Do You Wear Mascara?

11/20/24

Mascara is the enemy.  I have been an on-again, off-again makeup wearer for my entire life.  Who doesn’t recall the sky-blue eye shadow of the ’70’s, when I started wearing makeup.  I stopped wearing make-up in the 80’s because I was an exhausted mom, but in the ’90’s I started wearing a little mascara.  In the 2000’s I was uptown in Alaska’s Capital as a principal so I added foundation, blush and lipstick to my make-up routine.  After I retired in the 2010’s I didn’t wear makeup very often, mostly if I was working outside of the house or going out.  Here we are in the 2020’s and makeup has become a bit more of a necessity. I have acquired blotches and little red veins all over my face.  I scare myself some mornings.  Two of my granddaughters told me someone had been writing on my face.  What do 3 year olds know.  So, I attempt to put makeup on when I leave my house these days, which leads to my war with mascara.  While I’ve always needed my glasses to see, I have always had enough sight to get the darn stuff on my lashes, but no more.  I can’t wear contacts so that isn’t a solution, unfortunately.  I stand at the mirror and wave the mascara applicator around my eyes and hope something sticks.  The top lashes aren’t too hard to do yet, but those bottom lashes are horrifying.  Sometimes the black ends up inside my eyes, sometimes under the eye, many times it’s darker on one side than the other.  Trying to fix the mess with moistened finger tips makes it worse and sometimes I just have to start over.  Is the war with mascara worth it?  I haven’t decided yet, do you have mascara thoughts or suggestions?