The art of make-up is subtle and evolved, and one Darwin shows me how.
I have a Sephora gift card. My needs are simple in this order of interest. A moisturizer that quenches my thirsty face, a smooth, glide-on kohl pencil, and an emollient lipstick are things I cannot do without. I don’t have favorites, anything that feels good and non allergenic is my thing of choice.
So I take my daughter along to help me use up my card. Have you been to Sephora during Christmas in a popular mall? Everyone’s dipping into pots, pans, and using brushes, sponges, and tissues, plumping lips, primping face, and making up dramatic visages in front of brightly-lit mirrors. Initially, I’m impressed with the array of the same old in different packaging. Do you want the minimal look with maximum makeup? There’s Bobby Brown for you. Like drama? Urban Decay, Tarte, are some brands with all their fancy products and names.Outside, a few steps away, there’s Mac. The products look like paint and pigments for an artist. There are even brushes of various kinds. If you want to contour your face in strange lights and shadows, demonstrations and trials are available for transforming you à la Kardashian. The choices are way too many, the crowd is making me claustrophobic, and amidst the plethora, I find myself crippled to make a decision.
“Mom, they don’t carry Stila lip balm and that’s something right for you,” the daughter pronounces, releasing me from the onus of making a decision. I can’t believe that amidst all this abundance, there is a product unavailable. So I silently thank the cosmetic company for not stocking it, and we leave. However, the daughter is on a quest to help the mother out. She’s loyal to a few things she likes. I don’t have the heart to tell her that using the gift card is the reason I am here.
Several mall stores later, we’re still desperately seeking Stila for me. “Ulta, they will surely stock it,” she exclaims. So we drive to the next big cosmetic store a few miles away.
Fortunately, we find the place well lit and less crowded. The sales folk are extremely helpful, diverse, and chatty. Here too, the recommended lip balm is sold out. So, the sales person encourages me to step out of my comfort zone. He convinces us to try something different.
His name is Darwin, and he’s highly evolved in the art of make-up. Darwin is a committed sales person. His expressive eyes are like the dramatic plumes of a peacock with shades of teal, cyan, blues, and greens. A muted mauve actually adds a reverse shock value to his animated canvas, and I find myself looking at him as an artist. His hair loosely flows in curls, and his nails are varnished in a complementary shade to the eyes eliminating the competition for attention. I abandon my quest for the elusive lip balm, and find myself wanting to know more about Darwin. He’s helpful and totally willing to share his craft with us.
He uses a minimal face make up. BB cream is his preferred foundation for its light and sheer coverage. He chooses to do the dramatic eye and the no make up look, a reticent lip coverage make his eyes pop. It takes him half an hour to do his eyes with the colors, shades, and effects. A true artist, he uses no felt-tipped eyeliner, but a brush. He paints a darker shade of cat-eye edge with scrapbook tape. “The eye area is delicate, and scrapbook tape has no harsh chemicals, is easy to peel off.” I make a silent note not to substitute this with masking tape.
He shares with us his love for the brushes from spooled, foundation, blending, fanned, and angled. In kindergarten, he muses, he wanted his teacher to give him a stippling brush for his art project. Although he cannot remember the project, he still remembers the teacher asking ,“What is a stippling brush?”
Darwin’s knowledge of cosmetics is amazing. He knows the companies that stand-alone, the ones that are aligned to a larger group, the products, their contents, the staying power, and the uniqueness of each item in the store.
We discuss the social media influence. Pinterest, Twitter, and Youtube with influential make up tutorial. Some of the tutorials are extremely creative. Darwin agrees, and he honestly tells us not to get carried away. Popular influencers get incentives to push make-up that may not work for all. For example, he tells us, a young girl wanted to use a special brow product line, which included pomades, powder, and pencil just like in the tutorial. She was ready to buy the whole line, and he steered her away from making a mistake. She had strong brows and definitely was not not a candidate for those products. Instead, he helped her decide how to spend her money on products that made her look better than any social media tutorial could have. “It’s like clogging your complexion with foundation and concealer when you have a flawless skin,” he concludes. Virtual shopping is here to stay, but interacting with live people and having a real-world shopping experience can never be replaced.
I like oils and must admit I’m drawn to the Maracuja oil made from passion fruit/flower. Darwin is like the walking encyclopedia of the products in the store. He swears by this oil for himself, and finds it to be a soothing sleep-inducer. As a moisturizer, he feels it’s highly penetrating. “Reducing inflammation, moisturizing, blood-pressure regulation, are some other benefits of using this oil,” he avows. There’s resurgence in using natural oils these days like argan, extra virgin coconut, sweet almond, and sesame.
http://www.rain-tree.com/maracuja.htm#.Vm8_euMrK8U
Darwin ends up helping us try out picking up something new. It’s hard to believe he’s been here only two weeks. Apparently he’s worked as an artist, an interior decorator, a florist, and an art conservator, restoring old photographs and memories. His happiness with the new job shows. It seems he has come full circle, harkening back to the days of the stippling brush. He happily lets me photograph him and allows me to use this on a blog. I must admit I’m impressed he knew all along he wanted to be an artist. Only this time, he’s an artist who carries an animated self-portrait with aplomb every single day.
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