by Tracy Nneka Osokolo
Tracy Nneka Osokolo is the author of “Red Pepper and English Tea” – ANBUKRAFT Award Winner for Best New Fiction. She was a Resident Writer at the London 2012 Olympics Festival at the Southbank Centre.
Working twenty hours a week, fifty kilometres away from home and being Fiona’s mum, has gained me so many skills I never thought I’d need. For instance, making-up.
To set the record straight, as a teenager and even as an undergraduate at Unilag, I hated make-up. It just seemed like too much hard work for something that was obviously fake. In essence, I needed a logical reason to put it on my face. I did get a reason when I read a Harvard Business Review edition which said that recent studies in the USA showed women who wore make-up to be perceived as more competent at their jobs, when compared with women who didn’t wear any make-up. Mind you, this research did not affect the physical looks of men in business!
I never understood that bit as a geek in school, but now as a young woman, I know that ‘packaging’ is key in a city like Lagos, especially when it came to the money-making part. So my bestie, Laura, helped me by recommending make-up products that looked most natural and gave me a more sophisticated look.
This is my routine: On working days I leave home at 6am in a danfo, at the bus stop closest to our home. Hubby waits for my bus to leave for CMS before he drives off. It is a two-and-half hour drive so I start by eating my breakfast while the aroma torments the other equally hungry employees who rushed out of their houses without eating. After eating, I wipe my hands with a cleansing wipe as my travelling neighbours staring at me. Next, I remove my make-up bag from my handbag. It has pictures of the Taj Mahal embossed all over it.
When I zip it open, I bring out my light green compact powder by Clinique. Luckily, the lady at the shop in Oxford Street not only gave me the exact colour code that Laura recommended, she also gave me a product compatible with the tropical climate in Nigeria. Since it’s only the office I am going to, I only apply a base powder. Next, I bring out my dark blue tiny-toothed comb. I use it to shape my eye brows in place. Then, I bring out my no-need-to-sharpen eyeliner which I got from a Super Drug store (thanks to my niece-in-law). I use it to make a fine line under my left and right eyes. I move my hand gently as the roads get bumpy so that I don’t hurt my eyeballs. Next, I bring out my liquid eyeliner (which I also got from Super Drug) to make a fine line just above my eye lashes.
Both eye pencils aren’t actually pencils though; but they are shaped like pencils to make it easy for me to grip the stem as the danfo jerks, dumps its tyres into potholes and matches the brakes in a hurry to avoid any bashing. My next step is to bring out my set of eye shadows and choose the colour that best fits my clothes for the day. I usually start with a bright colour which I place on top of the liquid eyeliner, directly above my eyelashes. Then I put a shade of grey in the middle of the skin covering my eyeballs to create a mild ‘smoky-eyes effect’. After this, I put some auburn or golden shade at the far right corner of my eyebrows, to give the bone there a little shine when I turn. Next, I use my Maybelline mascara gently, stopping frequently to allow the driver manoeuvre without smearing my eyes completely.
By now, my fellow bus companions have stopped staring at me because they have probably realised that I am not ashamed to have my face made-up in a danfo bus. I bring out my powder again to wipe off any smear of black that may have occurred in places that I didn’t want it. Next, I bring out my lip liner and make a brown line that is the exact shape with the corner of my lips. I’m gripping the pencil real tight to ensure that the roads do not disturb me. Then, I apply my orangy-golden brown lipstick by dropping three taps on my lower lip. I smack both lips gently to spread the colour around. After this, I apply my 8-hour long lasting lip gloss (also from Super Drug wink) and mix its pinkish-red colour with my lipstick. Throughout the time, I am holding up the mirror adjoined to my powder case to ensure that I am doing my lips right. I use the powder’s dabber to pat the corners of my face where I am already sweating. It’s the kind of heat you get from being squeezed in a bus. While I am doing everything, I take special care to ensure that my elbow isn’t poking the passenger on my right.
Finally, I place my accessories in my make-up bag. I shut it and wait for the last bus stop … looking like a Lagos Woman.
