Review of 5 BB creams.

I have tried some of Elsie's BB creams. There have been times when Elsie has been into something like, say, oils, and raves on and on about this oil for hair and this oil for hands and I'm nodding on the outside and on the inside I'm thinking "oils are oily, whatever". But this time, our obsessions have aligned and we rave at each other about BBs and both of us are interested! It's amazing. I haven't gotten deeply into the world of makeup, I feel like makeup has branched out and met me where I am with something practical and easy.

I'm looking for BB creams that have sunscreen, and make my skin look better without looking like makeup, and that stay OK all day. You might have different needs. This is a summary, but there are plenty of lengthy reviews around the www, with videos and stuff. You're probably not that interested though.

Tarte
Cost: $34, yikes.
SPF: 30+ (titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, so physical sunscreen not chemical)
Coverage: Good, but clings to dry skin and makes it look flaky.
Rating: 5 stars. The smoothest and lightest thing I have ever touched, not at all greasy. Pure magic.
http://tartecosmetics.com/tarte-item-BB-tinted-primer

Loreal Nude Magique
Cost: $16-27 (depending on Priceline sales)
SPF: SPF 12 (not a real sunscreen)
Coverage: Not enough to my liking. More of a tint than a proper cover, but smooth.
Rating: 2.5 stars. Not enough sunscreen for me in summer, but good enough in winter. Available everywhere though.
http://www.priceline.com.au/index.php/cosmetics/face/tinted-moisturisers-and-bb-creams/nude-magique-bb-cream-30.0-ml

Canmake Perfect Serum
Cost: 800yen (try ebay etc) about $10
SPF: 50 (chemical I assume, ingredients list is useless.)
Coverage: Good.
Rating: 4 stars. Feels creamy. Very happy with this product, great for the price if you can find it.
http://www.canmake.com/en/ebase/item_base034.html

Skin79 Chiffon BB Mousse
Cost: I don't know
SPF: 30
Coverage: Good.
Rating: 3 stars. Elsie gave me this because she has better ones, and I think I have better ones too, but the whole point of reviewing this is that it squirts out as a mousse and it smells chocolatey so it's like spreading cupcake cream on your face. That's funny. It's not easy to get smooth application though.
http://www.mybbcream.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=233

La Roche Posay Uvidea Melt-in
Cost: $18-30.
SPF: 50 (I think a mix of physical and chemical)
Coverage: Good, but when you look closely it's not super even
Rating: 4 stars. LRP is a skin care company as opposed to a cosmetic company, so I trust the ingredients more than Canmake. It's also available locally. Texture is like Invisible Zinc sunscrean, sort of greasy. If you're fussy about having a greasy face, Elsie suggests a light brushing of setting powder. I normally need the lightest shade of a BB but with this brand the lightest is rather ghostly, it's basically a grey sunscreen, so Elsie and I think the second lightest is a bit better, it's distinctly golden. http://www.laroche-posay.com.au/products-treatments/Uvidea-XL/UVIDEA-XL-BB-MELT-IN-CREAM-p8747.aspx?gclid=CLe36rvu8boCFcdYpQodOVIAUQ

For funs, I stitched together two face halves. A face from a few months ago when I wasn't wearing BB cream or lipstick (and had a bad skin reaction to something but that's the less puffy eye, but that's why I look sad and bleagh on the left) and my face today, with Elsie's La Roche Posay and some lipstick. I don't think the colour is accurate and the lighting would also be different on different days so this is a bit exagerated, but I think you can get an idea of how "made up" I look with BB, ie, not very. It just evens skin tone or something. I should do a same day photo experiment actually.

List that amused me today.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-hottest-male-celebrities-according-to-straight-guys

This is a weird list: what straight men think is handsome in other men. Never heard of a lot of them. But I like the things they've put under the photos. Like "Just the right level of salt and pepper". And "The kind of man that will chop down a tree, make a table out of it, and then pull out the chair for you." And I like the fact that they don't even bother to learn the name of the guys they vote for. Poor "Guy who plays Bones in Star Trek". I know you were Eomer in Lord of the Rings.

Bobby pins compare.

On the left, common pharmacy or supermarket pins. On the right, the hairdressers secret weapons. You really notice the difference when you pin things, the hairdresser ones grip about 10 times stronger.

Office metabolism.

By and large, the men in the office seem capable of sitting nearly ALL DAY and working without  getting up to drink water, make tea, find food, go to the bathroom, make more tea, get hungry again. There'll do like one coffee break, that's it. The women in the office are much more active. I'm in and out of the kitchen with my tea mug all the time, and ferreting in desk drawers for biscuits and nuts.

Bobby pins.

It turns out there are two kinds of bobby pins in the world. The sort you can buy at the shops, and the sort hairdressers use. The sort you can buy in the shops are USELESS, and I did not know this until I got the hairdresser sort last year, possibly the best perk of being a bridesmaid, the headful of proper strong and grippy bobby pins. My hairdo skills doubled instantly.

Westerners at yum cha

Had yum cha recently with a group that were majority Westerners. As we sat down to the table, waiter says to head honcho waitress in Cantonese, "Hey, what kind of tea do these guys want?"

She replies, "Don't be silly! They're Westerners!" Can't remember what she said, it might have been, "Offer them drinks [ie alcohol and soft drinks]."

I've even seen drinks trolleys at yum cha now - something I never saw in my childhood.

So that's the difference between Westerners and Chinese people at yum cha: Westerners drink drinks, the Chinese drink tea.

Hanging washing: comparison of disadvantages.

Inside:

• Fills house with laundry
• Doesn't get that fresh air and sun feel
• Dries slower

Outside:

• Clothes fade in the sun
• May be ogled or stolen by neighbours
• Exposed to rain, bugs and birds

I definitely like to hang sheets and towels outside. Some clothes I want to hang inside so they don't fade. Drying outside at night is a good compromise, but they just need a little bit of morning sun to finish them off.

Character of cooking.

There are two sorts of people. You either start with the recipe, or start with the pantry. If you are a religious recipe follower then throwing random ingredients together with a few sauces and spices is way out of your comfort zone. You stick to the recipe. Donna knows best. And if you are at the other end of the spectrum, a 'master scavenger-chef', then cooking from a recipe is a little bit daunting.

I am the latter. I am very confident that I can eat whatever I cook from the random contents of my freezer and pantry, but when I have to cook for other people I feel like the food should be recognisable and have a name. And proper cakes and things really need recipes. So I have to think, plan, shop, and cook following instructions, which is just more stressful for me. At the same time, I feel the call to freedom; I'm not 100% bound to the recipe, and I'll "adapt" it for efficiency.

So the office birthday cake today has wholemeal SR instead of normal SR flour. I could not find coconut milk at coles last night (???) so I decided to use a bit of condensed milk and a bit of soy milk instead. Then I put in less sugar, because condensed milk is obviously very sweet. Then I didn't have a high enough cake tin, so I put a bit less mixture in the tin and cooked the rest in a bowl like a pudding for my own dessert. And then I probably had the oven up a bit high, but that probably turned out OK because Rachel, who cooked this cake for her wedding, said that it takes longer than you think, and I didn't test the cake with the skewer, I just took it out at the right time, so it was a good thing it was hotter.

I felt comfortable making all those variations on the recipe, they all seemed logical at the time, and I'm pretty confident the cake will be edible.

Haircut time again.

I put off going to the hairdresser as long as I can. I dislike going to a hairdresser. I prefer the dentist, and that is saying something because I've had enough dentistry in the past 2 years to put me off it for a lifetime.

Why I don't like getting a haircut.

1. Timing the appointment. Figuring out which upcoming event I would most benefit from having nice fresh hair. Wedding? Weekend away?
2. Choosing a hairdresser. Cheap asian or Tony & Guy? What is the cost/risk benefit?
3. Wearing the cape. I hate the high-necked cape. It is a What Not To Wear sin.
4. Staring at myself in the mirror under unflattering lights with my hair clipped backwards.
5. Chit-chat. Salon chit-chat irks me.

Dentists, on the other hand, have space-age recliner chairs, soft music, no mirrors, and don't feel obliged to chat to you in a chirpy shop-girl voice. It's an exaggerated contrast, but I do have a disproportionate dislike of haircuts.

Jumpers.

There are many differences between man and woman. It would be impossible to list them all. But here is a significant one I heard today on the ABC.

Women, when removing a jumper, either:
a) hold jumper from the bottom, sometimes with arms crossed, and gather the jumper up and over the head, trying to avoid contact with her hair. Alternatively,
b) remove one sleeve at a time and then lift it over from the bottom, again avoiding hair contact.

Men also have two ways to remove a jumper.
a) grab jumper by the back of the neck with both hands and drag whole jumper over head in one go.
b) grab jumper from bottom and peel over back and head, turning jumper inside out as you go.

Handbag v backpack

Handbags are the correct way for a lady to carry around her purse and other lady business.

They are fun to shop for, because you don't have to go into a change room. They can be very pretty. They can have secret pockets and special lining and hidden compartments. Who can resist?

However, handbags and satchels are usually carried on the one side all the time. It's like crossing your arms the other way, it feels all unbalanced and wrong to tuck your bag under the other shoulder. Carrying something heavy on one side means your back is twisting to the other side to compensate. Not good for you. One day you'll bite into a carrot and your jaw will get stuck, and you'll have to undo all the contributing factors.

So, backpacks. They are all basically sporty, ugly, and comfortable. Not ladylike at all, but when you walk a lot and carry heaps of stuff around, the backpack beats the handbag.

I wish there was an in between way.

Car: Freedom and burden.

Elsie has a car. Jess doesn't. This is a sort of combined thoughts post.

Cars are a source of freedom. You can go anywhere and take anything with you at any time of the day or night. That is quite wonderful.

But cars are also a burden. You have to carry around a lot of little burdensome thoughts in your head, like *how much petrol have I got left? *where/when can I get the cheapest petrol? *that's a new noise, can it wait till the next service? *should I park nearby and pay?

Without a car, the choices are a lot more limited, but that isn't always a bad thing. Life is simpler if you live within the bus routes. And public transport is slower etc etc, but on the other hand if you go to the CBD or the shops you just hop on a bus, trance out, and then get off and walk away without worrying where you park. So there's a strong argument for the freedom of not having a car as much as you can.

The hanky.

I'm a hanky girl. I don't hate tissues, but I was brought up on hankies. Although tissues cost more over time and I am pretty stingy, so that's a big mark against tissues. Also, I don't like disposable culture. Also, hankies feel more solid and I blow my nose pretty hard. Also, hankies have more romantic potential - the waving of the hanky from the train window, the lending of the monogrammed hanky from the considerate and prepared gentleman*.

The trick with hankies, though, is not to use them and absentmindedly leave them around all used looking and disgusting ... on the couch, the coffee table, my desk at work, my inbox ...

*Speaking of gentlemen and ladies and hankies: my Dad is constantly asked "Do you have a hanky?" to which he replies "Do I have daughters?"; so now I just ask "Do you have daughters?" to save time.

The honeycomb divide.

Violet Crumble used to be my favourite chocolate bar. Maybe because it was the biggest. Value is important. Then somehow, Crunchie took the place of favourite honeycomb based chocolate bar.

You know how a Crunchie has a hard dense side and a light bubbly side? I always bite the hard side first so I can save up the bubbly side. Violet Crumble is light and dense with no bubbly bit.

I was thinking of switching back to Violet Crumble, to relive the good times. I had a Violet Crumble this week, and it wasn't that good. The only thing that impressed me was that I ate half and then left it for a few days and the honeycomb didn't dissolve from exposure to humidity the way I expected. But I'll never go back.

Lesson 1 from 2009.

I made a mistake this year, which has been a long running annoyance. I bought a day to a page diary, instead of a week to a spread one. Maybe there are people out there who like a whole page for each day, but I'm not that busy. I do need help thinking ahead, however; I need to see this week, or next week, at a glance. I like to know if a day of the week is going to be on the left or the right. I like to count ahead the weeks by turning pages.

Buying a diary for the year is one of those special personal decisions. If you use ical, you might be organised. But you don't get to carry around a little book in your chosen brand, size, thickness, colour, surface texture, fonts. Even though my 2009 diary is a stupid day to a page diary, it is small, thick, red vinyl cover, with rounded corners, yellowy pages and an elastic closure, and it has stickers on it. It's a sort of statement.

Girls vs Boys.

Worst things about being a girl (not a man). Not a comprehensive list, obviously. I have heard that childbirth is pretty awful, but that's beyond my experience and kind of heavy for this blog anyway.

1) Feeling perioidal
2) Make-up and hair maintenance
3) Have to pack more when traveling, but have weaker arms
4) Shopping for swimwear or underwear
5) Comparing self with other girls

Best things about being a girl (not a man)

1) Skirts
2) Not being really hairy
3) Sometimes acting silly
4) Using the 'i'm a girl, can you do it for me' excuse
5) More interesting shoes

I think I will write one from the other perspective. Stay tuned.

Using stuff up.

There are two main emotional responses to using stuff up:

Glass half full: "Yay, I've been using the same bottle of soap forever, now I can go and buy a different smelling one! New soap flavour!!!"

Glass half empty: "Sigh, now I have to remember to get another bottle of detergent."