Teresa's Big O(pinion)

My $64 Black Friday Haul

Well my lovelies, I hope you had a fantastic winter holiday, whatever you celebrate. We went home for a visit and overscheduled ourselves like usual. I’m exhausted and feeling a little bit like I’m dying, but it was great being able to see people and engage in some merriment. So, Black Friday. I used to love shopping on Black Friday, back before I was a total cynic about Capitalism and rampant…

The 3 Biggest Lessons I Learned In 2021

I really love end-of-year content. Tell me about the things you tried, the things you learned, and the things you’re glad you didn’t do. I want all of the 2021 roundups. This year has been one of self-improvement and discovery for me. I joined a coworking/networking group of primarily women, so I have a ton of great role models. I continued making progress with school. I quit the job I’d been…

It’s Blogmas again, friends

Oh, hi there. It’s been a long time since I’ve done Blogmas and I know I’m already a day late. Hell, it’s been a long time since I was here at all. I miss it though. I decided (like an hour ago) that I’m going to make a concerted effort to post this month, and then see what happens. I’d like to be able to devote some time to writing my own content again. I honestly have no plan for this…

Where the hell have I been?

That’s an excellent question. Clearly I’m still alive, and I wanted to catch up. How’s it going? Are you making it through the hurricane/wildfire/locust plague/global pandemic? I hope so. I find myself getting extremely overwhelmed when I think about everything that’s going on, and I know I’m not alone there. Anyone else on a news detox? I still want to know what’s going on so I can continue to…

Another New Year, still same Teresa

Oh, hi. It’s been awhile since we chatted, so let’s catch up on some stuff. I started school, joined a coworking/networking space to maybe make some friends (virtual for now, but someday in real life), bought a new car, I’m job hunting, making more of an effort to plan things (like projects and study time), and spending less time doom-scrolling on social media. That part is a little easier for…

Origins haul: was it worth it?

I’m not going to lie to y’all – I’ve spent a lot of money during lockdown. I really didn’t mean to, but I’m lucky enough to still be gainfully employed, and sometimes I can’t resist a little retail therapy. Or a lot of retail therapy. One of my many hauls was from Origins, for reasons I haven’t quite figured out.

There are a couple of products from Origins that I’ve loved for years, namely…

MOTD: Omg I left the house! Edition

Hello friends.

Do I have any internet friends left? Do you guys remember me?

So I left the house today. Remember in the Before Times when that wasn’t that big a deal? It seems like a lifetime ago.

Anyway, we didn’t really do anything special, just got coffee and went for a drive, but it was nice to be out in the world with Dan. I was so happy about it that I made actual effort. On my…

It’s been a sad week

Hello again internet friends.

I’m coming to you today with lots of complicated feelings. Sadness, rage, disgust, hopelessness, to name just a few. But I don’t want to talk about that because it’s not actually about me. It’s about people who can’t walk down the street or go to the store without being seen as a threat. It’s about people who’ve been harassed and othered by those in power for…

Flake files, episode 1: Admitting it is the hardest part

I have dandruff.

This is a new problem for me. You all know I’m an oily bitch, and my scalp is no exception. In the last couple of years I’ve tried really hard to wash my hair less in the hopes that it would make my scalp less oily, but no dice. It was annoying having to wash my hair every day or contend with a grease slick on my head, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Then the flakes…

So about this pandemic

Hi! I hope you’re all safe and healthy.

I’m not handling things all that well, to be honest. Remember when this whole thing started and I was totally cavalier about it? I was all like, “It’s fine, use the time to learn a language, make coffee, remember to take showers”? Well, I was wrong.

So. Fucking. Wrong.

I’ve worked from home for a long time and rarely leave my house anyway, so I…

We’re on what feels like day 3,421 of self-quarantine. I haven’t left the house in 18 days, which is a new personal record. Before this I was making an effort to leave the house a couple times a week, and now I really miss those trips. I wasn’t doing anything exciting, just sitting in coffee shops, but that’s one of the things I’m missing. I’m also sad that a bunch of my travel was postponed. I…

Ok, I’m not really a hermit, but damn close. I’ve been working remotely for almost five years, and since moving across my home state about 18 months ago I’ve had no social life to speak of because I have no friends. Seriously, the only people I talk to on a regular basis are my boyfriend and the baristas at my favorite local coffee shop.

So, I feel like I’m ready for a pandemic and the…

Damn y’all, I’ve got a lot of goals for 2020. And it’s already almost a quarter over with.

I like to travel. I don’t love flying, and there comes a point where I’m done being out in the world and just want to be home in my sweats, but my wanderlust is a pretty well-established fact. This year I have some specific things I want to accomplish.

Visit Salem, Massachusetts

Can you believe…

The Beauty Consumer tag

Occasionally I see a tag somewhere that catches my eye and makes me think, “Hey, that’s a bandwagon I should jump on.”

This tag was created by Nineties LoveChild, one of my favorite small creators on YouTube. This is not her actual name, but I won’t insult her by attempting to spell her name. She and I share a lot of opinions about makeup, new releases and beauty gurus behaving badly. We also…

In looking back at my goals post I realized that I didn’t touch on any of my beauty goals for this year. I actually made some this year. I think that alone is worth mentioning. I’m not generally a goal-setter of any kind and just roll with the punches, but here we are in a new decade, so let’s see what happens.

Right. Beauty goals:

Stop hunting for the perfect foundation

Dude, this is…

My favorite products of 2019

I recently posted about some of the worst products I tried in 2019, and I feel like I need to offset the negativity by mentioning some of the best products I tried last year.

Admittedly, I used a lot of old favorites this past year, like the Mizon snail cream I reviewed back in the day and my favorite Soap & Glory body wash. But I also managed to find some new favorites.

Colourpop Pretty…

Do you like to be scared?

You all know that I’m into creepy things. I love skulls and horror and 90% of my podcast playlists are either true crime or paranormal. I like being scared. It’s just my thing.

My other thing is writing, and as much as I told myself that this is my blog and I can put whatever I want here, the creepy shit just doesn’t belong. So a few months ago I decided to separate my creepy content and put…