I have a friend who is addicted to QVC. (Honestly, it’s not me.) She’s quite the QVC preacher too. Made me try L’Occitane hand lotion when she bought her first set. Convinced me to try Philosophy products. Tuned me to Borba’s anti-aging set. Her newest product push came in the form of a 2-in-1 cleansing conditioner, part of the Wen Haircare system. I’ve been faithful to Kerastase for years but when I ran out in January (and dyed my hair brown) I decided right now would be a good time to try Wen.

When I looked up the prices on QVC I was a little shocked to see how pricy it was. I opted to buy them on Amazon so that I could use my prime account and save on shipping. But even on Amazon, Wen has this tricky QVC way of bundling the shampoos so that you are always bumping yourself up to the larger set, to “save” more money. Soon I found myself with the 4-pack of cleansing conditioners. I figured hey, this should last me a good 6 months and I’ll get to try almost all of the scents. If I stuck with it, (instead of, say, giving up halfway and switching to Shu Uemura) I calculated that I’d save quite a bit of money over Kerastase. Plus the website promised smooth, manageable perfect hair and who can say no to that?

I was so excited when I received my box until heavy booklets started falling out and I saw the instructions. RInse hair in cool water. Split hair in 4 sections. Use 10 pumps per section. Massage vigorously into scalp. Comb. Clip. Leave. Massage again. Rinse. Repeat, this time starting backwards. What???

Why is this so much work? I immediately text my friend and she replies, “Yeah but you get used to it and the results are sooo worth it.” After the first couple of washes, I’ll admit. My hair was pretty smooth. But honestly I was getting so lazy that I found myself waiting longer and longer in between shampoos, just to avoid that battle between the comb and my hair. Soon I was sneaking the BF’s shampoo and conditioner, just to make my shower go faster. I’m a little worried that this cleanser is making my hair oily faster between washes so I’m thinking of switching for a couple of weeks to the tea tree scent. (Each scent has different benefits, I started with the cucumber aloe because it was the best smelling one.)

So my first take is that you immediately feel the benefit of a soap-free shampoo but it takes a lot of work. If you like to be in and out of the shower like me, this may not be for you. I did find that switching to a wider tooth comb (Mason Pearson Rake Comb) made it a little easier and I was using less styling and smoothing product, which used to be mandatory for me to avoid frizz after a quick blowdry.

Try this 3-set of Wen for $35 on amazon.com.

I dug up my old Prada robot man to dress up my manly domke camera bag. I would have opted for something girlier but not many colors do well against the black nylon. My next step is to find some thick, dark silver thread to whipstitch around the flaps (a la Antik Denim).

I spent a few moments at the craziness that is my sisters’ place last weekend. All 3 of my sisters live together — the messiness that ensues plus a cat I am highly allergic to ensures that I can rarely spend more than a solid hour there without getting stir-crazy. During my last trip, I poked through some trinkets, stole a few goodies and admired the new bed setup, courtesy of yours truly. ~.~

A few weeks ago I reached out to you guys for some help on choosing a new body wash. Korres came highly recommended by a few of you and I found these bottles all over my sisters’ apartment. Apparently one of them bought a 10-pack deluxe sample set of shower gels and body lotions. Score! I sniffed them all and took home melon and guava, my favorites. I’ve worked my way through melon (gives me a sweet tooth) and though the body butter is heavy, it dries pretty quickly and the duo together has kept my skin well-moisturized in this week’s cold weather.

For her secret santa wish list my sister wanted new bedding and room decorations for her bare blue walls. I got her this Nessa Headboard wall decal from Blik along with a set of Calvin Klein “Cottonwood” pillows and shams to lay against the “headboard”. The shade of blue in her room would have battled any contrasting color so instead I opted to soften it with whites and creamy blues, and it worked! (Well, no returns on bedding so I will argue that it works. )

P.S. That blue own in the bottom right corner is a pillow I picked up for her from a cute shop in Bali! Very Anthropologie with a ‘batik’ feel…

Cora spent the weekend recovering from her girlie surgery on Friday. On her 10-month birthday Cora matured into puberty (ugh, messy) and then lost her womanhood the same week. The post-op instructions were clear: limit food, lots of rest and no running or jumping. Of course, being the street dog that she is, she didn’t even whine, cry or complain. She jumped all over Lulu when she got home, barked to ask for more dinner and was running up and down the stairs before we could catch her. She had a lot of timeouts in her crate just to force her to sleep but it looks like she is 100% healed. Yup, 5 days early.

I’m going to have to be brutally honest and admit that wearing todays may not happen on actual todays. A regular 9 to 5 (or 6… or 7) will have to mean delayed posts here and there but I didn’t want to abandon the wearing today label. So this past weekend I took the crazy street pup to Santa Monica for a stroll around Bergamot Station. We got about 5 minutes of sun and the rest of the time was spent indoors, sheltered from the rain. (We don’t like wet puppy paws.)

Tank top // Splendid
Blazer // Topshop
Elastic pants // Zara
Boots // Rosegold
Tote // Stephen Sprouse for LV
Wrap bracelet // Hermes