Am I really going to look beautiful?

Welcome to my own personal version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory:

Seriously, if I could find someone to pay me to play with makeup all day long I would be the happiest person on the planet.

Gordon Espinet, VP of makeup artistry, and Nadine Luke, director of makeup artistry at M.A.C. Cosmetics spend weeks preparing for fashion week and the new collections that will eventually go out to the public and NY Mag has a pretty cool article and slide show that takes you through a little bit of the process.

Here are the some of the photos that made my heart skip a beat or two:

Metal pigment mixed with gloss. "It's like gold paint" that you can put "all over the body" according to Gordon.

Oh.Em.Gee. I want some. Immediately.

"The glitter is going to give you the sparkle. The bling. There is always room for glitter."

Ah, Gordon... A man after my own heart.

These are creams... Look at them all! I wouldn't know what to do with myself! The phrase "kid in a candy store" would not even begin to cover it.

Le Sigh. Maybe some day. For now? I'll enjoy the pictures and take myself down to the MAC store to play as much as I can.

In the meantime, I leave you with Gordon's final thoughts:

"Women, at the end of the day, we can tell them until we're freaking blue in the face about the cool factor of makeup, but ultimately she's going to look at you and say, 'Am I going to look really beautiful? Are people going to want to do me?' Basically that's what we're all looking for, right?"

Why, yes, Mr. Gordon. I believe it is.

[photo credits: nymag.com & melissa hom]