Notes from Chic Blogging Challenge over Paris’s CoVid-19 Lockdown (1)

 May 31, 2020

For the Paris Spring 2020 CoVid-19 Lockdown, I followed Fiona Ferris’s 2 books (30 Chic Days and 30 More Chic Days) day-by-day and tried to implement each day’s recommendation. For the next several posts, I will write about what I learned through my 60-day assignment:

30 Chic Days, Day 4 is titled “Make-up Your Eyes.” This chapter has good insight into human nature. Fiona’s suggestion is that we make just a bit of extra effort with something that we do every day, first thing in the day. This small physical action is an outward expression (& helpful reminder to us) that we value ourselves.

I’m completely on-board with Fiona’s idea then and now. I had, however, what I initially thought was a technology issue. The issue was that by lunchtime, my water-proof eyeliner had drifted down from my upper lid to under my lower lid where it highlighted – not the beauty of my eyes, alas, but the small, very fine lines that now decorate my under-eye area.  I just thought, “Those lying weasels on Madison Avenue have completely falsified all advertisements about eyeliners and mascara.” Certainly, I could (and did) sweep a Q-tip (cotton-bud) under my lower lashes and remove the smudges each time I stopped by my bathroom.  (And, since all of France was in lockdown, I certainly wasn’t going anywhere outside my apartment very often.) But still, all the fussing with the “traveling” eyeliner (and mascara when I wore it) did put a damper on the chic joie de vivre that I wanted to enjoy. Just to make matters worse, none of the slim, willowy Parisian women who drifted (or powerwalked) by had dripping eyeliner – regardless of apparent age or wrinklage. For the whole month of 30 Chic Days, I kept an eagle eye peeled to dissect every woman’s makeup anytime I had the opportunity. 

The breakthrough came from an unexpected direction. Halfway through 30 More Chic Days, I started partially jogging in the mornings with my son. (Translation: He jogs in circles around me and I alternate between fast walking and slow shuffling. It’s more fun than it sounds.) Because I would be pretty sweaty when I returned to the apartment just before breakfast, I altered my morning skin-care routine. For the past decade or so, I have had the habit of getting up, washing my face, applying moisturizer, brushing my teeth, doing some stretches, getting dressed for the day and then quickly doing my minimal makeup. Then I fix a cup of coffee and I’m out the door for my morning gratitude walk. After my walk, its breakfast with the family and everyone is on their way into the world to work or to school. With the new activity of the morning gratitude jog-walk, I changed up the order & timing of my routine. For the past 3 weeks, the routine has been get up, brush teeth, throw on some work-out type gear, fix coffee and exit apartment with son. Upon return to the apartment, I quickly wash up, throw on facial serum & moisturizer/SPF combo, do stretches, planks, Russian twists, side-2-sides, then have breakfast with the family. After breakfast & clean-up, I return to the bathroom to do my usual lightening-fast minimal makeup process. And … my eyeliner has stayed completely in place all day, every day. Every. Single. Day.

AHA! It was my habit of putting my makeup on so soon after applying the moisturizer that seems to have been the issue. (This is probably completely obvious to most people – but it was a big discovery for me.) So, note to self: do skincare routine about 20-minutes before applying makeup to give lotion time to absorb. (For me, that translates into: do skincare routine, then stretches, core stuff, at least have a cup of coffee (which is always a good thing to do before I start waving pointy objects around my eyes), then do makeup.) 

So, I am glad to report that I am following Fiona’s advice from Day 4, to put a bit more effort into the eyes. I must say that I do look marvelous even later in the afternoon (rather than the panicked (and wrinkly) raccoon look that I had going on before I changed up the routine.) Happily, the best result is that I feel that “chic, well-put-together, joie de vivre” spirit that I was looking for.

Additional musings:

Blog post timing: I’m not quite sure how often that I will post now that my 2 back-to-back 30-day challenges are completed. This week & next, I am trying a twice-a-week schedule – maybe Sundays and Thursdays? If you have any thoughts or advice on scheduling, please send me a comment.

Learning new things: I have ventured into the world of Instagram! What an interesting and creative platform for expression. Thanks to one of my readers (theelevatedeveryday – Instagram name: MadameMelville) who is doing an Instagram post each day using Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days at Home. I’m toying with the notion of following her inspiring example and maybe doing a once-a-week blog post using that same book. The other idea that I am considering is looking at Fiona’s book, How To Be Chic in the Winter to see if I can adapt it for myself to help spiff up this upcoming Summer (my usual summer plans – like everyone else’s – have been rearranged by CoVid-19.) My thought was that maybe I can leverage Fiona’s hard work & creativity (again!) to help me get my “chic” on for this summer? Stay tuned as my musings continue….