How To Do Customer Service

A while back I read an article in a magazine about chemicals in everyday products, including tampons. I'd never really given any thought to that before, but once the idea entered my head I was a bit freaked out by what I could possibly be - uh - putting inside myself. So I was on Twitter chatting to Jade about organic tampons and up pops Sabine from Echolife, who offered to send me some to try. I was happy to pay for them - I'd been meaning to do an order from the site anyway because Jade had already given it a massive thumbs up rave, and a tampon's a tampon. Even if it's not that fantastic, it's still gonna get used. However, I did ask if she had any samples of natural shampoos she could send with my order for Noodle Arms to try on her thick wavy mop.

As you can see, those 'samples' are actually a full bottle each of shampoo and conditioner! And both Noodles and I really like it, so that's going in the staples pile. So what did I think of everything else?

Organyc Organic Cotton Tampons
As I said, tampons are tampons - they have one job to do and these ones do it. I'm happy with them and I will buy them again. I wish I'd thought about it years ago though - 30 years of sticking who knows what (YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN) in my lady parts plays on my mind a bit. :-/

Nature's Goodness Olive Leaf Mouthwash
I've mentioned before that I'm paranoid about the throat cancer links with mouthwash that contains alcohol, and I try to avoid it as much as possible. Previously I'd been using Listerine Zero, but I like this one better. It has a nice minty citrus taste. My only complaint is that it bubbles up a lot so it's hard to gargle with. I'll still buy it again.

Wotnot Naturally Nurturing Facial Wipes
I have to admit I'm not entirely sold on these - they smell quite strongly of olive oil and they seem to leave a bit of a film on my face. I could be biased as I'm not keen on facial wipes in general - I keep them on hand for severe bouts of laziness, but I'm not a regular user. I'm undecided about whether I'd buy this brand again.

Organyc Organic Cotton Panty Liners and Cotton Ultra-thin Pads
I bought these for Noodles. I asked her what she thought of them.
"Fine."
"Can you be more specific? It's for the blog."
"Mu-uuuuum! They're FINE."
Okay, then. They're fine, apparently.

Echolife has free delivery in Australia and my order arrived within a couple of days. Sabine is also extremely helpful and knowledgable and has customer service down to a fine art. During a conversation I had with her I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of lip balms and considered them a necessary evil. A few weeks later at Christmas I came home one day to find a package in my letter box.

How awesome is that? Echolife is definitely where I'll be doing all my hippie shopping from now on. And also, as lip balms go, Burt's Bees are pretty damn good, I have to admit.

Baby Haul (not paid for by me, doesn't count)

You know what's more fun than spending money? Spending other people's money! Noodle Arms is interstate for Christmas with her dad and his family, and she said she hadn't gotten me a Christmas present yet as she was going shopping with her Grandma some time this week. I told her I was going to Priceline this morning and if she liked, whatever I bought could be her present for me. Since she hates shopping unless it's to buy things for herself (when she was young I learned that to get her to come along willingly I had to buy her something, but if I was smart I'd do it right at the end, because as soon as she'd gotten whatever her thing was she was over it and wanted to go home), she was happy to go along with that.

Everything shuts down in Adelaide over Christmas. EVERYTHING. Even the pubs near us were not open on Christmas Day, which is ridonk, because in the real world (ie: not Adelaide) loads of people go out for lunch on Christmas Day rather than mess about cooking it themselves. Amazingly, even though it is a public holiday, many of the shops are actually open today, so I thought I'd trek in to Priceline and have a look at their sale. I expected the mall to be bedlam, so I figured I'd just get in as early as possible, fight my way through the teenage girls pawing everything in sight in Priceline (and opening things - who raised you, you feral trolls???). Weirdly, there was hardly anyone around. The first Priceline I passed in a side street just off the mall wasn't open (of course), so I braced myself for the sardine can experience of Boxing Day (well, the day after Boxing Day) shopping and ventured into the other Priceline smack in the centre of the city. And it was DEAD. There were more staff walking around than customers.

Priceline had a '3 for $30' Maybelline sale going on, which probably sounds bizarre to you North Americans, but believe me, that's a bargain here. Those foundations are usually somewhere between $20-$25AUD each, and that mascara is around $18 or so. I ummed and ahhed for a while - I rarely bother with Maybelline (or any of the common drugstore lines available here) because it's so insultingly overpriced, but there were actually a few things I wanted to try - the Super Stay foundation and concealer, the Age Rewind highlighter and concealer thingie, the Define-a-Brow pencils, etc. In the end I decided to be practical - I don't need concealer and I don't need brow products - I have tons of both. What I do want is a more pocket-friendly foundation than my HG Chanel Mat Lumiere. I'm one of those people who firmly believes that you get what you pay for with foundation, but the drugstore brands have been making great strides in that area of late, so I want to give them another try (mind you, if I do find one I like I'll be seeking out a cheaper source than Australian retail). I actually have another bottle of Fit Me that someone gave me because it was a freebie that was too dark, but it's too dark for me too. I like the finish though, so I bought a lighter one to mix with it. I'm not generally a fan of Maybelline mascaras (too clumpy), but everyone raves about The Falsies, so I thought I'd give it a go.

When I came out of Priceline it was about 9:30 or so, and aside from a line of young Asian people outside the Swarovski store (is that a thing with Asian people?), everything was still looking pretty quiet. Noodles told me that when she and her dad went shopping yesterday in a Melbourne shopping centre, they had to park 15 minutes walk away and it was jam-packed inside. And here's Rundle Mall...

Adelaide, you're doing it wrong.