Skin Care

Cozy Up with Burt’s Bees Cranberry & Pomegranate Body Butter This Fall

September 10th, 2011 by Karen 11 Comments

burts bees cranberry pomegranate body butter (1)

Burt the Bee Bees and tattoos have at least one thing in common. Both of them sting, but the sting isn’t why I haven’t gotten any tattoos. Credit for that goes to my fickle nature.

I’m probably the worst candidate for permanent body ink because I’m just way too fickle for my own good. I mean, I can’t even commit to a body cream, for crying out loud!

Last month I was crushing hard on Nuance Salma Hayek Super Secret Moisturizing Body Cream; this month I’m buzzing over Burt’s Bees Cranberry & Pomegranate Body Butter ($13).

I haven’t set Super Secret aside altogether, but I have been craving cozier scents lately, like the one Burt’s moisturizing body butter exudes.

Ingredients: aqua (water, eau), helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, glycerin, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, cetyl alcohol, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, parfum (fragrance), sucrose stearate, vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) seed oil, punica granatum seed oil, butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) butter, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, tocopherol, lactic acid, magnesium aluminum silicate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, glyceryl laurate, sucrose polystearate, glycine soja (soybean) oil, xanthan gum, phenoxyethanol, evernia prunastri (oakmoss) extract, citral, citronellol, farnesol, geraniol, limonene, linalool, natural fragrance

I’ve been tempted to gobble it up (but not enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room)! It smells exactly like Burt’s wonderful Pomegranate & Cranberry Scrub — just like a homemade cranberry crumble, hot and fresh from the oven.

burts bees cranberry pomegranate body butter (2)
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Burt’s Bees $5 Honey & Shea Conditioning Body Bar Is a Sweet Bar of Soap

September 2nd, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

Burts Bees Honey and Shea Conditioning Body Bar

You da man, Burt! Give those bees of yours a big bonus because they’ve been going above and beyond the call of beauty duty lately with some really top tier, affordable products, like the new 100% natural Burt’s Bees Honey & Shea Conditioning Body Bar ($5), available now at drugstores, most grocery stores and also online.

I’ve been using it for about two weeks, just lurving the heck out of the honey-vanilla scent, and I don’t have a single complaint. Frankly, I’m shocked that something this good is so affordable AND natural. Seriously, Burt, you’re kind of a big deal.

Ingredients: Sodium rapeseedate, aqua (water, eau), sodium cocoate, glycerin, parfum (fragrance), butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, mel (honey, miel), royal jelly extract, sodium citrate, CI 77492 (iron oxides), CI 77891 (titanium dioxide)

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I’m Sensing Some Friction Between the New Nuance Salma Hayek Walnut Body Scrub and I

August 28th, 2011 by Karen 24 Comments

Nuance Salma Hayek Walnut Body Scrub

If you’re an aeronautical engineer, a NASCAR driver, a lawn bowler, a professional cycler or an Olympic swimmer, friction can be a nuisance, but if you’re a body scrub, it’s essential. I am sensing some friction between the new Nuance Salma Hayek Walnut Body Scrub ($7.99) and I; unfortunately, it’s just not the right kind.

I thought that after trying and loving my last two products from the new Nuance Salma Hayek line — the Nuance Salma Hayek Cucumber & Rosewater Dual-Phase Makeup Remover ($7.99) and Salma Hayek My Secret Super Moisturizing Body Cream ($14.99) — I was bound to like the third.

Nuance says the gentle scrub, which contains moisturizing acai and passion flower seed oils, can be used every day.
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LAVANILA The Healthy Body Wash 2-in-1 Shower & Shave Gel in Vanilla Lavender Loves to Shower But Not to Shave

August 27th, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

I sure do love the light scent of Lavanila’s new Healthy Body Wash 2-in-1 Shower & Shave in Vanilla Lavender ($15 for an 8-oz. bottle), and not just because it combines two of my favorite scents.

It’s one of five fragrance “flavors” in a new line of body washes — the others being Vanilla Coconut, Pure Vanilla, Vanilla Grapefruit and Vanilla Passionfruit — that Lavanila designed to double as shower gels and shave gels.

As a shower gel, let me be blunt: I think it rocks, and I’m assuming the other flavors do, too. It lathers up into a rich, cleansing foam, feels light and fresh, does a great job of actually cleansing, rinses easily away and doesn’t leave my skin feeling tight. The lovely fragrance even lingers for a few hours after rinsing.

And, miracle of all miracles (because of how great it works), it’s all natural; many of the ingredients are even certified organic. 🙂

What Lavanila Healthy Body Wash 2-in-1 Shower & Shave doesn’t contain: parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic dyes, mineral oils, petrochemicals, phthalates, GMOs or tricolans.

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My Dry, Sensitive Skin Says ‘Oui’ to La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermo Cleanser

August 25th, 2011 by Karen 39 Comments

la roche posay toleriane dermo cleanser

Dude, I don’t know when it happened, but somehow, somewhere, I turned into a 30-something chick. In my teens and through my 20s, I thought I looked young for my age, but at some point over this past year, I started feeling like I look, well, my age. I decided to step up my anti-aging game with the help of Retin-A.

I’ve been using it for about a month so far, and overall I like the results, but in that time my face has been flakier, drier and moodier than it was when I was 14. Even skin care products I’ve known and loved for years have started giving me grief, like my usual go-to face wash, Philosophy Purity Made Simple. When it left my cheeks dry and tight one day, I knew something had to change.

I scanned through reviews online and came across La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermo-Cleanser ($22 for a 6.76-oz. bottle), which I remembered reading about on Dr. Cynthia Bailey’s skin care blog (which I found via the fabulous 15 Minute Beauty).

Dr. Bailey recommends La Roche-Posay to help mitigate the drying effects of Retin-A, and after reading more glowing reviews on Dermstore.com, I took the plunge.

First, a little background about La Roche-Posay: The company hails from France and boasts a bevy of face and skin care products, but the thing they’re probably best known for in beauty circles is their Anthelios Sunscreen, which many of my beauty friends consider the crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me of sun protecting products.

But back to the cleanser! 🙂 La Roche-Posay designed it to gently cleanse and remove makeup from dry, sensitive and/or delicate skin. It’s unscented, non-foaming and feels to me like a thicker, richer version of Cetaphil.

la roche posay toleriane dermo cleanser

la roche posay toleriane dermo cleanser
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Nuance Salma Hayek Cucumber & Rosewater (and Agave) Dual Phase Makeup Remover Isn’t Afraid to Face Anything

August 24th, 2011 by Karen 36 Comments

These days, the only resident of Casa de MBB who regularly parties like a rock star is Tabs, but back in the day, gurl, my middle name was margarita (on the rocks with salt, please!).

Kidding, of course (sort of). 🙂

Interestingly enough, the new Nuance Salma Hayek Cucumber & Rosewater Dual Phase Makeup Remover ($7.99) contains two ingredients that also appear in my former favorite drink.

No, not cucumber and rose water, although I bet those could make a tasty drink. I’m referring to aqua (water) and agave.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cyclopentasiloxane, Cyclohexasiloxane, Isohexadecane, Butylene Glycol, Albizia Julibrissin Bark Extract, Opuntia Ficus Indica Stem Extract, Physalis Angulata Extract, Agave Tequilana Leaf Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Water, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Glycerin, Benzophenone Centrimonium Chloride, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Red 40 (CI 16035), Blue 1 (CI 42090)

Listed above both rose water and cucumber in the list of ingredients, agave, the botanical du jour, has been quite the trendy ingredient lately, popping up in numerous skin care products for its alleged hydrating properties (I haven’t seen any clinical evidence to show what it supposedly does), but it’s not the star of this show.

That honor goes to cucumber and rose water, the two botanicals that get top billing here.

Cucumber & Rosewater Dual Phase Makeup Remover is, as the name implies, a dual-phase remover. Phase One: shake well (like it’s a bottle of salad dressing). Phase Two: remove.

It cuts through even long-wearing stuff in a flash, probably due to the solvents, silicones and alcohol it contains. I tested it against the big guns — NARS Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, MAC Paint Pot, MAC Fluidline, YSL Crayon Yeux Haute Intense Long-Lasting Eye Pencil, Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara and MAC Pro Longwear Concealer — and it whisked all of them away in about two minutes.

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I’m Feeling the Sting from Burt’s Bees Facial Cleansing Towelettes

August 24th, 2011 by Karen 45 Comments

Burts Bees Facial Cleansing Towelettes

A Burt's Bee If there were an award for Best Bees in the Beauty Biz, it would have to go to Burt. Those benevolent little bees of his have been cranking out some really fantastic products lately, so when I spotted something from the line I hadn’t seen before at Target, I reached for it quicker than you can say “bzz!”

Burt’s Bees Facial Cleansing Towelettes with White Tea Extract ($6 for 30), pre-moistened wipes designed to remove dirt, makeup and oil in a single step (no rinsing required), boast being made from 99.1% natural ingredients. The all natural cloths also carry an FSC certification, meaning that the ingredients used to make them come from a well-managed forest (as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council).

The moment the first cloth touched my skin I thought, These are so soft that I’ll go through 30 of them quickly. One wipe easily removes whatever foundation, powder, lipstick, blush, eye primer, eyeshadow and non-waterproof mascara I might be wearing (waterproof and long-wearing eye makeup, however, require something stronger, like a dedicated eye makeup remover).

Two big considerations for me when it comes to wipes like these are the scent, if they have one, and whether they leave behind a film on my skin. I think these are great on both fronts; I love the white jasmine and citrus scent, and I don’t detect any residue or film.

burts bees facial cleansing towelettes
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That New Nuance Salma Hayek My Secret Super Moisturizing Body Cream Drenches Dry Skin Isn’t a Secret Anymore

August 22nd, 2011 by Karen 30 Comments

nuance salma hayek body cream

Some words just belong together, ya know? — like “super” and “secret,” especially when the super comes before the secret.

Maybe that’s why I keep wanting to call Salma Hayek’s new Nuance Secret Super Moisturizing Body Cream ($14.99) “My Super Secret” body cream instead. 🙂

Of course, it’s no longer a secret; this cat’s out of the bag, as it and the other products in the new Nuance line of makeup, skin and hair care are available now exclusively at CVS/pharmacy stores.

I applied the cream before bed both nights last weekend, and color my dragon scales impressed! Not only has it soothed and smoothed the thirstiest parts of my bone dry bod (my legs, ankles and elbows), it even gets a paws up from Tabs.

Salma’s cosmetologist grandmother whipped up the secret sauce herself, or so the story goes, to nourish, relieve and restore dehydrated skin. The tube lists a bunch of plant-based and natural ingredients (many of them up near the top of the list) like shea butter, honey and macadamia nut oil.

nuance salma hayek body cream
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