I Want! I Want! I Want! (But that's Crazy)

So, I am not rich. And now I'm trying to finish up my education, I haven't been working for most of this year, in order to finish my studies as quickly and cleanly as humanly possible. So actually, I am not just not-rich, I'm pretty close to poverty as I haven't been working since March. Anyway, the problem with this is that I have very expensive taste, especially when it comes to skin products and cosmetics. My wishlist is very extensive and includes correcting serums, night creams and a mud mask, but my immediate concern is mascara.

My L'Oreal Lash Architect is on its last legs. Because I am not the sort to dutifully change mascara every three months, I just wait till all the product is definitely gone. I have been using this mascara for so long that the Lash Architect has since been discontinued (and replaced by Lash Architect 4D.) Anyway, a new mascara is long overdue for me. And I have had my eye on Chanel Inimitable for YEARS!!Here's proof:

My old twitter

So yeah, that tweet is from 2010. I wasn't joking when I said I've wanted it for years. I could have saved for it and bought it ten times over in the past 3 years but I haven't for the following reasons:

1. I can't find Chanel cosmetic products for sale anywhere on my island.

2. Online shopping is a no-no for me as I'm a former shopaholic and I still don't trust myself with a credit card.

3. Mascaras that cost US $30 or more give me anxiety. In my currency, that's double, $60! I have real trouble justifying that price for mascara.

Anyway, because of my expensive mascara lust, coupled by my lack of dinero, I will probably sadly compromise by buying a drugstore mascara, but a nice drugstore mascara! L'Oreal makes really good, reasonably priced mascaras, and I see one with my name on it! Their original Lash Architect was really good to me, so now its my favourite drugstore brand.

Now I've got my eye on their L'Oreal Voluminous line, but they have so many products with such confusing and eerily similar names that its hard to choose! I think I've narrowed it down to Voluminous False Fiber Lashes and Voluminous Million Lashes Volume Excess (what a mouthful!).

I also think Maybelline might do the job, but I am scarred by their Lash Stiletto Voluptuous that I bought years ago by them which I hated. To date the worst mascara I've ever used was by Revlon, but I don't even remember what the exact name of it was. I probably blotted it out of my memory because it was so bad. Anyway, Maybelline's Lash Stiletto Voluptuous wasn't much better.

I realize I am talking about mascaras as though you guys even know what the needs of my lashes are, shame on me! Everyone's lashes are different. I haven't even said if my lashes need a mascara for volume, or one for length! Well, my lashes are naturally curly and quite long, but they are extremely thin and rather sparse, so I definitely need a thickening, volumizing mascara. However, many volumizing mascaras seem to clump a lot, and there is nothing more I hate than clumpy lashes; they look so fake!  I think the problem with volumizing mascaras is that they tend to have very thick wand bristles, in order to deposit as much product as possible on to the lashes for super thickness. What I liked about the Lash Architect was that even though it's mainly for length, it also made my lashes look much thicker, and even better that hat, it really separated and organized them really cleanly and beautifully.

Honestly, though I need volume, I'd give up volume for length if length meant better separation and no clumps. For that reason I might go ahead and get the Lash Architect 4D, even though its for length and not volume, in hopes that it is as good at separation as the original Lash Architect was (my old HG, I am devastated it was discontinued).

Anyway, enough about me! What is your HG (Holy Grail) mascara and why do you like it so much?

What the Frugality Game Taught Me

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Being the cheesy writer at heart that I am, during the frugality Game I kept thinking of an equally cheesy blog post I could write about to tell my followers how simply saving money changed my life in more ways than one. However, I kept telling myself that would be entirely too cheesy and I reckoned no one would care. That is, until someone commented saying that I would be surprised how this game would help in all areas of my life. Why, by George, I thought, that’s exactly what I was thinking! So here is your extremely cheesy blog post, and you can thank Joy for it.

1.       The Frugality Game helped me in being less self-centred:

The thing about being a shopaholic is that if you’re not careful, you can become very self- centred. While I did not become quite as self-centred as I have seen others become, I did become self- centred enough to start to dislike this trait that was emerging in my character. I had noticed that in all my conversations I would talk endlessly about this great blouse I found on sale, how it fit me so well, what hair style I would wear with it.  Or I would go on endlessly about this great lipstick I bought, and how it contrasted so well with my dark skin and hair. Every conversation seemed to revolve around my purchases and how I was (supposedly) benefitting from them.

And the thing was that while I would sometimes buy stuff for family members or friends, most of what I bought was for myself. Therefore, not only was I senselessly spending money on stuff I didn’t need, but I was also senselessly focussing way too much on myself. Now the shopaholic era is over I have found myself becoming more interested in other people’s affairs and less on myself and my expenditures.

2.       I have more money.
       

Frugality Game: Episode 3 : I fell off the wagon.

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  So I may have suffered a minor setback, not really in the frugality game but in my quest of overcoming my shopaholicism. I kind of spent $40. On eyeshadow.
   I know that's not much of a financial setback when compared to the $90 I spent on my hair but that was an emergency, so I can rationalize that. But this? I don't know what I was thinking. Especially when I recall the fact that I have never spent more than $14.75 on eyeshadow. Till now.
   But let me tell you how it happened.
   I got a ride to work on Friday, and as I've mentioned before, I work in the den of all evil for a shopaholic : a mall. Anyway, to avoid being tempted by the stores in the mall, I've been getting to work exactly on time so that I have to go straight to my desk and have no time to window shop or browse in any of the other stores. But that day I got a ride to work and my ride deposited me at the mall a lot earlier than I expected. So I had some time to kill. I wandered up a staircase and ended up in the clothing store of one of my friends who we'll call V. I was proudly looking through racks of clothes without being (too) tempted, and basically I was just very smug about getting over my shopaholicism and being so frugal.

Frugality Game : Episode 2

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   Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered a brilliant way to avoid spending money: get sick. Trust me, it works. I was sick a week before last with a bad cold, and I didn't spend a dime. Not one dime. In fact, if I could be sick without the side effects of....sickness, I would cuz then I'd be a millionaire in no time.

   That was a joke by the way. I never want to be sick again. Missing a week of school and of work isn't worth it. But what I wasn't joking about is that I spent no money that week. And get this : Miss Frugality Jane is still in the final position of the Frugality game as she has bought two dresses which are indeed nice, but which came up to a total of $160. Add that to the two bags she bought a couple of weeks ago and you can understand why even she accepts that there is no coming back for her now. Especially since my other sister Jackie has continued to be so financially prudent.

   Me? I'm still somewhere in between. I had to go to the hairdresser on Monday because when I was sick I completely neglected my hair for a week and it started to look weird and being the hair obsessed girl I am, I just couldn't handle it. So first thing Monday morning I practically flew to the salon to have it treated and trimmed, and between my sobs and hysteria, my hairdresser seemed to understand that I needed her to do it, cuz I just couldn't handle it anymore. Well, she did a brilliant job, but I ended up spending $90 on that brilliant job. Now add that to my purchase of Victoria Secret underwear I did not need, and other various little items that I SO did not need (like did I really need those two $7 each sparkly barrettes? No.) and I'm up to a total of $200+. Which isn't that bad, considering that Jane has spent  $400+ so far. I don't know how much Jackie is spending, but I do know that it isn't a lot at all. The girl has not been shopping in ages!

   I don't understand what is up with her. She used to be such a shopaholic when I was growing up. In fact, she is the reason why I became a shopaholic. But I guess I'm really proud of her. And of myself.

   What I cannot understand however, is why Jane is spending so much. And why all at once. You see, unlike Jackie and I, who used to shop often but not spend a lot, Jane rarely shops, but tends to spend quite a bit when she does shop. This is because she likes to have clothes of good quality so she won't have to shop again for awhile. Now this is logical, and does make sense, but it is just unfortunate for Jane that she is seeing all this high quality stuff all at once in the month that she decided to initiate the Frugality Game.

  The irony of this is not lost on me. In fact, I chortle every time I think about it. Much to Jane's chagrin.

  So that's the frugality game update.

   In other news, I am about to be submerged in a ton of Literature mid semester essays, so you will have to forgive me if my updates are not as frequent as I'd like them to be.

p.s. By the way, I celebrated a birthday recently and one of the gifts I received, among jewellery and shoes, was an Oster hair dryer that is so powerful I think it could tow a truck! I'm really glad I received it because I would not have thought of buying an Oster hairdryer. I thought they only made toasters. Who knew?

 Have a great week guys!

Frugality Game : Episode 1

Disclaimer : This pic is not mine and is used compliments of cyberescue.co.uk

   My sister Jane was convinced that she could succeed in spending virtually no money this month. As in zero dollars. On Wednesday when I was telling her that she has to spend money SOMEtime, she said in a very serious voice "No, I can spend no money if I cook everyday, if I don't go out with friends, if I don't leave the house, if I don't do anything."

   I rolled my eyes at how serious she had become. This game has really brought out her competitive streak. As soon as I got home Wednesday evening she announced that she had spent no money that day.

   "How much money did YOU spend?" She asked brightly.

   "I don't wanna talk about it." I mumbled.

   "Haha! See? I'm winning already!"

   "Yeah, yeah. Don't judge me. I had to buy lunch."

   "Well, if you would cook in the morning like me you could bring your own lunch to University."

   "But I can't cook.

   "Well, whose fault is that? You're so gonna lose this game."

   Ooooh, that was low.

   I turned away from her and consoled myself by planning my next blog post.

   However, my buying lunch is no longer a problem as my sister has relented and said lunch doesn't count. Nor do grocery bills or anything like that that is absolutely necessary. I mean, you've gotta eat, right? Instead, only the purchases that are not necessary, like say, buying a snack when you've just had lunch, or eating out for dinner when my mum has already cooked dinner, will be counted.

   Anyway, my other sister Jackie has also joined the frugality game. She like me, is a shopaholic used to be a shopaholic. In fact, sometimes I wonder if I get some of my impulsive shopping habits from her. Therefore, I was worried that she might not last out this game. However Jackie has actually spent the least amount of money out of the all of us so far.

   But onto the struggles of yours truly in this darned game. Well, it's been really tough on the Misnomer so far. And was especially hard this week as the mall I work in had a mall-wide sale.

   Yup. Mall-wide. And up to like 60% off in certain stores too.

    Can you imagine how an alcoholic feels when being confronted with liquor after two months of being sober? Well, that's how I felt when I was confronted by the giant sale sign after being clean for three days.

I've got a problem...

Disclaimer: Photo courtesy of sodahead.com

   

Last Saturday afternoon found yours truly in a dressing room slithering her way into a white maxi dress. The maxi dress was-- as most maxi dresses are-- far too long for my five feet two inches. I stumbled out of the dressing room to show my friends, M, K and L. They gave me a look that said, put it back, but I totally ignored them, and started to rationalize why this would be a good purchase.

   Well, obviously, I could alter it. Or I could just wear heels with it. I mean, like six inches of it was dragging on the ground, but I have five inch heels that I can wear, and in that case only one inch would be left dragging. Which is totally normal. Plus, I could artfully wrap the excess material (I swear it was made for a giantess) in a knot at the bottom like that woman I once saw in a Caribbean trip advertisement.

   I launched these ideas to my friends who gave me a deadpan expression that showed they were not amused. K pointed out that I always say I'll have clothes altered, but I never get around to it. L said that if I was gonna spend 60 bucks on it, the least the dress could do was fit me properly. And did I really want to spend more money on getting it adjusted? M just shook her head at me and sighed. Then I realized I don't even wear those 5 inch heels that often. Plus, that tying your dress in a knot thing might only work for Caribbean tourists.

     So with a heavy heart, I trudged back into the dressing room, clawed my way out of the white parachute and later re-emerged to hang up the white monster back on the rack. It was then that I realized I may have a problem. Because if my friends had not been there, I might have very well bought that dress. And do you know why? Because in that dressing room, I had started deluding myself that I could indeed have that dress, and I had started formulating all these great excuses to launch on my friends as to why this dress was clearly made for me.

   I am, my friends, what they call a shopaholic.