As anyone who has spent anytime browsing my Facebook photos knows, I am not terribly photogenic. I don’t think I’m terrible-looking or anything, but I generally don’t like photos of myself. Having said this, when my friend Kate invited me to an event at Gene Juarez called the Facebook Beautification Project, I was really excited and eagerly accepted. After all, who doesn’t want get pampered and look amazing in photos?
The event was last week in Seattle’s University District. The location was awesome. When we walked in the front door, we found ourselves in front of a reception desk. On our left was a large waiting area with plush couches and a fireplace. We checked in, and were taken to changing rooms to change into Gene Juarez robes. Then we were led to a waiting area near the photographer, where we were presented with wine and a spread of tasty little appetizers.
We were given facial treatments first. Honestly, that was my least favorite part. A lot of the skincare products just made my face feel oily. I decided I’d stick with my apricot face scrub and basic moisturizer with SPF (always wear sunscreen!!). After that, we were taken to makeup.
My makeup artist was a friendly, pretty girl with dark hair and the most amazing bright red lipstick I’d ever seen. I’d never had my makeup done professionally before, and sort of expected her to pile on the products, especially for the potential-sale factor. But she didn’t. Instead, she used a few different things that brightened up my skin, made my eyes look larger, brought out my natural features. I was really happy with the finished makeup and spent the rest of the night sneaking little looks at myself.
After makeup, it was time for hair. I’ve had some terrible experiences with haircuts and am not keen on the idea of anyone getting near my head with scissors. For regular trims and color, I have one hair stylist that I go to every single time, who knows me, and knows what not to even attempt to do to my hair. My fear of having too much hair cut off may seem silly, but I am very vain about my hair. I even had a nightmare not too long ago that I had my hair cut, and that the stylist decided it’d be a good idea to give me a short bob and baby bangs. In the dream, I didn’t realize what she was up to until it was too late, and I was screaming and crying, horrified, heart pounding, head aching, stomach churning….
Ahem.
Yes, it really is that bad.
Anyway, Megan, the stylist who was doing my hair for the photo shoot, trimmed up my ends and curled my hair nicely but did not scalp me, which made me happy. She gave me a couple tips on getting my hair to curl (which it does not like to do) and didn’t overload me with sticky hair products.
I was ushered over to the photographer, who began posing me and snapping pictures of me. At the end of the shoot, there were four photos I was particularly happy with, so I was promised I could have all four of them.
As I said, I’m not photogenic. But thanks to Gene Juarez, I now have some great pictures of myself at my best. At least I think so. You may judge for yourself:
