I have an Addictive Product Personality.

There are two problems I am constantly looking to solve in my beauty routine:

• Oily/Acne prone skin
• Fine, limp hair

What sometimes triggers my binge-shopping is that I’ll buy something from a certain product line for one of these problems, like it, and then decide that I need every other item from that product line so they can work together and make me look and feel awesome. This helps me justify almost any purchase.

I also obey rules, so when something says “this works best when you use [insert other product from same line] here”, I tell myself that whatever product I’m using is clearly suboptimal without its counterparts from the same line.

Previous product line obsessions include Bioderma, Korres, Bumble & Bumble and most recently, Lush.

In order to keep myself in check, I’ve decided no more trying new product lines for the foreseeable future. I can still tweak my current regimen (I may need to try a different Lush moisturizer and facewash combo, but those will be exchanges), but I’m not allowed to try anything new for the month of June. I have SO MUCH hair and face stuff! I do NOT need any more (what you can’t see in that picture is that I have another cabinet full of hair and beautification products).

Is there anything you can’t resist spending your money on? Do you bulk-buy certain product lines?

A PF Confession in lieu of a spending report.

This is kind of a hard post to write. I was laying awake a few nights ago feeling guilty about my most recent spending binge, and as I tend to do, I started snowballing. Eventually, I came to the realization that my spending is symptomatic of how I’m feeling in my personal life. I’m living above my means. I have money in my savings and will use it (along with my fun fund, because lord knows I had a lot of fun buying the stuff) to cover the gap, but the fact remains that I’m not actually spending within my paycheque constraints at the moment. I can’t handle the tightness in my chest anymore. I need to relax, and the way to do that is with a spending plan and some self-control. I received overtime pay from October to March, had a three-paycheque month in May, got my tax refund, and received my retroactive pay. There’s no more additional money coming in beyond my paycheques, and I need to check myself before I wreck myself. That’s not to say I didn’t use the extra money for my savings, but I definitely spent a lot of it too. I believe in using your money to have fun and live a little, but when it comes at the expense of other savings goals, then you have a problem.

Clarisionic Mia: Week Eight.

Well, I’ve been using the Mia for two months now, and I’m overdue for another review.

I still love it. I love it so much. For me, I have to use it for the full minute or my skin gets angry. I’ve also found that the circular motion while I’m using it is essential (it seems ridiculously simple, but don’t go in straight lines on your face, do little circles). Don’t get aggressive with it – be gentle! Your face will thank you. I tend to use a significant amount of product with it because I want to make sure that I get a deep cleanse. My pores are still awesomely tiny, and I never would’ve gotten that with the regimen I was using before. And I’m not getting any more of those horrible double header zits!

That being said though, I’m still struggling to find the right combination of products for my skin. Being from British Columbia, I’m naturally predisposed to being a bit of a tree-hugger, but I never thought I’d  go for an all natural skin line. Here I am – I really, really  love Korres. After realizing that maybe cleanser and moisturizer wasn’t enough, I bought the pomegranate toner, and I’m currently testing out a tinted moisturizer to use in the morning, but it seems no matter what I do I end up with an oil slick on my face (especially my nose) by 10:00am. I’m hoping I’ll find the magical combination soon, but until then you’ll be seeing a lot of returns on my spending reports (seriously, I tried MAC’s primer & oil control with SPF 50 and it was a nightmare. Return!). I feel like Sephora’s going to put an asterisk next to my name soon because I try out so many things thinking they’re going to work and end up returning them. I even took back Smashbox’s BB Cream! Sniffle.  Now I’m just sticking to the little sample containers and hoping something works out eventually.

The one awesome thing about having super oily skin? It’s ridiculously inhospitable to wrinkles! Youth forever!

To check out my week one review of the Mia (and for links to other reviews), click here.

My first experience with tailoring.

I fell in love with a blazer by Jessica Simpson a few weeks ago. It was an adorable, navy blazer with white polka dots. I saw it online and thought it was cute, but was blown away when I saw it in store on a lunch break. I couldn’t try it on then, but I obsessed over it – it consumed my thoughts for days. Each day I couldn’t make it to the store was a day wasted without my perfect blazer.

Finally, I made it back to The Bay. And then, the fateful moment when I finally found it in my size. I couldn’t get my ass to the changing room fast enough to put it on.

After that? The letdown.

Ouch. Spending Report: April 1 – 7, 2012.

April 1: $18.42 Coles, $25.88 Sephora, $72.45 Apple Store, $25.40 Safeway.

April 2: Accidental no spend day, $52.45 returned item to Dress911.

April 3: $76.65 MAC Cosmetics, $20.09 hair salon, $33.60 Shoppers Drug Mart, $1.29 iTunes, $60.93 Milestones $78.38 returned items to Sephora.

April 4: $18.00 Sky Shuttle, $15.89 lunch, $129 hotel voucher.

April 5: $30.23 Costco, $179.50 hair/manicure.

April 6: $15.70 BC Ferries.

April 7: $15.70 BC Ferries, $11.93 hair salon, $50.97 gift store.

Grand total: $670.80

Holy crap. That’s a ton of money for one week. And it’s Easter weekend so I’m guessing there are some charges I don’t remember that will show up on my accounts next week. The biggest charges were my hair/manicure and a hotel voucher. I don’t get my hair done very often, and the hotel voucher is for a smokin’ deal on a hotel for our road trip to the wedding in May, so it’s counted in the $300 I already have saved for that.

I took the ferry over to Vancouver to visit my grandparents and came back the next day (it was so much fun, I love them so much). I have Dutch roots, so naturally I couldn’t resist buying OPI’s “I don’t give a Rotterdam” since the name is amazing (and the colour looks great!). I also justified the nail polish purchase because I don’t know where to get OPI stuff in Edmonton and figured it was worth my while to get it here rather than run all over the place when I’m back. The gift store was a present for a friend’s birthday, and a necklace I’d been eyeing for about a month (on the store’s facebook page).

For next week, I definitely know I have to buy transit back from the airport, and a schwackload of groceries. Nothing else is scheduled money wise (thank jeebus).