Employment prospects

It’s been a while since I reported on my employment situation. For a few months now, I have been working part-time while continuing to plug away at freelancing. I’ve had some clients come and go and still haven’t quite settled into a routine. It doesn’t help that my work load at the part-time job is rather sporadic and that the job itself is still technically temporary. It all leaves me feeling kind of up in the air: not quite freelancing, not quite employed. I am trying to just stay in the moment and work with it and not worry about it too much.

Advice from a skincare junkie

Long before I ever worked behind a cosmetics counter (first for Estee Lauder and then for Clarins), I amassed dozens of beauty tips from magazines that I always wheedled my mother into buying every time we went to the grocery store. Having let a friend convince me to apply two different shades of blue eyeshadow all the way up to my eyebrows in the seventh grade (it was 1987, after all), I was determined not to commit any more cosmetics faux pas. So it surprised me when one of my Lauder coworkers had never heard that lipstick lasts longer if you fill in your lips first with lipliner. Didn’t other women learn this stuff when they were younger?

Skincare Review: Vickery & Clarke Natural Apothecary

Update 2/13/2010:  Due to the level of interest and traffic this post has received, I’ve e-mailed CVS customer care to urge them to reconsider discontinuing this product line.  I’ve received a response stating my comments have been forwarded “to the appropriate group at CVS for consideration.” Will report back if I hear anything further.

I was really surprised to learn that these products even exist. A natural skin care line made with herb and flower extracts … whose products contain more than 94% natural ingredients … that uses no parabens, SLS, phthalates, or petrolatums … and is available exclusively at CVS for an average $5 price point? Get out!

Long-awaited update

Today I decided to take some time to give my blog some much-needed TLC. Though I launched the new design a couple of months ago, there were still some tweaks that needed to be made, and I clearly haven’t posted in a while. Which is sad, because I do love my blog’s new look and functionalities. I could offer excuses or apologies for neglecting my blog, but I won’t, except to say that other things have been commanding my time and energies, and there are never enough hours in the day for everything. But I am glad to be back to working on it.