‘beauty’ Category

18 February 2008

Plucking – the final frontier?

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: beauty, Movies

I’m a late bloomer in the simple, torturous things that many women my age have been doing for years – including eyebrow plucking. While I prefer the Brooke Shields, circa 1970s eyebrows (easier maintenance), a few weeks ago I opted to take Liz’s referral for an eyebrow wax at Nordstroms and “womanscaped” my brows. In the city, I guess $20 for a 5 minute wax is reasonable, but to me, that seems a bit extreme…until now.

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.

31 January 2008

Don’t Ask Me to Make A Decision

By: Jessica B.

Outside of work, I am a very indecisive person. I once spent 45 minutes at Nordstroms (the happiest place on earth) trying to decide if I wanted pink or purple Uggs. In the end, my father became angry and told me to decide or he would for me – so I went with the pink ones – and then went back and got the purple ones on super sale :) When out with friends, I’ll often provide options of what to do and when they cannot decide, I often find myself unable to decide either. I tell them it’s “ladies choice,” but that doesn’t seem to make any difference.

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.

16 January 2008

Facebook – the new frontier

By: Jessica B.

I never thought it would happen but I am now on Facebook. Of course it’s for work reasons (wink wink) but I have to admit, it was like a whole new world opening up! I found people I went to high school and college with who I lost touch with over time and all the cool icons and groups. I am now a proud member of “Addicted to the Colbert Report” and “Wisconsin Football fan,” courtesy of my brother, who also couldn’t help but mention that I swore I would never join Facebook, yet here I am. It’s awesome, check it out and don’t be afriad to “friend” me.

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.

07 January 2008

Blowing through nap time

By: Jessica B.

Even at my late-20 something age, I still enjoy it when my dad worries about me. Tonight, in the midst of terrible thunderstorms in Chicago, Wisconsin and Indiana, he called while I was waiting for a 145 or 146 in the rain to make sure I was okay. Apparently there were tornado sightings between Chicago and Wisconsin and south of the city as well. Of course I didn’t this out until I was home and saw the radar online…and I’m glad I didn’t.

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….