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Life of Colleen
Perfume coupon code
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-28
at 7:45 PM (Pacific)
For Parfums Raffy:
To celebrate Valentine's Day, today January 26th through February 5th, 2010 receive 10% off your entire purchase placed online. This special is valid for new orders only and is not applicable to past orders.
To activate your discount please enter the following code when checking out:
IHEARTRAFFY
http://www.parfumsraffy.com
They have niche as well as mainstream brands, and their own line of perfumes.Labels: coupon code, montale, perfume
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I like Duran Duran.
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-18
at 6:10 PM (Pacific)
Don't hit me.
Labels: music, videos, yadda yadda
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What I've been into, lately
posted by Colleen Shirazi
at 11:26 AM (Pacific)
I made this labradorite pendant necklace almost two years ago today (the vermeil beads in back counterweight the stone in front). Admittedly it has lain in a drawer, more often than not, since. Brought it out today...it's perfect. I've found making something, or buying something, years in advance to when you'll need it, is not a bad idea.
 Supima cotton/Modal turtleneck, made in the U.S.A.
I'm pretty much turtlenecked out, thanks to some spectacular sales.
Originally I was seeking a deep red top of some kind, and wasn't too picky about the shade. Deep red has been one of my favorite colors since I was a kid: all kinds of deep red, such as a red-wine hue, or pomegranate, or a color veering toward dark purple, or a faded deep red approaching orange.
Contemplated this:
It's pima cotton, made in Peru, and while that sounds a bit unnecessary I've found pima cotton items made in Peru to be next to indestructible. They were sold out of this top in Large though...I don't mind buying any cotton top in Large, so long as the company doesn't produce mega-baggy tops, since the bust is sure to fit. If it's really too big I can always "cook" it in the dryer.
This one (far right)...eh...it's pima cotton and Modal, and likely looks more luxe in real life. But how versatile? When it's cold, I don't want a scoop neck; when the weather warms, will I be as obsessed with deep red? Probably not.
On the purpler end of the spectrum:
The one in front still has enough red to be of interest...it's described as a fine-gauge pima cotton top, with a subtle puffed sleeve detail. But it would have been $80.95 with shipping (assuming no sales tax). If I'd needed a lightweight pullover sweater, that would have been one thing, but I didn't.
I wound up with the first shirt. It went below $10 from its original $52, and they had it in my size. But I haven't worn it. It's stashed away, likely for next year.
Debated a bit whether to post the official video for this song. The official version has a unique lighting effect (created using glow sticks, according to the comments), but keeps getting pulled off Youtube. If the group is good enough, live is better than canned, anyway.Labels: jewelry, music, supima cotton, videos, wardrobe, what i've been into lately
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Roses are red...
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-14
at 10:11 PM (Pacific)
Roses are red
Some diamonds are blue
Chivalry is dead
But you're still kind of cute.
--Nelly Furtado, from "Promiscuous"Labels: yadda yadda
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What I've been into, lately
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-11
at 10:20 PM (Pacific)
Everyone came back from our furlough today. It was nice, seeing them all again.
My daughter commented that my wardrobe development was pretty much over with; all I'd need were a few particular items. I should say she's been an excellent wardrobe consultant, having the artistic eye I so do not. It's one of the best ways to do it...find an artist. It's like in school, where you would find the mathematician.
Got one of these:
It was a splurge, but it's killer. It's just the thing if you have thin, annoying hair like I do. The teeth keep it from sliding around.
Been using this:
It's a deep pink lipstick I'd tried on at the now-defunct Elephant Pharmacy in Berkeley, years ago. I remembered liking it; but, when I bought it, I found it too much color and wondered why I'd liked it in the first place.
I must have tried it on in the winter, because it works now. So...winter might be a good time to bring out lipsticks that didn't work when you had more color yourself. It's counterintuitive, because you're thinking deeper color would look better against a tan of some sort, but somehow it doesn't, at least on me.
This is from a previous "What I've been into, lately" post, because the original was taken down. There was a time in my life when I listened to a lot of Daryush. I find I always return to the same things, the same people, the same concepts.Labels: hair, makeup, music, videos, wardrobe, what i've been into lately
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How to unshrink a shrunken wool sweater, part 2
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-10
at 3:36 PM (Pacific)
See How to unshrink a shrunken wool sweater.
I did try the "soak sweater with hair conditioner" method (and have since read to use 1/3 cup of conditioner, more than I'd used before), and had gotten some results...but I've wanted to try the "soak with mild soap, don't rinse" method for some time now.
For this you are to soak the sweater in lukewarm water with a mild soap, then grab it out (no rinsing), blot excess water in the sweater with a towel, stretch the sweater back to its original shape, and dry flat.
I should say I've been avoiding sweaters that shrink in the washer to begin with. Finely-knit lambswool or merino sweaters don't shrink much, as long as you put them in mesh bags--when you take them out, you can gently stretch them back into shape and hang them on the line. It's those loosely-knit, fat-yarn wool sweaters that seem determined to lock up on you, even with the mesh bags.
I don't have much space to dry anything flat, and don't like hand-washing clothes for the same reason I avoid ironing: it's time-consuming.
Okay back to the sweater...I tried it today, using a gob-load of Johnson's Baby Shampoo (enough to make the lukewarm water a tad slippery). It did seem to relax the wool some, so I grabbed it and stretched the bejabbers out of it. Hm. It's a nice day, so I put it on the line to drip to its heart's content. It looks bigger, but I'll post back when it's dry and I attempt to put it on again.
Why so many laundry- and mending-related posts? Maintenance is always a bit more key than acquisition. Acquisition is the flashier, more glamorous topic, but where are you going to put it? How are you going to take care of it? How long is it going to last? These should all factor into the cost of the item.Labels: wardrobe
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Happy Saturday!
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-09
at 10:39 AM (Pacific)
My mother turned me on to this; it's really just elegant. There are other versions on Youtube, but I like this one the best, just the two of them.Labels: music, videos
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First post o' the decade
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2010-01-06
at 12:18 PM (Pacific)
I've dithered a bit over what to post here. Granted, it's an arbitrary date, but a new year is always special to me. I am one of those people who always make a New Year's resolution, and almost always keep it. (Last year was an exception, due to California's budget crisis...mumbles)
Today is the last of our mandatory furlough days. I don't think I've done this much laundry in years. lol Anything that can be washed has been washed. After a while it becomes scientific...what goes on the line and when (we've been blessed with three clear, mostly sunny days), how many times a combination of dryer sheets can be used, temperatures and cycles, minimums of different kinds of detergent; the whole shmeer really.
Now I just need to do my hair, some minor mending...and put a little E6000 at the base of a zipper on one of my skirts, the part below where it begins to zip. I discovered a rough place there after it got stuck on my tights.
I've had the above image sitting on the server since early last year. It is the most beautiful evocation of summer; what to look at when you start to wonder whether hot weather will ever return. To go with it, the lovely Eddie Cochran:
Labels: music, videos, wardrobe
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Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia soap, continued
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2009-12-30
at 8:02 PM (Pacific)
You must be tired. You've been running through my mind all day. Actually this is not the song that's been running through my mind--that would be "Taxi," from the same Bryan Ferry record. But I like this cover as well.
It's occurred to me Pacifica's Tahitian Gardenia soap smells quite similar to a perfume I've thought about, on and off, for a couple of years: Diptyque's Do Son.
 Google Street View of the Diptyque shop on Maiden Lane
Tahitian Gardenia is not as complex as Do Son--you wouldn't expect it to be, soap not being perfume--but this is one type of scent to which I return, time and again.
Do Son was almost freakishly realistic--along with the Tahitian Gardenia slew of white flowers and a fresh green note out of nowhere, it featured a slight bitter edge (as actual flowers possess) and what I swear smelled like running water and a smidge of sunlight. The deal-breaker--like the other Diptyque eau de toilettes I sampled back then (2007, the same time I took a screenshot of the shop), it had no staying power. You'd be like some kind of a nut, spraying it every half hour or so.
So the question--and it's a beauty blog question--would be, how does Pacifica's perfume version of Tahitian Gardenia compare to Diptyque's Do Son? I'll have to look more closely next time I visit Whole Foods; maybe they have Pacifica scents out?Labels: bath and body, music, perfume, product reviews, videos
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Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia soap review
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2009-12-28
at 8:20 PM (Pacific)
I chanced upon this tasty soap at Whole Foods in Berkeley, from the standard wall of scented soaps each health food store seems to possess these days. The Pacifica soaps were not the most economical--I get my bath soap at health food stores; less drying, superior quality--yet were reasonably priced, and smelled nothing short of divine.
So, along with my Whole Foods store-brand soaps ($3.99 for a honking 8-ounce bar), I chunked in a Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia soap ($5 for 6 oz.).
I was in no hurry to try it. A confirmed cheapskate, I was content to have the soap function as a sachet for a while; its white-flower scent could infuse my clothing with intense tropical goodness. (I'd never forgotten how flowers smelled in the South. They don't, out here, in our parched Western air.)
When the Whole Foods soaps had been consumed, it was time to unveil the Pacifica model. I somehow expected a neat white bar, like a Lever 2000, the kind of soap sold in the actual tropics, but the Pacifica bar was beauteous--a slightly translucent block, with softened corners and edges, a freckling of what appeared to be crumbled dried flower petals, beneath a thin layer of more translucent soap, so the whole was smooth and silky, yet angular enough to be interesting.
Soap-wise...good, but then good soap is good soap. A Trader Joe's shea butter soap is as good...the outstanding features here were the fragrance and lovely look and feel.
To me, Tahitian Gardenia didn't smell purely, nor even mainly, of gardenia; rather of a blend of white tropical flowers and lilies. To me the lily note was as strong as anything tropical or gardenia. On the Pacifica site, this soap is described as follows:
Pacifica's Tahitian Gardenia Natural Soap is handmade using a proprietary biodegradable, vegan, vegetable oil and glycerin soap base, ground almond meal, and Pacifica's own fragrance blend with ylang ylang, osmanthus and jasmine essential oils. No parabens, animal testing, animal ingredients or artificial colors. 100% VEGAN and Gluten-free.
Sweet! Oh, and I had to replenish my stock of Whole Foods soaps tonight; I added in another Pacifica soap--French Lilac--mmmmm....Labels: bath and body, product reviews
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Odds and sods, part 4
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2009-12-27
at 7:28 PM (Pacific)
Dr. Hauschka Rose Body Oil review
Hermmm...I see this sample pack is a bit over two years old. I've been using up each item slowly--the three creams are gone, the kids got into the Lavender bath oil; the Blackthorn body oil is something no one seems to want to use, so it's slated to be next on my list. I've just shaken out the last drops of the Rose Body Oil.
I wasn't particularly into body oils; they appeared simply a messier alternative to lotion, and the inner cheapskate scowled that a mixture of oils and fragrances had got to be more economical to make yourself. But, hey. The Hauschka rep was nice enough to send a plethora of samples, and I've liked just about all of them--the products are, in a word, engineered.
Rose Body Oil is no exception; you need a mere drop or two of this delicately scented oil to moisturize an area of dry skin. It produces a silkier effect than lotion, and doesn't feel greasy on. As evidenced by my poky use of the product, it keeps at least two years. A full-sized bottle could be a negligible expense.
On second thought, I've decided to replace my current Salux Beauty Skin cloth. Its lifespan would appear to be about a year and nine months. Its scratchiness had diminished over time--it never frayed nor developed a hole, making it a bit awkward to throw away, but it is noticeably less abrasive (this is the thing for keratosis pilaris, ingrown hairs, and even some prevention of acne).
"Fixing" a zipper
I had a horrific experience: the zipper on my handbag ceased to zip. It'd started out getting sticky; crossed my mind it would need some kind of lubrication, like graphite for a keyhole, but one day the pull simply wouldn't lock the teeth. You'd yank the pull all the way over, and the zipper would gape open.
Sometimes the teeth at the base of the zipper would lock for about an inch and a half; I theorized one of the teeth beyond that point was bent, throwing off the remainder of the teeth. Got out my chain-nose pliers, and looked for something to bend back...but after a close examination, I couldn't find any bent or otherwise damaged teeth.
Finally I googled to get some ideas. One article stated you should lubricate your zipper by rubbing a piece of beeswax on it. I actually owned a piece of beeswax, from way back when, so I got that out and started rubbing it along each side of the zipper. You need to do this several times to make zipping nice and smooth.
Weirdly enough, the zipper works now. It wasn't really damaged; it was the stress of sticky zipping that kept the teeth from aligning.
The morale to this story is--if you can't find broken teeth on the zipper, and the pull starts out working (isn't out of sync at the base), why not try this method?
Edited to add: I'm also not unzipping it quite all the way.Labels: bath and body, dr. hauschka, product reviews, wardrobe
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Merry Christmas!
posted by Colleen Shirazi
2009-12-25
at 5:58 PM (Pacific)
Bono massacred this song at one point, didn't he? :)
My girl Mariah Carey--love her.
Happy holidays to all, and a happy and prosperous New Year (in case I don't post before then).Labels: music, videos
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