beauty is pain.

so out of nowhere, the kid decided that she was finally interested in getting her eyebrows shaped. i thought it was a fabulous idea, so we headed to the anastasia counter at the local nordstrom yesterday afternoon. i wasn't really up to driving out to beverly hills, not to mention i didn't dig the idea of a $95 brow shaping. i wanted her to have her first one done professionally, but come on - even i have my limits.

of course, when we got there the girl had just left for lunch - for an hour. well, poo - stuck having to kill time at the mall. darn. what's a girl to do? >;)

the kid's BFF's birthday is today, so the first thing we wanted to do was pick up a present for her. vans shoes are pretty big with the kid and her friends - no cheesy prints, TYVM, just simple styles - so we went into the vans store and scooped up a pair of basic blue lace-ups like these: the kid's other favorite store is sidecca - it's like a cheaper version of urban outfitters. i took my usual seat (carrying all this weight around really tires my ass out) while she scurried around, checking out everything that caught her eye. while unpacking the night before, she'd found her wallet - and realized she had money left over from her birthday and 6th grade promotion. bonus! she picked out a top and a couple of other things and left the store a happy camper.

when we got back to the anastasia counter, the girl somehow had taken off on another break. i was like "um, she just got back from lunch." meh. we waited for probably another ten minutes before she finally came back, and the kid hopped onto the chair and got comfy. she gave me the eye when she found out that the procedure included waxing AND tweezing - she was really skittish about the idea of waxing, but she put on her game face and the process began.

andrea, our brow girl, damn near clapped her hands with glee as she squealed "oooh, virgin brows! how exciting!" again, the kid gave me the eye. i suppressed a giggle and tried to keep a straight face.

then, after examining the virgin brows, she handed the kid a mirror to show her what she was doing, busted out the arch stencils, and brushed on some powder. then she reached over to stir the wax (and it was such pretty wax. it was all shimmery and sparkly and i was a little mesmerized, kind of like a raccoon finding something shiny), applied a bit, and pressed the linen strip into place.

my heart flip-flopped when she ripped that strip off and tears came to my kid's eyes. [sad face] i'm always teasing her with "pain is beauty, my dear", but i knew she'd been nervous and it just made me a little sad.

anyway, the waxing continued, followed by the tweezing, then the after-tweeze cream (the kid's relief at the touch of the cool cream was visible), a bit of highlighter, and voila! i wish i had a picture to post, but she'd have killed me if i'd busted out a camera right then. she was already put out at the fact that the chair was right there in the cosmetics department for all to see - although it was tuesday afternoon, and not a single customer walked past us the entire time.

now i wish i'd have had mine done, too. i'm due, but i think i'll just go to my usual place - a little asian lady who charges me all of $5 to make my brows purty. yay for purty eyebrows!