Around Week Seven...

I have been rubbish at updating my blog, but I finally got around to taking a few photos tonight. Unfortunately most of them looked rather blurred when I uploaded them, but I did get one good one - which is included below compared to a similar one from Day 1.

Thus you can see that it really is working - I actually can't believe the difference, very exciting! When I've got mascara on my lashes look HUGE. I haven't experienced any side effects yet either and I'm still on my first bottle too, so it's lasting well. I have given up on my eyebrows now though as I got bored, decided it wasn't doing anything and didn't want to waste it.

Still got a little while to go before week 16 so hopefully the result will be even more dramatic.

Pea

Post-holiday Update

Just found a few minutes to take some photos and post an update. It's been just over two weeks, 18 days to be exact, since I started using Careprost. So far I've kept applying it religiously every night (except one night last week when I was a little worse for wear after copious amounts of prosecco and amaretto, ahem!) and I haven't found it to be an inconvenience, even when I was away in Italy. 

I think I can see a bit of a difference in my lashes already, although this could just be wishful thinking as I don't think you are meant to see any real difference until around week four. Also could be due to the fact they were sparse anyway after my eyelash extensions.

I finally got around to taking some photos tonight anyway, although despite being in the same room, with the same light and same camera set-up, they look completely different to the last lot I took. Taking decent, reproducible photos of your own eyes is actually trickier than it looks clearly!

In terms of side effects, I have been lucky so far... no itchiness after the last episode, no skin redness, no pigmentation (although it might be a bit early for that?), no stinging or redness of they eye itself. I'm being very, very careful that it doesn't actually get into my eyes though, especially as I don't want to risk iris pigmentation.

Anyway, here are my 'day 18' photos - please excuse the fact that I'm (over)due for an eyebrow wax...

I have also been using this on my eyebrows, I'm not sure it's doing anything much, but I'll keep doing it for now as a single drop of Careprost is more than enough for both lash lines and it seems a shame to waste it! 

Will update again in a week or so - Pea x

Itchy!

Hmmmm... my eyelids have been feeling a bit itchy for the last couple of days! Although I'm having trouble working out if this is a genuine side effect of the Careprost, purely psychological because I'm a bit of a hypochondriac or just a result of my fringe being far, far too long and irritating my eyelids. Yes, that does happen!
My eyelids don't look any different to me; they're not red or anything, so I'm hoping it's just me being daft. I will trim my fringe tonight anyway because I look decidedly scruffy!
Pleased to report that generally though I have had no obvious or nasty side effects so far, although it's early days yet.
Will take some 'week 1' photos on Friday, although I probably won't be able to post them for a while as I'm off to Italy on Saturday. I don't think there's really anything to see anyway.
Pea

x

Day 1

So, hot, hot, hot on the heels of my opening post... I'm back again with the first installment of the adventures of Mooie and Careprost. 

I have had my little bottles of Careprost sat in my dressing table draw for a month and a bit now, but I ordered them when I'd just had some eyelash extensions put on and I didn't want to start using Careprost while I was still wearing them, so I've had to wait for them all to shed and that's taken a remarkably long time! Finally I am back to 100% natural lashes and thus my spirit quest can now commence. 

I applied the Careprost for the first time last night - it should be applied once nightly. It's a clear Newtonian (like water for those non-science people!) liquid, just like any old eye drops to be honest, very unremarkable, doesn't even smell of anything discernible. 

The application method is to draw a line of the stuff across the upper lash line (it shouldn't be used on lower lashes). Latisse comes with single-use sterile applicators, but Careprost doesn't, so I am using a very fine eyeliner brush, which I am washing thoroughly between uses. This worked quite well - I squeezed a drop into a clean sample pot and dipped the brush in - but I did make sure that there wasn't any excess on the brush, as I didn't want it dripping into my eyes. One drop was more than enough to do both eyes and also my eyebrows (apparently it can also work to fill in eyebrows... we'll see!).

I didn't experience any discomfort, which can be a side effect - it can cause sore red eyes and irritation, but so far so good. Another side effect is iris pigmentation (although this is only really seen in people using it as a glaucoma treatment) and pigmentation of the lash line where you apply the Careprost, but I guess I won't see this happening straight away. I will update if I do have any undesirable side effects. 

I'm planning to take some photos every week, I should start to see some difference after a month with it being most effective by about 16 weeks. To start with I took some 'before' photos last night. Please excuse the slightly sinister-looking eye montage...

So that's my starting point - my eyelashes aren't particularly short anyway, although they don't look brilliant at the minute because I may have pulled some out with the last few eyelash extensions and so I've got a few baldy bits.

Pea

x

Hello!

Right! Hello there blogsphere, hello and welcome to my rather self-indulgent little corner of the internet. 

Actually, the above missive is not entirely accurate; this blog isn't just for me, I hope it will be useful for other people too, assuming anyone ever finds and reads it that is. 

I have started this online journal, if you like, to created a public account of my experiences using a product called Careprost to (hopefully) attain the, admittedly vain, aim of growing longer eyelashes. 

Those of you who have never heard of Careprost may be wondering what on earth I am babbling on about in such a nonsensical fashion. Well, allow me to explain... it all starts with Lumigan.

Lumigan is a treatment for glaucoma - administered in the eye in drop form, it lowers the intraocular pressure associated with the condition. However, this particular treatment was noted to have a remarkable side effect as it caused increase in both length, number and darkness of the patients eyelashes. Not missing a trick, the company immediately split the product into two distinct brand lines - the original Lumigan to treat glaucoma and the new Latisse brand which is marketed specifically for eyelash growth. 

Now, admittedly Latisse is a product aimed at people who suffer from hypotrichosis of the eyelashes, but unsurprisingly beauty conscious women across the planet have been whipped into a frenzy. T'was upon a message board frequented by such women that I first heard of this product and having always had a bit of an obsession with attaining Bambi-like eyes decided I would very much like to try it.

Now, all this talk of Lumigan and Latisse must be confusing since I am writing this blog about using Careprost. Well, ostensibly Latisse is only available on prescription and (if it's even available in the UK, which I don't think it is) as you can imagine, no GP would prescribe this to the majority of women with perfectly adequate lashes who'd like to give it a whirl 'just because'. 

Thus, Careprost steps into the breech. Careprost is essentially a generic version of Lumigan - the original glaucoma treatment. It contains the same active ingredient (0.03% bimatoprost ophthalmic solution) as both Lumigan and Latisse and thus it has the same side effect. It can also be purchased, without prescription, from a number of online pharmacies at a fraction of the cost of Latisse. 

At this point I must say, I did not take the decision to buy Careprost online lightly... and I'm not trying to advocate purchasing prescription only drugs from exotic online pharmacies either. It was my personal choice and I would not want to unduly encourage anyone else to do the same.

Anyway, within the posts of this blog I intend to post my progress using Careprost, including photos, etc. 

I hope you enjoy/find it useful!

Pea

x