For Women: Makeup and Fur-Ripping

I'm pretty much a l'oreal girl.

Foundation, loose powder, loose powder blush, eyebrow pencil, liquid eye liner, mascara, hair color (Feria)

I didn't do that on purpose, after a while I realized I gravitated toward that brand.

Although....there's this Rimmel mascara, in a red tube that really makes your lashes full and long.

wow....that sounds like I do a lot, but really, the entire makeup thing takes me about 5 or 6 minutes.

Color my hair every 2 or 3 weeks.

I use 3 minute nair on my forearms, and shave my legs. I use hair conditioner instead of shaving cream, and put baby oil on them afterwards.

I'm pretty low maintainance.

On your forearms? Why - are forearms supposed to be totally hairless or something? I just looked at mine - mine have little fine blond hairs on them- you actually can't even see them because of my freckles.

But when I was about ten, I remember I came down into the kitchen and my mother smelled nair and she said, 'Did you use that on your legs? You don't even have hair on your legs yet' and I said, 'No, I used it on my arms- Robin R. said you're supposed to shave your arms, but I was afraid to use a razor, I didn't want to cut myself...' and my mom said, 'You shave your UNDERarms Rebecca,' and I said 'But there's no hair UNDER my arms...I thought she meant my whole arm...' My mother just laughed and laughed....

I shave my arms and legs (using soap) and then moisturize with Dove bodysilk - they don't sell it in the US and it smells SO GOOD - if I ever leave England I'm gonna stock up - (fill a whole suitcase with it to take back). It's the perfect texture for anywhere on your body, and as I said, smells really nice.
I also use mascara, and maybe lip gloss. That's it.

I'm very low maintenance, having started out quite high, re things like eyeliner, rollers (I even remember curlers, yech), although in my view, we california girls never went as whole hog into makeup as women from the eastern US.

On a good day, I use some eyebrow pencil, as my eyebrows have gotten sparse at the outside ends. Never use mascara, have enough aggravation to my eyes with their various drops and the drying thereof - the hell with it. Liner, I think, are you kidding? I use a dab of liquid make up for eye circles, oh, once a month.

I cut my own hair, grow it long enough so I can reach the back, cut it moderately short, and wait for it to grow again. It's naturally wavy. I do as good a job as most stylists I've ever been to. I've always liked its color well enough and still do. Do wear lipstick some of the time. Haven't worn nail polish much at all since I started gardening in the seventies, and never now, though I still have some nail polish bottles aging into antiques. I even had an earlier antipathy to women who were all about hair and nails. (over that, mostly.)
Arm pit hair and leg hair haven't grown for years, pretty much stopped after menopause. Luckily the hair on my head is still fairly thick.

I counter this lazy bones shine it on behavior with jewelry - I still like earrings a lot, and some bracelets, a couple of my watches (a thrift store Guess watch with pearlescent watch face and good lines, and a heavy goldlike Fossil watch, probably the man's version of that particular design, and some cool silversmith pins. Crazy about rings. Like scarves and hats though I don't wear them much.

On the other hand, my life isn't all showing up at work in a med center or singing on stage - much lower key.

I have a lot of hair on my arms, very embarrassing.

I don't like Dove products. Just doesn't work well with me.

Oh! and I think it was Endymon who brought up Pears Soup on another thread. That stuff is GREAT!! I was in a dollar store, and bought about a dozen bars. I should go back and get the rest of it, to last me the rest of my life.

Lamasilk makes this products called Protect, for your feet. It does wonders. Just good, old fashioned ingredients.

I'll admit it, I dab it on my face to make a moist base for my makeup. oh...and great for hands too.

I just love how liquid eyeliner looks. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. I only do the top lid.

wow, look at these eyes....I'd love to have those eyebrows. I love arched eyebrows.

I don't do eye shadow though, or lipstick.

OK, in the morning I start with a body wash and of course a different one for my face. Then I use some sort of serum for my fine lines on my face and then moistureriser on my face and a different one on my body - twice a week I use a scrub to wash my face and body. Then I use foundation, eye liner, shadow (3 shades), blush and finish with powder. I use the nice body wash as a base for shaving legs, and underarms. I pluck eye brows and then a few weird stray hairs if any. Put I am able to do this with showering, and brushing/flossing my teeth styling my hair in about a half hour - so really not too high maintenance.

And you all need to read this - long but worth the read:

Hair Removal....

All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...the wax. Have the kleenex ready and maybe the Depends, you'll laugh that hard...

Read on...
My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours:
'Maybe should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet.' So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom. It was one of those 'cold wax' kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be?
I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. ('Cold wax,' yeah...right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works!

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my hoo-ha and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (it was a long strip)

I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRRRIIIIPPP!!!!

I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!.... OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. CRAP! Another deep breath and RIPP! Everything is spinning and spotted.

I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...must stay conscious. Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe............

OK, back to normal. I want to see my trophy - a wax-covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip!

There's no hair on it. Where is the hair??? WHERE IS THE WAX???

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair.
The hair that should be on the strip...it's not! I touch. I am touching wax. I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair. Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped upon the toilet?

I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. Sealed shut!

My butt is sealed shut. Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself 'Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!' What can I do to melt the wax?

Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right???

*WRONG!!!!!!!* I get in the tub - The water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together, is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub...in scalding hot water.

Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax. So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cemented myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter 'So, my butt and hoo-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!' There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, 'Are we talking cheeks or hole or hoo-ha?' She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her.

I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box. YEAH!!!!! Right!! I should be the joke of someone else's night.

While we go through various solutions. I resort to trying to scrape the wax off with a razor . Nothing feels better than to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!! By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event. My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax.

What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY STARS !!! The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. It's sooo painful, but I really don't care. 'IT WORKS !!!

It works !!! ' I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up.
I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair... THE HAIR IS STILL THERE...ALL OF IT!

So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color...

My forearm hair has gotten really long and dark in the past few years, so lately I've started ripping that, too. Seems to me the epilator thingie only Really hurts the first time you use it, I guess since you're ripping all the hair out at once. Later, you're only ripping the new/grown-out bits.

L'Oreal, eh? I do like their products, but if I buy it, you can bet Walgreen's will have one of their two-for-one sales going on. I've heard their "Hip" eyeshadow duos are good, but haven't tried them.

So doesn't your hair get damaged if you color it ever 2 or 3 weeks? I recently got a haircut, and the stylist told me to "only color the roots" when I re-color it (and I color to cover gray, these days). I have never been able to do this. I TRY to do just the roots, but then the stuff goes all over, seemingly by itself, and I end up just saying, screw it, and rub it all in. My hair's quite short these days, too, so maybe that's why I can't do it.

As for mascara, I almost always have fall-out with dark colors, no matter what brand I use. I wonder if this is because I wear glasses?

So I've been using ELF's clear mascara. Looks better than nothing, and my cheeks are never full of those pesky black spots.

Gads, eyeliner! I think my eyes look much better when I bother to use it, which isn't often. My eyes are very dark brown, lashes black.

But heck, it takes me forever to get it on there right, and I usually make a huge mess. Just eyeliner can add 5 minutes to my makeup time, something I'm hardly ever willing to do!

I've tried liquid, gel (with a cute little brush), stick, and dampened dark-colored eyeshadow (which smears all over later). Canna seem to make 'em work, at least not in 2 minutes or less. Sigh.

OMG, Linkat! That story is Screamingly Funny!

Would you mind if I copied & pasted it to female friends and relatives? They'd love it too.

Lucky me, I have never tried waxing. I always envisioned some scenario similar to this one.

Dang, Linkat, I'll bet you look really good when you go to work every day!

This is similar to my 12-years-ago routine. I can't say it took a great deal of time, but eventually I just got really TIRED of doing the same things every morning.

And that liquid foundation in Florida is Hell. The minerals seem faster to me, and I find Everyday Minerals has a perfect foundation match for me (they have a gazillion foundation colors). I think it's cool that they now have what's basically a loose-powder foundation that stays on all day and covers just enough, plus it never cakes.

wow, that was a funny story linkat. talk about "the rubicon has been crossed"

re hair color, no, doesn't damage my hair, actually keeps it healthier, and in good condition. My hair is short too. Go to a beauty supply store and get color applicator brushes. Mix your color in a throwaway bowl, and apply with the brush. Even with short hair, you don't want the color on the ends too long, since they'll pick up more color.

re liquid eyeliner, a couple of tips....shake the bottle well first. When pulling out the little brush, wipe off the excess on the side of the opening of the tube, you don't want too much on their.

don't pull the corners of you lids out when applying, when you release it'll make a mess. Just put one finger on the outer lower corner of the eye and pull down just slightly.

To practice, maybe try putting little dots of liner along your lid, then connect them.

After a while, you can make one steady line, from the inside going out. When you get good, from the center of the lid it's one steady whoosh!
Apply mascara AFTER the liner.

Someone asked me how I got my eyebrow pencil to make the same shape every day...asked me if I had permanent makeup there.

No, I just draw the pencil upwards across my brow, not really even applying it, then when I get to the top of the arch, I again, kinda whoosh! it down and out. Then I'll go back and fill out around that straight line, and hold back the brow hairs and get the pencil on the skin.

Fall out?

You mean your lashes fall out?

Elf clear mascara....hmmm, I'll have to look that up.

Wow...this is such a girly thread! I like make-up. I wear it when I need to be polished...so when I work I wear it - when I am at home, I don't. I love liquid eyeliner...like to wear it in a thin line when doing a casual look and thicken it when dressing up...I like a little swoosh on the end when I am going for dramatic. I use Clinique---more because it is a habit than anything else and I love the color pallette...seems to suit me. My Mom started me on Clinique when I was 15 and I just kept on using it. I will buy drug store brand items...but the basics are Clinique. I use very neutral colors...browns and taupes and a lipstick that matches my lip color...kind of mauvy-pink. Same color blush. I love red lipstick in the summer when I have a tan and very bare eyes...just mascara and a little blush. Since I don't wear it every day - it lasts a long time. I just have to buy it twice a year...it is a luxury I may have to give up one day. But as long as I can I will.

Eyebrows - when I am dressing up only I have an eyebrow stencil...and I use powder the same color as my hair - dark brown. It fills in and gives me a nice arch. Otherwise, I just spray hairspray on my eyebrow brush and brush them up and into place.

I am a sugarer...I use that sugar based substance with linen strips and wax the legs and particulars in the warm months...just shave in the winter. Love how it lasts in the summer...going to the pool everyday with the kids...shaving so much is irritating!

I love Aveeno moisturizer at nightime. It took me a while to realize the older I get the more of my body needs to be moisturized. Even my feet. Last year I hated my feet - but I figured out that they were just dry...I guess that is age. So before bed I put the lotion on head to toe. It has made a HUGE difference in my tootsies. They look much, much better this year. Funny how some things just don't occur to you.

What fun! I am not always a girly-girl...but I still like playing with make-up!

So Chai2, do you put on all your eye makeup (if you wear it, that is) BEFORE the eyeliner?

If I do this, I'll mess up the liner, then have to (dang it!) start all over again, because I try to get the eyeliner off and end up ruining the shadow.

TeeHee, it's funny, I sound kinda whiney here, don't I? ("Oh, it's all RUINED!")

But frankly I do think, lately, that makeup is fun, kinda like toys for women... or it can be, if you're not in a huge hurry.

Er, wait, did you say you didn't bother with eyeshadow? I'll wear shadow more than eyeliner, 'cause I like to cover up the redness/veins/uneven skin tone with it (oh yeah, NOW we're getting to the nitty gritty... covering the ugly bits!)

That's IT! <Slapping forehead> Why didn't I think of that?
When I use one of those Root Touch-Up kits that comes with a little brush, I CAN do only the roots.
Will go to Sally's Beauty Supply and get me some, thanks Chai2!

Nope, the mascara does. These little black bits get all over my cheekbones, eye sockets, cheeks, clothing, feet... wherever. Even if the mascara is "waterproof, guaranteed not to smudge," blah blah blah!
I've been either blessed or cursed with very long eyelashes, so I can actually feel them tapping against the inside of my glasses if I put on too much mascara.
Still I think I do look better with a dark mascara.
(You'd think by 47, I'd have learned to work this stuff better, eh?)

All my moisturiser is ROC and most of my makeup is 90% Sebastian products, best eye shadows ever and best eyebrow pencil that actually blends in and does not look like you have drawn lines on your forehead. I have just changed to L'Oreal True match liquid oil free foundation as they have taken off the market my usual Sebastian foundation, the best stuff ever that actually looks like my skin and covers all freckles its still sold in the states, but I dont trust putting my credit card over the internet, not a fan of mineral really- personal choice that is. I don't wax due to I cant stand hair and I could not bear having to wait for my leg hairs to grow long before I get them waxed.

Yes I wear make up every day and I have it down pat in 5mins.
Hair - I am a natural wavy red head, but for the last 7 years I'm a straight haired dark brunette hence (Hair dresser husband) that's why I have to have an eyebrow pencil, because it looks like I have no eyebrows (with them being auburn) with dark hair. Same goes for my eyelashes, they are blonde and I am an expert on Mascara I swear I have purchased every brand available from expensive to cheap and so far its the cheapy thats won me over Maybelline XXXL one end of the Mascara thickens and lengthens, the other paints over it.

My girl friends are fanatics about themselves...did you know you can actually get your eyelashes permed? I did not know that.. plus eyelash extensions..2 of my friends got both procedures done...they look ridiculous and it took me all my time not too laugh at the Drag Queens, I apologise if anyone has had this done.

Good topic by the way!