Karen

The sun’s shining in my ‘hood, so a few days ago I dug through my closet, aka the 10th circle of hell, to find my favorite spring sandals. I found them but ended up wearing Adidas Shell Toe sneakers to work instead, because, when I took my socks off and examined my feet closely, they looked pretty gross — flaky heels, dry toes, gnarly cuticles. Ewww! Even though I’ve been good about moisturizing those bad boys at night, my feet still looked rougher than Bobby Brown’s mug shot.

To get them sandal-ready, first I made a weekend appointment for an overdue pedicure. Next, I busted out a tube of Philosophy Soul Owner exfoliating foot cream ($14 for a 3.3 oz tube) to do some interim damage control.

An exfoliating foot treatment with alpha and beta hydroxy acids, Soul Owner reduces dry, flaky skin and exfoliates callouses. Eucalyptus oil, which works as an emollient and skin refresher, gives the cream a fresh, masculine herbal scent. No flowers or fruit here.

The thick, non-greasy formula felt like a body cream, so it took me a few minutes to work it into the skin. The coolest thing (literally) about this cream is the subtle cooling sensation it produced when I massaged it into my heels, soles and toes. It didn’t sting; in fact, it felt just cold enough to be kind of relaxing.

For the past few nights I’ve applied Soul Owner before bed, and now my feet look smoother and feel softer, especially around the heels. They’re looking pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!

However, there is a price to pay (isn’t there always?) for all this foot cuteness. One caveat to using this product is that while glyolic and salicylic acids are fantastic ingredients for softening and exfoliating, they also increase your skin’s sun sensitivity. While your feet get soft and sexified for spring’s skin-baring footwear, unfortunately they also become more susceptible to sunburn. Oh, the irony. If you’re going to use Soul Owner, Philosophy suggests applying sunscreen to your feet and limiting sun exposure.

Soul Owner is great for getting scraggly winter feet ready for spring, but even though I love Soul Owner’s exfoliating and softening powers, when the weather heats up and my feet see a lot of sun, I probably won’t be using it on a daily basis because of the increased sun sensitivity thing.

I’m really looking forward to liberating my feet from the confines of thick, winter socks and oppressive closed-toe shoes. During the spring and summer I live in flip-flops and sandals, so my toes are free to wiggle, stretch and pinch (yes, you read that correctly. I can pinch with my toes) to their heart’s content. Are you itching for sandal weather, too?

Purchase Soul Owner exfoliating foot cream online on the Philosophy Web site, or at your nearby Nordstrom or Macy’s Philosophy counter.

Tonight I’m hitting the club with two of my friends, NBLACK and C-Lo. I haven’t gone dancing with them in a long time, so I’m looking forward to burning some calories and shaking my booty! Any fun plans for tonight?

Because we’ve made it to Thursday, which is that much closer to Friday, here’s a treat for you.

Video courtesy of Four Four.

Bonus points if your freaky-deaky self can name the title of the song and the artist!

Have a good one and smile today!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Yes, the skin on my face is drier than well-delivered sarcasm, so I can’t live without my cleansing lotions.

Cleansing lotions typically have a rich, thick consistency, making them better for dry skinned ladies (and gents) than astringent cleansers. Look for moisturizing cleansing lotions that won’t produce a sudsy foam as they’re used because foaming gel or liquid cleansers are notorious for drawing moisture away from the skin. And if you’re struggling with dry skin on your face, consider removing whichever cleansing lotion you use with a tissue, instead of rinsing it off with water, leaving the lotion’s moisturizer where it can do you some good.

I pitted two popular brands of cleansing lotions head-to-head — La Mer’s The Cleansing Lotion and Jurlique’s Replenishing Cleansing Lotion — and the victor earned a spot alongside my previous cleansing lotion champion, Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple.

Two cleansing lotions, one dry face. Which one prevailed in the cleansing lotion smackdown?

First in the ring was Jurlique’s Replenishing Cleansing Lotion ($40 for 6.7 fl oz bottle). It contains marshmallow, viola, rose and lavender essential oils to, as the product packaging says, gently smooth, moisturize and cleanse the skin.

What did my testing reveal?

The Jurlique cleanser felt thick and rich like a body lotion, which to me means moisturizing, and it had a sweet herbal scent that I neither loved nor hated. In the plus column, the bottle has a pump, making it easy to dispense the lotion with one hand.

The amount of product from a single pump of Jurlique thoroughly removed most of the makeup on my face (even most of my eye makeup) and left my face and neck feeling clean and moisturized. So far it hasn’t broken me out, knock on wood. I really dig the fact that half of the ingredients are plant extracts with long scientific names (Althaea officianalis, Symphytum officinale, Stellaria media…), and Jurlique uses plants grown on their own biodynamic farms in Australia, which I thought was kinda cool.

Biodynamic farming was made popular in the mid-1920s by philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who sought to develop a method of farming that would preserve a natural balance of nutrients in soil by growing mutually beneficial companion crops near one another. Jurlique began their biodynamic farms 20 years ago, and now their line of products for face, hair and body contain plants products harvested from two farms spanning over 150 acres at Ngeringa and Mylor in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. Today they grow 50 different varieties of plants and flowers, including lavendar, rose, marshmallow, elder and calendula. The farms are both organic and sustainable, so kudos to Jurlique for being environmentally conscientious too.

La Mer’s The Cleansing Lotion ($65 for a 6.7 fl oz jar, holy crap!), the second contender in the cleansing lotion smackdown, derives most of its most precious ingredients from the sea.

La Mer’s cleansing lotion contains sea kelp, among other ingredients, and gets a lot of hype because of the popularity of the La Mer brand. A host of celebrities proclaim their love for La Mer’s products, most notably Creme de la Mer, the line’s famous face cream. Even El Hub knew about the brand (“Isn’t that what J. Lo uses?” LOLOL!), but I suspect that’s because I subject him to cheesy celebrity lifestyle shows on VH1, ha! I recently received a wee sample of The Cleansing Lotion and couldn’t wait to try it out.

Both of these brands love the scientific sounding ingredients. La Mer’s Cleansing Lotion contains several, like magnetized tourmaline and positively charged waters, which supposedly enable the cleanser to extract dirt, debris, makeup and pollutants without requiring a lot of harsh rubbing.

Although La Mer’s cleansing lotion smelled better (flowers and licorice) than Jurlique’s cleansing lotion (herbs and sugar), the formula felt thinner and wasn’t as rich as Jurlique. When I used it before bed, it didn’t remove as much of my face and eye makeup as Jurlique’s cleanser did, and I had to use substantially more than a dime-sized amount to feel clean. After rinsing off and drying my face, it felt a little tight and dry, ouch.

While I definitely preferred La Mer’s scent, for me it wasn’t enough to justify the $65 price tag. If you’re already a La Mer fan, have oily skin, but don’t wear a lot of makeup, you may feel otherwise.

That said…

The winner, by technical knockout (TKO): Jurlique’s Replenishing Cleansing Lotion!

I liked Jurlique’s Replenishing Cleansing Lotion so much that it’s now going into heavy rotation beside Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple, now my second favorite cleansing lotion. It’s a great option for dry-skinned gals into plant-based, organic skin care. I can’t wait to test more products from the line! I hope they perform just as well as this one does.

Purchase Jurlique products online or in person at Blue Mercury stores nationwide.

I hope your week is off to a good start. Happy Monday!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen