Start Here: Rani on 'why' Retail Therapy

🛍️Gray hair and acne. Jeans that never fit. When life stops making sense, we shop! Retail Therapy is a quirky take on how we spend our time and money.

☔ I’m Rani, pronounced like the weather. You know: “Wow, it sure is a rainy day out there!”

I’m a huge music person and go to a ton of shows. It’s a habit I started at a young age and continue to this day, traveling for bands and some weeks hitting concerts a few nights in a row. It makes me feel alive, even if I’m way tired the next day at work from being out late.

My Ideal Look

Jeans, a great-fitting cropped Chanel-esque blazer, and a concert t-shirt. But a legit tee — from shows I attended and bands I love — not some silly reprint from Target, before we stopped shopping there, of course.

Like This, With Edits

Veronica Beard Miller Dickey Jacket

First: my legs are not long or thin; they’re short and stumpy and I often have trouble with an inseam being too long. I recently bought this Veronica Beard blazer for $695. One week later the price jumped to $795. So that sorta felt like a win. Typically I’d never pay full price for an item like this, but I had a Nieman Marcus gift card after selling a Gucci purse via Fashionphile. It was all sorta a mess because I couldn’t use the gift card to buy a Louis Vuitton purse, which was my intention.

Instead I got this blazer, which I’ll wear with a fun top or concert tee — never plain white, that’s boring. I also can’t imagine I’d wear brown shoes and I also hate pointy footwear because its feels like hell on my feet.

I’ll spend money on some clothing items, purses, watches and jewelry. I happily mix with less-expensive brands and am thrilled the Gap re-released the Low Rise Long & Lean jeans.

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Why Retail Therapy

Nothing is simple, straightforward or sensical. Retail Therapy is my quirky, sideways look at the shopping I do when my angst takes over. When things feel out of my control; when I don’t feel like I’m enough; and the world is busy yelling at me that I’m too much. Or when I'm over-thinking something — yet again!

Like when I started getting gray hair, something a co-worker pointed out. A guy, no less. So I had to figure out the whole coloring my hair thing when I hadn’t even gotten my acne under control. Now, I battle both.

Distractions turn to obsessions and take over — from the importance of the First Amendment to why fashion hates middle-age women. But I don’t stop there. As a former business reporter, I have to follow the dollars — and make some sense. Sense. Cents. You get it.

I Believe

• Coats should be fashion statements, only

• There is no such thing as “too much” tie-dye

• If you haven’t touched it & tried it on, don’t ever buy anything ‘final sale.’ Ever.

Oh, and I haven’t decided what I want to be when I grow up, so I stopped aging.

What I’m Lusting for Right Now

• The perfect comfortable neutral colored khaki pant that I could easily wear while working without cutting off the circulation at my waist. A big baggy, but it can’t me look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Woman. I’m eying the Parachute Poplin Pull-On Pant from Buck Mason but luckily they’re out of stock. The $148 price seems a bit high.

• The Laura Brown x Nomasei : ROMA - Sandals in Camoscio Khaki are pretty fabulous, but I’m not spending $570. Rarely do I spend that kind of money on shoes, although I’ve some splurges, mostly boots. I also need to try on a shoe: comfort over fashion and I need to be able to walk in them. Ordering lots of pairs to get delivered to the house is just an unwieldy mess. I’d rather go somewhere and try them on.

• Black fitted leather blazer with fabulous silver buttons. I saw two 2 different women wearing this recently, one in Dallas and the other in Chicago. I was dumb and didn’t stop either to ask the brand.

• More cashmere sweaters — ideally on sale. They have to be worth the money — too many are scratchy, not soft or both. What’s the point? There is a Jenni Kayne I saw that felt incredible, but I’d never spend that on a sweater that I’ll snag on something the first time I wear it. I want a navy v-neck and a short sleeve sweater in a fun color. I’m also liking the idea of lightweight ones in the warmer months because places are always over air conditioned.

What You Won’t Find

This isn’t the site for lists of items you have to go out and buy right this minute.

On Retail Therapy, I talk a ton about spending money and what I buy -- and return. But it’s often in a bigger more esoteric sense. A gap I’m trying to fill, within myself. It’s often me experimenting, trying to figure out how I can feel comfortable in my own skin. To stop second guessing…everything.

Rarely, if ever, do I find the “perfect thing.” But if I do, you’ll be the first to hear about it. But it’s because I want the whole world to know — not because I want you to buy something so I make some pennies. i.e. nothing is an affiliate link.

So far I’ve shared 2 very specific product recommendations:

1. World’s Softest Socks

2. Topo Chico

Knocked My Socks On

They Took Away the One Thing Getting Me Through the Week

But more often, I’ll share what’s horrible. What you shouldn’t waste your time and money on; what you should avoid and why. Like why so many headphones devices are horrible for working out if you sweat. And is that’s a normal thing?

$749 on 3 Gym Headphones

Products I Use

But in the spirit of shopping, here are some of the makeup products I currently enjoy.

Merit Beauty

These are my most recent purchases after realizing I don’t know how to put on makeup anymore. I’ve been very happy with everything I’ve purchased.

• Perfecting Complexion Stick: love this thing. Covers up all the things and you can blend it out with a brush or your finger.

• Flush Balm: using this on my cheeks and eyelids and I’m thrilled. Fast and easy.

• Day Glow Hydrating Balm: basically a shimmer stick, which I needed to be told how to put on and where it goes.

• Lip Blush: this was the first thing that got me curious about the brand. These are fun but can go a bit awry. I have it in 2 colors, and one I look like the scary aunt from the the 2025 horror-film Weapons, according to my partner.

Glossier

• No. 1 Pencil for eyes: you can get a good line but it does smuge some from my lower eye, which I hate.

• Lip Liner: it really is non-drying, which should be a requirement.

• Sharpener: it $9 and perfect. I use it on everything and own two. One for home and one for travel.

Ilia

• Mascara: you can remove it without pulling out too many lashes

• Fade Into You finishing power to control my shine

I used to really like the eyeshadows from this brand: both the stick and the liquid tint. But both have different formulas now and I don’t suggest either. The stick breaks way too easily and the tint stings my eyelids. I’ve bought more than one hoping it was a fluke. Nope. Avoid.

Benefit

Brow pencil and Brow+ with the tiny mascara-type wand

Grow Lashes

• Obagi Nu-Cil serum: the woman who does my Botox suggested this. It works - I apply it to both my lashes and brows and both are growing.

Skincare Recommendations: Nope

I’m not sharing skincare recommendations because we each have so many unique conditions about our face and a ton of factors that influence how things work. Like climate and meds. I’ve wasted so much time and money buying products others use that never work and often make my skin worse.

What helped me the most: I finally found a good dermatologist who’s willing to spend a bit of time talking with me. You can tell right away on the first visit if the person will be your go-to or not; trust your gut and move on if they’re only there to charge you.

I found someone new in the practice who’s young enough that she’s building her clientele; she also knows the latest products and technology. With her help, I now rely on a mix of products: prescription, pricey medical-grade ones and mainstream from the drugstore.

Most days I just put on EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Red Color Correcting Green Tint Broad Spectrum SPF 50. That’s one product with lots of words — it’s the green-colored sunscreen. Recommended by said dermatologist.

The Non-CV Me

Rani Monson from Retail Therapy

I work in tech and have for the past 2 decades, but why be specific and age myself? My writing explores how money and time influence our life decisions, big and small. Why these two variables of time and money? Not to sound like a textbook, but these are the only two things you can change and expect a different outcome. Plus, I can be quite literal, and this is a perfect example. But I’ve also yet to see this truism disproven. And I’ve tried, because I love to challenge assumptions.

Retail Therapy explores why we keep doing things that, rationally, we know are silly.

Here’s what I mean. I spend a lot of time reading the internet and working on my pollinator plants. The plants are easy to justify — they’re pretty, smell amazing, and I love getting dirt under my fingernails, much to the chagrin of my manicurist, Andy. But reading Celebrity gossip, that’s harder to defend. I still don’t know who half the folks are on a red carpet or awards show. And my addiction to buying piles of clothes online just to try to find one thing that worth keeping? That’s dumb. No, that’s insane. It’s a waste of time and money; returning it takes even longer. The question is why I keep doing this, over and over again — that’s Retail Therapy.

Why Retail Therapy Right Now

I’m writing Retail Therapy now because I’m done waiting for permission to publish the pieces I believe are important. The work I want to explore and the stories I want to read. I’ve spent the past several years pitching mainstream publications. I’ve had bits of success, but it’s mostly waiting, not writing. I want to write the stories I want — today. Stories like:

• Why fashion hates middle-age women

• Why high-rise pants suck

• Why independent watch brands are having a moment

So I’m done awaiting someone else’s approval. Now I’m making the rules.

Want More? Go Paid

You may notice there are no affiliate links or sponsorships here. Because of your support, Retail Therapy is fully unfiltered. You know, in a way we’d never drink water.

Free subscribers get a lot. But paid subscribers get it all — every post, every conversation, full access. Your price locks in the day you subscribe and never goes up. Ever.

You’re paying a writer for their work and helping fund my bougie dog, Radio’s, acupuncture. He still hasn’t gotten a job. Or an agent.

This site is just like me: a work in progress. The best way for me to make it better is to hear from you — what you love and what you hate.

It can be such a lonely world. Let’s talk.

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Cheers to spending our time and money well!