Let’s take a look at some stuff I’m loving this fall, non-weather wise.

Truffle honey butter – Was served this at a new Chicago restaurant, Morso, in Lincoln Park as part of my meal and nearly licked the mason jar it came in clean. Sadly, service at the restaurant wasn’t great that night so to make up for it, my waitress gave me a hunk of it to take home. It’s delicious, I would eat it with a spoon. I want more right now.

Suri’s Burn Book – A coworker shared this Tumblr and Twitter feed with me and I’m 100% obsessed. I literally check it daily for Suri’s new bitchy, mean girl commentary of celeb children and it has made me cry laughing several times. Let’s just say, she’s not a huge fan of the Jolie-Pitts and Garner-Affleck kids. She also has a huge ego, I love it.

The Real Milania G – As a Real Housewives of New Jersey fan, this is pretty much the best Twitter feed ever. The faux Twitter profile, written from the point of Teresa’s devil child Milania is really damn funny, especially during the RHONJ airings. I highly recommend it.

Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery – I’m pretty much a Kiehl’s addict already but I finally started using my samples of this product at night and my face feels like butter. I have really dry/oily/sensitive skin and this feels really soothing and hydrating on it. Literally, I love the way my skin feels with this. It’s a little pricey so I’ll stick to samples for now but LOVE.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment – Friends have been using Fresh products for a while and preaching about their awesomeness but after my regular lip balm ran out (goodbye Burt’s Bees!), I picked this up at Sephora and cannot imagine living without it. Yes, it’s a little pricey too but I love how soft it makes my lips and gives them a little tint too (without being tarty). I will have to see if others agree they’re kissably soft one day.

Riding Boots - Two years ago I got my first pair of flat riding boots from  Banana Republic and have almost destroyed them from use. They’re super comfortable and perfect for wearing in snow and winter weather. Now I’m on the hunt for a new pair and finally found some similar ones at Nordstrom. They’re a little pricier than I wanted to pay but since I know I’ll wear them out, I’m okay with it. It’s almost boot season!!

What are you loving right now? Big weekend plans?

Anyhow, bad haircuts.

I’ve had many bad haircuts in my past. Many that have reduced me to a teary mess, pulling on my hair (as if it will make it grow longer) or looking at myself in the mirror wailing, WHY GOD WHY DID I TELL HER TO TAKE ANOTHER INCH OFF??? HOW DID ONE INCH BECOME FIVE??? (TWSS)

Yes, I’ve been there.

I’ve even threatened to and actually worn a bag on my head (with breathing hole cut out) to hide the bad haircut. This sh*t is traumatic for women.

The last really awful haircut I had was when I went to college. I had shorter hair already and wanted something different for college, to debut a new me and feel more confident. What I came out with was a bowl-like haircut with a shaved back of my head. No joke, I looked like a boy. It was awful and traumatic and I sobbed (not cried) the entire way home. I had a good six months of hating my entire head because it wasn’t until then that it grew out enough to look feminine again. Ever since then, I have kept my hair shoulder-length and never shorter.

Lately, some friends and I were talking about haircuts and I stated that I think most women hate their haircut for the first week they have it, even if it’s exactly what they want. For some reason, the hair always looks different once you get home and start styling it. Not necessarily in a bad way, but you’re so used to how you styled it before that suddenly a trim and newly cut layers takes a semi-new routine and you find yourself missing how it looked before.

I’m not saying it makes any sense but that’s exactly how I feel most times. But this month, I’m delaying the haircut for a week so I may be tempted to say “cut it off,” but I don’t mean it!

What about you? What’s your bad haircut history?

Anyhow, along with my late blooming that I’ve mentioned before, another rite of passage I was delayed on was wearing makeup. Actually, I rarely wore it at all until after college. Sure I’d slap some mascara on my eyes but foundation, concealer, etc. that was all foreign to me. I still don’t even know how to apply liquid eyeliner!

Now, I wear a lot of make up. Primers and tints and brushes line my bathroom sink, each with it’s proper place in my routine. It’s sad but I even have a “workweek face” whichrequires the most prep and a “weekend face” that also has a routine but minus a few of the “workweek” products. I rarely let people see me completely makeup free.

Why? Because I’m insecure. For a long time I was embarrassed by how I looked, with rosacea on both cheeks, uneven skin tone and dark undereye circles. But I just figured make up was evil and this is how I was made so it was fine.

But now that I have this weekday and weekend routine and I notice that people compliment me on my skin and features so I’m rarely seen without it.

And while I was on vacation, due to mostly laziness, I barely wore makeup at all, giving my parents a bit of a shock for the first two days. I think my stepmom was holding out hope I’d come around. Yeah, I didn’t.

But going a week without make up was kind of liberating. No one stared at me like I was a monster, or pointed out the flaws on my skin out loud. That kind of judgement is all in my own head.

So here’s a picture of me au natural on the face. It’s something I definitely need to do more often. Because despite all the scars or uneven tone or redness, I still like what was originally there :)

Do you have a make up routine? Or do you find that the number of make up products you use has increased as you’ve gotten older?

Note: As a follow up to yesterday’s online dating FAILs, yes, I did hear from Phil and after another whiny e-mail, he’s been cut loose. I need a man, not a boy. But his reaction to my “coddling” e-mail was hilarious. He apparently like a sassy woman :) And I didn’t reply to the guy who gave me options but maybe I should! It’s just the word, “heart throbber” that throws me :)

Recent Rage Girl appearances –

Today while enjoying President’s Day off of work, I dug out my compact tweezers and tried to pluck my eyebrows, so that I could hold off going back in to Nordstroms Spa for another few weeks. Unfortunately, the tweezers and the eyebrow stubs won. Referring back to old, previously ignored Instyle issues on this topic, I began to try plucking my eyebrows, however, the little bugger hairs were putting up a fight. One, two, three pulls and nothing although considerably more pain than when my “girl” does it. After about 20 minutes of wresting, curse words and two sets of lighting, I gave up and put the tweezers in the medicine cabinet. You won today eyebrows, but you will not win the war. And yes, I’m calling Nordstroms tomorrow for “brow touch up.”

On an unrelated note, I watched the movie Becoming Jane today, and could not help but vary between being confused at the dialogue and swooning over the romance of 19th Century love. I have never read Austen, although Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet is one of my favorite movies, but it has to be the looks between the main characters, so young and in love that makes me swoon. Between the looks and the overture music that heightens the emotion, you can’t help but fall in love yourself. Maybe that contributes to my unrealistic expectations of relationships, but it’s fun, even though I usually have zero idea what they’re saying.

The reason I’m indecisive is that I’m a product of habit. Ask anyone who knows me. I get up about the same time, I put my clothes and make up on in the same order, I usually prepare the same lunch during the week and the same dinner at home. And I come from a very brand loyal household. I don’t have to decide between what brand is best because I buy what my parents buy and I have bought for the last few years. Advertisers would be smart to hook my family because we’ll never leave you! I love Yoplait, I only brush with Sensodyne (thanks to my root canal) and use Reach toothbrushes. Tide is the only detergent in my apartment and Jif is the only peanut butter for me. That’s not to say I’m against trying something new, but it’s hard to commit when you have that connection to something that you’ve used for years because I tell everyone I know about it and how much I love it!

For example, I was amazed when I recently switched from Clinique to Mario Badescu skin care. Clinique was with me through high school, college and my early- to mid-20s. I relied on it to keep my skin in good shape and my rosacea under control. But then, fate intervened and now Mario is my new man. Now I can’t live without Mario, especially the Azulene Skin Calming cream, which feels very good on my rosacea cheeks. Case in point my mini-scene at Nordstroms this weekend when the counter had the audacity to not have my Keratoplast Cleansing Lotion. I hope they learned something that day. Don’t keep me from my brands, you’ll get an earful, just like this guy at Nordstroms did.

Liz, Anne and I went to 1154 Lill on Armitage last night for a “spring makeover event.” The last few free events that I had at Lill were a lot of fun, good wine and appetizers and of course I’m surrounded by purses, my favorite thing ever! I did not make a bag last night but Liz did, selecting the new Drea style with a lovely combination of black, soft purple and champagne colors. Very exciting. They even had free makeup consultations and make-up/brow waxing from Beauty on Call. Liz and Anne won a free brow wax, which was Anne’s first ever! She was very brave. The Trader Joe’s hummus was amazing (must go over there to find it!) Looking forward to the next VIP event, especially with the nice SWAG we got.

Now that it’s back to work and Liz’s office coffee cup crisis is getting better (and an opportunity ripe for the black coffee cup market) so it’s business as usual. I’m back to pondering deep thoughts, such as “how do I properly use this eye makeup brush on my crease properly,” and “do my newly shorn eyebrows work for my face shape? Or do I now have a more perplexed look on my face?” Deep thoughts.

Before I go back to my issue of Us Weekly and watch LSU hopefully crush Ohio State (suck it Buckeyes!), I say that one of my New Years resolutions this year is to get back on blogging track, to my readers (however many of them are our there), I promise to do better.

Now back to Britney’s recent meltdown and how I can be as skinny as the stars, without the food delivered to my home and the oodles of money to work out with a trainer for hours a day and not worry about working….