" Later in the day, Holly frowned at her reflection in the mirror.
“This can’t be right!” Holly muttered to herself. She looked like a cross between a panda bear and a raccoon. She had tried to apply a more advanced version of makeup than she was used to, and it was not going well.
“Smokey eye, my foot! I look like I have two black eyes.” She had not done the proper shading with her eye shadow, and now her large green eyes were encased with a deep black color that spanned her entire eyelid.
“Maybe I should try a different one,” Holly mused aloud. She sat in William’s bedroom at his dresser. She already had on her pretty crushed velvet black dress and a small heart-shaped diamond pendant. It had been William’s birthday gift to her last year.
“Let me re-read this article again to see if I can make sense of these instructions.”
Holly read her magazine article out loud. “Which Greek Goddess are you? Athena, Venus, or Aphrodite? Check out our makeup tips below to turn heads at your next event!”
“Hmmmm, that sounds soooooo good, if only I was better at applying makeup.”
She had decided to try their Aphrodite look and had been trying to apply the eyeliner to give her a smoky eye effect.
Holly had to wash her face four times already and start over because each time was worse than the last.
“Concentrate, Holly, or you’ll be late for the gala. This is your last chance; it’s do or die time!” she warned her reflection in the mirror.
“So, it says to put the light grey eyeshadow on the inner one-third of my eyelids. Hmmm, maybe that’s the problem. I don’t know where the inner third is.”
She got an idea and went to William’s desk. Looking around, she found a ruler.
“Ah-ha! Eureka, I got it!” She went back to her position at his dresser and closed her eyes for a quick, small prayer, then held the ruler up to measure her eye.
“Ah-ha! Twenty-one millimeters. So, that means the inner one-third of my eye must be from my nose out seven millimeters . . . right about HERE!” Holly expertly applied the light grey eye shadow to the inner third of her eyelids.
“What a big improvement already! Wow! I’m not a panda bear anymore! Ok, one-third down, two-thirds to go . . . I can do this!”
Reading further, she said, “Ok, now apply the dark grey eye shadow to the next third of your eye, finishing with the dark brown eye shadow on the outer third of your eyelid.”
Holly expertly followed the instructions and sat back in her chair, stunned.
She looked beautiful! She had achieved the desired effect, and now her green eyes were enhanced to perfection.
“Wow, wow, wow!” Holly felt encouraged to keep going.
She read the next instructions.
“‘Now, apply blush to your face with an emphasis on contouring your cheekbones.’”
“‘Contouring my cheekbones? Who do they think I am, Rembrandt?” Holly said with a groan.
Holly gingerly picked up her blush container as if it were about to bite her. She decided another quick prayer wouldn’t go amiss. With a deep breath she muttered, “Ok, I’m going in!”
She glanced nervously at the picture in the magazine and tried her hardest to follow it along her cheekbones. “That turned out pretty good!”
Holly turned her face this way and that, examining it. It may not have been exactly as in the picture, but the blush now accentuated her beautiful high cheekbones.
“Whew! Only the lip left, thank goodness! You got this, Holly!” She encouraged her reflection in the mirror. "

― Kira Seamon , Dead Cereus