Makeup artist in Saburtalo

Saburtalo stretches from Heroes' Square out to Vazha-Pshavela and beyond, following the metro line. The difference between the Delisi end and the Medical University end is a real journey, not a detail.

The most useful thing you can send is the street address or the nearest metro station. Vazha-Pshavela, Delisi, State University, Medical University, Politeknikuri and Sadguris Moedani are all inside what people call Saburtalo, and they are not near each other.

With the address, the appointment is planned to the minute. Without it, a margin has to be built in that eats into your morning.

Most of Saburtalo's housing is newer than Vake's, which in practice means working lifts, wider stairwells and parking that exists. The arrival is the least complicated of any district in the city.

It also means large windows. New Saburtalo flats are usually bright, often with light from two directions, and that is the best possible starting condition for matching a base.

The one thing worth checking is the entrance. Newer complexes are gated with a code or an intercom that does not always work, so include the code, or be reachable by phone at the arrival time.

A bright room is an advantage, with one caveat that applies specifically here. Many new flats have large windows and cool-white LED ceiling lighting at around 4000K, and those two light sources do different things to skin.

Working under the LED rather than the window produces a base that is slightly too warm, because cool light makes skin look paler than it is and the correction goes the wrong way.

The fix is simply to work by the window and check under the ceiling light afterwards, rather than the other way round. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a base that matches in daylight and one that only matched in the room.

Saburtalo has the highest concentration of universities in Tbilisi — the State University campus, the Technical University and Tbilisi State Medical University, which has a large international student body.

That produces a genuine season. June and July bring graduation ceremonies and the photographs that go with them, and those photographs are taken outdoors, in full summer sun, often in a gown that has been sat in for two hours.

Makeup for a graduation is built for that: long-wear base, restrained shine, and a face that reads clearly in a photograph taken at distance. Morning appointments go first in those weeks, so book early rather than in the final fortnight.

• Graduations in June and July — outdoor photographs, long-wear base
• Weddings and family events year-round
• Evening appointments before events in the centre
• Consultations in English or Russian as well as Georgian

Makeup starts at 150 GEL, with no separate travel fee anywhere inside Tbilisi. An hour per person of actual working time.

For a group — several students before a ceremony, or a family before a wedding — book together and allow an hour each. Four people is four hours, and that is the arithmetic that gets underestimated every June.

Send the address or the nearest metro, the floor, the entrance code if there is one, and the time you need to be ready.