Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Don't try this at home!

I am as far from being a makeup junkie as one could possibly be. I am all about slathering on moisturizer and eye lotion after my AM shower, running a comb through my damp hair and moving on to something I find much more interesting and am willing to spend hours on, if need be - that would be picking out my wardrobe, shoes and accessories for the day. Because really, if you have good skin and look decent overall without artificial help, then why bother with shadows, foundation, powder and all that jazz?

I'm sure you all can hear that I am not very self-critical... let's just leave it at that! However, as much as I prefer the au naturel look, I do have one guilty pleasure: eyelashes. The darker, the thicker and the longer, the better in my book. Hence, there should be no surprise that Twiggy (collage below), Jean Shrimpton (pictured above: for Bazaar in the 60s), Edie Sedgwick and their likes are my lash icons forever and ever... and that I consume mascara like a fat kid scarves down McDonald's.




















I have favorites for every price segment and know exactly what to pick up regardless of whether I'm shopping at Bloomingdale's, Sephora or Duane Reade - I usually reach for the FiberWig or DiorShow, but I have tried a good couple of budget options with decent results too. However, I don't care much for what seems to be everyone else's cheapo favorite: Maybelline Great Lash. I feel like most of it always ends up underneath my eyes before the day is even half-way over... not exactly the look I am going for. Eventually, though, a makeup artist delivered the painful explanation as to why this under-eye smudging kept happening: my lashes are too short and hence the mascara comes off gradually every time I blink. Really....? And I thought it was because Great Lash is a cheap-ass drug store mascara that should not be expected to last throughout the day without a sufficient amount of clean-ups and touch-ups? My bad!

Either way, short lashes are better than no lashes, right? Imagine the trauma I experienced back in October, when I was dumb and lazy enough to make an attempt at waxing my eyebrows at home (it was raining and I didn't want to walk half a block to the nearest spa!).... and some of the wax accidentally dripped down on guess what. Never mind that basically all of my left brow mistakenly came off (I used those idiotic strips that you put on top of the brow to get your desired shape, and the wax kept running down on the inside of the strip) - what really made me freak out was losing half a row of eyelashes! Can you spell p-a-n-i-c?

Needless to say, during the weeks that followed, I was hiding 24/7 behind my bangs and sunglasses, and did absolutely no other work than movie/TV background: no castings/auditions are required for those jobs, and very often you can get away with doing your own makeup. Also, I was obsessively applying one of those Latisse knock-offs that you can get online for cheap... and to my surprise, it turned out to be money and effort well spent. By Thanksgiving most of my lashes were back to an acceptable length, and way before Christmas, they had grown into a fringe that was putting Bambi as well as Mary Quant to shame. Now, about two months later, I can't even sit down in a makeup chair without having the artist compliment me on my long, dark lashes - kind of a big change from a couple of months ago, when they used to pull the falsies out of their kits first thing as they saw me walk in. Who would have thought?! Let alone this new, lashy look of mine is all contingent on my addiction to a scary growth serum, the ingredients of which will probably kill me or at least make me blind long before retirement. Oh well... until then, I will enjoy the benefits of achieving a perfectly doe-eyed Twiggy look using not much more than a couple of coats of Maybelline Great Lash - no more smudging, and no more pricey FiberWig!

To conclude, you would think all this suffering should have taught me the hard way that DIY beautification is not for amateurs like myself. Well, not at all - I just took a stab at dyeing my hair at home in the sink last weekend.... with disastrous results that required a professional color cleanse, a new single-process dye job and a set of highlights to somewhat recreate the color I had in the first place. No further comments! Also, by the way, I still keep that jar of microwaveable eyebrow wax in the bathroom cabinet. You never know....

Everyone, do tell me about your DIY hair/skin/eyebrow screw-ups.... I can't be the only one who's guilty of doing them once in a while, right?

Other pictures in this post: Anja Rubik for Vogue Paris 11/2009; Gina Brooke mink diamond-adorned falsies; Vogue Australia spread 10/2009.

63 comments:

  1. i dont think i venture enough to have many oops in the make up area. but i can never really apply eye shadow on correctly. most of the time i look like i have a black eye... so i just rather not try... hahahah

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  2. I love this post very much !!!
    so nice to make a post on it !

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  3. HILARIOUS post! Please leave your face (and hair) to the professionals...lol!

    www.bagpoor.com

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  4. I know just how you feel. About a year ago I went for a spray-tan and when I took off my eye make-up that night, my eyelashes started falling out in handfuls (at least it seemed that way). I was going away the next day and wanted to look particularly glamorous (hence the spray tan)...

    I saw a lady in LA with eyelashes like large hairy caterpillars, which must be due to the growth serum you mention. Sounds a little scary. My favourite is YSL's mascara.

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  5. for sure, leave it for a make-up artist!

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  6. I prefer the natural make up look as well! It just looks and feels so much better.
    Oh, I have a DIY hair screw up as well. I once attempted to dye my own hair blonde, when I was 13. (I'm South Asian and blonde hair DOES NOT look good on my skin tone). Anyway, I ended up with blonde blotches all over my hair! Not a nice look.

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  7. oh wow, those lashes are hot. but yes- only with a make up artist

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  8. I cannot trust myself when it comes to DIY, so I leave it to the pros.
    I would love to go au natural but every time I look at myself without my usual winged eyeliner I think I look ill.
    Regarding cheapo mascara, I really like the Great Lash. Maybelline's pulse perfection is an ok alternative to the vibrating Lancôme one (but there's nothing like the real deal!)
    x

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  9. I seriously think I've overplucked my brows one too many times. They're effing patchy and I'm freaking...ahhhhh. AND I'm a professional. It's funny what I do to myself I would NEVER do to a client.

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  10. Ouch, this sounds painful, but the results seem to have been worth it. I'm ashamed to say that I'm a total diy person when it comes to beauty - sporadic henna for the hair and never had a manicure. Regular waxing is a must though which I would not brave myself (haven't moved on to the lasering yet).

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  11. I'm with you when it comes to natural makeup, but lashes are my weakness. I LOVE mascara... won't leave home without it. I once modeled for a friend who was in photography school, and she had me wear fake lashes. In the middle of the shoot, she decided they were too long and cut them... except she also cut some of my natural lashes. I was devastated! They were uneven and short. Since then, I have left waxing to the professionals. I do dye my own hair sometimes though.

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  12. First, I hate Great Lash, I'm allergic to it. Ok so I have dark hair, and wanted to have light brown to almost blond hair when I was in high school. My sister is a beautician and she refused to keep bleaching my hair, so I went to the local sallys type store, bought a huge tub of bleach and straight dumped it on my head. My hair had the worst green tint to it. It was awful. Thankfully, I'm back to my natural black hair now and will never go back!

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  13. I'm the same way you are about Lashes, so I literally gasped out loud when I got to the point where you said you dropped wax on your eye lashes!

    My biggest goof-up would have to be when I was 16 and used WAY too much Sun-In...my hair was orange. And it broke off in chunks. Lovely.

    BTW, so you'd recommend Dior Show? I just got Bad Gal at Sephora and think it's, eh, okay. Not bad, but not even as good as L'Oreal Voluminous, and it's twice the price.

    Don't even get me started on Great Lash. I always wonder how much Maybelline pays beauty editors to say it's their favorite product, b/c I think it pretty much blows.

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  14. The biggest unfairness in my life is that my husband has the longest, darkest, thickest eyelashes. I apply a serum, three coats of mascara, eyeliner, and his are still better. Darn!!

    P.S. I did put a photo up of me at my sister's wedding.
    www.angiemuresan.com

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  15. Wow, the lashes in that first photo...

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  16. I love lashes too! Fabulous photos, darling!

    xoxox,
    CC

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  17. It s better to use professionals:)I got last summer infection to my eyes and i did use sunglasses also in the nights;)It was also painful and i hided at home,just feeling myself miserable.Great post,thanks for sharing with us.


    Nuheila

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  18. I love makeup, I wish I had the skin to wear nothing tough! I have such dark circles that I look horrifying without my concealer...
    have a sweet day, xoxo

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  19. This post made me laugh, although I can't really relate - my makeup routine is so standard and I basically don't deviate from it! Thanks for your input into my post, by the way, it's generated quite a lot of discussion (the post, I mean). I don't know what you mean about a captcha code though... I don't use one... :S

    http://dreamingspiresandoldcartyres.blogspot.com

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  20. not DIY but i had my eyebrows waxed at ulta once to horrible results. i cried and penciled in my eyebrows till they grew back. they were way too thin and mean looking, im more of a natural girl. i go for threading now, its def so much more awesome!

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  21. I had mismatched eyebrows for about 6 months.. I'll never wax my eyebrows myself again!

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  22. Oh, we are so two peas in a pod my love! Most of the time I could care less about makeup; yet I'm all about the eyes. There's something about long spider lashes that I simply cannot resist! This story though horrified me! I refuse to use wax on my eyebrows - too close to the eyes! Despite the fact that I nearly pass out when plucking my eyebrows, it seems much safer! :)

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  23. I love this post!!! I think its really good you don't wear much makeup!!
    olivias-pizzazz.blogspot.com
    xx

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  24. Lovely pictures but I think these styles are best left to editorials rather than real life!

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  25. Girl, when I was a poor starving artist attending Parson's I did my own eyebrows...BIG mistake. I basically had to stencil them on with a mix of brow pencil and expresso eyeliner for an entire year. I feel your pain. xo Mish

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  26. My brow's are my 'babies'..no one is allowed to touch them (anymore)! About 10 yrs ago I had them waxed (as I had many times before) and a seriously amateur-hour nightmare ensued! The 'technician' ripped off half my eye brow and it was BLEEDING!
    "oops!" she says... NEVER again.

    P.S. (am so wanting the Latisse lash-grow-stuff...if it's good enough for Brooke Sheilds, right?...maybe a good knock off from the internet would work too...)

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  27. Great post but that sounds a little bit painful..
    x

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  28. haha i just stopped using mascara, fake lashes, etc. all together. my lashes are straight & i don't have the time to curl them every morning. so i just learned to accept them haha.

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  29. I used to overplucked my eyebrows because I can't seem to make them balance. I have a very poor eyesight. Hahaha! Now, I leave the eyebrow job to the pros.

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  30. What's your favorite budget mascara? I'm always looking for something that'll do the trick, as they say. :-)

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  31. As a makeup artist, I keep searching for the best mascara! I really love Lash Blast Covergirl aqt the moment, not bad for a cheaper mascara!

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  32. I've never attempt any risky DIYs on my face... I don't think I could live with the consequences. I used to experiment a lot with make-up and used that more as a form of self-expression than clothes. Now it's the other way round, especially as I've found the few products I stick to and apply make-up a bit more conservatively. I accent the eyes more than the lips though (I think I must have had over 50 lipsticks at one point). I think even if you don't have long lashes, waterproof mascara and an eyelash curler can probably go a long way. Glad you got some lucsious lashes back though... that wax removal would have traumatized me!

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  33. Oh you poor thing. I am WAY too clumsy to attempt anything like that on my own. It would be way disastrous!

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  34. I guess I was blessed with long lashes and yet I feel that I lack perfect skin! haha, I guess everything is a work in progress. I so agree with you though....lashes are so fun to play up and add so much even without a lot of other makeup.

    Great post....hope you had a great weekend! :)
    xoxo
    Rachel

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  35. Oh geeze, I'm cringing at the vision of the goo dripping on your eye/eyelashes!

    On this end we have far too many beauty tragedies to share, we'll just mention the one where the stylist cut off *way too much* hair and because of my build at the time I was thought to be a guy on more than one occasion.

    Sending you a smile for the week ahead,
    tp

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  36. Omg that waxing story sounds horrific.

    I am really paranoid about things like that so I rarely wax. Lol.

    I have an opposite problem to you. My eyelashes are too long, so when I apply mascara they really stick out. I want them more full though, not longer. Do you know what kind of mascara I would use for that?

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  37. i love the post you titled "Vanity inches?"

    you have such a great and strong opinion, i truly loved reading it. my blog parter, genny, just wrote a post that reminded me of yours. here's the link if you're interested. i hope you read it, i think you'd really like it: Everything that is Wrong About US

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  38. Oh no, you are not the only one, I have dyed my hair red and it turned out violet, how's that for a laugh?
    XOXOX
    Libby
    http://fashionconfectionairy.weebly.com

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  39. you have no idea how many times i've destroyed my eyebrows. beauty DIYs... oh man I understand your panic.

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  40. Hmmm . . . I think I disagree with your makeup artist. My eyelashes are quite long (in fact they've ruined the lenses of my copyediting glasses) and they smudge. More on resolving that here: http://misscavendish.blogspot.com/2010/01/tale-of-two-mascari.html

    This isn't *exactly* diy, but when I was working in Montreal as a model, a long time ago, my hair was moussed fire-hydrant red for a shoot. I walked home that day and remember well the disapproving looks people shot me (much time was spent in the shower removing the persistent mousse).

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  41. I think I am not pretty enough yet to go with out make up. ;) I agree that eyelashes is an obsession. I always want to make them bigger. I wish I have them bigger naturally.
    xoxo
    B* a la Moda

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  42. Fab! I'm all about the lashes, if my mascara is not well done my whole make-up is ruined.. At make-up school we used to play with Shu Uemura fake lashes, fun and interesting

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  43. Haha.... I am totally laughing with you. I tried to highlight my hair, cut my own bang, wax.... I know learn these should be left to the professionals. : )

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  44. I'm hopeless with makeup, but lucky with lashes - people ask me what brand of mascara I wear when I'm not wearing any (but I don't look anything like those very dramatic photos, obviously!)

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  45. haha, what a great story! im not really into makeup, i mean i enjoy putting on radical eye colour now and then, but its not my thing. my sister on the other hand, is OBSSESSED with her eyelashes, same as you, is it?
    and about that DIY hair dye incident, to think youve learned, tsk tsk
    haha

    http://blair-waldork.blogspot.com

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  46. i ALWAYS wear mascara, so i understand. but i probably like my eyeliner more! gotta love being a girl!
    xoxo alison

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  47. Even Latisse looks scary to me...but who knows, I may cave one day.
    Meanwhile I will stick to my liquid eyeliner and mascara with a little pink blush on the apples of my cheeks. That's worked for me for the last 20 years!

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  48. So what was the name of the latisse knockoff that you bought?

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  49. I love long lashes too except I have the non-existent Asian lash syndrome so I resort to falsies.

    And sometimes I wish I can shave all my hair and eyelashes off because when they grow back, they're suppose to look better than ever.

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  50. Long lashes are the business but overall I prefer a natural look

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  51. Happy Sunday!
    Nominating you for best Blog award.
    Pass it on to 15 of your faves!

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  52. Oh no I would have been traumatised!! I have to agree Dior Show is the ultimate, I will never use any other after finding this, I would rather starve that buy cheap mascara! I didnt rate Great Lash either. And yep I've had so many hair dye disasters in the past, it went pink at one point x

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  53. ROFL ROFL ROFL!!! So much comedy!!! LOLOL...glad your lashes have grown in happy and healthy. Alls well that ends well, right?

    I have so many horrible DIY stories, but my worst had to be my horrible "timmy" (ugly bowl cut with minimal blending) that I gave myself back in 7th grade. I had to go bald for a good 2-3 weeks before it was an acceptable length to fade again. But because of bad experiences like that, I'm now a pro at cutting my own hair and rarely ever go to the barber (but that's partly because I'm cheap ;-).

    +8!3

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  54. What is lash serum and where can I get it from!! xx

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  55. Whoaaa! Interesting read. I like it when bloggers also write up quite a bit alongside pictures. Hope your lashes are in a splurge now! :)xoxo

    --Tamanna

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  56. Great eyelash posting!! Very inspirational, ahh ms twiggy!!

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  57. We miss you! Can't wait 'till you post again. :-)

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  58. Love lashes too! Really, that's all you need to perk you up.
    xo

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  59. I've never had any crazy incidence luckily, but i guess that's cause i've never tried anything.

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  60. I love Twiggy! And I always wear mascara when I have to go outside.
    xoxo

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  61. Where are ya girl? I miss your posts. xo Mish

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