Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Excited about simple things


I don't wear much make-up. I think it comes from being raised in Colorado in the mid-70s. With my long straight hair, Cher and Emmylou Harris were my style icons; a girl could pretty much get away with a little shadow and mascara, and be done with it. When I was in the military, the older I got, the less spackle I messed with. After I got out, well, that's when my carefree makeup approach came to a screeching halt.

Somewhere in the past 20 years, I lost the ability to wear eyeshadow. Gasp!

I have greasy eyelids. Say that at any beauty counter, and the sales girl (yeah, I said it) will remark that your eyelids have no oil glands (and therefore you must be nuckin' futz, lady). That does not impede my ability to crease both expensive and cheap eyeshadows in less than half an hour. Even the waterproof stuff. I've never been able to wear the world's most popular mascara (Maybelline Great Lash) because it migrates and then I look like a tired, rabid raccoon.

I had to work for a PRK study to figure it out. One of the opthamologists mentioned that there are two kinds of tears-oily and regular. Some people have oily ones, some are normal.

Oh.

Which explains why I don't have pronounced crow's feet, despite smoking for years, but my (non-smoking) little brother does. My eyes are like my mom's, and his are more like dad's.

Well, that knowledge was useful, but not necessarily power. Now I learned to look at labels-most eyeshadow primers have beeswax or mineral oil in them. This weekend, I got a sample of Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion. My eyeshadow is uncreased!

I feel like a teenager that just GOT permission to wear make-up!

3 comments:

Michelle said...

Thank you!!!! If I hear one more counter jockey tell me that my eyelids aren't oily, I just might get violent. I'm going to have to try the Urban Decay primer, for the Too Faced one doesn't help at all. Bummer.

My mom bought me a mascara called Rilastil and that is the only non-waterproof stuff that doesn't give me raccoon eyes.

smariek said...

I've never heard of eyeshadow primer before. Interesting. I never really got into makeup, the most I ever do these days is lipstick. And the most I ever did in the past was eyeliner & lipstick. Now I'm starting to consider taking baby steps into the makeup world, starting with an under eye concealer!!! Then maybe move on to foundation.

junior_goddess said...

Primer's only for people who are super hard core makeup fans, or people who can't wear it like normal people, Marie. If I could wear it normally, I wouldn't need a primer.