At some point last year I was going out somewhere with Mr R and had one of those moments when I just could not remember…in this case, it was whether I’d put my make up on or not.

I don’t wear much make up at all, but Mum always told me I looked like a pig without mascara and eyebrows, so I always did them at a minimum.

I waved my face in Mr R’s direction and asked him to tell me if I was good to go or if I needed to go and find my (very small) makeup bag.  He looked at my face…looked a bit longer and…told me he couldn’t tell.

And I think it was that point that I just stopped bothering.  I pencilled in my eyebrows so I didn’t look permanently shocked and just got on with things.  Nobody seemed to notice.

And I stopped looking in the mirror so much because I didn’t need to, then I almost avoided looking in the mirror because I wasn’t keen on what I saw anyway.  It’s amazing how fast those ‘laughter lines’ start finding things really  hysterical and how rapidly your eyelids start to droop and your face…well, it all drops a bit really.  And don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind getting older – it’s an honour too many people I’ve known wont get – but it’s still sometimes a bit of a surprise how fast things happen.

But it started to feel a bit rubbish.  And even if I did try, I couldn’t make my reflection one I liked.  So for Christmas I asked for a make up lesson.  And now I have been 😁

And as you’d expect, it didn’t go smoothly.  The teacher was a beautiful French lady who assured me when I checked that she had experiences other ‘challenging’ clients.  But I imagine not any quite so cack handed and unable to follow instructions.  I went with ‘full’ make up on (this is going out to something fancy in my case) so she could see what I did and if any of it was good to keep.  We established that mostly it wasn’t – either because the make up was not good for ‘older’ skin or the look was good in the 90’s but less so now… She took it all off and started again.

She then did half of my face and I did the other half, a little bit at a time.  I learned to use fingers (‘Not that one!  Never that one!’) and exactly where to put the absolute minimum of things I’d never heard of (‘Did I say to put it there?’… ‘Um, yes?’….’No, no!  Here!’).

I learned about lines and blending (‘stroke, not pat!’) and tricks to make things seem less droopy and wrinkly and (hopefully) fresher. I also learned that even with the kindest, most patient of teachers, there is not a limit on how many times I can feel the need to apologise.

And now I’ve bought all the bits of make up she suggested online and while I may look like a clown for a while as I try to remember the right fingers, and get the quantities right and put the damn stuff at exactly the right point, maybe in a while I’ll look like a respectable lady who cares just enough to make an effort.  Until then, apologies to anyone I bump into in real life 🙂

Photos below – top is before and below is after.  I’m very much hoping you didn’t need telling that!

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