2022 Total: $6,218.40

Updated once daily

 

Subscribe
Search

Monday
Dec102012

A Mary Kay Giveaway!

I am SO not a girly girl. I fail miserably at caring a lot about how my hair looks. I don't get worked up in a frenzy about shoes or clothes. Most of all, I am very barely competent when it comes to makeup. I shop at the big box stores, generally grabbing whatever is on sale.

Girly girls everywhere are cringing right now. I know. I KNOW.

So it turns out that if you look past the big box store selection, you can find lip gloss that lasts longer than an hour. You can find a mascara that doesn't flake and make your contacts turn into irritating weapons of mass eye destruction. You can even find blush that doesn't go from invisible to clown levels instantly.

WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS TELL ME?

Fortunately, BlogHer and Mary Kay let me find out for myself.

In the interest of full disclosure, I would have never ever tried Mary Kay products if they hadn't been sent to me to review. I'm a creature of habit and procrastination, so it's not like I have the mental competence required to order makeup before I actually need it.

It's time that I learn because HOLY COW, YOU GUYS.

Let's start with the most life-changing thing I discovered in that box.

What's that you're saying? It's just a compact? NO IT IS NOT.

In that tiny little compact there is enough room for a Mary Kay Mineral Cheek Color, three Mary Kay Mineral Eye Colors, and brushes. You can switch out which colors you have in it, so it really is like having an entire makeup bag in one neat case. I guess it is possible to freshen up makeup on the go without carrying around 17,034 tiny little containers of makeup. I had no idea!

I can't even express how impressed I was with that little Compact Mini. Seriously. I'm such a dork, I know.

Also in that box was this:

Nourishine Plus Lip Gloss in Mango Tango and Rock 'n' Red. First of all, I've lived all my years thinking I can't pull off bright red lipstick. I just found out I've been wrong all of my years. The Mango Tango especially was a great color for me. As an added bonus, it wasn't sticky or gross feeling.

The big box store stuff lasts about ten minutes. I'm just sayin'.

Life-changing stuff, this Mary Kay.

I also tried:

TimeWise Repair Volu-Firm Eye Cream: It had the greatest applicator in the history of applicators, and it worked. I'm still as sleep-deprived as ever, but my eyes aren't giving that away.

Lash Love Mascara, Ultimate Mascara, and Lash Primer: The Lash Love is fantastic for everyday use because it's not heavy but rather just enough to make it look like I have eyelashes. Which I don't. The Ultimate Mascara is far more dramatic, so it's great for a night out on the town. I also tried the Lash Love Mascara in the waterproof version. I liked the regular non-waterproof better because it seems to last perfectly all. day. long. As for the Lash Primer, who knew such a thing existed? I like it. It helps prevent that clumpy spider-legs look because you can lengthen without adding color and then apply just a single coat of mascara on top.

TimeWise Microdermabrasion Kit: I've tried a lot of microdermabrasion kits over the years, and this one was my favorite. It does the trick and isn't harsh. It left my face all sorts of soft and fancy.

All in all, I think I became a Mary Kay fan. Whoddathunkit?

Thanks to BlogHer, there's a little something in it for you if you leave me a comment telling me the best beauty trick you've ever learned. If I were entering, I'd have to admit that a man once taught me to get the eyeshadow brush a little wet before applying eye shadow when I want a more intense color. Leave your beauty tip in the comments and you'll be entered to win a Mary Kaygift basket

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 19 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 12/5/12-12/31/12.

Be sure to visit the Mary Kay page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

I was provided with Mary Kay products to use and review and was compensated for this post, however, all opinions are my own.

.

 

Sunday
Dec092012

I Bet There's a Story Here

And it probably starts, "There once was a blogger who was oddly embarrassed for the naked doll ... "

No, wait ... it probably started with booze. Nights like this one always start with booze, right?

Saturday
Dec082012

Thanks, Kelly

The thing about having a list for Christmas Crazy this year is that it has been a sober reminder that many kids dream of basic necessities. Many of the kids on the list are hoping for clothes. When I realized I had enough information to take care of that for 38 of the kids, I decided to do so. While the spirit of Christmas Crazy is to provide toys, it felt right to take care of those basic needs. To make sure it was OK with all involved, I contacted one of the people who donated a large sum of money (OMG, you guys ... the generosity is mind-blowing) and asked if I could use their donation towards clothing.

Of course he said yes.

So I armed myself with a nice little pile of Old Navy gift cards and set out. (An aside, I try to use gift cards from Giant Eagle as much as possible and then I "pay" Christmas Crazy for the fuelperks. It has added a few hundred dollars to the pile each year.) I needed to return something to the Gap Outlet, so I drove past two perfectly good Old Navy stores and went down to Tanger to seek and destroy.

When I got there, I not only realized I had forgotten the thing I needed to return to Gap (::headdesk::), I also realized I had picked a very good day to venture into Old Navy. All clearance was an additional 30% off, so I started working through the list while digging through giant piles of clearance shirts.

I thought I was pretty awesome when I found a super cute t-shirt for $5, but then I found a different one marked $0.99. I patted myself on the back and kept on digging. And digging. And digging.

An hour and a half later, I stood in the back corner of the store with my phone in one hand and a giant pile of clothes balanced precariously on a cart. I used my phone to add up the expected cost of all of the items because I hadn't kept track as I had thrown stuff into the cart. I needed to not be surprised when I checked out. About halfway through my battle with math, the store's music turned off.

WHOOPS.

Knowing that meant the store was closed and the employees were eager to get rid of everyone, I rushed to finish adding.

$280. KABOOM! I patted myself on the back about 20 times for having managed to pull together a complete outfit for 38 different kids for so little money. I'm an Old Navy clearance pro, so I knew it was going to end up being even less since clearance items are often not marked with the final price.

When I was done telling myself how fantastic I am at sniffing out a bargain, I rushed to the front of the store to check out. As I approached the counter, I started apologizing. I worked retail for about six years and I know how very bad it sucks when people won't leave the store, and it sucks even more when they show up at the register with half of the store's contents. Have that situation play out in December and I can guarantee I wished ill will on you if you happened to be the culprit when I was the one stuck ringing you out.

And by "ill will" I mean, "why are you still alive?" It's such a jerk move to show up at the register 10 minutes after the store closes with a giant pile of stuff. And there I was, being the jerk.

The thing was that the person who stood on the other side of the counter genuinely seemed to mean it when she said, "Oh, I don't mind." I figured she was just a really good liar, so I continued my groveling by telling her that the stuff was for kids at a domestic violence shelter. I figured maybe that would make her hate me less.

Rather than hate me at all, she kept on providing great service while she asked some questions. I filled her in on how you amazing people who live in my computer do this thing every year where you give to total strangers. I told her about why domestic violence agencies can't rely on the big national Christmas charities (deadlines, paperwork, red tape ... there are a lot of reasons). I don't know when to shut up, so I even told her about all of the toys that are quickly accumulating around here.

"So, do you have any coupons?" she asked.

Here's the thing -- I ALWAYS have Old Navy coupons. ALWAYS. They give them out like some people give out attitude (*cough* ::Alexis:: *cough*). However, I had left my 10% off your total purchase coupon at home. (It was with that Gap return. GAH!)

I do that a lot, so I knew there are two ways the conversation can go if you tell an Old Navy cashier that you forgot your coupon. They will either smile sympathetically as they call you names in their head or they will go ahead and honor the coupon even though you don't have it. I figured my odds were good for getting that 10% off.

"Oh, that's no problem!" the cashier said. By the way, her name was Kelly. Kelly continued to smile and be genuinely happy to help me check out. She was smiling and really seemed to mean it when she told me to stop worrying about how late it was approximately 2290438235092865 times.

I might have apologized for being a jerk a lot. I do that sometimes.

Kelly said she was going to see what she could do about the whole coupon situation as she happily rang up dozens of pairs of jeans and removed the security tags from each and every one of them. But then she paused and said, "Do you mind if I ring this up in $50 increments?"

I was paying with a pile of $50 gift cards, so I most certainly didn't mind. I told her as much as she started to take a few of the pairs of jeans off of the bill. She stopped when she got to $50 and then applied a few coupon codes.

 

When Kelly was finally done ringing up four separate transactions and folding and bagging 20+ pair of jeans, six dresses, a bunch of infant outfits, and 30+ shirts, the grand total of the entire trip was $180.

$180!!!

Kelly managed to take over $56 off of the total by using a coupon I didn't have. The rest of the savings came from things not being marked accurately, but still. Kelly. $56. Happily. After the store was closed.

That $56 is still going to go to Old Navy because I need to pick up underwear and socks for the entire list of kids, but MAN. I knew there were good people living in my computer, but it turns out there are good people standing on the other side of that counter at Old Navy as well.

Thanks, Kelly. You're awesomeness.

For the record, the super inexpensive clothes weren't obviously from a clearance rack. In fact, many are still on OldNavy.com and listed for much more than they are in store. This shirt, for example, ended up being $0.67. (If you are a twitter peoples, you'll know immediately why that shirt had to go in the pile). There is a whole lot of cute in that mountain of clothes -- like this outfit, which was a whopping $5. TOTAL.

Man, I love Christmas Crazy. Thanks for letting me run it each year.