Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales

I hate shopping.

There I said it.

As a both a woman and an American consumer, I should be alight with glee at the upcoming deals bonanza that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday; but because I do loathe shopping, I tend to look year-round for deals to buy for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays (we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas). As a result, I rarely need anything by the time these hallowed days roll around, and as such, I've noticed many times the so-called "deals" we're supposedly getting aren't always what they seem.

Case in point - we stopped off at Wal-Mart (yes,it's a horrible employer and I should avoid it like the plague but it's RIGHT THERE) tonight and the store had already started their Black Friday sales at 6 PM. I have never seen so many people in one place buying big screen TVs - every shopping cart we passed had at least one in it. I listened as people cackled gleefully, positive they'd pulled one over on the Man because they got their products at 30-40% off. However, when I looked closer, a lot of the brands they were buying weren't big named ones (i.e. Samsung, Sony, LG, or Panasonic) but ones I'd never heard of in my life (Sceptre, Seiki and Cielo to name a few). Those who had snagged the brand named HDTVs didn't seem to realize they were buying older versions; technology moves fast, so the bells and whistles that were cool last year is soundly defeated by the new bangs this year. 

I was curious enough to check the ads prominent on two of my favorite websites - Amazon and Newegg - and soon realized their "deals" weren't so great I just had to have the item. In fact, they were pretty much on par with their usual coupons and a lot of the items they were unloading was older stock; after all, many of the big companies are releasing new items in time for Christmas and the new year.

Savvy shoppers would do well to avoid the frenzy of this weekend and don't end up like my friend who was ecstatic she managed to scoop up a Samsung Galaxy S3 for $0.01; I didn't have the heart to point out that the S4 is already out.

Eagle vs. Water Chevrotain

So I was flipping through YouTube for a few how-to videos (we're trying out new soap and candle recipes) and somehow I got into a spiral of animal videos. I quite enjoyed this one because it showed the ingenuity of Mother Nature in creating the Chevrotain - an ancient herbivore land animal related to Antelopes, Pigs, Deer, and Bison who can hold its breath for 4 minutes. I can't hold my breath for that long, but I guess I'd learn if I was trying to sneak by a predator.

NASA: Amazing Experiments with Water in Zero Gravity

This was a fun and amazing experiment done by an astronaut; makes me wish I could do this too!

Fun with Bath Fizzies - Experiment #1

We decided to start making Bath Fizzies as part of our beauty and more strategy, so we found a few recipes to try. This was our first go at it, and we modified it a bit because we weren't getting the results we thought we should (going by the pictures accompanying said recipe). As a result, though we achieved the shape, it wasn't very attractive so I decided to capitalize on it and make a quick video to demonstrate the appropriate level of fizziness one could expect.

This was both a test of my narrating skills - I still haven't managed to eliminate "uhs" and "ums" despite numerous public speaking classes, dangit - and the Galaxy SIII as a video camera. I probably should've reshot it as I made a few verbal mistakes, but decided to clean it up via notes flashing across the screen at appropriate moments. I also found it was a good way to give a few random bits of trivia/knowledge as well. Not bad for a minute and change of off the cuff rambling.

Now to figure out how to upload and edit the videos - when I tried to do it via USB connected to my laptop, it wouldn't recognize the file which means I probably don't have the right program to open it - and we might actually have a viable marketing tool. 

Along the Bumpy Road

Since the beginning of our journey into DIY lotions and body butters, I've wanted to try out a natural deodorant as I'm sick of the store bought brands because they work for a while and then suddenly my body starts rejecting them.

(Possibly the ingredients are causing the problems?)

We scoured the internet and library books for good recipes before settling on one that had all of the ingredients we already had at home so we wouldn't have to make an extra trip to the store.

It was July when we made our first batch and the perfect time to try it out since just stepping outside can make you sweat (dry heat or not be damned). It worked! I was sweating around my bra band and the crease of my panties, but my armpits were as dry as the moment I spread on the natural deodorant. I was exultant but tried to rein in my excitement since I was only ten minutes into the experiment.

Three days later, I was still riding that high because I only had to apply the deodorant once a day instead of two or three times. This stuff really worked, and it was made with chemical and preservative free ingredients which really spoke to the new lifestyle I'm slowly cultivating.

Two weeks later, my pits were still dry when I used it, but when I didn't, there was an odd smell, and the right axilla odor was stronger than the left. I panicked wondering if I was dying, infected, or reacting to the ingredients. I went back to the websites touting similar recipes and discovered in a lot of the comment sections that people complained of the same phenomena. Supposedly the stronger than normal pit odor was due to the body unclogging pores of the aluminum present in most store bought brands - though it could also be due to a change in diet. The only change in the past month was my deodorant, so I tended towards believing that was the cause. Fortunately, the smell dissipated within a few days and I continued using our product.

Then I developed a rash.

Apparently my sensitive skin was reacting to the baking soda, an ingredient used for its excellent deodorizing properties. My business partner was also trying it and didn't experience the same problem, but since I refuse to endorse a product I couldn't or wouldn't use, we've had to experiment with the recipe and see what else could be substituted in order for it to work.

I still haven't lost my enthusiasm for using natural deodorants, but I do have to adjust my expectations and needs in order to find one that works. Right now we're working on a recipe with less baking soda and more bentonite clay; I'm really psyched to try it out as I hope this be the one.