I am in the depths of despair and distress. Body Shop has, for some unfathomable reason (probably to ruin my life) discontinued almond Body Butter. One of my favourite things in the world. I love it more than my brother and more than shiny things.
Can you or your readers suggest a viable alternative (Lush’s almond hand cream just doesn’t cut it and smells more like cookies). Alternatively an outpouring of commiseration from similarly disgruntled fans would let me know I’m not alone.
*bitter almond tears*
M.
Ha! This made us laugh, and then cry a bit, because we know how we would feel it they made the miserable decision of discontinuing our coconut Body Butter. (Luckily, we have about a half-dozen stored up from when we thought we were out of it, and were proven incorrect.) We would, then, first recommend the coconut as a viable alternative—almond, coconut; coconut, almond: Could they really be so different? Er, yes. Probably.
This is kind of a step beyond (and a price beyond) the BS’s deal, but it promises all sorts of complicated blather ("silky, concentrated milk that nourishes and smoothes the skin. Helps to
firm and tone. Suitable for the whole body. Made with almond
ingredients of Haute Provence origin, helping to revive the cultivation
of the almond tree in the landscape of Provence.") that we’re sure makes it worth $38. L’Occitane almond body cream, $38
Carol’s Daughter also has a BS-approved "almond cookie shea souffle" but if the cookie issue is a problem, it will likely not suit. C’s D shea souffle, $13
We bet someone else out there has a good idea. Share! Will give us something to do instead of watching Jim Cramer completely freak out.
We’ve been avoiding Etsy ever since we got taken for $50 and a birthday present for our mom. We disputed the charge with Etsy and PayPal and they were both like ‘sorry to hear it but oh well’. We asked Etsy to work on some kind of buyer protection policy and they said they had no plans to do so – to which we respond BOOOOOOO HISSSSS.
But. We will not let one crappy experience ruin such a great thing. We were checking it out today when we came across EmilyEJewelry. She has 100% feedback – which is a must for us now – and her gold jewelry designs are beautiful. We used to avoid gold jewelry at all costs – it seemed old and cheap. Now, we can’t get enough of it – and we see absolutely nothing wrong with mixing silver and gold if necessary. Here are our favorite picks from our newest favorite Etsy shop!
Our most stylish friend (who is also a stylist who we are hoping to interview this week) was wearing a bracelet when we saw her this weekend and we realized that we never think to wear bracelets, and we have no idea WHY. They’re so simple to toss on, they dress up anything, and they look really up to the minute. We really lke this fern leaf piece; it’s so distinct and special but it’s also not BAM HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW in your face loud.
This is one of the freshest necklaces we’ve seen in a long time. We like the birds, we like the gold, we love the unusual orientation. Definitely a rare find.
We’ve seen wishbone necklaces a lot, but there always seems to be something wrong with them. This one is pretty much perfect; right color, delicate design, detailed bits. And it’s the cheapest one we’ve ever seen.
So, last week was a challenging week for us, and we’re aiming to have a
better week THIS week. Your regularly scheduled writer is, we think, in
a country with very limited internet access, and we have a day job that
often gets in the way of doing things we actually like to do.
Anyway.
Here’s today’s reader mail!
Dear LB, With
the way the economy is these days, I’m trying to be a little more
financially responsible and not spend as much money as I usually do. My
question to you is, what’s the one key piece you’d buy? My wardrobe is
overall in upgradeable position – everything I have is ok, but I
definitely need to start upgrading into more key pieces. If you had a
budget of $200, what would you buy for this fall? Thanks! Colleen
Well,
this is kind of a challenging question; we know how you feel. Part of
us thinks if you’re in a good position, now’s the time to save your 18
months of rent, bills, and expenses that Suze Orman suggests (we
seriously saw her tell someone they couldn’t afford something because
it would bring their savings down to $18,000. $18,000 in a savings
account. At 28. Unreal!). But the other part of us believes in a slow
and steady upgrade, and hey – you can always eBay your castoffs.
We’ll deal with our internal dilemma on our own, and in the
meantime, we’ll suggest one thing and open the floor to our trusty
readers. We really, really like this coat from Michael Kors. And we
KNOW it’s a bit over $200, and seriously, nothing irks us more than
people asking for fashion advice with a budget and someone suggests
something like $100 more than they ask for. This is $10 more, and we
will honestly give you the $10 if you decide to go this route.
Anyway. This coat. We think coats are an amazing way to upgrade your
wardrobe. Whether you’re going on a date, job interview, or just out
and about, it’s a totally simple way to look awesome even if you’re
wearing full on sweats underneath. We think black coats are great, just
a bit blah. And cream coats are stunning, but just so incredibly
impractical. Patterns surprisingly hide a slew of sins, spots, and
stains.We think the cut is fun without being stuffy, and we’d love to
see this with a bright scarf.
If we get one stupid thing out of working all these stupid extra hours for our stupid day job that makes us, quite literally, hit our head on our desk out of frustration, please let it be this coat from Ben Sherman. We’ll even stop grumbling about having to train the braindead actor who wants our company to pay for his internet connection. At home.
If we get one stupid thing out of working all these stupid extra hours for our stupid day job that makes us, quite literally, hit our head on our desk out of frustration, please let it be this coat from Ben Sherman. We’ll even stop grumbling about having to train the braindead actor who wants our company to pay for his internet connection. At home.
Renzo Belted Coat, $289
-LB
We’ve had a harder time justifying completely random purchases lately, what with our economy being absolute garbage. We definitely do not have the 3-6 month nest the financial people keep telling us we should have; the closest we have is a couple of credit cards with a 0 APR. Which is far different from a 0 balance. Oops. In light of that, we’re making a list of things we want, and once we’ve done all the necessary things (saved at least part of our paycheck, paid our cable bill in full, gone to the grocery store), we’ll review and buy something fun!
Our actual spending budget is far, far less extravagant than a lot of things we post, so this is our attainable want list.
We really, really like this tote from Sabina. We have been whittling down our bag closet – gone are the high end designers, and the totes we amassed from years of sample sales (eBay has been good to us). We figure, with every 3 bags we get rid of, we will stop, reassess, and buy a new one if we can justify it. Our only other tan bag is from Jocasi, and while we adore it, it’s beat to shit. We struggled, going to a job interview recently, for a bag that wasn’t in beat up condition. While this might be one of the more expensive things on our want list, we use and love bags so much that we know we’ll get our money’s worth.
This, apparently, is the window at Bergdorf Goodman – we are not responsible for the photo. We do, however, love the colored tights. We’re fully buying into a couple of dresses from American Apparel and wearing them all the time and just changing up our tights as many times as possible. It’s totally our look for fall, and $8 for a pair of tights isn’t bad.
We definitely, definitely have our reservations about buying leather from Forever 21. We don’t know that we actually would – definitely not sight unseen, seams unexamined. But this style is everywhere, and it’s cheaper than it’d be on eBay. We’re going to see if it’s in our nearest store when we’re there next and check it out. It could be awesome. It could be garbage. But. It could be awesome.
These might actually be one of the first things we buy off of our want list. Dear Friend told us about these jeans from Free People – she says they’re super comfortable and they fit really, really, really well. They’re not quite a steal, but they’re definitely well under premium denim prices. We’re really feeling the light wash; we love our dark denim, but we’re a bit tired of it. Plus, we’ve ruined like 3 bags and 2 coats with dye transfering. So not cool.
Once the temperature drops below 72, we break out our boots and wear them pretty much until May when we transition back to flip flops. Somehow, we always feel a bit more dressed up with boots, and since our normal outfit consists of jeans and a t-shirt, this is definitely a good thing. We’ve amassed a good boot collection, some from mall stores, some vintage, and we’re always on the lookout for the next perfect pair. We love our favorite boots so much (butterscotch colored, 3" stacked heel) that after our dog chewed the daylights out of them, we continue to wear them. We think the teeth marks give them character. Here are our picks for this year!
We love these gray boots from Frye. They have what appears to be the softest leather ever, we love the gray, and we love love love the contrast sole and heel. We are so sad when we find the perfect pair of black boots, only to find the matching sole and heel. For some reason, it just reminds us of wrestling shoes and Merry Go Round. The only thing we don’t love about these boots is the hefty price tag, but for quality like Frye’s, we’ll consider it.
Steve Madden has definitely surprised us over the last year or so – we’ve found a lot more fashion forward styles than we would’ve thought, at good prices, and with good fit and quality. We’ve gotten at least 1 pair of shoes from them every season, and we love them. We most recently got the most delightful pair of caramel colored booties that are perfect – and were $30. We’re loving flat boots this year, and we love how standout light tan boots look with just about everything. These are a bit dressier than normal flat boots, and they look super comfortable.
Ok, we think this picture sucks – but it’s the best we could find. These boots are from Dolce Vita, and they appear to be everything we want in boots. Lovely leather, a wood (or wood-like) stacked heel, and nothing weird about them. These are the kind of boots you can wear season after season. We know we’ve talked about Endless.com a lot, but we’ll note that out of 3 sites, they had the cheapest by about $30 (and that includes Dolce Vita’s site) – AND they have free overnight shipping. And they have a coupon for $25 off certain brands!
We love sites where we actually find things we want that don’t cost a million dollars. This might seem like a small task, but we’ve found there’s a very fine line between spare and overrun, and not many sites in between have anything we want and/or can afford. A friend of ours sent us a link to Shabby Apple (kind of an unfortunate name if you ask us, but then again, ours is nonsensical), and at first we were meh. The photography is nice, but it’s really hard to judge a dress from the bust up – but as we looked around, we realized we really like some of the stuff.
They offer free shipping on exchanges, the prices are reasonable, and the styles don’t suck. Some of them are definitely not our taste, but we found more cute than bad by a longshot.
We like the Gypsy dress above for a few reasons – we’re really into this ship gray, we like the sleeve detail, the bust has a hidden closure so you don’t have to be all exposed or layered like mad. And we’ve already figured out 4 pairs of shoes we can wear it with. And it’s $68. Granted, we haven’t seen or felt it in person – it could be atrocious. We just might have to try it.
We’re really feeling this dress – in warm weather, with sandals. In cool weather, a scarf and smart boots. Heels can dress it up, too. Plus, we really like how much fun the model seems to be having. Cleopatra dress, $68
Once you turn the color down, this dress is super cute. We’re thinking with a pair of camel (colored, not the animal) boots and a scarf. We’re on a big scarf kick because it’s approximately 40 degrees in the office we’re in. Nonsense.
The site definitely has some room for improvement – the accessories pages show products that aren’t actually available, we don’t think every dress with a collar should have them stand up (well, we don’t think any collar should pop, but that might just be us), their sale section just takes you to a necklace. But we like the beginnings – good assortment, decent prices, free exchange shipping, so we’ll give it a shot.
