I exaggerate but here’s the thing – two make-up lessons on and my life is transformed.

Following on from my the previous blog entry, I wanted to share the follow-up blog from my client who was kind enough to write about her experience with my make-up lessons. All words and thoughts are her own, and here is part two….

I am forty-four and I cannot remember the last time I bumped into a neighbour – or anyone in actual fact – who looked at me and said “you look fantastic”. Yet there I was, headed out for my husband’s birthday lunch the other day and I heard those very words.

So now it takes me over an hour to get ready to go out (rather than the ten minute dash) and my bathroom has been overtaken with an alarming amount of kit (and a new table on order to put it all on!) but the results are remarkable.

I feel better. I look better. People are certainly looking at me differently and the compliments are, frankly, a delight. I have even discovered that I can work over sixty hours in four days and still manage to “look really great” as one colleague pointed out.

I can barely believe what I am typing.

If you read the blog that followed my first lesson you might remember that I was in a rather troubled relationship with eye curlers. Happily, I am no longer ‘fishing for eyelashes’ and I am actually pretty quick to get this job done now. Lina was right, head further back, don’t snatch and pull and take your time.

I have become a mascara diva and for the google profilers who though they had me sussed, I’m fairly sure that the new searches for no-smudge mascara have thrown the data gatherers into disarray.

In the second lesson there was quite a lot more ‘playtime’ with eyeliners, colours and lipsticks. I would never have picked out rich blues, emerald greens and purples but I love the look, the drama and the sheer fun of it all.

Mistakes continue aplenty but I’m considerably less worried about them than I was before and having been taught how to ‘touch-up’, ‘fix’ and ‘blend’, I’ve realised that the odd miscalculated splotch or smear is easily remedied. Perhaps the most embarrassing error to date was a rather exuberant use of the Nars Pro-prime smudge proof eye-shadow base that left make-up application more than a little tricky as it’s effectively a glue base! I haven’t made that mistake since.

I really wasn’t at all sure what make-up lessons, or wearing it would mean for me but it has been a revelation. First and foremost, it’s fun. Secondly it’s become a bit of the day that’s all about me; not in a horrid, narcissistic sense but just a bit of time for self care. And lastly, find me a woman who doesn’t grow just a tiny bit taller on receipt of a compliment and I’ll show you a fibber. It’s lovely and I’m so glad I had the lessons I did. An absolute highlight of my year.