Disclaimer: If you have looked at my profile picture you know that I should not be giving beauty tips (but if you want to leave some comment love saying that I don’t look old enough to be the mother of a 3rd year college student, feel free! :-). I wear very little makeup, but since I have blond eyelashes, the one item I always wear is mascara. I alternate between two mascaras: one that looks great right after being applied and one that actually stays on, but doesn’t do anything more than color my lashes. I am wearing the latter in my profile picture.
Last month I was reading a magazine in the dentist office and it had a mascara tip (might have been First, can’t remember now). The article said the difference between expensive mascara and inexpensive mascara was the wand. So they recommended keeping the wand after you used up your expensive mascara, and use it to apply inexpensive mascara.
I do not have expensive mascara. I have cheap and cheaper mascara; usually bought on a BOGO sale using a coupon and CVS bucks. However, I decided to apply their tip to my two mascaras and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The waterproof mascara that used to go on in a thin watery manner, looked longer and thicker when used with the better wand. So before you go out and buy new mascara, you might try mixing and matching wands and mascaras to see if you can achieve the desired look with what you already have in your drawer.
Oh, the weird looking blue thing in the picture is a heated eyelash curler. One of my friends was a makeup artist in a former life and tried for at least a decade to get me to buy a heated eyelash curler, but in the early ’90’s they were $50.00 and I could not justify the expense. However, three years ago when I saw the above eyelash curler for $5.00 at Albertson’s I decided to buy it. I really do like the results, but hate to admit that I use it so infrequently that I have never had to replace the batteries.
I am sorry that I don’t have before and after shots. I forgot to have my husband take pictures before he left to waste your tax dollars at some undisclosed location.
This post has been linked to Works For Me Wednesday.
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Alea says
Thank you Melissa!
I am sorry I did not make it clear that I will NOT be saving an old wand. (the 2 yo did not fall asleep last night until after 11:00last night, so I was writing while exhausted).
Actually the safety issue was of concern to me (and the original article did not mention that), so I will not be keeping an old wand. I should have added that since I buy mascara with BOGOs, coupons, and CVS bucks I will continue buying both mascaras, but swap their wands. I believe the recommendation is to replace mascara every four months.
Melissa says
It's a good tip, but I'd be cautious about the chance of spreading germs. I've read a number of articles about discarding eye makeup after a certain length of time because it tends to become contaminated. Saving the wand might have the same effect.
And you DO look too young to be the mom of a college student! 🙂