I Feel Pretty - Leigh Feather

#ClogLife

by Leigh | Oct 24, 2018 | I Feel Pretty, Slow Fashion | 2 comments

The shoes of my dreams arrived on October 18, 2018. They traveled all the way from Skövde, Sweden to Eastern Pennsylvania in the USofA. Sweden. Clogs from actual Sweden. I feel like my whole life has led up to this moment. Like when you meet your true love, you don’t mind that it took so long and they play “At Last” at your wedding and you’re like, you’re not kidding, at last. That’s how I feel about these shoes.

You may think clogs are not feminine or sexy or cool or whatever and you’re probably right but that’s actually part of the attraction.

Now, I’ve owned clogs before. A funky patchwork pair that was Mia or Steve Madden or something, a pair of black Dansko that had a back. Another pair of Dansko mules in oxblood. And, I wore them a lot, but really just for comfort. I didn’t feel stylish in them and as I became more fashion-y, I would only wear them at home and eventually got rid of them. Over the last few years I dreamed of finding a pair that were comfy/convenient — I love a shoe that’s a little bit of a platform that I can slip on and off — as well as good-looking. Of course my opinion about what looked “good” changed.

I followed a few pro-clog fashion blogs: seasons-and-salt.com | stylethislife.com | un-fancy.com to name a few, as well as the Instagram account thecloglife which fueled my secret longing for the perfect go-with-everything pair of clogs.

Then one day I came across an article that affirmed that clogs were now cool. I read this article: http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-clogs-status.html and this article: https://fashionmagazine.com/fashion/clog-life/ both which referenced this article: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/the-life-changing-magic-of-clogs

Apparently clogs were now being worn by celebrities and models and even a part of some high-end designer shoe collections. Now that I was convinced clogs were uber-hip, and my desire was co-signed by the fashion world, the challenge of finding the quintessential pair, that didn’t break the bank, began.

Reference my mom in clogs in Venice Beach in the ’70s:

I looked at No.6, Dansko, Swedish Hasbeens, Bryr, Sandgrens, Sanita, Lotta from Stockholm, Troentorp. Some of these popular brands are more for the sandal-type clog and that’s probably in my future but for now I wanted something more old school and pure.

After literally years of pinning, pining, and excessive deliberating, I finally decided on the Troentorps. They were $99, free shipping, and arrived from Sweden in 6 days (one day after my birthday.) I am wearing them right now and I will probably never take them off.

I hate lip gloss

by Leigh | Nov 8, 2015 | I Feel Pretty, Stories

I’ve recently admitted to myself something I could never quite put into words: I hate lip gloss.

I had three lip glosses and I didn’t love any of them. So, I went out to see if I could find some new ones, maybe in a sublime autumn shade. I went to Bon Ton, because they sell Clinique, my go-to brand. Usually I trust (and revere) make up people. I am more than willing to put my lip color fate in their hands. I was foolish. The woman who helped me was: a) the only person for miles around, b) seemed to be just picking colors at random and c) was coughing constantly. She ignored me as I tried on one lip gloss after another, each one making my lips gooey-er. “…It’s sticky, uh, can’t wipe it off, it’s sooo sticky…”

I thanked her. Then I ran away.

Driving home I realized something: I don’t think I like lip gloss. I don’t like the feeling of glue on my lips. Oh my God. I hate lip gloss. I’ve felt this way my whole life!

I also realized: I get extremely stressed out shopping for lipstick because I’m afraid I’m going to buy the wrong color and basically throw away $24. I thought back to my last real purchase: Clinique “Angel Red” lipstick, a very dark red I bought last year and never used. I maybe wore it once. It looks terrible on me. And I can’t return it.

I became faced with the tragedy that I have no good lipsticks or lip glosses, or lip “wear” of any kind. I just wear lip balm all the time. Mostly Burt’s Bees Peppermint Lip Balm. I have a tinted Burt’s Bees lip balm (in “Rose”) that’s quite nice. Oh, I do have one lipstick that I like. Clinique “Bamboo Pink”. It’s the perfect subtle color for me which is funny because I didn’t choose it. It came in a free gift from Clinique. It’s very natural looking and reminds me of the the lipstick my stepmother chose after she “had her colors done” that I secretly wore all the time in high school.

I don’t know why I didn’t think I could return make up if I’d used it. I remember hearing a CVS radio ad a long time ago that advertised their risk free policy. love it or return it. Or something like that. For some reason I thought, drug store make up is returnable, but fancy make up store make up is not.

Now, with a sense of urgency, I went to Ulta to look for lip stuff. I walked all over that place. I couldn’t seem to figure out how to pick a color. With all the sales people busy, there was no one to clean the testers or give me a q-tip to apply it. Hmmm. Am I supposed to just try out the testers on my hand? How is that even helpful? Or should I just pick a product at random and hope for the best? I don’t have a lot of experience with different brands so I don’t even know which ones are good. I always hear about NARS and people rave about their lip pencils, or crayons or whatever they are. A lot of people like MAC but the people who work there freak me out. I mean, I was goth before it had a name but I can’t deal with the MAC girls. Alta doesn’t sell those brands anyway. They have a large selection, but everything seems more on the drugstore level. I started to wonder if I should have gone to Sephora. So I ended up grabbing two options from Burt’s Bees: a Lip Shimmer in “Caramel” and a Lip Crayon in “Hawaiian Smolder”, without trying them on. This of course made me very uncomfortable but I had done so many laps around that place and even though I love an excuse to rack up steps on my Fitbit, I was getting to the point where I didn’t care anymore. I went to check out. That’s when I noticed the woman next to me was returning 7 concealers.

This was when I started to think, “Maybe you don’t have to test everything out in the store, you can just buy stuff and return what you don’t like.” After I was almost finished paying, I casually asked what the return policy was. As the cashier responded, but I only half heard her “…within 60 days…with receipt…no more than 25 percent of the product used…” or something like that. I wasn’t really listening because: OH MY GOD. You can return used makeup?

I ended up admitting that “Hawaiian Smolder” is not my color. Back it went.

At Target, where I seem to find myself daily—I need to get a life—I picked up two Burt’s Bees Lip Shines. One called “Peachy” which looks okay, but tastes like peach which surprised me for some reason and one called “Spontaneity”.

A few days after that, I went to Sephora. A lovely girl helped me and she really helped me! She guided me to a couple colors that work with my coloring. Thank you, Tara! I got a NARS Satin Lip Pencil in “Hyde Park” and Laura Mercier Lip Parfait Creamy Colourbalm in “Raspberry Ripple”.

It’s so funny to me, because I usually ignore posts about make up. I just don’t take an interest. I’m like, “What is there to know about make up that I don’t already know?” And here I am writing a novel about… lipstick.