Since the middle of October, I’ve been trying to make an extra-concerted effort to take good care of my skin. I have extremely dry, sensitive skin; just give it a sidelong glance that it doesn’t care for, and it breaks out and starts flaking and gets eczema, all in the same spot. I’ve been trying different skincare lines for awhile (Mary Kay, Estee Lauder, Murad, Dior, MAC skincare), and it’s exhausting because you have to give each one a sufficient trial period to see how your skin really responds. I hadn’t found anything I was really crazy about until I started using Clinique in October, and I’m now a huge Clinique devotee. They have all these “extra mild” products that are even more gentle than their normal “level 1″ skin treatments, and they’re fantastic. I use an Astara moisturizer in addition to the Clinique, and together, it’s perfect.

Then I started getting facials every 6-8 weeks from the world’s most fabulous aesthetician, Jane Cowan. She is absolutely amazing. I simply cannot sing her praises enough. As I said in my Citysearch review, “I actually feel sorry for my friends who don’t live in Portland and can’t see her. And on a more personal note, she is unbelievably fun, warm-hearted, personable, kind, and downright cool. As other reviewers have said, you feel like you’re hanging out with your best friend.” And that’s high praise from me, because my best friends are like a part of me, we’re so close. Appointments with her are skin and life therapy in one.

She recommended an independent makeup artist who I am so, so excited to work with for my big day. But she has a regular full-time job and just does makeup on the side, and she travels a lot for her day job, so there’s a chance she won’t be available in April. I decided to have Event Cosmetics (the premiere bridal makeup studio in Portland, or so I’m told) as my back-up, even though the quote I got over the phone was painfully expensive. And about a week ago, I went in for my first run-through.

I took this photo in my car after I got done with my appointment, and it pretty much says it all. The makeup is exceptional, but as Rebecca said, I look super skeptical. Really funny.

Warning: Brutally honest ranting below.

For starters, I was at there for three hours. I expected 90 minutes, two hours, but THREE hours? We did a consult at the beginning where we talked about my wedding and I showed her the photos I had in my binder. Aside from a couple of compliments about my dress, she was very jaded — she has clearly seen bigger and better, and that’s understandable, but I can’t help it that I like when people ooh and ahh over my ideas and get excited about things I’m doing. Instead, she kept talking about how she’s “in the business of weddings” and kept asking me question after question — have you thought of this, done that, etc. Umm, you aren’t my wedding coordinator. And speaking of coordinators, we had an awkward interlude when she asked if I’d been to the Bridal Loft before, and I told her that I’d met with Emee once about 8 months ago. I didn’t want to say that Emee wasn’t a good fit, so I just said that I couldn’t afford a full service coordinator. She then launched into an exposition about how Emme offers all these services and she’s SOO great and when I hit roadblocks I should hire Emee for hourly consulting and on and on. Before she started the makeup, she gave me a tour of the Loft and gushed about all the little businesses and what they do and how I should use all of them. It just felt like a little “club” where they expect you to utilize all of their services because, hello, why would you go anywhere else?

EC uses all “their own” cosmetics, which I don’t really believe… I think they’re repackaged cosmetics of some description, but they make it sound like they have their own brands, so it’s anyone’s guess. The way they do their airbrushing is completely different from how I had it done in LA. In LA, he primed my skin and then used the airbrush to apply a liquid MAC foundation. At EC, she applied some kind of mineral foundation that’s designed for photography and when she was all done with foundation, concealer and powder, she applied a light coat of some kind of airbrush over the very top. It felt fine on my skin, but I didn’t think it produced as flawless of a result.

What she did a truly phenomenal job on was my eyes. The shading was perfect, she somehow used brown liner (which never looks good when I use it on myself) to make my eyes look bigger, and she applied tons of the individual false eyelashes — longer ones at the outer corners and shorter, lusher ones all over. This photo shows my eyes really well:

But then she did the lips, which is an infamous problem for me whenever anyone does my makeup. I told her over and over, nude lips, nothing heavy. Well, her idea of “nude” is very different from mine. She used liner and an overall lip pencil with a semi-sheer lipstick over the top, and it was WAY too much. I’m sure no one would agree with me, but I feel like I look like a drag queen when I have anything but the very sheerest of lipsticks on. Beautiful on other people but not on me. The lipstick came off as soon as I got in my car, so I don’t even have it on film — but trust me, it was not good.

Of course, at the end of the appointment, she wrote up an estimate for me, and it took everything in me not to stand there aghast when she read it to me. When I made my consultation appointment, they quoted prices that sounded high but doable if I really wanted it. Apparently their pricing has changed since then. Now they do a package instead, because they have a three person minimum for on-site makeup. Just to put the pricing in context… If I did the package and then added my extra bridesmaids, I’d be looking at a figure that’s the same as my letterpress invitations; almost as much as the cases of wine we’re required to buy from the vineyard; more than half of what I’m spending on flowers; and more than I’m spending on cupcakes, cutting cake and fancy Clara French cake stand combined. Seriously? And I thought the original estimate was obscene.

I shouldn’t rag on the makeup artist — she was a nice person, she truly was — but the last 45 minutes of the appointment was filled with her going on and on about all the beauty treatments I should be doing — about how I shouldn’t take hot showers (”you have to baby your skin for your wedding day”), about how I should get highlights and a gloss treatment for my hair, about how I should get my eyebrows shaped (they ARE shaped!), about how I should use the EC skincare instead of the stuff Jane recommends… Fundamentally, I just felt like her priorities are all screwed up. This is about the relationship with my fiance, about our family and friends. I want to look beautiful, but it isn’t all about ME.

The next few days, my skin reacted horribly to the products, despite how gentle they were supposed to be. I was just extremely over-processed — in part, I’m sure, because she was arguing with me that I wasn’t as sensitive as I think I am. And I got some of the worst eczema I’ve ever had because she shaved to clean up my eyebrows (instead of tweezing) and then used some kind of eye cream. The combination made my skin break to the point of bleeding, and I had to put salve on it for almost a week.

The Citysearch reviews of EC are mostly glowing, and one of my friends used them and loved them. But for the more budget-conscious, less assertive bride with sensitive skin, I wouldn’t give them a recommendation.