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This is me half-awake midnight Saturday, testing out the lasting power of my make-up session with N, who we're getting to do my make-up for my wedding.

N asks me what kind of make-up I envisioned for my wedding day. I had to be honest and hadn't thought about such things. I don't even know how much make-up could change my face. Fortunately, I had one previous experience in the make-up chair at the sister-in-law's wedding. After a bit of chatter, we chose a natural look (something that made it look like I didn't have any make up), and a simple hair style to continue to simple elegant lines of the dress. I think we're finally building a theme for the style of the wedding: simple and elegant.

It was quite the crash course on make-up. I learned that you only really need to pluck your eyebrows after the arch. A straight line from the tip of your nose through the center of your eyes and where it crosses your brow, is where you start to curve it.

I learned that I have alot of orange in my skin, which means cool colors like blues and greens look dreadful on my skin. Orange eye shadow, and peach was used on my cheek. I learned that Sephora lip sealant is amazing! Coat, lick, pucker and you're set for all day lip color. I learned I have my mom's eyebrows which have a built-in arch that people pluck to get, which means I don't need to pluck that much. YES, thank you mom! Because having tweezers near my eyes pulling tiny baby hairs out of my skin is not my idea of fun. And those eyelash curling devices are like some crazy torture device. Lastly, I learned that makeup blends and melts a bit on the skin. It's really a morphing palette.

My mom got a bit of a make over as well, so it was a fun pre-Mother's Day afternoon. By the time I was done with my session, an hour later, she had folded all my laundry and was half way in reorganizing my hall closet. My mother has the energy of the Tasmanian Devil! Though instead of messing up where the whirlwind goes, she makes everything spotless clean.

N would tell us stories of other make-up sessions he's done of people insisting their make-up be done a certain way. One woman wanted it on heavy. Another wanted false lashes that he knew would be drooping off after 2 hours. He tries to give them his professional opinion, but some people just want to do what they want to do. I think my complete lack of knowledge in regards to make-up and such is actually helping me out a bit. I'll do whatever the professional tells me to do. Wear frozen cucumbers on my eyes...check. Sleep with rollers...check. Blue shades jack up my eyes...fine. Frankly, that's why we hire the people we hire so they can be the experts. I'm just here to send them in a general direction.

Afterwards, my mother went home to help my dad cut the hedges in her new glamorous look. We went off to maganda reception and dinner afterwards. It's not about the make-up and beauty you see, it's all about what you don't see.