Tuesday, January 29, 2013

More Randomosity

I really miss this show. 

You may or may not know that USPS has increased their shipping prices from January 27, and in the case of international shipping, it’s a massive increase – in some cases almost double. This is a bad, bad thing for those of us who don’t live in the US but buy the majority of our online purchases from there. It’s also a bad, bad thing for little guys on places like Etsy who do a lot of their business internationally (such as indie perfumeries, as we don’t have much of that available to us here), because a lot of us will have to severely limit our purchasing from now on. In short – it’s sucktacular all round.  BOOURNS!

Speaking of perfume, I learned something interesting the other day. Apparently grapeseed oil only has a shelf life of 6-9 months, so beware of buying perfumes that use it as a carrier. Unless you’re someone who is going to use it up in that amount of time, you might find they go off. I have never used a perfume in that time in my life, so it’s certainly something I’ll be watching out for.

And speaking of using makeup (do you like my smooth segueways there?) I have recently had discussions with a few people (Natalie and Jacquie to name two) about our habit of buying beautiful products that we are coveting, and then either not wanting to use them because we don’t want to upset the beauty of it, or saving it for ‘best’ and only using it a couple of times a year. When you think about it, that’s insane. I mean, if you own, say, two lipsticks and you wear one every day and save the other one for special occasions like weddings and parties, then fine. You have a case. But if you’re like us and you have lipsticks in the dozens and you’re saving some of them for special occasions, you’re just wasting all the money you spent to have this beautiful product in the first place. So whether it’s lipsticks, a gorgeous eyeshadow palette, or a bottle of perfume, if you love it, USE IT. Enjoy it and make every day a ‘special occasion’. Eventually whatever it is will go off, and if you’ve barely touched it, then what was the point? So that’s my goal for this year – use all those things I put aside as special. If I use them up and I can’t get another exactly the same, at least I will have had the enjoyment of it while it lasted.

Speaking of goals for this year (oh wow – I’m so good at this), another one of mine is to learn to wear necklaces. As a young’un I always wore necklaces of one kind or another, but as I’ve gotten older (and let’s be real, porkier), I’ve found that I hate wearing anything around my neck – it just feels uncomfortable. I carry my work pass around in my hand because I hate the lanyard thing it hangs from. But I love the look of necklaces, and I own a few of them, so I want to relearn to love wearing them.

I had mentioned I was doing a No Buy for January, and that was going pretty well until I found out about the international shipping increases, at which point I decided to suspend the No Buy and get all the stuff I could manage from my wishlists while I could for a reasonable shipping cost. The No Buy is back on from now until my birthday in May. As a consequence I have  A LOT of little packages on the way to me:

Possets Perfumes
Alchemic Muse
Midnight Gypsy
Solstice Scents
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
Various Etsy purchases such as earrings, a necklace, a lip scrub , posters for Noodles and a purse for my mum.

I love acapella. I know it’s cheesy but I really admire people who can do talented things like that. I especially like Matthias Harris and Mike Tompkins.





While you’re checking them out on YouTube, you should also watch this 10 minute documentary about a group of people with a lot of time on their hands at work, who spent it perfecting their strategy in the event of a zombie apocalypse. There are a couple of questionable comments about women, but consider the source, let it slide and enjoy the show. It’s pretty good. 


And finally, a slight whinge – I hate it when people have blogs with no ‘follow’ button on them. If it’s not a private blog, why would you make it difficult for people to follow (and bloglovin’ doesn’t count because that sucks)? Also, captcha on comments – I need new glasses, so trying to read captcha words is REALLY hard. I am sure that 99% of people don’t even realise when they have it on there, so it should be something that you have to opt in to rather than opt out of. Get on to that, Blogger!

Okay, I’m done now. 

22 comments:

  1. I am so sad about the shipping increase too. From now on, I have to limit my perfume shopping. I love buying scrubs and body creams from the US too but I don't think that I can afford paying 40 and 50 for shipping. Maybe once a year.

    I can't wait to see all the beautiful things that you got! I bought some perfumes from Bpal too and tomorrow I am placing my Twyla, Solstice Scents and Possets orders!I am so excited to try Twyla! I hope Possets still has the free shipping over 50usd.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I know! A lot of the time shipping for those heavier products is already pretty high due to their weight. I love body creams and bath products but that just won't be happening if I have to pay a ton of shipping for them.

      I'm hanging out to get all my deliveries - I order all these things and then stalk the letter box all day waiting for them to arrive.

      Delete
  2. I have an untouched NARS palette because of this. YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You had me at Zombie Apocalypse!! Actually it was the use of the word "sucktackular". :)
    This shipping thing definitely sucks the proverbial Big One.
    I'm so glad some of you got your orders in before the hike - my little shop and i will do all we can to keep the shipping as low as possible. I'm offering a flat rate for overseas delivery and some other perfumers will probably follow suit - Midnight Gypsy mentioned to me that she'll most likely institute something similar in her shipping charges.
    So, hopefully it will take the sting out a bit when we USA folks finagle the system to best advantage.
    Cheers and thanks for the fun read as always, Dee!
    xo

    Twyla

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My strategy in a Zombie Apocalypse will be to hole up in a corner with a lot of wine and cry until someone comes and eats me.

      Delete
    2. Haha!
      My Husband (and shipping dept.) has been preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse for years - if it happens, we'll come rescue you!

      Delete
  4. Ugh, I am NOT happy about the international shipping increase. I live in the US, but I follow a lot of you lovely international ladies here on Blogger and I am upset for you! I seriously should go rage at my postal office. Or I could picket. "Awesome International Ladies Deserve Stuff at Regular Shipping Rates!" Ahhh, it's really just not fair! What also sucks is that grape seed oil thing. I seriously have a million solid scents with that ingredient :( Sad times for me. Oh well, you live and learn, I suppose!

    I had no idea there was a no follow button. Why would anyone want that? And captcha is the worst thing in the world. I disabled mine a couple weeks ago because I hate typing it in, so I didn't want to make others do what I hate. I always get the shitty ones where the letters are like 5 Siamese twins and I fail it. :(

    I'm excited to see the stuff you ordered when it comes in! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just did a BPAL order and their international shipping has gone up to $25!!! I really wavered on ordering - I only wanted 3 of the Yule bottles before they come down, and I don't know if it was worth spending that much in shipping to get them. Agh! I ordered in the end because with BPAL I can always sell them if I don't like them.

      Delete
  5. The international shipping increase is crazy! I don´t understand it at all, someone somewhere is just being a greedy bastard! In Finland, where I ship most of my stuff from, I ship 0-50 grams, about 0-2 ounces, internationally for 1.90 €, about $2.50! Which is next to nothing really! If the rest of the world had these kinds of shipping rates I would buy soo much perfume... Sadly the rest of the world sucks! I´d definitely join in the picketing, especially with a slogan like: "Awesome International Ladies Deserve Stuff at Regular Shipping Rates!"

    You people who kindly comment on my blog, do I have captcha activated? I haven´t even thought about that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I did it, disabled captcha on my blog that is! Yay!

      Delete
    2. Yay! I would have an awesome lady to join me in my hypothetical picketing session! :D

      And double yay for no captcha!

      Delete
    3. Count me in for picketing. It's almost as if the USPS doesn't want us to smell nice!

      Delete
    4. I know right? Now it makes so much sense!! The turds!!

      Delete
  6. I just got a chance to check out the videos you posted. I admire people that have talent like that too! That was really quite cool! And the zombie apocalypse had me laughing, somewhat because there's a sports store literally right in front of my house. And my boyfriend and I may or may not have debated taking refuge there during a zombie apocalypse/end of the world event. There is a whole foods market right next to the sport store, so we could "eat like kings" as well ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you have the perfect set up for the impending zombie apocalypse!

      Delete
  7. I totally agree with you on the makeup special occasion idea! No point in collecting and saving it for those rare events! Gonna get old and stink rotten hehe.
    I LOVE Mike Tompkins tracks! They are soooo awesome! Especially loving his new one that you posted here. Love the Skrillex one - amazing how he got those effects all in. Starships was so cool - wish I was in that video!
    Artistically Curious

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've had that happen to me so often, especially with perfume samples where it's a Limited Edition and I can't buy anymore of it. Instead of using the tiny bit I have and enjoying it, I put it aside and keep it for 'special occasions'. Then I come back a year or two later and it's either gone off or it's aged and the scent has changed and I don't like it anymore. Grrr!

      Delete
  8. With international shipping increase, I am tempted to go for more shops out of US. I know there are things that I need from US like SS, Twyla and Ava Luxe (she has 15% off right now and shipping isn't too bad) and will buy but I did a search on etsy for perfumes from Canada, South Africa, Europe and there are a few I would like to try. I may spend more in the process of saving on shipping eeeek!
    Yes, we need to live in the moment and use up pretty stuff. You know, I kept my guerlain powder for days even without swiping it in the fear of spoiling the pretty pattern on it! Now I use it everytime I wear makeup :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know that many perfume shops outside the US. Athough there's always Sarawen, from Canada. She might be getting more business from me in the future. ;-)

      Delete
  9. I'm going to put all my special makeup thingies in my sight and use them up!

    ReplyDelete