FRIDAYS ARE PINTERESTING!

The best of my boards this week.

Like I said in my previous Pinterest post, sometimes a girl just wants to show the world her imaginary Internet life, aka, what she pinned that week! Today, I am that girl. Here's what I got for ya:

UPDATED REVIEW: AUGUST 2013 BIRCHBOX

In which I tell you exactly how well this stuff actually works...

So it's been about a week since I received my first ever Birchbox. In my previous post about the magical, montly makeup box of goodies I hadn't yet gotten the chance to use any of my new stuff (my bad for jumping the gun there), but now I've tested it all and I'm ready to tell you all about it!

Remember ^this^ bad boy?

Let's go in order shall we?

HELLO, BIRCHBOX!: AUGUST 2013

New makeup every month in the mail - am I an adult or what?

So I jumped onto the bandwagon; I joined Birchbox.

For those of you out there who aren't familiar with Birchbox, you can Google it... just kidding, I know you won't do that - it's a monthly subscription service. $10 a month gets you a box in the mail filled with high-end makeup samples. It's fun, because you get to try new stuff that you normally wouldn't buy in full size. It's exciting, because you never know what you're going to get until you open your box. It's awesome, because it tailors your samples to your Birchbox profile, so each box is fairly unique and specific to you. 

I know this sounds silly coming from someone who just wrote a rant about Shoemint and their sneaky, deceptive, subscription ways, but Birchbox makes it extremely clear that they are a subscription service, and - to be honest - 10 bucks is a whole hell of a lot easier to let go of every month than 80.

But I digress...

I signed up for Birchbox a few weeks ago, and finally got my box in the mail! I haven't tried any of the products just yet, but I wanted to share with the Interwebz what came in my pretty little box this month.

SAY NO TO SHOEMINT

Seriously, it's not worth it.

Forgive me, Internet, for I have sinned. Several months ago I began a Shoemint saga. I think that during my journey, I may have lead others to be deceived, and I want to right my wrongs, right now, right here. Let me tell you my story...

In May, while looking for a nice pair of heels for a friend's wedding, I came across this pair of shoes on Pinterest:

After searching around a little for this pretty pair of scarlet, suede sandals with big chunky, dark, wooden heels (swoon), I discovered they were from Shoemint.

Shoemint? Where had I heard that before? Oh yes! It was the shoe subscription site endorsed by Rachel Bilson that premiered in 2011. I had visited the site in the past. Subscribing for monthly charges to my bank account is really not my thing, but when I visited Shoemint back in April to check out these shoes (the Hellins in suede), I no longer saw anything about a subscription (or even Rachel Bilson, for that matter). 

"They've changed their ways!", I ignorantly thought. No longer were shoe prices listed in "credits", no longer was the word "subscription" printed anywhere on the site, and no longer did I have to fill out a style "profile" to determine which shoes I would like best every month.

Seemingly dealing with a normal shoe company, I went forward with my purchase of the Hellins. The checkout process was just the same as with any other website. I credit myself with being fairly familiar with the ways of the Interwebz, and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary - I assumed that I would make my purchase, acquire my shoes, and be done with Shoemint.

Turns out, this was not to be the case.

After receiving my shoes, I was in love, I was in love, and I didn't care who knew it. They were well worth the $90 I paid for them. The suede was nice, the wooden heels were sturdy, and I got so many compliments. I Insaglammed my Hellins, I talked about them, I recommended Shoemint - I even argued against someone's comment that Shoemint was a bad company. I was so blissfully ignorant.

Fast forward 3 months to today.

I log onto Shoemint to see what new stuff they have and notice a little box in the upper righthand corner...

Credits: 3?

After doing some digging, I learned that apparently Shoemint had been charging my credit card account (or rather, my mother's) for $80 each month for the past three months unbeknownst to anyone. When I scoured Shoemint's website, I discovered that they are still in fact a subscription service, and that the user must manually log in each month between the 1st and the 6th and choose to skip their monthly billing, otherwise they will automatically be billed $80. Also, there's basically no way to cancel your account.

What a shitty business practice.

Shoemint seemed to have it all. Great product. Moderate pricing. Even great customer service! I called about a sizing issue once and the girl I spoke with was fantastic - probably because, for once, she wasn't dealing with someone's complaints that they were duped into a subscription service.

I don't understand why such a quality company would engage in such a misleading way of gaining business, especially a company with great customer service and products. Sure, I would expect this type of deceptive non-theft from a shoddy, sketchy Internet business, but Shoemint has received great reviews and seemed so legit. With their solid product and (unworthy) renown, I would expect that they would receive great business if they nixed the whole subscription service and simply sold shoes by the pair.

But I guess they're just in the business to swindle customers and cheat money out of them via fine print.

Should Shoemint continue to conceal the most important billing information in the finest of fine print, I sincerely hope they go out of business sooner rather than later. In the free market, customer satisfaction is what keeps businesses alive, and Shoemint has set themselves up to fail from the get go.

MUZIC MONDAYZ: LIGHTNING 100 EDITION

In case you really don't know me at all, I love Lightning 100.

Lightning 100, for those of you poor, unfortunate souls out there who don't know, is the greatest radio station of all time. They love great music, they put on awesome concerts, they have the best DJs (this tweet from Wells Adams made my whole year), and mostly, they love the city I love: Nashville.

I could go on for days about my undying love for Nashville's Independent Radio ("independently owned, independently operated!"), but I digress...

These three songs have been bustin' up my Spotify* at work, and owe every ounce of their discovery to Lightning 100.

Supersoaker by Kings of Leon

Head On by Man Man

And the song that always makes me feel good, I'm Getting Ready by Michael Kiwanuka

*Sorry I use Spotify at work Wells, Lt. Dan, Hammel, Heather LeRoy, etc. Please forgive me for my sin.

BrBa: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Season 5, Part 2 is Coming

Everyone and their mom should know that Breaking Bad is back tomorrow. The last several episodes are upon us, everyone. If you're as much of a BrBa fan as me, you've spent a few too many hours trying to figure out how it's all fixing to go down. I've got my predictions (and personally, I think they're pretty sound) below the jump. But,

BE WARNED

If you haven't ever watched Breaking Bad or aren't *entirely* caught up, step away from the computer now - there are a lot of spoilers ahead.

Fellow Breaking Bad connoisseurs, read on...

BRB, READING 'TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE'

I feel like such a middle schooler for even admitting this on the Internet, but I'm totally reading 'Tuesdays with Morrie' by Mitch Albom right now.

This is not to rag on Mitch at all (you do you, buddy!). I'm actually really enjoying this book better the second time around. I remember reading it as a kid and thinking that it had such depth and meaning to it; of course, it's only just now that I'm older that I'm really understanding it. As a 13-year old, it's hard to find depth in a book about a dying man when you yourself feel like you'll never die.

One of my favorite parts in the book has definitely been the chapter on aging and why not to fear it. I'm only 22, so I'm not quite there yet, but I often hear women who are older than me lamenting their age and the fact that they're "sooooo olllld" now. This bothers me for a few reasons: