Random frivolous thoughts

Today at lunch, while perusing a mountain of magazines on the table in our department break room, I read the following in a description of a certain perfume that shall remain nameless: " ... peach blossom blah blah blah gardenia blah blah blah tuberose. Mouth-watering patchouli adds a spiky note ..."

I don't know about you, but in my copywriting days I would have reserved the term "mouth-watering" for scents like juicy peach, vanilla, melon or even chocolate or spices – not patchouli for godsake! I love patchouli as much as the next left-leaning cultural creative, but come on. It smells more like something you'd find under that daybed in your basement (back against the wall, next to your second to last ex-boyfriends old sneaker you forgot about) than something you'd want to put in your mouth.

So I'm all indignant over that now. Mouth-watering patchouli, indeed! Bah humbug, I tell you – bah humbug! And anyway, I never wear perfume.

However! In my search for information about this perfume, one thing led to another until I was caught up in a long, tangled string of beauty product websites, which led to my realization that one of my favorite products from my 20s – Clarins Gel Nettoyant Purifiant Peaux Grasses (Purifying Cleansing Gel for Oily Skin), which smells so good and always used to make my skin feel so clean and fresh and dewy, is now no longer appropriate for me, because my skin is no longer oily. And the cleansing milk from Clarins does not smell good – does not in fact smell like anything at all – and so I'm definitely not going to be buying it. I hate unscented products! Why? Because they're never really unscented. If they don't contain ingredients that make them smell good, they usually end up smelling like stale clothes, or damp armpit, or chemicals or something. No thanks.

I was also disappointed to learn that there's no new news in my quest for the perfect lip stain, the one that really, truly STAINS the lips rather than sitting on top of them like a thin slick of plastic. Well, there is this, which has gotten some good reviews. But I hesitate to spend thirty bucks buying it online, because what if I finally get to try it on at home and don't like the feel, or the color? What I want is something that looks like I just got punched in the mouth, for several hours.

Also, I am down to my last tube of Bonne Bell's Honey Kiss Honey Latte lip gloss, and apparently it's not being made anymore. So sad. It's perfectly thick and sticky and tastes like melted caramel-latte-flavored candy. I know I have terrible taste in makeup, but I can't help it! And I know makeup is not for eating, but this stuff smells so yummy I can skip my afternoon snack break. Plus, it's always hard for me to find colors that look good on me because my own coloring is not your average ... and I really liked this color. Anyway. RIP, Honey Kiss. (Actually, I just found it for 99 cents on eBay ... but do I dare buy lipgloss on eBay? No, I do not.)

Finally, since I'm on the topic, I'd like to report that my under-eyes are finally seeming to call for a little help these days. Maybe it's just the lighting at my desk, but I'm noticing in my daily webcam self-portraits that it's getting kind of dark under there. Not baggy, exactly, but I notice that area now, and I never used to.

Maybe this weekend I'll swing by Nieman Marcus or some other department store that has nice makeup counters, and do a little testing. I'm going to the city for a two-day bookbinding workshop. I could make time for a lipstick run.