Don’t be a Courtney.  Pat Benatar, she’s on trend.  80s are so NOW!

Don’t buy cheap mascara. If you do, you could look like Courtney Love from her 1993 album cover Live Through This, as pictured above. I was Courtney for Halloween one year. I did it up with an empty pill bottle in my pocket, tiarra,  smeared red lipstick and black eyes.  I bought some SUPER LASH mascara in a hot pink tube hoping to really gunk up my lashes and smear it around for authenticity.

Post party I thought, wow, I’d really like to beef up the lashes a little more for my every day look. Some real POP! I started using the SUPER LASH all the time. Besides, it was easier than taking a trip to the mall to buy a new tube of my go-to mascara, only available at Nordstrom. Maybe I’m on to something a fashion magazine should write about: Mascara for a STEAL!

After awhile, I noticed I looked as though I hadn’t slept in weeks. I rise early to work out because I have to take my son to swimming anyway, but I make it up later with a nap. Sleep is not my problem.

Then I thought I was seriously ill as dark circles formed underneath my eyes like the Marlborough Man.  Maybe I had a bad disease and this was the first sign. Why do we always go to the dark side first? Or, was it because I’m sliding into old age, having crossed the magical border, the fifty-year mark. I’m not supposed to care so much about how I look, but I do! I REALLY DO!

My head starts spinning and I think:  Yes!  This must be part of getting old and it is hitting hard and fast. Maybe I need thicker concealer. Maybe I need that magic eye cream that a million cosmetic companies make and I’m too cheap to buy and too lazy to apply.

Then it hit me. I bet my super cheap SUPER LASH mascara, wears cheap.  It goes everywhere but my eyelashes. One of my friends uses a drugstore pink-tube mascara and she is ALWAYS smudged.  I tested my theory.  I looked in the mirror and ran my finger underneath my eye to see if maybe, just maybe the SUPER LASH was fluttering off my lashes like tiny fine black snowflakes. Sure enough, like the white glove test along a cherry wood bookshelf, my finger picked up gray dust.

Nordstrom here I come! I stopped by my trusty makeup counter and got my MAC Extreme Dimension Lash. My MAC rep seemed pretty friendly so I asked her if black circles were part of aging, something nobody talks about for some reason. I’ve heard a lot about the tummy that won’t go away no matter what you do as you get older, but nothing about ghostly looking eyes.  I needed to confide in someone who knows, like telling your whoas to a bartender.

I was right.  The rep did know something and told me discoloration is the downside of getting older. CRAP! I knew she was being honest because MAC doesn’t sell expensive eye creams. I guess the skin thins out and starts showing blood vessels so the eyes go purpley dark. She did recommend something, Philosophy’s miracle worker eye cream. What do I have to lose except dark circles? I was in a weak moment. The Philosophy rep is my new BFF too.

After a week with my old mascara, I can say my lashes are back without any ashy fall out.  Invest in good mascara. You will save yourself heartache and $70 in eye cream.