Don't take my mascara!
Loose Ends
Susan Nienow

Last week I cleaned out my makeup drawer - not that I wear much, but I collect it. Or rather, it collects. I never throw any away. Even the lipsticks that are down to the end. Some of it might qualify for the antique category.

I threw out two containers of loose powder. Do they even sell that anymore? I also pitched a plastic case of 15 eye shadow colors including bright pink and a shade of blue I haven't seen on anyone's face for years. I didn't think I needed two dried up wands of concealer either.

I vaguely remember a three-month rule for mascara - or was it one month? Otherwise I could get an infection that would destroy my eyelashes. So I buy mascara every time I am in a store, have a coupon, and it's on sale. I'm good until 2011. I consider it an essential. I keep one in the car, one in my luggage, one in my tennis bag - I never know when I might have a mascara emergency on the tennis court.

Lipstick is tricky. Some is shiny, some is more matte, and some dries on my lips like the old school paste and then needs the gloss stuff. And it comes in colors. I have all of them except the rose in my v-neck sweater and the peach in my long-sleeved blouse and …

So I pitched the dark chocolate, the vibrant orange, and the magic magenta. One had sparkles, two looked like they had melted at some point, and another was nearly gone. So I dumped them.

I don't really buy all of this stuff - I just can't pass up a "free gift with purchase." The gifts always include a lipstick, occasionally two, eye shadow and various little pots of cream. I can't tell what they are for anymore because the print is too small.

I have powdered blush and cream blush, light and dark, along with bronzer, and a face powder that says it is versatile. Then I counted my brushes. There are 23 - big fluffy ones, medium-sized, a few they call purse-sized with short handles, and lots of little ones that I never knew how to use. Three are lipstick brushes - something the ads say I have to use for a perfect outline, but I never got the hang of that.

My favorite gift with purchase has always been the false eyelashes. I got my first ones several decades ago but never got up the nerve to wear them. They were the stuff of dreams - movie stars and models. I kept waiting for just the right event to wear them to, but was never invited to a function that required me to bat my eyes.

I finally threw them out last year. They had became the stuff of nightmares. I kept imagining myself, all dressed up at a wedding reception with one falsie hanging askew just as the photographer snapped a close-up.