Casual Friday 10.12.18

It’s been a rather long and crazy week at work, but I’m excited because I’m headed to Santa Barbara this weekend! I got invited to speak on a panel at my alma mater, Westmont College, to English majors about my career path after college.

UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR COLLEGE KIDS

I’ve been mentally composing what I’m going to say this week and I think I’ve boiled it down to a few key points that I’m going to share with them. This will be my first time ON a panel and I’m looking forward to sharing my wisdom 🙂 . I feel very blessed to be doing what I’m doing at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and also thankful to have been able to try out my dream job in publishing at Chronicle Books. I’ve only been out of college 4 years, but I feel like the things I’m doing are pretty close to what I actually want to be doing “when I grow up.”

The Best Freezer Meal

Shout-out to one of my besties, Heather, who came over this weekend. We made about a hundred potstickers, which I froze and will eat probably weekly throughout the fall and winter.

A while back I posted this recipe for pork and apple dumplings/potstickers. Just watch this video and get to work! We watched Princess Diaries the whole time, and then we ate a bunch after.

Potstickers are my go-to easy frozen weeknight meal because they are fresh and homemade and easy to cook up so they get that nice crunchy bottom and steamed top. If you keep some broccoli in the freezer all the time, this is a perfectly balanced non-preservative-filled frozen meal.

 

THE Mystery of The ORDINARY 

So I was all excited about getting my shipment of The Ordinary this week. It’s a skincare brand that all the beauty bloggers rave about because it’s way cheap, compared to other good skin brands, and very specific. Their whole schtick is that they can charge less because they put any budget behind branding/packaging. And that each solution is purely the chemical it’s labeled as — barebones, no other ingredients.

Plus there’s quite a bit of satisfaction in being sort of like your own chemist: knowing that niacinamide doesn’t mix well with Vitamin C; and that water based solutions should be applied before oils, etc. etc.

HOWEVER The Ordinary’s CEO either needs some serious help or is in serious trouble?? He posted this strange video on Instagram blaming everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Brad Pitt for making fun of him, saying that he’s going to shut down his company. Now everyone is questioning his sanity, wondering if this is true or a marketing hoax.

So now I’m wondering….should I just box these up and sell them on Ebay? I haven’t started using them yet, and there’s no telling if this is true or not.

Quick review for the ones I have tried, with Amazon links, since its safer to probably buy there now than the actual The Ordinary website:

• Niacinamide 10%, Zinc 1%: love it. It shrinks my pores. I have sensitive, dry skin, but this worked for me.
• Buffet: This is their most popular product. I thought it was pretty moisturizing, but not mind-blowing. It was fine and it’s a good “starter” serum.
• 100% Cold-Pressed Virgin Marula Oil: love it. Super moisturizing. It’s already making my face softer this week.

WORDS

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
― Mary Oliver