Product placement: Ole Henriksen all skin type anti-aging truth creme

I'm not sure that I can fairly review this product.

First of all, it was a sample container of Ole Henriksen's anti-aging truth creme that I got during my short-lived etsy subscription stint in 2013. (and I opted out of that after a year because it didn't offer a month-by-month opt out and resulted in a huge explosion of products that I had no idea how to get rid of... and am currently working on doing so) Which means by the time I used up that tiny container's worth of the product, it has been three years since I originally got the product. And God only knows if it was at all effective after that much time.

But it needed getting rid of, so I had to find a way to make it bite the dust in the end. So I used it, and now here it is.

The other problem I had also concerns the fact that that sample pack was in my possession for quite some time. Because when I went to Sephora back in February to replace the moisturizer in my skincare regime I discovered that the exact same creme (but in a retail container) was... very different than what I had in my sample container. The version I had from the start was a very, very watery formula, hardly a creme at all.

The retail equivalent that I found in 2016 was actually a creme. And also around $50 CDN for easily a hundred times the amount I got in the container I had.

So fair warning that your mileage may vary here. Because as far as I'm concerned, the sample I'm reviewing is nothing like the product I found in retail stores.

Product placement: Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Night Moisturizer

I finally did it.

I finally hit the end of a product bottle!

It is funny how I consider this to be a real achievement. But the reality is that it's a real sign for me that I'm finally putting a real dent in the product hoard that is my make-up collection, which is a real goal of mine for this year. And I will gladly take small accomplishments here.

The Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair moisturizer was first purchased in 2013. And the funny story behind why I own this bottle is that it's all Oprah's fault.

Yes... Oprah.

Back then I was on some kind of newsletter mailing list of hers and one day, out popped an article about the benefits of retinol or retinoid in face creams and how it's more or less a miracle ingredient for people who want smooth, bright, healthy skins.

As someone that was dealing with dry, flaky skin in my life, I bought the sale hook, line and sinker. I went out to a drugstore - or in my case, a Target that I happened to be bouncing by - and picked up one of the first products that said it had retinol in it. Which was this one.

Keeping track of the make-up rack: Version 2.0

Not my hoard. Although sometimes it feels like this

Last year, I put down a challenge to myself to try and shrink down my make-up collection through usage.

I utterly and completely failed at that task.

If anything, my make-up collection may has since gotten bigger. (Nevertheless, for the most part, it has since curbed my random acts of make-up buying in a big way) Part of it is that my lifestyle and my laziness was not entirely conducive to the continued and heavy use of make-up.

Another part is that last year's task of straightening up my financial life, which in part meant that I had to cultivate a habit of cooking meals at home rather than eating out and also curbing my clothes horse habit represented a big enough lifestyle change as it was that make-up fell into the back-burner outside of not buying it as much.

Okay enough with the excuses

This year will be a bit different however.

Now that the habit of cooking is now integrated pretty well into my life (and I'm continuously finding different and delicious recipes I'm enjoying to make!) and my clothes buying is not so much controlled but better focused (of which I'll share at a later time), I have now laid my eyes on the task of the make-up hoard.

I just have one problem here. There's no online equivalent to a make-up organizer.

And yes, those things help, at least it helps for me. For example, my online closet and outfit organizer. It made me realize what I wear and won't wear on a frequent basis. It made me remember what I like and dislike, what I should keep and what I should probably donate or toss due to lack of use.

It is a huge organizer in my life and frankly both a time-waster and a time saver. It's a bit of a rabbit hole, but once I got things in motion, it really saved me from having to wonder what to wear during the day.

I want an equivalent to that for my make-up. I want a site that documents and tracks the make-up I own, am currently using (and using up) and once done with that item, to be able to review it once it is used up.

But as far as I've seen online, there isn't one, at least not one that suits my preferences. (Although if you have any recommendations, share it with me below)

So what does this mean? It means that I'll have to manage my make-up through a combination of this blog and a Wordpress document that can track my needs and likes and wants. Hopefully that will be sufficient for me this year. And I expect some bumpy roads along the way. But it should be interesting and hopefully, educational for me and my body.

Here's to another attempt at shrinking and figuring out my make-up.

A working life with a fairly lax dress code

As much as I love the classic and classy wardrobes and pieces of people like the Duchess of Cambridge or even bloggers like Mary Orton and Jean from Extra Petite, neither are really applicable to my life on an everyday basis, for one key reason.

Most of these wardrobes and outfit inspirations are more or less driven by dress codes imposed by conservative work environments. In short, a lot of it is way way way too fancy for me and my life.

For those in conservative work environments, It makes perfect sense. For most people with conventional work environments, dress codes can dictate people's overall wardrobes. Especially since we in North America tend to spend 40-50+ hours of our week at work, or at least eight hours a day for five of seven days. And if we were to subtract the hours we spend sleeping, basically a good one-third of our life as a responsible adult is more or less spent at our place of employment.

In order to maximize the value of the clothing you own, you need to maximize the opportunity to wear it. So where better to maximize your expensive shirt or pricey purse than as part of your work wardrobe?

But while I work in a work space with offices and computers, I don't work in a conventional work environment. There is no real dress code in place for anyone. (Well no dress code outside the standard "must not get arrested for indecent exposure" limitation on what we wear) Women are no more limited to wearing skirts as men are limited to always be in pants.

(Addendum: There are some restrictions based on some workplace hazards, but to expound on those would get a touch too specific about what exactly I do)

As a result, baseball caps, graphic tees, jeans, sneakers, even shorts are status quo and in some ways encouraged as there is a general practice of mocking the intern when they show up for their first day in a suit, who tends to stand out like a sore thumb.

With that said, I do try to maintain a certain standard of dress during weekdays in particular, although with two major caveats. For one, 95% of the time, I'm wearing pants (and 90% of those are jeans no less) with the remaining five percent being that one day a month that I feel like/gathered the sense to wear a skirt/dress.

Part of it is personal preference, but a bigger part is that you will stick out like a sore thumb the office wearing a pencil skirt.

Another major caveat? The air conditioning. Even though I work in a space that has an extremely lax dress code, most of the rest of the building I work in doesn't. Which means that when it comes to median temperature, you cover your arms or risk freezing to death. Or catching your death in cold. Your choice.

So there you have it, the secret and the reasons (or excuses if you will) behind my tomboyish, semi-casual to casual work attire. And why I may dress more like Alterations Needed in the long run.

But I still love window shopping the fancy dresses and skirts that other bloggers indulge on. Even if the only occasion I'll ever have need to wear it would be wedding. Or a funeral.

Keep or return? Talula Camdale pant in darkness/oak from Aritzia

Talula Camdale Pant in Darkness/Oak
purchased online from Aritzia

 I can count on one hand the number of items I own from Aritzia, though my younger sister is a big fan. It really has more to do with the fact that they style behind the clothing line never really suits my taste in that it tends to lean more towards boho chic.

And then there's the price that is normally associated with said items. Aritzia is a freaking expensive brand to be buying distressed jean shorts from.

But I came across these Camdale Pants while searching for a decent pair of 'tweed-ish' grey dress pants with a loose, tapered leg that I can roll up. And I will admit, it didn't take me that long to whip out the credit card to buy them because the look on the model was more or less what I was looking for when it came to a summer/fall transitional piece.

Returning from hiatus and another rethink

So I'm back after about four months now... surprise?

Honestly, it happens. Particularly with me. In some ways, I get super over-eager about posting "regularly" and I end up burning myself out. And that's not  just with blogging. I do that with a lot of things.

So I needed the break too. But during the time off, I got rethinking this blog and what it's for. 

It's called "Life. Living. Blogging" more because my last one was particularly niche as far as topic matter and I wanted to get away from that for a blog title. But as I spent more time focusing on my money, the more I tired of talking about that and just that. And I yearned for my old blog where I was able to discuss just about everything and anything, from clothing and subsequent purchases (at least discussion of it without feeling needlessly guilty about the 'money I wasted'), the sports I love and still love (although my job mostly satisfies these needs, so I generally I can avoid it), the things I do, the books I read, just the more general flavour I liked.

And in any case, I shift a lot when it comes to the things that occupies my time and thoughts. And it isn't always about the money.

So I decided, I'm going to go back in that direction into a more general 'lifestyle' blog, and therefore better live up to this name I picked here, rather than just a finance blog I was trying to be, but really wasn't much good with nor very eager for after awhile.

And I'll probably just dial back on the overall need to blog. Because I don't need to blog everyday, or every other day, or whatever crazy schedule I had set out in my brain for my posts. I just need to write, and post and be.

And keep on telling stories above all else.

Recap: Spending and saving in May 2015

So I've been pretty quiet this month in this blog. But it's less because this month was a quiet month as opposed to I was overcome with a strong sense of 'I would like to waste my time doing something else' in May.

I will additionally admit that my slow as hell recovery from appendicitis also played a role in my return to normalcy in general.

So... May. A month where not much has happened due to the aforementioned illness and therefore I spent most of it just going to work or laying low at home. That had its own consequences but on the other side, it also meant that there's very little as a whole to report.


SPENDING: Shockingly, I was actually completely under-budget for the month when everything was all said and done. That is to say, I planned to spend "X" dollars on bills and discretionary spending this month and I happily went about $40 beneath it. And that's with having to pay an extra $50 into my rent for the air conditioner I wanted to install.

And yet with that said, I blew up my food budget to kingdom come yet again due to the excessive laziness that was borne out of my lack of energy to really do any home cooking. How much did I blow it by? About $50. So... yeah. There's that. And it has led me to consider possibly changing a few things in my budget. But more on that later.

Overall at least, the spending was mostly kept in check by me being a homebody most of the month and I kept out of trouble in all other areas of my budget. So really I don't have that much to complain about as far as where my money went and how for this month.


INCOME: The good news is that I lost zero dollars due to April's illness. The bad news is that I didn't make a whole lot of extra money for the month of May.

My income amounted to me getting one freelance cheque at just under $200 for May and that was it for the extra cash. Everything else I made was my base salary from work and that's it. No overtime included. Blech.

So yeah, I really didn't do a whole lot on this front. Luckily I made a ton the previous month and as I had all that extra money from April more or less unaccounted for, I dipped into that extra to pay into some of the things that needed to be paid into.

For instance...


DEBT REPAYMENT: As I was a little short on the $200 extra I expected to earn each month, I admit that some of last month's extra was dipped into this month to cover the cost of paying that self imposed minimum payment to my credit card. Which was fine as it would have either gone to debt repayment or my savings anyway. And this scenario is exactly why I paid extra into the credit card when I could prior to it. Even if the interest rate is a tiny 0.99%.

As for the student loans, I just managed to go over the minimum required amount required to contribute to my student loan debt monthly by also dipping into the extra I was sitting on from the previous month to the tune of $80.

So all in all, pretty normal and routine for the month as far as debt repayment goes. I mean, no lie, I would have preferred to have been able to put more money in this general direction as a whole, but again, I only had so much to work from and for what it was worth, didn't do too shabby in making the best of it as it were.


SAVINGS: This month was all about getting myself some well rounded numbers in my savings account. So any account that was treading a few dollars away from being over a hundred as opposed to beneath it meant that I threw a couple extra dollars on top of the planned savings I already had in place.

This meant that I ended up setting aside $60 dollars more than I originally planned. And before you ask where I got the money, the answer is, I made a lot of extra money last month on overtime that I didn't allocate, that's how.

NET WORTH: $-24,282.75 (+4.18%)

I really can't complain here. Sure I didn't hit the $1,250 a month I kind of need to make it to the $15,000 net worth I'm aiming towards, but all things considered, I'm not upset about not making it either because I at least made it to that bare minimum $1,000 I do want to make. So there's that.

But I'm pretty well ahead at this moment on my goal, and with a very very busy June on its way thanks to some extra work coming up this month, some overtime and a triple paycheque July, I'm all set to hopefully make the money I need to hit my ultimate goal. At the very least, I seem to be moving in the right direction.