Mall Makeovers: Dallas, Texas
In DepthOn paper I am inarguably average. 5’4″, blonde (mostly, also unnaturally), size 12-14 depending on my yoga and champagne intake, blue allergen-prone eyes.
But I live in Dallas, Texas, and I happen to quite enjoy sifting all those average ingredients through the filter of our state’s stereotypical pageant-farm aesthetic. Here, my frame reads as “thick”, my blonde fuzzy waves are easily back-combed and curl-wanded into shapes I would artistically describe as sculptural. My preferred special occasion look falls somewhere around “Soap Opera Actress Leaving Set“; such preferences make my hometown a vain girl’s playground.
When Jane sent me to a makeup counter with one request – to look Texan – I was delighted. Google search results for “Dallas” and “Dallas Women” led me down Sue Ellen Ewing and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders wormholes. The internet seems to favor 70s-era Dallas glamour and so do I.
It doesn’t get more Dallas than Neiman Marcus, who women in this town have trusted since 1907; it is also the home of one of Tom Ford’s top selling beauty counters. Launched in 2006 and grown to feature a full makeup, skincare and fragrance line; Ford is easily our most glamorous son. (Plus the other top-selling counter is in Houston, so Texas is buying. this. up.)
Tom Ford is out of my price range. It is out of almost everyone’s price range, but the Texas trope is to go big or go home and if I go home there are no makeup artists or the softest makeup brushes you have ever, ever felt made from white horse and goat hair.
Eased into the chair, Pearl, the Tom Ford product specialist gets to work. I spit out the prescription and she starts collecting pallets. Bronze, tawny peaches, coppers, dusty pinks, dark eyeliner and all the face sculpting products I have ever dreamed of.She tells me that Dallas women, even those coming to explicitly get their makeup done by her, always arrive with makeup on. She mentions this after stripping my face of the BB cream, under eye concealer and eyebrow pencil I come in wearing. I sheepishly giggle.
When I confess to her that I can’t afford these products, Pearl guides me through the splurge-worthy-if-you-only-buy-one-thing recommendations. The Brow Sculptor ($44), she shows off its calligraphy tip as she magically raises the arch of my brow. Pearl is also effusive about the Illuminating Primer ($74), the Traceless Foundation Stick ($80) and their liquid eyeliner Eye Defining Pen ($55), which I must admit is one the darkest shades of black pigment I’ve seen and feels amazing as it is applied. It feels cold on the lid.