"Supermodels 3 - Having It All - Calhoun, B.B." - читать интересную книгу автора (Calhoun B.B)
"Okay, Naira," said Susan, poking her head out of the dressing room. "We're ready for you."
Susan was the makeup person for the Colorlush eye-shadow shoot I was doing. She was very tall and thin with a long, auburn braid swinging over her shoulder.
"Great," I said. I put my package of pastel colored loose-leaf paper carefully inside my purple notebook and laid it on a folding chair nearby.
It was September, my second month in New York, and I'd been booked to do a job for Colorlush eye shadow. I get a lot of work doing ads and magazine layouts where eyes are the focus. Eye shadow, mascara, eyelinerЧyou name it. Once I even did an ad for a line of designer eyeglasses.
Jill Murray, the hooker for new models over at Ford, says that's probably because my blue-green eyes are so unusual with my dark complexion and hair. My mother's eyes were the same color. She died of cancer seven years ago, when I was nine. I still miss her a lot, but when I look in the mirror I see her eyes, and I know that in a way she's still with me.
So it really bugs me when people think I'm wearing colored contacts. I don't understand why anyone wears them anyway. My mother always told me that you should be proud of whatever nature gave you, instead of trying to change it. Take my feet, for example. They're on the large side. My little brothers, Jameel and Yusef, used to call me "Flipper Feet." In other words, I'll never get a job as a shoe model. But the thing is, my feet are me, and I wouldn't change them even if I could.
I walked into the makeup room, where Susan was standing talking to a woman with shoulder-length, wavy brown hair wearing a long beige linen sleeveless dress and holding a tiny white shopping bag with the Colorlush logo on it.
"Naira, this is Audrey Webb, the art director for the shoot," said Susan. "She's
going to be picking the eye-shadow color we'll use on you today."
"Hi," I said.
"Hello, Naira," said Audrey.
Susan handed me a cotton kimono to wear. That way, after my hair and makeup were done I could just slip on the clothes for the shoot.
"Thanks," I said.
I pulled off my brown paisley vest and cream colored T-shirt and put on the kimono. Then I sat down on the high stool opposite the mirror.
"Okay," said Audrey, "let's see what we're going to have Susan put on you." She reached into the bag. "Now, the hot colors this spring are going to be the pastels." She looked at me and squinted a little. "You know, Susan, I really think I'd like to see a pale lavender on her."
"Okay," said Susan, nodding.
"Let's give this a try," said Audrey, handing Susan a blue marbleized compact. "Come let me know when you're finished." She walked out of the room.
I looked down and saw Susan's huge red makeup case open on the table in front of me.
I couldn't help noticing that even though the case had zillions of small compartments for organizing things, the makeup was all jumbled together. It kind of reminded me of the way my housemate Cassandra keeps her cabinet shelf in the bathroom of our apartment. That's one thing about CassandraЧ she's not exactly organized. In fact, we couldn't be more different that way.
I thought it was strange that a makeup artist would keep her makeup like that, but amazingly, a lot of them do. And Susan seemed to know exactly where everything was. She reached right into the jumble of bottles, cases, and brushes and pulled out a tube of facial moisturizer.
"Okay, Naira, close your eyes," she said, dabbing some of the moisturizer on her hands.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as she spread the cream over my face, gently massaging my forehead, my cheekbones, and around my temples. That's my favorite part of getting my makeup done. Not all the makeup artists do it, but it's really great when you get one who does.
Next, Susan mixed together a couple of foundations to match my skin tone. She smoothed the mixture evenly onto my face and topped it off with a light dusting of powder.
"Now, we're going to keep your lips a little pale," she said, picking up a rosy beige lip liner.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"So they won't detract from the eye shadow," she explained. "In a shoot like this, the eye shadow is the product, and we don't want anything to come out stronger than the product."
I nodded. That made sense. I've always liked to know the reasons behind things. My father says that on my first shoot, when I was ten, I nearly drove the whole crew nuts with my questions. It was just after my mother
died, and I'd been discovered by a Chicago modeling agency. After that, I began modeling pretty regularly.
Susan finished my makeup and stepped back to look at me.
"Great," she said. "Now let me go get Audrey and see what she thinks."
A few moments later, Susan returned with Audrey, who looked at me and pursed her lips.
"You know," said Audrey, "I hate to say this, but now that I see it I actually think that lavender detracts from her eye color."
I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what she was about to say.
She shook her head. "No, I definitely don't like it. I'm sorry, Susan, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to do her over with another color." She reached back into her bag. "This warm peach should do more to highlight her eyes, and it'll be lovely with her skin tone, too."
I tried my best not to show my impatience. I knew that changing my eye shadow meant redoing all my makeup, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to going through it all again,
but I also knew it would be unprofessional of me to complain.
Audrey left the room again, and Susan looked at me and shrugged.
"Well, here we go again," she said, taking out a wad of tissues and a tube of makeup remover.
Twenty minutes later, Susan had removed and re-applied my makeup, this time with the peach shadow. And once I saw it, I had to agree that it was a much better choice for me than the lavender had been. The peachy color really did bring out my eyes.
Luckily, Audrey liked it too.
"Perfect," she said, smiling. "Sorry to put you both through all that, but we had to get it just right."
"That's okay," I said.
"All right," Audrey said to Susan. "Let's get her hair done." She turned to me. "And then I'd like you to put this on. The shots are going to be pretty tight, so it may not even show very much at all, but put it on anyway, just in case."
She handed me a black silk shirt with a scoop neck and little buttons down the back.
Since the photographs for this shoot were all going to be head shots, I could stay in my own faded jeans.
Next Susan started on my hair. She picked up a tiny electric curling iron.
"Wow," I said. "I've never seen such a small one of those."
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