Make up tips for eyebrows, eyelashes etc.

I was very like you in that, while I wore eye makeup, I never used a brow pencil.  My hairdresser recommended a water-proof brow pencil and it turned out to be relatively easy to pencil in missing brows; just follow the brow (orbital?) bone and use short, feathery strokes. 

It's not unusual for the nurse to call in nausea meds for you; you'll need to start taking them before you have your first infusion.  It's a pre-emptive strike, so to speak: take the nausea meds as directed, don't wait to get nauseated first because, then, they will have little effect.

Where are you having chemo?  The cancer centre that I went to had it's own pharmacy and carried a wide range of products that chemotherapy patients need during treatment, including Biotin products.  If not, then ask a local pharmacist; if he/she doesn't already stock them, perhaps they could while you are having treatment.

Septmom

Sorry you are on the road to chemo. I am many years out but saw your post. I wanted to let you know that I did not lose my eyebrows and lashes until my last (4th) chemo. (UGH!!) Anyhow, I bought Anastasia EyeBrow Kit. They come in a variety of shades and is sold at Sephora or Ulta. In the kit is this great (waterproof) powder, brushes and Stencils oh and a dvd showing you how to use the kit. I found if I put foundation on my brows would stay on all day even in hot humid weather and most people couldn't even tell they were not real. It took a few times to master the stencils but I found them to be a true life saver. I still use the powder to fill in my brows and love this product and highly recommend.

The anti-nausea meds they give you pre-chemo are also lifesavers. I took Emend (IV form) Benadryl (had mild allergy to taxotere) and I forget the other antinausea med but I never got sick.

Good luck with your treatment!!!

Diane

Take in an American Cancer Society 'Look Good, Feel Better' session (your cancer center should be able to get you the information & help you set it up). They give you scarves & wig advice. Show you how to use makeup to your best advantage during treatment and they give you tons of high quality makeup free. It's a really good & helpful program

Septmom- I second the Look Good, Feel Better session, I learned all kinds of things and you get free products as well so you can try differnt items w/out the committment. I was told start with new makeup and as the others said, more intense, as well as all new nail polish and nail files since my MO said no mani / pedis so I have to do them myself. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I personally found the best product for my brows is from It Cosmetics, their eyebrow pencil. I started practicing with it while I had eye brows because I also have very thick brows and found it was easy to keep them full by feathering in the light spots and never fully lost them 100%.

Always check with your MO before changing anything you are taking by way of vitamins and supplements. I took products from GNC with Biotin after my first chemo finished but the MO would not let me take it while on chemo.

The place where I go uses the spray on my port vs. the cream - it rocks...though I have never had the cream. I just like it is quick and we get started.

Best of luck tomorrow!

Here's a great tutorial on how to create fake eyebrows (she also shows how to do eyelashes in another post): http://eyelineher.blogspot.com/2011/05/recreating-eyebrows-with-make-up.html

The blogger has alopecia, so she's pretty much an expert at doing this every day!

SeptMom, hi.

When I had chemo, I didn't lose all my brows and had enough to fill in with pencil. My all time favorite product was the Universal Brow Pencil and the Brow Buddy from www.billiondollarbrows.com The Universal pencil is really universal...works for everyone and the Brow Buddy is a tool that helps you define the start, end and arch for your brows. Easy peasy and lovely products.

Good luck, hon.

MsP

And as another lady commented the program by the cancer society is good. I never attended because I couldn't coordinate the classes wit my chemo times and I knew I would have been ok with what I know. But my mother attended and while I'm fine with maybelline and other low price brands, I'm aware of the high end department store brands cause I worked in one. I was envious of the better expensive brands my mother received. They gave her the good stuff including OPI nail polish.

When I did chemo in 2007 I could never draw my brows, I always ended up rubbing it off because it looked so bad then I had red splotchy marks in addition to no brows.

This time I am using a brow powder from Clinique that works well and is easier for me to draw brows, then wipe off in the areas that look uneven. My only complaint is that it won't last all day so I carry it in my purse for touchups. I felt like my brows were sparse before chemo so I think I'm going to to keep this as part of my makeup routine.

http://www.clinique.com/product/1595/5634/Makeup/Brows/Brow-Shaper/index.tmpl

I also got Cliniques touch base for eyes that makes eyeshadow more intense and lasts all day.

http://www.clinique.com/product/1598/5169/Makeup/Eyeshadows/Touch-Base-for-Eyes/index.tmpl

I also recently started using eyeliner and I have not perfected that. I bought false lashes from headcovers.com that were short enough not to look fake but I cannot apply them correctly.

My challenge with lashes and eyeliner is that i can only see out of the top of my right eye due to optic nerve damage so it's hard to do details like that where i need to close my good eye and try to see out of my bad eye.

1Mindy that sounds great. I would have loved that.