Tag Archives: waxing

Pre-Thanksgiving Pampering (or Trying To Get Everything Done)

Posted on November 21, 2014 | Comments Off on Pre-Thanksgiving Pampering (or Trying To Get Everything Done)

Thanksgiving is pretty much here already. That’s insane! I’ll be heading to San Diego this year to join my family, and before I go I have so much stuff to get done!

I have some of my usual craziness, but for some reason this upcoming weekend is one of the most packed weekends of the year for me. And besides getting things packed before I drive, I have some food and crafts to finish up (I’ll post about those during Thanksgiving week).

But yesterday after work, I realized that if I wanted to get any of the beauty things done that I wanted to do, it was my last chance before I drive down.

So as soon as work was done for me at 3pm, I hopped in my car and drove to Brentwood where the Benefit store is that I get my eyebrows done at. Fortunately, you make appointments online so I knew that I would get in when I needed to.

Getting my brows done pretty much feels like maintenance to me. I’ve been getting them done since I was 14. And when I don’t get them done, I have a pretty bad unibrow. But at least at Benefit they try to make it fun. They always do a little makeup for you before you leave and while you are waiting there is a ton of makeup to look at and play with.

I actually needed to purchase a few things, and I found that they had a holiday gift pack that was cheaper than the 2 things I needed. So I got what I needed plus a little extra (some of which I will be giving to my mom).

After my brows were done, I got back into my car and drove about 20 blocks to the nail salon. I had also made an appointment for my pedicure (I don’t like doing walk ins anymore because you never know if they can get you in or not). I hadn’t had a pedicure since before my birthday and the blister on my foot is healing very nicely. So I figured I was due and wanted cute toes for Thanksgiving (although I’ve realized since that all the shoes I will be packing are closed toe).

When it’s wintertime and I get a pedicure, I try to go for some out there colors. I’ve done yellow and various neons before, but this time I found a really cute icy blue that seemed perfect for winter.

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Now that I feel beautiful and girly again (it’s funny how getting your eyebrows done and a pedicure can make you feel like you got a total makeover), I’m superficially ready for Thanksgiving. This weekend will be some shopping trips and getting things prepared for my drive as soon as I’m done with work on Tuesday.

The countdown to the major family event of the year is on!

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Posted in Beauty, Family, Fun Stuff, Travel

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Being An Eyebrow Wax Model (or An Adventure At Queen Bee)

Posted on September 18, 2014 | Comments Off on Being An Eyebrow Wax Model (or An Adventure At Queen Bee)

I’ve been going to Queen Bee for waxing for over a year now. While their prices aren’t the cheapest in town, they are reasonable.

Every so often, they have special deals. Sometimes it’s new employees who need people to work on while they are training for the job (but they are all licensed estheticians already). I’ve thought about trying one of those deals out before, but then it also makes your wax longer. Sometimes, I just need to get in and out quickly.

And sometimes, they need model to various reasons.

Recently on social media, Queen Bee mentioned that they needed some waxing models for a training video that they were working on. This isn’t something that is going to be posted publicly, but just for their own use. They needed a bunch of different types of waxing to be done in the video, and I noticed that they needed someone to come in for an eyebrow wax!

I typically go to Benefit for my eyebrow waxing, but this was an opportunity for not only a free eyebrow wax but a gift card to Queen Bee for helping out! I was totally down for that.

They needed the waxing models to come in this past Monday and since that is my day off, that worked out very well. I was able to fit it in between a doctor appointment I had in the morning and my workout class that afternoon.

Every time I come to Queen Bee, I just love how cute the place is! It so much nicer than going to a cheap nail salon for waxing.

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I checked in and waited for everyone to be ready for me. They had it all set up in one of the waxing rooms with 3 different cameras there to capture all the action.

I’m definitely not camera-shy, but it was a little weird to be in front of a camera without any makeup on and having them film an eyebrow wax. But at least I’m very used to having my eyebrows done. I’ve been getting them waxed since I was 14.

It wasn’t the quickest wax because there was a lot of talking about what they were doing, but it didn’t take forever either. Maybe about 25 minutes.

I totally forgot to get a before picture (and trust me, you don’t want to see how bad my brows were), but I did get an after one!

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Nice clean eyebrows that aren’t too skinny! Exactly what I like! I’m a little red from the waxing, but that always happens to me. That’s one of the reasons I like going to Benefit, they put makeup on your face after waxing so you can go out and do other things and not look freshly waxed.

But since I was just going to work out right after this, I didn’t care how I looked. I really think that Queen Bee did an awesome job with my wax. I still can’t believe that I was going to a cheap nail salon for years and putting up with how bad my skin got after waxing. I have totally learned that paying a little extra is worth it, especially when it comes to your skin.

Thank you Queen Bee for my eyebrow wax and I can’t wait to get to use my gift card the next time I’m in for waxing!

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Saving

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Birthday Beauty Discounts (or Making My Birthday Last The Entire Month)

Posted on August 8, 2014 | 2 comments

I’ve talked about birthday deals in the past and there are some that I enjoy every single year. And I’m learning to start asking stores that I frequent if they have any birthday deals.

And this year, even though my birthday isn’t until tomorrow, I’ve already enjoyed 2 birthday deals related to beauty!

The only birthday beauty deal I knew about in the past was at Sephora where you get something for free on your birthday (I haven’t gotten my postcard yet so I don’t know what I can get for free this year). I do take advantage of the Sephora deal, but I try not to spend too much on other things while I’m there (and I know that’s the reason for the freebie!).

Something that is a total freebie is at Benefit’s Brow Bars. I go to the one near Santa Monica to get my eyebrows done. It’s more expensive than the cheapie nail salon that I used to go to, but I think they do a way better job at waxing and shaping my brows and you even get a free makeup touch-up when they are done!

Around your birthday (I’m not sure if it has to be your birthday week or month), you get a free brow wax! And since I go there anyway, of course I scheduled a wax over the weekend to take advantage of that!

The brow wax is usually $20 (the cheapie nail salon was $10), so when I get my free wax, I am able to leave a big tip since I’m saving so much! This time, I left a $15 tip (I usually do $5).

Not only did a get a free brow wax, my eyebrows are going to look amazing for my birthday party (which is tonight!).

Another beauty birthday discount is at Queen Bee Salon and Spa. Sorry for my readers who aren’t in LA, but this is a salon that has one location in Culver City and another in Brentwood (I go to the Culver City one). I go here for bikini waxes and have been going for a little over a year now. Bikini waxes are never fun and they aren’t painless, but Queen Bee makes them more bearable. Plus, the waxer I go to, Jenn V., is super awesome and friendly. So we are normally chatting and gossiping while she works and it helps to distract me from the pain (taking a painkiller about an hour before I go helps too).

When I went in for my bikini wax last month I realized that my next wax would be around my birthday. So I asked if they had any birthday deals even though I had never heard of one there before. It turns out, they just created a birthday discount! If you get a service done either 4 days before or 4 days after your birthday you get 10% off!

So I scheduled my wax to be yesterday and I got a nice little discount on something that I would have done anyway!

I am going to DryBar today to get my hair done before my party, but when I looked at their deals, only people with memberships to DryBar get free blowouts on their birthdays. I definitely don’t get enough blowouts to make a membership worth it (nor do I have the money for something like that).

I’d love to find some more beauty birthday deals while it’s my birthday month! Those are so much better for my weight loss goals than all the food freebies (although I will be going to at least one of my free meals this month).

If anyone knows of a pedicure birthday deal, you would become one of my favorite people ever!

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Posted in Beauty, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Saving

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A+ Customer Service (or Loving Benefit)

Posted on May 20, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve been going to Benefit for a while to get my eyebrows done. I first discovered Benefit as a salon when I went to an Eventbrite event a while back. And while I don’t go to the location where the event was held, the Santa Monica location is very close to my box office job.

I almost always make an appointment to get my eyebrows done. It’s nicer than walking in plus then I don’t have to wait around for someone to be available. So when I decided to go get my brows done this past Saturday, I tried calling to make an appointment. But when I called, I just got a message saying that the mailbox was full. This seemed weird, so I kept trying back. For a few hours, all I could get was that weird message. So I decided to risk it and go in without an appointment.

It took me twice as long as I usually do to get over there and once I turned on the street, I discovered that there was an event going on where all the stores on the street were selling things on the sidewalk at huge discounts. The street was crazy busy and it took me forever to find a parking spot.

I should have seen this as a sign, but I finally parked and walked inside Benefit. Once I got inside, I said that I was hoping to get my brows done and I couldn’t call to make an appointment. The manager let me know that the phones were down and unfortunately they couldn’t fit me in for a brow wax because everyone was booked up.

I was a little annoyed (I feel like even if the phones are down something should have been put on their twitter or Facebook account to let people know that there couldn’t be any walk-ins that day). But I scheduled an appointment for the next day.

On Sunday, I got to Benefit with no issues and found a parking meter right in front of the door. As soon as I walked in, the same manager from the day before was there and she apologized for the day before. And since I was inconvenienced, they gave me my brow wax for free!

I was shocked that they would comp my wax on something that they could not have helped. When I told the manager that they didn’t have to comp it, she said that they wanted to be known for good customer service.

And even though I’m already a fan of Benefit (for the eyebrow wax and the cosmetics), they have made me a fan for life!

Plus, they did an awesome job on my brows and I got a nice makeup touch up right after.

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Brows and Bubbly (or Another Fun Evening Out With Eventbrite)

Posted on May 23, 2013 | 2 comments

On Tuesday night, I got to go to another fun event. This was run by Eventbrite, the same company that did the Spa Night Out at Burke Williams. Eventbrite is an online ticketing service. And one thing I love about getting my tickets through their site is that they have an iPhone app that you can use instead of printing your tickets! This is great for someone like me who is normally running from one place to another (and usually forgets to print things out in the morning). The app is free, and you can also use it to discover new events and buy tickets.

The event this week, called Brows and Bubbly, was held at Benefit on 3rd St. I love Benefit makeup (I have a bunch of it at home), but I had never been to a Benefit Boutique. It was so cute inside!

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My ticket included one service and I chose an eyebrow wax. This is something that I do pretty regularly (I was born with a pretty bad unibrow), but this was a much nicer eyebrow wax than the place I normally go to (where I ran into my ex-bff). After my eyebrow wax, I got to have a mini-makeover/makeup application done. All of the Benefit products were out.

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And considering that I just had a wax done, I think I looked pretty good afterwards!

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I’m pretty picky when it comes to makeup. My skin is very sensitive, and it’s hard to match colors to me because I’m so pale (I’ve had more than one makeup artist mix a white base with foundation to match my skin). I loved the products that were used on my face this time! And I decided to purchase two. I got a concealer as well as the “That Gal” primer.

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The primer really evened out my skin tone and blended in super nicely with my skin. Plus, it smelled delicious!

After making my purchases, I decided to see what else Eventbrite had set up for us.

There was some champagne (hence the bubbly in the event name).

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And cupcakes and popcorn.

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But since my stomach wasn’t feeling so great that day, I just had water.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to head home. But before I left, I got another amazing gift bag from Eventbrite! This time, it had some delicious treats (which I shared with my co-workers at my day job), makeup samples, another Uber gift card, and more spa passes to Burke Williams! I’m totally set for going on lots of spa adventures in the near future!

Thank you again to EventbriteLA for throwing another amazing event (and inviting me to attend)! I had the best time and am already looking forward to the next event! I promise to share the next event I’m going to with all of you so you can join in!

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