Donatelle’s moniker has been “The Makeup Maven” since about 1977, when the fur salesman upstairs at Neiman Marcus, where I worked as a makeup artist and in cosmetics sales, first said, “There she is…the Makeup Maven!”

I liked it right away and…while I didn’t know what “Maven” meant, the alliteration was cool. Two years later, having started up a free lance practice in Dallas, cards needed printing, and I decided it was time to print them, which definitely meant looking up the word prior to committing. So basically, here’s what it said:

Maven…Mavin…a word of Yiddish origin…

Well, that was neat, and it figured; where I’d worked was just outside of Chicago, was in a Jewish neighborhood, and my co-workers and clients were largely such, so…good, so far…and then it said…

An Expert. A Professional…

How wonderful! Yep!!!…and then I got all boastful, inside…until the rest of it appeared:

…Usually Self-Proclaimed.

Deflated, but at least this Maven, out of the hundreds that have followed since (probably most had not yet been born) has by this time proved herself to be an expert, able to solve most, if not all, of your makeup needs for whatever situation.