Colour Her

Chapter 2

2

Mya

Collection = A range of different types of makeup that are collected under a single theme. Most brands bring out a few collections a year. Commonly, spring, summer, fall and winter or Christmas collection. Many brands also do collections together with famous people or around a new product line. Collections are an easy way to buy makeup as the colours within a collection tend to complement each other, so you don’t have to worry about that.

I make my way through the makeup aisles of the drugstore, picking up a couple of lip glosses from Essence to test them on my hand. Sadly, none of them are in colours that interest me, so I put them back. Apparently, the store hasn’t stocked the new Essence collection yet. Which is too bad, as they looked really pretty online.

It’s almost time for fall and many brands have started releasing special fall collections in darker colours. This makes it the perfect moment to check out new products, as it’s been a while since I looked at what’s available. I’m not heavily up to date on what’s going on in makeup-land, even though I follow a lot of Youtube vloggers who are, but I do like picking up a new shade of eyeshadow or a new nail polish from time to time, especially when the seasons change. And I adore the fall releases since most brands will come out with great red or gold-tinted products, which look good on me.

I play with a sort-of-shimmery lip gloss from Catrice in my hands, testing it out on the side of my thumb. It’s got some gold tones in it, but it’s not really bright enough to my liking, and I’ve kind of already got enough lip glosses that are very similar. I don’t need another almost-the-same colour, when I’ve got better ones at home. Plus, this colour, this bright gold, I can’t paw it off at Elliot, since he’s got the wrong skin tones to wear it. Also, too much glitter for him.

Bummer.

I put it back on the display, instead picking up a few nail polishes in a range of reds, all darker toned now the weather is getting colder soon. In the winter, most makeup is either dark, like the colours of the leaves or really good hot chocolate, or on the silver/white side of things, like what you’d expect in a Christmas tree or in winter decorations. I hold the dark red bottle up to the light, the colour looks nice, almost a dark red rose, but it hasn’t got any shimmer or sparkle in it at all, which is boring. I want shimmery bits in my nail polishes, it makes me happy. So this is a no-go.

Going back to the Essence display, I let my eyes wander over the rows of nail polishes when I hear a voice I recognise. I start listening, just to figure out who it is, but it takes me a while to place the voice.

“I’m sorry, could you help me?” The speaker’s voice is quiet, and a little soft, as if she doesn’t want to disturb the person she’s talking to. It comes from the next aisle over.

“Yes?” I hear another person answer her.

“Do you have any more colours from the Rainbow Collection? I can only find four of the lipsticks, but they had twelve on the website. Also, would you have any of their eyeshadow palettes in the back?”

I look around. They have the Rainbow Collection here? I hadn’t seen a stand for that those. I’ve been looking for them, unsuccessfully.

“I’m sorry, these are the only ones we got in the delivery. We don’t always get all the colours. You may have to try it the website.” I get why the store employee directs her to the website, because the Rainbow Collection gets sold out every time a*****e stocks them. It’s been like that all week.

“Oh.” The girl’s voice is dejected and I feel for her. “Thank you very much anyway.” Then her footsteps move away, before turning and rounding the corner of the makeup aisle.

I keep glancing in her direction, not sure why she sounds so familiar. I can’t place her voice, no matter how much I try.

A beautiful girl comes around the corner, and I do a double take. It’s Amber from Amber’s Makeup Tips Youtube channel! No wonder I recognised her voice, she’s been my go-to for good tutorials and reviews for years and I love listening to her rambling about the makeup she’s found or the style she’s working on. Her voice is very comforting to listen to, and I really like her general excitement when it comes to makeup. But she’s usually much more straightforward, she doesn’t tend to have a soft voice like she had just now. No wonder I didn’t recognise her.

I quickly look down at the nail polishes in my hands, not wanting her to catch me staring. She probably gets that enough as it is. I distract myself by trying to figure out if I really want to buy any of the nail polishes I’m holding, but my thoughts keep straying to the girl walking up to the display next to mine.

I hold the colours to the light, turning the bottles, really trying to not let her closeness affect me. I’m in the presence of someone relatively famous, for me anyway… My cheeks heat up, my thoughts mostly yelling at me not to stare at her or do anything weird… Act cool!

Amber steps closer and I feel her gaze on me. As I glance to the side, she’s looking at the nail polishes too, a studious look in her eyes.

Then she looks at me and flashes me a blinding smile. “I like the dark purple one. How much of a shimmer does it have?”

I turn the bottle a few times, trying to catch the light on it. “Some, not a lot.” I try to keep my voice normal. She’s talking to me! Me! Not what I was expecting.

“Oh.” She sounds disappointed. “More glitter is better, especially with dark colours. Makes the colour look more dynamic, not as flat.”

I nod. “I think I’m going for the chestnut one.” I hold up the bottle. It has a darker chestnut for the base colour, but then a little gold shimmer in it, making it look lighter from certain angles. Like the colour of fallen leaves, but only in dreams, as they would be too drab in real life.

“Yeah, that one’s pretty. Especially with your coat.” She’s so kind, making me blush furiously. Even though she sounded hesitant to talk to the store clerk, she seems pretty happy to talk about makeup with a stranger. “I got that one last year. I wore it a lot.”

Now that she mentions it, I think I may have seen her wear it in her videos. But, of course, I can’t say that, it would be weird now… “It looks very wearable, yeah.” I put the other colours back, keeping the chestnut nail polish in my hand, my heart beating faster.

Amber reaches out, picking up the chestnut colour too, plus a deep red one and one that’s almost orange, but in a fall type of orange, not safety warning type of orange. “Now that you remind me, I really need to get a new bottle of that one, and I hadn’t seen these yet. They’re pretty.”

“And they all combine well too. A perfect range of fall tones.” All the colours she grabbed have gold shimmer in them, and I’m pretty sure I’m starting to get into ‘rambling’ area about now, letting slip whatever my brain comes up with. I’m so nervous. “Very fitting.”

“I agree.” She flashes me another grin. “At least this trip wasn’t a total bust. Thank you.” Then she walks away, to the register, and I stay where I am, staring at the display in front of me but not seeing it, not entirely sure how to breathe anymore.

Not only did she talk to me, she smiled at me too, and thanked me! You don’t randomly run into a Youtuber, or more like a Youtube makeup star, every day, especially not when you’re simply wasting time waiting for a friend to show up… Talk about unexpected.

And right at that moment, the guy I was waiting for, my best friend Elliot, steps into the store and his eyes find me immediately. He flashes me an easy smile as he saunters over. “Hey.” He grins, then he frowns a little when I don’t reply immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong.” But my voice is breathy, and that only makes him look at me stranger. “I thought I saw someone like... internet famous. Maybe. Probably.” That was Amber, definitely, but I don’t want him to think that this is more than it is.

He nods, raising an eyebrow, but when I don’t give him more information, he shrugs. “Okay. Keep it to yourself then.” He shakes his head, smiling easily again. “Is that the only thing you’re buying today?” He looks at the nail polish in my hand.

“Yeah.” I nod, trying to pull myself together. “I think it is.”

“Okay.” He grins. “We’ve gotta get going. Izzy’s train will be here soon and we need to keep this as efficient as possible if we don’t want to miss the movie.”

“Yeah. Sure.” I go over to the register, but Amber is already gone. I blink, fully coming to myself.

Today has really been a day of surprises. I knew that Amber lived in the area, but I had no idea it was this close, or that she came to this store…

I coat my nails with the chestnut nail polish as I read over my notes for class. It’s not the easiest subject to read, but I still have to do it before tomorrow. Luckily, reading and doing my nails are two things I can definitely multitask, from years of practice and many books with nail polish spots in them. Oops.

My thoughts keep going back to what happened last Friday, back to meeting Amber. She has no idea who I am and I hope that I didn’t make a total fool out of myself. It left a pretty big impression on me even though me going all fluttery on her probably is one of those things that vloggers will laugh and joke about to each other. Friday will just be another story for her about ‘one of those fans’ who get all weird when they meet them. I don’t want to be that... I don’t want her to remember me like that, in a negative way.

I let out a deep breath, closing my eyes. I could use something fun and interesting again. It’s been weeks since I did something fun, weeks since I broke up with my summer boyfriend, and most of the time since then has been spent on homework or hanging out with Elliot and his girlfriend Izzy, when they have time. It’s been… It’s been boring and depressing how bland my life has become.

Sure, I’ve spent time with other people too, other friends. But most days or evenings when I’m not busy with homework, I’ve been in my room, not doing much apart from reading manga or playing videogames. I feel like I lost the ‘spark’ of wanting to do exiting things after the breakup.

Not that it was a bad breakup. We both knew that what we had was a convention fling that accidentally lasted until the end of summer break. We weren’t that heavily involved, not like the way Elliot and Izzy are totally in love, but it was still nice to spend time together. But with Elliot having a girlfriend who lives a couple of hours away, and him being gone so often, I’ve felt a little lonely.

I should do something silly again. Something stupid and silly… Something that may not lead to anything more than making another person smile for a while.

My i********: stream reloads and a picture from Amber pops up, showing off the handful of things she has been able to find from the Rainbow Collection.

No…

That would be…

A bad idea…

Really bad idea…

Right?

I open a browser and search for the Curious Cosmetics makeup website and the list of all the stores that sell their line.

This would be a silly and slightly foolish idea, right?

Right.

Right.