EYELASH EXTENSIONS

Lucky Thirteen of 2013: The Love/Hate Beauty Treatment of the Year

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Not that Love/Hate, as I’m sure it would involve some class of blunt object.

This love/hate: the amazing look of eyelash extensions, and their less savoury aspects. Search the eyelash extension tag for the saga in its entirety; they look stupid fabulous, but amongst the things that I found dislikable were A} the time one of these bad girls got stuck in my eye, and B} the feeling that I never quite got eyeshadow or eyeliner — or any of the make up around my eyes — completely cleaned off.

The pictures tell the tale; every time I see this shot, I feel like doing it all over again.
EYELASHES the Original

And this one, which was taken during week five, in which I supplemented them with mascara, which I was expressly told not to do. I look like Bambi, or some other class of cartoon doe:
EYELASHES week five

And just for compare-and-contrast purposes, this is the way my eyes look on an average, unextended day:
BYE BYE EYELASH EXTs 1
Like Dreyer’s Saint Joan, with fewer Inquisitors.

I’ve had many, many treatments this year, and this was the one that was the most noticeable. After the first post, the amount of people squinting at my face was rivalled only by the curiosity when I got The Botox that time. There were also so many scary stories about lashes never growing back, which luckily didn’t happen. Would I do it again? Well, as long as I don’t look at those pictures, the answer is always No way…

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Auvoir, Les Cils {Cue Tragic Symphonic Movement, Something Saint-Saëns-ish}

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BYE BYE EYELASH EXTs 1

I feel… I feel naked.

BYE BYE EYELASH EXTs 2

Those are not tears, but the residue of the oil-based makeup remover I used — a real cracker, FACEAtelier Melt, the oiliness of which did as was warned, and dissolved the glue holding the extended eyelashes to my own lashes.

Dissolved it utterly.

Little black slashes of flickiness littered on cotton wool pads.

I feel desolate. I may resort to poetry.

And lashes lease hath all too short a date…

Ah, now, in fairness: the guts of seven weeks! And I was really pushing it, as time marched on.

Would I do it again? I would, if the next round of lashes were more hair-like. These, straight up plastic that they were, felt a little harsh when they got in my eye. Now that I know how annoying they are to start with, I’d give them a week to settle in before I, oh, I don’t know, went on a five-star romantic holiday somewhere. Or something.

If! If my lashes aren’t completely in rag order that is — the ones that are left. It was all I could do to not lash on some mascara and see what the damage is. I’ll save that until later.

Baby steps.

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I got my eyelashes extended at Venus Medical. See venusmedical.ie for more information.

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Okay, Eyelash Extensions! This is It! Last Day!

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WEEK SIXOMG. Talk about cack-handed mascara application! I am out of practice.

This is it though, seriously. I can’t extend the life of my extensions any further.

Also seriously: terrified to see what’s left. There is some frighteningly stubby lookin’ lashes lurking in between the realllllly longggggggg and leggy lookin’ ones.

Okay, off to go comb off some of the excess. Sheesh.

Ah! My heart! I knew I’d miss ’em when they were gone…

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I got my eyelashes extended at Venus Medical in Dundrum. See venusmedical.ie for more info.

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Buh-bye Eyelash Extensions — Oh, Wait, Hang On…

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Literally. The last few have been driving me demented — oh, probably fifteen lashes on each eye, out of the original thirty apiece, and I kept meaning to remove them, using the dreaded oil-based eye makeup remover.

I was ready to release the lashes from their indenture.

Then I decided to just go for it and break another rule, since I was going to be removing them anyway, and lash {ha, ha} on some mascara.

Dammit.

EYELASHES week fiveThey look as full as when I got them! A bit excessively long, like, cute-cartoon-animal long, but dammit, they look really good.

The mascara in use is Rimmel Lash Extender Endless Mascara {€9.95/£7.99}, and not only gives great lash, but also is packed with the brand’s exclusive GROW-LASH Complex of Procapil, Keratin and anti-oxidants.

Argh! Now what am I going to do???

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I got my eyelashes extended at Venus Medical in Dundrum. See venusmedical.ie for more info.

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How’re They Doin’? Eyelash Extensions: Week 3

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I didn’t bother updating Week 2, because I felt like such a first-world eejit. I mean, okay, the lashes get extremely tangled up in the gale force winds we’ve been experiencing in the last seven days or so. It is annoying, and also makes me worry about them — also annoying. So it was just a big pile-on of annoyance.

Here we are in week 3, however, and I have finally stopped treating these things like they are tiny newborn babies. They aren’t exactly that delicate. Neither am I back to scrubbing my face and eye area like I used to, which is good/bad. Good, because I am treating that like a tiny newborn baby, which should give me better mileage down the years; bad because am still not entirely convinced that I’m really doing a good job cleaning my face.

^ However, this has really gotten me onto the toner bandwagon, which is past time, probably.

> I am less bothered by them in the shower.

Here’s the original set:
EYELASHES the Original

The left eye, now:
WEEK 3 left

And the right:
WEEK 3 right

In fairness, I just snapped the photos without tweaking them. WYSIWYG, betches. They do present better when I nudge them around, but just so everybody is aware, it’s not like you wake up perfect.

Am I the only one always expecting miracles? *Sigh*

I have lost count of how many lashes I have lost — many wishes going begging! But I have to say, blowy weather notwithstanding, I am not as bothered by these as I was in the beginning.

Will I do them again? Maybe for a big event, but for everyday, I am not convinced that these are my thang.*

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I got my eyelashes extended at Venus Medical in Dundrum. See venusmedical.ie for more info.

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*Sue, you are so going to miss them when they are gone!

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Eyelash Extensions, Week One: Wishes and Tweeeeeeezers

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BEFORE N AFTERLest we forgot, here’s that photo again.

So, a couple of things:
> I have lost four lashes in a week. That leaves fifty-six. I think I have, happily, lost two one each eye! That’s four wishes I’ve got on the go, now I know how to do that properly. {Well, I thought I did, by I just checked and there’s all sorts of rules; I’m going to stick with the one that says to blow it off the tip of your finger as you make your wish.}

> The first one that fell out was an epic experience: I felt it come loose, and I didn’t catch it time, and it went into my WHERE IT GOT STUCKeye? You know the way? And this is worse, because it is plastic or whatever.

So I kept staring, to try to get enough water into my eye to wash it away {you know the what I mean.} All my nails were too short to tease it out, and then it shifted around and got stuck right in the curve of my eyeball, where it meets that part right at the corner? I have highlighted it at left. I couldn’t get it to move at all, so I — I had to use tweezers.

Tweeeezerrrrrs in my eyyyyyyyyyyyyyye!

> Obviously, now I am totally self-conscious about these things falling out. I worry about my hair catching on them. Will they get all smashed up in my sleep? I am concerned when I open the oven — will I met them off my face?

> I am finding them to be annoying in the shower. My face gets wet, I go to wipe it — mind the lashes!

> I am not entirely convinced I am getting all the eye makeup of, because: see above!

> My left eyelashes are way more tangly than my right! Is this a brain thing again?

In a nutshell: not too sure. So far, I am spending way too much time thinking/fretting/tending these yokes.

But/however/in fairness: they are soooo flicky. The ones at the outside alone are so long and so come-hither…

Let’s see how week two unfolds, shall we?

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I got my eyelashes extended at Venus Medical in Dundrum. See venusmedical.ie for more info.

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