Today has been A Day. I'm working on two groups at work, splitting my time right down the middle like an obsessive-compulsive amoeba, supporting a variety of subteams and subprojects for both groups. Some are high-activity, some only have infrequent requests, and some are just Problem Children. Today, Problem Children stakeholders from each side of my personal-responsibility fence decided to go shatbit insane on the same day. Both in the morning (though one carried through the day.) And this delightsome state of being is going to persist, at least on one half, for another three weeks. Thank the gods greater and lesser for understanding team mates, with whom I can share a quick five-minute commiseratory phone call at the insanity of it all (and the particular insanity of the Problem Children.) None of these Problem Children are idiots, they're all reasonably competent adults - but one group has the very bad habit of communicating poorly and late, then sending multiple messages as if that will get us to move faster; and the other group is trying to learn how to smell by looking at colors (and what they really want to do is direct…so they're bringing in a director to try working with these colors once they are live, in an attempt to smell prettier.) And I'm in the middle of all these shenanigans. Yay.

On top of all of this, my editorial calendar has a few posts backed up, AND I'm recoding all the images on my site to make it harder to steal them…though if someone's using the right Firefox plugin, they'll be able to rip everything no matter what I do. Then they just have to sort through everything. So mnah. But I can at least make it harder for them, by either forcing them to dig through all the ripped files from my site to cherrypick the ones they want to steal and re-use elsewhere, or putting other roadblocks in their path. All without bothering the legitimate site visitor a whit, not even a tiny little bit. It's possible, and without scripting…but it does mean rewriting everything. Busy, busy, busy me.

I'm taking a very quick break from editing-editing-editing my wee brains out…to sing the praises of Urban Decay's UDPP in a tube.

I've tried UDPP before, when I got a fullsize tube of it as part of the Hall of Fame collection. My impression was…oh, how can I put this delicately? I was deeply tragically underwhelmed. I didn't love the bottle - even with the bent applicator, you'd still have to do a bit of work to get at all of the product. I didn't love the applicator itself - I don't love applicators that go right back into the product, and I didn't feel like the applicator gave me enough control. I didn't like the product - it held on to the colors too tightly, and I couldn't blend unless I applied the colors with a very liberal hand - giving me a final look that was a bit too dark for my tastes.

Figuring that the different applicator style was part of the problem, I kept using it daily for 10 days - to give myself time to learn and become accustomed to it. It didn't work. After 10 days, the stuff was still grabbing my pigments too hard. I could smear the stuff on my fingertip, then apply it to my lids - but this seemed a bit annoying, especially since said applicator would then go plunking right back into the product.

I bought the professional-size tube of UDPP about a month ago, and I've used it four times since then. (It's been A Month. Not a whole lot of makeup application. I'm looking forward to December because that's typically a dead-slow month at work, and so possibly I'll be able to catch my breath.) At any rate, the first time I used it, the tube seemed…a bit difficult to work with. I had to really apply pressure to get any product to come out. I'll admit I was being a bit careful - I'd seen some photos of others whose tubes had split open at the bottom, and I was hoping to avoid this. I finally got enough product out, though, and applied it with my fingertip. Much more control. Much, MUCH more control. (Plus…I'm weird, but while I love doefoot applicators for my lip polish, I really dislike that fuzziness on my eyelids.) I was able to apply the product evenly, and when I applied my eyeshadow, it held - but it wasn't absolutely locked into place. I was able to blend my colors a bit. The colors stayed in place, and did not crease, for seven hours - which was as long as I wore makeup that day. Seven hours and no creasing. No fading. Not even a tiny little bit of color migration, or the beginnings of a proto-crease.

UDPP in the tube works for me. I'm very satisfied, and will likely buy another professional tube in a month or two…if they're still available. Not because I need one right away, you understand; but having that much of the product in the tube as backup is a good thing. UDPP may not work for everyone; and there will probably be folks who prefer the bottle to the tube.

Now hopefully Urban Decay will release UDPP Sin in a tube, as well. That would be excellent for those days when I want just a touch of color, but don't want to use a cream shadow base atop my primer.

I'll do a full writeup and breakdown of UDPP in the tube later. I just thought I'd take a few minutes to a) post something here; and b) say something positive.

(Coffee break's over, I've got to go back to standing on my head.)

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