mascara

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer

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in Makeup

So where were we?  Oh, yes, talking about Foundation.  Let’s start by getting our terms down:  foundation? makeup foundation? base? makeup base? Do we really care?  How about foundation base.  Now that that is settled, let’s move on….

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer:  This has been my everyday go-to foundation base for several years.  I first got it at Sephora as a special offer set. I like buying the sets that are regularly offered by cosmetic companies because it’s a chance to try a number of products at much less than buying them individually would be.  In this case, I got the four steps of Laura Mercier’s Flawless Face with the appropriate applicators and a cute little travel bag.

The total package was a tube of the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, a tube of her Primer and a sponge for applying both. It also came with the cunning Undercover Pot which contains the much-touted Laura Mercier Secret Concealer, Secret Camouflage, Setting Powder. and the appropriate brushes.

Let’s talk  about appropriate brushes. You know how all those Expert Articles on the Best Application of Makeup tout brushes. They’re right. It may seem like you can do an equally good job with your hands, but really, you can’t. I know. I’ve tried it. I’ve also tried getting away with using cheap brushes, the kind you buy at the drug store, the kind that are manufactured of yak hair and  cheap plastic in some mega-factory in China. They don’t do the job, because to do a job well (as your dad or Mr. Shirk, the Shop teacher told you), you need the proper tools.

Tools, schmools! you may say.  And I say, have a look at this, the first page of a freshman comp essay.

My freshman comp essay, for which I received an A. In 1962.  Proof positive that

  • even then I was obsessed with makeup, and
  • the roots of my expertise are long and deep
But back to my disquisition on makeup brushes.  Good makeup brushes enable very subtle handling of makeup, and subtle is the keyword in all makeup application.  The Laura Mercier Concealer brush (the one with the pointed end) allows me to put the Secret Concealer exactly where I want it, as opposed to a hit and miss job with my fingers.  Yes, it takes more time, but what is time to those who are seeking to match their outer to their inner beauty?
      The other brush, the one with the flat edge, is for applying the softest dusting of the Setting Powder to, yes, to set the Secret Concealer so that it doesn’t melt and take with it my mascara.
      Application of the actual Tinted Moisturizer is done not with a brush, but with a sponge. We have already established that I like  sponges for applying makeup.  In this case, I squirt some of the Tinted Moisturizer into my palm (about the size of a quarter) and use the sponge to spread it evenly all over my face. Voila! C’est bien! Bellisimo!
       Of course, if I’m in a hurry–and I’m telling you this just because we’re friends–I can just squirt some into my palm and do the old rub and smoosh technique with my fingers.
     What I like about the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer is that it’s lightweight.  In the summer, I don’t feel gooped up, and it doesn’t settle in the cracks and crevises of my midlife face.  This is, of course, the scourge of the foundation base situation for those of us whose faces are no longer smooth and even palettes.  The stuff tends to migrate to our wrinkles and such, pooling there and creating, for all intents and purpose, an easy-to read diagram of all the flaws of our fallen faces.

What is your go-to Foundation Base?  And–tell the truth–how do you apply it?

 

 

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Growing Eyelashes

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in Makeup

Eyelashes are in.  You knew that didn’t you?  You could tell because there isn’t a female appearing on TV that isn’t sporting mega-eyelashes.  I liked the look, maybe because it took me back to the days when slapping on a pair of false eyelashes was as natural as putting on mascara.  That was back in the ’70s, when I also drew in Twiggies with eyeliner beneath my bottom lashes and wore my skirts hemmed way up to here.

I used to be a dab hand at applying false eyelashes and I figured it was like riding a bicycle; I’d do it from muscle memory.  So I bought myself a new set of  at the drug store that came with their own little tube of glue and set about applying them.  Muscle memory indeed!  The trick to successfully applying false eyelashes is that you’ve got to get them as close to your natural lashes as possible.  To put it bluntly, I couldn’t.  Maybe it was me or maybe it was the lashes or maybe it was the glue, but I never managed to get them closer than a quarter inch away.  Not good, I tell you.  Not even passable.

Did this mean I had to give up the idea of lush eyelashes?  No, it does not.  I merely grew my own.  Not via Latisse, which goes for upwards of $100 a pop, not to mention the doctor’s fee when you get the prescription.    I bought a tube of RapidLash, and every night after I wash my face and apply my going-to-bed facial products, I apply this as well.  It goes on like a clear eyeliner, just on the top lid along the lash line.

Yeah, I didn’t expect it to work either.  Every day I’d peer at my eyelashes to see if new ones had sprouted.  Nope.  But then one day as I was getting ready to go out, I thought I noticed something different when I applied mascara.  My lashes were, well, longer.  A couple of weeks later, the result was undeniable: I now had long eyelashes.  Really long eyelashes.  Batt-ably long eyelashes.  It was kind of creepy, in a way, how they just grew, like they were unspooling from inside my eyelid., and I wondered where or when they might end up.

However, I also saw why some women become addicted to the application of mascara: it’s fun when your eyelashes are really really long.  And I flashed my lashes in the face of all my friends, just to show off, to share the news.  Which is, actually, how this site got started.

Before: My naked eyelashes after RapidLash

After: an application of plain old Maybelline mascara.

I bought my Rapidlash at Ulta, the beauty superstore, for about $45.00.  My friend, Jan, who is the leading member of our Advisory Board, got hers online.

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