DiorShow Blackout Mascara

Dawn and I had a happenstancial meeting at the Eaton Centre during lunch this week that, unsurprisingly, ended in a visit to Sephora. That place is always more fun with your friends. While there I realized that it had been awhile since I'd been in there which meant that it had also been awhile since I replenished my mascara supply.

Mascara is a gateway makeup. You start with something innocuous like Great Lash Mascara, one of the beauty world's best bang-for-your-buck items. And as great and cheap as it is, there comes a point where you just need something more.

So you walk into a beauty store and view the wall of great eye-enhancing options. I've tried out my share of mascaras. I will always hold a special place in my heart for Lancome and the love I will always have for Flextencils and Hypnose. I've flirted with items from Stila, been underwhelmed by Shu Umerea and even dabbled in some Benefit BadGal Blue. All good steps towards my latest mascara love.



So with much pride I share with you DiorShow Blackout Mascara. Admittedly I wasn't blown away by it's original recipe, but this kohl-based, blackest-of-blacks version is awesome in a tube. I get lashes so long, full and dark and it's almost inappropriate. Blackout is my new normal. So much so that I find it hard to go back to anything else. I think the only place I can go from here is false eyelashes.

I used it on a client recently who was going for a very dramatic Bridget Bardot look and I don't think any other mascara would have been up to the job of such deep, dark, sultriness. Needless to say, this one gets a huge endorsement from me.

Awesome in a tube.

HRH

8/10

As some readers have noted to me, I've been not-so-subtly been putting it out there that the last 5 months have not been the pinnacle of sanity for me. I haven't missed a day of work and I've resisted the urge to retreat an anti-social cave of my own making, but it hasn't been easy. I have this problem, where my throat and esophagus constrict and it doesn't go away until I deal with my anxiety in some manner.

A little while back I started CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) cause this not swallowing/choking thing is so last year. There are a couple of things on the plate to sort out, the first of which we started tackling today: social anxiety.

My particular brand of it doesn't usually manifest when I'm actually around other people. It comes to light when I'm preparing to interact with other people. Interacting socially, not professionally. Thankfully something flips in my head that prevents me from getting freaked out in professional situations. Socially I get freaked out when I'm imagining all the ways I can do things wrong or embarrass myself. When I think of all the ways I can be judged.

I do all kinds of pre-thinking, imagining all the ways people I know and may meet will negatively judge me. Everyone does this to a degree. This is something we all have to contend with being social beings. I seem to amp it up a few more degrees than necessary.

So to start modifying the behaviours that go with my thoughts about potential negative judgement, I was instructed to list all the thoughts and feelings I have when I'm anxious prior to a social event. So feelings like fear, frustration and anxiety, and thoughts like "I'm going to do something embarrassing,","People are going to think that I'm stupid; shy; stuck up; rude,", "I shouldn't be nervous,","I should be more interesting,","I'm wearing the wrong thing","People are going to think that I have the wrong purse; shoes; etc."

When you look at it all, I mean, no wonder I get socially anxious. I make it seem like I'm living in the movie Heathers. No one is actually that awful. Okay, there are some people like that, but most people are really nice, understanding and could care less about my purse.

Happily I've got two things to do that can help me avoid getting anxious before a social gathering. First, I have to keep reminding myself that my pre-thoughts are largely untrue. Like, absurdly so. The second, and more interesting idea, is that in order to develop comfort with negative judgement, I assume that a two out of every ten people will disapprove of me. Simple as that. Which means that on average I'm going to have a good time with and be liked by 80 per cent of the people I encounter in social situations. That's pretty cool.

By just assuming that there are two people that are going to negatively judge me, I feel less stressed about it. No matter what I might do, right or wrong, they're still going to judge and that's just how it is. Somehow knowing this ahead of time puts me at ease.

So if we meet at a party and I refer to you as a one through to an eight, it's shockingly not a Battlestar Galactica reference, it means that I don't think you're judging me negatively and we're totally cool. If you're nine or ten, you suck.

Today's sing-a-long song: Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple

HRH

MAC Brush Cleanser

You clean your brushes, right? After every use, just like you're supposed to? If you're saying yes right now, I bet you floss regularly and iron your sheets too.

It's funny. When I'm painting on canvas, I clean all my paintbrushes right away. I suppose because I'm usually running out of the house shortly after I paint my face that my makeup brushes don't get the same quality treatment.

Now I always wash my brushes before and after I do a makeup job. Always. Other people's health and hygiene are stake. But when it's just me, I confess, I can go waaaaay to long between brush washings. Like weeks too long. And yeah, that's just kind of gross, but I know there are some people out there who just don't wash their brushes, ever. Ewww.

Brushes are lovely places for bacteria and other such evils to conglomerate. A quick washing and you're in the clear from all those nasties. I mean, think about it for a minute. You spend how much on cleansers, facial treatments, makeup and brushes trying to make your skin look amazing, but if you don't clean your brushes regularly, you might as well be washing your face with rats. Also your makeup goes on better as the colour isn't contaminated and you're not fighting with residual goop.

So now that I have you concerned about bacterial infections, breakouts and a nasty case of pink eye, let's talk brush cleansers. Since good brushes are made a lovely fibres like goat and boar hair, it's a good idea to use a very gentle cleanser. I'm a fan of the MAC brush cleanser. It costs about $10 and does a nice job. It's pretty easy to use and since most of my brushes are MAC, I feel pretty confident about it prolonging their life. I use paper towel or a clean tea towel to dry them off after rinsing and lay them out to air dry.

If you don't feel like throwing down $10 every so often, you can also use baby shampoo, as it's also tremendously gentle. Make sure you dilute it though. I tend to use it for deep cleaning. Benefit used to make a combination makeup remover/brush cleaner, which they discontinued a few years back. However, gentle makeup remover can also be used as a brush cleaner. It's still removing makeup after all.

What matters most is that you get your brushes clean, regularly. Make it part of your cleaning schedule and stop rubbing nasty old makeup on your face every day.

HRH

Should I rewind?

I heard the new New Kids On The Block song Summertime last week. Because of work and social constraints I haven't had the time to sit down and give this song the attention it deserves.

Before I go on, I should state for the record that when I was 11/12, NKOTB was the sun that my world revolved around. My bedroom was plastered, from floor to ceiling in photos pulled from teenie-bopper magazines (My sister has a photo that she's holding onto for a prime blackmail opportunity of me sitting in the middle of my shrine, holding a photo of Donnie Whalberg, smiling an embarrassingly large smile at it all). I knew every breath of every song, knew every dance move and had the superlative moment of my 12-year-old life at their concert in Ottawa (which my very kind future blackmailer sister took me to). You know, just like every other girl at that time. :)

I'd like to be too cool for school here and be embarrassed of being part of that collectivist idolatry experience, but I am, in no way, ashamed. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Like Sapphire in Almost Famous said "To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts." While NKOTB was in no way about loving the music, I was still very much in love. Love as a 12-year-old girl understands it.

Now that I've listened to Summertime about 100 times in the last week, I think the new song Summertime is brilliant. Not musically brilliant, but totally market savvy. NKOTB know that their fans have grown up. Many of them married with kids in their early 30s, working hard, lots of responsibility and lots of reality. Putting out a song teeming with nostalgia, set in the most carefree season of the year is very clever.

I know it appeals to me that way. There's a bit of horror in my heart as I've now joined that demographic that can be appealed to through nostalgia, but I'll forgive it. And not to suggest that I long for a different time in my life, cause life keeps getting better as I get older and there's no way I'd go back to adolescence, even if you paid me. But something about the song makes me feel like an ex-boyfriend from way, way back in the day got in touch to say "We weren't meant to be, but it was a great moment in my life." It was summer; it was carefree; it was all about fun.

So to the lads I once adored from Beantown; right back at you, boys! It was a good time and I commend you on coming back in a way that makes it a pleasure to reflect on the past without tainting those oh so precious memories. While thinking of those days doesn't make me crazy per say, it does give me an embarrassingly large smile.

HRH

This would have been more useful yesterday

Boo Turkey.

HRH