Personally, I'm very "eh" about shopping in general right now. There's not much that's tempting me, apart from a few select pieces (like my new Orla Kiely overnight bag and the Burberry winter coat I got for 40% off).
Beauty-wise, I was severely disappointed by Sephora's lack of discounts when a friend took me to the Stanford Mall location on Black Friday. The only real sale I saw was on Vincent Longo, 30% off the whole line. (This was the sale I'd been waiting for, as I'd been curious to try his foundation for, oh, six years.) Not to mention how terribly rude and unhelpful the female sales associates were.
Have you snagged any good bargains this season? Are you even looking? Does makeup seem too frivolous a concern in the current economic climate or a low-cost way to perk up? Personally, I think we need beauty and indulgence now more than ever, and I don't think it has to be expensive.
Doug Aamoth at CrunchGear spotted this amongst many cool, shiny things at Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Says Doug:
For those times when you just can’t wait to start a rigorous long-term commitment to clean and healthy skin via an expensive skin care system, there’s the Proactiv Solution vending machine. If you were to ask me to make a list of the absolute last things I’d ever expect to see in vending machines, this might be on that list. Very weird.
I have never tried Proactiv, but have heard enough about it from trusted sources to know I'd never buy it or recommend it.
But this got me thinking of all the vending machines I would like to see and/or that I think would make big money:
Any other suggestions?
As you can see, I have a LOT of products (that's only a very small fraction of what I have knocking about here - don't even ask about all the stuff I still have left in London). I get many, many samples for this blog, and it is rare that I really need to buy something for myself.
In fact, I panic a little when I start to get low on a certain product and don't have a full back-up waiting. For example: I have a bottle of shampoo in each of my two showers, and both bottles are getting low. I have approximately 60 miniature bottles of shampoo - from hotels - in my travel supply stash. But I'm not going to use those at home.
So I went out today and bought one new bottle of shampoo (thank you, TJ Maxx). Only now do I realize that I should have purchased two. Or - God forbid - used up all the little travel bottles, since I acquire new ones by the dozen almost monthly.
I've thought hard, and can't remember the last time I used a product up completely. Even with toothpaste, I leave some in the tube and take it with me when I travel. (God, I love busting open a new tube of toothpaste. Sad but true.)
What's the last product you used up? Did you replace it with more of the same? Do you use those travel toiletries at home, or on the road only?
It may sound silly, but having a properly fitted bra is just above food, shelter, and water when it comes to necessities for females. I’ve always wondered why so many shops (I’m looking at you, Victoria’s Secret) carry on as if there aren’t millions of women who need and are willing to pay for something above a D. So this is very good news indeed for British women.
As for Yanks, I just discovered Soma Intimates when I was in Texas. They not only have really fabulous dressing rooms (pictured), but great deals on good, pretty, comfy bras. I still prefer to be fitted at Nordstrom, though. Even though a decent bra will run you at least $40 (if not on sale), it’s an entirely worthwhile investment. And don’t forget to be re-fitted every time you lose even five pounds!
While I’m on the subject (it’s not like there’s much bra news here), I can’t resist adding that you REALLY need to get a proper exercise bra if you’re jogging or even speed walking. I know how much it hurts to glimpse a woman who doesn’t wear one, so I can’t imagine how painful it is to actually be that woman. What’s the use in all that exercise if you’re going to punish your bits?
I didn't think I could wear true red on my lips until I found this. (I'm not wearing any other makeup in this shot, hence the tired look of everything but my mouth.) MAC says that it's a mid-level red with some frost, but all I see is a slick red that doesn't age me or steer me into horrid goth territory.
This was, btw, a PR freebie. It came as part of a mailing of products from the new MAC Antiquitease range, which I must say has some of the most beautiful and ornate packaging I've ever seen. The compacts (get a glimpse here) of lip color and eyeshadow were made to be coveted. They'd make great stocking stuffers or small, inexpensive gifts to exchange with friends (says she who cannot ever gift people with cosmetics or skincare or hair products anymore, lest they think she cheaped out and is passing off freebies as personally selected presents).
I just wanted to say that the Missoni scarf I'm wearing in this picture cost me $14.99, brand new in its box, from Filene's Basement at Union Square in New York. (I bought it four months ago, but when I was at Filene's Basement again last weekend, they had even more Missoni scarves going for a song.) I know it's considered gauche to talk about how much things costs, but I really don't care. It makes me happy to get bargains and to let people know where they can get them too. Eff etiquette.
(This is what MAC Mattene lipstick in Flattering looks like, btw.)
First of all, Face Time Cosmetics has yet another terrible, user-hostile Flash website*. I am going to tear my hair out and eat it if I have to keep writing that about these sites! What's even worse is that it's an e-commerce site where you can actually buy products, but the Flash interface makes it a huge pain in the ass to do so. For instance, I can't even link directly to any of the products - you have to navigate through their ambiguous menu to find them. Either this company doesn't want to make money or they got swindled by their web agency. Either way, HATE. (UPDATE: I have heard from Face Time, only minutes after I posted this, that they are in the process of redoing their website completely. Hallelujah!)
That said, I have ditched my stand-by Stila blush - and my back-up, NARS Orgasm - in favor of Face Time's Embellblush in Palm Beach Pink (full disclosure: I did not pay for it). It is not as dark as pictured in that image (which I had to grab by printing screen into a graphics program and cropping out the rest of the page...sigh), and gives a nice, healthy, subtle glow. It's a keeper.
* I just found out the other day that I live a block away from the branding agency that created the Sparkle Body Sprays site that first prompted my original anti-Flash rant. Now where did I put my Molotov cocktails...
The European Union recently mandated PAO dates on all products (PAO stands for Period After Opening) to let you know when you should throw it away. Yet there are no studies or standards developed to determine what constitutes an appropriate PAO date. Not to mention that the way a product is used affects its microbial contamination. Clearly, a jar product is more of a problem than a product you can’t touch with your fingers. Leaving a product in your hot car or opened in your steamy, hot bathroom would have an impact, but no one knows what that is, so everyone in the industry is just guessing. If Estee Lauder puts a PAO date of six months on a product and everyone else follows suit, why not? It makes the regulators happy and it fosters more sales. That’s the reality.
What is far more risky than your 12-year-old blush are the tester units at cosmetics counters worldwide. These products are used by hordes of women and who knows whether or not they had infections, diseases, sores, and other gross things I don’t want to think about. There have been studies showing how tester units of cosmetics are teeming with all sorts of bacteria, mold, and the like, but no one is making the cosmetics companies throw those away and the consumer doesn’t seem to mind in the least, in fact I think there would be a female backlash if they took those displays off the counter.
