Lashing Out

I know plenty of girls who have insane beauty regiments that I would never have guessed. Whether it's perfect hair, skin, nails, or anything else, I always assume whatever they have is effortless. I also can never spot women with plastic surgery! I was the idiot who always thought Dolly Parton was a natural coke bottle. Ladies, I am your best friend, I will never second guess your appearance, and will probably envy it. Which brings me to how paramount effortless beauty is to the masses, I don't think it is so much that women expect other women to be naturally perfect at all times, but instead it's the clueless men we encounter (sorry guys) that expect women to remain almost statuesque requiring minimal makeup and no maintenance, and because of this we are especially conscious to try and pretend as though what we do takes little to no effort. Recently a friend of mine told me and another one of my girlfriends that he didn't like when girls wear makeup and that he prefers natural beauties like Aishwariya Rai (my response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K288mKSp5Qo) WTF dude?!?! Aishwariya Rai doesn't wear makeup!?!?! She is ALWAYS wearing makeup! Even if it seems impossible (like in the below picture), yep! Girlfriend is rocking out that waterproof cinema makeup.

So, with that disclaimer being said, I can continue on being 100% transparent about my makeup regiment, and all the cool things I have encountered along the way! This June my best friend Wafaa is getting married and we wanted to try the Lash Extension craze to see if we should do it before her wedding, but unfortunately at $250 a pop (thats $500 in total kids) on Newbury, I was on the hunt for a cheaper option. More recently I found a salon in Roslindale (Pearl Nail Salon) that only charges thirty bucks! My girl Yen applies individual lashes and gives you the option of short, medium or long (she recommended medium for me and Waf). This lasts about 2-3 weeks, and yesterday, at 2.5 weeks I went for a touch up and knew I had to share this discovery with all my friends. What I love most about these lashes is during the day time all I need to do after washing my face is a little moisturizer and chapstick and I'm good to go for the day, I already look done up! The only downside is you do have to be very careful, Yen said not to get them wet and to not pull on them. I found letting them get wet actually made them more comfortable for me (who knows, maybe if I was more careful they would have lasted longer, but I don't mind). Also, they can get itchy once in a while after sleeping, but I think the tradeoff is worth it. See below for the final product (taken when I first got them done!)

So since I have started getting them done, girls have commented on my lashes, asking if they are faux, which I don't mind at all, I actually love getting the chance to talk about my new find with ladies! my only issue is when the cashier at the cafe in my office exclaims that she loves my "glamour lashes" with a line of five gentleman behind me. Or when a homeless woman on the silver line announces to a bus full of people that I have the longest lashes. Also, I can tell that some guys are thinking there is something different with my face, they just can't place what it is, but maybe I'm just being self conscious.

Lastly, while waiting to get my lashes touched up yesterday I got a mani/pedi at Pearl Nail Salon. I had been waiting to do a navy blue all winter and never got around to it, so I jumped on my last chance yesterday since Boston has not quite warmed up yet. The color I got was "Deep Sea Blue" (unfortunately cannot remember the brand, I had never seen it before, but it starts with a "D"). I also wanted to try the ombre effect on my nails, and it was cool, because I was able to learn how they did it! They used a sponge eye shadow applicator to place larger sparkles at the tip (concentrated, they used an OPI sparkle top coat) and then they used remaining small sparkles and lightly skimmed the middle of the nail to create the effect. Totally worth the two extra dollars for that tutorial! The picture is a little blurry, can't seem to find the right camera setting for my nails on my trusty blackberry bold 9930 (I should write a blogpost about how I need an iPhone, I love you Instagram!).

Anyway, I would love to hear what you all think about lash extensions, so make sure to let me know!!

till then a jupp from me to you :-*