Starlight Hair & Makeup

Starlight Hair & Makeup was one of those games you'd find in the later days of Flash, a straightforward styling sim that felt familiar on any gaming portal. It didn't try to reinvent the wheel; it was just there, a quiet part of that era's casual web landscape.

You control the cursor, clicking through a sequence of choices for your client. First you pick a hairstyle from a few options, then you apply makeup, selecting colors for lips, eyes, and cheeks. Finally, you choose an outfit to complete the look. The main objective is simply to finish the makeover before the client, presumably, heads to her performance. The mechanics are basic point-and-click; there's no timer or scoring system that I recall, which makes for a relaxed, almost meditative pace. You just swap items until you're satisfied. The whole thing feels like a quiet, methodical puzzle of aesthetics, a few minutes of simple decision-making with a colorful result.