Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Question of the Week

Making-up is hard to do...

Emily Seymour, earnest 23-year-old nurse of Winter Wedding, is given a lavish box of Elizabeth Arden beauty aids for services rendered. Unhappily, Emily has only the faintest idea of how to apply make-up (a skill her model/sister Louisa nurtured in the womb). With a hand more heavy than deft, she slaps on the cosmetics and heads off to the hospital ball. And we all know what a disaster that was...

Question: What is your relationship to make-up? Old-friend or bitter enemy? Constant companion or passing stranger? Oh, and if you have any really excellent make-up wearing stories (for good or ill) I wouldn't turn them down...

4 comments:

  1. Betty Barbara here--
    As often mentioned, I grew up in Hawaii--land of the year round tan, so my teen-age years were basically make-up free. A little lipstick was all. I wore glasses and had long eyelashes, a combo that made mascara a no-go. Then I switched to contact lens. Mascara and contacts don't really mix either! (I was blessed with dark lashes--hooray!)
    I can still do a good face for going out, but day to day--moisturizer and lip gloss are it.
    The ladies at the cosmetic counters haven't seen me in years! (and I mean decades!!)
    So, at best, you could say I have a nodding acquaintance with cosmetics.
    And, thank goodness, no horror stories to tell.
    But also, no glamorous make-over stories to tell, either.

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  2. Make-up and I are nearly total strangers. I was blessed with my mother's clear skin and pink (and sometimes hideously red!) cheeks and dark lashes and I just never acquired the habit. Now, at 51, doubt I'll take it on. Ever.

    But, apropos of nothing except a somewhat recent discussion here about hospitals in Europe, a friend of mine broke her ankle the other day while hiking with her husband in Germany. They are there for a few months on a teaching exchange. (He teaches meteorology at Purdue, among other things.) Her description of her hospital experience is SO funny for this reader of Betty Neels' books. I hope you all find it so, too.

    And, bless her ever-practical soul, our dear Eleanor has likely never heard of Betty Neels unless she's paid attention when another friend and I have gushed, occasionally. ;-)

    http://craigellachie.xanga.com/736483525/notes-on-a-german-hospital/

    me<><

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  3. I'm adequately skilled at putting on makeup but it rarely makes much of an impression. I recall once getting all dolled up for a party only to have Betty Henry (then the only Brit Hub) say, "What makeup?"

    The Brits call it "slap" as in, Chanel is expensive slap...

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  4. Betty Barbara here--
    Betty Cindy--thank you for the link! I hope your friend recovers fully. But OMG! the description of the consultant doing his rounds--too funny and sooooo Neels!
    I had a like experience many years ago when I landed in Johns Hopkins Hospital with bizarre neurological symptoms. And my neurologist looked NOTHING like a Neels RDD!!

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