Friday afternoon random

[gurdymonkey]

1. A friend of mine is a secret shopper at Lush Cosmetics. (I could tell you who, but the cruelty-free organic skin care ninjas would come after us all and smother us with cocoa butter and lob bath bombs at us. Which may not be a bad thing, going to the afterlife smelling all yummy....) It turns out the local shop was having an in store promotional "party" last night, so we met up and checked it out. Now, you have to understand, high-maintenance-Japanese-persona notwithstanding, I'm not a big cosmetics/perfume person. My health and beauty shopping tends to go on at Walgreens most of the time, and if I put on anything more than moisturizer, lip balm and a little mascara, that's a lot.. Yet I came home with a rosemary and peppermint solid shampoo (and a tin to keep it in), a solid perfume and shower gel in the same scent and a moisturizer for the areas around my aging eyes which I sprang for on my friend's recommendation. (I tried one of the new anti-aging eye creams with Retinol once. On a warm day, mild to moderate perspiration caused it to run into the corners of my eyes, stinging and resulting in blurred vision for a couple of hours despite an emergency face wash.)  In fact, I purchased enough to get a goodie bag with several bath and shower products, and a free sample of a hand lotion I tried.

Why this sudden burst of girly consumerism? Well, before we went to Lush, My Friend had to pick up something in Sephora, a few doors down. The reek of rioting perfumes nearly made me throw up on the sales clerk who was assisting my friend. It was pretty bad. Then we went into the Lush shop where things were not inducing migraines while duking it out for artificial scent supremacy. Their products did have scents, some of which I really, REALLY liked, but they weren't in your face unless they were literally in your face. The hand lotion? Three hours and at least one hand washing after the sales clerk put it on me and my hands still felt really nice. The shampoo? Well, let's see how non-oily my hair stays through tomorrow as I try not to shampoo every single day. But the scent was a nice wake-up call for a 6 AM shower.  So yes, I splurged a bit. Besides, with a wisdom tooth extraction scheduled for Tuesday, I sort of need it.

2. The bored members of the kingdom e-list got on the subject of surviving a cataclysm and I really, REALLY want to post, "If the apocalypse comes, I'll be the one rotting for all eternity inches from the door to my apartment, having fallen down the stairs while trying to flee the earthquake/zombies/superflu/nuclearfallout/apocalyptic disaster of your choice." See, I do know how to make a fire without matches, and how to shoot a bow and arrows and build a shelter using only a tarp and some string, but I'm also a realist.

Comments

[eleryth.livejournal.com]

I love Lush. Was first introduced to it by a friend who used the Razorantium for shaving (it's for men, he gave some to my fiance, who loved it, and now we're hooked on their products). I'm glad you found some to your liking!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

1. Maybe I'll give Lush a try. I bypass most stores of that genre because of the reek and my allergies.

2. I did post an actual "knowing stuff" question today.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

They're online if you prefer not to go into aromatherapy overload. And their product descriptions do include ingredient lists, which may help pre-empt allergy foo. http://www.lushusa.com/shop

The one we went to is over in Emeryville on Bay Street.

Surviving (or not) the Coming Apocalypse.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

I live between Los Angeles and a bunch of Naval bases on the Ventura County Coast. If the Russkies or some other Commie remnant want to bomb I'm fallout.

Anything else, give me time off my meds and I'll collapse in an asthma attack and you can take my gun without resistance.

Re: Surviving (or not) the Coming Apocalypse.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Maybe they got Hearst Castle and the Getty Villa mixed up?

Re: Surviving (or not) the Coming Apocalypse.

[czina.livejournal.com]

I live in Military Central, here in San Antonio - the training base where ALL AF enlisted train, plus a very large trama center Military medical center - and the airfield they test fighters on. That's not including the classified areas that Red used to work at. So I don't think 'mad survival skills' will do much, if we came under organized attack here.

But if it's just zombies or some such, we'd be fine.

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Funny, but Sephora's smells never bother me but I find Lush nasally overwhelming! The Sephora at Valley Faire doesn't tend to do drive-by squirting (not like Macys, gag!), so there's only swirling scent if some asshat customer is going nuts. But stuff at Lush is *too* fresh & scented. Tho the one time s'one gave me a gift of their goods, I was pleased :-)

[sarcasm-hime.livejournal.com]

I agree. I can't handle any perfumes for the most part, but the Sephoras here don't bother me if I'm in there for a short time. By contrast, even walking by a Lush store makes me cringe. It's just too many really strong scents all at once; I can smell it from across the street! And the one time I went in to buy henna, my clothes smelled like Lush for days afterwards. Ugh.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

My local Sephora seems to be pretty good at keeping the perfume reek down to a minimum - but I can't even walk *past* a LUSH without starting to wheeze. I'm just as able to be allergic to natural stuff as chemicals, so I've got to be careful. (The Body Shop, for example, is pretty natural stuff, and I have to test every one of their products carefully on me; sometimes they get a new fragrance or seasonal promotion and I can't go in the store for two months.) Whenever possible I use unscented perfume-free crap, but ever since my noreallyIstilllovehim *darling* boy pointed out that my everything-free products all remind him of Elmer's Glue... well, let's just say I might not mind a little bit of something else.

I really dislike the idea that "natural" means "safe" or even "safer". I want to make a faux bottle of poison ivy fragrance to make my point, in fact. "It's all natural!" Sure. You keep your lavender buds waaaaay over there so I can breathe, kthx.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Hey, allergies are allergies, plain and simple, and what sets you off is what sets you off. I got out of the habit of wearing lilac oil because the woman who sits next to me at work can't tolerate it at all.

Some people don't get the concept that natural substances ARE chemicals. They must have cut science classes. Amanita phalloides are 100% organic and all natural, but don't ever put them in your stew.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

If the discussion on surviving the apocalypse actually prompts some people to think seriously about emergency preparedness, that would be good. But it seems to be primarily an exercise in self-congratulation.