Expensive Does Not Mean Better

Hi, friends!

This week, I have yet another makeup post that will be interesting to approximately two of you. Sorry! I have a lot of thoughts about makeup, apparently.

I saw a post online once that said, "Good makeup isn't cheap and cheap makeup isn't good!" (From context, I think the image was originally made as a way to sell MLM makeup.) That saying stuck with me because of how utterly foolish it is.

Ben Wyatt is very relatable sometimes.

While I might expect that kind of thinking from someone who's trying to justify the ridiculous prices of makeup sold by "their" business, it's weird how many others seem to share those sentiments. I'm guessing a lot of people had bad experiences with inexpensive makeup years ago and assume that all drugstore makeup is going to be chalky and awful. That's really not the case anymore, though; while there are definitely duds to be found among the cheaper brands, they've seriously improved their overall quality over the past several years. Expensive brands aren't immune to releasing disappointing products, either.

Some of the people who assume cheap = garbage are influencers who should definitely know better. (That's just one of the many problems in the "beauty community" as a whole.) Some beautubers will do "challenges" in which they are only allowed to use inexpensive products and they joke that everything they use will give them skin problems or probably not work very well. Some claim to not be biased against inexpensive brands, but act shocked when drugstore products do their jobs properly. It's even implied sometimes that only people who can't afford fancier makeup would want to buy from Target or Walmart.

High-end makeup does have its advantages. You're more likely to be able to swatch and test in a Sephora than in a drugstore. The shade ranges for base products tend to be better and it's easier to find a match when you can put a dab of foundation on your jawline to see if it looks right instead of guessing based on the closed bottle. Employees at high-end stores can give you samples of most products to help you decide if you want to buy them. The packaging is usually cuter, sturdier, or more luxe-feeling.

When it comes down to product performance, though, your results will vary a lot. Every brand has their hits and misses and there are good and bad versions of essentially any product out there that you can find at a variety of price points. Viseart eyeshadows are known for being great (which they should be, considering a twelve-shadow palette is $80!) but there are also amazing eyeshadows you can get for way less money from brands like ColourPop and Wet N Wild. Popular products are often duped and the inexpensive versions perform better than the original in some cases; Zabrena, one of my favorite beauty YouTubers, has many videos that prove this point.

Norvina palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills ($42) vs. Luna palette from Bad Habit ($16)
When Zabrena compared these two, she decided to return the Norvina palette because she liked the dupe version better.

"But Lizzie, those expensive brands must be expensive for some reason, right?" Yeah, but that reason isn't simply the quality. Most of the reasoning for higher prices comes down to the packaging and branding. If you compare Kylie Jenner's lip kits with ColourPop's equivalent products, they're very similar as far as ingredients, performance, and packaging go. ColourPop's price is reasonable, whereas Kylie's is much higher. When you buy her lip kits, you're paying for the privilege of owning something with Kylie's name on it. There's a peachy lip balm in a cute little jar from Too Faced that sells for $17 even though the balm itself is pretty standard. A Louboutin lip gloss will cost you $85 due to the prestige of the brand, the ridiculous packaging, and the fancy feeling of owning a ridiculously expensive gloss from a French designer. If you want to read about this from a source other than me, here's a neat article that's worth checking out. (A relevant quote from that link: "Many of the luxury brands are made at the exact same house as the over-the-counter brands to the point of having the exact formulation in a different package.")

In fairness, packaging does matter a lot to some people. I don't personally have a certain aesthetic that I want everything to fit and I don't generally worry about how travel-friendly products are. Some makeup lovers want to see coordinated, beautiful packaging on their bathroom counters and would be bothered by a mixture of classy and cutesy. Some people are annoyed by unnecessarily bulky containers or things that feel cheap. If part of why you enjoy makeup is that it helps you feel like an elegant lady, then high-end brands are more likely to have the luxurious packaging that can do that for you. If you aren't as concerned with the container as long as the makeup itself is nice, your options will be more open and you can almost definitely find inexpensive makeup that you'll love. (There are some drugstore products with fancy packaging, just not as many as you'd find in a Sephora.)

I'm not saying you should head to the beauty aisle of your drugstore of choice, blindly toss things into your basket, and hope for the best. Even though you'd only be out a few dollars if a product doesn't work out, I'd still recommend reading or watching reviews to see what things might interest you. Pay attention to the reasons people give for liking or disliking something. A person with dry skin may complain that a certain foundation didn't work very well on them, but if you have oily skin, that review is probably a good sign for you. Someone who doesn't have a lot of experience might be intimidated by something that's super pigmented, so reviews saying that a certain blush needed to be built up would be a pro instead of a con.

If you were wearing a mood ring, butterfly clips, and body glitter last time you bought some drugstore makeup, I encourage you to give it another shot! Old-school brands have stepped up their game and new ones have appeared with great products of their own.

Instead of choosing between quality or quantity, you can get both. You just have to know where to look.

Love,
Lizzie

Resolutions, Goals, And Not Giving Up

Hi, friends!

Now that we're a few weeks into the new year, a lot of New Year's resolutions have probably been broken, forgotten, and abandoned. I understand the reasoning behind making goals at the start of a new calendar year, but I also think it's sad that those goals almost never survive to the end of the year. January isn't the only time we're allowed to try to improve ourselves! If there's something you want to accomplish, you're free to make mid-April goals or an Ordinary Tuesday resolution.

The thing about goals is that they need to be "SMART" - specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound. Basically, your goals should be the opposite of horoscopes and fortune cookies, which are designed to be generic enough to fit the life of almost any human being.

Specific - Make your goals precise. Don't just say, "I want to get better at playing the piano." Instead, think of something more like, "I want to be able to play through my entire Final Fantasy IX soundtrack book on the piano." If you can decently play any song in the book, you've reached your goal! It makes more sense for a race to have a definitive end. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of people all running together until they decide they're done.

Measurable - Along the same lines as your goal being specific, make it something that you can quantify somehow: "I will spend at least twenty minutes a day playing songs on the piano." It's very easy to tell whether or not twenty minutes of piano playing have happened.

Actionable - Choose a goal that you can make a checklist for, or at least one where you can take specific actions to make progress. Goals need to be things you can control and work towards.

Realistic - You don't want to set yourself up to fail. Weight loss and fitness are the focus of a lot of people's goals,  so I'll use that in an example for this one. It would be really dumb to make your goal to be looking like The Rock because you'd basically need to dedicate your life to that in order to achieve it. You also need to make sure your goal is healthy, so don't try to lose more than one or two pounds per week.

Time-bound - Give yourself an end date to look towards. Think about how much time you realistically need to reach your goal and plan accordingly. Look at your calendar if you need to so that things like vacations or stressful times won't blindside you and throw off your timing.

Once you've decided on one or more goals for yourself, write them down somewhere and consider telling a family member or friend about them so you can be held accountable. Maybe you aren't very motivated to work on keeping your bedroom more organized because nobody else ever has to see it, so you find someone who you can send a picture to each day and give them permission to bug you about leaving your shoes all over the floor. Tell whoever you live with about your goal to eat under a certain number of calories each day and they can give you a stink eye when you reach for the ice cream.

You can find ways to hold yourself accountable, if that sounds more appealing. Put sticky notes up in areas you frequent to remind and encourage you to stick to your plan. Keep a log of how successful each day is, whether that's in the form of writing or a chart (maybe with stickers!) to track your progress.

The last thing I want to say about goals is that they shouldn't be scrapped if you make a mistake. It's not practical to expect yourself to follow your plan flawlessly. Life isn't something you can predict with complete accuracy, as great as that would be. If and when you fall short, don't let that be an excuse to give up! Use it as an opportunity to reassess or adjust your goal, maybe, but not to erase it entirely. Channel your inner Bob Ross and work with your mistakes instead of letting some stray lines ruin a great painting.

Let's all follow Gordon B. Hinckley's advice to "try a little harder to be a little better."

Love,
Lizzie

Get To Know Jared

Hi, friends!

My fantastic husband's birthday is coming up, so I thought I'd dedicate this post to helping people learn more about him. He doesn't use social media much at all and we're not a terribly outgoing couple, so I feel that it's my duty to brag about how great he is explain to the world what he's like.

It's possible that some of you have never seen Jared without at least some form of scruff. Here's a picture from back in our BYU days when he was forced to shave on a regular basis. (April 2016ish)

This is something that I assume most of you know, but in case you don't, Jared is a goofy nerd. He loves superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pokemon, sci-fi stuff, computer stuff, and lots of other such things. When he plays games like Skyrim and Breath of the Wild, he tends to ignore the main storyline and go after all of the sidequests instead. He claims to hate puns, but I can tell he usually likes them and he sometimes even makes puns on his own! He's written a few short My Little Pony stories that were feghoots.

One of Jared's favorite things about himself is his beard. At least part of that is because not shaving makes his life easier and he was forced to be clean-shaven while he was at BYU and on his mission. Once he was done following BYU's (very stupid) beard ban, his razor got ignored like the Twizzlers in a bowl of Halloween candy. He also really enjoys combing his beard and, on occasion, stroking it thoughtfully.

Small, semi-obscure details that not a lot of people know:

• When he walks through our living room, he often reaches up to poke the chain that controls the ceiling fan. I think he's part cat.
• He gets really excited about avocados and his homemade guacamole.
• He loves dice. We have about twenty-six sets of dice in various color combinations.
• In his opinion, everyone starts getting Christmasy way too early. He helped me put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving because he knew I couldn't do it on my own, but he always avoids Christmas music until late December. The one thing he loves about the start of Christmas stuff showing up in stores is the availability of egg nog.
• He unironically thinks Never Gonna Give You Up is basically the best song ever. He also really likes Shakira, Celtic music, and electro/dance music.
• Jared thinks he's good at imitating various accents. He is not.
• His bare eyelashes are nicer than mine look with mascara on and it's not fair at all.
• Before Marvel movies come out, I always watch the trailers as soon as I can. Jared, on the other hand, tries to go into the theater knowing as little as possible.
• He tries to only buy a certain kind of white sock so that he never has to match them and can just toss them all in his sock drawer.
• He can fall asleep in less than a minute and stay sleep through anything. He sleeps through me violently sneezing right next to him, class presidency meetings happening in our living room with several teenage girls, and even the alarms I set when I have to wake up before him. One time, there was a fire four houses away from ours and several emergency response vehicles were right outside our house with sirens and lights going. I wake up very easily so it's no surprise that siren noises and bright red and blue lights flashing into our room disturbed me. When I looked over at Jared, he showed no signs of noticing. He did, however, wake up when the hotel we stayed in several weeks ago had their fire alarm go off at 5 AM.
• He avoids lotion and chapstick at all costs because he doesn't like how they feel. Somehow, even living in the desert, that doesn't seem to cause any problems. (*cries in eczema*)
• For some reason, he really likes Waluigi. I think it's mostly because I find Waluigi to be annoying.
• His phone's camera barely ever gets used for anything. He pretty much only ever takes pictures of cats he sees and our car when we're parked in a big lot or garage.
• He loves Gordon Ramsay. We have a picture of Gordon Ramsay overlooking our stove to inspire us to be better and shame us when we make stupid/lazy food decisions. He often jokes that Gordon would not approve of my bland food preferences.

Some of my favorite things about Jared:

• If he sees a cat on the way home from work or while we're outside, he'll always tell me about it. He also shows or sends me all the cute cat pictures/gifs that he finds.
• He's supportive of my hobbies and interests. He'll comment on my makeup, give me ideas for what to do with my nails, look over at my screen and ask questions about the things I'm watching or playing, and he helped me decorate the very top of our Christmas tree since I couldn't reach it while standing on a chair. He's even come to mutual a few times to assist me with various things.
• Back when Pokemon Go first came out, a Hitmonchan spawned near our house while I was in the shower. Jared brought my phone outside to go catch it for me.
• He always kisses me before leaving for work.
• If I have something on my lips, he'll double-check if it's safe to kiss me so that he doesn't mess anything up (or get any glitter or color on himself).
• When we're getting ready for church, he'll frequently try to match his tie to my outfit.
• He's been known to open MS Paint on my laptop while I'm elsewhere and draw hearts on the screen.
• He tries to wait until I'm out of the kitchen before preparing food with smells I find unpleasant.

That's all the time we have for your dose of Jared facts! He makes me indescribably happy in so many ways. Every day with him is a day of love, joy, and fun. I'm still amazed at how perfect a match he is for me. He's been making the world a brighter place for 27 years now. I'm so grateful I get to keep him forever!

Love,
Lizzie

Browser Extensions I Love

Hi, friends!

Inspired by last week's post about the settings and browser extension that help me continue to enjoy Facebook, I'm back with more tech tips! The focus of this post is the extensions I use to improve my internet experience in various ways. I use Google Chrome as my primary browser, though a lot, if not all, of these extensions are probably available on Firefox or other browsers. Also, these are all free. I've never paid for a browser extension.

To install these, go to the Chrome Web Store (or your browser's equivalent). Some of the links I've included are for Chrome and I'm honestly not sure what will happen if you click them from a different browser.

Fluff Busting Purity - not a Chrome-specific link
This is the one I mentioned in last week's post that helps me customize Facebook. Since I already wrote about it once, I think that's all I need to say here.

AdBlock / uBlock Origin
There are a few good similar extensions out there, but these two are probably the most popular ones. They allow users to browse the internet without seeing ads all over the place, which is fantastic. Ads are so intrusive and obnoxious sometimes! Blech.
Some websites will get annoyed, try to guilt you into whitelisting them, or completely block you from viewing their pages when you visit with an adblocker. When that happens to me, I have to decide whether or not the article I'm trying to read is worth the trouble or if I should find a different source. There are also some sites that display a notice about how they only allow non-obnoxious ads on their site, and in those cases, I will sometimes whitelist them because I appreciate their consideration and don't mind non-intrusive, non-flashy, non-audible ads.

Recipe Filter
If you've ever looked for a recipe online, chances are you've ended up on a blog where the author includes about twelve paragraphs about their children, pets, and favorite scented candle before finally getting around to listing their ingredients. There are also usually at least eight huge pictures of the food you're trying to learn about from various angles and with different props or family members.

Gina Linetti gets it.

What Recipe Filter does is search websites for recipes and then put the recipe on top of the obnoxious website so you can see it without having to scroll through an entire life story first. So nice.

This recipe is on my "I should really try that someday" list.

LastPass
This handy thing helps you manage your passwords. It keeps track of your login information and lets you sign in super easily to those sites that insist on signing you out after ten minutes of inactivity. It can generate secure passwords for you to use when making a new account or changing your password. There's also an Android app available so you can sign in to things on your phone without having to painstakingly type out twelve characters of gibberish. You do have to remember one really good password so you can log in to LastPass, but that's better than trying to remember a whole bunch of good passwords, making up a bunch of passwords and storing them in a hymn book in your house (not naming names, but someone I know does that), or just using one password for everything.

Ebates - not a Chrome-specific link
If you shop online, this is a great thing to have installed. You can activate it on a lot of popular sites and earn cash back when you make purchases. I've been using it occasionally for a little less than two years and I've gotten $66 back! (That number would've been a lot bigger if we'd been able to order our fridge, washer, and dryer online... *grumble*) As an added bonus, the link I included is a referral link, so you'll get $10 for signing up and I'll get $25 for inviting you! It sounds sketchy, but I promise it's legitimate. (And nobody is paying me to say any of this. My blog is definitely not big enough to be getting sponsorship deals.)

F.lux - not a Chrome-specific link
Okay, this isn't actually a browser extension, but it's a free program that I find to be pretty nifty and I'm including it anyway. Scientists say that it's better for our eyes and sleep if we don't stare at bright blue light at night. Computer and phone screens are really harsh to look at when you're in a dark room, and f.lux gradually warms the colors of your display in order to be kinder to your eyes. (It's the same idea as the blue light filter that has become fairly standard on new smartphones.) Using it means that white looks kind of peachy beige, so I do disable it sometimes when I want to see true colors or I have my laptop hooked up to the TV for Jackbox games.

I hope at least one of these sounds like something that would improve your browsing! If these seem interesting but you aren't sure how to add them to your browser, I'd be happy to try to help you out and talk you through the process. And if you know of other nifty extensions, like one that turns all pictures of bugs into pictures of kittens, please share those with me! :)

Love,
Lizzie