I gave up wearing eye makeup for a long time, settling for the barefaced look, eyes hidden behind my glasses. When I decided I should move on to something a little more sophisticated, I went all-out to treat myself. My sister-in-law provided emotional support when we went together to the Chanel makeup bar at Macy’s. It was really fun! The makeup artist was oolala, genuinely French. She helped to make an occasion of it and I invested $36 in a little pot of eye shadow:

I hesitated some because it certainly seemed like a lot for what it was, but what it was was so much more than what it was. For a couple weeks I believed getting the eye shadow had been a life-changing experience. Then it began to dry up; it pulled away from the sides of its little jar, and the color seemed to disappear, leaving just the shimmering highlights in its wake. Oh well, I thought, it’s not the same, but shimmery highlights are nice. Except I wasn’t excited about using it anymore. I no longer felt like I had beautiful gilded lizard eyelids. And it didn’t stay for hours like it had. It slid right off.

So a couple months later, when I was visiting the sis, she again accompanied me to Macy’s. I was given a new jar of shadow, no questions asked. And after a couple weeks, it began to dry up. I wondered: how long could I go on replacing it every couple weeks? Decided reluctantly to move the investment from the makeup column to the entertainment column and move on to…

CVS, where I found Mabelline 24 Hour Color Tatoo for $6.99. And you know what, it stays on forever, and the color is true.

So that’s one good reason for having blog friends. We share the same kind of information we share over coffee with real-time friends. And if you decide to get some eye shadow, don’t be like me and spend almost $30 more than you need to for sake of a label!