May 30, 2008 9:47 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I was skeptical about these...because I remember back when Dr. Scholl made a similar claim about their sandals...the kind with a wooden sole? They were supposed to tone your legs. All I remember was how uncomfortable they were, and they didn't seem to tone anything.

Glad the FitFlops worked out!

May 27, 2008 4:06 AM,  Dain said...

I like what you say about "he most expensive lipstick is typically the one which you don't use up".That's very true. Even if a lippie is $6, if you don't touch it, it's wasted money, and even if you spend $22, it's worth it if you get use out of it, even if you use it for special occasions.

In my experience, most "dry-clean only" can be washed by hand. In fact, that's really what wears down clothing, machine-washing, and the tag's there to discourage machine-washing more than anything else. I've found a good compromise is to use a cold cycle and air-dry as much as I can.

May 27, 2008 4:28 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Yeah...one of the less-talked-about budgeting tactics, "cost per wear." I read about it when I was a kid, in a book called Cheap Chic. (There was a Cheap Chic II at one point, I think, which I haven't read, but the original has been out of print for a long time.)

There they actually calculated the cost per wear of two dresses; one was $20, the other $80, but the $80 one got worn a whole lot more, and ended up "cheaper." (In those days, an extravagant price for a dress.)

There is a kind of rayon fabric which shrinks, when washed in water rather than drycleaned. It's happened to me a few times...it's matte in texture. For whatever nutty reason, smooth rayon doesn't seem to shrink nearly as much.

Hence, the precaution could be to buy clothes made from this rayon, in one size up, on the notion it's gonna shrink one size anyway. :D

I do mine in the washing machine, it's too many to hand wash. At the end of the week I have a full size load...cold water, Woolite, delicate cycle.

May 27, 2008 11:21 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I'm still dithering about the Foot Petals. You can't find the dimensions for them...they sell something called Haute Heelz, which look more practical than Heavenly Heelz, for some of my shoes--if the Haute Heelz are as big as they look. You could cut them in half and stick them into the backs of the shoes.

Thinking of trying several kinds out...the price per pair is all the same.

I remember now, it was Insolia that people said worked better for high heels, not Foot Petals. Insolia is a gel insole supposedly engineered to transfer more weight from the ball of the foot to the heel--where Foot Petals are basically just pads, from what I can tell.

May 24, 2008 1:31 PM,  Dain said...

That's a very sensible plan. I take a very long time to make any expensive purchases myself, and you can get a cheap pair for the mean time. I've had good luck with Banana Republic. They're nicely styled and sturdily made for the price. I have a pair of espadrilles that I got for $68 that are still going very strong, and I've worn them everywhere.

Err... or if I misunderstood you, perhaps you got some shoes already.

I've been curious about Foot Petals too. If you get them, please let us know how they work out. I have a couple pairs of shoes that might need them.

Yeah, I definitely agree, you probably don't need both exfoliators. The appeal of the Dr. Hauschka is that it exfoliates without abrading, but if you don't mind rubbing away at your skin, then it doesn't really matter, right? I think it's a good plan. And you could also always move the cleansing milk into a plastic bottle. I wonder how you'd feel about the Eve Lom balm cleanser phenomenon (obviously, there are cheaper options): just one product to cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize?

May 24, 2008 4:11 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Hehe, this gets more interesting...I did some calling around about Foot Petals. One place in Berkeley told me they don't recommend back-of-the-heel pads...what they do, is give you a pad to put in the toe of your shoe. The idea is if the heel is loose, it's because the shoe is big, and the toe-pad should push your foot back far enough to make the heel fit.

So, I'm going to check that out today. Yup, I got some shoes. They are the ones in the pic, I just photoshopped some commercial shoe images together.

I've seen the ball-of-foot 'Petals around a lot, wondering how good they are for high heels. The shoes I got don't need padding there...they had some nice-looking flats, but I turned them down for that reason. Now I'm wondering how good the 'Petals technology is...some people swear by them, as a means of turning a cheap shoe into an expensive one. lol

That Salux cloth is interesting, from an engineering point of view. You don't feel as if you're scrubbing...and you're not scrubbing...yet, it lifts off what feels like years' worth of dead skin. It's eerie. I'm not sure I need a cleanser at all...thinking of trying the cloth with a mild body wash, like the Jason one.

May 25, 2008 5:45 PM,  Joy Rothke said...

I'm staying loyal to Dr. H! I think the cleansing cream does more than exfoliate, and is exceptionally good at gently drawing gunk out of one's pores. I'm also having good luck with rhassoul clay soap, which I'll be writing about. [Colleen: I can send you a sample.]

Some of the ingredients in Eve Lom cleanser:

paraffinum liquidum (mineral oil), cetearyl alcohol, peg-30 lanolin, bis-diglyceryl polyacyladipate-2, aluminum stearate, theobroma cacao (cocoa butter), peg-75 lanolin, chamomilla recutita (chamomile oil), eugenia caryophyllus (clove oil), eucalyptus globulus (eucalyptus oil), humulus lupulus (hops oil), phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, isobutylparaben, p-chloro-m-cresol, eugenol, isoeugenol

are almost as appalling as its price [GBP 48 for 100 ml]. I wouldn't touch this stuff with a 10-foot pole.

May 26, 2008 3:42 AM,  Dain said...

I don't mean Eve Lom exactly, I just thought Colleen may like the idea because it's got a similar feel to the cleansing milk and may work well in conjunction with her Salux cloth. I was really thinking of the LUSH Ultrabland, which I think is a great product, except for the dreaded peanut oil that clogs my pores.

May 26, 2008 3:57 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Dain: Right now I'm using soap with the Salux cloth. I got some Canus goat milk soap on sale, so I've been using that. (It smells really good btw, it's the marigold extract one.)

After I do that, I use the Cleansing Cream...mostly because I feel I should use it up, and also because it is handily moisturizing. That's why I was thinking the Cleansing Milk would do just as well, but I haven't thought of using it with the cloth, which actually makes more sense.

Joy: Thanks for the offer. Not sure what I'm going to do yet... I'll look forward to your writing about rhassoul clay soap (which admittedly I've never heard of). It sounds Arabic?

I've found the Hauschka Cleansing Milk good...I use it at night, and it seems to last well. I might just port some to a plastic bottle and see how that flies.

Their lipstick is good too, it is up there with Chanel.

May 26, 2008 2:46 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

lololol! I'm afraid I don't fit in with the perfumistas, either. There was a brief period when Montale was the "it" brand, on another board, and I was interested in it at the same time--so for five minutes, I had something to talk about. But on that same board, hardly anyone mentions Montale anymore. I don't know if they all swapped their Montales...I bought some, it's a nice brand. It has a strong Middle Eastern vibe, which is nice in perfumery.

Thanks so much for posting about the Bolton line. I'm jealous of you...so much of the American artisan movement is based in Southern Cal. We have TerraNova of Berkeley here...they make a Pikake scent I swatch every time I see it. It's pretty much pure pikake, maybe a little musk. It's been on my wish list for years. I'm slow to buy new scents.

Don't be afraid to bump up a new post to the date/time it's being published. :)

May 15, 2008 9:59 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

Well, I look at it this way. Women are trained to be insecure, starting from childhood. Even if you know you're good, you're somehow not supposed to be as competitive as a boy, it's frowned upon.

So that's the thing. If you're not an insecure person, you're not going to be intimidated by airbrushed photos of models. You'll feel strong in your own right.

But if you are insecure, then you're going to be insecure in almost any given situation, magazines or no magazines.

I went back to work recently, I can tell you that most of the women in my office are way younger and better-looking than I am. But that's okay. I'm too old to care, I feel it's a phase you have to grow out of.

May 15, 2008 10:37 PM,  Dain said...

Most magazines are catalogues with clever captions, in my opinion. They are selling you stuff, an entire lifestyle, which includes a body type.

May 12, 2008 8:59 PM,  Dain said...

Maybe if you wore a boyish, oversize blazer like this one you'd bring it down a notch. I know this is a rather expensive example, but I imagine you can find one for cheap easily, maybe even in the boys' department of some store.

May 12, 2008 10:15 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I may have to wear it for work! There's talk we're going to have a small heat wave. The nice factors are the lace and the white color. A good part of dealing with hot weather is psychological, after all, like wearing green, blue or white.

I'll have to look at it more closely to see if it's long enough to get away with wearing knee-high stockings, another hot-weather trick.

May 12, 2008 10:23 PM,  Dain said...

I'm all for it. If it looks good, it looks good. : )

May 13, 2008 12:00 AM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I'm greenish, I suppose. :) I prefer more natural products, because they tend to work better. At one point I noticed, the mainstream products I'd always used had become harsher. I really think there was a change in ingredients at one point.

I use some Dr. Hauschka products, health food store shampoos and conditioners...usually have a few in the shower and switch them around to avoid build-up.

May 14, 2008 8:20 PM,  Dain said...

Me too! I'm not green out of any design, I'm all for synthetics when they make the products better and safer (such as perfumes), but my skin only seems to grow more sensitive, while products grow ever harsher. It doesn't seem that way, because they load them with silicones so they feel luxurious, but my skin complains.

May 10, 2008 3:45 AM,  Dain said...

I'm a spender, not a saver, as you well know, but--I'm all for deliberation before buying, especially for anything $100 and above. Is there any way to try them on before you make a decision?

May 10, 2008 8:56 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

That's just the problem. There are several stores around here that retail them. It's a case of, "I'm afraid to try them because I might like them."

I have yet to try the Nordies route, which would likely be half the price if not less. Cydwoqs do go on sale online, and I've seen some on Ebay, but the sale ones tend to be either odd sizes or styles I don't like.

May 11, 2008 12:27 PM,  Joy Rothke said...

They're interesting...but the soles don't look very sturdy.

May 11, 2008 2:09 PM,  Colleen Shirazi said...

I'd have to see them in person, no doubt. I'm hoping to do that today, since I have to get shoes one way or the other (my beloved Cole Haan's have "vintaged" to the point of developing a hole in one side). I'm going to try Nordies first, but there is a shop in that mall that carries Cydwoqs.