False Lashes Over 40: Unnecessary Bells & Whistles?

You won't be able to tell from the photo, but this thrifted "Vegas" shirt has rhinestones around he sunglasses, which naturally are situated right on top of the "boobal region" of my upper torso. That's the official medical term by the way - the "boobal region" - in case you were wondering.  But yeah, this shirt. It's completely tacky, and I love it. I found it in a Seattle area Goodwill when I was out for my best friend's memorial service. She and I used to go to Vegas together, and you will not be able to convince me that me finding this shirt when I did wasn't her way of reaching out and saying hey.

But I digress. This post isn't about the shirt. I've been prevented from shooting anything outdoors for nearly a week - it's been raining and blowing so hard here in the west of Scotland I can't even hear the TV what for the pounding of the rain on the roof of our sun room.  So today I got sick of waiting for the skies to clear and decided to take the show inside and talk about something a bit different. And no, it has nothing to do with the boobal region. A bit higher-up.

Look at my eyelashes.

THEY'RE FAKE. Yes, I'm wearing fake eyelashes you guys! This is something that is completely out of my wheelhouse. I love a bit of bling (as you well know), but equally I'm not really someone who is going to do a lot of little fussy stuff with a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles in her day to day routine. Hell, I don't even style my hair most days (obviously...but it rains a lot here),  but today I was in Superdrug getting a few odds and ends and I decided to give these a try.

The backstory is that I recently had lash extensions done for the first time in my adult life. I have a lovely friend and massage client who bought me a set as a gift because I was always complementing her on hers, which she gets done on the regular. So she bought me a set, and I went and had them done. I have to say, I found the application process pretty uncomfortable (it took two hours), and trust me when I say I am no softie when it comes to things like this. I did end up loving the way the extensions looked. I didn't even need to wear eye makeup for the three weeks (nearly four) that they lasted. However, as much as I loved the way they looked, I have to say they drove me up the freaking wall.  The rather crispy texture, along with the fact that you have to brush them with a wee dry mascara brush constantly or they start to get all clumpy and "spidery", and they catch on the towel when you're just out of the shower and it feels like you're gonna rip your lashes out (both the real and fake ones)... for all these reasons I was constantly touching them and playing with them, whether I was putting oil on them (this was fine with the type I had) to soften them or trying to manually separate them or pick towel or cotton pad fluff out of them. They are supposed to last until they naturally fall out when your natural lashes would normally fall out, but by the end I was ...ahem...helping them along a bit because I was so ready to be done with them. I missed the way my face looked once the last one fell out (okay, was pushed), but I was no less relieved to have them off.

So today when faced with a huge display wall of fake eyelashes at the Superdrug, I thought, "why not?" Perhaps this would be my chance to reclaim the face I had when I was wearing those extensions - without all the annoyance. These lashes that I chose are in a strip, not the little single bunches of ones you sometimes see. At some point I'll probably try those too. I went for two pairs, this being the more dramatic of the two. Both pairs I bought are the 3/4 length, which I prefer because they follow a contour that more mimics nature. These were really easy to apply, and I actually find them tons more comfortable than the extensions I had. I think it's a combination of the fact that they're not glued to my individual eyelash hairs, and that I know that I can get them off with just a whisk across my face with my oil cleanser. I would probably really only normally wear these for more dressed-up days than today's cowboy boots and boobal-region Vegas tee but hey, this is for science you guys, and science certainly is having a hard time of late, so I like to do my part.