Influenster Review: Mary Kay Clearproof Acne System

I was provided with a complimentary sample of the Mary Kay Clearproof Acne System by Influenster.

What I received honestly feels to me like a clone of the Proactive system.  And is has the same flaws for the most part.  I am not sure the 4 step system is at all necessary and it is serious a pain in the ass to use. It gives me the feeling they are trying to dole out a fairly small amount of active ingredient camouflaged by four tubes full mainly of water and pseudoscience.

That said it is about as effective an any of the Salicylic acid-based treatment.  The cleanser is the only really useless product, especially if you already have a well-formulated cleaners. The moistener is a little better but I still prefer the moisturizer I was already using. The toner and is okay and the ointment is about on par with others that have the same active ingredients.

If you really are not doing anything at all for your skin a set like this might be a good way to start. And if you are already using Proactiv and like this system, the Mary Kay version has the advantage of not trying to strong arm you into a subscription--you can just order it when you need it and order all the parts separately (because the most important part is in the smallest tube--I would tend to use that up first).

Overall I would rate it: meh.  But as someone who has been dealing with acne-prone skin for decades now I may not be the "typical" consumer for this product.

Serving Size Recommendations Are Completely Ridiculous

Okay so it makes sense to have a serving size when you report nutritional information. Like if there is a bag of twelve hotdog buns, the serving size would be one (1/12). A dinner for two, would have two servings. Because, um, it's logically the amount you would serve each person. But as for why a box of 7 bacon slices would be 5 servings... well, I just give up. Is 1.4 the natural serving size for bacon rashers and no one ever got around to telling me?

Wanton Soup

Erotica writer's costume of choice this Halloween

The Milky Bar Penis Story

Various press outlets are reporting the that there are penises on the Milky Way bar as if this is a real story. (The Milky Way being a bar of plain white chocolate).

What makes it even more ridiculous is many of them have not shown the whole bar with the complete picture on it.

Or the other bars in the same series of images showing that any willies seen are purely in the eye of the consumer.

Birds Eye

Dear Ulta

Over the last four months I have been into Ulta 10 times (yes I was counting) from the express purpose of buying the product that should be in these two spaces. It has actually been on there 0/10 = 0% of those occasions.

When I ask about it the staff say that they have no input on ordering which is done by some automated central process,one that apparantly does not believe in keeping a supply of a product on hand even when it is shelf stable and has dedicated shelf space that cannot be used for any other purpose. Some uber-manager is probably really thrilled about how "efficient" this is.

I am told that I can try coming on Wednesdays when they restock and there may or may not be some of this product. Which makes me think that Ulta can go screw itself.  I try and support local brick-and-mortar stores even if they are chains, but if the feeling is not mutual Amazon here I come.

Boobvertising

If you looked at this advertisement, what do you think it would be promoting?

The answer is: breastfeeding.

Because those totally look like new mothers.

And sexualizing breasts is so helpful in normalizing breast feeding.

Beezin'

The first news report I saw on Beezin' made it perfectly clear that it was hoax report.  The idea is that kids are getting high by putting lip balm on their eyelids. The way I could tell it was fake was:
1) Putting lip balm on your eyelids will not make you high
2) It is clearly a version of the South Park satire "Cheesing" (from the episode "Major Boobage")

But due to the high level of apparently not giving a fuck amongst major news outlets, this story has been treated as real by a wide array of TV station and newspapers. The story seem particularly popular with Fox affiliate stations. Do they not have Google?

Feminism

Feminism is

the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities*

so any time you say

 "I am not a feminist, but..."

You are saying that YOU DO NOT BELIEVE

 that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities

Indiscriminate Collage Stylings

You just add some cursive text, ephemera, birds or flowers, distressing, lace patterns or whatever.  Easy, right? That's what passes for hand crafts or crafty styling these days. And what's wrong with that?

I mean look at the lovely mug.

Sure it is a low end crafty-crap mug made in bulk in China.  But it's pretty so long as you do not give a damn about where the elements smooshed together come from, what they mean, and whether putting them together makes one iota of sense to put them all together on a mug.

Oh, and that stamp?

It's Hitler.

"Monokini"

I would like to go on the record as saying: there is not such thing as a monokini.  And even if there was, it would not be this:

Firstly, this is and will always be a swimsuit.  Or whatever you culture calls a swimsuit. In my case as a New Zealander: togs. It was called that before there were bikinis and there is no reason to stop calling that after there were bikinis.

Secondly, the 'bi' in bikini does not mean 'two" (as in two pieces).  It was named after the site of an A Bomb test at the Bikini Islands. Which are named, best as anyone can tell, after the shape of texture of a coconut ("pikinni").

And thirdly, some one already coined the neologism "monokini" back in 1960 to refer to wearing only the bottom part of a bikinis, a.k.a. topless bikini.

Thus endeth the rant.

Multicolor Colorblock...

To the extent that black and white are colors and "two" is multi....

WTF NoMoreRack?

Like many people, I suspect, I got sucked into trying "NoMoreRack" a discount retail website after seeing it advertised on TV.

But the first time I did a price check I got a reality check.  The XModo solar charge is presented as a mondo sale deal on NMR down from $65.99 to $26.

But it is listed with a regular retail price of $27.30 on Amazon and $22.67 at IdeaStage.  So... no more accepting your prices at face value NoMoreRack.

I am surprised I fell for the "inflated retail price" scam in the first place. I guess you can fool some of the people all of the time....

Unicorn Seeds

Amazon continues to allow sellers to profit from mythical plants via blatant and openly fraudulent listings.  One example being the black strawberry offered by Plantgrabber and Eforecase--the latter actually being fulfilled by Amazon.

The lovely picture being an obvious Photoshop job.

Celebrity Sprite

LeBron James Sprite

Last years flop movie, Syrup (based on a book of the same name), included the idea of marketing a carbonated drink by linking numbered cans to specific celebrities. Almost on cue, Sprite releases their first celebrity-inspired special edition drink.

• LeBron gets own Sprite drink

Mink Undies

That fine line bewteen a mink jockstrap and a giant merkin that ate your junk.

Something Blue

You can buy a lot of different things on Amazon. Even several things that don't actually exist. A blue variety of strawberries for example. These are offered by Treasures by Lee and Plantgrabber offers seeds for an equally mythical black variety.

You can also buy seeds for equally non-existent bright blue roses (Home Grown) and peonies (Big Bargain).

Offering seeds is smart. the buyers cannot know immediately that they are conned.  And if the seeds do not sprout they may never catch on.

Amazon continues to approve reviews that point out these sellers are perpetrating a transparent scam--and continues to let them do so.

Planters Mens NUTrition

For more of this nonsense see here.

Crimson Wave -- Tacocat

What do you call half a thong?

The fine people at Finejo have invented underwear for the man who thinks a thong is just covering up too much of his thing.