I've had a bit too much of the DD lately and so I thought I'd branch out into (or is that return to?) the living-with-our-illnesses-more-easily field. As I've always said, we are not just our illnesses, the CFIDS/ME/CFS and/or fibromyalgia.
And so I thought I'd do a few posts that contain helpful makeup tips.
The holidays REALLY are the time of the year when we want to shine, as sparkles are all around us. Furthermore, as we venture out for get-togethers, we run into friends and family we've not seen in a while. We just want to look human, or presentable, for that matter. With smartphones and large cameras with zoom lenses, pictures of ourselves will be taken on purpose or surreptitiously, thus further making us want to look our best, knowing the photography of today will show up each and every pore and wrinkle. (I know: what a dilemma. Look good and have have everyone say "you look great: you don't look sick," or go out looking like death warmed over!)
With that in mind, I thought that today I'd give a run-down on mascaras.
I'm not sure that there IS any mascara out there that doesn't cause my eyes to become at least a tiny bit red. However, most mascaras make my eyes very red, embarrassingly so since salespeople have actually asked me why my eyes are so red, assuming I'd been crying. Sweet people, but nonetheless embarrassing. The redness, of course, is a legacy of the dry eyes (and mouth) we who live with CFIDS/ME/CFS and fibromyalgia are prone to, in spades.
For years and years I've been on a hunt, to find a mascara that doesn't cause red eyes. I can't say that I've been completely successful, but I do have a few mascaras which I've found to be pretty successful. From my massive collection (you really don't want to see how big - it HAS been a quest) I've focused on finding mascaras which fit the following criteria:
- Easy to apply (hand shakes, eyesight not the most reliable!)
- The formula must be volumizing - because of the hair scarcity problem those of us with the DD put up with (if your brows are thin, chances are that so too are your eyelashes.)
- Have good staying power
- Keep your eyes from turning red!!! (I mean, look at those freaky old pictures with red eyes that look like...well, I shudder to say what!).
I exclude water-proof mascara because they make eyes really red and end up hurting them for days afterwards.
So, here are my favorite five, saving the best for last:
- Bare Minerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara: shocker, as I thought that the company was only good for the powders. Easy to apply and no red eye.
- Estée Lauder "Sumptuous" Bold Volume Lifting Mascara: A real surprise! There were samples in various makeup deals/collections and I thought that I'd end up throwing the samples away. Well, I'll be derned... It works REALLY well.
- DiorShow Mascara: Best in show in many "top lists," this was the first time I realized that you CAN have it all in one mascara!
- Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara: When my hands aren't too steady, for some reason I find I have better control with this mascara designed for your lower lashes. Yes, this mascara works well on the tiny lower lashes but it also works well on the tiny upper lashes. However, I'll use this mascara on my entire upper lashes if I find that otherwise I'll be poking the mascara into my eyeball. I also love the little tube - perfect for travel and emergency handbag kits as well.
- Blinc Mascara ("Stop painting your lashes...TUBE them!"): I'm absolutely in love with this mascara. It doesn't budge after putting it on and I usually forget it's there - and isn't that the holy grail? - that you don't feel made up? Furthermore, Blinc comes off quite easily when you want to wash it off: just a warm washcloth pressed on the eyes for a moment and the little tubes around each lash slide right off onto your washcloth. Amazing!
There you go. I'll still be on the hunt for the perfect mascara, but these fill my needs pretty well. Do you have any mascara you swear by? Have you given up on mascara? I'll wear eyeliner alone when my eyes/lashes are extra sensitive since the liner IS an improvement on the invisible eyes. Let us know.
Finally, have you tried going the tinting of eyelashes route? What do you think of it? It's my favorite way to go because the tint is fantastic for about four to six weeks. When I wear mascara and liner after tinting, my eyes pop. The lashes also seem to get much added volume, having been plumped up by the tinting. And it's marvelous that with tinting I don't scare little children, nor grown men if I happen to go out without my eyes done. Now I just need to find someone locally to tint the lashes - it's great not to worry about doing my eyes when I'm in bed, unable to do anything. We need to hold onto our dignity and self-esteem as much as possible. Reactions?
At any rate, I hope everyone's doing their best, only better. Ciao and paka!
My Mally Eyebrow kit.
Just a few moments ago I opened up a box with an order I'd placed a few days prior on one of my favorite drugstore/beauty websites. I'm always so excited when I receive a package. It's about the only time, you see, that my poor memory works in my favor: I get to see what the surprise in the box is because heaven forbid I manage to remember something from one day to the next, often one hour to the next. Receiving a package in the mail reminds me of Christmas, before I learned that there was no Santa.
The surprise was a new mascara that I'll be trying. There have been several companies now that have come out with mascaras using the new technology of forming a tube around each lash, instead of "painting" mascara on lashes. I so wanted to try it on immediately but remembered that tomorrow I will (hopefully) be going up to get my hair, brows and lashes done and I don't want to risk any residue on said brows and lashes to interfere with coloring/tinting. But considering the fact that I often forgo mascara and hope that liner will suffice (it never does) this is a biggie for me. My eyes are always turning red for this reason or that and I've grown tired of mascara as one of the contributing factors to the redness. This latest attempt to find a mascara that I LOVE (as opposed to "love") is an on-going project.
But to continue with the adventures of trying to grow more eyebrow hair and lashes - or trying to deceive the world at large that I DO have them at all....
This past winter I actually started using men's foaming Rogaine. It, Rogaine, is something I've tried on and off for years, although I'd be embarrassed to tell you the number of cans of just-started Rogaine cans/pump bottles I threw out when we had to move ourselves and everything we owned when vacating the second floor for the remodeling. Actually, the old Rogaines would probably have made a great exhibition of the progress Rogaine has made since it hit the market big-time; there seemed to be new packaging with each "improvement" to the formula.
I think my biggest problem is that I'll use it but then something will happen (a flare, a relapse, a crisis) and when life gets back to "normal," I forget all about it. We've just started moving back into our bedroom and bath and already, as my life is slipping out of control a bit - OK, more than a bit, but more controllable than what's been the norm in the last two years - I'm finding it hard to remember to take my meds, much less remember to work Rogaine into the needed areas of my head.
However, the Rogaine on my bald spots, as well as my eyebrows, has worked out well. And since I'll soon be mother of the groom and because I want to look my best in order to not embarrass child number two, I've moved my trip to get my hair done, etc. to now rather than later. And I can't wait to hear from my stylist if she thinks there's been an improvement since she last saw me a couple of months ago.
Continuing with the brow-growing adventures/sage... after a while, I got a bit lazy with the Rogaine on my eyebrows routine (it DOES take a bit of concentration and focusing, not something a person with CFIDS/ME/fibro has in much abundance) so I ordered one of those eyelash enhancers. I can see that my brows are a little bit fuller (doesn't take much...I'll never be a "before and after" picture) but whether that's from Rogaine being applied to my head and that some is getting to the brow area because of the chemicals going around, who knows? Actually, that's a rather frightening thought, isn't it?
I have to admit that I have no idea as to why I chose the "Smartlash" eyelash enhancer over the others on the market. I do know it was from reading one of the beauty columns out there and somehow I felt I could give it a go with the brows. After seeing that I hadn't grown a third head, I've started using it for its intended purpose, on the eyelashes. I have noticed that the eyelashes, BTW, are a tiny bit thicker and darker, this despite the fact that I'm easing into the eyelash routine. There are indeed two reasons for the hesitation.
Somewhere, I'd read that one of the products could change blue or green eyes to brown - and permanently. Aside from the scary part of putting something so close to your eyes that can change your eye color, I've been hesitant because so much of my identity is tied up in the color of my eyes and I don't really want to mess things up. If I'm in a great mood or feeling good, my eyes are green, their default color. The better I feel and the better the mood, the greener the eyes. If I'm in a lousy mood or very ill, the color changes to blue. Back in the 80's, I bought green contact lenses, when they first came out in various colors, and my ever-observant hubby didn't realize I'd been wearing those suckers for at least a month. When I asked him how he could manage to miss this, he answered, most sincerely, "I just thought you were in a great mood this past month." I'd hate to mess up a system that my family banks on in order to judge how to treat me...gingerly or badly! (Just kidding about the badly...somewhat?)
Getting back to brows, I've also somehow fallen into the eyebrow "shadow" approach for the past two decades, thinking that the pencils were too harsh and fake - but let me add that I'm not the greatest artist in the world! Stila has a brow set that I think is rather nice. My only problem is that my skin tone changes day to day and my hair color changes every time I get it done (or as it grows out!) and I need a bigger selection of colors to choose from.Stila has two colors in each of her pots, one for the lighter side and one for for the darker side of the spectrum of your hair color. However, here too, my blending skills are just not good enough for my satisfaction.
Consequently, when Bobbi Brown came out with her chocolate palette of eyeshadows a few years ago (not brow shadows, but close enough for me!), I snapped that up quickly because of the various shades I could play with. I've got a few quads too, like Dior and Smashbox, which have brown shades included which I like to experiment with also.
Now Colorscience came out with the cutest, most convenient little brow kit I've ever come across, but the colors do NOT suit me and I'm embarrassed when I think that my second most frequently viewed post is a picture where I'd used the Colorscience. I can't tell you how often I've wanted to change that lousy picture and wonder if I was on crack the day I posted it - JUST JOKING about the "crack" bit!!! But I was fooling around with trying to learn how to take a picture of myself that day with my iPad, not keeping in mind that HOW I looked mattered too. At any rate, if I could repot this compact with tins of colors I like in the right size and shape to fit the "compact," I would. I love the very slim case (and I've had many over the years), with its brushes, one my favorite miniature slant brushes for brows. I just dislike the color immensely for my skin. But others may find it suits, especially if there are brow hairs to begin with and only "filling in" is required, not building brows with almost no hairs, that is, having to almost start from scratch. This kit is perfect to throw in your bag. And because I'm always losing the tiny slant brushes, I often carry the kit with me just for the brush alone. (I know this makes no sense to the "normal" person out there but to the CFIDS/ME/fibro's I think this is somehow understandable.)
Not too long ago, I saw that Mally had come out with a nice kit, made of fabric, that holds a compact of brown brow color and an ivory highlighter. It also holds a brush with two different brush heads on either end, and her black pencil eyeliner, which I love - it does not move after it's had a chance to set, though there is enough time to smudge it if you like before it dries completely. I also like the kit because it can't be lost easily (it's a shiny lime-ish green) and because I can throw in one or two other (small and thin) products. It's a bit too bulky though, so for something like flying, it most probably won't make it to my carry-on bag, though the jury's still out on that.
I think I still have one more post to do and we'll be finished with the "brow miniseries." I've found a couple of gems that I'll describe next time.
Until then, I hope you are doing as well as can be and are going to have a great weekend! Until next time, when, hopefully, I'll be back with great-looking brows!
