Mostly I looked OK. But there were some obvious places where my face could be improved. My forehead has a few light blemishes, and there are a few more under my eyes. I’d just shaved, and there were some red marks across my skin, plus some nicks. I had a just-visible pimple under my left eyebrow.

Over the next hour and a half, Hill put me through a series of makeup sessions. She applied “high-definition” makeup with an airbrush, a gun that sprays a very fine mist of color at your face, so fine that the dyes blend into your skin in a way that looks and feels like you have nothing on. Later on, she applied makeup the old-fashioned way, using brushes and sponges. Another time, she made me up using cheap, drugstore-counter foundation. After each session we stopped to photograph my face. Across the range of applications, I could see the good and the bad of makeup, from just enough to too much.

The bad makeup looked worse than no makeup, but the good makeup? It looked awesome. With some quick, easy-to-apply fine-tuning, I discovered that my pretty face can get even prettier. Here’s me looking best—this is after the first application of makeup, a light layer of HD foundation applied with an airbrush.