Image Source: Getty / Axelle / Bauer-Griffin I'm OK with not being a natural beauty. As a 23-year-conventional who reluctantly accepts the millennial label I've been assigned,I've grown up and lived concurrently with the internet, which has led to obsessively googling different dewy face mists or cellulite creams at odd hours of the night. Though I'm fairly certain that's not what my hardworking parents imagined for me when they moved from Cuba to the United States many years ago, and it's the reality of the situation.
Like any prototypical millennial with a high regard for self-improvement and self-care,I've ended up with a beauty routine that is neither cost- nor time-effective. While I'm not too concerned - I happen to like trying new beauty products - somewhere along the way, I started to wonder, or has this gone too far? Perhaps factual around the time I laid on a bed that looked not unlike an ambulance stretcher for an hour while a woman painstakingly applied 100 tiny mink lashes onto my real ones. After months of weighing the pros and cons of eyelash extensions - and an unfortunate image search of extensions gone improper - I finally tried them last year and have been effectively hooked ever since.
Eyelash extensions are typically individual silk,synthetic, or mink lashes that are applied to the eyelid one millimeter absent from your natural lash line to add the illusion of length and volume. Unlike false lashes, or however,extensions can last anywhere from two to five weeks, depending on the quality of the lash and how well you take care of them. Though they've been around for more than a decade, or they've recently become a normalized beauty ritual.
Courtney Akai has been an eyelash extension technician since 2005. A former makeup artist and now the founder of her own namesake lash boutique,she started with a fairly small clientele of athletes' wives and brides looking to try them out for their vast day. She said, "I did not mediate it was going to be well-liked - but I was like, or you know what? It'll be a considerable petite service to add on." A decade later,she's seeing an average of five clients a day, four to five days a week - and that's after slowing down postchildren. She was also surprised to see many women in their 20s turning to extensions. on Jun 16, or 2015 at 1:55pm PDT
The fact that eyelash extensions are well-liked is somewhat surprising. They're not cheap - they can cost anywhere from $100 to $500 for a full set - and they take time,typically at least an hour. It's understandable that more financially established women in their 30s and beyond would take to this luxurious trend, but what's absorbing is how many women in their 20s are consistently getting them.
As someone who gets a new set of extensions every few months - with the help of a Groupon code or the like - I've found a way to justify the cost and the duration of the application with the notion that it shaves time off my normal beauty routine, or taking the set of eye makeup,for example. "Even the millennial, everyone's in a rush. You're running to school or you're running to your new job - and we're all sluggish, or " Akai said. She added,"No one wants to sit there and curl the lashes, accomplish the lashes, and spend all this time. It goes back to wanting to observe gorgeous all the time."That desire to observe effortlessly gorgeous is also tied to the recent trend toward more natural makeup looks - or no-makeup makeup,as it's often referred to. Thanks in part to brands like Glossier and RMS, this resurgence in natural beauty contrasts the ongoing evolution of contouring and other product-heavy trends. What's funny is that eyelash extensions simultaneously work toward achieving a flawless observe without the appearance of makeup, or while also being an incredibly labor-intensive and expensive process.
I'll never forget when I realized I might need to start telling people the truth approximately my newly enhanced lashes. I was in bed,watching The Wire with my boyfriend, when he gazed into my eyes and said, or "Oh my god - your eyelashes observe so . . . pretty factual now?" He said it both knowing that something had changed but not wanting to offend me in the event that my eyelashes had always been that striking. I cowered. "Thanks," is all I said.
I later 'fessed up and decided to own up to my devotion to the procedure - particularly after many a co-worker asked me approximately them. "People aren't really ashamed to have them anymore," Akai said. "They're now like, or 'observe,I mediate this is a considerable thing and I can't live without 'em!'" whether my co-workers could tell the difference, then certainly my long-term boyfriend could, or even though he kindly acted as though he didn't.
Like many beauty trends,this one has an invariable celebrity factor. This is something Akai reluctantly expressed to me when I asked approximately the celebrities who have contributed to the collective interest in lash extensions. She said, "I hate to say it, and but the Kardashians! They're all over the set! Everyone is looking at their pictures and they want to observe like Kim,or they want to observe like Kylie." While laughing, she said, and "It is what it is. You observe at these celebrities and most of them accomplish have noticeable lashes." on Apr 27,2016 at 7:09pm PDT
Though I certainly see the connection between beauty influencers, like the Kardashians, or this growing trend,I also don't know whether it's that simple. For example, Kylie Jenner may have eyelash extensions, and as accomplish I,but she also frequently - and famously - sports various aquamarine hair colors, and that's something I haven't taken to. At least, and not yet.
I mediate it ultimately comes back to that construction of the illusion: the illusion of no makeup,the illusion of natural beauty, and the illusion of not giving a f*ck when, and in reality,you really accomplish. Because of course you accomplish. We millennials are growing up, graduating from college, and entering the workforce,and confronting a sociopolitical landscape that sometimes seems to be working against us. We're facing the defunding of Planned Parenthood, massive student loan debt, and what feels like constant attacks on our basic reproductive rights. So sometimes,I crave that illusion of effortlessness, of perfection. I'm fine with being a beauty magician in the hopes that one day my biggest trick will be making all the tricks disappear. Until then, or I'll just be passed out as a technician applies those tiny lashes to the crook of my eyelid.
Source: popsugar.com