Coffee Break: Size Up Volumizing Mascara
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I've been wearing black mascara daily for years and years. I don't remember why I bought this bright blue one from Sephora, but it's so fun I wore it to Pride this year. (The mascara also comes in black and brown.) It got slightly wet in the huge storm that led to the festival closing early, and it didn't run, AND I know it has staying power, because the next morning (I don't take off my mascara at night — bad Kate!) my lashes were still quite blue.
While this mascara doesn't lengthen as well as my longtime drugstore favorite (granted, this one's name includes “Volumizing” and not “Lengthening”), it thickens lashes well with its beautiful, bright shade of blue (similar to the tube color, in fact) and really stands out.
Sephora's Size Up Volumizing Mascara is also available in standard brown and black, in case you're looking for something more office-appropriate, as well as this cobalt blue for $16. The mini size is $9.
(Blue mascaras have been trending lately – you can find pricier versions from reader favorites like Diorshow and Chanel (Chanel is probaby the most subtle of the bunch).
Readers, what's your “probably not for work” makeup item? Blue mascara? Gold eyeliner? Do tell…
Sales of note for 7/19:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale has started! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 7/23 Lancome; 7/24 YSL; 7/29 up to 40% off select lip products; 7/31 Bobbi Brown; 8/1 Jo Malone
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – Red Door Sale! Prices start at $15
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
Paging the person who was going on the weekend trip where she thought everyone would be drinking heavily… how did it turn out for you?
I was curious about this too!
I am the OP of that post. I did not have one sip of alcohol or a cbd gummy or anything else and the weekend was still an absolute blast. Not sure the last time i laughed so hard.
This makes me so happy to hear!
Any recommendations for where to buy headband-style N95s or similar for small faces? I’m looking for both an older, petite woman and a tween boy. They have earloop-style masks that work for them (Happy Masks), but sometimes it’s nice to have a headband-style masks, especially when a tight fit is needed for longer periods of time.
WellBefore
I had good luck with Kimberly Clark n95s purchased on Amazon during the pandemic. My face is smaller, and they work well for me. My understanding is that Kimberly Clark originally made them for factory workers who needed them for non-covid reasons, so I suspect they’re designed to fit a wide range of head and face sizes and shapes
I think some commenters here have written about working with someone to help fix your posture and other alignment issues – who did you see? i just feel like i’m totally lopsided (I KNOW my hips are) and hunching all the time.
My PCP is a sports med doc and has helped me with this sort of thing himself, as well as suggested specific PT providers who specialize in this type of issue (as opposed to focusing on injury rehab).
PT is great for this.
I recently had a series of 5 extended myofascial release sessions, and I went from looking constantly lopsided to arrow straight.
I saw someone who offers manual therapy (in this case it was a chiropractor, but that’s not the kind of provider I would recommend to someone else since they’re buyer beware, and the therapy wasn’t chiropraxis anyway). My sense is that things want to be in alignment, and the successful interventions are very gentle and minimalistic, but make a big difference very quickly.
Sometimes I think I get twisted from sleeping in strange postures despite wide hips. Cars also mess me up since they traded ergonomics for crash survival design (especially the head rests that push my head forward, and the back tilted seats).
My sixth grader wants to get a second piercing in her ears. I had a second piercing in the top of my ear that closed up but has a little scar – that’s the only reason I can think of to say no. Is this trend going to stay? I’m leaning towards saying yes. Feels like middle school is a solid time for some self expression.
We don’t allow any permanent body modifications beyond one ear piercing (we have a girl) on the theory that what you think is cool at 12 might not be what you think is cool at 30.
My ears aren’t pierced, so I am just telling my kids “you can do it when you’re 18) and so the older one outgrew asking ;) – the younger one may still do it when she is 18 but we have a few years to go.
In most places kids can legally sign for their own ear piercings at 16….
I have zero ear piercings, but they’re not really permanent right? Seems totally different than a tattoo to me.
They’re supposed to be permanent, but it’s a minuscule hole. It’s basically invisible if you’re not wearing earrings there and not at all a big deal. It’s not like she’s getting a face tat.
I was in 5th grade when I got my second set of holes. I say go for it. Its harmless.
I’m planning to get mine double pierced later this summer (after the pool closes) and I’m 45 so I say go for it. I love the look of multiple earrings and always have, especially if they’re real.
This seems innocuous enough that if the first piercing wasn’t an issue, the second shouldn’t be, either. Multiple holes have been around for generations; they don’t seem like a passing fad.
My own daughter desperately wanted her ears pierced but had a track record of picking and scratching at every minor scrape and bug bite so intently she has permanent scars. We refused on the grounds that we did not want to deal with the inevitable infections and potential that she would tear the holes. I don’t regret that decision but do sometimes look back and think I was probably too strict.
No, you weren’t. I had a cousin like that and her ears were a nightmare. So I wasn’t allowed, either. I signed a waiver for myself at 30-ish and it was a PITA sleeping on the sharp piercing studs for a month until they healed. As an adult, I just wanted to finish without drama. Younger me would have probably picked or not kept it clean enough (sweaty sports practice, summer camp).
As long as the kid is mature enough for cleaning, taking care of it for a few months it sounds good to me. Said as a mom with 8 ear piercings in total (4 lobes) 4 decorative around my ears
I’m not letting my 13 yo get her second piercing. I definitely wouldn’t let my 11 yo. I’m not ready to permit body modifications for my kids yet other than a first ear piercing. The body is something to respect because you only get one. I’m telling my 13 yo she can get her 2nd piercings at 18 when she has consent rights, but honestly I’d probably permit it in 11th grade when she turns 16.
My kids get their first piercings at 12 because that’s when I think they are cognitively and developmentally ready to handle the responsibility of the healing process. I admit to being conservative on this point.
But how is getting another ear piercing “disrespecting” your body?
I feel that you should be old enough to sign your own waiver for any second piercings.
I have had two piercings in one and three in the other for over 35 years. This is not a trend that’s going away. Also, I only wear one set of earrings now and it’s absolutely not an issue for anything in my life that I have extra holes in my ears. (successful corporate lawyer if that even matters). This seems like no big deal.
Seems like a good age to handle the responsibility and fairly low stakes. I’m surprised at the strictness of some of the other commenters here. I would say yes too, depending on the maturity of the kiddo and yes, the age is a great one for some self expression!
Mine got her first holes in 5th grade and complained about the pain a bunch so I’m not allowing the second for a while. I have 2 per lobe plus 2-3 per cartilage, a nose piercing, and several tattoos. The lobes are no big deal in terms of healing and would close up easily if she no longer wanted it. If my kid still wants one when she’s a little older and more mature about this stuff I would totally allow.
For cartilage, it will scar if you have it pierced badly. My first was done with a piercing gun and healed badly and scarred when I took it out. As an adult, I went to a good piercer who was able to fix it and it’s now fine. I would not allow cartilage piercings until kid is fully grown physically (14-16ish?) and would go to a very good piercer.
I’ve had my nose pierced 3x because the first two times I took the jewelry out for various reasons and it closed within hours. HOURS. Had to get it redone from scratch.
I got to the end of this before remembering that I also have a belly ring. I would allow this for an older teen if she really wants it.
This is a really great question! I’d let my daughter get a second, but probably not a third. I cannot really articulate why, except that you have to draw a line somewhere. But the reason I would allow a second, and might even consider others is that it truly is harmless, as long as they can care for it etc. I would rather give this freedom, and withhold others (um no, you may not get a tattoo!) with the hope that they listen to me on the important stuff. (Says the lady with tattoos she got the day she turned 18 that she most certainly regrets.)
I got my second set when I was 10. I think it’s pretty normal and here to stay.
I’m shocked so many people are against it! It’s just an ear piercing. I got a second one when I was 12. I used to wear an earring in it and then I stopped and it’s had literally no impact on my life whatsoever. You can’t even tell I have a second piercing unless you look closely.
If she’s responsible enough to keep the piercing clean I don’t see a problem. I know many professional women in their 30s+ with multiple ear piercings. It isn’t a big countercultural statement like it was a few decades ago. I would 100% draw the line at gauges because those permanently mutilate your ears, but a stud is NBD.
Even a few decades ago, 12 year old Claudia Kishi and Dawn Schafer had multiple ear piercings in the Babysitter’s Club. Sure, they were some of the cooler members of that club, but they were still in a slightly dorky middle grade kids’ book series.
Even in 1984, as a pretty conservative teen with respect to style, I got a second piercing. (For various reasons I let it close up). It’s just not a big deal.
I definitely would let her. I can’t remember exact age for the second holes, but we let our daughter get her third set before she was 18. (She was 17 when we signed for the third and only a couple months from being able to do it herself. We might have told her to wait, but due to an activity if we hadn’t signed then she would have had to wait several months.) She has since gotten at least two cartilage piercings on her own. Most of her friends also have multiple ear piercings.
I ran into an old friend at the grocery store last week and they did the usual ‘oh I’d love to properly catch up some time’ schtick, thought nothing of it. Imagine my shock when I got a real invitation and they actually meant what they said!
i don’t know why my jaw dropped. this seems like such a negative view of “old friends”
It’s a negative view of neurotypical social convention not old friends!
It’s less a “negative view” and more an “accurate reflection of reality.”
It’s always been weird to me how many people say they want to see you again and never follow through. If I say “I want to see you again soon” I mean it! If you don’t want to see more of the person you can easily just say “It was so nice to run into it you today.”
I 100% agree with you, but unfortunately I think we’re in the minority.
I guess I’m guilty of it. In my head I’m thinking id love to hang out. Then as I’m leaving the store my dad calls, I’m late for pickup and I think I’ll text you later. Then later I wonder if you’d want to do coffee or dinner or maybe you think everything is overpriced or if you were even serious about hanging out. Anyway we have stuff the next three Fridays so is it weird to make plans for a month from now? That’s not an excuse so much as how my (extremely imperfect) brain works. It’s not this malicious plan to lie about getting together.
Between gray hairs and humidity, my hair has gotten really frizzy. Will a diffuser make it into curls or just a hotter mess? My hair is thin and limp.
Find a gel or curl cream that works for you in addition to using the diffuser. Worth a try! You do need styling products for curls, but it’s trial and error.
Anyone ever have the experience of doing something fun and having a great time and then discovering later (in the news) that other people had near-death experiences at your location at the same time? It’s such a weird feeling. There were multiple water rescues and someone came very close to drowning at the beach we were at on Saturday and it’s also happened to me skiing – had a great day and then found out later there was an in-bound avalanche that almost killed someone. I can’t shake the weird feeling about this!
YES. I’ve had this happen while skiing – like, we had a great day but a well known member of our community passed away in a freak ski accident. Like, it just puts a weird vibe on it.
My niece is a lifeguard at a Great Lakes beach for the first time this summer. I had no idea before she worked there how many drownings the beach has every week. I grew up going to that beach all summer, every summer.
As someone who was also a great lakes lifeguard, if it makes you feel any better the drownings are pretty rarely freak accidents and more often than not poor water safety
+1. Most of the time people make an egregiously bad choice or a series of poor choices.
Right, but a lot of us make poor choices and get away with it – think walking out on the jetty on a beautiful day and no large waves come up, so you never think it was risky. Other days, someone gets swept away.
Yeah, our friends were at the Seattle Center event on Saturday and of course yesterday there was a mass shooting there.
Yes, more frequently than I’d like. Our family is a big ski family. My uncle got hit by another skier last time he skied and broke his back and was almost paralyzed for life. My brother just got back from a cycling trip through the mountains in Europe, and the day after he left, someone rode off the mountain and died.
There are a lot of things we do that are quite dangerous. I’ve almost been killed in a car accident.
We were in Switzerland for NYE this year. Not in Crans-Montana but not that far either. We had a such a lovely time, but woke up to panicked messages from relatives and it definitely put a damper on the mood a bit. I honestly would never think Switzerland as unsafe (and we felt extremely safe while there) but still, it hit a bit too close.
We were at Reynisfjara Beach in Iceland last summer and saw two people get knocked down by sneaker waves. We learned that night that someone was swept to sea and drowned about an hour after we left. It put a damper on the rest of our trip.
The same thing happened to us in a US national park
Yeah, I’ve had people die going through the ice on lakes I’d been at earlier in the day (in weather where it was clear you shouldn’t be on the ice so it was hard to understand why they were out there, though it sadly happens fairly often). I also came across a dead body on a walk once.
I’ve had painful periods forever. I can’t go on birth control with estrogen due to a blood clotting disorder. Doctors have suggested an IUD in the past but frankly I’ve heard enough horror stories about cramping and bleeding that I’m terrified to try it. A new doctor brought up going on Slynd, a newer progesterone-only pill as my previous experience on a POP wasn’t helpful. Does anyone have experience with this one?
Mid-40s, very done with having kids. I’m seriously contemplating a hysterectomy at this point but would very much like to avoid surgery if possible.
I went on a progesterone-only pill for blood pressure reasons and although it did succeed in avoiding super heavy / painful periods, it was essentially having a light to medium period 75% of the time, and not particularly predictable whether you’d have nothing, spotting, or tampons kind of day. Apparently progesterone only can make the lining unstable for some. I took it for an entire year as for some people this side effect diminishes over time, but not me!
+1 – You have to also be really, really strict with the timing being the same every day. I found it annoying enough to not be worth it, I was basically spotting enough for 1-2 light tampons all day every day. It was effective birth control though, I’ll give it that!
I had a laparoscopic total hysterectomy (kept my ovaries, so no early menopause) in my early 40s and only wish I had done it sooner. Fibroids gave me horrible periods that didn’t every really stop, came with anemia and bad cramps, and I couldn’t take hormonal BC for reasons.
I’ve had a Mirena IUD since 2007. Insertion is really painful, but only lasts a few seconds. I had cramping and very mild spotting with the first insertion, none with the other two. I haven’t had a period at all since I got the first one and it is enough progesterone still that I am not taking any while going through menopause.
As someone who wanted an ablation or a hysterectomy at 33 to manage my awful periods, I cannot say enough good things about what a life changing event that was for me.
I had a copper IUD in for 7 months. Why did I take it out? Because I bled for all but maybe 2 weeks of that 7 months.
Favorite ways to treat yourself after doing hard things? I have a bunch of unpleasant medical procedures next week and while food/activity will be restricted I’m trying to front-load comforting treats (books, light tv shows, fun movies, etc). I’m saving 5-star weekend and a cozy fantasy book but welcome other ideas!
Journal about what a badass you are. Really reinforce your own assessment of your own strength in the moment, while acknowledging that it is legitimately hard.