Beauty

[Oshare-girl]

We took the family for a lite version of Black Friday shopping since the kids had never been and were wondering what the hype is about.  We got to the stores around 9:30am so most of the hard core shoppers were already gone.  DD got her winter ball outfit (bought herself).  Picked up some necessities (underwear) and me & DH got planners from a local shop that makes their own leather goods.  

We had some lunch and I reapplied my capsule lipstick.  I showed DH that I am almost finished with it and he asked "Is that good?".  Ha, if he only knew how good it is.  In my head I'm saying "I'm going to finish 4 lipsticks this year! Do you know how hard it is to finish lipstick?!" 

And Black Friday shopping wasn't that thrilling for the kids.  The real deals happen before the sun comes up and they aren't willing to wake up that early.  Win!

[Oshare-girl]

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@just bee wrote:

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@Oshare-girl wrote:

BTW, @just bee says in the opening of each month that they say it takes 30 days to create a new habit, but I guess for me, it's more like 4 years.  Slow learner.

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@Oshare-girl

Maybe it's 30 days to create a bad habit.

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Ha, more like 1 day.

[just bee]

I took advantage of the sales (and free shipping) and did some restocking.  I avoided most of the email offers but did check out Ulta online Thanksgiving Day.  Sounds like I made a good choice because so many shoppers couldn't even access the site after the holiday.

Lumene prices were lower on Thursday and I was able to stock discounted konjac sponges (I'm using my last one).  Then on Friday I ordered cleanser (on sale) from Paula's Choice (running low with no back-ups in the stash).

One splurge: Burt's Bees has a holiday gift tin with a lemon cuticle cream, a hand salve and a lip balm.  No, I don't need another tin, but it's a bee tin.  The products are small and probably just enough to see my hands through winter.  (My right hand is a mess right now.  Feels like sandpaper.)

Now all I have to do is avoid the Acure Organics site.  If I hadn't already bought Lumene oil, I'd be all over Acure's 40% off deal.  I'd always avoided that site but KatCat1's thread made me take a peek.

If anyone needs oils for winter, their current offer is tempting.

[just bee]

And now for what I didn't buy...

I can't believe that I was considering stocking up on Soap & Glory body butters from Ulta!  I have lotions and creams I don't even look at and I'm thinking of buying more?

Oh, but look -- this one smells like vanilla!

Yeah, and so do Vanilla Bean Noel and Sinful Vanilla -- the ones I bought at B&BW (in 2011!!!) and still haven't used.

The first thing I'm going to do when I get my hand back is actually use some of that lotion.  My skin's like a potato chip.

[DelaRose]

@just bee - I didn't realize they discontinued the konjac sponge....Wow that was one of my go to products (and I really don't have too many).

[DelaRose]

You know you have a problem when you purchase so many things on line and when you receive the packages you just don't even bother opening them.  I have so many unopened packages it's just embarassing.  Every year I tell myself that I'm gonna be more mindful of my purchases, but here I am again today with a so many unopened packages.

[just bee]

Had to drive across town this morning and stopped by Walgreens on the way home to pick up Blistex for BH and hard candy (in case I get the green light to return to work this week).

I have always loved the holiday gift sets at Walgreens and I couldn't avoid looking at all of them.  Soap & Glory has some great sets, but Walgreens prices are steep.  I had hoped that when they bought drugstore.com I'd see some of those discounted prices transfer over to Walgreens.  Not so much.  Some of their sale prices are competitive -- even better than other stores in many cases -- but their regular prices are not.

I took the trip as an opportunity to check out regular prices on items I would normally buy -- Burt's Bees, for example.  If I decide I can't live without the lip balms or the hand salve that's coming, I wanted to see how much I'd be paying at my local drugstore.

Fuhgeddaboudit!!!

[just bee]

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@DelaRose wrote:

@just bee - I didn't realize they discontinued the konjac sponge....Wow that was one of my go to products (and I really don't have too many).

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@DelaRose

So glad you mentioned this.  I was stocking my konjac sponges when I'd stock Maybelline mascara and eyeliner during the sales at drugstore.com.  Oh, I really miss that site.

Anyway, I was partial to Ecotools' sponge.

They've changed their packaging...

... and I've been able to get them from Walmart.  However, since I've stopped supporting our local pigeons, I haven't shopped at Walmart.  I'd pick up 80-120 pounds of sunflower seed, then browse.

Browsing at Walmart is dangerous.

The other day I opened my last sponge and wondered where I'd find more.  Walgreens has them online but if I can avoid paying full price I will.

Ulta carries different brands.  Their Earth Therapeutics sponges were buy-one-get-one-50% off.  Different shape and I ended up with green tea and collagen.  But the price was right: Cheap!  (The sale is still on...)

The sponges haven't been discontinued as far as I can tell -- just discounted.  But since I'm a paranoid freak, I stock them when I see a sale.  Which is still on.  Did I mention that?

[just bee]

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@DelaRose wrote:

You know you have a problem when you purchase so many things on line and when you receive the packages you just don't even bother opening them.  I have so many unopened packages it's just embarassing.  Every year I tell myself that I'm gonna be more mindful of my purchases, but here I am again today with a so many unopened packages.

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@DelaRose

I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of it.  Almost 20 years ago I had to fly back to the San Francisco Bay Area for training.  I was in class with supervisors from all over the U.S. and Canada and these people weren't working for cheap companies (I was).

The women wanted to shop in San Francisco.  When I lived in the Bay Area I didn't shop in San Francisco.  But I tagged along and kept to the clearance racks.  I bought a khaki skirt and two pairs of white pants.  I never wear white pants.  Besides the point: The price was right and so was the "label."

These pants and the skirt are still on hangers covered by the store's impressive wrapping.  Tags have never come off and the items have never been worn.  Chances are none of these things fit now, so when my hand is 100% and I can tackle that closet, guess what's going to be donated? 

Maybe I'll keep them in that impressive store wrap when I stuff them into the Hefty bag.

[rnmom]

I placed several online orders this weekend, two from Amazon, one from Walmart, one from Target, and pretty much got all my Christmas shopping wrapped up. I only have to go out for stocking stuffers for the kiddos now. Everything was free shipping and many of the items were on sale of course. I REALLY dislike shopping in stores, so this was wonderful to get done. 

I had planned on ordering some items from Ulta too, one of their holiday kits for $15 was definitely calling to me, but the site was so busy and so slow and I just didn't feel like looking around for items to add to my cart to get to the $35 for free shipping. I had enough other stuff to shop for that I just let it ride. I have a $25 gift card here so I might check it out today or tomorrow and see if there's any deals I just can't live without but I really don't need anything right now so I might just save the card until I have to replace something, we'll see. 

However, I did order a couple of items from Target, an e.l.f. holiday nailpolish set with 20 polishes and an eyeshadow palette with 100 eyeshadows, BOGO half off. I used to really like the e.l.f. polishes and they stopped making them several years ago, and I like the shadows too. Do I need either of them? Nope, not in the least, but they were so pretty and inexpensive I caved. I need to remember next year to just try to buy the bare minimum of products throughout the year because it's just so tempting to pick up all the pretty holiday sets and the prices are so good!