October 24, 2006

Sephora In Girls

I got this via e-mail today (text minus the graphics):

Do you have that one friend who would do anything for beauty (she’d eat cereal for a week just so she could buy that new anti-wrinkle cream) and is always one step ahead of the trends? If you know a beauty early-adapter (she’s been wearing clumpy lashes since spring), or a makeup addict (collecting lip gloss is her hobby), or you happen to be one yourself, we want them (and you) on our exclusive, trend-spotting team.

So what does it mean to be a Sephora In Girl?

  • a spot on our elite panel of beauty VIP’s for one year
  • access to exclusive online surveys
  • a chance to sound off on all things beauty
  • an opportunity to preview new products

Rule and regulations: https://www.sephora.com/secure/ingirls/terms.jhtml?cm_mmc=email%2bret-_-ingirls%2b20061008-_-ingirls-_-rules&dicid=331144:12947645172:3349460

Nominations are being accepted through October 31, 2006.

Nomination link:
https://www.sephora.com/secure/ingirls/login.jhtml?type=me&cm_mmc=email%2bret-_-ingirls%2b20061008-_-ingirls-_-nomfriend&dicid=331144:12947645172:3349750

You can’t nominate yourself but you can nominate a friend (or me!

su***********@cl**********.com











if you do … it would be appreciated.)

October 23, 2006

Walmart shoes and JCPenny Purse

dress shoes and purse

Usually I don’t go for items that have contrast stitching but these shoes fit, they’re low heel and they look sophisticated enough to wear to a business event but they also work well with jeans. They are also relatively comfortable – they’re not the most comfortable shoe I’ve worn (see my boots) but they aren’t going to make my feet hurt unless I go for an extremely long walk in them (they’re just not meant for that kind of activity.)

Then a couple of days later I was flipping through the Sunday newspaper inserts and saw this purse at JCPenny and decided to go check it out. I walked in the store and found it in less than a few minutes, checked it out, it fit my needs and wasn’t too big.

For around $18 each it’s hard to beat. They’re definitely versatile additions to my wardrobe. 🙂

October 12, 2006

New winter boots – Found some!

The weather here has turned very cold very fast. I’ve been fine in a short sleeved shirt, jeans and sandals this week… until today. I left the house and picked up the mail etc. etc. and then returned home to put on a jacket and tennis shoes. Because, as I may have mentioned, I seem to have few if no winter shoes in my closet (the last pair I decided I couldn’t wear – the leather has stretched and would fit someone with a half size bigger foot better… I’m sure my feet aren’t shrinking.)

So I went shoe shopping. I finally found what I was looking for at TJMaxx. They were still $74 including the sales tax but they were a pair of winter boots – uggs.

Now before you cringe and tell me that the trend is over – they are not the style that was ever so popular a year ago (which I thought were ugly even then.) They have a proper sole, they are a nice chocolate brown color, and have a better cut and shape but they’re still all nice and fuzzy inside. I never bought into the trend when it happened but I kept trying the uggs on because they are heaven on your feet.

I went and grabbed some shoe waterproofing from Phillip Gall’s (local sporting goods shop) and they’re still drying from the application but here’s a picture (maybe not the best angle but I can’t get a good picture in the mirror when it’s night because the flash is too much and no flash is too little light):
uggs

No they’re not dressy or anything but I think they’ll be a good everyday and warm winter boot. I’ll share my walmart and sears finds for the dressy department some other time – dress shoes and purse for under $20 each that I can wear to my winter business meetings (unless it snows … then it’s all about the winter boots.)

October 11, 2006

Winter shoe & purse shopping ….

So I realized a few weeks ago that I only really had one pair of winter shoes (other than tennis shoes – gasp) and that those, although still in decent shape had stretched to the point that they would probably be better for a foot that’s a half size larger. So I’ve been shopping for a few good winter shoes to add to my (summer) collection. 🙂

I managed to buy a pair of really nice black dress shoes at Walmart for about $17 and they match the purse (for about the same price) I picked up at JC Penny (I’ll post pictures some other day – the ones I took this afternoon were fuzzier than I thought.) But these still aren’t going to keep my feet warm.

So today while I as converting some audio files I shopped on Zappos for a bit and came up with this list of possibilites (there are a few summer shoes in there.):
http://www.clothingcult.com/clothingimages/zappos4.pdf

My favorites are the Ugg La Jolla in Shadow for a nice winter boot. But as you might notice in my pdf of the shopping cart, they are not available in my size (in fact, I scourred the web and only found them in sizes 5, 6, 11, and 12. I found a few in the cork color in some other sizes but not many… even on ebay.)

I’ve tried on uggs in the past and couldn’t bring myself to buy the ones that were trendy because I think they are mildy ugly – but they are heaven on your feet (I couldn’t justify in my mind an $80 house slipper or else I would probably have a pair already.)

Anyway – the others have a fair shot (probably that pair of slip on uggs will end up purchased soon because those I can see leaving the house in them… casual dress of course.)

The black easy spirit slingbacks on in that pdf look very similar to the shoes I picked up at Walmart.

Decisions decisions…. anyone have any other suggestions? I need comfort, style and variety.

October 11, 2006

Interesting find at Rite-Aide – Jesse’s Girl

Jesse’s Girl eye dust. (In orange?)

I must be attracted to sparkly things sometimes because this product line really stood out to me. The first time I passed it up as completely impractical but it stuck in my mind and I decided to go back later in the week to try something. It was actually a kelly green version of the eye dust that caught my eye first but I decided to go with the possibly more practical color first, a goldish pumpkin sort of color (these products do not seem to have color names so I’m making it up by what it looks like.) It looks like it’s probably meant for a teen market and includes not only the eye dust but also an eyeshadow line (very bright colors), lipglosses and a few other odds and ends. I’ve only tried this orange eye dust at the current time and it was under $4 if I remember correctly.

It’s not quite a glitter but the packaging was poor so it kept going everywhere until I put it in another container. It matched my gold fleck laminant sink counter from another era surprisingly well but that’s besides the point.

What was really surprising was how good it actually looked on. Now granted it’s WAY too sparkly for daytime wear, if I were the type of person to go out and party at night a lot or visit bars, this would be an awesome find. I decided to keep a small portion since I didn’t want to part with all of it but the remaining is up for swap on makeupalley.com because I can’t really see ME wearing this often.

It was hard to take a picture of but I did my best – tell me what you think:
Jesse's Girl orange, hip sassy taupe color and jane in dazzel

In it’s original container:
Jesse's Girl Eye dust eyeshadow in original container