Shop online with H&M – now possible in the US
& my wishlist

Posted in Clothing, Fitness / Active, Shirts / Blouses / T-shirts / Tanks

Well people have been waiting for this for awhile – the ability to shop online with H&M in the US and it’s now possible. So I decided to go give the site a quick look through and create a shopping wishlist. What I ended up with is a lot of basics I don’t really need at this exact moment … but might buy sometime soon because they’re still basics. I think the other reason I’m not chomping at the bit to buy something is that all of the clothes are in dark colors and I’m still in a bright summery mood. Anyway here goes:

hmprod-wishlist

H&M Top $9.95 in Khaki Green (or black or white or grey …they’re super basic shirts and they’re cheap.) Fitted 95% pima cotton, 5% spandex Art.No. 75-0329. I like the v-neck shirts too but I need more shirts with this neckline at the moment.
H&M Top in Slub Jersey $9.95 in grey (or red … other color options too) loose fitting. 88% cotton, 12% rayon. Art.No. 75-4225
H&M Jersey Tank Top $5.95 in white – I need a couple more white tanks for under certain items. Not likely to go wrong with these even though my favorite tank is from Chico’s. 95% cotton, 5% spandex. Art.No. 74-5150
H&M Sports Leggings $24.95 in black – I just need some new crop yoga pants and these look like a match for what I like. I’m a little iffy thought because I think I would rather have cotton spandex than poly spandex. Quick-dry, 88% polyester, 12% spandex. Art.No. 73-7039
H&M Sports Bra $14.95 in neon pink and neon green. These look dead on like the Champion sports bras I love (and haven’t seen since I bought the two I own.) Same price as what I bought previously too. Quick-dry, 95% nylon, 5% spandex. Art.No. 73-7068

So yes, my H&M wishlist is rather boring. Mostly I would be likely to buy basic tshirts from H&M but that’s pretty much what I’ve always wanted to buy from them I think.

I hate spending money on tshirts because they seem like such a crapshoot. I’ve purchased $30 shirts before that pill after the first wash and $5 (not on sale) shirts that have stood the test of time and numerous washes. Oh and then there’s still the likelihood that my cat will poke a hole in the shirt dooming it to it’s remaining days to be a workout or sleep shirt.

What’s on your H&M shopping or wishlist?

August 4, 2013

Alter a bikini so it doesn’t dig into my neck –
convert it to a criss-cross style

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

So I mentioned in my last post about swimsuits that I had a couple of ways to alter bikini tops so they don’t dig into my neck. One is no-sew and the other two require sewing and I’ll outline each of these, two of which are criss-cross or cross-back styles, with diagrams below. I’ve also done a quick video in case that helps you get a visual on how things came together on real bikini tops.

No-sew alteration of a triangle bikini top:

Alter a triangle bikini top to a criss-cross back style:

Alter a halter bikini top to a cross back style (my favorite):

Layered bikini top with one-piece swimsuit:

And this is how a bikini top looks under a nike spiderback swimsuit. Yes that’s me. For full disclosure (and maybe to help other people’s perceived weight and body issues) I’m about 5’4″ and 175lbs in these photos. And yes, I don’t look like a “long torso” but when it comes to shopping for swimsuits for some reason I am. These nike suits are one of the few I’ve found that fit as a “regular” and I don’t think they make a tall in these.

Pictured is the no-sew option on the bikini top. I caught the dangling ties in the one-pieces straps which is why you don’t see those hanging down.

Some of the athletic style one-piece suits don’t even have a shelf bra in them so yes, I’ll wear a bikini top underneath for some added support even though I’ve had a few people ask me why. 🙂

July 29, 2013

Depilling linen with the Remington Fuzz Away

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

One of the things that plagues linen as a fabric is pilling. The worst is the pilling on linen pants in the, sorry for my bluntness, crotch area and down as far as anywhere your legs rub together. This is easily remedied with electric shaver designed specifically for de-pilling clothing, sometimes called an electric lint shaver or pill shaver. What I use is an older model of the Remington Fuzz Away. I can’t find this exact one but found several that looked similar but a little more ergonomic.

Remington Fuzz Away

This isn’t perfect for all situations but a depilling device like the pill shaver will help you get more wear out of certain garments while keeping them looking newer instead of ratty and pilled. Take extra care with thin fabric and holding any fabric taught should give you better results.

NOTE: if your garment is really expensive, please seek professional help with repair instead of using this device. It does have the potential to snag or pull if you aren’t careful as well as with certain weaves. IF you would be devastated if you messed up the garment, same goes with the expensive.

Watch this quick video where I depill a pair of linen shorts with the Remington:

If you’re looking for something similar to what I used in the video, check out the newer models that Remington offers (yes, these are affiliate links on Amazon, but they’re cheap and I really do find this item helpful):

July 21, 2013

Upcoming contest / giveaway…
probably August 2013

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin

You know how I said in a couple of my videos that I was going to do a giveaway soon? Well I let one of my friends raid my stash of items last week and she ended up wanting WAY more items than I thought she would want to take.

That’s alright since the products found a new home but it does mean I’m going to wait a bit so there’s a little more variety in the giveaway.

Keep an eye out – I WILL be doing a giveaway
(probably after the next Birchbox & Ipsy shipments come in in August.)

July 20, 2013

POP Beauty – Pouty Pop Crayon in Coral Crush

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Makeup / Cosmetics, Subscription boxes

Trying out the Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Lip Crayon from this month’s Ipsy bag. “Coral Crush” is only a hint coral and only if you’re heavy handed in the application. The coral aspect might be more obvious on someone with paler complexion though.

July 17, 2013

July 2013 Birchbox vs Ipsy

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

Unboxing video for both the July Birchbox as well as the July Ipsy:

In my July 2013 Birchbox:

Marcelle BB Cream Golden Glow – perfume free is a pro on this one … but there are two forms of dimethicone in this. Some good ingredients in this and some ingredients I recognize to not be so healthy. I can’t find the ingredient list online to copy and paste and it’s rather lengthy so I’m not going to run it through the cosmetic database for a score (it’s not in there without the custom report.) 0/5 stars
Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream – I don’t know how accurate or current this ingredient list is but it does say there is dimethicone which rules it out for me personally. There are too many ingredients here for me to type it all into the cosmetic database for you to check the score to see if it is otherwise healthy for you. Generally it doesn’t look too bad but for me this is a 0/5 stars (Can more companies or Birchbox start posting full ingredient lists online in a way that’s more accessible? This gets frustrating even outside of Birchbox at times.)
Beauty Protector Protect & Shampoo – fragrance and two types of dimethicone. Custom cosmetics database report on the ingredients brings it up as a 6 which is not exactly healthy either. 0/5 stars
Beauty Protector Protect & Condition – fragrance and dimethicone. Custom cosmetics database report on the ingredients brings it up as a 5 so again not exactly healthy either. 0/5 stars
FRAIS™ Towelettes Individuals – amazing ingredients but I think this has to be one of the most expensive per use products to date. Cosmetics database ranks it a 2 which is excellent and there are a lot of healthy oils and other ingredients in this AND it’s supposed to remove waterproof mascara. However most makeup remover, moisturizing facial towelettes come in packages of 30 for between $6-$10 (so at most about $0.33 each.) This is $8 for a package of 7 towelettes! ($1.42 per use!) Since it’s individual packets I do think this might be good for travel but … I just can’t see using this regularly. Then again Birchbox hooked me on the LA Fresh nail polish removers for $0.50 a pop when regular bottles of nailpolish removers are only a couple of dollars and last an untold number of uses. So we shall see. Since I haven’t docked any others for price I’m going to leave this at 5/5 stars

In my July 2013 Ipsy: My July 2013 Ipsy bag - cute hot pink!

POP Beauty – Pouty Pop Crayon in Coral Crush – No dimeticone but it does use fragrance and petrolatum and mineral oil. A custom cosmetics database report brings it up as a 4. Between that and the fact it doesn’t have dimethicone I’m going to give it a try. It’s not super healthy but it’s … ok. If the manufacturer would skip the fragrance it would bring it’s score down quite a bit and be healthier even though it still would still not count as a natural product. I have tried this on and the shade is a little odd on me … I’m still undecided on it. 3/5 stars
BH Cosmetics California Collection Eyeshadow Sample – mineral oil, talc, parabens. Meh moving on. I know I don’t want to use it. 0/5 stars
COOLA Mineral Face SPF 20 Unscented Moisturizer – I checked out this company’s full line back when I received the COOLA Classic SPF 30 Cucumber Moisturizer for Face back in the May Birchbox and pretty much everything looked awesome. So good in fact that I bought the unscented sport sunblock already but had been hoping to try the unscented face spf at some point. Scents right on your face can get a little old quickly if you aren’t in love with them and I wanted to see if this was something that worked better for say somewhere you might be out all day that isn’t the beach. 5/5 stars
Sexy Hair – Weather Proof Humidity Resistant Spray – at first glance I thought “well it’s only the fragrance I’m annoyed about. Then I ran it through a custom report with EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment.’s skin deep cosmetic database and ended up with a 10 … TEN out of ten for highly hazardous ingredients. Bah! Ten is the worst possible score! But no dimethicone in this one… ugh. 0/5 stars
derma e – Microdermabrasion Scrub – 100% vegan, cruelty-free, paraben-free, sulfate-free, mineral oil-free, glycol-free, lanolin-free, gluten free, GMO-free. No dimethicone or synthetic fragrance either (it does have a natural scent to it that smells fairly lemony.) And it ranks a measly 2 with the cosmetic database so this is a winner for being a healthy product and I look forward to trying it. Fingers crossed! 5/5 stars

Birchbox 05/25 stars = 0.2 stars total
Ipsy 13/25 stars = 1.92 stars total

If I had to choose between the two boxes, month after month Ipsy has been winning hands down for me personally. It’s just those occasional gems and finding out about new brands along with Birchbox’s points system…. and well basically all the things I wrote about in this post that’s keeping me with Birchbox. It is what it is. 🙂

PS – my fun and funky straw fedora came from Kohl’s. Since Birchbox mentioned Power Plays being “A move that puts an individual in a position of victory and strength and/or maximizes one’s happiness or confidence and allows for extreme freedom”… I would have to say this hat would be my current power play. I hate having to dry my hair in the summer and this hides the fact that I keep washing and running or going to the pool and then not having styling tools with me… or for today it was an instance of not washing so I could make it to an early morning meeting and then my hair looking a little frazzled by the end of the day but I still wanted to get this video done so I plopped on the hat. I also wore it to Forecastle Music Festival so my forehead and ears didn’t get burned (with or without sunscreen my forehead seems to burn if out way too long) but I do think I need to find a hat that has a bit better ventilation because this one has a tendency to heat up when it’s 85+ degrees outside! 🙂