The Everyday Edit: July 2026

150 Pounds of Wet Dog, the Hot-Dog-Scented Serum, and How I Bought Back 12 Days a Year

For the past couple of years, I operated under a profound personal delusion.

Once a month, I would haul my two Labs to the self-serve dog wash at our local pet store. On paper, it made perfect sense. The chaotic mess occurred entirely on someone else’s tile flooring. There were high-pressure hoses, an oversized wash tub positioned at a back-saving height, unlimited shampoo, and a heavy-duty drain that wasn’t my responsibility to unclog. They even provided waterproof aprons and fluffy towels. It was, by all reasonable metrics, a solid setup.

But everything is not always as it seems.

To set the scene properly: I am 5’1″ on a generous day. My dogs, Charlie and Loni, clock in at roughly 75 pounds each. Now picture a menopausal woman in a vinyl apron attempting to physically wrestle 150 pounds of soaking wet, soapy dogs, neither of whom want to be there.

Furthermore, nothing can explain the level of soaked I experienced. I wore the apron. I tied it tight. And yet, without fail, I would exit that building soaked from collarbone to sneakers, wet hair plastered flat across my face, looking like I’d just been dredged out of Lake Ontario by a search and rescue crew. What a site I was!

Then I’d drive home, collapse into my bed, and take an actual nap. Washing and drying two oversized dogs had thoroughly defeated me. I was losing a full day every single month to canine hygiene.

This July, I finally surrendered. I found a workaround, and it costs about what I’d pay for a gym membership I would absolutely not use.

Welcome to July’s Edit: the subscription service that saved my sanity, a vitamin C serum that actually absorbs without making me smell like hotdogs, and the eye drops helping me impersonate a person who gets eight restful hours of sleep a night.

1. The Bath & Brush Membership That Saved My House

The Pick: Splash & Dash Groomerie & Boutique

The Investment: Variable monthly fee (based on dog size)

The Verdict: An essential lifestyle upgrade disguised as dog grooming.

Splash & Dash Groomerie & Boutique is a dog-grooming franchise with two Ontario locations: CF Shops at Don Mills in North York, and Appleby Line in Burlington. The monthly Bath and Brush membership is why we are gathered here today.

For a very reasonable monthly fee, Charlie and Loni get unlimited professional wash-and-drys, thorough brush-outs, and nail trims. The procedure on my end is beautifully simple: I pull up, hand over 150 cumulative pounds of dog, and walk away. A couple of hours later, my phone buzzes with a text. I return to collect two clean, ultra-soft, delightfully scented, happy dogs.

I took them weekly throughout July, and the transformation in our home has been nothing short of miraculous. The canister on my vacuum cleaner no longer resembles a small-animal crime scene. Their coats feel silky, they smell fantastic, and the tumbleweeds of dog hair drifting across our hardwood floors have dropped by about 80%.

Charlie and Loni seem equally happy with this arrangement. They burst through the boutique doors after their appointments looking fluffy, frisky, and satisfied. I strongly suspect the grooming staff is plying them with absurd quantities of high-value treats; my dogs would cheerfully sign over our house keys and my bank account number for half a dried liver bite.

Local Note: The Burlington location frequently runs introductory Bath & Brush offers for new clients (for dogs up to 100 lbs). Pricing varies by dog weight, so call your nearest location to confirm details before booking.

This expense seemed entirely luxurious, right up until it handed me back several hours of my life each month, saved my vacuum motor from an early grave, and permanently eliminated my monthly post-bath recovery nap. Worth every single penny.

2. The $35 Vitamin C Serum Beating a $230 Rival

The Pick: Timeless 20% Vitamin C + E Ferulic Acid Serum

The Price: ~$35 CAD for 30 ml

The Rival: SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic ($230 CAD)

I am no skincare expert. I am, however, deeply suspicious of beauty marketing, having spent much of my career either doing marketing, or cleaning up after it.

Women in their fifties get sold to like we’re a problem someone needs to solve, most of it over-priced garbage, and it’s exhausting.

That said, I do enjoy reading up on the clinical data. My natural skepticism makes me stubbornly determined not to fall for fancy packaging or hollow promises. And the data shows that topical L-ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is one of the very few active ingredients backed by genuine, hard scientific research. Consistent use helps fade uneven pigmentation, neutralizes environmental free radicals, and supports collagen production over time. The key word here is time; think months of religious daily application, not overnight miracles.

I got serious about Vitamin C after undergoing vascular laser treatments last winter (you can read my full breakdown of that experience here). The laser worked wonders on my facial redness, and I am now fiercely protective of that financial investment. The primary culprits that destroy laser results are UV radiation and oxidative damage, making a daily morning antioxidant under SPF the best insurance policy.

When I first started shopping for a formula, my dermatologist handed me a generous sample of the holy-grail SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic. I loved it. It performed beautifully. Then I looked up the retail price: $230 CAD for 30 ml.

Absolutely not.

Beyond the eye-watering price tag, it carries a very distinct, lingering aroma of hot dog water. At $230 an ounce, I expect it to smell like a five-star Mediterranean day spa, not the hot food counter at Costco.

The Insider Secret: The original U.S. patent protecting SkinCeuticals’ specific combination of stabilized Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and Ferulic Acid officially expired in 2025. While formulation and packaging still matter, the patent expiration allowed rival brands to formulate virtually identical, high-grade alternatives at a fraction of the cost.

Enter Timeless 20% Vitamin C Serum. It features the exact same supporting cast (1% Vitamin E, 0.5% Ferulic Acid), boosts the active L-ascorbic acid concentration to 20%, is fragrance-free, arrives in an airless opaque pump bottle, and costs a more reasonable $35.

I’ve been using it daily since May, and I truly believe it has kept my skin calm, even, and notably less reactive all summer.

What sealed the deal for me, though, is the texture. So many Vitamin C serums leave a tacky, sticky residue that can pill under makeup or battle with sunscreen. Timeless absorbs cleanly. I smooth it on, brush my teeth, make the bed, or stare blankly into the open refrigerator hoping a fully cooked breakfast will manifest out of thin air, and by the time I’m done, it’s completely sunk in.

I am already halfway through my second bottle, which is the highest honor a skincare product can achieve on my vanity. There is a vast difference between “I liked this product” and “I remembered to reorder it before it ran out.”

3. The Bright-Eye Illusion in a Tiny Bottle

The Pick: Lumify Redness Reliever Eye Drops

The Price: ~$22 CAD

The Magic: Passes for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in under 60 seconds.

I have dealt with blepharitis for over twenty years. For the uninitiated, that translates to chronically inflamed eyelids, frequent tearing, and eyeballs that constantly look glassy and bloodshot. Super annoying! Plus, the high pollen counts this spring seem to turn the situation up a notch.

Enter Lumify. To be clear, these drops do not cure or treat blepharitis. What they do do is perform an immediate optical magic trick, making me look considerably less like I’ve spent the afternoon crying in my car.

Unlike legacy redness-relief drops (which aggressively constrict all ocular blood vessels and can trigger a “rebound redness” cycle the moment they wear off), Lumify utilizes low-dose brimonidine tartrate (0.025%). This ingredient selectively targets venules rather than arteries, dramatically cutting the risk of rebound redness while clearing the vascular discoloration in under 60 seconds. Bonus: the effect lasts up to eight hours. Health Canada approved it a few years back, and it’s available at most pharmacies.

I of course ran it by my optometrist first. In an ideal world, he would prefer I never put anything in my eyes, ever, and would happily ban eye makeup entirely. However, he gave Lumify a cautious green light, for occasional use.

I limit myself to using it two or three times a month; strictly on days when I want to look rested and alert, rather than merely conscious.

That’s July in a Nutshell

Two sparkling-clean Labs, one budget-friendly serum quietly preserving my laser results, and a tiny eye drop that convinces the world I get eight hours of sleep every night.

The true victory this month? Buying back 12 full days a year previously surrendered to wrestling wet dogs in a pet store. I have zero grand productivity plans for those twelve days. I will almost certainly still take naps. The glorious difference is that now, those naps will be taken by choice, completely dry, and resting comfortably on my couch, with my hair intact.

Over to you: What product or small luxury has been earning its keep around your house this month? What’s saving your sanity lately? Drop your favorites in the comments below. I’m always on the hunt for the next smart upgrade to elevate everyday life!

Want to catch up on past recommendations? Browse the complete Everyday Edits archive here.

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