PureDistance 1 -- A Full Bottle Giveaway -- week two

One more week to enter the drawing for the full bottle of “PureDistance 1 Perfume!” See last week's post for details. Leave a comment, either here or on last week’s post, to enter.

Not all of us can be Grace Kelly. Actually, none of us can be Grace Kelly. 

Kelly, according to movie legend and lore, was Alfred Hitchcock’s ultimate goddess, as she appeared in “Rear Window” and “To Catch a Thief.” Supposedly he became obsessed with her, and, after she retired from filmmaking to become Princess Grace, he tried to find her again in actress after actress, but never could. 

I chose this photograph of Kelly because she’s, well, soaked, but her makeup (and be assured: she’s wearing it) is perfect. This is no doubt because she had a makeup man, or woman, or both, or crew, waiting poolside to touch her up, another privilege us mere mortals don’t enjoy. And her mascara is...perfect.

I usually don’t write about beauty products, although I do use them, and have never endorsed one before. But today I want to tell you all about the single best makeup product I’ve ever found: Clarins Fix Mascara.

I have slightly deep-set eyes. Because of this, each time I blink my lashes, they brush the skin underneath. As a result, I’ve gone around with mascara smudges under them, forever, until now.

“Fix Mascara” is a transparent gel you apply, with a mascara wand, over any mascara you want. It instantly becomes smudgeproof and waterproof, and stays on until you take it off. To me, this is a revelation. No more panda! No more pulling at the skin under my eyes -- and we all know this is a BIG no-no -- to wipe the smudges off!  No more repairing eye makeup!

I’ve tried many kinds of mascara in my rather long life. Many, many, many. Some have claimed to be waterproof, others smudgeproof, others both, but none ever really were. This stuff works. I haven’t (yet) gone body-surfing in it, you understand, or lived through a Southern July or watched “Sophie’s Choice,” but for general day-to-day, including naps, it works beautifully.

One of the advantages of perfume blogging is getting exposed to reviews of makeup and skin care products, from other perfume sites and from forums. I heard about Mascara Fix after pleading on Perfume Posse: has anybody ever used a mascara that actually stayed on?!  Someone had used this, and she told me about it.

So, I got myself some Mascara Fix, and some eye makeup primer -- another wonderful product, which I read about on The Non-Blonde. I put my eye makeup on once now, and it’s there all day.  It will never make me look like Grace Kelly, but even a trip to Lourdes wouldn’t do that. It does, however, make me look better at 3:00 in the afternoon than I did before. This is about as much as one can ever expect from a cosmetic product, notwithstanding the claims of the gazillion-dollar makeup business. It won’t turn you into Grace, but you won’t need a makeup crew, either.

Clarins Mascara Fix is available from the Clarins website or the usual online shopping sites for around $22.00, and probably at department stores, too.

I’m not affiliated in any way with Clarins. I bought this product.

I’ve been using “Stay Don’t Stray” eye makeup primer from Benefit, which seems to work very well. Not affiliated with them, either.

The photo came from a Grace Kelly fansite. It was also used as the cover of one of the books written about her. I haven't yet found a photo credit, but I bet it was Bud Fraker, who took many of the iconic photos of Kelly.