Today I was in a beauty salon for the first time ever! I was invited to
Nu Essence on South Anne Street to try out one of their new treatments, MYscara. Nu Essence is one of Dublin's most popular beauty salons offering a range of treatments from facials, waxing, manicures to hair removal, IPL and microdermabrasion. It's spread out over 3 floors and beautifully decorated.
In the next couple of weeks, they are adding a new treatment to their repertoire, MYscara. Before I fill you in, have a look at the before and after shots!
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Kind of obvious but before (Top), after (bottom) |
Like what you see? Then read on!
So MYscara. I'd never heard of it so I googled and youtubed it and saw a friend of mine in a video about it so had to ask her advice and she gave it the thumbs up, so thanks Ruth! MYscara is Ireland's first semi-permanent mascara. I didn't know what this meant to be honest and thought it was like eyelash tinting. So how does it differ from eyelash tinting? Well, eyelash tinting just give colour to the lashes, where MYscara gives colour, length, curl and volume. It lasts around three weeks depending on lash growth.
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Before (L), After (R) |
The lovely Margaret started off my removing my eye make up and then had me open my eyes and look upwards so she could place some surgical tape right under my lower lashes. Then she had me close my eyes and took more surgical tape and stuck up upper lashes to my eyelid! That felt strange but it didn't hurt a bit and I kept my eyes closed so I couldn't get too freaked out by that.
She started off by putting a primer on the lashes which dehydrates them and prepares them for the MYscara. It's made of powdered thickening fibres, rubber toughened cyanoacryalate and extra black pigment and looks and feels like mascara. Next she unleashed my upper lashes from the surgical tape and they were free to be MYscara-ed. The primer went on first again, but next she used a heated eyelash curler to give my lashes a bit of hooshing up. My friend Kim got me one of these a few years ago and I must search it out now, however, I was warned not to use it post MYscara because it'll cause my lashes to clump together, so duly noted. Anyways, the heated eyelash curler did it's job and Margaret explained that by curling the lashes and then applying the MYscara sets the curl, pretty nifty no?
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Before (Top), After (Bottom) |
Margaret applied one coat of MYscara to the top of my upper lashes and two coats to the underneath of my top lashes if that makes sense. Applying more than one coat to the top of the lashes would weigh them down, she explained, but she also told me that they do up to five coats on the top lashes (but underneath you get me?) giving you a proper full on dramatic lash.
The surgical tape came off and I was left with really lovely looking lashes! I will admit that I was worried about how the lower lashes would look because I tend not to wear a lot of mascara on them during the day but at night, all bets are off and I'm caked in the stuff. My lashes look and feel like they've mascara on them and they're not rock solid the way I thought they would be. The whole process took about 40 minutes and it flew by.
Here are some factoids about MYscara:
It's waterproof - eh, bonus if you're going on holidays, you can swim no hassle. If you're going to a wedding, you can cry like a baby (except if you're going to a wedding 2 hours after having it applied, you're not allowed to have water contact your eyelashes for the first 2 hours, so be warned, tissues at the ready.)
You can wear mascara over it - this is only grand if you've gotten a natural look like moi and want to amp up the lashes when you're going out, just use an oil-free eye make up remover at the end of your big night out and be gentle.
You can get it removed in the salon or let it grow out yourself - I'll be letting it grow out and showing you how I get on over the next 3 weeks. I'll be topping it up with mascara as it starts to fade.
It is perfect if you do this like me -
bring your mam's foldy up shopping bag to work instead of your make up bag.
You can wake up like
yer wan in Bridesmaids who got up early to put her make up on and legged it back into bed, except you can stay in bed!
Anyway, since they haven't started the treatment yet, they don't have a definite price yet but it will be around the €50 mark. I'll let you know when I know for sure. Margaret assured me there will be offers going on so
visit them on Facebook page to keep up to date on what's happening. I'll let you know how the wear and tear goes and report back in 3 weeks. I have high hopes for this and think it'll be great for the Christmas season, I'd just have to up the number of coats and go all out!
Thanks to Margaret and Nu Essence for making my first visit to a beauty salon so enjoyable. In the words of Arnold himself, I'll be back.
Will you be trying MYscara ladies?