bamboozled

at the suggestion of my good friend r, who is doing my makeup for the wedding, i set out on a mission to buy myself some new, good-quality makeup. for someone who tries to get away makeup-free as often as possible and whose current collection is a hodgepodge of some good stuff and mostly drugstore stuff, a lot of which dates back to when i lived in northwest portland in my little apartment, this was a daunting task.

the mission started on monday after work. i rode my bike out to the valley river center (the non-shitty mall, as opposed to the gateway mall, which is kind of the shitty mall). i was mildly horrified to find out that even the non-shitty mall does not contain a nordstrom. there is, in fact, no nordstrom anywhere in eugene. one macy's, lots of jc penny-type stores, no nordstrom. welcome to middle america, i guess, huh? so i went in to macy's where they had three makeup counters i would go to (prescriptives, mac, and clinique..all the rest was the old-lady makeup). there was one woman running all the counters. she had on the exact opposite of the look i wanted: bright red lipstick, bright purple eyeshadow, blush with actual defined borders, and painted-on dark, dark, really high eyebrows. i kind of hovered around for a while and then ran away like a chicken. i'm sure she would have been just fine and gotten me what i needed, but i wimped out.

i went back yesterday at lunch. i walked with my sunglasses on and pretended to be on the cell phone, so that i could scope it out first without anyone asking me if i needed any help. the makeup counters all had their own representatives this time, and the women at the mac counter were actually fairly normal looking. i went over there and told them what i needed (that i'm getting married in august, that a makeup-savvy friend is doing my makeup, and that i want a fresh, natural, glowing look). i ended up in a chair getting my face done by a very friendly and helpful person named megan. it was actually a really fun experience, sitting there being made pretty and chatting with the makeup girls (it turns out one of the makeup girls just had her own wedding at edgefield in february...she said it was an amazing place to get married...). i looked--and i seriously never say this about myself--gorgeous at the end of it! i know it is designed this way, but i got all caught up in the whole experience. three hundred (!!) dollars, four new makeup brushes, a set of false eyelashes, and a whole bag of makeup later, i feel much more prepared but slightly dumbfounded.