OH, I so can CAN-CAN!

As promised, I need to tell you about the Can Can Kitchen & Cabaret located at 1st and Pike (downstairs from the Crumpet Shop) in Seattle. I'm all for trying new things and it's even better when they involve happy hour!

I am somewhat of a Francophile and am not ashamed to say that 'Moulin Rouge' spoke to the weakest part of me. Yes, I love Toulouse-Lautrec. Yes, I got the Green Fairy. Moving on, the Can Can looks like a basement bar in the Place de la Pigalle. Cosy, dark, maroon fabric every where and a tiny stage for the cabaret/burlesque shows they do. They open at 4:30pm and happy hour is in the bar from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. Reservations for dinner and the show are strongly recommended. All the small plates on the happy hour menu are $3.99 each. There are drink specials, but I'm famous for ignoring them in favor of an appetizing cocktail list.

The rule amongst my friends is that no one can order the same cocktail for the first beverage. This is so we can taste all of them. Repeat orders are allowed after the first round. I am ashamed to say that I remember none of the names and only have vague impressions of them because I was captivated by the extensive bottles behind the bar. Really, who carries madeira on a regular basis? I ordered my first beverage purely because they used egg whites in it and I've always wanted to see what the bartender bibles were on about. I spied a bottle of Pimm's No. 1 and ordered a Pimm's Cup for my second round. The bartender further impressed me by asking if I took my Cups with ginger ale, 7-up or soda. I LOVE them with ginger ale and was completely satisfied with the very spicy ginger ale they chose.

We were so pleased with our experience that we're planning to attend dinner and a show with our SOs later this summer. Hooray for Can-Can!

New Acquisitions

Ever since I moved out to the PNW, I've celebrated my birthday by heading into Seattle with my lady friends and spending loads of money at Sephora. This year was no different, although I did outdo myself.

Kat Von D (of L.A. Ink fame) has a new eponymous cosmetics line that's exclusive to Sephora. She's got a set of makeup brushes, liquid eyeliners in 6 shades, 2 eyeshadow palettes and 4 lipstick shades. One thing that I've always noticed about pretty rocker girls is that they have the BEST lipstick shades. I was not disappointed when I tried her Painted Love lipsticks at Sephora. Creamy and slightly matte, they wear well and actually have enough pigment to make a really good lip stain. I purchased the blood red Hellbent and the brick red Misfit (it's described on Sephora as 'rum raisin', but there is quite a bit of red in it). The packaging is great, with silver tattoo-style roses against a black tube. I feel they're well worth the price of $18, especially since they're as pigment-rich as the $24 NARS lipsticks (NARS does have MANY more colors, though). My friend purchased one of the True Romance eye palettes in Beethoven - 8 pans of gorgeous blues and purples with jet black and pale yellow thrown in for good measure. I was unimpressed with the Autograph liquid eyeliner shades and their $16 price tag. I prefer more versatile products and would rather get $4 Prestige liquid liners from the drugstore.

Am I ever going to be too old to appreciate Urban Decay? This line seems to cater to teeny bopper goth chicks like my 17 year old cousin, but I cannot help loving some of their product! Their Deluxe Eyeshadows ($18 each) come in the most adorable packaging with a great mirror for applying. (Similar to NARS single shadows, great mirror but no applicator.) With deep turquoise blue being my signature color of the moment, I snapped up the tin of Peace in a hurry. Each tin has a different design. Who could not want to collect them all? As for the shadow itself, I've found it easy to go subtle or bold with the amount of product I apply. Too much fun!

Speaking of being too old for things, I know I shouldn't be buying glitter eyeliners at my age, but who can resist the Too Faced glitter liners? They're infinitly better than the Urband Decay Heavy Metal liners because Too Faced cared enough to make the carrier gel the same color as the glitter (see my earlier blog regarding the amazing 'Drunk Dial'). I just HAD to get the fantastic pink 'Super Freak' liner!

My boyfriend co-opted my Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray, so I was entirely out. I decided to try the Frederic Fekkai Summer Hair Beach Waves Spray ($22). I'm digging it because of the UV protectant and that it's slightly less sticky than the Surf Spray, but I am definitely NOT digging the coconutty fragrance that reminds why I stopped using that John Frieda Ocean Waves Sea Spray. Bleargh!

I grabbed a new set of red Tweezerman tweezers so I can send my silver pair in for sharpening. I also purchased a wire hairbrush which they say is good for superfine hair that tangles easily. So far, so good.

Checkout at the Sephora is always tedious, but their new Maze O' Impulse Purchases is the Devil incarnate. I resisted the small size tubes of Smashbox Photofinish and the travel sizes of Frederic Fekkai Glossing Creme only to be struck down by the on10 Dr. Pepper Original lip balm with SPF 15 tin. The metal tin holds tons of product and since there's no print to wear off of it, it'll be ideal to refill with lipstick ends or homemade gloss.

Whew... not only did I acquire tons of new product, but I found a new place to drink in Seattle. More on that tomorrow....

Do I buy EVERYTHING I see?

Astonishingly, I do have some limits. My boyfriend would raise his eyebrow at this, but it is true. For example, I'm not an extreme technology hound. I don't own an MP3 player or any video game systems. We're still using the same TV set that my boyfriend's had since he was 18. An entertainment system is something we'd like 'someday', but it's currently ranked lower than getting a new sofa or a new bed. Our desktop is ancient and desperately needs upgrading, but it's just not the number one priority. Since we love to take pictures of the bands we go to see, we bought a very nice digital camera with our Christmas slot machine jackpot. It's already not the most state of the art camera, but it will last a long time and can grow with us. I do like cell-phone technology, but I cannot bring myself to pay more than $250 for a phone - and I haven't even done THAT yet!

Speaking of cell phones, I am a T-Mobile girl. I'm hooked on their customer service for sure. Since my town house is the black hole from which no T-Mobile signal is available, I rely on the HotSpot@Home service so that I a) get cell phone reception, b) don't have to have a land line, and c) can call 911 from my cell phone while I'm in my home and actually get found. My only wish is that the selection of the data phones compatible with this service would improve. I know I'm lame, but I'd rather have a T-Mobile Wing or Sidekick that worked with HotSpot as opposed to the three Blackberry phones that are currently available. I guess a girl can't have everything!

Hmmm... what else don't I get sucked in to? Oh - digital books! Ok, the Amazon Kindle is a cool idea, but I don't think I will EVER be able to get into reading in a purely digital format. I like to read blogs and articles online, but 600-1000 page books? No thanks. I want the heft of that book in my hand. I want to smell the paper and turn the pages with my fingers. The Kindle is ONLY good for downloading books. It doesn't do anything else. If it were a phone or had crossword games on it or could play music, I'd be a lot more interested. Until that day, Amazon, you can keep your Kindle to yourself!

Purchases gone horribly awry...

Earlier in this blog, I spoke of my family's failed experiments with the infamous Epilady. There's another funny story involving this same Nameless Relative that still brings me to my knees with laughter.


NR was home watching television when an infomercial for the Abtronic came on. Intrigued and dangerously bored, he decided to order this device. For those not in the know, the Abtronic is one of those electronic muscle stimulators that's supposed to help you tone up while you're just lying in front of the TV. After the promised 3-4 weeks, the Abtronic arrived. NR greedily opened the package, glossed over the instructions, assembled his Abtronic, applied the contact jelly and wrapped it around his stomach. The instructions said to start at a low setting until you figured out the best setting for yourself. NR blatantly ignored this and set it to one of the higher settings. WHAM!!! NR immediately doubled up as he felt like he was getting kicked in the stomach over and over. He tried to pull off the Abtronic, but all that did was get his fingers covered in contact jelly. He started to panic. "Oh no, she's going to come home and I'm going to be lying electrocuted on the sofa!" Finally, he was able to wrench the little motor off the Abtronic (which detaches for just this reason, I believe) so he was able to breathe again.


Of course, after hearing all of this, I had to try the device myself. (I know-brilliant, eh?) He set it on a very low setting for me. It barely vibrated my stomach but tickled so much that I keeling over with laughter. He slowly increased the setting. I told him I failed to see how it could have made him seize up so. With an evil grin, he set it to the Karate Chop setting. OW! It literally felt like a doctor using his reflex hammer to hit you in the middle of your stomach. That was the first and last time I used that product, though NR tried to use it for a while longer.


In another bad move involving infomercials (and hair removal; see Epilady above), I purchased a product whose name now escapes me. It was a tube full of a soft, waxy product. Ostensibly, you squeezed out some product, rolled it in a ball and then spread it over the area you wanted hair removed from. You were supposed to firmly yank off the product, re-roll it and then spread it on the next area.


We all know women who've had bad experiences with home waxing. It seems to me that we all attempt waxing on the most horrible place first - either bikini area or armpits. So of course I spread my little ball of wax over my armpit and attempted to yank it off. YEOWCH!!!! Oh my - that was the worst pain I've ever felt! The product was now firmly attached to my skin, since I was all heated up from the pain of removal. I tried to melt the product off by soaking in a tub. No dice. I tried scrubbing it off with soap and HOT water. Still no dice. I ended up having to pull gobs of this taffy-like substance off my armpit. It hurt so much I had to keep taking breaks so I could face the pain again. I finally got it all off - and ALL of my armpit hair was still firmly attached to my body. Grrrr.... Now, I leave waxing to the professionals.

The Product Slut is born...

I've loved products since I was a little kid. My grandmother would buy Avon tchotchkes by the truckload for my mom and myself. I had hundreds of plastic pins that held solid perfumes. My first really memorable lip gloss was shaped like a chocolate chip cookie. It held a dark brown chocolate flavored gloss and a tan cookie flavored gloss. It tasted terrible but I loved it. In those more innocent times, my mom could park me in the cosmetics aisle and I would be entertained for ages by making sure that all the lipsticks were in the correct color slots (ahhh, bless Revlon for their lipstick displays).

For my first dance in 5th grade, my mom gave me an Avon compact that had six different eyeshadows, mascara, lipstick and blush. Out of the house, I was not allowed to wear anything but the two palest eyeshadow colors (a light purple and an ivory) and I could wear all the Maybelline Kissing Slicks I wanted. In my house, that compact was used to educate myself in different makeup techniques. I owe a lot to my mom for teaching me about 'Less is more' - even though I do love to indulge in the MORE now and then - especially when I was a pre-teen.

The '8os were a blissful time for the product-obsessed. Everything was BIG! Full faces were de rigueur (mascara, shadows, heavy blush, lips, foundation, cover-up). I started experimenting with color thanks to the Cover Girl eyeshadow quads, and the new Max Factor compacts that you could fill with different shadow pans. I would wear emerald green shadow on my lid and bright yellow shadow from the crease up to the brow bone and black eyeliner on the insides of my eyes. I was sooo cool. (Insert sarcastic eyeroll.) I practically bathed in Love's Baby Soft and Love's Baby Soft Lemon. I owned many different colored hairsprays, hair mascaras (remember L'oreal Zazu?) AND hair glitter. I was always about the accents, though - never a full head of hot pink or blue. I swore by Clearasil, Seabreeze, and Noxema to get rid of all the makeup - even though I was never really acne-prone. At 15, I got my first perm, which led to buying every curl enhancing product on the market. At 17, I was desperate to change my hair color and used my 'farm girl' halloween costume as the brilliant excuse to become a red-head. I pouted when my best friend's mom wouldn't let me buy the gorgeous L'oreal Preference Medium Auburn because it was semi-permanent. She made me buy Clairol Loving Care Light Auburn so it would wash out. Everyone was shocked at how good the red hair looked, so I rocked varying shades of red (strawberry blonde to burgundy) for the next 13 years.

At 18, I got a job working as the unofficial 'cosmetics merchandiser' for a chain drugstore. I was a cashier, but also responsible for setting up and maintaining all of those plastic displays (a.k.a pre-packs) that companies use to advertise their newest products. I spent more than half my weekly paycheck in the cosmetics, skin care and hair care aisles. I bought deep-conditioning packs like crazy (even though my super-fine hair didn't really need it). I was completely hooked on L'oreal Studio Pumping curls (used to amp up my spiral perm) and I bought every shampoo and conditioner we sold at least once. I began using moisturizer with SPF in it when I was 19 (smart move on my part, even though I bought it purely because it was new). I experimented with AHAs in my early twenties (not that anyone that age needed it). Working there, I also read every fashion magazine I could get my hands on, a habit I've never broken since.

Now, as I struggle to turn my obsession into a full-time job, I continue exploring new products and services. Every Saturday around my birthday is spent shopping at Sephora with my girlfriends. I am constantly on the lookout for new things to try and new places to go. Someday it will become clear, but I'm certainly enjoying the journey!

And on the Seventh Day, there was smooth skin (L'oreal Skin Genesis)

I have long been accused of having 'perfect skin'. No, I've never had acne. I get one monster zit at a time with usually months between appearances. I would never describe my skin as perfect - can't you see all the milia (flesh-colored bumps)? The first time I had my makeup done at the MAC counter, I was horrified to see the foundation settle into the MILLIONS of fine lines around my eyes and the tops of my cheeks (this is why I only use bareMinerals or Chanel Teint Innocence). I've been searching for the perfect skin care regimen for ages and I think I've finally got it!

As we already know, I am all about spending needless amounts of money on cosmetics. $60 foundation? Sure! $18 nail polish? I'll take two! But spending more than $40 on ONE skin care product? You're out of your mind! I once got a free sample of Freeze 24/7 and was delighted at the weird numbing sensation that smoothed out my eye crinkles and my forehead wrinkles. It even relaxed the deep 'I want' line (as Stephen King would call it) from between my roomie's eyes. Intrigued, I looked up the full-size product on Sephora.com. $100 a jar? Forget it!

We also know that I still have a deep, abiding love for the cosmetics and skin care aisles at any drugstore or grocery store. I must check out what is new on the market - I can't help it. The sexy packaging of the L'oreal Skin Genesis line has been tempting me for a long time. I started with the Daily Moisturizer SPF 15 Lotion. I love the airless pump which leaves no dried up balls of product on the dispenser. L'orealparisusa.com says that the packaging keeps air from getting inside the bottle and affecting the purity of the ingredients. That may be, but I can't get over how easy it is to get just the right amount of product for my skin. My skin felt lovely after I applied the moisturizer. I also loved that it didn't smell like SPF. (You know that distinct smell that most lotions with SPF15 or higher have? Like sunblock? I don't want to smell that all day!)

After using it for about a week, I was totally hooked and went after the entire regimen: Daily Eye Serum, Daily Treatment Serum concentrate and the Deep-Action Night Complex. I use one firm pump of the Daily Treatment Serum right after I get out of the shower when my face is still damp. That amount perfectly covers my whole face and neck. I squirt two tiny pumps of the Eye Serum and pat each of them over my entire eye area (lid, crows feet, undereye). I let the serums absorb while I get dressed and comb my hair. Then I use 3 firm pumps of the Daily Moisturizer SPF 15 (again, enough to cover my entire face and neck). After a month of the whole regime, my skin tone is more even, the milia is diminished, my skin feels more firm and it's super soft and smooth. The wrinkles are still there, but I don't notice them as much. I'm looking forward to a foundation free summer!

Expensive Taste (Adventures with the House of Chanel)

Earlier this year, I attended the Nordstrom's Spring Cosmetics Trend show. I know I've spoken of this before, but if you have never attended such an event you are really missing out (unless you don't enjoy throngs of women racing for the 'first 20 customers' offers). For me, it's a biannual event I look forward to. For $15, you get admission to the event, a gift tote that contains special offers, a program of events and your continental breakfast and an appointment at your favorite makeup counter for a free makeover. Then, they take $15 off your total purchases that day. It is a screaming deal!

I was determined not to be at the MAC counter this time, so I made appointments for my friend and myself at the Chanel counter. (Hey, if you're going to get a free makeover, why NOT go to the most expensive counter?) I'd already dabbled in some Chanel makeup (I am devoted to their Teint Innocence creme foundation in the dry winter), so I did my research on what products I wanted to try at the makeover. I'd decided I wanted to try the Inimitable mascara that another friend raved about and the new foundation called Mat Lumiere.

During the 'fashion show' part of the day, we learned that one of the new trends for spring was a 'pop' of bright color either on the eyes or lips. (Not both, please. This is 2008, not 1988!) While I waited for my makeup artist to finish with her customer, I found this gorgeous hot pink Chanel lipstick (Splendeur). When I finally got to sit, my artist asked me what I'd like her to do. I told her that I wanted to try the bright lip trend and that she could do whatever she wanted to with my face as long as she incorporated those three products. She was SO excited that I was letting her play that she applied every potion and product she could get her hands on. (I left with a good 1/4" of makeup on my face, but it sure didn't feel like I had that much on!) We had so much fun!

I ended up purchasing the Inimitable mascara (I love the length and volume it gives without adding too much product), the lipstick (so pretty and versatile - I can slick on a lot for an evening look or press a bit on for a bright day stain), the matching lip pencil (tons of product and a handy brush on the end for applying my lipstick with precision or for smudging a pencil-only lip), and two bottles of nail lacquer (Black Satin and Blue Satin. I'm not thrilled with the Black Satin, but I positively relish the Blue Satin!). I didn't really like the effect of the Mat Lumiere foundation and I just cannot bring myself to spend $40 for the eye shadows she used (even though they were lovely). All in all, I was thoroughly pleased with my purchases and didn't entirely wipe out my bank account!

I'm begging you - please attend one of these events before you die. It's an excellent outing with a bunch of girlfriends (or even just one friend)!

I guess it's only a little 'True'...

True to form, I've been lagging in my product reviews. Also true to form, I continue to add new products to my little world at a dizzying pace. Recently, a friend turned me on to True Lemon and True Lime. They're handy little packets of lemon or lime flavoring that you can add to water or tea or even use in cooking. What surprised me is how 'true' they tasted - literally like squeezing a lemon or lime slice in my water. I immediately gave packets to all my nearest and dearest because I love them so much!

Now, these packets claim '0 calories, 0g carbohydrates' and 'no sweeteners'. Well, the True Lemon and True Lime actually contain a bit of maltodextrin, which is a type of sugar. I get that because each packet contains .08g of product, the FDA allows them to claim 'zero'. I was okay with that, especially since one packet flavors a 32oz bottle of water nicely (any less water and it's too much for me, though others may like it fine).

Then I bought some True Orange. Since I loved the other two flavors, I was excited to try this one. That excitement was short-lived. I put a packet of True Orange in my iced tea and was shocked at how fake it tasted. At first, I wrote it off as not being diluted enough in a 16oz beverage (or even just not being the proper flavor tea to carry it off). The nest day, I added a packet to my usual 32oz of water. Bleargh! It still tasted fake - similar to the baby aspirin I took as a child. Because it was weirdly sweet, I read the back of the packet. Hmmm - the VERY first ingredient in True Orange is DEXTROSE. For those not in the know (or who don't remember the old cartoon PSAs that told you to watch out for Fructose, Dextrose and Glucose as being hidden sugars in your cereal), dextrose is one of the two sugars found in honey. I found it weird that it says 'no sweeteners' and then the first ingredient is a sugar - but then I slapped myself silly with the FDA guidelines and the rule of 'less than 1g equals zero'.

Overall, I'm ok with the product because I do love lemon and lime in my water and it's not always convenient to keep wedges of each in my purse. I'm glad there's no sucralose or aspartame in any of the three flavors. I'll keep getting the lemon and lime, but no more True Orange for this lady.