Color Analysis (plus a little drama)

I’ve really been wanting to get a color analysis done, but locally, it’s around $200-300, and I can’t swing that right now. There are a few online services that will do it, and then there are apps and AI and all of that.

Basically, I’m curious… what color jewelry suits me best, what lip color, what shades of pink or green or blue and so on? And color analysis is a way to look at your skin tone, undertone, eye color, hair color, and maybe lip color to determine which shades make you look more bright and alive and which shades wash you out. (Ultimately, wear what makes you happy, BUT if I’m out looking at pink shirts anyway, it’d be handy to know which SHADE of pink would look best, you know?)

Google suggested Stylix (I’m intentionally NOT linking it). It’s an app where you upload a photo of yourself and you get a color analysis back. I’m allegedly a soft summer 🤷‍♀️ This was $1 for a 1-week trial period, and after that, you’d get charged about $5 per week, I believe. I do trials all the time, and I set a reminder in my phone to cancel them before being charged. That’s what I did here.

Well, I was surprised when, 2 days later, I got an email thanking me for my monthly $39.99 payment to Stylix Premium. I thought to myself, “Wow I didn’t remember it being so much” and also “Wow I must have forgotten to set a reminder this time.” I immediately responded to the email asking to cancel my Premium subscription and also requesting a refund.

I got a prompt response: You agreed to the terms and conditions, no refund, but we’ll cancel your subscription moving forward.

Dang. I accepted my fate and figured, since I’m paying for it, I may as well see what I can do in the app to get my money’s worth…

… except when I went into the app, it showed that I had no active Premium subscription. I clicked “restore purchases” and nothing came up. So again, I contacted customer service. And the response? You agreed to the terms and conditions, no refund, but we’ll cancel your subscription moving forward. I’m paraphrasing, but they sent me the same response as before. Huh??

So I responded again. SAME RESPONSE. Then I was getting frustrated and said, “I’d like to speak to a real person. These must be automated responses.” And again, SAME RESPONSE.

I did a little digging. And despite having a 4.3⭐️ rating on the App Store, I could see that all of the 5⭐️ reviews were FAKE. When I kept scrolling, I found the 1⭐️ reviews saying, “This is a scam. They’ll fraudulently charge you and not give you a refund. Don’t download!”

Omg.

On their social media pages, all the comments say the same. I felt some level of vindication. But I still didn’t get my refund.

Finally, I wrote one more email saying that I will not rest until I get my money back. I will also dispute the charge with my bank. And wouldn’t ya know it - quickly, I received a response saying “Sorry about that, your refund is now being processed!”

And the kicker, after all that, I got an automated email from them asking me to rate their customer service.😅 

So Many Movies

I’m not sure why, but I watched a bunch of movies this week.

1. Fear Street Prom Queen (Netflix) - There’s a series of these Fear Street movies, and we’ve seen them all. They’re based on the Fear Street books by R L Stine! Did you read those? This was pretty good, and as usual, I didn’t figure out who the bad guy was until the end.

2. Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster (Netflix) - Honestly this one is so irritating. Whenever safety stuff is overlooked and people just carry on anyway, it gets me heated. That was a theme this week: see numbers 3 and 4 on this list…

3. Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy (Netflix) - AWFUL tragedy, decent doc. I’m not a big fan of crowds in the first place. Live music? Fine, great, fun. But a big crowd where I’m constantly being touched by strangers? Not for me (not 40-year-old me, anyway!). This is just so sad all around.

4. Trainwreck: Poop Cruise (Netflix) - Okay, I’ve never been on a cruise. I’ve got no desire to do so. This didn’t make me any more or less likely to go on one, though. It’s disgusting and was probably very scary for the people on the ship!! (You are welcome to try to persuade me that cruises are amazing. Maybe I will change my mind!)

5. Paranormal Activity (purchased through Apple TV) - Cam and I saw this movie in theaters when it first came out, BEFORE we knew it was fiction. And it was one of the scariest experiences of my life. It’s still scary, even though I’ve seen it a bunch of times! Did you know there are 8 of these?? Yea, when I went to purchase, it invited me to buy the 8-movie package. I remember seeing 2-3 of them but definitely not 8!

Books I’m Reading!

I’ve mentioned before that I’m in a book club but am behind. So currently I’m reading The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs Kip. So far (120 pages in) it’s cheesy but sweet. The book club ladies enjoyed it, though, so I wanted to check it out!

You will know this about me if you’ve been an IG follower a long time, but Cam and I are what you’d call gentle parents, peaceful parents, whatever you wanna call it. People like to make fun of gentle parenting on TikTok because they’re getting it confused with permissive parenting - they are not the same! We have rules, we have consequences, we have limits. We’re the parents, we’re in charge. It’s just the way we go about setting the rules and delivering the consequences that is gentle. I’m happy to talk more about that if anybody wants to!

Anyway, one of my favorite parenting books is Peaceful Parent Happy Kids. Mine is very well-worn and scribbled in because I go back to it a lot! Another fav is Peaceful Parent Happy Siblings - since having baby Bea, I’ve noticed some tension coming up between the kids, and I felt I needed a refresher! So I’m rereading the siblings book, and already there’s so many good reminders. Here is one of many things that I highlighted:

• Regulating our own emotions is the toughest part of parenting, and it's usually a work in progress. Any one of us will go over the edge if we're pushed too far. But that's why it's your responsibility as the parent to stay away from the edge.

She gets into details and suggestions more in the book, of course! How to regulate our emotions, how to emotion coach our kids so that THEY can regulate their own emotions, and so on.

I’ve also started rereading The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis!

Some Treats!

I save treats to try alllll the time, and I only ever get around to making 20-30% of them. Here are a few I want to try, and I’ve only tried a few so far (I’ll put an asterisk by them!). That means I can’t guarantee some of these are any good😬 They just LOOK good.

• Lemon Blondies (IG)

• Caramel Sauce* (IG)

• S’mores Bars (IG)

• Swiss Meringue Buttercream (TikTok) - I’ll probably use this for Bea’s cake!)

• Pie Crust (TikTok) - I make my own pie crust all the time, but this is a different recipe, and it’s what this restaurant is known for. She decided to share the recipe because people always ask for it!

• Potato Chip + Cookie (TikTok)

• Date + Dark Chocolate Treat* (TikTok)

A Few More Things!

This is accidentally longer than I intended. But my goal with these emails is to jot down ideas throughout the week, dump them all in the newsletter, and restart the next week. So some weeks will be longer than others! 😄 

I’ve been trying some new things regarding health and wellness, and I wanted to share!

• Put clothes on your carbs. A creator on IG called Glucose Goddess talks about this a lot - essentially, make sure you’re adding protein and/or fiber to your carbs to help with blood sugar spikes. I noticed I was sometimes getting a headache or tummy ache (and sometimes just really irritable) if I had a treat or iced latte on an empty stomach. So either adding protein/fiber to the treat itself or having it right beforehand can help with those things. I’ve been doing it this week and have definitely noticed a difference!

• ACV, lemon juice, tart cherry juice. I’m adding a splash of ACV, lemon, and sometimes tart cherry juice to my water and sparkling water. They’re supposed to help with… stuff. I can’t remember, but I’m trying that right now!

• Cold showers. I can’t handle it. I do it for 10 seconds after my regular shower, but it’s supposed to help reset your mitochondria?? “Exercise and cold exposure promoted increased expression of mitochondrial biogenesis-related genes in soleus muscle.” It’s good for you. I just can’t do it for very long YET.

• Meditation and prayer. I’m stressed a lot these days. And it’s one of the worst things for your health. Sooo I’m working on lowering my stress through meditation (there’s an app called Pause) as well as praying more.

That’s it for this week!

Hope you’re doing alright today, and I’ll see ya next week. If you need anything let me know! And if you have ANY feedback, just reply to this email. 🙂 

❤️ Bethany

PS I made a wrap for lunch today that was delicious! I charred my tortilla, spread some mayo on it, adding fresh avocado and a tomato (from my MIL’s garden), butter lettuce, and then fried chicken (I pan fried a thinned out piece of chicken). Delish!