"Do one eye at a time, in case you go blind." "Yeah, I could rock a bejeweled eyepatch."

     I endeavored on a kind of stupid pursuit a few days ago: eyelash tinting. You're never ever ever supposed to do it because allegedly you can go blind, but after doing a little reading my conclusion (just mine! Don't ever follow my example, it will only lead you to sorrow) was that it's one of those things where it may have happened once or twice a long time ago but it probably won't happen now, the FDA just has to warn you because they don't want you chemically burning your eyeballs out thinking they said it was ok. So anyway, I did it. I did a bunch of research and picked the brand that I felt was safest (something called Refectocil, in case you're wondering -- I also used their brand of oxidant, just to make things easy). It was pretty easy; I decided to slap some tape on the back of my hand a few times to take the stickiness down, then put it under my eyes to prevent too much staining, then just mixed up the dye and brushed it on with the brush from the kit. I was pretty careful not to get it in my eyes (I wore contacts for like ten years before I got my eyeballs lasered, so I'm pretty good about not flinching or twitching my eyes too much, so I only felt the tiniest bit of stinging when a bit of the dye got in. I kept some saline ready just in case I experienced any horrific searing pain and decided to abort the mission before the ten minute setting time was up, but I didn't end up needing it. And I'm not blind! But enough about that, let's talk about the before and after.

After lashes are just dyed, no mascara or anything at all. And so shiiiiny. 

     You might be able to tell in the after picture that there are a few stubborn eyelashes that just really wanted to stay white, but I ain't even mad. That's a damn fine improvement, I think. I'm super pleased with it because having just that little bit of extra definition means I feel like I don't have to wear mascara every day since my lashes are naturally so blonde they're kind of invisible from a distance without mascara, which is...odd looking, to say the least, on me. I have recently developed a visceral hatred for mascara. I mean, I still love what it does. It's so strangely satisfying to put on a good mascara and then feel like you could shoo a butterfly away with your lashes. But I despise taking it off at night. It's just too messy, and I have never been able to find a good remover that doesn't get it all over my face or sting my eyes or irritate my sensitive baby princess skin or break my lashes or make my eyesight all bleary. So being able to wash my face without temporarily looking like a large raccoon has been a delight, not to mention that it's nice to wake up feeling just a little bit prettier without having to do anything daily.

     So I'm not going to tell anybody "Oh yeah it's totally fine, do it!" but I'll just say "Eh, it didn't turn my eyeballs into jam" and shrug noncommittally. And probably bat my shiny dark eyelashes.