Where, Oh Where, Has This Blogger Been?

Hello my dear readers,

I do indeed realize that I have been disappearing quite frequently for over a week at a time, lately. I'll give you a little rundown of what's happening in my life at the moment and why I might not be posting very frequently. Don't get me wrong; I love blogging. The fact of the matter is that blogging is more of a hobby than anything else. I'll still be reading blogs in my not-so-copious free time, but posting takes a lot of time for me to do when it's not just a tag post or a blog hop.

I finished working at my summer job on August 12, much to the chagrin of the office regulars. The season for licensing gets quite busy at the end of August, and that's when the interns tend to leave for college. I had one week free before packing my suitcase and other boxes and bags with my paraphernalia and heading down to my university. It's about a five hour drive on average, so I arrived Wednesday afternoon.

Unpacking and setting up my room was a two-day affair, what with buying a few last minute supplies and a couple of posters. I got my room set up and went to some Welcome Week activities with friends. School started on Monday, the 29th. I ended up dropping one class and adding another, so it works out that I have four classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, each an hour and fifteen minutes long, and one class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. That class is only 50 minutes, but there's an additional film screening every Monday night that goes approximately from 7:15 to 10:15.

Now that you've read my enthralling class schedule, I can tell you that my agenda will be packed with a plethora of reading and writing assignments. Hence the lack of blog posts.

It would be much easier if my assignments included showing you my lipstick collection and debating between tinted moisturizers, than answering questions on medieval Spanish literature, analyzing Spanish historical writings, reading Rousseau, and studying the chemistry of warfare. That's the bulk of what I'm studying at the moment, besides my film and media class, which I'm actually excited about.

By the way, I am by no means trying to sound like a smarty-pants. I just wanted to justify, partially to myself, why I won't be posting quite so often, and to share a little bit more of my interests with you.

This concludes my rant on how busy I am, because I know plenty of busy bees still blog in the meantime. I just don't quite have the energy that those lovely ladies somehow maintain.

If any of you actually read this far, congratulations. I can't blame you if you didn't read ANY of this post. This is probably the most "personal" post I've written, or at least one of the least beauty related posts.

I'm off to bed but I do promise more posts will be coming, so thank you to my followers, old and new, for being patient. The list of posts I promised you will get done. It's just going to be a slow process.


Happy last days of summer. [Hey, if it still looks like summer, it still is] I hope you're relaxed, wherever you are.

xEsther

Blog Hop

Enter this lovely blog hop, which is a list of blogs that you can add yours to. Apparently when you add yours, it shows up on everyone's list who also has this list.

What's in a Word? Tag

Hello, dear readers,


This is going to be a super speedy post. I saw the "Accent Tag" on YouTube, in which a list of words is given and the person has to pronounce them to show different accents. Obviously, I can't do that as I don't make videos, but the second part of one version of this tag is several questions asking for the word you use to describe the object.


It's easier if I just put the questions in, but the video from which I got the idea is here.


Here we are:


1. What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
Toilet papering. [Exciting phrase, I know]

2. What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
Roly poly bug!

3. What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
I use soda and pop interchangeably, soda slightly more often perhaps.


4. What do you call gym shoes?
Gym shoes or running shoes.

5. What do you say to address a group of people?
You guys! Or just, Guys! Even if they're not guys.

6. What do you call the kind of spider (or spider-like creature) that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
Daddy long-legs.

7. What do you call your grandparents?
I used to call my grandpas on both sides either Grandpa or Papa, but I always called my grandmas, simply, Grandma.

8. What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
Shopping cart.

9. What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
A sun shower. I was fascinated the first time I saw that happen. I was waiting to be picked up from day camp and the sun was beaming down. I just didn't understand why the raindrops "[kept] falling on my head"!

10. What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
A remote.




So I realize this has nothing at all to do with beauty, but my posts have been lacking so horrendously that I thought I might as well put up another fun tag, if nothing else yet. I promised you posts, and I'm not backing out on that; I'm just getting ready to go back to school next week and cramming the rest of my summer in.


Please feel free to do this tag. I think it's interesting to hear what people call different things in different places.


I hope you're enjoying the last few official weeks of summer, and good luck to you if you're going back to school soon!


I'll be speaking with you.


xEsther

Seeing Double? It's a Dupe!

The face-off of two serums begins!

Hi there, dear readers,

Long time, no beauty posts! I recently went to Sally's in search of another China Glaze For Audrey nail polish, this time to give to my co-worker as a gift for driving me to and from work all of last week. We're both obsessed with nail polish, and she mentioned multiple times that she liked that one when I wore it.

In any case, I got around to looking for a less expensive version of my beloved Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Smoothing Serum, mentioned in my hair routine post, and reviewed more in depth here.

As it happens, Sally Beauty Supply carries the generic line of Paul Mitchell products, called Generic Value Products. The best part is that it's around $8 for a 6 oz. bottle, whereas the name brand is 8.5 oz but ranges between $20 and $25 a bottle. If you're a Sally's member, the bottle costs around $7. So the price per ounce is a little over $1 for the GVP brand, and it can be anywhere from $2.50 to over $3 an ounce for Paul Mitchell.

Is it a huge price difference? To me, it is. It may seem like a really small difference as far as price per ounce, but, the ingredients are the exact same and you're saving a few dollars each time you purchase, which, to me, is worth it.

The only difference is the scent. I'm rubbish at describing scents, but this one smells stronger and more like a fruity fresh bath product than the well known Paul Mitchell pear scent.

Honestly, there's no way these two couldn't work the same as they have the exact same ingredient listing, as I've already mentioned.


Do you know any dupes for higher end hair or beauty products?

Hope your week is off to a great start!

xEsther




Images from http://thehairstylingserumssellers.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html and
http://finallyindigo.wordpress.com/category/hair/

Please Excuse the Absence

Hello, dear readers,

I have to apologize for being rather absent for the past week and a half or so. I hold to what I said before, and the posts I plan to write will indeed be written. I've just been going through a bit of a tough time personally, and I have some things I need to focus on at the moment. I'm also trying to fit in spending time with friends and family before I go back to school in a couple of weeks.

Apologies for being so vague, but I'd rather not share certain things on the interwebs.

Thanks for understanding, and I'll be back with more posts as soon as I can get the time/motivation.

Hope you're loving your summer and the weather is lovely where you are!

xEsther