It was a hot day. The sun feels hotter than it did, or maybe I’m more of delicate flower as I age. I had my sunglasses on ($3 from Aldi’s!), hands at 4 and 8 on the steering wheel, driving on I-190. My eyes were darting a bit. That’s when I noticed it: A subtle rainbow shimmer met my eyes through the polarized sunglasses. My steering wheel sparkles now. Or it does only in the bright sun, and seen only through the polarized sunglasses.

I’ve found this to be the case at work a bit, where I apply makeup after bicycling in. My bicycling backpack also has a subtle rainbow glitz in the sun. My purse has a veneer of subtle glimmer. My eyes’ sparkle is not subtle at all, but that’s on purpose. I started wearing dramatically colorful eyeshadow when COVID protocols covered the rest of the face. It’s not what the trend is right now. I do not care. A local stained glass expert on Instagram introduced me to this company in Toronto that makes multi-chrome colors that shift in the light. I like sparkle. I often get shimmer fountain pen ink and wear jewels. The eyeshadows are pricey but the company also run sales. I’m hooked. It’s all I wear right now.

The eyeshadow doesn’t have microplastics and barely has binder in it. That makes it a touch more eco-friendly but it sheds from my eyes, comes off the brushes on me, and since it’s often in my bag if I need to reapply – despite being carried in a zip-lock bag – the sparkles travel. I wipe it down and it re-appears. I wonder how other products of my life are doing the same but I don’t notice it because their matte qualities don’t pick up the sun and weren’t designed to catch my eye. The proliferation of microplastics makes more sense to me.

They say that all you do has an impact on those around you. What you bring to the world is what the world will have. Seeing my eyeshadow make it elsewhere is maybe not what they meant but reinforces the idea. It wasn’t an unwelcomed sight on my steering wheel. So much of life is banal – why not enjoy a little unexpected sparkle?