A few months ago I went out with my musclehead friends who originally convinced me to start taking steroids. I wore a tight T-shirt so I could show off my newly sculpted physique. Yes, I admit I wanted other guys to check me out, but in a manly way really. Like showing off your new Mustang with a 950 horsepower turbo charged whatchamagigger engine or what ever it is real guys show off to each other. My friend Scott did indeed take notice.

“Hey man, you’re looking pretty good.” he said, “You need to do something about that hair though.” Dumbfounded I looked at my arms and realized they were now covered with a light coat of fur. Worst of all, my hands were now monkey paws! I asked what could be done. He recommended getting a goatee trimmer. “Trust me dude, everything looks better without body hair.” he told me. This conversation seemed perfectly natural at the time.

Although I was now effectively self conscious about my caveman arms, the weather cooled down and long sleeves hid my shame. It wasn’t till I realized that steroid induced hair growth was not confined to my arms, that I decided to take action. I was drying off after a shower, when I noticed my little forest below had mutated into a sprawling jungle reaching all the way up to my belly button. Dismayed, I showed my girlfriend. “Oh, you have a happy trail!” she said. A happy trail?? Why would anyone be happy about having Bigfoot belly? This was the last straw.

I went to Wal-Mart in search of a goatee trimmer. Apparently they are a hot item because they were locked behind a glass case. I asked a blue vest to unlock it, praying she wouldn’t ask why my bald chin needed a goatee trimmer. Thankfully she didn’t and I quickly reviewed my options. The selection ranged from a small battery operated $10 model up to an $80 weedwacker. I went with the $10 goatee trimmer by ConAir.

I can’t say how the ConAir would work as goatee trimmer, but as for removing hair everywhere else, it is quite effective. Turn trimmer on, hair comes off. I started with my hobbit hands, moved on to my arms, and then my chest, before tackling the happy trail and the amazon below. The whole process was quick and painless. The only mild drawback was being covered in stubble which is a truly odd sensation. A small price to pay though for a non-neanderthal look

I did not trim everything though. When I got to my legs, I stopped. That is where I draw the line. I mean seriously, what real man would shave his legs? I will wait until shorts season for that.

3 microwaveable pouches of Premium Pasta Sauce and a General Electric microwave to go with them!

Go check it out! The deadline to enter is November 25.

The set includes: rejuvelash, to revive and restore your lashes; blotting papers; fRxation, to exfoliate and soothe your lips; and vitamin infused lipstick in “vinyasa (siren red).”

I think I kinda want one!

A while back I had a couple of formal occasions coming up so I decided to give some mascara another try. I’m a fan of Too Faced cosmetics in general so I acquired a tube of their Too Faced Lash Injection Pinpoint Mascara and hoped for the best. I figured it would be a good idea to give it a test run. So one evening when I didn’t have anywhere I had to be (which I figured would be good if this experiment didn’t turn out well), I curled my lashes and then applied my first coat. My first coat that ended up being my only coat because I almost immediately washed it off. It was kind of sticky and kind of gunky and definitely not the look I was going for.

But I was determined to not give up! The next time I tried, I applied it so lightly I almost couldn’t see it. This was good, since it eliminated the gunky, crusty look. Bad because it lessened the lengthening possibilities. In the end,  I decided that getting my lashes a little darker was the more important feature.

My verdict: If you like and wear mascara, by all means give this one a try. It seemed to be very mascara-y! It did lengthen and darken my lashes. But with a price.

Anyone else have experience using it? Do you love it? Hate it? Feel eh about it?

1. Lush:

Christmas Party Bath Bomb - I love this bomb! It’s orangey and lovely and full of stars and confetti. I admit I put mine in a stocking before dropping it in the bath. But I’m lazy and don’t like to clean stuff out of my tub.

Ma Bar Bubble Bar

And for a relaxing time *after* the bath, try a Soft Coeur Massage Bar!

2. Mason Pearson - Everyone should have one of these hair brushes.

You can buy them on Amazon!
Mason Pearson Hairbrushes

This is the one I have: Mason Pearson Junior Bristle & Nylon Brush - I’ve had it for 14 years and I LOVE it. I also have the pocket version.

3. Bunny slippers! - I previously wrote about my awesome bunny slippers.

This is where you can buy the slippers I have: BarefootParties.com

For a similar but less pricey version:
try this

or:
try this

4. For fans of Too Faced Cosmetics and Kipling bags:

Kipling Loves Too Faced cosmetic sets! Each comes with Too Faced cosmetics tucked in a Kipling bag!

From Kipling’s Site:

Primp & Party Set: Starry Eyed Liner, Lash Injection Pinpoint Mascara (which I sampled recently - look for an upcoming post about that!), Foiled Liner

Kiss & Run Set: Mood Swing Emotionally Activated Lip Gloss
Diamond Gloss

Envy Me Set: Lash Injection Mascara, Lip Injection Lip Plumper, Pink Leopard Bronzer, Refresh Blotter Papers

Charmed & Glamorous Set: Beauty Balm

From Too Faced:
Too Faced Loves Kipling Set: Lovey Dovey Duo Eye Shadow, Mini Ooh & Aah Starry Eyed Liner, Mini Black Lash Injection, and Mini Colorless Application Shadow Insurance

5. Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty Toaster

Hello Kitty Necklace

Hello Kitty Waffle Maker

Hello Kitty Hair Dryer

Hello Kitty Computer Keyboard

6. Escada Moon Sparkle - This is one of the very few non Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfumes that I have ever liked. I *love* this. It’s sort of fruity, sort of floral. I am terrible at describing scents. But this one is lovely. I just keep sniffing myself and sniffing myself.

7. Flowering Tea with Teapot and Warmer - This is so pretty. I would love to have one of these. I have a lot of tea so I haven’t been able to justify buying it. One of these days!

Another fine tea place, Adagio Tea, has all sorts of great stuff. And you can get smaller sizes to sample or mix and match. Bonus!

So there you have it! What are you thinking about buying this year?

Did you know they make bacon chocolate bars? I know it’s not too hard to imagine. There are all sorts of different kinds of chocolate bars. This is the first time I’ve encountered one with bacon though! It was tiny and it cost me $2.50, but I *had* to try it. Had to.

And you know what? It’s good. Salty, sweet, bacony, chocolatey. Good. Makes me want to try making my own. Maybe a chocolate covered bacon? With baked bacon, of course.

If you can, be sure to try this at least once.

Find Mo’s Bacon Bar here: http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/

Now that it’s been a week and half since I was laid off from my $65,000 a year corporate job, and five days since I worked as an unpaid production whelp on a short film in Detroit, I feel it is finally time to start writing. Specifically writing about headphones of course. Trying to capture everything that’s happened in the last few months would be on par with trying to solve a Rubik’s cube after several shots of vodka, but headphones? Yes I can deal with that.

The quest for new headphones started when I figured out after a mere eleven months how to work my MP3 player. Note to self – loading MP3 player with 180000 gigabyte files that don’t even contain music data will make your device a little sluggish. That minor glitch corrected I plugged in my headphones and started jamming. I bopped along till I caught site of myself in the mirror. The giant mounds of foam perched on my ears made me look like a complete dork. Um…which is really hard to do.

They were also too noisy to wear in public, especially if I plan on doing any writing at the library. It was clear I would need to acquire headphones of the earbud variety. My experience with earbuds up this point has not been good. I had yet to have a pair fit comfortably and the sound quality has been poor. All tin and no thump. So I asked Best Buy lady what was the most comfortable, best sounding earbuds I could buy. Her response was unexpectedly passionate.

“Skullcandy!!!” she said.

She told me how her teenage daughter had tried a gazillion headphones before discovering Skullcandy and will now use nothing else. She claimed that “the guy that worked for Bose” left the company to form Skullcandy and developed $20 earbuds that outperform their $100 Bose counterparts. I would later determine after several seconds on Wikipedia that Skullcandy was formed by snowboarding megamogul Rick Alden, who as far as I can tell has never set foot in Bose. That’s not to say he didn’t hire someone who did though and besides, it’s a cool Stick It To The Man story.

The other distinguishing feature of the Skullcandy earbuds is that they come with multiple ear fittings. The rubber fittings come in small, medium and large, and snap on easily. I sampled all three. The large would not squeeze in and the small felt too loose, but the default medium size worked great, fitting comfortably but securely.

But how would it sound? I pressed play on my MP3 player, expecting the tinny noise I was used to with small headphones. “I LOOVE YOUUU!!!” belted out Nickelback. Far from tinny, Chad Kroeger’s voice was deep and soulful and totally made me want to love him back were it not for him being a dude. I actually worried that such a powerful sound would be heard by others. Not easy to test when you are alone, but when I lightly pressed one earbud to the palm of my hand, the music disappeared completely. I am fairly confident the same thing happens when I put them in my ear, giving me and Chad complete privacy. Which is really for the best.

I am therefore happy to report that Skullcandy lived up to Best Buy lady’s hype. They feel great, sound great, and won’t cheese off any bystanders at the library. More importantly they make me look cool. Well cool in a no mounds of black foam sticking on my ears kind of way at least. Now if only I can resist singing along to the latest sultry Nickelback ballad, I will be all set.

Where to buy: There is a store locater on the skullcandy website, and a pretty good selection of products available online through amazon.com.

Skullcandy website
skullcandy products on amazon.com

In the shower

I recently tried big waves by Charles Worthington London. I like to switch up my conditioners quite a bit and decided to try the matching shampoo with it. Like most shampoos and conditioners, this set is supposed to leave my hair gently cleansed, less frizzy and with plenty of healthy looking moisture and shine. It’s also supposed to enhance waves. I did find it to be a fine and acceptable shampoo and conditioner. My hair was left clean, not greasy, not dry, soft and with a nice light scent. I can’t really say if it enhanced my waves. They were going to be there no matter what. I didn’t have frizz, but I don’t usually. Often things that are supposed to tame frizz make my hair feel weighed down or greasy and this didn’t. So yay! I will definitely be using it again.

Out of the shower

When I get out of the shower, I brush my hair. I know this is supposed to be bad. But I swear I don’t torture my hair by doing this. I have a Mason Pearson brush and it has yet to do my hair wrong. I could (and probably will!) devote a whole entry just to my Mason Pearson. But that’s an entry for another time. So anyway, out of the shower, hair detangled and toweled enough so it’s not sopping and dripping on me. I don’t really do the towel dry thing because that really *would* knot up my hair. I like to put whatever styling aid I’m using on my hair before it starts to dry. Otherwise it doesn’t really take to the product as well. My current product of choice for defining and dressing my waves is Lush’s King of the Mods gel. It smells citrusy, like grapefruit and leaves my hair with slight definition but no crunchy-ness or greasiness. It shakes a little like jelly and melts on my fingers. I only need to dip my finger tips in the pot and rub my hands together. That’s enough for me to smooth through and start scrunching. I’m really starting to love this stuff and wish I could use it on second day hair but I haven’t found a way to do it. Fortunately, I have an alternative!

Second day hair

Usually I wash my hair every other day. I started doing it this way when I was growing out damage from a coloring experiment gone awry. It really did help and when my hair was all happy again, I just kept up the habit. But usually on the second day, after I’ve brushed it out, braided it, slept on it and brushed it out again, it can’t decide if it wants to be wavy or straight and it has bumps from the braids and is just kind of a mess. And not the cute sexy kind either. So at that point my choices are usually ponytail or pinned up somehow. Boring. But necessary.

I was pretty excited when I came across a product made for second day *curls*. I figured it might not work for me but was worth a shot. If it didn’t work for me there was always the standby. But Ouidad Botanical Boost actually did the trick. Wee! It says you can use it on dry hair but that didn’t work as well for me. What worked best for me was dampening my hair a little by running my hands under water first and then through my hair. Then I brush, then spray a few sprays all over and then scrunch. Too wet and it doesn’t work as well either. So it’s a delicate process. But it has really worked well for me. If you have curly hair, I’m sure it would work just as well or better, since that’s what it’s for. I haven’t tried it on wet hair. It’s supposed to be moisturizing too, which is a definite bonus. I like having another option on my non-hair washing days.

So that’s my typical routine lately. What’s yours? Any tips? Anyone else tried these? I’d love to know what you think!

Today I bring you a guest post from my friend The Underachiever. She’s awesome and funny and interesting and you should go add her to your feed reader RIGHT NOW! Wait, not right now. After you read her review here. THEN GO! –ProductWhore

I tried this moisturizer/sunscreen combo while attending a late afternoon baseball game. I applied it to my arms, face and neck. It did not feel greasy or sticky going on, which was great. It absorbed quickly and didn’t leave my skin tacky. I actually forgot I had it on, a great bonus for any skincare product.

Unfortunately, it still smelled like sunscreen. The odor wasn’t overpowering, but it was present. I think this product could benefit from more fragrance. Nothing heavy, just something to offset the typical sunscreen smell.

As for its moisturizing benefits, it definitely helped soften my scratchy elbows. As a light, everyday moisturizer, I think it would work well.

I didn’t get any sunburn or tan during the game, which was the point. I came out just as pasty white as when I went in. But since I do burn easily, I would need a lot more protection than SPF 15 in the midday sun. For non-peak sun times of the day, this suited me perfectly.

Though the lotion didn’t feel greasy on my skin, I am still leery of using it on my face. I have oily skin and am picky about what I put on it. I’d prefer to use a face-specific product for that area.

Verdict: If you use a moisturizer every day, switch to this. You’ll get the same nourishing benefits with some added protection. I wouldn’t use this as a replacement for traditional sunscreen for a day at the beach, but for everyday sun exposure on skin that doesn’t burn at the first ray of sun, it can do the job.

Would I buy this? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being I’m racing to the store to buy this product, I would give it a 6. Since I’d use this cream primarily for the sun protection, not its softening properties, SPF 15 isn’t strong enough for my fragile skin. But if the company offered a version with the SPF bumped up to 30, I’d bump up my rating to an 8.