Product Review: Smashbox Emulsion Lip Exfoliant

Hi girlz!

Check me out - third post this week!

Today we're talking lip exfoliants - the dumbest thing I've ever heard of if you ask me - there are way too many ways to do this at home without buying a whole product just for this - but whatevs. I got this as part of one of those Smashbox sets that seems like a really good value but actually is not because Smashbox is over-expensive. But anyway.

The one we're focusing on is Smashbox Emulsion Lip Exfoliant and according to Sephora it's "the first sugar-based, peppermint, lip exfoliator that is perfectly edible and smells delicious". It contains shea butter, jojoba, and antioxidants.

Basically you rub this stuff on your lips, and massage it in. I think you're supposed to massage it for 30 seconds or so and then gently wipe it away.

Here's the thing: this contains little exfoliating beads but there are so few of them in the tube that you're lucky to get two of them each time you use this. And it's really the beads that do the exfoliating so if you don't get enough of them it doesn't really work. All you're doing is rubbing a sweet, minty, wax all over your lips.

Sidebar: This actually smells just like homemade play-doh...do you guys remember that stuff? My friend Kim Mumford's mom used to make it when I was a kid (she also used to make us pumpkin chocolate chip muffins after Hallowe'en that were delish) and there used to be something she put into it that made it not taste good so kids wouldn't eat it that made it smell like mint. That's exactly what this stuff reminds me of.

I can't comment on the taste because - although it's edible - I'm extremely squeamish and make every possible effort to avoid getting this stuff in my mouth. I actually didn't know it was edible until I was researching it for this post. My lips do usually taste a bit sweet after I've used it so I'm sure it's not gross, if anyone is concerned about that.

Ultimately this item is a skip if you ask me. It does make your lips smoother (even though it's the wax that smoothes more than any other ingredient I'd guess) but there are so many other things you could do that are cheaper and faster than this that I wouldn't waste the money, especially because it retails for $18.

So the wiwfm verdict is....yes.

Product Review: Aveeno Cream Cleanser

Good morning ladies!
I'm making a concerted effort to make my posts shorter (internet writing 101) so I'm going to keep the preamble to a minimum and get right to the point:

Today's post is about Aveeno Clear Complexion Cream Cleanser.

According to Aveeno's website, "this creamy cleanser gently exfoliates and helps clear and prevent blemishes while visibly improving skin tone and texture." It's also oil-free, hypoallergenic, noncomedogenic, gentle enough for sensitive skin. All of which is good stuff to me. This cleanser also contains salicylic acid, which clogged pore ladies should be allll about.

In a word, I loves this stuff. The first time I used it I couldn't believe how good my skin felt afterward. It felt smooth and deeply clean without any kind of tightness or stripped feeling at all. The exfoliating beads (while too sparse to really have an effect IMO) are small enough to be gentle but not so small that they dissolve on contact with water, as has been my experience with many other scrub type cleansers. To be honest, with this cleanser the exfoliating beads seem to be so besides the point that I think they just threw them in as an afterthought.

I'm addicted to this stuff. I can't stop washing my face and I even told my roommate that he should start using it too. I doubt he will, but I think it would be a great cleanser for men. It has just enough of the good stuff to keep them looking well-groomed without seeming overly metro, and the packaging and the smell are gender neutral (it just smells ever-so-faintly like mayonnaise). My only complaint is that you're supposed to massage this into your skin for like 30 seconds. That's a long time. So I only do that in the evenings. In the morning I just do it for however long it takes for me to feel like my face is clean.

The only thing is, I've only been using this for a few days so I'm a bit hesitant to give a verdict just yet. Does it clean my face? Yes it does. But will it make my complexion any more clear is a different story. I'm actually on a summer salicylic kick (I bought this, a day cream, a night cream, and some Oxy pads that all contain it) to see whether using a lot of this will help clear my skin. So far my skin feels better but I'm getting little pimples here and there which may just be because all these products are drawing the yuck out of my pores.

So the wiwfm verdict on this one is....we'll see.
(that's a new category I just created cuz it's my blog and I can)
I'll update you in about 4 weeks when I should be able to tell the difference. I've been taking pictures of my skin to track my progress. And no I will not be posting those on here!
If I forget to update you, please remind me.
Thanks ladies!
max
xoxo

The Sunless Tanner Series Pt.I: L'Oreal Sublime Bronze

Hi Ladies!
I've been marinating - or should I say baking - on this post for a while now and since I'm about to drop asleep at my desk I figure now is as good a time as any to write it. Summer has finally hit the dot, MMVA's and AWWA are coming up and I needs my bronze with a quickness.

Heckle if you must, but I honestly believe that everyone looks better with a tan. Except my mum. For some reason when she tans her skin just looks dirty. So, okay then. Everyone but my mum looks better with a tan.

I personally am still a fan of good old fashioned sunbathing to give me the lovely reddish-bronze glow I crave, but that's not cute for most people out there. (Hey remember when I promised not to do long-ass intros anymore? Oops) In the absence of the sun, here are a few products that have stolen my money helped me out along the way.

I originally wanted to do this all in one post but it's going to be waaay too long. So it's going to have to be a series. First item on the agenda is the L'Oreal Sublime Bronze suite of products. There are a tonne! And I've tried most of them.

First up on the agenda is the Sublime Bronze Lotion.

This is a great one if you're skilled enough to handle a non-tinted lotion without streaks (or if you don't care about streaking). The deep version delivers good colour in a couple of days and dries relatively quickly. It stinks far less than other tanners I've used. It's also a nice thick lotion that contains Vitamin E, AHAs, and SPF 15 so you can just apply it and go about your merry non-ashy business.

I use this one when I know in advance I want to be tanned for a particular day.

Verdict is yes on this one.

Next up is the Self-Tanning Gelee in Deep.

Although L'Oreal's website claims this one is a lightweight formula that dries quickly, I actually find it takes longer to dry than the lotion. And ooh Lordy this stinks to high heaven! I'm not a fan of this in general.
I like the fact that it's tinted and shimmery, but the tint is too light and the shimmer too pervasive to get top ratings in my book. And the colour payoff is negligible at best.
I actually don't even think it works to be honest. I basically use this one when I'm getting ready to go out as a tinted shimmer lotion and try to forget the fact that it's supposed to be a sunless tanner.

I give this a verdict of yes as a tinted lotion, but no as a sunless tanner.

The disappointment of the gelee pales in comparison to the fiasco that is the next product.

The Dual Action Bronzer + Self-Tanning Lotion for Face.

Although this is supposed to provide "...an immediate bronze glow while a long-lasting, natural tan develops over time", it did absolutely jack-sh*t for me but make my face stink.

The tinted part is too pale and runny and the lotion part is too greasy.

This gets a big fat hell's no from me.

And that's all there is to say about that.

I have to make a brief mention here of the Sublime Bronze Mit. I don't even think they make this anymore because I couldn't find it on their site. I've never used this personally but once my good friend Heidi came to visit me for the weekend and we did one of our traditional Shopper's runs and she picked this up. She used it and oh boy was it a hot mess! She was streaked to high heaven and the worse part is that she forgot to wash her hands afterward. I felt so bad for her. My Heidi is a PPP from way back so it was mad noticeable that her legs were streaked and her palms and cuticles were orange. From what I observed the colour wasn't too natural looking but since I didn't use it myself I'm not going to render a verdict. I will say though that it should probably be reserved for self-tanning experts lol.

Moving on now to the Sublime Glow Daily Moisturizer and Natural Skin Tone Enhancer

According to L'Oreal this is "scientifically designed to work with your body's unique chemistry" and will "gradually deepen your skin's natural complexion for the perfect does of healthy summer every time you moisturize."

Yeah, not so much. There was no deepening of complexion for me at all. It was a nice moisturizer though and it smells like honey, which is a plus.

My main issue with this is kinda dumb though. Even though it didn't work for me at all, I still used it as a lotion. Problem was that I was paranoid that it would tan my palms so I had to frantically wash my hands every time I used it or touched the tube (I'm a bit nuts sometimes) and then I would have to re-moisturize them with a safe lotion. Kind of a pain, right? I was never so glad to see a tube of lotion run out in my life. This one is a verdict no as well.

One last one:

The Sunless Scrub also deserves a mention, but just a brief one. It's a great little exfoliator, but nothing earth-shattering. It does have a pleasant beachy smell that fits right in with the bronzing motif. I don't even know if they make this anymore but if you see it in a discount bin somewhere it's worth a little 99 cents still.

Product Review: NADS Original Gel

Hello pretties!

Yes it's been a long time but I'm back for real this time. I'm hitting a lull at work so I should have all the time (and mental energy) in the world to give my blog the attention it deserves. If I still have readers out there, thanks for sticking with me and please answer the poll on the right.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway. On to today's post which is about NADS. Specifically, Nads Original Gel

Now Nads (or any hair removal product for that matter) doesn't necessarily fall under the category of products designed for white girls that can be adapted for DDD's, but since our hair textures are different than our PPP sisters, this kinda qualifies.

I've been hearing bits here and there about Nads over the years but whenever I went to look for it in stores it was waaaay more expensive than other waxes so I didn't bother. But this past Saturday I needed to wax my legs. I've made a personal promise to myself not to shave my legs, stomach (don't ask), and bikini line for a whole summer and to wax it instead. But that mess is kinda labour intensive stillll so I was thinking about some of those warm-up-in-your-hands wax strip jobbies, even though I don't believe in cold wax.

So my first stop as always was to do research on MUA because the ladies over there know what's up. The verdict wasn't looking too good on the cold wax stuffs but I noticed that Nads had a pretty good rating and that even though it was in a pot as opposed to strips, you don't have to heat it up. Heating up the wax is a pain in the tuches to me because I have to keep schlepping back from the bathroom to the kitchen and dripping wax all over the place and....grrr.

Armed with that information and a wackload of Optimum Points, I headed over to Shopper's. After a brief distracting foray into the nail polish aisle, I arrived in the hair removal section and found Nads with a big ole sale sticker that read $25.94. Yowza! That's the sale price?!? Really? I immediately turned my attention to the Sally Hansen All Natural wax kit sitting directly beside the Nads (with the eerily similar green and white packaging as if they were trying to make it seem like a Nads dupe) I picked it up to compare ingredients to Nads and noticed another, smaller Nads package with a significantly smaller price tag. The difference is that the $25 jobbie had the gel wax, as well as all kinds of other stuff like ingrown solution, soothing balm, and I don't know what all else. The cheaper one had just wax/gel, cleansing wipes, and strips. Sounds good to me! I don't need all that other mess.

Wow this post is getting long and I haven't gotten to the point yet. Let me hurry along.

So the instructions on the package are very straightforward. You don't need to heat the wax, smooth a very thin layer of wax in the direction of hair growth, apply the strip and smooth in the direction of hair growth, and pull off in the opposite direction keeping the strip close to the body. Also make sure the area is clean & dry before starting.

This is Waxing 101 by the way, and I actually went to beauty school so I know.

Here's the thing. You do have to heat the wax. Sorry, but it's true. It's just not spreadable if you don't. And you have to heat it longer than 15 seconds the first time you use it so please don't believe the hype. The good thing about Nads versus other waxing kits is that the wax stays warm, thin, and spreadable a LOT longer than other products. I don't know how they do it, but it does. I did my both legs (knees down) and my stomach and only had to re-heat once. That's pretty amazing. The cleansing wipes work just like wet naps but they foam ever so slightly when you rub them on. They were pretty good too, but they ripped as I was unfolding them. No big deal. In fact IMO they're really not necessary - just rub some powder over the area before you wax and you're good.

But wait I haven't told you the best part yet. Once you use the strip once, you can use it again on the next section of hair without reapplying the wax and it will work! That is amazing! I've never seen a wax product do that. You can only do it a couple of times before it starts to get messy but it definitely helps save time (and product).

One thing I have to say in all honesty is that a huge part of waxing is about technique. If you don't do it right it's not going to work and it's going to sting like a mofo. Obviously having learned how to do it professionally I probably get better results than someone doing it for the first time ever. But do not be discouraged because waxing is easy and anyone can do it. I'm sure there are instructions on YouTube, WikiHow, or Yahoo Answers. Or feel free to write me if you need tips.

So the wiwfm verdict on Nabs is a great big ole yes!

I still love you ladies!

I'm really sorry that I have been so delinquent in my blogging lately. I've been lambasted at work for the past few weeks in many many different ways. I have a whole bunch of great posts planned with which to redeem myself I promise!
Just let me get through hell week and I'm all yours.