Make-Up Whore

I am a make-up whore. I have too much make-up, yet I am still inexorably drawn to any free make-over/make-up session offered to me. Take last night, for example. I finished with my course then found a perfectly awful sushi restaurant in which to eat dinner. I found myself with a couple of hours to kill before "Grey's Anatomy," so I ended up at the mall across from my hotel. I figured I'd replace a singular item of make-up at Saks and go back to the hotel. Wrong! Even though a sales rep. found the powder I sought, the counter was out of a facial scrub I enjoy.

As I was waiting for the woman to tell me the item was backordered for weeks across the country, I wandered over to the perfume counter. Big mistake for a recovering perfume addict. Back when I was single and my parents were younger, they traveled alot. Mom always brought me back perfume from the duty-free stores. I had tons. After a while, I purged all but two or three scents and was content. Then I moved back to Florida and found those fragrances weren't right for me anymore. I've been on the hunt for "just the right thing" in a daytime scent. I seriously contemplated buying Narciso Rodriguez's new fragrance until the neon "SUCKER" sign illuminated on my forehead. Enter Kathleen, a rep. for another cosmetics line, Sisley. She brought me Sisley's new scent, Soir de Lune. That was IT: the fragrance I'd been searching for. It was a more sophisticated, floral version of that old Ultima II scent, Maroc, with a hint of citrus. There's just something about tuberoses and sandalwood that speak to me.

It was 7:20 p.m. The night was young. Kathleen asked whether I had time for some make-up? Does a soap opera addict have time for Luke and Laura's second wedding on "General Hospital"? Damn right, I did! She escorted me to a tall chair by the Sisley counter and proceeded to -- try to -- convert me to the wonders of Sisley cosmetics. I must have sat there for an hour, chatting with her and her associate, Belinda, a funny lady. Kathleen cleansed, toned, primed, moisturized, enhanced, and painted my face. I must admit, I looked very pretty when she finished.

Time to talk turkey. What products did I want to buy? All of them, of course, but I restrained myself. I chose the few (too many) things I felt I should add to my make-up collection. Fortunately, I thought to ask the price of things. The moisturizer I liked? $300. OMG! I leveled with her and said I would never, ever spend that kind of money on make-up. I edited my Sisley purchases to a facial scrub, a lip gloss, a liner, and the smallest perfume ... and new after-shave for WineGuy, and the pressed powder. The bill was slightly obscene, but I had such fun.

Before they would allow me to leave the store, Kathleen and Belinda loaded me up with dozens and dozens of samples of perfume, men's cologne, moisturizers -- enough to fill a small shopping bag. There must be hundreds of dollars of product in there alone. What struck me the most was the friendliness and sincerety of the salespeople at the Saks in Tampa. They couldn't do enough to make me comfortable: a bottle of water, change the make-up color, what-have-you. I never get this kind of attention from the cosmetics employees at Saks in my corner of SW Florida. The sales help there is snooty and barely acknowledges you unless you're a size 0 or you wave your credit card in their faces. I finally waltzed out of Saks at 8:30 p.m.

Guess where I'm going tonight? Back to Saks! Seriously. For more make-up. I am not kidding, but it's just for make-up application before I meet The Tampa Mom, Her Man, and The Lakeland Mom for dinner. Girls, if you read this before I see you tonight, you'd better tell me I look fabulous!

Ta.