babyassface

Eyelash tinting- will it give you amazing lashes?

I used to get my eyelashes tinted- the process of dyeing the eyelashes with a vegetable dye, to make them look darker (and, I believe, longer and thicker).

I loved the way it accentuated my eyes and that I didn't need to wear mascara. That’s the upside.

Now for the downside. Grab your parachute.

It’s not cheap.  I paid $28. 

It’s supposed to last 4-6 weeks.  I found it lasted more like 2-3 weeks.

The tinting process is torturous.   

It goes something like this: They apply the dye and say don’t open your eyes or the dye will get in. They then set an egg timer, walk away and the torture begins. 

As you sit there, with your eyes clamped shut, your first thought is, “What if she forgot to set the timer?”

Next, you think, my purse is on the floor, people could be rummaging through it right now, stealing my credit cards, driver’s license, identity.  Then you talk yourself down off that ledge.

 

I know exactly what she’s thinking.  Please God, tell me they're not stealing my postage stamps.  I hate buying new stamps.

Next, a little bit of the dye starts seeping into your eyes. It feels like someone is dousing them with bleach.

Your first urge is to throw your eyes open and run screaming from the room. Then you realize, if you do, you’ll only get more dye in your eyes and probably go blind.  So you sit there trying to remember loved ones faces, just in case you never see them again.

Your eyes start watering. You’re not sure if you’re crying over your lost vision, or if they’re just tearing from the irritation. Whichever, the watering helps flush out the dye and the pain subsides.

Fifteen minutes later they rinse the dye off. You look in the mirror and think, "Damn, my eyes look good."

I had my lashes tinted 5 times. Apparently, I would do anything (5 times) for thicker, darker lashes. 

Thankfully, I’ve since found FiberWig mascara, which I can wear on my lower lashes, without it running, so I no longer feel the urge to resort to tinting. 

Would I recommend it?  If you have pale lashes, are rich, have a high treshold for pain and are so psychologically stable that you wouldn’t snap, even if were being tortured, then go for it.

Otherwise, I say check out FiberWig mascara.

Anyone else out there ever try eyelash tinting?  Was your experience any less “Abu Ghraib”?

random tip: how to maximize your eyelash curl

With the new, FDA-approved, eyelash-thickening drug, Latisse, hitting the market this year and mascaras that twirl, spin and vibrate, it appears that eyelashes are this year’s lips. (Last year’s lips, in my opinion, were eyebrows.)  

To me, this vibrating mascara just looks like a whole lot of opportunities to poke myself in the eye.

Being kind of broke, I thought about trying to create my own oscillating mascara applicator by taping my mascara to my Sonicare toothbrush,  but I didn’t think it was worth risking losing an eye over.

So I decided to do some research online, for tips on how to get the biggest, longest-looking lashes, without a prescription or a visit to the emergency room.

The first tip I found was to warm your eyelash curler with your hairdryer.  Thus turning your eyelash curler into a tiny curling iron for your lashes. 

Sounded great in theory, but it was hard to get the curler to the right temperature.  It was was either not warm enough to do anything, or so warm that I felt like my eyelids were cattle, about to be branded. 

When I finally got the curler to the right temperature, it didn't add that much curl.  Plus, I think it would make my lashes dry and brittle, causing them to fall out, thus defeating the purpose.  

But another tip I read, while so simple, made a huge difference in my lashes.

The tip: curl your lashes 3 times: once closest to the eyelid, once midway up the length of the lash and a third time towards the tip of the eyelash.

I have thin, extremely short lashes, so I could hardly get 3 curls in, but I have to say, it made the curl big and full (relatively speaking) and my lashes looked longer and much more prominent. 

If you try it out, let me know what you think. 
Anyone try any of the vibrating mascaras?  Any of them good?

random tip: thicker eyelashes?

So I was reading about how applying castor oil or Vaseline to eyelashes right before bedtime can help make them thicker.  

So I tried coating my tiny, thin, light lashes with castor oil 3 days a week, for 2 weeks. 

It was really hard to coat the individual lashes with a Q-tip, so I took one of those disposable mascara wands they have at the make-up stations at Sephora.

First, taking paper toilet seat covers from public bathrooms. Now this. Hopefully, I'm not turning into another Winona Ryder.

Here she is at her trial. I bet she tried that headband on at the store and "accidentally" walked out with it on.

I applied the castor oil to my right lashes only, to see if I noticed a difference between the two sides. 

I sure did.  The Castor oil eyelashes felt so much softer and healthier.  The other side felt like something Stuart Little would use to make a broom out of.

I also noticed a big difference when curling my eyelashes.  The castor oil side took the curl and held it much better.  So when I applied my mascara to the curled lashes, they did appear slightly more voluminous. 

This experiment didn’t last very long.  I found the castor oil seeping into my eyes overnight.  For fear of losing my sight, in order to have longer lashes, which I wouldn’t be able to see anyway, I decided to ixnay the castor oil.  Maybe I’ll try switching to Vaseline since it’s thicker, and maybe won’t seep in as much.

You know you've over done it with the lashes, when you start looking like Andy Rooney.

Has anyone else ever tried putting castor oil or Vaseline on their eyelashes to thicken them?  If so did it work?  A lot of people online seem to swear by it. 

a truly smudge-free mascara. really

OK, I know mascara isn’t traditionally considered a skin care product but according to kidshealth.org (back off, I like how simply they explain stuff) hair is actually a modified type of skin.

That said… Imju FiberWig mascara is amazing. (Not surprisingly, it’s the top selling mascara in Japan.)

I have very thin, dwarf-like, toe-head eyelashes. Any mascara can make my upper lashes look thicker, longer, darker. That’s not my problem.

My problem is my lower lashes. Whenever I apply mascara to them it smears down my face and I end up looking like a mascara-wearing raccoon, who’s just been shooting heroine while watching Terms of Endearment.

Fiberwig claims to be the mascara equivalent of false eyelashes. I think it’s more like the equivalent of eyelash plugs. Because this stuff just won’t come off. Not for cleansers, make-up removers, sweat or tears. The only thing that does remove it is warm water. (I think they deserve a Noble Prize for inventing such a confusing scientific anomaly.)

Just how stay-put is this stuff? I torture-tested it on a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. 90 degrees. Jungle humidity. Super-sweaty yoga. Any other mascara would have been down around my ankles by the end of class. This stuff didn’t budge or smudge in the slightest.

I no longer hate people with naturally long,thick lashes. As much as I used to.

I've gotten some emails asking where people can find the products I talk about in my posts. Feel free to use Google “search the web” box, to the right, to find out where you can find it (and for how much).