Illumination Process 2.0

Tip-toeing across the floor, she makes her way to the washroom. As soon as the ball of her foot makes contact with the icy tile floor, the lights flick on, highlighting the stark whiteness of the room. The few accents of silver and gray add only the tiniest bit of alleviation from the perfection? and yet, perhaps the shading somehow amplifies this crisp palette.  The shadowed corners accentuate the radiating highlights instead of acting as simply dirt-collecting deprivations. While the lighting casts its glow onto every surface, both depressed and projected, there seems to be a richer glow, drawing at first the eye and then the body towards the vanity mirror to which all attention seems focused.

She sits down on the stool, the round, pink, pillow-top cushion, backless, forcing her vertebrae to take on an unnaturally erect posture . The seat, victorian-styled with detailed legs following an S-curve down to the floor. The stool pleasantly contradicts the entire room, providing a slight hint of comfort and familiarity in the plush, curvilinear design.  Before she has any chance to fully intake the superficial aspects of the being in the mirror, the make up and brushes pop up out of their recessed drawers. The brushes perfectly aligned and ordered largest to smallest. The make-up similarly organized by application processes.

She begins with the preparation. Lightly splashing water followed by a gentle foaming wash she cleanses her face. She washes away everything that remains. The leftover oils and dirt from yesterday, the troubles that filled her thoughts before she went off to sleep, and the small remnants of a subconscious dream that she held in her memory for just those early hours of the day, all concentrate the water and slip down the drainpipe. She applies a light day moisturizer to the entire face, paying special attention to the area under the eye. The under eye has the thinnest skin she doesn’t want any bit of what lies beneath her surface to find its way through the layers of covering she is about to apply.  She primes the entire face with a sponge applicator. First, dabbing and then, blending across the face. The primer unites with her skin, the cooling sensation permeating deeper and deeper into her skin. It dries. Though transparent, like a mold this new layer of skin shows little of what lies behind its encasement. The last step of groundwork is foundation. Starting at the nose and working across the face, she lightly strokes the foundation brush. Continuing the process on the chin, forehead and jawline. Blemishes, age spots, scars, memories, emotions are all wiped away. The foundation is the gesso of the canvas, the white that paves the way for all the possibilities of a painting. The whitewashed face is ready to be painted.         

She follows the process robotically. Only now, as she waits for the foundation to set, does she look in the mirror for just a moment and take in her porcelain face, smoothed over into one monotonous barely off-white shade, blending in with the walls around her.

Contours and highlights. Taking a deeper shade of foundation powder, and a medium-sized, full, round brush, she pats the foundation tray. In a light buffing motion, she applies at the corners of the forehead, just below the cheekbone, on the sides of the nose and under the jawline, giving the face some depth and definition. The natural lighting of the world does not quite simulate a photography studio, so the contours are superficially created. The face appears slimmer as a Photoshop for reality. The facial bone structure is thrown to the pits and artistic license paves way for a new facial renaissance. Highlighting serum applied above the cheeks, in the middle of the T-zone, nose and chin, illuminates the face. Contrasting with the contours, the highlighter adds a dimension to her that is now defined and perfectly featured without any cracks in the surface.”

Another quick look in the mirror and she sees the shadows, the recesses, strangely shining bright along with the convexities. Her entire face is in compliment.

Her eyes may very well be the most important. They are the most telling and sincere feature of a person, which is why it is so tricky to falsify their story. Beginning with a light brown, matte eye shadow and sweeping over the eyelid she makes her first mark. Keeping below the crease and stopping along the imaginary line that connects the end of her brow to the corner of your eye. The color is important to stay natural. The particular brown with a slight hint of rust compliments the color of her eye so that the focus lies in the color as opposed to the gaze. Below this, she uses an angled brush to line the top of her eye and outside edge of herr under eye with a darker brown shadow liner. Again, paying attention to end on that brow-eye line. Framing the eye and yet slowly covering it up. She officially enters the masquerade. The process resembling a beautiful mask, that captivates ones attention, but hides everything of substance.  Taking a brown eyeliner pencil she draws a line from the inside corner of your eye to the edge. Then, she extends up along that previously mentioned brow-eye line, filling in the edge to make it straight. Lessening the size of her eyes and apparently creasing the edge, it almost could pass off as a smile. She colors in your brows and add a few flecks of mascara just to solidify the border a few more times.

And just like that, while still perfectly balanced in some sort of radiating equilibrium, her focus is drawn to the eyes staring back at her through the reflection. It all seems natural but the eyes appear somehow, more natural. Or more fake.

She applies the one stroke of a pale blush to the apples of your cheeks. This adds the appearance of natural rouge that would appear from a healthy lifestyle or display of emotions. Actual display of emotions would mess up her face though. Smiling would cause wrinkles. Crying looks unpleasant and also the moisture would surely ruin the surface. It is best to paint those emotions overtop a smooth, calm surface. She follows with a light pink lipstick draws attention to the pinks in her cheeks so that everyone can see the healthiness and happiness. To finalize everything, she brushes bronzer over everything. Instant sunshine, your own little light just coming off you.

And as she finishes with those final touches of color, she finally looks into the mirror at herself. She sits there and stares while time slips away. Sitting perfectly wrought she sees a human, living and breathing as she mechanically sets back the last brush. She looks in the mirror and sees herself. Every bit of her. The healthy color in her cheeks and the fleck of light shining through her eyes. Well, above her eyes. The eye shadow to be exact. Or technically the blush lies over her cheek. But it is still her. At least it is how she would be if her skin was a little more even and her features a tad more defined or something like that…or something else entirely. If she had a mask on, and she could hide behind it and hide all of her emotions and feelings and paint a pretty picture over everything.