A difficult day

[smokingboot]

...Mainly for the reasons outlined in my last post.

But none of it has been helped by my lurgification over the last two days. I have developed some  dramatic symptoms of food poisoning, and am on an involuntary fast. Even  yoghurt provokes an unpleasant reaction.

Tomorrow I can't put off things that need to be done, which means going to Town. I'm in a pretty woeful state about it.

Edited to add: There now, cancelled what I could though still have to be up and doing in the morning. I am so addled, I forgot the main reason for this entry.

Just checking up on prices for make-up and hair do on the day.

Wedding make-up;£130.
Wedding hair (for 2 people if I like, but the price doesn't change irrespective) £300.

Three Hundred Pounds!  And for anyone who doesn't know, my hair basically looks like this:

Unless they intend to attach a satellite dish enabling us to get congratulatory skypes from Betelgeuse , I don't see what they can possibly do to warrant 300 nicker. No. Just no.  My own excellent London hairdresser can cut my hair, and colour it too, a couple of days before. As to the make-up, I'm still not sure. I've been guilty of putting too much for special occasions, but then so do  they...on the other hand, presumably they know how to make the slap last a long day. I don't know. There is a temptation to adopt luxury mink
(carefully brushed and welfare friendly) eyelash extensions, which would mean I could roll out of our tent/houseboat/wherever we are staying in Africa, without mascara, ready to pose for  photos of our honeymoon glory.

Is it me,or is this getting weird?

Comments

[abject-reptile.livejournal.com]

I doubt there's anything 'cruelty-free' about mink lashes.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Do you think not? The claim is made that the minks are 'brushed gently' for their fur, and that the whole thing is very kindly. But I have misgivings enough not to go for it, just because I can't get my head around keeping any beastie in a cage, however fine, for its fur/fleece.

[abject-reptile.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the shed fur gathered at zoos where mink are kept goes for high end individual lashes and not to companies that make strip lashes - companies which claim, one and all, to be selling cruelty-free lashes. It may be that you're getting cruelty-free lashes when you buy extensions but it's impossible to know. Companies that have been called upon to provide details about sourcing have failed to do so. If you can't follow the trail from source to salon I don't see how you can know what you're purchasing.

I must admit - it's hard to imagine mink being brushed. They're not amenable to handling. My guess is that all or most of the cruelty-free strip lashes come from fur farms in countries like China. The extensions... Hard to say. It worries me when I have to rely on what manufacturers claim. I wonder, too, just how much shed fur there is from zoos given that the mink aren't constantly shedding and the lashes don't last very long. Enough to supply the current market?

Silk is probably ethically safer. I'd never survive the glue so it's not something that concerns me directly but as my grandfather kept mink I'm interested in the subject.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Much as I enjoy the surreal idea of Swanson-alike minks demanding peeled grapes while being brushed by adoring servants, silk or dye were always the practical options, but it is very easy to be led astray by claims of non-cruelty, not realising the lack of verification. Thank you for this advice, it clarifies my lack of information and prevents me from getting too close to a dubious practice.

A mink-keeping grandfather! Fantastic! Pets or products?

[abject-reptile.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that some professionals don't offer mink lashes because they're not satisfied as to the source. More broadly though - a craze creates a need that will be supplied by the unscrupulous so even if one person's eyelashes are cruelty-free, the market will be flooded by eyelashes that aren't (or aren't mink).

I'm afraid they were products. It was during the Depression and a supplement to his income in a place and at a time when everyone wore furs. My mother talked about them quite often and I know they were treated well but still... Not an animal to be caged. Mink have the curiosity and intelligence of ferrets but they're wild and predacious to the bone and don't make good pets. I've seen them around my property. I expect they're interested in the neighbour's chickens.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I can see that. Hopefully, as silk/synthetic remains the option within most means, 'real' eyelashes won't become that popular. What you have mentioned has certainly turned me off!

I don't know much about mink, except for their mean reputation. Desperate times call for desperate measures...I'm glad we are past them. Faux fur is a blessing.