RANSVESTIA

a tissue. She laughed and said it was the proof that girls have to suffer to be pretty. The operator worked fast and it was soon over. The pretty shape of my new girlish eyebrows I could admire in the mirror was a consolation for the pain I had to suffer.

She covered my face with a heavy and dark foundation in order to hide the shadow of my beard. She used plenty of powder to attenuate the darkness of the foundation and to give me a real peach complexion.

Then she proceeded to my eye makeup. She brushed my eyebrows to remove the foundation and the powder on them. She touched them with a brown pencil. They acquired a real girlish shape that pleased me. She applied brown mascara to my eyelashes, combing them up- wards with a soft brush at the same time making them look longer and silkier She applied brown eveliner at the roots of my lashes and she put a little blue salve on my eyelids. I could see she was an expert be- cause she used enough makeup to beautify my eyes, but not so much as to have them look made-up.

It was quite a sensation to feel her soft hands on my face and to feel the softness of the bristles of the small brushes running over it. My eyes had been beautified and my appearance was that of a really pretty girl. I told her how amazed I was at the fact that a good makeup job could not only change a girl's face and make her look prettier, but that it could do the same for a man.

The girl said makeup was more than a trade, it was really an art. “I am glad you like the way I have made-up your face and eyes the girl said, but wait until you have lipstick on, you will see a bigger improve- ment." So, she went to work on my lips. She used a little brush dipped in a red liquid to paint my lips. She followed their contour exactly. I could not see her while she was doing it, because she was holding my head backwards with her left hand and I was looking at the ceiling. My mouth was half-opened as if I was waiting for her to kiss me. The softness of the brush on my lips, her soft hand holding my head, the perfume coming from her arm, made me close my eyes to appreciate even more the agreeable moments I was living through.

When it was over, I looked in the mirror and found the prettiest pair of lips I had ever seen. They were really tempting and I was sure any boy would have loved to kiss them. She removed the cape and she ad- justed a lovely brown wig with short curls to my head. She arranged the curls a little and said I would be unrecognizable.

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