Cateye

Super flattering pic, I know!  It might be time to re-henna my Roguish streak of grey...

I'm going through a periodic "girly" phase and admiring the subtle 50's cateye look that seemed to be en vogue around the office before my departure last December, I added "apply cateye" to the bucket list as a reasonably easy to dispatch goal to slot in around the doosies like train for an Ironman.

Then spent an inordinate amount of time watching youtube videos, cross referencing products against the EWG website for toxicity and generally adding too much complexity to the whole project.  Eventually, I decided to KISS and streamline my materials--

• Stila Stay All Day eye liner:  a youtuber recommended this as the felt tip go-to for n00bs.  Also, seems a lot of Amazon customers have beaten a path to this product and posted largely favorable reviews.  $22 seemed kinda expensive for what it was, plus it scored a "4 moderate hazard" on EWG for the endocrine disrupting powers of propylparaben.  boo.  I also eventually want something more metallic-- copper or bronzey to be a more unique/signature Bellepic look.  There are gels out there that do that, but require a brush to apply.  You can also dilute eyeshadow and treat it like eye liner.  All of this sounded like it was adding a few too many points of failure for my initial make-this-stupid-easy-so-you-can-enjoy-success-and-build-on-it objective.  
• Maybelline New York Great Lash Big Washable Mascara also scoring a "4 moderate hazard" on EWG.  I went with this largely because of its low-low addon price of $2.99 and figured I would feel less regret if it molders in the bathroom for a couple months, I read a "your mascara goes bad after 6 months" article, and decide to toss it.
• Physicians Formula Super BB All-in-1 Beauty Balm Cream scored a slightly better "3 moderate hazard."  I was looking for some sort of basic base to cover my dark circles and veiny lids but didn't want to go crazy with primer, concealer, eye shadows, and whatnot.  I liked Tarte's BB, particularly its EWG score of 1, but found I didn't use it enough to justify the price.  If I did buy another tube, I'd want to get it matched at an Ulta or Sephora to make sure I had chosen the right shade.  Physicians Formula was 1/3 the price, so figured I would see if I end up cateyeing enough to justify a spendier foundation.  

All in, this haul cost $40 on Amazon and I've started a little contest with myself to do X mins of house/yardwork at $10/hour to pay for such non essentials.  Factoring in the shiny new spray hose, strawberry plant, and tomato seeds I currently owe the house 7 hours of TLC.

Not included in this purchase, but glad I had on hand: q-tips and baby oil.

Day 1 of road testing this application, I was introduced as "that pretty lady in the vegetable garden is one of the Master Gardeners," by the train conductor who gives visitors a tour of the zoo by rail.  That said, he's introduced me the same way even when I'm my post-workout messiness.  Also made slightly more extended eye contact with fellow pedestrians as I walked to the Zoo, the coffee shop for lunch, and home and generally found myself in a grinning self-satisfied mood for more of the hike.  So that was fun.  Maybe my laser eye contact victims were actually scrutinizing how one of my edges sort of feathered from my gardening exertions and needed a touch up when I got home, but whatever.

Conclusion:  definitely don't feel like I need to "put my face on" to leave the house, but the fun of getting into character once in a while offsets the questionable chemicals I'm probably injecting into my body.