Well, for those of you who just want stories and pretty pictures, I am warning you right now that I am getting way up on a soap box here. I’m preparing to rant, but hopefully I will be able to keep it short.
I was folding my massage linens the other day, and I observed that over 50% of my pillow cases are now stained with mascara and foundation. I use them as covers for the pillow I put under my client’s knees and as face cradle cushion covers. I’m starting to understand the therapists who use disposable covers.
This reminded me of my days back in Fairbanks, when I had graduated from college and was waiting to hear if I had made it into medical school. I had a job offer in the Hydrocarbon Lab of the Institute of Marine Science as a organic chem. lab. technician, but that didn’t start until fall. In order to keep body and soul together, I worked for the summer as a maid at the Roaring Twenties Hotel down at 11th and Cushman. Now that was an education in itself, given the “escort service” that worked out of the penthouse above the lobby and the fact that this period of my life occurred during the middle of the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. Let me just say that hotel maids know all about you. ALL ABOUT YOU. We clean your bathroom, empty your trash, and make your bed. Think about it.
Anyway, our policy when distributing linens to rooms was: ” If there is makeup on the wash cloth, it becomes a scouring rag. Stained pillowcases must be discarded.” They don’t make very good rags, for some reason. Anyway, if I had a dime for every pillowcase we discarded, I’d have quite a few dollars. We got rid of them because no matter if you had run the darned things through a cycle of boiling hot water with caustic detergents and bleach, they still looked dirty and hotel clients freak out if they so much as see one pubic hair in the bathtub, let’s not even talk about the reaction to a what appears to be a soiled pillow case.
Well, I am in total control of my massage room, I know darned well that when I have washed a pillow case 12 times with bleach in hot water it is clean. I can’t justify throwing away a perfectly good pillow case just because someone has mascara and foundation on and it comes off their face when I am working on their back and they have their face in my face cradle.
Think about it. I have pillow cases that have been washed twice a week for months and the mascara still has not come out of the fabric. Why would you put something that won’t wash out of cotton after numerous trips through the washing machine on your face? Specifically, on your eyelashes that are right next to your precious eyeballs? And if it won’t wash out of a pillow case, how the heck do you get it off your eyelashes? Oh, that’s right. It comes right off on the fabric. Why does it weld itself to cotton and not your eyelashes?
I remember when I stopped wearing make up on a regular basis. It was when I was a freshman in college and I had to walk around the campus in -40° weather. I would put mascara on, then walk outside to go to the commons to breakfast. On the way there, my breath would make frost on my eyebrows and eyelashes and all the hair around my face. When in the building, the frost would melt and run down my face until I blotted it off with a tissue. There was always mascara along with the water to blot. After breakfast, I would make my way to class, and the same thing would happen. All day long, from class to class to work to the dorm. Eventually I would catch sight of myself in a bathroom mirror or a glass door as I entered a building, and see my eyes unbecomingly masked a la raccoon staring out at me. All my makeup, not just my mascara, was similarly deranged. It didn’t take me more than a few days to quit wasting time putting on makeup.
Now I admit, for concerts and other performances, I still have some makeup. But it is severely limited now due to my lack of desire to put certain substances on my body. As a matter of fact, it has been months since I put makeup on. I did it for formal nights on the cruise, but I don’t see much use for it in my everyday life. You put it on, then you need ten cleansers and unguents to remove it and repair the damage caused by the makeup and removal of same. And all of this stuff costs a fortune!
What would happen if we all stopped wearing makeup? We wouldn’t be applying artificial dyes, artificial flavors, xeno-estrogens and Goddess knows what kind of chemical combination to our faces any more. Think of that! Voluntarily ceasing to put possible carcinogens right on your face and next to your eyes.
And what about the fact that you MUST replace mascara after two months once you have started using it due to the danger of getting infections from the bacteria that are growing in it? Fail to heed the warnings and risk discomfort at best and blindness at worst. Gee, makes me want to run right out and buy some.
How much petroleum would be saved if there were no more shipments of cosmetics from France (or more likely China) to the USA? How much fuel does a cosmetics factory use anyway? Aren’t there melting and cooling processes? Mixing? Bottling lines? Who makes all those lipstick tubes anyway? How far do all the tubes and jars travel from the place that manufactures them to the place where the cosmetics are put in them? What about those cute little pans that eye makeup comes in? What about all those mirrors in all those compacts? What about the compacts? The nifty logoed boxes they are all packed in for shipment?
Who decided that our own eyes, eyebrows, rosy cheeks and lips are not pretty enough on their own?
And while we are at it, who decided that our natural hair colors are not good enough? What kind of damage does all that bleach, permanent wave solution, and excess hair dye cause when it goes down the drain? What about all that solvent the acrylic nail manicurist (and her co-workers and clients) breathes all day long?
I could go on and on. You get the picture.
Makeup! Bah!
I’m with you. I have blonde eyelashes and eyebrows which disappear and make me look unfinished, so I confess I have my lashes tinted dark brown once a month (with a vegetable based dye which is non toxic to marine species – took me ages to track down but its worth it). I also dust on a mineral based loose face powder in the morning, which is translucent and doesn’t stain clothing or linen. That’s it. I don’t own any eyeliner or eyeshadow, or any lipstick. If I’m going out somewhere smart in the evening I might add some glossy chapstick and a bit of blusher, but mostly I don’t bother.
Life is too short to be mucking about putting all the usual make up on (and taking all of it off again) every day, so I’ve never bothered.
Also, I have very sensitive skin, and I find it a reliable indicator of something being full of artificial nasties if my skin goes red and blotchy in contact with it, and that has warned me off many of the lotions and potions which my friends use regularly.
Oh Truce, that reminds me of when I was participating in a market research pool and they sent me some sort of skin care system to try: cleanser, astringent and moisturizer. You talk about red and blotchy! You can bet what my opinion poll looked like!
I sometimes think I singlehandedly changed the way they did those polls. After I had been in their pool they started providing comments sections after all the canned questions. I was always sending their questionnaires back to them with marginal notations and rants.
My skin’s sensitive, too. I put on lipstick, and my lips start burning. The last time I remember putting it on was for my graduation from the Master’s program in 1985. Between that and the 1″ heels I had on, all my pictures look like I’m being tortured. Because I was. And I don’t need any “product” in my hair, either. I don’t think I have any makeup, but if I stumble on some, I’ll throw it out, it’s way too old.
Can I suggest you hold onto those linens until the summer comes and try putting them ouside to be bleached by the sun’s rays?
Our ancestors didn’t have powerful detergents – not until they discovered you could make lye from wood ash – but they did have bleaching greens where the washing was laid out on the grass for the sun to do its work.
Apologies if I’m “teaching my granny to suck eggs”.
I’m not a great one for make-up; Mr T never seems to notice if I’m wearing it or not.
The one thing I do slap on Every Day is a moisturiser with SPF.
I laugh at all these cleansing/toning/moisturising routines; all I’ve ever used is plain water and my skin is pretty good.
Have to admit to a weakness for mascara, though – but just enough to darken the lashes, unlike all those years ago, in my teens, when I used to clart on so much of the stuff it was a wonder I didn’t fall over forwards.
Hi Teuchter, I will tell you that my linens get dried out on the clothesline nine times out of ten. The sun does help, but there are still black smears from the mascara. Whatever is in that stuff bonds to cotton like nobody’s business.
I am running a risk by admitting in print that I dry my massage linens on the clothes line. The Rules governing massage therapy specifically mandate that your linens either be laundered professionally or that you wash them in hot water with bleach and dry them in a hot dryer. Why the Board of Therapeutic Massage believes that linens that go through an industrial process of laundering and are carted around in a delivery truck are more likely to be sanitary is beyond me. I break the law on a regular basis by not using my dryer. But I find the Law Of Conserving Our Precious Resources And Not Burning Fossil Fuels Unnecessarily to be more important to me than some idiotic set of Missouri State Regulations.
Must depend on the type of mascara. I sometimes use a Body Shop mascara and it easily washes out of pillow cases or towels. It also washes off my eyes with just warm water.
Other than that, I always use a brown eyebrow pencil because I hardly have any eyebrows, and that’s pretty much the extent of my makeup routine.
Meanwhile, I am often complimented on having ‘great skin’. I don’t see it myself, but if it doesn’t look totally ravaged at age 51 it might possibly be due to never having used foundation. Could never see the point of smearing gack all over my face every day and clogging up my pores.
As for lipstick – ha! I have tried to wear it (when I was much younger) but I’d always keep forgetting it was there and end up with it smeared all over my face. So I gave up. 🙂
I use a kohl pencil on my inner eyelid (ok, HH, I can see you shuddering from over here) because I look so tired without it. my eyebrows and eyelashes are already black which is a good thing as I’m too lazy to use a mascara remover. I think Azahar and I already had this conversation in seville, I remember her telling me hers washes off with water
And I do own lipstick which I wear when I go out at night. But I haven’t been out at night for eons…..
A close friend of mine is carbon-auditing . I’ll ask him about the fuel costs of shipping microscopic jars around the world.
Indeed I’d love a world without make-up except for theater performances. For one thing, I would get to see my wife ten more minutes each day. And I hate the current egalitarian trend in cosmetics advertising trying to convince men they should put as much stuff on their faces as women.
PS: my sister-in-law owns a beauty parlour. Apparently, her most successful product is shifting from nail decorations to facial and body massages: people do understand that you’re better off feeling whole inside than looking ‘good’ outside.
I hardly never put any colour in my face. However there are a few things in my cupboards and drawers that can be of use if I get the urge.
My old acquaintances B & A run the local branch of Body Shop, and they know exactly how to make me buy something colourful when I pop in to get some skin lotion or foot pumice. There is a reason why their shop is very successful 🙂
Mandarine, I felt certain that you would have a friend who could give an idea of the carbon audit of shipping cosmetic containers.
The problem for me about cosmetics is that in terms of real life, they are absolutely and completely unnecessary. No one is in danger of death from lack of lipstick. So the entire industry is a waste of precious energy and resources. Shipping the containers is just one aspect: There are the big buildings that mix and formulate the products. Where does all that methyl paraben come from anyway? Who manufactures red dye #5?
Etc. etc. etc.
I am the only female I know who absolutely refuses to wear cosmetics of any kind. I don’t care for the “made up” look. I think it makes women look like they’ve been embalmed. I shudder to think of what all is in that stuff women liberally apply to their faces! Not me!
Brenda
I haven’t worn makeup in a very long time, and when I did it wasn’t much. I’m so nearsighted that my eyes look fairly microscopic, so makeup doesn’t really show up that well anyway. I did buy some Burt’s Bees lip gloss recently, just for kicks. And I occasionally wear nail polish, again for kicks. I clean my face with witch hazel, and olive oil soap when I shower, and that’s it. I’ve even been considering not washing my hair, as I just joined an online forum for people with long hair, and many of the other members seem to avoid washing somehow. Something to do with orris root powder and boar bristle brushes and special water rinsing procedures. Eh, I think I’ll keep washing.
I’ve just seen a sign at my gym telling us that the salon is offering cut-price eyelash extensions.
My first reaction was WTF. Why would anyone waste their hard-earned cash on that?
It takes all types, I suppose.
As a current client of yours, I can say that it would not offend me in the least to be asked to show up for my appointment without makeup. I rarely put on anything more than moisturizer with SPF and maybe face powder if I am looking really pale. Fortunately my lashes are still dark and don’t need improvement. It couldn’t hurt to make it known to your clients to remove their makeup before coming and if they don’t want to comply then save the already stained pillow cases for them.
Hmm. Thanks for the comment, Becca! Your face definitely does not need improvement since it always wears a smile. It never occurred to me that I could ask people to remove their makeup. I’ll bet they wouldn’t mind if they knew why I asked. The gals who come in the middle of the day wouldn’t be able to do that, though. But then I wouldn’t have nearly as many pillowcases to worry about.
This reminds me of when I had a huge patch of paint missing from my cabinet in my massage room. I thought it looked tacky and untidy, but when I apologized to clients about it most of them hadn’t even noticed the missing paint.
i mostly don’t have time for makeup. i will once in a while put on a non petroleum based colored lip gloss but that is rare. take me or leave me as i am but this is me.
henitsirk – I only wash my hair once a week at the most, sometimes I can leave it for two weeks but it feels dirty by then rather than looking dirty.
I’ve heard that you can wash your hair with sorbolene though I haven’t tried that myself. I use regular shampoo and conditioner and brush once a day. All the women in my family have really good hair genes so it may be due to genetic luck but I do believe that most people wash their hair too often without thinking why they do it
Nursemyra, when I was a college girl and swam a mile every morning, I washed my hair every time I got out of the pool to get the chlorine out of it. When my life changed and I decided that every day was too often, it took my hair a very long time to realize that I was not removing all the natural oils it was producing in an attempt to keep it lubricated and healthy. It took it a long time to ramp back the oil production; I had to taper off slowly or I looked oil drenched by the end of the the second day.
I’ll go even farther. Most people bathe too often without thinking why they do it, and then spend money on lotions and skin moisturizers because their bodies are suffering from too much clean.