I’ve been considering a tattoo. At this point, I don’t know if I’ll actually get one, or if I’ll get one and then get lots more, or if I’ll decide I don’t want one after all, or if it will be something I’ll dither about for the rest of my life.

For now, I am having fun experimenting with temporary tattoos. It’s a good way to experiment with size and placement and whether I actually LIKE art on my skin, and it’s been fun to go to the pool and have all the other parents wondering if I actually have a big unicorn on my upper arm. I’m totally lying: I have not gone to the pool with a temporary tattoo. It’s because I’m worried people will either (1) think it’s real or (2) know it isn’t, but think I think they think it is.

But! We’ve been having fun with them at home. The ones I bought the most of are only $1.50 a book (they’re small books—those little Dover ones that are about the size of a notecard), and contain about the same square inchage of tattooage whether there are 4 largeish ones or 20 small ones. Amazon has them on their “4-for-3″ deal, so if you buy four books, one of them will automatically be free. If you buy eight books, two will be free. And so on. (Make sure you check each listing to make sure that one has the “4-for-3″ deal mentioned under Special Offers. All the ones I got did—but there are other sellers selling things on Amazon, and of course theirs don’t qualify.) All photos below are from Amazon.

Henna tattoos. This combines the tattoo fascination I’ve never acted on with the henna fascination I’ve never acted on. I also got the Henna Paisley and the Henna Floral ones.
Read the rest of this entry

Okay, PROBLEM: remember when I did the post on cheap but good brand stuff, and I mentioned my favorite Dove face moisturizer and then expressed panic that it seemed to be gone from their web site, and then Andrea said YES, her sister emailed Dove around Christmastime and the face stuff is discontinued?

So I panicked and went to all the stores around here looking for stuff that might still be on the shelves, but it has been too long and it is GONE. So I looked on eBay, which is where I sometimes get good deals on the discontinued Bath & Body Works lavender-vanilla conditioner I like so much—but no, the sellers are still in their “Ha ha, we took the opportunity to buy up something we heard was being discontinued so now you can’t get anywhere else! Nyah-nyah, pay us $50 for a $6 moisturizer, LOSERS!!” stage, which is such a cute stage but it won’t last long. (In the beginning, eBay sellers were trying to sell SAMPLE bottles of the lavender-vanilla conditioner for TEN DOLLARS EACH—but I recently got four full-sized bottles for less than twenty.)

In any case, I don’t feel about the discontinued Dove moisturizer the way I felt about the discontinued lavender-vanilla conditioner (transcript of my reaction to the news of the discontinued lavender-vanilla conditioner: “OH GOD WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?????”). I wouldn’t go so far as to say I “don’t mind” switching face moisturizers, but I DO mind messing around on eBay, and I don’t have the “I can’t find anything similar” feeling I had about The Particular Beloved Lavender Scent.

But which to try?
Read the rest of this entry

Every so often, someone will do a post on things they will/won’t buy generic. I am strictly brand-name on things like lotion and body wash and conditioner—but I’m CHEAP brand-name, which seems like it could be its own category. Like, I buy only brand-name face moisturizer, but the brands I like cost less than $10 a bottle; that seems different than only using La Mer.

So today I’d like to talk about the things we like that are brand-name but CHEAP.

1. Dove Deep Moisture face lotion (photo from Amazon.com). I don’t have a link for this one, and it is for a panicky reason: I saw it on Amazon for, like, $40 a bottle by non-Amazon sellers, and there’s no way I’m linking to that crazy talk because it’s usually $7 a bottle. So I went to the Dove site to get a link from there instead and THE FACE LOTION IS NOWHERE ON THE SITE. Does this mean it’s…gone? I last bought it when it was on a good sale, and I got three bottles of it so I haven’t needed to buy it for a long time.
Read the rest of this entry

My mother needs to choose a gift for a 15-year-old girl who likes lip gloss, jewelry, her pet beagle, and Harry Potter. My mom is not fond of choosing gifts and I am, so I’m helping. And I’m posting, because if I’m doing the legwork anyway, it might be something you can use if you have a similar mission and would like to save the research time for something else.

Harry Potter Charm Bracelet by Islandgirlzjewelry on Etsy. I like the way it’s pretty and colorful even when you’re too far away to tell that it’s Harry-Potter-themed.
Read the rest of this entry

I had such a nice Christmas! Paul gave me these sweet earrings:

(Bird Girl earrings from Marmar on Etsy) (photo from the shop)

and the new Lynda Barry book I would have had to buy for myself if I hadn’t gotten it as a gift, because I couldn’t wait ONE MORE MINUTE:
Read the rest of this entry

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s trying to cut back on superfluous spending lately—cramped budgets! Looming holidays! Insane daycare costs! Medical co-payments! Babysitters! Pants for my son who keeps getting taller but not wider so nothing ever fits, ever!—so I thought it would be fun, and possibly even useful, to share a few of the things we’ve bought lately that have been worth every penny and then some. Caveat: these have to be things we’ve bought for ourselves, not for our kids, okay?

I’ll go first:
Read the rest of this entry

Can we talk about hair-care products? You know, AGAIN? It’s one of my favorite subjects, really, second only to zombies. If only there was a magical juxtaposition of the living dead and a really wonderful styling lotion . . . it could be called Straaaaaaiiiiiiggght and maybe the packaging could feature this awesome photo.

Anyway! Here is a list of my top favorite hair products, in no particular order:
Read the rest of this entry

I have way too many vanity products. I know this, okay? It’s an addiction. I have drawers that are overflowing with tubes and containers I rarely use, and more shamefully, my bathroom counter is a disorganized mess of the millions of items I DO use. You’d think with all this beauty arsenal at my disposal I would be a constant vision of dewy-skinned gorgeousness, but let’s be real: there’s really only so much modern cosmetics can do.

I have powders, brushes, hairsprays, lotions, perfumes, and lipsticks littering every surface of my counter, not to mention the flatiron, hairdryer, and various hairbrushes. It’s time to clean house, by god, and while I’m sure I can get rid of a few expired items here and there, the key will be to figure out storage for all of the crap I like to at least have the option of using. Sure, I only curl my eyelashes maybe twice a year, but that doesn’t mean I want to throw out the little metal tool! I just need a HOME for it.

I started poking around for makeup/vanity product storage solutions, and here are a few good ideas I found:
Read the rest of this entry

I seem to be on a roll recently with disappointing purchases.  One person’s bad purchase can be another person’s good purchase, especially when the problem is with a purely subjective things such as scent or flavor, but it can still be helpful to know what someone else wouldn’t buy again.  I’ll tell you mine, and then you tell me yours and maybe I can get off this roll.

This one was totally my own fault:  I KNOW I don’t like fruit scents.  But I love Consumer Reports, and they rated the Gain Joyful Expressions fabric softener very highly, and Target only had it in Apple Mango Tango scent.  In the washing machine, it smells like apple cider.  After the clothes are dry, the scent reminds me of a faint lingering mildew smell.  It’s a great fabric softener, though, and someone who likes apple-scented stuff would probably love it.  Er, perhaps not after I’ve said it smells like mildew.
Read the rest of this entry

I was thinking about brand loyalty recently because I noticed that while I love Bumble & bumble hair products, I tend to buy all sorts of random shampoos. I have a stack of them in my shower ranging from fancypants expensive salon varieties to good old drugstore cheapskate brands. My basic requirement on shampoo is that it needs to smell good, I guess — I’ve never really noticed that one makes a major difference over another.

Skin care’s another story, though. I am officially fussy about the stuff I use on my face, and fiercely loyal to one particular brand, who I swear is not paying me to say so: philosophy.

I’ll admit I’m kind of a sucker for their great packaging and the fragrance of their line (lots of lavender), but I also think their stuff just . . . works. Awesomely. My favorite items:

Read the rest of this entry