golf cart when it made a sharp 
turn, and I flew off and hit 
my head, resulting in a severe 
closed head injury,
” she said. 
“I had to start over, learning 
all of the basic things we take 
for granted, and I was house-
bound with depression for sev-
eral years,
” North said. “I relied 
on medication for the pain after 
the accident and that became 
another problem.
” 
Left with cognitive impair-

ment, including memory 
problems and no sense of taste 
or smell, North said the birth 
of her nephew was the turning 
point for her to rise from her 
challenges. 
“I wanted to be the best aunt 
in the world, so with family 
support and my boyfriend, 
Patrick, who is now my hus-
band, I went to rehab, got off 
of all medications and started a 
new life,
” she said.
Coming full circle, North 
channeled her artistic creativity 
into makeup application and 
skincare. She became a licensed 
esthetician in 2014 and started 
her own company, NorthStar 
Makeup. 
“I think my life was meant 
to impact the world, not just by 
making people look more beau-
tiful, but by making them feel 
beautiful on the inside as well,
” 
North said.

SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC
Her home-based makeup art-
istry and skincare company has 
built clientele mostly by word-
of-mouth and “through the best 
marketing team ever, Instagram 
and Facebook.
” Her talent is 
sought after; she books makeup 
and skin treatments for wed-
dings, bat mitzvahs and charity 
events as well as teaching classes 
in Metro Detroit. 
 But the coronavirus pandemic 
and resulting quarantine “has 
greatly affected my business,
” 
she says. “Because of social 
distancing I am not able to do 
anyone’
s makeup or waxing.
”
 Most of her weddings for the 
summer and all of her spring 
mitzvah clients have canceled. 
“I absolutely will weather the 
storm!” she says. 
 North has added a blog 
and Vlog to her website 
NorthStarMakeup.com, where 

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