Friday, November 02, 2012

In which our heroine flails at femininity

Recently I had been toying with trying, yet again, to take better care of my nails. In a fit of new beginnings (moves are good for this) I also cleared out old makeup - beloved lipstick colors that were smelling as old as they actually were. With the help of the sisterhood of the Lazy, Stupid, Godless group (and related offshoots) I stumbled down the rabbit hole and have been spending far too many hours reading about polish, makeup, browsing ebay for deals, and lusting after Sweet Libertine eye shadows.

Last Saturday, for the first time, I went into a Sally's and purchased things with which to do my nails. Despite gathering wisdom from the lovelies over at There's Fiber in My Polish group (one of the delightful offshoots of LSG) I felt like an impostor at the store. Polish has changed a great deal since I last considered a dive into this pool - glitter is every where, there are "gel" polishes  dotting tools, stamping, holos, and plates (I think it has something to do with stamping. But nevertheless I was determined to not walk out empty handed and I did not.

Today I returned because I realized I did need some cuticle remover after all, and well since I was there, I looked and found two more polishes to purchase for some future date when I will brave the iridescent peacock blue and the purply taupe that caught my eye. For now I think I will be working with the pale colors I have purchased because my nails are short and straggly, and my technique is sure to be messy.

A bit earlier tonight, setting down to take off the multiple layers of Nail Magic I've been applying to try to strengthen my uber-flexible nails, I realized that I have no cotton balls, no little pads. Sigh. Out came a q-tip and I probably spent far longer than necessary taking the stuff off because I have lost foresight on these things.

On a related note, the last two days I wore makeup only to realize that perhaps my eyelashes are not as hardy as they once were nor my lids as bulletproof to being tugged upon, which means some makeup remover might need to be another future purchase if I am going to keep up on this track. The painted ladies of TFMP also speak of coloring their hair but I am less interested in doing that, which is one less expense to delve into - I just got a trim for the first time in at least 5 months, hair dye requires far too much maintenance  At the same time as the trim I got my brows done for the first time in years - god I do love that one thing, and will keep that up. Getting my brows done has often been just about the only concession I make to regular upkeep. It's unlikely that anyone really notices my brows, but the amount of happy it brings me is worth it.

I will continue to read these forums and try to glean some more wisdom, until I get bored with upping my gender presentation to high femme mixed with vast amounts of vanity, which no doubt will happen because I am cheap and lazy lipstick lesbian.

1 comment:

Contrivant said...

I'm going to save you some money! You don't need makeup remover, you can use plain old oil. Olive oil, coconut oil, (my personal fave) almond oil. Google oil cleaning. I even have oily skin and it has done nothing but improve it.

Now you can save that money for polish ;)