Got free makeup demo by Bev Kaneshige @ Bridal Expo tonight. We're pretty much done with everything, so we only went because we had free tix and wanted to eat cake. And jellybeans. And fried mini filets of fish with a shoyu-scallion sauce from Kahala Catering. And more cake. Even if we had paid to get in, it would have been well worth it. We ate what would have been our money's worth.Sucky bathroom lighting won't show the nice color job Bev did with my eyes. She's been doing my makeup for years and is one of two artists whose makeup I really like. The other, as far as I know, flew away to the mainland with her talent, and I went through two or three pros before finding Bev.
If you've stumbled on this blog because you Googled "ItalSteam review" or "ItalSteam sucks," which is how I get most of my hits, and have for some reason read this much of this entry, I should explain that I am not a model (I love the stage and camera but am about a foot too short and a mile too silly to model anything but my own collection of offensive t-shirts) but over the years have been given several opportunities to participate in pageants, fashion shows, an odd public appearance or two, photo shoots, and weddings - hence the need for a really good makeup artist.
With my own wedding coming up, I am more thankful than ever for Bev because much as I enjoy goofing off for the cam, I never mastered the art of makeup. It requires a patience, a precision, a proclivity to perfectionism that I just don't possess. It would probably take me hours (frustrated ones, at that) to create what she can whip up in 25 minutes.
No one ever taught me how to apply makeup. My first "favorite lipstick" was a frosted lilac color, and it took someone telling me directly that I looked like a corpse to get me to stop wearing it. During the whole pageant year, I know the directors were cringing at the thought of me representing them without owning a single clue as to how - or why - I should probably get my brows waxed and wear some eyeliner. At the very least.
Makeup notes:
I remember, in San Francisco, the Berkeley girl who ran away with the title. She sat in the corner twenty minutes before our opening number, serenely applying her own makeup. She didn't demand counter space. She didn't need special lighting. She sat there on the cold floor of the dressing room in the Palace of Fine Arts with her toolbox of brushes and palettes, choosing colors, dusting them on, penciling them in, blotting, and staring at herself very evenly in the mirror.
I remember the first time I ever wore professionally applied makeup. The lashes were so heavy I could barely see. But the girls applauded the artist - said she'd brought out my inner beauty. Actually, she'd brought out my aversion to mascara. Oh well.
I remember the first time I did a winged eye - black Almay pencil from Longs Drugs. And the first time I did my own eyeshadow and liked it - Body & Soul's Cadet Blue smudged with Dream. (I haven't done good lips yet. Ever.)
I remember my cousin shoplifting a tube of Maybelline Kissing Potion when we were about 10. While I was really, really scared for her, I really, really wished I'd gotten one too.
I remember sneakily trying to apply my aunt's Cover Girl powder to my own face when I was little - she said, taking it away, Someday you'll have to wear this, so enjoy your own face now.
Does anyone have to? Of course there are those days where you look in the mirror and think going outside barefaced would be as horrible as going outside unclothed. But unless you've gotten punched in the face or spent all night crying, chances are, you don't have to put any makeup on. We do it to ourselves, that mindset - covering our faces so regularly that bare days seem ugly.
Enjoy your own face now - plain, made-up, smooth, wrinkled - come to think of it, that's some of the best advice my aunt ever gave me.
