naturally pale and her foundation color light, blusher had to be subtle. I applied a pale pink cream, set it with a dash of powdered blush, and stood back to assess. It was too much. I sponged off a bit, then a bit more, until the blush worked.
She was a pleasure to work with, holding steady while I created eyebrows, closing her eyes when I brushed ivory cream on her lids, looking up when I drew the faintest, softest line along her lower lashes, not blinking through a round of mascara.
That was it. I told her what I was doing and why, making sure she was comfortable with each step. If my challenge was to make her feel healthy, confidence was as important as anything I put on her skin. She had been following the progress in my mirrored wall, but given the way she sat straighter and smiled when I gave her a hand mirror at the end; the way she insisted on writing down the various steps; the way, at my suggestion, she spread moisturizer on her hands and patted it on the driest parts of her face for a final glow; I knew I’d succeeded. She liked her new face. It had taken her from recovering to recovered.
My one o’clock wasn’t as pleasant. She was a bride-to-be who had come to the Inn with her fiancé for a tasting and now wanted a trial makeup session in advance of the wedding. In my experience, brides fell into one of two groups. Either they wanted to work with me for the best result, or they came knowing it all. This one knew it all. I felt it the minute I greeted her in the lounge. By the time we returned to the makeup studio, she had shown me a picture of her dress, which verged on being gaudy, and was telling me exactly what she wanted by way of makeup. Subtlety wasn’t it. She was the star of the day and wanted to stand out. To her credit, she had thick hair and okay features. But cat eyes with glitter lids to match the blue hydrangea in her bouquet? Hollows in her cheeks where none belonged? Angelina-red lips? My gut said to tone things down. Weddings at the Inn might be lavish, but they were tasteful.
Right now, I said in a gentle attempt to sway her, makeup is heading in a less-is-more direction. You can be in the forefront of that. Your skin is naturally beautiful. If we put the accent on your eyes, we don’t want your cheeks and lips to compete. Soft is definitely the way to go with those.
She didn’t want to hear that.
What to do? When it came to weddings, my job was to make the bride feel beautiful, even if my concept of beauty didn’t jibe with hers. And then there was the commercial aspect. If the bride liked this tryout, she would hire me to do the entire wedding party, which would please the resort.
That said, my professional reputation was at stake. I cared about that.
High-definition makeup was a no-brainer. She had already told me who her photographer and her videographer were. I knew both. Both used high-def cameras. The difference in makeup, I explained, was the ingredients. HD makeup contained things like mica and quartz, which sat on the surface of the skin to scatter the light and give the illusion of an even finish.
She liked that. Still, I began slowly, feeling my way along with the basics before proceeding to bronzer and brows. When she asked for more color on each, I complied, but with more brushing motion than actual deposit, and once I had done her eyes—yes, cat liner but modified, with pale-blue lids, a smattering of filler lashes, and navy mascara—she was so taken with them that she didn’t complain about the rest.
She wasn’t about to say that I was right, but I didn’t need her to. It was enough that she booked me for the wedding.
We took pictures of the finished product, using both her iPhone and my Nikon, so that we would have a guide to follow for her big day, and she left the Spa excited, which truly defined my goal when it came to handling brides.
Nina Evans, my three thirty, was no bride, but rather a local who was here in her capacity as Devon’s Town Manager. Like so many of us, she had a past. Originally from New York, she had risen meteorically