What The Pluck: An Ode To Tweezers

by Stella Rose Saint Clair

Published Nov 30, 2014

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Let’s get straight to the point. Or, should we say: “points”? If we had to choose the most essential beauty tool in our medicine cabinet, our trusty pair of tweezers shines true. Seriously, who can’t make use of these elegant implements of cosmetic hardware designed to help you fine tune the smaller details of your daily routine?

Where would our brows be without our tweezers? If you received your tweezers at a young age, you’re probably asking yourself where your brows went! Going overboard on the brow plucking is a preteen rite of passage. We plucked away until we had over-groomed barely-there brows that rivaled Marlene Dietrich (not that we knew who she was at the time) or we tweezed to achieve our favorite style– the golf club brow, with their full beginnings and skinny tails. Cringeworthy now, but freshman year it got us envious looks from our bushy-browed classmates whose mothers rightly kept them far from the family tweezing tools. Sorry mom, or should we say thanks

Throughout our childhood, the family tweezers were a terrifying device kept next to the iodine in the sadistic cabinet of medicine above the sink. Brought out only in case of splinters, our parents would pluck and prod our tiny fingers and toes after we took nosedives on the wood chip playground at recess. We still shudder at the idea of picking the occasional splinter, but without tweezers to help, we’d be at porcupine status by now.

Tweezers aren’t just there to pluck. They help apply delicate makeup better than even the nimblest of fingers. Our individual false lashes wouldn’t stand a chance without our metal wedge-tips to place them doll-like and daintily along our lash lines. Our full strips are picture-perfect placed with our trusty tweezers. How about decorative details? Rhinestones? Sequins? Feathers? What does your dress up require? Detail magic is no longer at your fingertips– it’s in your tweezers.

Our tweezers know our deepest beauty secrets. They’ve unclogged blackheads in desperation. They’ve removed unibrows every couple months. They’re getting tired of plucking that whisker from your chin every other week but you’re grateful none-the-less. Tweezers have even pulled a stray hair or two from our bikini lines seconds before stepping out of the changing stall and onto the sand last summer– good thing we packed a pair set in our beach bag.

Kudos to our lashy, hairless, accident-proof pals. Brushes wear out, q-tips get tossed, and razors don’t hang around more than a month or two. A good pair of tweezers, however, will be with you for a lifetime.