Skin Care

There’s a Snow Fairy Sparkling in This Shower Gel, and My, It’s Lush!

November 1st, 2011 by Karen 39 Comments

Lush Snow Fairy

Yes, add me to the legion of ladies obsessed with Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel, babe. I brought it into the shower with me after my run this morning and could not stop sniffing my mane!

Officially, Lush refers to the scent of this shower gel, which doubles as both a body wash and a shampoo, as sweet vanilla, but it reminds me of a cool cross between Mr. Bubble bubble bath and bananas.

Weird, but it works for me.

Oh, and the fact that it’s a pretty pink with sparkles doesn’t hurt. 🙂

Like the Lush shower gels I’ve tried in the past, Snow Fairy rinses clean, washes well and doesn’t leave my skin feeling dry or tight.
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Burt’s Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme Knocks My Nose for a Loop

October 23rd, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

burts bees thoroughly therapeutic honey grapeseed hand creme ingredients

Every year I shamelessly use fall as an excuse to justify stocking up on certain things — things like boots, hats, lip balms (gotta have one for every jacket!) and, of course, hand creams.

Burt the Bee To wit: even though I probably already have enough tubes of hand cream to last me through the next ice age (stashed in the car, on my nightstand, on my desk, in every purse…), I still couldn’t resist bringing home Burt’s Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme ($10).

It’s been around for a while, but I’d been so enamored by another one of Burt’s products, his Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme (which I still love despite how long it takes to absorb), that it took me this long to branch out.

True to form, Burt’s bees kept Thoroughly Therapeutic 99% natural, incorporating honey and hydrating grapeseed oil, and they were kind enough not to test it on animals.

burts bees thoroughly therapeutic honey grapeseed hand creme tube-1
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These Biore Makeup Removing Towelettes Prove That I’m Not Always in the Mood for Green Tea

October 22nd, 2011 by Karen 21 Comments

I had a Pavlovian response to these Biore Makeup Removing Towelettes ($8 for 30 wipes) when I spotted them at the drugstore the other day… I saw the words “with Green Tea” on the packaging and reflexively reached for the box.

I thought, “Gee, I like green tea.” Sounds like a match made in heaven.

After checking myself and making sure I wasn’t just thinking about getting them because they contain green tea — I had just run out of my MAC Wipes — I placed them in my cart.

The cleansing rinse-free makeup wipes are also, according to Biore, supposed to be able to handle waterproof mascara. Full of hope, I thought, “We shall see.”

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Burt’s Bees Put the Sting in Cranberry & Pomegranate Replenishing Body Bar

October 16th, 2011 by Karen 9 Comments

Methinks Burt’s industrious bees put a little too much of themselves into their new Cranberry & Pomegranate Replenishing Body Bar ($5) because it hurts. so. good.

Well, good…depending on how you use it. While I thoroughly enjoy the scent, which smells just like cranberry juice to me, the bar doesn’t exactly make for a relaxing shower experience.

Burt the Bee Since I’d just about finished the Honey & Shea Conditioning Bar I picked up a while back (), I was on the market for a new body bar to try and picked up this here Cranberry version at the drugstore last week.

The bees at Burt’s, Inc. added crushed cranberry and pomegranate seeds to the recipe to, according to the print on the box, provide a “rich, natural lather leaving skin smooth and rejuvenated,” and like the Honey & Shea Conditioning bar, it builds into a lush, creamy lather that also rinses clean. Unlike its more soothing cousin, though, it contains those exfoliating seeds…

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How to Make a DIY Mojito Salt Scrub with Mango Butter

October 2nd, 2011 by Karen 31 Comments

About the Author
The following guest post was written by Jenny of My Funny Valentine. You can also find Jenny on Twitter.

DIY Mojito Salt Scrub with Mango Butter

There’s something so rewarding about making your own skin care products. You have total control over the quality of the ingredients that go into your creations, the feel of the product, and the scent of the product (I’m only a control freak when it comes to skin care, I promise!).

I personally love salt body scrubs. If you’ve ever been to my house you know that my shower area is cluttered with jars of scrubs of every description — some store bought, but mostly ones that I’ve made myself. It feels amazing to massage a handful of scrub into your skin after a long day, and the salt scrubs that I make leave my skin both polished and moisturised.

So, why did I make a scrub based on mojitos? Well, because mojitos are just the BOMB!

This particular scrub is super easy to make, even if you’ve never made DIY bath and body products before. Unlike some DIY oil-based scrubs, this one rinses clean because it has a built-in emulsifier.

Ingredients

You should be able to find all of these at your local health food store, or online at stores like Garden of Wisdom Skin Care.

10g mango butter (weight 0.35 oz)
5g cetyl alcohol (weight 0.18 oz)
20g olive oil (weight 0.7 oz)
7g avocado oil (weight 0.25 oz)
7g pomegranate oil (weight 0.25 oz)
10 drops peppermint essential oil
10 drops lime essential oil
3 drops grapefruit essential oil
1g vitamin E 500IU (roughly 2/3 tspn)
0.8g Polysorbate 80 (roughly Â½ tspn)
A few drops of optiphen
70g salt

Mojito Salt Scrub
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Keep Your Sunny Side Up with Products Designed to Repair Sun Damage

September 30th, 2011 by Karen 9 Comments

Sun repair after summer

Like the gift that keeps on givin’, the summertime sun’s effects can be felt long after the autumnal equinox. Knowing about some of the most common kinds of skin repair products can make it easier to choose the right ones for you.

Le sigh… It’s all but inevitable. Last summer, whether you limited your sun exposure to leisurely strolls along sun-dappled sidewalks or spent oodles of hours in direct sunlight by the pool, your skin probably received at least some UV damage (even if you wore SPF 24/7 every day).

Sun protection should be part of every gal’s daily beauty ritual (here’s an old but hopefully helpful MBB post on sunscreen), regardless of the time of year (snowboarding sunburns anyone?), but those sunny summer days and warm water usually lure more of us outside.

Of course, when it comes to the sun, an ounce of prevention is worth 100,000,000 pounds of cure, even in the middle of winter. Religiously applying and reapplying sunscreen and, better yet, reducing your time in the sun are always going to trump trying to repair sun damage after the fact, but if you are concerned about soothing an inflamed sunburn, or about reducing or preventing sun spots, wrinkles or fine lines, post-sun repair products can help.
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These Little Discs of EOS Evolution of Smooth Everyday Hand Lotion Are a Joy to (Be) Hold

September 30th, 2011 by Karen 20 Comments

EOS Evolution of Smooth Everyday Hand Lotion in Nourish (left) and Refresh (right)

In a short story writing class I took for fun a few years ago the instructor said that inspiration sometimes hides in the unlikeliest of places. Dagnabbit if homegirl wasn’t totally right, because today I found inspiration in two tiny tubes of hand lotion.

These new Evolution of Smooth Everyday Hand Lotions by EOS ($3.99 each and available in two scents, Nourish and Refresh) could very well have the coolest hand lotion packaging I’ve ever squeezed.

I think it’s so cool when people re-imagine something that could have been mundane, like the packaging for a tube of hand lotion, and turn it into an object of beauty. Now THAT’s inspiring. 🙂

These little discs feel oddly soothing in my paws when I hold them, and I keep wanting to sling one across a glassy pond to see if it’ll skip…

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Tahitian Vanilla Keeps Pacifica Island Vanilla Body Butter Away from Cookie Dough

September 24th, 2011 by Karen 15 Comments

pacifica island vanilla body butter

In college I had a lab partner who smelled just like Play-Doh. Bless her heart. She was a cool girl, and we got along well, but whenever she was around, the air was thick with the doughy scent of edible modeling clay; consequently, I couldn’t titrate to save my life.

It wasn’t until later that I put two and two together and figured out the reason why: vanilla body butter. She was wearing some kind of vanilla body butter.

Makes perfect sense, too, because it can be tough to find a vanilla body butter that doesn’t smell anything like cookie dough or plastic. So many of them do, especially to people with very sensitive noses.

I guess that’s why I was so surprised by the new Pacifica Island Vanilla Body Butter ($18 for an 8-oz. tube; $12.50 for a 2.5-oz. tube), a Sephora exclusive scent. It’s made with Tahitian vanilla, and whether that’s responsible for the floral quality Pacifica claims the butter has, I don’t know. I think the product does smell more authentically vanilla than usual, though, and it makes all the difference in the world.

pacifica island vanilla body butter tube

“Something magical happened to vanilla in Tahiti. It changed from its native South American flavor to become sexier, more lush, with floral notes and a little fruit deep in the structure of the scent. Inspired by this beautifully distinct version of the classic fragrance note and many surfing trips to the South Pacific, this is my vision of the perfect vanilla.”

— Pacifica Co-Founder and Lead Perfumer, Brook Harvey-Taylor

pacifica island vanilla body butter back
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