Mini-Ep 461: Doree Takes a Stand
Elise wonders at the efficacy of programs like denim buybacks and Sephora’s empties trade-ins, and Doree has some strong opinions! They also hear from listeners about school self-care, JLo’s best songs, and advocating for the library as a (free!) co-working space.
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree Shafrir (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise Hu (00:17):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree Shafrir (00:21):
And this is a mini episode where we hear from you, we share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability. But please remember, we are not experts. We're podcast hosts and we always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and or mental health professional as needed.
Elise Hu (00:38):
I have a serum related question because I was at Sephora the other day and they are doing this empties collection where you can bring your empties to Sephora and get them upcycled or something. What do you usually do with your empties?
Doree Shafrir (00:56):
I put them in the recycling bin.
Elise Hu (00:57):
I guess the question is, is there any value to these programs? I remember Mac makeup used to do this where if you brought six empties back to the store or the counter, whatever, they would give you a free lipstick. Is there value to these programs? Are they getting upcycled in a way that's better or more sustainable for the environment? I have no idea. I just saw that Sephora was collecting them and I'm like, oh, do I want to just make a pile of these?
Doree Shafrir (01:25):
I think if they're actually reusing them, then yeah, that's great.
Elise Hu (01:29):
Yeah,
Doree Shafrir (01:30):
I've no idea. I've not heard of this program, so I can't speak to it, but I mean, I think reuse is the best, the most environmentally conscious thing to do because as we've learned, recycling is dubious at best, at best, at best in a lot of cases. So I think reuse, I mean, I've always thought as I throw out yet another little vitamin C little bottle with a dropper, I'm like, if I had a use for this, I would do it, but I'm not going to. I feel like I already am a borderline hoarder. I'm not going to start hoarding empty vitamin C bottles. So yeah, I mean you could ask.
Elise Hu (02:22):
I didn't look too closely at this program. I just noticed there was kind of a box and they were inviting people to drop things off, but maybe if we get free samples or minis, then it will incentivize me to do it. But you're right. In order for me to bring in a bunch of empties, then I have to pile them up first in my house.
Doree Shafrir (02:42):
And also, I mean, not to be that annoying person, but free samples and minis are the worst. It's more stuff when it comes to the stuff and it's small amounts, so it's even more waste. So they're sort of like,
Elise Hu (03:01):
Yeah, in order to get you to
Doree Shafrir (03:04):
Bring
Elise Hu (03:04):
Waste
Doree Shafrir (03:05):
To them, the best scenario I think is if they encourage you to bring in your empties that you could then refill the bulk section at Whole Foods. You just dispense some vitamin C serum or some moisturizer and go home with your refilled cosmetics. That to me would be the most environmentally conscious scenario.
Elise Hu (03:42):
Those little touch hand sanitizers. I could just keep my touch land hand sanitizer spray just one spray bottle of it or whatever and just refill it over and over. That would be the ideal scenario. Yes. Instead of buy new touch lands.
Doree Shafrir (03:58):
Exactly. And I know there is a store, I think it's in Highland Park in Los Angeles that does this for household goods. You can go there and refill for your dish washing detergent. I have not seen anyone do this for cosmetics, I assume, because they make more money just reselling the individuals. But to me, I mean, I admire the intent, but to me, coming in with your empty moisturizer jar and leaving with six samples doesn't really, it's undermining the point. It's not a net positive in my opinion.
Elise Hu (04:45):
And just to be fair, I don't know if that's how the program works. We're just musing here. I need to look at this more carefully,
Doree Shafrir (04:52):
And I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but that is what popped into my head because I know I have a little container of a gajillion samples of stuff like sample size things, things that I will probably never use. It feels very wasteful. I know it's wasteful. I don't know.
Elise Hu (05:18):
It's very good for travel size. Yeah, travel size things. I use a lot of my minis and my samples for travel because I'm like, oh, I haven't tried this before and it's small and compact and I try not to bring liquids. So that's what those are great for, but we have probably way more samples than trips that you would need.
Doree Shafrir (05:39):
I don't mean to sound like self-righteous because I'm not, and I'm not saying I do this perfectly either, but again, the best way to do that is to have little containers of your own and decant your bigger things. Little containers. Exactly. The sample ecosystem is terrible. Do I engage in it? Yes. I engage in all of this consumerist stuff. Do I feel guilty about it? Yeah, kind of.
Elise Hu (06:06):
I get it, I get it,
Doree Shafrir (06:08):
But I just don't want listeners to be like, wait, they're advocating for us to get a million samples because I mean, that is not really what I'm advocating for, and I do want to just make it clear that I am aware of the waste that all of this generates, but I am also not a perfect person. I do have a travel size. I have a travel size native deodorant that is approximately, I mean you can't, listeners, you can't see what I'm holding up, but it is this big. It's so tiny. I'm like, there must be a better way, but it's hard to decant deodorant.
Elise Hu (06:42):
Right. That one is tricky. That one is uniquely tricky, I think.
Doree Shafrir (06:50):
Anyway, I don't know. It's the same thing when I see Madewell doing jeans recycling. I'm like, where are the jeans going?
Elise Hu (06:59):
Where do the jeans go? That's actually a good question. I have all these jeans on hand right now that I was trying to sell to Crossroads yesterday, and they weren't trendy enough, so I couldn't get the resale shop to buy them, and now I'm like, what am I going to do with these jeans?
Doree Shafrir (07:16):
Oh, interesting. Okay. They weren't trendy enough, meaning were they all skinny jeans?
Elise Hu (07:22):
I don't know. They're jeans and I don't know what to do with them now. So last time I was at Crossroads, they said, Hey, we need more men's things. We need men's streetwear. We need just men's clothes and we're more likely to take men's clothes or buy men's clothes off of you because we have so much more women's stuff. And so I was like, great. Rob has a ton of jeans and he dresses well and so great. I'll bring them in. And they were like, these are very nice jeans. They're good and they're good quality, but they're not the fit that we want for the fall.
Doree Shafrir (07:57):
Interesting. But they didn't say what the fit is that they want for the fall.
Elise Hu (08:02):
Yeah, I have no idea. No, they didn't. But I should have asked more questions. I was just like, okay, whatever. And now I'm going to deal with my pile of jeans. Maybe I'll give them to Madewell, but where do they go?
Doree Shafrir (08:12):
Right. And here's the other thing, sorry, I'm in a mood today, but it's a little rich for Crossroads, which is a company that sells used clothing to be like, these jeans are not on trend. Are they just expecting people to buy trendy jeans and then bring them to Crossroads because that makes no sense. Of course, the jeans you're bringing in are not on trend. They're old. You're getting rid of them. That doesn't make any sense.
Elise Hu (08:37):
I love Salty Dory, I'm so salty. You're really speaking some truth. This is all logical. It feels unrealistic
Doree Shafrir (08:48):
For Crossroads to be like, we only accept the most on trend clothing. How would that be possible? I bought something last week and I decided I don't want it anymore. That's crazy. Pretty much. Pretty much. I mean, God,
Elise Hu (09:05):
Whatever happened to the idea of vintage.
Doree Shafrir (09:07):
Exactly. So I guess it either has to be super on-trend. Literally you bought it three weeks ago and suddenly you took the tags off and wore it and you decided you don't like it, then you bring it to Crossroads. Okay. Or it's so old that it has now come back around. Exactly. If you had any of your low rise jeans from 2004, they would probably take them.
Elise Hu (09:28):
Yep. Tell us what you all do with your empties and your old jeans. What do you do with them? Let us know. Call in, write in.
Doree Shafrir (09:42):
Yes, please.
Elise Hu (09:42):
As this is a mini app.
Doree Shafrir (09:44):
This is a mini app. Well, Elise, we're going to take a break Before we do that, just a reminder, you can call or text us at five nine one zero three nine zero. You can email us at Forever35podcast@gmail.com. Our website is Forever35podcast.com. We have links there to everything we mentioned on the show. We are on Instagram at Forever35 Podcast. You can sign up for our newsletter at Forever35podcast.com/newsletter. And our favorite products that may or may not become empties are at ShopMyUS/Forever35. One last thing about empties before we move on hopefully forever is I'll say I would rather have something emptied. I would rather be like, oh, I used all of this than to have 20 bottles of half used things scattered about. At least when you finish something you're like, oh, I used all of this.
Elise Hu (10:50):
Also, it's a much better value to get the larger size. So the per ounce cost or the per unit cost is always
Doree Shafrir (10:58):
Totally
Elise Hu (10:59):
Better if you just go ahead and buy more.
Doree Shafrir (11:02):
Yes. And there are some companies that sell refill things for their moisturizers, especially I've noticed Skin Fix sells a refill thing for their moisturizer, and I just got some stuff from Dr. Whitney B's line of products, and she also has a refill thing. I mean the refill, it's still not like the bulk section in Whole Foods. It's still what we want. Plastic that you're putting in plastic. I have started using bar soap again though. That is my one contribution to this avalanche of plastic in my life. Take a stand bar soap. I'm taking a stand and that stand is bar soap. Alright, we're going to take a break as promised and we'll be back. We have some stuff about school. We also have a question that I was going to read before the break. I'm going to read it after the break. It might also send me into another existential spiral, so you have that to look forward to.
Elise Hu (12:07):
Stay tuned everyone. Okay, we'll be right back.
Doree Shafrir (12:17):
We are back and we got this text that said, hi there. This might not be appropriate to ask. I love it. Text that
Elise Hu (12:27):
Starts Go for it. Yes. When you start with that, I'm like, do tell.
Doree Shafrir (12:31):
Yeah slash no worries if you aren't comfortable discussing it. Side note, this is for me now. You caught me on a day where I am comfortable discussing it because I am apparently on one today, so here we go. But Dory, I know there were a couple years there where you were mentioning your precarious financial situation with Matt being out of work, et cetera.
(12:52)
It seems as though things have changed and I'm curious if that is true and how did Matt get a job? Is the podcast providing a better living for you? I'm always curious how everyone makes ends meet. Thanks. No, I just sort of stopped talking about it because I thought it was really boring and depressing to just always be like, we have no money. I need a job help. So I was like, I'm just going to not talk about this for a while. But no, things have not gotten better. Matt still does not have a job. The podcast brings in some money, but not enough. And I wake up every morning with existential dread, so that's how things are going. Thanks for asking Dory. It
Elise Hu (13:36):
Really is. On one today
Doree Shafrir (13:42):
I was asked to audition for this podcast and I found out today that I didn't get it and I was like, what the fuck?
Elise Hu (13:52):
Audition. Tell me more. So you do a fake episode or a fake read or something?
Doree Shafrir (13:57):
Yeah, I had to do a read. They gave me a script and they paid me for the read. Oh,
Elise Hu (14:03):
That's good. That's good.
Doree Shafrir (14:04):
I appreciated. But yeah, they were like, sorry, and it's just rough out
Elise Hu (14:13):
There. That's demoralizing.
Doree Shafrir (14:15):
What am I doing? What am I capable of doing? I don't know. So I just didn't think it was that engaging to always be bemoaning my financial situation. So that's why it seems like things may have improved because I stopped talking about it. But no, things are very bad and I think we might have to leave LA and yeah, I don't really see a way out.
Elise Hu (14:56):
Did I tell you about that time I was sitting at dinner with two doctors and a lawyer. Everybody had advanced degrees, had done all the things that you're supposed to do except lived in LA and everybody was like, I'm so poor, I can't make ends meet. And it's like, you guys are really learned and educated and high achieving people and yet it's so expensive to live here. And to a person they were like, man, I'd be like a gazillionaire if I just lived in Utah or something. But then you have to live in another state and uproot your life and all of these things. So it's just,
Doree Shafrir (15:35):
Yeah, I don't really, it's not that I don't want to do that, it's that I don't know that things would necessarily be better. I think that's why we've held off on doing that. But yeah, I am sort of at a point where I'm like, I don't know. I don't have an answer and I'm kind of making light on it, but making light of it. But it's actually a very serious and scary situation that I am constantly worried about. So thanks for asking. Moving on. This is from Molly in West Virginia who says, hi Alise. Can I pitch a great coworking space? It's your local library. Membership is free. Lots of different space options depending on the size of your library, although I dunno of any with infrared saunas. That's fair. I'm on the board of our small rural library and it's become a space for many folks to work. We offer wifi friendly librarians and comfortable tables and chairs. We need our community members using and supporting libraries. Amen.
Elise Hu (16:49):
That's such an important reminder. Such an important reminder. Rob works at the library, he writes and takes calls and things at the library both in Scottsdale when he's there with the boys and here in la and he's one of those guys who gets really, really excited when the hold ends early on. Libby, he's like a big library guy and I support it. I support the LA public library with a monthly donation, but I don't work from there, so maybe I should try. I have this idea of the library as being a place where I can't talk ever and I'm so social that I've been looking for coworking spaces where I run into people and just waste time shooting the shit at the cafe. And that's why I don't work at the library as much, but Robs to have time to get into the flow when he's writing and so library works him.
Doree Shafrir (17:51):
You might enjoy the West Hollywood library.
Elise Hu (17:56):
Oh really? I've
Doree Shafrir (17:57):
Never been. No idea. It's a little far for you, but they have a
Elise Hu (18:04):
Park
Doree Shafrir (18:06):
Right there that you can go outside and hang out and there's little, they have tables and umbrellas and you can hang out there and I think they also have a cafe in the library.
Elise Hu (18:21):
Fancy.
Doree Shafrir (18:22):
And the library itself is really nice. I love, love that library. It's a beautiful, great library.
Elise Hu (18:30):
Awesome.
Doree Shafrir (18:31):
Okay, good
Elise Hu (18:31):
Tip.
Doree Shafrir (18:32):
If you're in the Los Angeles area, check it out. Alright. You know what, we did not get to everything I wanted to talk about in this segment because I was ranting again. So we are going to take another break and we will be right back. Alright, we're back. Elise, do you want to read this response from a listener about school?
Elise Hu (19:02):
Yeah. This led to our question about school self-care or one of our listeners questions about school self-care in a recent episode led to a couple of responses from y'all. So the first one is, hi Dorian Elise for the Listener asking for self-care tips about working in a school setting. Here are my tips and what brought me some comfort when I worked in school. One is an electric kettle and teabag station. Climate control is all over the place in school buildings and sometimes it is freezing. A hot mug of tea was a nice little happy. I had the tea bags out of their boxes in a small container, so I had lots of options to pick from and restock the basket as needed. On the same station, I had a few small metal spray bottles that I filled with essential oils dilute a certain number of drops of essential oils with water. The other tips are extra sweater and deodorant in the desk drawer and string lights. The fluorescent lighting in schools is harsh. Good luck. These are so homey and cozy. I like it.
Doree Shafrir (20:04):
Good
Elise Hu (20:05):
Point about it being freezing too.
Doree Shafrir (20:07):
I love string lights. What a cute idea. Okay, we also got a voicemail about school self-care that I will play.
Listener Voicemail (20:16):
Hi. This message is for the individual who called in about switching from clinical speech therapy to the educational setting. I'm pursuing going back to school for OT or speech, but I'm currently a paraeducator in an inclusive elementary school and I work real close with the service provider. And it's true. Healthcare is so important in the educational setting because we care about these kids families a lot, but we're human and we have to take care of ourselves. I personally definitely take my lunch and I try to go in a quiet fight or go outside. I know the speech therapist that I work with does the same and also ask for help, talk to the paraeducators. They have a wealth of information about the students they're working with. So that's some anecdotal data right there that could help you get started. And I've heard that caseload can be big. So I know that working with the I team can help you get creative and providing services maybe in small groups or working with a paraeducator to train them on certain things. Obviously I'm a para so I don't know what all the legal rules are, but those are just some things that I see for my role there.
(22:15)
And creating systems educators are all about creating efficient system. So that's what I would do. That's like you can't do it all, but you can have a system in place to help you do as much as you can. Good luck and I think you'll really like it. It's really great to be working with the kids in school setting. Yeah. Good luck. Bye.
Elise Hu (22:46):
Good tips. Good tips. It's wild to think. We're already in the fifth week of school here in la.
Doree Shafrir (22:53):
I know. We're well into the school year.
Elise Hu (22:56):
Yeah, yeah. They had a progress report already from Ava's Middle school. It's crazy. That's crazy. Here we're time flies. Time really flies by for me around Labor Day because I just watched the US open every single day and then I don't pay attention to anything else. And suddenly three weeks have gone by and my hermit crab is dead. Oh by the way, I got a hermit crab for ce. This is my life update. I got Cece, my one hermit crab that we got for Luna's birthday that one of her friends gifted her without consulting me first.
Doree Shafrir (23:31):
Love when that
Elise Hu (23:31):
Happens. Yes. Cc, the hermit crab. I've been keeping alive and managing the crab habitat for finally I decided or Rob got really sad, his sensitive soul and he got really sad that Cece was alone and was like, I really think Cece needs a friend and that poor crab, it probably doesn't want to be in captivity in the first place and it's alone all day. And so then I got another crab. I got pepper who was really cute in a little skull shell. The shell was a skull which was painted as a skull and it was really cute and I was like, oh, pepper rocks. And then pepper passed like four days after he came home.
Doree Shafrir (24:06):
Oh no pepper.
Elise Hu (24:07):
We didn't even get to know Pepper. Yeah. I don't know if Pepper took a fall or something. I saw his claw outside his body and I freaked out and
Doree Shafrir (24:15):
Oh no.
Elise Hu (24:15):
Yeah, didn't make it. Yeah, I know. So, but Cece's doing great, so maybe I shouldn't be introducing new crabs to the habitat. I don't know what made me think of that. Sorry. Oh man. Sorry, I just went on a little tangent myself. Yeah, no, just the time is flying by. Suddenly we're at September. What is happening I feel like goes by so fast. It's all going by so fast. Right, right. Longest, shortest time as they say. They do say
Doree Shafrir (24:49):
That. Alright, so we did get some laser hair removal content that we are going to move to next week. But before we go, we did get a really important question that I feel we must address.
Elise Hu (25:15):
Okay.
Doree Shafrir (25:16):
Which is, I think the better question, and this is referring to what is the best J-Lo movie. As you recall, we had this conversation. I think the better question is what's the best J-Lo song? Obviously waiting for tonight.
Elise Hu (25:32):
Waiting for tonight is a good one. And then it has that video where she's just staring straight ahead in the camera and then there was the lights in the background and La la. I like waiting for tonight, but it's not my favorite. What's yours?
Doree Shafrir (25:47):
I do on the floor.
Elise Hu (25:49):
On the floor. I'm trying to remember this one on, it's on the floor from on the sixth. Her first album?
Doree Shafrir (25:58):
No, it's from 2011.
Elise Hu (26:01):
I mean Jenny from the Okay, so it's more recent. A classic. Yes. Iconic. Right. Iconic. That video too with Ben Affleck in it. I like more obscure one. Yeah, I was going to say I like, let's get loud. That's my favorite one. It makes me very happy. It reminds me of the Ricky Martin era.
Doree Shafrir (26:17):
Yeah. Big Ricky Martin Vibes.
Elise Hu (26:19):
Totally. Totally. In my high school modeling days, I remember I walked to that song for a charity runway show with dogs. Everybody had every model who had to walk, had a dog with them. And I remember it ended, the music at the end of the show was like, let's get loud. Some of your memories are so tied smells and songs. And so that's what makes me think of it. And it was really fun. Otherwise, I didn't really enjoy having to wear clothes and walk in front of people. That wasn't really my thing. I didn't like the runway stuff. I occasionally had to do it modeling or anything. Didn't modeling. Yeah, it's the modeling part of modeling. No, I only like the pictures part that I could do where you're kind of alone with a photographer. But yeah, the modeling clothes part was very uncomfortable for me. Yeah, I can imagine that. Actually. Imagine that. Very stressful. I had fun because there were dogs. But yes, waiting for tonight a good one. Not my favorite, but everybody has their own favorite.
Doree Shafrir (27:22):
Bru has their own favorite. It's true.
Elise Hu (27:24):
I'm not going to malign anyone else's.
Doree Shafrir (27:26):
Alright, everyone, thank you so much for listening and for sending in your questions. We appreciate you and we will talk to you soon. Take care.
Elise Hu (27:36):
Talk to you next time.
Doree Shafrir (27:37):
Bye. Bye.