The Beauty Thread

[laylalex 7,293]

1 hour ago, Lemonslice said:

Thanks for the reviews.  Was the drybar product way too perfumed?  I had bought a travel size conditioner and it was terrible.  The product was okish (nothing better than a generic conditioner), but the smell!  Stronger than fake old spice extra strong.

 

I have been super busy and didn't get to shop, or beautify myself, much recently.  However I was able to get myself matched for the Charlotte Tilbury foundation (3N it is) and ordered it during the Sephora sale. 

Also, got a sample box of fragrance to be exchanged for my day-to-day bottle of Clean Skin Reserve (which is cheaper, and many others to try!)

 

Ok... Maybe you could guide me, I'm looking for a smudgeable eye crayon in medium to dark grey.  No shimmer.  I like the texture of the Laura Mercier caviar eye stick, but the Tuxedo will be too dark.

 

 

How's the writing going?

The Drybar stuff actually turned out to be okay -- I needed to apply more of it to have the desired effect of making my hair sleeker. My hair is on the thicker side, which explains it. The smell is... it's not to everyone's tastes.  I'm okay with it personally. I get my hair blown out at Drybar sometimes and while it smells great in there it isn't quite the same at home.

 

Aha, 3N! Let me know what you think of the CT. I stocked up HEAVY during the Sephora sale, and I know I need to do a product review of some of the things that were on the new side. I was weak and bought another eyeshadow palette. 🙄

 

I love the sample sets -- a really good deal most of the time. I was going to recommend the Laura Mercier (they are great) but have you considered any of the Charlotte Tilbury sticks? (I swear, I do not get kickbacks from her!) Check out the Colour Chameleon line -- there is a grey with a slightly brown cast to it (Dark Pearl). Bobbi Brown is another thought, and MUFE does sticks too. Ah! Also Clinique used to have a grey in their Chubby Sticks line, not sure about now. Grey's a hard one in non-powder formulation.

 

Writing is... going? I have three chapters down, and I got writer's block and started writing a contemporary rom-com on the side. Um, okay! But it did unstick me, and I'm back writing the main book again. I'm actually working on part of the end of the book right now, when the hero wises up to what he has to do to win the girl and control his own life for a change.

[TBoneTX 45,591]

7 hours ago, laylalex said:

The Drybar stuff [...] [...] [...] in non-powder formulation.

Yet again, We Guys are, to a man, bewildered by this foreign language...

[laylalex 7,293]

Man grooming stuff then:

 

I bought Alex a big bottle of Spicebomb Night Vision in the Sephora sale. It's sort of appley-spicey-green with a woody undertone, and it smells amazing on him. I wanted to just bury my face in his chest when he put it on. Which is why I'm glad I bought him the very big bottle and not one suitable for travel abroad without me, lest he attract other women. I prefer he smell of "I forgot to shower" and keep them at bay.  

 

Also Night Vision has the benefit of looking like a hand grenade, if you need to have your cologne look very manly in the bathroom. 

[TBoneTX 45,591]

You're hilarious, LL ma'am!   

[laylalex 7,293]

13 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

You're hilarious, LL ma'am!   

Thank you! I am also available for men's cologne recommendations.  

[TBoneTX 45,591]

1 hour ago, laylalex said:

men's cologne

Worried here about smelling like a cheap whorehouse*.

   *or what they reportedly smell like

[laylalex 7,293]

5 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Worried here about smelling like a cheap whorehouse*.

   *or what they reportedly smell like

Yes, I do understand. When we were at a wedding together (in the before times) Alex's ex-girlfriend told him right in front of me that he smelled like a high-priced Parisian gigolo in the hoity-toity scent I'd bought him. He asked her how she would know, and she said she has a fine imagination.

 

I wrote that down in my Notes app, quite a good line to use somewhere I thought! This is (according to said Note) what he was wearing that day:

https://us.etatlibredorange.com/products/fat-electrician-en

 

Fabulous description, too:

Quote

 

His beauty would have been his greatest asset. One imagines he was raised in the big air of Texas, his soft skin scrubbed by ears of wheat, his eyelashes curled by grappling with grace against a blinding sun. A Midnight Cowboy lost on city asphalt.

A fisherman without a line, he was made to be hooked by others, to believe in his fate without knowing it, to wreak havoc and forget it over time. Youth for women-of-a-certain-age, stock for late-night parties, a partner to accompany the wealthy of Palm Beach on nature walks, his splendor is consumed in the service of others. Now, a Fat Electrician in New Jersey, his talent depleted in his sexual decline. This is the curse of beauty - it doesn’t last.

MAIN NOTES

Vetiver from Haiti, chestnut cream, olive leaves, myrrh, vanilla, opoponax

 

Yes, really very silly (on purpose) but it smells amazing.  And it has this great review:

Quote

 

Finally a smell my wife doesnt hate

I thought screw it, im fat and im an electrician so this has got to be a good fit for me. Damn right it is! I ordered the sample bottle and my wife came home and all but jumped me for the first time in 10 years! Ordering the big bottle now!

 

[TBoneTX 45,591]

46 minutes ago, laylalex said:

what he was wearing

[T-B. sees price and faints]

 

When I wore any of that stuff, I got it from the discount or dollar stores.  Plenty of good-smelling junk there.

[Adventine 3,201]

That Fat Electrician link gave me a good laugh. But thank God I like my husband's natural pheromones. 

 

All this talk about smelling good reminds me of the issues that Japanese have with "smell harrassment": https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2016/10/04/smell-harassment-yes-thats-real-thing-training/#:~:text=What is smell harassment%3F,body odor or bad breath.

 

[laylalex 7,293]

That's really interesting about smell harassment. I've worked in places where a co-worker smelled bad (heavy smoker), and was told basically to suck it up and deal. The person wasn't smoking on company time, etc. But it made me want to hurl.

 

My husband's natural smell is usually quite nice, but when I met him... not so much.  He was only 20 back then and smoked like a chimney on top of his post-adolescent pong, and he tried to cover it up with whatever the British version of Axe was called. TERRIBLE. What's worse is that he was very attached to this "silky" dressing gown that trapped all of those smells in lockdown tighter than a federal prison. You couldn't wash them out, with the sweat the most clingy. He didn't get rid of the thing until a few years ago and while the odors had faded a little, you did NOT want to stick your nose into it. He kept it for "sentimental reasons" but I suspect it was partly because he knew it drove both his ex and me insane.

[PGA 251]

On 4/15/2022 at 3:33 PM, laylalex said:

Thank you! I am also available for men's cologne recommendations.  

Try one called VOYAGEUR by Jean Patou, Paris

I'm not one who particularly likes cologne but I always thought that was a very good one.

[TBoneTX 45,591]

18 hours ago, Adventine said:

smell harassment

In contrast with past years, I've become exceptionally sensitive to some women's perfumes and men's colognes.  I've had to change airplane seats because of it.

 

Part of the problem (with women especially, but not exclusively) is that they seem to drench themselves in the stuff to keep themselves from stinking of sweat or whatever else they're masking.

[Adventine 3,201]

@TBoneTX I feel your pain. My opinion of a person is downgraded by several levels if they spray on too much perfume.

 

[TBoneTX 45,591]

As stated earlier, they, uh, smell like a cheap whorehouse.  

And I have the 100% consequent right to hock green lung-loogies all over them.

[Lemonslice 4,917]

@laylalex My order is in the mail, I will let you know .  I am in Canada for a few days and I might check out the colour and texture of the Watier pencil in Urban Velours.  Frequent travels for work will be back soon, and I really try to lighten my bag as much as possible.  

Good luck with the writing, you are perseverant and will do it!  I kind of overdosed in school, and my desire to write is slowly coming back.  I am only jotting down ideas for now.  

 

Men Beauty Things

 

My man really likes the Paula's Choice Aftershave.  It is pretty much unscented, but his skin has been real nice since he started using it (after I moved in!).  It goes on sale regularly.

 

Otherwise, he likes to keep his head shaved and he has been recommending the Pitbull shaver to family and friends.

 

Aquaphor or Homeplasmine for his dry lips - whatever he was using before was irritating and not helping much. 

 

Sunscreen, sunscreen every day.  

 

He does not want to play and let me put nail polish on him, put that is a secret dream of mine.  One day, one day. 

 

----

I absolutely hate it when people wear too much perfume/cologne.  I thought I was going to be sick on a recent train trip to D.C.  The lady in the row back to me was stinking of too much perfume.  I wear some on most days, but very lightly.  I want to get compliments from someone cuddling me,  not strangers   Strangers can enjoy that I am clean and not stinky, that is enough.