Remember back in the day when I challenged you to find some ways to declutter your perfume and bath/body product stash?  The idea, of course, is to make room for new products, as well as make efficient use of the ones you already own.  For many things, this simply means focusing on using the same shampoo for a few weeks, and voila.  For other things you may not want to finish, it’s a little trickier.  Anyway, I kept my new year’s resolution to donate some scented love to the local YWCA.  Here are the results of my hard work, in …read more

So, unless you have an extra $60 laying around, you might not be buying Fresh’s Brown Sugar Scrub.  It’s great stuff, but I can’t afford that very often.  And my shins, elbows, knees, and heels need some major smoothing.  Try making this scrub and save yourself some major bucks.  Feel free to substitute for what you have in your house – especially where the types of oil are concerned. I’ve made this scrub with everything from virgin olive oil to grapeseed or jojoba and it’s all good.   You may want to clean out an old scrub jar or some other …read more

Partially because of the first fall-like weather, and partially because I feel the need to keep using it up,  I’ve been burning lots of tarts, candles, and other home fragrances.
First off – I tried a new Bath and Body Works wallflower in Kitchen Spice.  I had heard great things about this scent, and it really didn’t disappoint.  Except, that is, when I walked into my kitchen and thought R. had baked cookies.   No dice.  Hopefully I will be running low on these around the time of the semi-annual sale.  About four packs (eight bulbs) is a year’s supply, I …read more

Since I’m on my no-buy/use-it-up, I’m trying to avoid ‘frivolous’ purchases. I have a pretty large bottle of John Frieda styling creme, but it’s nowhere near as effective as Frederic Fekkai.  I hate to love it, but the smell is even wonderful (a slightly marine scent with olive leaf).  When I finish my use-it-up challenge, or when I finish my hair product anyway, I’m buying the biggest size of this ($26) and never looking back.  I mean, it’s cheaper than ONE haircut!

Now I’m finally getting somewhere. Last week I listed about 50 items up for swap – perfume samples, lotions, shower gel, and other prettyfying potions. Still basically showerless, I’ve been taking my gym bag with some scrubs and other goodies to try and use up. And I did! This week I finished:
2 Scrubs – MadCitySue’s whipped sugar scrub in Vanille Abricot (probably the best scrub I’ve ever tried and when I finally finish all my other scrubs I’m switching to hers exclusively. In my first assignment I found many products I had tucked away during …read more

Well, as of about three hours ago, I finally have flushable toilets and working shower again, but we’re so not out of the woods.   As in, the sewer lines under our home (and out to the street) may very well need to be replaced.  But in any case I’ve been pushing ahead nonetheless.  Baby steps in organizing, giving away, and using up will eventually make a big difference!  I’ve seen quite a bit of chatter this week about similar topics.  I’m glad to see that instead of nesting (as we so often feel like doing once it turns into fall) …read more

So, here we are at the beginning of Week 2 of the Use it Up Challenge.    Have you finished any products yet?  Don’t worry if you haven’t, with this challenge I have found that you have certain weeks when you don’t actually finish anything but you are making progress every time you use something you have instead of shopping.
Just yesterday I finally made a bit of progress – I filled up the handsoap dispenser in the downstairs bathroom with A WHOLE TUBE of shower gel (Boots Orange Lemon Grape – the scent was too delicious to keep under wraps so …read more

Just to show you that I’m a person who practices what I preach, I have started my work on the Use-it-Up challenge. My Scented Life is actually beset with sewer line problems (I promise, no gory details) but the long and short of it is that I’ve been taking 3-minute showers this week. That doesn’t really make for actually using up much, but I did the best I could on the rest of the assignments.
Organize the Stash: Taming this beast is no easy task. Before I even started taking pics, I put all the ‘dupes’ (a …read more

For this assignment, you’re going to learn how to shrink your stash even further. There are several ways, and I want you to try at least one of these suggestions. These organization methods/techniques may even translate to other messy areas in your life.
1. Consolidate. This is really easy with certain types of products. Basically, the less fragranced the item, the easier it becomes, but you can also get creative and blend two complimentary-scented products. I frequently consolidate shampoos, dish soap, sunscreen, nail polish removers, and some skincare items like toner. Obviously …read more

The easiest way to get a handle on just how much *stuff* we have is to organize it all in one place.  If you’re super-organized (or just an excel geek like myself) you can even track your progress on a spreadsheet.  In either case, if you follow these steps, you will soon find you have a much more manageable supply of smell-goods.
To begin,  gather up ALL your products.  Shower, dresser, under the bed, linen closet – wherever you have it stashed, pull it out.  This might seem like an excellent time to clean the bathroom while you’re at it, but …read more