College Life
Freeze Makeover Sponsored by Mint Julep and G Spa
By Cate Nelson, Makeover Contest Winner
Makeover Coordinated by Aisha Townes
Photography by Jason Schnier
Summer 2009
I have to say I literally laughed out loud when Aisha emailed me saying I'd won the Freeze makeover event. As a closet reader of Freeze, I was embarrassed enough that I had I entered the competition (something deep down must have said it was about time to learn how to do makeup), but that I had actually won?! And had to talk about fashion with people? And needed to let someone do my makeup?? All while someone was taking pictures??? Okay…so clearly this was not my home turf.
I grew up in a household where makeup was never around: my mom wasn't into it and never made explicit effort to introduce the whole makeup thing to me or my sister. To this day, I'm all about Chapstick except for the three or four times a year I feel compelled to put a little more into my look—then it's just a tiny bit of mascara and lip gloss.
While the makeover event was totally outside of my comfort zone (just ask Aisha or our super photographer, Jason, how sheepish and ridiculous I was the whole time!), I definitely learned a good deal. Our time at Mint Julep was a lot of fun—basically I got to do a mini fashion show with funky, trendy clothes and accessories. I rarely accessorize my outfits, but the assistants at Mint Julep showed me that a belt or dangly necklace can take a nondescript outfit and give it a ton of character or spark. While Mint Julep is beyond my price range, I can take their great tips when I hit places like Gap, H&M, and secondhand stores over the summer.
The makeup part was surprisingly fun and relaxing. Danni, the assistant manager of G Spa, and her makeup artist Jess kindly came in all the way from Newbury Street to show me how to do makeup. We started with the basics of what kinds of cleansers and moisturizers work best with my skin; I had no idea that my foaming face wash was actually drying out my skin and in the meantime have switched to a milder cleanser. Jess then walked me through a step-by-step process of how to do makeup. She also showed me pointers for how to easily take a "day" look and turn it into a "night" look (but to be honest, I think the day look would be my night look considering what a minimalist I am). I even learned how to use an eyelash curler—it's pretty funky and not hard at all! I have to say that I thought Jess did a great job. After all was said and done, I obviously had makeup on, but I didn't feel entirely uncomfortable—and it looked good to boot!
While the makeover event was a ton of fun, I'm actually really satisfied to go makeup-less day-to-day. But at the same time, I'm so grateful for the pointers I picked up. Now for those nights or meetings that call for a little extra something, I know that a cool accessory or a little bit of makeup can go a long way. Plus a little femininity never hurts.
Some pictures from the makeover:
