To the unfamiliar eye it may have seemed like a hodgepodge hostess committee: The New York Times‘ Karla Martinez, Gryphon’s Aimee Cho, and Vogue editor Meredith Melling Burke and contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo. What were they all doing inviting people to midtown? For a candle launch? But for Alexa Rodulfo—the Mexico City-based go-to hair and makeup artist for chic New Yorkers—these were the four people that helped established her career in New York. Five years ago all four worked together in close quarters at Vogue, and all four put Rodulfo to work for front-of-book shoots and spread the word that Rodulfo was the beauty lady to turn to for anything from store parties to galas. “These are the girls that really made it possible for me,” Rodolfo said at last night’s cocktail party at Cho’s new studio, where a celebration was under way for Gryphon’s newest Rodulfo offering—a scented candle. “I am so indebted to them.” The feeling was mutual, because, as her frequently made-up faces—like Fabiola Beracasa and Zani Gugelmann—will tell you, Rodulfo’s is a one-stop shop for party glamour. “In Mexico we are not trained to just do the hair, or just do the makeup,” Rodulfo, who has her own salons back home, explained. “We are taught to do the whole thing and make the whole woman look beautiful.” Beracasa chimed in: “And now she’s going to make my apartment smell nice? Fantastic.” Rodulfo’s expansion plans don’t stop with wax: Next comes a fragrance, then a body wash, then a complete cosmetics line. “And then a deserted island and retirement,” Rodulfo teased. First, though, there are more pressing demands: the Fall ’09 collections. Outside of Gryphon’s Bryant Park studio the fashion week tents were already constructed. “Let the games begin,” Gugelman sighed.