I feel pretty--NOT! THE COSMETICS THREAD

IO it's great to read you are liking your face more! you have a great face. also glad you liked the sheet mask! they seem to help even out skin tone which is apparently something i need now.

if i could get enough sleep so many things in my life would improve that my face would be pretty far down the list but definitely a factor

LL are you in NY?

asking because of the sheet mask hand off mentioned above.

nope
IO came to chicago over the summer (it was summer right? i can't even remember when it was)

we ate jibaritos!

oh damn, I was about to say we should go to koreatown in feb and stock up on different sheetmasks.

sounds like fun!! wish i could be there :) i bought some online that come in a pack of 10 and they have some sort of snail-bee secretion in them? idk. seems gross but i'll do whatever it takes to feel better these days.

i'd let snails crawl on my face spewing their snaily secretions if it made me feel better at this point

Heracles, will you be in NYC in February? I would go sheet mask shopping.

Ok, that is supposed to be Yerac, but I am keeping the autocorrect.

Thanks for the bday wishes! <3

I always forget about highlighter but damn it can really brighten things up (obv) even if you’re being subtle about it.

I also finally made it to sephora yesterday and bought my winter shade in Fenty foundation - yeah it took me until now haha i haven’t been wearing much makeup lately either! I also got the FAB bendy avocado concealer for my dry sensitive under eyes and it’s pretty nice! (Fenty concealer is alas too drying for me.)

xpost, yeah i will be there all of feb. Let's do it! maybe inorbit and virginia plain, others, will be around too. Although I am very scared about this cold weather i hear about.

I think I have your email, I will be in touch.

last night i had a gig, and that's pretty much the only time i wear blush (because ppl take pictures and i am vain), but I was in a hurry getting ready and used this reddish metallic kat von d eyeshadow as blush and it looked fierce and i was happy

There are trains, from DC, to NYC, just sayin

Also buses but fuck a bus.

reddish metallic kat von d eyeshadow
i have a kat von d eyeshadow in a similar color and i love it!
also it's not vain to want to look good in pictures -- they last forever! why not look yr best?

I barely wear makeup since leaving my job, I'm sort of at peace with it although I have this patch of melasma I like to cover up. I used to put it on every day but I don't have time now.

I think I'm gonna go try a lash tint and lift today. Hope I don't end up blind or looking like a Kardashian.

weird! my coworker said the exact same thing yesterday!! i was like you're gonna get a what? then i learned what a lash lift is. it's like a little perm for your eyelashes?

OK I will report more on this later but in summary: smelled like the 80s, realized what the fuck I am perming my EYELASHES, wtf this is so so dumb, results completely meh, never doing again.

for real I prefer how my lashes look after a hair dryer warmed eyelash curler plus mascara, which is how I have been doing it in under 30 seconds for approximately 30 years and not found it the least bit tedious, really.

basically giving myself a dope slap

ha I'm sure several years ago I posted itt that I wanted my eyelashes permed. They stick straight out and down so I can look dozy! not been brave enough to do it though. might take the plunge...

it was 9 years ago!

thought this might be the thread to ask about............ eyelash perming.
Sounds mental but my eyelashes are pretty long but dead straight, even drooping down at the outer corners which makes me look half asleep. I curl them with metal curlers that I heat up with a hairdryer for a few seconds but this doesn't last very long.

Anyone tried eyelash perming? If I could just get them to curl up 90 degrees I'd be happy!

― Not the real Village People, Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:07 AM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ppl worry about the weirdest things

― tuppence b. bag (roxymuzak), Friday, May 1, 2009 9:54 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i had no idea eyelash perming was a thing.

― horseshoe, Saturday, May 2, 2009 9:42 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I’ve seen at least one really successful lash lift and tint - I’m in a private women’s fb group that talks a lot about beauty and skincare, and the lash thing comes up a lot. If I could convince myself to spend the money I’d totally do it. It seems to just wake up the whole eye area, and while curling and mascara don’t take long tbh I just can’t ever bothered unless I’m “going out” (which is hardly ever).

I feel like my face looks washed out and tired without a few basic makeup things, and it sort of bugs me, that men aren’t perceived the same way.

In other news: I still haven’t even come close to figuring out how to conceal the darkness and bags under my eyes, no matter how many yt tutorials I watch. BUT I did figure out that dotting a little maybelline rewind concealer on my face and blending it out instead of foundation works really well for me.

I can definitely see situations where the lift and tint thing could be a boon--like if you had light-colored lashes that didn't take a decent-lasting curl with a regular lash curler+mascara. But for me, who already has black eyelashes that curl up find, totally not worth $130 (!!!!!) plus tip. Especially since it isn't supposed to last much longer than a month.

Anyhow, I guess I'm not sorry that I tried it and unequivocally rejected further investment.

This Lash Bar (actual name) also does extensions, of course, which are a whooooooole other thing and very very popular here with younger women.

quincie, if you get a whim to come to nyc in feb let me know. (i think you have other previous dc resident/friends there as well?)

I did the lash extension once. They were pretty funny in their obviousness but it was really nice that it kept me from rubbing my eyes for several weeks.

Let me know Feb dates and I will try to swing it! And yes, there are several DC-to-NYC transplants I know from back in the glory days of ilxdc (RIP).

I kind of feel like I have met you in person before briefly, maybe at a wedding. I could be wrong.

Quite possible. We’ll have to compare notes.

xps yeah, the huge price tag and having to maintain it every 4-6 weeks is just not worth it to me - the cost plus the time investment of going to the salon does not compute with just curling and mascara-ing instead.

ps i'm really envious of ilx ladies hanging out :( i'm v lacking in local female friends, and it's been so many years now that i've noticed lately how even more socially awkward i am than i used to be. i'm going back to nz in april so will see at least a couple of friends then, and my bff is coming in may but still. also having a bit of an internal struggle over two close friendships i've had since childhood that i maybe need to let go of now.

xxps $130!!??
it's about half that here iirc which is about the most I'd consider paying.

I have somehow made some new friends since moving house, which is nice and kind of surprising to me!!! the person I considered my best friend is either trying to cut me out really slowly or is becoming ridiculously flakey/forgetful/ sees me as far less of a priority.
she's barely even met my youngest kid which I find really sad particularly after the fuss she made of me when i had my first. for another thread, perhaps.

just1n3, i always get a surge of new female friends whenever I take a longish (spanning many weeks/months) type of class. If there is something you are interested in- swimming, sewing, language, cooking/pastry/bread, wine, glassblowing I can't recommend it enough. If you work full time you may dread having to go after work but there is camaraderie in all being tired after work together.

I can't get over the amount of makeup the women in the UK wear. Yes I'm making a generalization but overall it feels like a lot more than in US or at least Boston. I'm talking full on glam makeup with fake eyelashes during the middle of the day while just out shopping. It's kind of nuts. I'd also forgotten about the fake tan - there's an entire aisle of it in Boots.

And I say this as someone who loves makeup and wears at least mascara, concealer, blush, and lip tint every day. The stuff I'm talking about is next level.

^^^ There was a very noticeable difference in the amount of time women were spending in the bathroom doing their makeup in London as opposed to NY for the same firm. It was kind of funny.

fake tan? is that what it is? hahah some women on british tv have really odd skin tones, and now it makes sense!

Oh wow, there are a lot of articles about why the british are obsessed with tanning.

or rather "the tan."

yeah I noticed this last time i was home in Aus, tho perhaps not to the same extreme

but yeah, the whole mid-afternoon day drag + fake tan was kinda crazy to see in person

enbb do you mean teenagers/ young twenties or all ages? I think there's definitely an Instagram influence going on with the younguns. although I worked early shifts in a factory in the 90s with other teenagers and the girls were getting up at like 5am to put on a full face. So who knows.

at work though i always felt like I'm the one with loads of make up as so many other women seemed to be bare faced and beautiful.

scouse eyebrows are huge here, in both senses

Sarahell - that's what it is!

All ages but, yeah, I think the worst I've seen are teens/mid-20s. It think it's definitely a regional thing too maybe as I noticed it even more so in Birmingham. I was in Topshop this weekend and there were three girls there with a set of parents and they had the whole fake tan, full thick makeup with eyelashes, and hair extensions going on. I knew I was staring but I couldn't help it - they looked like they were ready for a night at the club not an afternoon shopping trip with the parents. I don't even know where to start with the eyebrows. I saw that in the US too but to a lesser extent. Some of the ones I've seen here look drawn on with marker!

(Kinder - this is an aside but do you watch First Dates? I'm obsessed with it and there's some amazing looks on there lol.)

i remember when i was in high school (early 90s) we all wore a lot heavier makeup than i wore once i got to college. part of the appeal of powder and matte lipstick in high school was the times (early 90s vs mid 90s) and part of it was a repulsion on my part at conforming to beauty standards of any kind (post high school i really dug into my androgynous phase so wearing makeup seemed embarrassing and silly.

there was one time in high school that my friend's dad told us we looked like streetwalkers and i just thought he was being stodgy. i guess he had a point, though he could have made it with a little more regard for his audience

back when i wore more makeup it felt like a protective layer because just walking around in my face made me feel vulnerable

That's interesting, LL and I think I know what you mean. I did the dark matte lips in HS too and it was very much a product of the time and also not wanting to be a girly girl. This makeup is different though in that it's very overtly sexy. They might definitely be using it as a mask of some kind but it's more in a traditional bombshell Kylie Jenner exaggerated everything sense.

I'm all for anyone doing whatever they want with makeup it's just something interesting that I've observed. Tbf these girls had actually done an amazing job for the kind of look they were going for it was just A LOT for a Saturday afternoon out with the fam.