So here we are, at Things I Bought That I love 003. I love how I set up this series allowing room for TIBTIL to grow into the triple digits. Honestly, does anyone expect me to get to “Things I Bought That I Love 467?”

I’m not sure I want to hear the answer to that.

There’s a medley of products on the left, but I’m going to start with the Urban Decay Book of Shadows II. For those that don’t know, it’s a makeup box set that comes with the eyeshadow palette you see, two eyeliners, and a sample size of their beloved Eyeshadow Primer Potion. Everyone’s blogged or vlogged about it already, but I’ve had a few questions about my eye makeup, and wanted to share.

It’s a good range of colors. Plenty of neutral brown tones, with a few pops of color for when you want to experiment. The eyeshadow palette slides out of the box, and at first I hated that design (I suppose I still do…) but now I just leave it open, just as you see it. I’m actually at a loss as to how I’ll organize my makeup once I’m through with it, as I now use the original portion of the box as a platform for my other products– and I quite like it like this, aesthetically and practically. I’m inclined to experiment when all these colors are open at my disposal, and it’s a relief not to have a mountain of tiny little eyeshadow pots rolling around.

For the next item, I’m not really sure if this counts as something I bought… It’s more of a something-I-reorganized. I used to keep my makeup brushes loose in a jar, which was fine enough, but I wasted a few seconds moving them around each day so I could see clearly which brush was which.

At Sephora, they sell their makeup brushes by standing them upright in containers filled with little clear plastic beads. I thought that was an awesome way of organizing brushes, only I had no idea where to get those little effing beads. Then I realized that I could just use rice instead, and it looked just as pretty.

This format makes it a lot easier for me to see which brush I need, and adds some structure to the mess that’s usually associated with girls and their hoards of makeup.

Another thing that has made my life so much easier is this earring stand. I had actually never seen one until I visited my friend JH’s new place, and I love it for its functionality. I’m quite fond of it visually as well, though– I like the draping and hanging gold, and the way all the little jewels catch the light. JH bought hers from Korea, but I just got mine off of eBay.com from the seller polybag-monster. $9!!

Bath & Body Works had a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” special so I went and bought myself some new perfume. I used to be a bit of a douchey snob when it came to perfume. I loved layering Jo Malone fragrances to create personal, signature scents– which is all fine and dandy, but at $80+ a bottle, it borders on absurd. The only person who really cared was me, so once I stopped caring, there was no one left to fuel the habit. In stepped these bad boys. To be honest, I’m mostly hysterical over “Sweet Pea”, but it’s very distinct so I’m glad I have the other scents so that I can take a break. “Sweet Pea” smells like fresh raspberries and candy. Mmmm. I spray my winter scarf with it now and then, so even when it has faded on my skin, I can creepily remember the scent by smelling my scarf. I had to answer for this behavior when I did this in front of my friend SH last week.

Finally, this is something I’m working on. I visited Anthropologie a while back and saw something I’ve been trying to replicate. They filled jars with incense ash, and used the ash to hold the incense. The brilliant part about this is that when the ash falls, it only contributes to the ash that’s holding up the incense stick.

Here is my sad collection so far. I know I could probably buy some sand to get it started, but I can’t find any sand that resembles incense ash.

I thought this process would be a lot quicker than it has been. In actuality, an incense stick provides even less ash than you’d imagine. In a fit of impatience, I tried to fill the jar with several incense sticks and set them all on fire at once. They were on fire, that’s for sure…

After warily watching the smoke spew from the top and the flames lick the sides of the jar a frightening black, I extinguished the sad attempt. It’s for the best, anyways. Burning one incense stick at a time is heady enough. This shall be a labour of love. Or it will be the empty jar in my room filled with a little bit of dirt.

This list is far from comprehensive, and any suggestions are welcome!

Stay healthy this holiday season, folks.

—

Notes:
Gift images from Google Images.
Thumbnail from the stock.xchng.

Well, I shall enlighten you! I am providing you all with a demonstration of procrastination!

Which brings me to ITEM 2: Jewelry from Forever 21

There are certain things I like to spend my money on. For example, a good blazer or a classic cocktail dress. But for things like trendy jewelry, I don’t see why it’s necessary to waste all your money. And I am poor.

Honestly, I think Forever 21 is very hit or miss. Some of their stuff looks tacky, and most of their clothing is made out of polyester or something similar. But sometimes, you just want a dress to wear that one time–and if you’re lucky, you can actually find a quality piece. I usually like to look at what the clothes are made of on their site before I buy something.

I prefer shopping online because everything’s laid out nicely. Forever 21 bugs me the way H&M does; there’s oceans and oceans of messy clothing and I really don’t want to sort through it all to find one thing. I don’t think shopping online is too hard once you’ve figured out your body type, and play it safe with cuts that you know look decent on you. Size charts are your friend!

All of this jewelry was cheap. Almost everything was around $5, and the pieces look rad IMHO. (I can’t say this about their clothing though. Some of it really does just look $5–although in F21′s defense, I got a short black dress from them once for a wedding that I’m really fond of).

Aside from work, one of the reasons I started this blog was because I was asked to by a few friends. Women generally like to talk about clothing (damn them and their shopping!) and I was told that it would be nice if I could keep a record of what I purchased in a timely manner, so that others wouldn’t miss out on any happenin’ sales.

(Note: Think of something intellectually stimulating to write about soon).

I’ve wanted some knee high boots for a while. Although I own some winter boots already (I was glad to escape Uggs last winter), I wanted some less industrial ones to wear before the snow hits us. To be honest, I’ve been sporting a pretty ridonc getup during this chilly weather– super intense North Face down filled parka with…? Ballet shoes. No socks. My red feet have been pointed out too many times, and I will be ridiculed no more!

Hence the looking online. I don’t normally buy from Aldo, or even step into the store. I think there’s a bit of complex around that store, because I haven’t actually known of anyone purchasing anything from there in years. But I’m a really lazy shopper. As in, an online one, because I am too lame to actually go outside and brave a mall. I guess that’s why I eventually got cornered into Aldoshoes.com, because there aren’t that many places with shoes that will ship to Canada.

But I’m really happy about these Farisola boots that I’ve purchased. Retail price was $180, but they were on clearance for $79.98. They’re a gorgeous dark chocolate brown leather, and I really like the thick heel which makes it easy to walk in. I feel sort of ruggedly glamorous in them, like I should go ride a horse now with my effortlessly tousled hair blowing in the wind. Beside Zac Efron.

I ordered these bad boys on Monday night, and they arrived Wednesday morning. I also had a free shipping coupon: VIPOFFER. I got it from Retailmenot.com, which is a site I always check before ordering online. They collect online promo codes for thousands of websites, and so it’s really worth a few seconds of your time to look at before you click “Checkout” at any site.

But even without this promotion code, standard Aldo shipping is only $5, which is pretty cheap. In my experience, shipping to Canada is usually $10, or a million times more if you’re ordering from the states. Another thing I’m pretty happy about is that Aldo lets you return items in-store. That gave me the confidence to order from them for the first time.

So, I am definitely up for ordering from them again. Online shopping for shoes is especially awesome because they’re more likely to have your size, and you don’t have to wait five years for the sales associate to come back. On the down side, yes, they might hurt, they might not fit, etc. But I’ve always been lucky with boots.

Okay, okay. I’ll stop talking about shoes now.

I remember the highlight of my co-op days at the Department of Justice was going down to Starbucks and ordering my drink. Once, one of the employees was on his break, and chatting with me as his co-worker made my drink–efficiently, as usual. Jokingly, he said, “Hey man, way to make her drink so slowly!” His friend gave him a wry smile, and then handed me a free drink coupon. “I’m sorry I was so slow today.”

Free drink coupons are a thing of the past, understandably because of the times we live in. But I don’t go to Starbucks to get free stuff. I go there because I have a consistently good experience.

My love affair with them wasn’t always perfect, though. Once I experienced very poor service at a Starbucks location (it was at an Indigo, so it might have been licensed?). My friend and I both wrote to Starbucks about this experience, and we both received gift cards in the mail, along with an apology.

I’d like to compare this to Pizza Pizza, who ran out of something I once ordered, and decided to make an executive decision by replacing it with a bunch of random crap. When I complained, I think they credited me $1 or something to my account. I haven’t ordered from them since. Peter Bregman, my favorite blogger at the Harvard Business blog, wrote about the Price of a Poor Experience last month. It’s not my favorite article by him, but I think it raises a good point.

In terms of the coffee chain wars, I found out from my marketing friend, FM, that Second Cup wasn’t even considered for analysis in her work.* You know why? Because it doesn’t have a thing (I could probably phrase that better). Tim Horton’s has timbits and hockey–it has a specific audience, a specific angle. McDonald’s just upped its game by redoing their beans and serving them in striking new orange cups. They had Free Coffee for their launch week and succeeded in changing the face of their coffee. Tim Horton’s should be nervous, I know a few devotees who have started purchasing Mickey D’s instead…

As for Starbucks, it has iconic features: classic white cups, “The Way I See It…” etc. Not so recently, they added perks to using their cash card– free syrups, soy upgrades, etc. They even released a cute mini keychain cash card that has been sold out at every location I’ve seen it at.

And also, as I mentioned, their service is great. In fact, if anyone has ever been bland to me at Starbucks, my feelings toward the brand aren’t tainted. Instead, I think, “Are you having a bad day?” This is due to the rarity of subpar service. And even though I avoid the licensed branches of Starbucks, because I feel like they’re bastardized versions of the brand due to their comparative disorganization and lacking service, I still got a timid “How are you?” today from the barista at one of my school’s locations.**

What does Second Cup have? An inconsistent holiday cup design. They have a bland color scheme. I’m sorry, but UPS took brown (I still remember those ads with the UPS guy trying on different colored outfits). There is no benefit in going to Second Cup (Okay, okay. They make better apple cider. There, I said it). But I think their biggest problem is that their service is mediocre at best. Maybe their applicant pool just happens to suck, but the only times I’ve had great service at Second Cup were if my friends were working. The fact is, they’re closing shops, not opening them. Their new logo wasn’t any better than their old one.

But I digress. This isn’t a Second Cup Sucks post. It’d be cool if they could turn themselves around. This is an I Love Starbucks post.

On a less enamored note, it’s fun to try out the Starbucks Oracle. I know it’s old, but I only recently discovered it. I used to be a Hippie (lattes with soy), but now I’m an Asshat (nonfat 1 splenda cappuccino). One of my favorite answers was Ass-clown though (things with triple shots of espresso, venti size etc).

*Second Cup is a Canadian coffee chain, for my confused US friends.

**Tom Mullaney echoes these sentiments in the Chicago Tribune: “The result [of these licensed locations]: a watered-down version of what the company touts as the “Starbucks experience.” If you’re nauseated by my corporate love, you can check out his article for its many valid points about what Starbucks needs to improve.

I got Japanese Cherry Blossom, Wild Honeysuckle and Unscented. I think getting the scented ones might have been a mistake though, as their smells aren’t the most sophisticated/subtle ones, which is generally a minor problem unless you’re about to eat…

I’ve also wanted to dabble in film for a while, and finally bought myself a Holga. It was $58 from Urban Outfitters (much to SK’s disapproval, although she was hypocritically wearing an Urban Outfitters dress as she voiced this opinion), plus $20 for the flash attachment.

And here I am at French Connection, waiting for what seemed like 5 years for SK to finish changing. I’m wearing my Dean Winchester jacket– and I’m not gonna pretend like I don’t feel like I can kick some ass when I wear it.