Category Archives: Beauty

Giving Wen Another Go (or Maybe Second Time’s The Charm)

Posted on March 6, 2013 | Comments Off on Giving Wen Another Go (or Maybe Second Time’s The Charm)

What seems like a million years ago (but really in the summer of 2007), I was asked if I’d be interested in trying out a new hair product. I was told that I would be given a 2 months supply of it, and all I had to do in exchange for it was take a before and after photo and be open to the idea of being asked some questions on camera.

What girl would say no to that! Free beauty products? I’m in!

The product was Wen by Chaz Dean, and I really loved the product! It was a little different getting used to it. It’s a cleansing conditioner so you only use one product, and it doesn’t lather. At the time, I had never used a sulfate-free shampoo before, so it was a pretty big adjustment.

After my after photo was taken and I ran out of product. I stopped using it. It was getting a little expensive for me, and back then my hair was significantly thicker so I used a lot of product each time I washed my hair.

But ever since 2007, every so often I’ll catch a peek at myself in the infomercial for the product.

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Yup, that’s my before and after photo on the end of the middle row. Those photos were taken right before I started dyeing my hair red again.

When my aunt was in town recently, she brought me a couple of bottles of Wen. She had gotten the products off of the infomercial since she knew that I liked them. But it didn’t work as well as she would have liked for her hair.

Again, free beauty products? I’m totally in!

I’ve been using the Wen again for about 2 weeks now. I can’t tell if I notice a huge difference in my hair or not, but the color doesn’t seem to be fading as fast as it normally does. Also, this time around I like the idea of using one product. I get it all massaged into my hair, clip it up, and then I can everything else I need to do in the shower without my hair in the way. That’s pretty nice. And since I always use sulfate-free products now, the lack of lather in my hair doesn’t bother me as much.

Will I buy Wen when my 3 bottles run out? I don’t know. I’m going to see how fast I go through a bottle and figure out the cost per use. I know how long it takes me to go through my normal shampoo/conditioner, so if the cost per use isn’t a huge difference, I might invest in it.

I also want to see what my friend who does my hair has to say about the condition of my hair. I know that she’ll be totally honest with me, and if she says that my hair is in better condition one way, I’ll probably do things that way.

Any of you out there have any experience with Wen (or another cleansing conditioner) and want to share your stories/advice/opinions? I’d really like to hear what others have to say!

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Maintenance Time (or Busy Busy Weekend)

Posted on February 11, 2013 | Comments Off on Maintenance Time (or Busy Busy Weekend)

I sure kept myself busy this past weekend.

On Saturday, I was at work for 4 hours. Since it was the end of the pay period for us, I had a lot of little jobs to do to finish out everything and make sure my time cards and commissions were in order. Also, I’m not going to be in work the day that everything is checked (before it’s sent to the accountant to make out our checks), so I had to make sure everything is perfect. More on why I won’t be in work in a minute.

After work, I headed over to my friend’s house. The original plan was for me to have my hair cut and colored and then I was going to babysit my friend’s kids so she and her husband could go out. But my friend and her husband decided to spend the evening in, so it was just a fun hangout and hair session with my friend.

There are certain beauty routines that are luxuries like manicures, expensive makeup, blowouts, and pedicures in the winter. But things like cutting and coloring my hair and having my eyebrows done are maintenance work for me. I have to look good (even if I look this weird while my hair is being dyed).

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After my hair was done, I spent some time just hanging out with my friend, her husband, and their kids. It was a low-key Saturday night, but it was exactly what was needed.

With Sundays being my only day off in a typical week, that day is always filled with doing my house chores. I spend a decent chunk of the day doing sweeping, vacuuming, laundry, and any other random tasks that need to be done around the house.

And I made sure to get all of my chores done yesterday because today I have family coming to town to visit me!

My mom and Aunt Cindy are coming in town for a couple of days! I’m super excited and we have some really great things planned. My Aunt Cindy and I have had this casually planned out for 6 years or so, but things like my hip surgery or other family events kept popping up and postponing our plans. My mom was saying how we were just letting her tag along, but she was always included in our plans.

I’m excited to share with you over the next few days the adventures that the 3 of us have ahead!

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Posted in Beauty, Family, Fun Stuff

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Pinning Freak (or I’m Going To Turn Myself Into Someone Crafty)

Posted on December 7, 2012 | 3 comments

I’m totally addicted to Pinterest. I know a lot of people who are as well.

I’m always pinning awesome recipes, beauty ideas, organizational tips, book suggestions, and even ideas for the future like wedding or baby things. I’m hooked.

I love seeing all the cute baby things that my friends with babies are pinning. And my future sister-in-law is now on Pinterest pinning ideas for their wedding.

A lot of the time, I’ll email my dad some of the things that I’m looking at since he is very crafty. And we have done some projects that we found on Pinterest. One of the big ones is cutting the bottom off of wine bottles so you can put candles underneath. Cutting off the bottom of the wine bottle is pretty tough. I believe my dad has been able to successfully do it 2 or 3 times. I don’t have a great photo of what the wine bottle candle holder looks like, but you can see it behind my birthday bouquet in this photo.

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I wish I was crafty enough to do most of the things I see. Just today, I saw a pin on how to make your own glitter tights (perfect for New Years Eve!). If I made them, the tights would probably get glued together and somehow I’d get glitter glued to various surfaces in my house (even if I did the project outside).

So I’m going to start small with my crafty projects from Pinterest. There are a bunch of recipes that I’m going to try soon (and I just got a CrockPot so that’s pretty awesome!). And I found directions on how to make your own dry shampoo for dark hair. I could probably do that without too much craziness.

I know that I’ll probably never been as crafty as the ideas I see, but I’m going to take some baby steps and maybe one day I’ll get close to that. In the meantime, I’m excited to pin silly things like travel ideas, quotes that I like, blogs that I like, and ideas for a dream home in the future.

Oh, and if you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can do so here.

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Posted in Beauty, Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Running Into An Ex-BFF (or How I Survived My Pedicure)

Posted on November 19, 2012 | 1 comment

Yesterday, I went with my friend Stacia to go get a pedicure and eyebrow waxing in preparation for Thanksgiving. I’ve been going to the same nail salon since I moved to LA over 11 years ago, and I was excited to bring Stacia there for the first time.

As we were pulling in to the parking lot, I was telling her about my ex-best friend and how we used to always go to this nail salon together. I was friends with this person for 8 years, from freshman year at LMU until about 3 years ago (our friendship ended on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2009). To this day, I’m not exactly sure why our friendship ended. But to be honest, looking back now, I feel like we had outgrown our friendship.

For the last 3 years, I’ve never seen my ex-best friend. The people who work at the nail salon always mention how we miss each other by a few hours a lot of times. But as I was parking, I noticed my ex-best friend. She was getting out of the car, so I could only assume that she was going into the nail salon. I was pretty upset to know that I was putting myself into an uncomfortable situation, but I took a deep breath and went inside.

As we were picking our colors, we were inches away from my ex-best friend and her mom, and either they didn’t notice us or they chose to ignore us. I didn’t say anything. But as we were getting seated in our pedicure chairs, my ex-best friend’s mom saw me and came over to say hello and give me a hug. I was polite and honestly was happy to see her. But I didn’t ask about my ex-best friend or anything. We all went back to our chairs, and that was the end of our interaction.

I held it together during the pedicure, but I did wait until my ex-best friend and her mom left the salon before I got up to leave. But once I was in my car, I broke down. I surprised myself by crying, I thought that I wouldn’t care if I saw her again. But what it came down to was the fact that my ex-best friend didn’t even acknowledge me. I’m sure her mom mentioned that she just said hello to me so she had to know that I was there. And I know that I was also in the wrong for not saying anything.

It’s just so sad that there is nothing left there. This was my best friend for so long. She knew so much about me. We had a tradition that we could only pick pedicure colors that had cute names, and I still do that today (the color I got yesterday is called “Leading Lady” and is a red sparkly color). She is the person who was there when I met t-shirt guy (a story for another blog).

I have to focus on not what was lost, but who I have become since then. I’ve become a much more confident person. I have made so many friends that push me to want to be a better person. I have come clean about my credit card debt and my eating disorder (I never was fully honest with my ex-best friend about either). I’m so much happier now than I was then. And I really do hope that my ex-best friend is too.

And if she is reading this (which I doubt, but you never know), I’m sorry our friendship ended. But I hope that you agree with me now that it was for the best. And I’m sorry I didn’t say hi to you at the nail salon. I was so shocked to see you, and only thought more about it once I was out of the situation. But I do hope that you are happy. And I hope that maybe next time that we run into each other, one of us will have the courage and guts to say hello and not make it as awkward of a situation as yesterday was.

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Pamper Me Fabulous (or At Least The View Was Pretty)

Posted on November 12, 2012 | Comments Off on Pamper Me Fabulous (or At Least The View Was Pretty)

A few weeks ago, I saw that tickets for Pamper Me Fabulous were on Living Social for half price. I remembered that some blogger friends of mine had gone to the event earlier this year, so I thought I’d check it out. Plus, since I had a credit on Living Social from the laser hair removal place that refused to honor my deal, technically the event was free for me.

So yesterday, I headed down to Palos Verdes Peninsula to Terranea Resort. As soon as I pulled into the property, there was a huge line of cars trying to park. So I enjoyed the view while I wasn’t moving.

After finally parking my car, I got into the line to check in for the event. The line was long, but it moved quickly, and I was inside the event.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this event was not it. It was so crowded and had a trade show vibe to me. Everywhere I turned, people were selling something. The event had promoted online that there were free and cheap spa treatments available. The mini-facials that were available were $39 (the same price I pay for a real facial). A manicure was $18 (at the nail salon I go to, it’s only $10). And even if I wanted to get something, the appointments were filled up until almost 5pm.

The only “treatment” I got was at a booth that was trying to sell curling and flat irons. I’m actually in the market for a clamp-less curling iron, but I didn’t want to spend $150 on it. The sales woman did do my hair and teach me some tricks.

After an hour of trying to get around all the people in the event, I decided to go outside, and some lunch, and then call it a day. The lunch was nice, but the view was spectacular.

The last thing I did there was pick up my gift bag. This gift bag was supposedly highly coveted and worth more than the cost of my ticket. It was filled with some pretty great (and full-sized) products.

Overall, I didn’t have a great experience at Pamper Me Fabulous. It was beyond crowded in there. Maybe by putting tickets on Living Social they got more attendees than they expected. And maybe I would have had more fun if I had gone with some friends. I’m not sure if I’ll check it out again in the future. Maybe if it’s a bit closer I will, but I don’t think that it was worth the hour drive each way.

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