Justified

Sadly, every time I type the word “justified,” I’m reminded at best of Justin Timberlake, and at worst of that KLF song, “Justified and Ancient.”  But hey!  Didn’t Tammy Wynett sing back up?

Tip Of The Day:  Today, my bad magazine habit was fully justified with not one, but TWO articles about cheap fabulocity.  What makes it even better is that the magazine containing said articles is one known for trumpeting over-priced wares.  Take that, Madison Avenue!

Tip For Tomorrow:  The reader tip to end all reader tips – the inside scoop on how to REALLY save big on groceries.  You all owe my BFF HaC big time for tomorrow’s post.  In fact, you can send her gifts if you’d like, in care of the Cheap But Not Easy Empire.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal:   Long have I loved the magazine Allure, even when they changed their format back in the late 80’s from the super-sized, Rolling Stone tabloid shape (which, apparently, is also going away) to the normal 8 ½” by 11” size of most fashion mags.  I even bought the Allure book, although recently I sold it at Half Priced Books for a tidy sum.  What can I say?  I have limited real estate on my floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

However, even though I love Allure, I’ve never gotten around ordering a subscription to it.  Probably because they’ve never sent me an offer like Glamour or Lucky – which included a free purse and a 80% discount each.  So I continue to occasionally buy it at the news-stand price, even though I have a hard time coming up with three reasons why.

But not this month!  This month’s edition, the one with Eva Longoria Parker (no, she’s not pregnant, just a hearty snacker, like me), has LOADS of reasons why to buy it.  The first, and most significant, is this announcement:

This fall, Target will start carrying the elusive hairspray, Elnet.  That’s right, the one all the major hairstylists love (Garren, Oribe, etc.), the one in the gold can, the one that costs less than $20 (American), the one previously not available in the United States because of the VOCs used in its formula.  Apparently, some clever and AWESOME chemist discovered a greener and more eco-nice version of the VOC to use, which passed US guidelines.  Hooray!

Some of you may be scratching your head at this news.  I can hear you now, “Why is this a big deal?  It’s just hairspray.  I haven’t used hairspray since the 80’s.”  Neither have I, but one of the reasons why I’ve been spray-free since the big-hair era is because I’ve never had access to Elnet before.

Elnet, apparently, is the Ur-spray, the spray all other sprays MUST be judged against.  It’s supposed to hold a style forever, never build up no matter how much you use, never get gunky, never cause white dandruff-y flakes, and best of all – allow a brush to glide through it, without damaging the style.  And the scent used in it has the same top note as Prada’s Eau De Toilette Spray for Men.  Hello, it’s like PRADA FOR YOUR HAIR.

Previously, the big problem with Elnet was that you could only find it in Europe.  And I haven’t been to Europe since my senior year in high school, when I went to Germany on a school trip.  Sadly, I hadn’t heard of Elnet then, or I would have bought up every bottle in Munich.

But now, thanks to the greatest chemist in the world, we’ll all be able to buy Elnet along with our toilet paper and furnace filters from Target, presumably still for under $20.  God Bless America.

The other cool article in Allure talked about beauty buys for under $10.  They didn’t discuss anything particularly revolutionary – although they did mention Maybelline’s Mineral Wear foundation, which got excellent reviews from my buddy Bionic Beauty.  And they gave a shout out to my Gramma Mac’s old stand-by, Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder, the best loose powder EVER.

What made me so happy about the piece was its existence, period.  A year ago, Allure wrote articles like the one about $300+ products that contained gold powder as an ingredient.  As the average American’s net worth was starting to decline, the article felt a bit insulting.  Personally, I can’t afford gold for my jewelry, let alone slap it on my face once a day.

I hope this trend of frugal beauty and fashion will continue in Allure and sweep into other magazines.  You can help the cause by picking up this month’s edition – preferably at Target, where you’ll automatically get 20% off the cover price.  Power to the (frugal) people!