Last week, Ellen was outed as an 80’s New Age true believer – but Carl hopes it’s just a phase. He’s more concerned with the toll her Color Magic business may take on their finances…
Want to catch up? You can do so HERE.
The premise behind Color Magic was that everyone looked best in specific colors, all of which could be grouped into four separate categories. And each category was a season.
When Ellen first heard people talking about someone being “a Winter” or “a Spring” – she was charmed. What a lovely idea. She always felt that each season had its own particular beauty and should be appreciated for what it was, rather than what it wasn’t.
And the same could be said for people. A pale redhead shouldn’t regret not being able to wear colors better suited to someone with black hair and dark skin. She should be focusing on all of the shades of green that would best set off her flaming locks.
This was a lesson that Ellen started learning as she dressed her blond cherub of a little sister in the pastel frocks that she and her mother so lovingly made. She was always drawn to delicate shades, but the petal pink that brought out roses in Nancy’s creamy complexion made her own sallow skin appear even more yellow. Like any other teenage girl, she felt quite cheated by the universe that her favorite colors made her look like she had just returned from the rain forest with a raging case of malaria.
But of course, she eventually got over those hang ups and embraced what she now knew as her Winter coloring. She gravitated to vibrant hues of red and blue and wore deep crimson lipstick. She stopped putting lemon juice in her hair each summer and opted for makeup that accentuated her dark brown eyes. While studying in France, she emulated the chic little olive skinned women she saw on the street. She learned to appreciate qualities once lamented and dressed accordingly. In short – she discovered one of the most basic secrets of true style: she knew what suited her best and didn’t try to fight it.
She also came to terms with the fact that no diet in the world was going to make her as petite as those elegant French women, and looked elsewhere for body type role models. But body image aside, Ellen always felt confident in her color choices.
Color Magic was basically a tool that anyone could use to better understand what color choices they should be making. This seemed pretty ingenious to Ellen since she spent many an hour in friends’ bedrooms trying to explain why the fuchsia was a bit too bright for them and the pale aqua was the obvious winner. She could see the truth of this, but could never quite reason it out to anyone’s satisfaction.
Now with the Color Magic swatches and manual she could actually teach people how to identify their season and the colors that would help them to look their absolute best. So far, all of her friends were thrilled with their results. There was something decidedly glamorous about having your own season. The Winters felt dramatic, the Autumns, sophisticated and the Summers, as youthful and light as sunshine. The Springs were always smug in their status as the least common of color types. They had the same complex quality of the Autumns, but their paler version was a less frequent result when the swatches were draped.
Ellen found this amusing since the manual said that Spring was the most “difficult” season to style. For some reason, women interpreted that as rare or special. She couldn’t decide if this was commendable, as if they were looking for the bright side, or if it was just elitist vanity. Either way – there weren’t many of them, so it could just be chalked up to coincidence. Difficult people getting a difficult season.
She bought the Color Magic kit from a woman she knew through a wine tasting group they had joined. Julie often had a new “thing” that she was into, but this was the first that had appealed to Ellen beyond polite small talk. The package itself wasn’t very expensive, but the only way to really use it as a business was to buy some inventory of the Color Magic makeup formulated for the specific seasons.
She first bought some for herself and was impressed by the quality. Ellen was a bit of a makeup snob and would rather save her money for a trip to the counters at Bloomingdale’s than randomly pick up lipsticks as impulse purchases at the drug store. And in her opinion, this makeup was just as good as the retail brands she preferred. It wasn’t cheap – but unfortunately, good makeup never was.
So she presented her ideas to Carl. She would buy enough sets of the products to cover her own samples to bring to clients, as well as some extras to have on hand for purchase. She would be conservative to start – and just see how it went.
For some reason though, Carl didn’t find her approach to be conservative. When he heard how much she would have to spend before she would actually make any money, he became quite agitated. And Ellen grew more and more deflated as he pointed out the multitude of flaws in her plan. She would break even at best…she would run out of contacts…she didn’t have the killer instinct for sales…she would have to convince other people to sell under her to make a real business out of it (which of course, is exactly what Julie did to her)…
As the tirade went on, Ellen’s deflation turned to annoyance. Who said she was looking to make a a lot of money from this? She very clearly explained that she thought it would be fun and she could make “a little money” doing it. Honestly – Carl never ceased to amaze her with his ability blow every little thing out of proportion.
But when it came to money, Carl didn’t see any expenditures more than pocket change as little. And compromises would have to be made for Ellen to continue with Color Magic. She would have to spend 50% less than she had hoped, and she would have to develop a business plan detailing how she would recoup her investment.
Later as she demonstrated the system for Carl, draping him with the various swatches, it came as no surprise to her that he was without question, a definite Spring.
Don’t worry – Ellen’s not a total flake. She just tends to get enthusiastic about the things she likes. Aiming for another installment on Friday…
****************************************************************************************************
ELSEWHERE:
On Wishing True…
A new take on Toile
Personalized illustrations
As always – I love your fiction!!
I am not a make-up snob (despite my stint as a mary-kay lady in the 90's) and love finding lipgloss for less than $5 even if it smells like cupcakes or geraniums.
Now you have me wondering – am I really a winter? I love bright vibrant colors and drama. But then again, maybe I'm a summer..I do love sunshine colors too!
Looking forward to reading more Kate!