Well, they're somewhat better this morning.
A little less puffy, but there's still no point in putting eyeshadow on.
After reading yesterday's post, Mom (who can't type and refuses to use the comment section because of it) called and told me to throw out my tube o' Great Lash if it was older than ninety days. Ninety days? What the hell! The shelf life on one of those puppies used to be six months! Who comes up with these arbitrary shelf lives? The Greater Mascara Council of America? Does the bacteria in the tube really reach undesirable levels after ninety days or is this just their way of upping mascara sales? After all, mascara is a basic makeup tool that every woman who wears makeup buys---repeatedly. There's a huge market there. If I spend $10 a year on mascara, because I replace my tube after six months, switching the cutoff to ninety days means I would spend $20 a year on the junk. That's bullshit. Hence, I have to think this is a shallow marketing ploy. There's no way in hell I can get my money's worth in NINETY FREAKIN' DAYS! I have trouble letting a tube go after six months because---ahem---there's still stuff in there!
Christ! Don't they realize that six months is exactly when you finally get to the easy stage of mascara application? I hate buying new mascara. A fresh tube provides nothing but challenges, because the first time you pull that brush out, it's just loaded with black goo. If you didn't blot the excess goo with a kleenex, you'd transfer big chunks of it onto your lashes. Which then drop onto your face, like mini oil spills, and you wind up looking like Courtney Love on a really bad day. But the kleenex saves all and by six months, you've rid yourself of enough of the goo in the tube that the brush comes out with a manageable amount. This worked fine for me. I've resigned myself to the fact that half of what I buy winds up on tissues that are instantly thrown in the trash. Yet this wastefulness wasn't good enough to up their sales. Now they want you to get rid of your mascara after three months.
Do you have any idea how much mascara costs these days? Particularly if you're into buying tubes of the Estee Lauder variety? Over twenty bucks a pop. I gave up that habit years ago and stuck with the little pink and green tube, but still...that costs five bucks a shot. And that's only if you don't spring for waterproofing or lash growing or curling junk, which costs more. It's a racket, I tell ya! Where are the Feds! I want a RICO suit filed toute suite! I demand it as a taxpaying citizen of this country!
Grrrr. And of course, I'll pitch the tube just in case but for the love of God, I shouldn't have to! I want mascara regulation by people other than the Greater Mascara Council of America! This is simply not fair.
Mascara and computer related eye strain aside, though, I'm wondering if a big old head cold is settling in and this was just how the body reacted to it. I'm stuffy this morning and given the position of the sinuses, well, it kind of makes sense. I dunno. I'll be trying to stay away from the computer in the meanwhile, just until we figure it out. And the husband is insisting I call the opthlamologist to set up an appointment to have my eyes checked, so that'll be fun. (The headache is freaking him out.)
Anyway, I have laundry to do, so I'm off like a dirty shirt.
Posted by Kathy at January 21, 2005 11:54 AM