Georgia Was Here

For 4th of July DD and I went to his company picnic, which was on a ranch in Marin County. There was a lake, grapevines, a herd of cattle, a friendly miniature donkey, chinchillas and, as if that weren't enough, this beautiful skull! When we left San Francisco that day, it was cold and foggy, and when we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge it magically became hot and sunny. Of course, this is not actually magic, but a phenomena of landscape and hills and wind and whatnot. All I know is that I live in the coldest part of SF (cold = affordable) and 10 minutes away it's hot. This led me to consider moving 18 miles from work, to San Rafael. (I currently live walking distance from work.) I grew up in the desert, and while I have no desire to live in a climate that extreme again, I do object to wearing my coat in July, as I do here. As DD pointed out the other day, we have six dresser drawers and one is devoted entirely to knits - knit caps, scarves, and mittens.

So, it remains to be seen what will happen, but we are now trying to move! The great thing is that prices have come down a lot all over San Francisco, even the desirable sunny parts, and DD and I are still employed, so we're checking it out.

The Great Latisse Experiment

Eyelash extensions don't come off. They just don't come off. You can't take them off. They stay attached to your natural eyelashes until your eyelashes fall out naturally, or UNNATURALLY, like when you're gently drying your face with a towel after your shower and a loop of terry cloth catches the unnaturally thick fake eyelash and RIPS IT OUT BY THE ROOT.

Yes, I am yet again relegated to fashion and beauty industry victim status, as three weeks later I have half long (really really long now that my own eyelashes have grown and pushed the fake lashes out even more), thick, eyelash extensions and half my own soft, short, wispy eyelashes, combined with more than a few gaps from a few of these towel incidents. The only way to hide this disaster is to wear a really solid layer of matte, dark brown eyeshadow every day and skip my usual bang trim, so that's what's currently happening... my eyelashes are a disaster but it doesn't matter because my bangs are covering them and I have spackled them with dark brown eyeshadow.

I also started using Latisse, which is the eyelash growth drug (prescription only) that Brooke Shields is hawking. It takes about 12 weeks to see noticeable results, and by then my lashes would likely have repaired themselves anyway, but Latisse works by lengthening the natural growth cycle of each eyelash, so this should speed up the process. I love that Latisse is prescribed for the condition "hypotrichosis" - "not enough or inadequate hair". Apparently sparse eyelashes are a medical condition. Will keep you posted.

Tried Lash Extensions...

I recently tried eyelash extensions for the first time. Eyelash extensions look like traditional false eyelashes but without the strip. Instead, it's individual hairs that are glued with some super-strength glue one-by-one to each of your own individual eyelashes (rather than being attached to the skin, like strip lashes). Because there is no strip, and that's the part that looks fake, they look more "real" than strip lashes. The application process is time-consuming (when I got it done it was only an hour and a half, but that's a long time to sit with your eyes closed while someone is gently touching your eyelashes over and over again and while you have a piece of tape taping your lower eyelashes down), can take up to three hours, and is pretty expensive. I went to a local place that had a lot of good reviews and the application was only $100, but from what I understand it more commonly costs $250 or $300.

When they showed me my new eyelashes I was pretty amazed! For one thing, they asked me if I wanted the lashes to look "natural" or "dramatic" and I chose "natural".
(I mean, how natural can fake eyelashes look, and what does "natural" mean to someone who is having such a thing done, right?) Well, the resulting eyelashes are long and curled and pretty much look like something a Vegas showgirl would wear. I wonder what "dramatic" would look like!

Vegas is why I got them done - I was going to Las Vegas for a few days and didn't want to deal with mascara or curling my eyelashes or applying false eyelashes. The eyelash extensions make the eyes look "done" without any makeup.

I got them done exactly a week ago. They're holding up pretty well. They stay attached with the super strong glue forever, or until your real eyelash falls out naturally.
So, you lose a few a day. People usually need to get a touch up after two or three weeks, depending how careful they are. I am being pretty careful and am not wearing mascara on them, so a week later they still look full. Here's what they look like from above. I don't have any makeup on.

New LUSH Vaniila Range

LUSH Cosmetics recently came out with a vanilla range. As seems to be the case with all new LUSH launches, this product was available in the UK long before it was available in North America. I wanted it so badly that I kept looking on the LUSH UK site and calculating pounds to dollars and trying to figure out, if British Royal Mail is so inexpensive, what's the drawback to using it?

They finally sent this stuff across the pond to the shops in North America. The Vanilla Delite lotion is lightweight and sinks in quickly, much like the discontinued Skin Sin did. It has a powdery, jasmine-y vanilla fragrance (not like a cupcake or anything you'd want to eat). The Vanilla Puff powder has a similar fragrance but much more faint. It feels less dry than their Coconut powder but less moisturizing and cocoa-buttery than Silky Underwear. The Vanillary solid perfume smelled good (more "edible" vanilla than the other items) but I didn't get it or the massage bar because I always seem to waste those products when I do buy them.

Downstairs Neighbor UPDATE

My new downstairs neighbor is so far so much better than any and all of the previous ones! For one thing, her TV is pretty small, and she doesn't play it very loudly. For another, I noticed as I was walking back from taking out the recycling and trash that she had some friends over... I could see into her apartment because it's dark out and she had the lights blazing inside. As I walked toward our apartments, she came to the window and closed the blinds rather frantically. A second later as I passed her front door, I heard her coughing... and not sick coughing, but that weed coughing, while other people were giggling. She's a weed smoker! All the noise she will make will be some mellow random giggling and chuckling, with the occasional coughs thrown in there.

Bobbi Brown Packaging Change

Bobbi Brown blushes and eyeshadows have recently gone from round to square. The square ones are also made so that you can pop them out of their cases and add them to a palette with three or four or six squares in it. You can now get the discontinued round eyeshadows and blushes on eBay for a really discounted price! I don't know if they were slated for destruction and someone saved them, or if they fell off a truck or what, but I've been stocking up on the rounds for $9, $10 or $12 each. They retailed for $20 or so.

Wicked, the Musical - next month!

Around mid-May, I finally get to see Wicked, the musical. I loved the novel by Gregory Maguire, and I missed Wicked in San Francisco the first time around because I kept seeing the ads in the BART station but I was too clueless to figure out that it was a new musical and that I wanted to see it. It's easy to ignore advertising in the bowels of the BART system, expecially when most of what they advertise is banking services. For a while, this company called ING Direct paid your BART fare, but you were completely bombarded by these hire-a-marketers as soon as you exited the gates in the station. So while the Wicked posters were up, I saw them, but I kept my head down and moved fast to avoid any sales interactions. Then someone lent me the novel and I loved it and quickly read several other books by Gregory Maguire, such as Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister and Mirror, Mirror, which was my favorite. tried to see Wicked in New York City when I was there but couldn't get tickets.
So it's back in San Francisco, and I finally get to see it! This green rose hairpin thing is the first part of my Wicked outfit!