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  • product fiend

    Being a poor, tightwad student I spend next to nothing on myself. I don’t hardly drink, I don’t buy makeup, I buy sukin cleanser (fairly cheap “natural” face wash from Farmers), though I do splurge on Body Shop moisturiser, and hardly ever buy clothes (and never at full price). I’d say my one vice is food, and by that I mean we’re not eating toast and noodles every day and we drink a lot of milk. We actually eat meat almost every day and usually buy ice cream or biscuits or chocolate for a treat every week.

    Anywho, the point I’m getting to is that a lot of the best stuff is insanely expensive. $30 nail polish, $100, 200 and 300 cleansers and moisturisers, eye creams and masks from $40… Of course not all of it is worth it, but some are real gems worth every penny.

    My favourite products (none of which I paid for, but got to try out through work, thankfully)

    denny

    Leighton Denny nail polish. $29, I think. Beautiful colours and amazing staying power (almost a week, minimal chips). Great texture, easy to go on, just the right thickness and amount, just looks effortlessly amazing – even with my clumsy application. I only use about two cheap nail polishes which work just fine, so I’ve never understood who buys expensive stuff. But now I can understand why.

    asmvtwb

    Dermalogical multivitamin thermafoliant (over $100). It’s a bit gimmicky, meant to combat the ‘chemical reactions’ taht start the ageing process, BEFORE they start. Bollocks I say. Plus it heats upon contact with skin, and apparently can be used dry, convinced? It is indeed self warming, which is a bit weird but I quickly got used to it and found it quite comforting – kinda like feeling the sun on your face or getting a nice warm cuddle. It’s quite gentle and immediately my skin felt plumper, smoother, hydrated and just superduper awesome. Not keen to try it dry, but whatever floats your boat. Probably good to use once or twice a week.

    aaa-drhauschka-soothing-mask-2

    Dr Hauschka soothing mask. It’s the first product from this line I’ve ever tried. They’re quite famous and meant to be wonderful for sensitive skin. Shit yeah. This mask is a godsend. You’re meant to leave it on for 20min after cleansing, or alternatively apply a thin layer under moisturiser. I slathered it on, but it quickly sunk into my skin leaving very little to wipe off after 20min. I just left it as is without putting moisturiser on over the top. My face drunk it in, I tell you, and while I don’t know if my skin looks much different today, it certainly feels better. Less dry and irritated and not itchy at all.

    Now….to find something to shrink my humongous pores…

  • Disappointment and frustration

    The hunt for glasses has become rather depressing.

    Mainstream chain places – zilch.

    Ugly, half-rimmed glasses – all the rage.
    There’s not much choice between the trendy chunky frames (too thick and overpowering for my face) and the nanna wire-frame type ones.

    And I’m really not liking the new plastic craze – I like the lightweightness but I want something sturdy to last a few years, and HATE that the new plastic ones don’t have actual nosepieces. How can you adjust them to fit your face properly? They only have small plastic ridges, which might work fine if you are almost any ethnicity but Chinese. I HAVE NO NOSE. I have nothing to perch these plastic frames on; pushed up my nose, they sit millimetres away from my eyeballs. I look like a goldfish. Each time I blink my eyelashes touch the lens. It’s very, very uncool.

    However, I  succeeded in finding a pair at Beale and Beale in town, and plan to buy them online from lessforspecs. The frames are something like $60-70 less and lenses up to $200 less. Hurray!

    I also had a rather unpleasant experience at Auckland Uni’s Grafton optometry clinic. First I signed in at reception and asked if they had a range of frames I could look through. She said I’d need a student to help me out (WTF? Since when does trying on frames mean you need supervision?) and asked when I last had my eyes checked. She then disappeared into the back for ages and came out saying she couldn’t find my file anywhere. At this point I patiently explained I had not had my eyes tested there.

    She said “WELL THEN, I’M SORRY I CAN’T HELP YOU. WE’RE AN OPTICAL CLINIC, WE’RE NOT A SHOP FULL OF FRAMES”

    What the hell. They were all happy as Larry, until it turned out I hadn’t had my eye test there? I told a friend had recommended the clinic for eye tests and frames to which she told me that they must have it all wrong.

    I asked her, “So where did they (my friend) get their frames from then?”

    Her response: “Oh, they must have gone to their own optometrist.”

    Huh. And yet she had been willing to oblige right up till then, when I explained I hadn’t had my eye test there.

    So my friends are stupid, and liars, and so is their own website?

    I walked out puzzled and frustrated that I’d wasted all that time and energy walking to Grafton over the bridge and then missioning it all around that particular building trying to find the bloody place. Worst waste of time ever.

    I was going to email in and complain, and suggest to them to remove the following: “Spectacle Dispensing – a selection of quality frames available” from their webpage, but can’t find an email address on their site.

  • Grr

    Kinda annoyed as a few of the groceries we bought this week we bought due to the markdowns, only to realise when I got home to entered them into my price book that the discounts didn’t come through at the checkout.

    Still, there’s only myself to blame – I need to be keeping an eye on the till so these things don’t slip through, especially now CD has those massive screens that they so kindly face towards us.

    I’ve only been keeping my price book for about two months, but already I’ve seen bread, noodles, beans, rice, pasta sauce and muesli bars go up (and probably other, less staple items too). Even if each thing went up, say 30c (which is pretty realistic), consider how fast prices have been rising, and consider how many different things you buy in your weekly shop.

    How on earth are we ever going to get ahead?

    At least we can still afford to eat meat.

  • I’ve decided to use some of my poster money to buy a new foundation. I’ve been using the old one forever (way, way, way past its shelf life, which can’t be good for my skin). Specifically, a mineral foundation.

    I was looking at the body shop’s version today. Normally you flip the product over and the label unfolds like an accordion for you to read the ingredients. Not this time. I like to know what I’m putting on my face. But I get the feeling since Loreal bought them they’ve been doing shady things and don’t want us to know what actually goes into their products…

    When I asked the salesgirl what ingredient provided the SPF protection in the foundation, she looked at me as if I’d sprouted a third eye.

    Plus given the fact that the application brush cost more than the foundation itself, needless to say I decided not to purchase there.

  • I don’t think I’ve bought one single thing this year without going back, looking at it and trying it on at least twice this year.

    It’s not just I want to get the best deal, but I don’t want to make the wrong choice – I don’t trust my memory and I’m getting increasingly more indecisive. My coat, my boots, a couple of tops, bathrobe, my shoes… and most recently glasses. That was somewhat ridiculous, I must have made three trips back and forth between the same two shops. On different days, of course.

    So my indecision’s increased along with my fear of making the right choice… But on the bright side, I haven’t regretted a single purchase. Which is proof my way is working, right?