Makeup Madwoman

Another of those wedding posts.. When you are the bride, nonsensical things like make-up assume astronomical importance on D-Day. One of the main things S & I were particular about was that the makeup be absolutely natural.. not overdone, blah blah. We found S aunty who was a debutante but did a commendable job with the makeup on all the velais... She was a tad apprehensive about doing the reception makeup though.. because I had insisted on curling my hair. Anyone who knows me has by now raised eyebrows to the curling part considering that my hair has the most unmanageable curls on the planet. I think thats what did S aunty in and she didn't exude the supreme confidence that one requires of their reception makeup artiste. And so Clara came into the picture.. She was the one who'd prepped me up for the wedding and so I put my face in her hands.

With 2 hours to go for the reception to begin, I was supremely confident that things were in control.. I had gotten through the rest of the wedding with appreciable aplomb and poise (all self claimed and universally approved except for the roach incident). My dear Kadalais had started arriving to help me get ready. Clara was on time... She said she'd start with my face, get to the hair and then the sari. Sounded good to me.. S aunty worked on my face for an average of 15 minutes to get the natural look.. So I assumed that Clara would at most take a half hour to overdo the makeup - a basic requirement to survive without melting under the lights of the reception. 20 minutes of cleansing, moisturizing and using my own makeup later, I saw the horror reflected on ML's face. It seemed the eyeliner was messed up.. That meant cleaning the entire eye and that meant reapplying the makeup.

Scrub 1.

ML took control to her hands and started applying the liner herself.. After a few critical strokes, she seemed happy with her work.. which was good enough for me knowing the perfectionist she was. Then suddenly she looked at my hair and her expression changed.. The makeup had gotten to my hair and made it whitish.. and no amount of water sponging seemed to help. Yikes!!! Then came the mascara application... for the hair!!

It was now just 45 min to go.. I ordered Clara to get on with my hair.. And what did I see her unpacking.. traditional curlers and not a curling iron!!! Mother of the Lord.. And she didn't have eyeshadow and was planning on using lipstick instead.. And she didn't have proper lipstick either and I donno what she planned to use. ML to the rescue again... She fished out some eye shadow, lipgloss all in a jiffy and worked on my face while Clara struggled with my hair (amongst my curses). With the hair not getting done and the face still a white haze and 15 minutes to go, panic set in. SM started putting the jewelry on me.. And while I was halfway through the sari draping, a knock on the door and - "Mappilai ready.." my brother announced categorically. I fumed. What did the Mappilai have to get ready? While I sweated in this airconditioned room to get my makeup, hair, clothes and accessories ready, the mappilai had slept blissfully, thrown on his clothes, done a hair check and hey presto! he was ready. Talk about unfairness.

Then I looked at the mirror.. and gagged.. I was white. A digicam image verified as much. With no time, profuse evasive action was required. I grabbed a tissue and wiped away liberally.. taking off over an hour of Clara's work... When I slowly saw my skin color return, some peace stole in. My eyelashes were still a little white (Clara's mascara had run out).. But that couldn't be helped. Talk about fiascos. At the end of it all, I had go out.. and smile for a million photographs and VR has the nerve to ask me - "Why haven't you shown your genuine teeth-wala smile? Your closed mouth smile is sooo unnatural."

For those who saw the photos and thought they were gorgeous.. I thank ML.