Skin Care

The Buzz on Burt’s Bees New Honey & Shea Sugar Scrub Is Good

August 16th, 2011 by Karen 70 Comments

How sweet. 🙂 Burt’s industrious bees made us a new scrub, and like his fabulous Cranberry & Pomegranate one, this one’s also 100% natural.

If there hadn’t been a warning on the side of Burt’s Bees Honey & Shea Sugar Scrub ($13 for an 8-oz. tub) stating that it’s “Not a food — do not consume,” I would have spread some on my toast.

Doesn’t it look delicious (a little like apple sauce)? And I think it smells yummy, too — fresh and light, like raw sugar and honey.

Following in the footsteps of its Cranberry & Pomegranate predecessor, which I first fell in love with a year ago this fall, Honey & Shea wasn’t tested on animals, and it doesn’t contain any parabens, phthalates or petrochemicals. I’d been turning to Burt’s rich, moisturizing Pomo-Cran scrub whenever I needed to get my exfoliation on, but as much as my dry skin loves the hydrating heavy oils it contains, I know it’s not for everyone.

Would this Honey-sweetened recipe work just as well for me while perhaps appealing to a wider audience? I took it into the shower this week to try and find out.

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There’s Something Fishy About Nails Inc. Kensington Hand Cream, and It’s Not the Scent

August 13th, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

One of these days I’m gonna start a bumper sticker line for beauty addicts. You’ll find it at Sephora in one of those wire kiosk things that twirl, and the stickers will say things like, “I’m lost without Shu,” and “I’m a ho for hand cream.”

Speaking of that, have you tried the new (well, new to us Yanks) Nails Inc. Kensington Conditioning Hand Cream ($18 for a 3.4-oz. tube)? I like it so much that when I switched purses for the eighth time in just as many days, I was sure to move the tube over with my essentials (wallet, keys, lipgloss, iPhone, emergency travel packet of Nutella).

The cream, which recently made the trip out here from London and now lives at Sephora stores, contains caviar extract, which is fancy for “fish egg juice.” 🙂

Ingredients: Aqua, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Alcohol, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa Butter), Triethanolamine, Dimethicone, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Caviar Extract, Soluble Collagen, Parfum, Tocopheryl Acetate, Alcohol Imidazolidinyl Urea, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Hydroxyproline, Lecithin Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sorbitol , Tocopherol, Glyceryl Oleate, Butylparaben Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Methylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Propylparaben Citronellol, Geraniol, Limonene.

I’m not sure what, if anything, the caviar is doing in there (I suspect it’s more of a red herring, haha!) but it sure sounds rich. The non-greasy cream also contains a few other compounds, unfortunately, like various parabens and dimethicone, that I’d just assume not see in the list of ingredients, but the product’s performance is its saving grace. It’s supposed to reduce the appearance of fine lines while firming the skin and boosting collagen production. I can’t attest to any of those claims yet, but I will say this: it’s mad crazy moisturizing!
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The New Nuance Salma Hayek Makeup, Skin and Hair Care Line: Available Now Exclusively at CVS/pharmacy Stores

August 6th, 2011 by Karen 49 Comments

Do you remember when Salma Hayek guest starred on a few episodes of 30 Rock a couple seasons ago? She played a caregiver to Jack’s ailing mom, but she and Jack quickly embarked upon a forbidden romance. Forbidden in the “love not meant to be” comedic vein.

Hilarious! Truth be told, as much as I’ve liked Salma, I didn’t see us having much in common. I mean, the woman’s an international sex symbol/movie star, and I spend many days in stretchy pants, and many nights watching TV with my cat.

But then I heard about Salma’s new line of beauty products sold exclusively at CVS/pharmacy stores, and thought, isn’t it great how beauty can bring people together? — sometimes, at the drugstore.

Maybe Salma and I do have a few things in common…

Salma says that her grandma’s homemade beauty recipes, which combined exotic ingredients, inspired her to create the new line. In a weird coincidence, my grandma’s stint as a cosmetology student in the ’80s inspired the awful perm I rocked in kindergarten.

The products are carried at CVS/pharmacy stores, but you can also check ’em out and purchase them online. The items range from $7.99 – $19.99 each.

Salma’s products, which are all paraben free, weren’t tested on animals. In another weird coincidence, I live with an international kitty supermodel/cat diva who loves cruelty-free lines.

Salma’s Beautiful Blends Eyeshadow Quad looks like an H. R. Giger alien egg. In another weird coincidence, I’ve watched Alien more than a dozen times.

Beautiful Blends Eye Quad in Neutral
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Deep Thoughts with Caress Sheer Twilight Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash in Black Orchid and Juniper Oil…

July 22nd, 2011 by Karen 39 Comments

Deep thoughts I have in the shower while using the new Caress Sheer Twilight Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash in Black Orchid and Juniper Oil…

Caress Sheer Twilight

Who would win in a fight between Twilight’s Vampire Edward and True Blood’s Vampire Bill? How about the same fight between Vampire Edward and Vampire Eric?
What if Vampire Bill fought Angel from Buffy?
Would the Cullen family, self-professed “vegetarian vampires,” drink True Blood? And if so, would they buy it in cases from Costco?
Is it possible for vampires to turn their pets, and if so, should they? If I had to live for eternity as a member of the undead, I’m sorry, Tabs, you’re coming with me.
If you’re human and the sight of blood makes you queasy, does that queasiness carry over if you’re turned?
Would Vampire Eric use this new Caress body wash (in the shower, naked)? How would he feel about warm, cozy scents?

LOL! All it takes is the word “twilight” on the bottle to get me thinking about hot vampire dudes… 🙂 I wonder if that’s what Caress wanted when they chose the product’s name.

As far as affordable drugstore shower gels go (THREE BUCKS!), this one’s not half bad. It uses something Caress calls their “silky fragrance infusion,” which for me basically translates into the scent lasting and lingering on my skin long after I step out of the shower. Officially, the fragrance is described as black orchid and juniper oil, but it reminds my nose of Pottery Barn potpourri.

It’s not the kind of scent I’m usually drawn to — I tend to prefer fresher, brighter, more citrusy florals or scents with watery notes — but I like the execution here. I can see gals who love spicy, cozy fragrances and scents like warm amber and vanilla liking it, too.

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The Solar-Powered, Super-Duper, Sun-Protecting Tomato

July 16th, 2011 by Karen 31 Comments

The sun-protecting tomato

Here comes the sun, little darling, but it’s all right, thanks to the solar-powered, super-duper, sun-protecting tomato. 🙂

Mother Nature knew what she was doing when she made the tomato. She packed it with powerful sun-protecting compounds called antioxidant carotenoids to protect the fruit from the sun’s damaging rays. One of the compounds, lycopene, gives tomatoes their telltale red color, and it’s also a Super Bowl champion when it comes to sun protecting. A 1989 study published in the Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics found lycopene to be the most efficient quencher of singlet oxygen among the biologically occurring carotenoids.

What does that mean?

A lot, if you spend much time in the sun. Our glowing giver of light, heat and energy in the sky is also a major source of wrinkles, painful sunburns and the kinds of DNA damage that can lead to skin cancer. Some estimates of the extent to which skin damage is the result of solar radiation run as high as 90%, and you don’t have to spend all day at the beach to feel the heat. Those quick, everyday exposures — standing at the bus stop, grabbing lunch at that awesome takeout place, taking the ~~dog~~ cat for a walk — also add up over the years and put your skin’s health and your appearance at risk.

When UV light penetrates the skin, it doesn’t just cause sunburns. It also causes the formation of UV-induced free radicals, destroys tissues, oxidizes lipids and hacks genes. Skin cells don’t turn over as quickly, wounds take longer to heal, and skin becomes less elastic, thinner, rougher and blotchy.
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How to Combat Oiliness

July 9th, 2011 by Karen 17 Comments

Written by Sam

Listen up, lieutenant. We’ve been getting our butts kicked by shine lately, and enough’s enough. Are you ready to take the battle to the enemy? It’s time to combat oiliness with the help of today’s guest post from Sam.

How to combat oiliness and shine

You peek up above the lip of the trench to scout around for a split second and then duck down again. The cool earth clings to your palms, collects under your nails. You pull your fingerless gloves on a bit tighter, their frayed edges straining against your joints. You listen and hear only the faint creaking of antiquated boards that serve as walkways, doors and handholds in this subterranean lair.

A sudden scream shreds the silence, immediately followed by a deep, guttural roar from somewhere up ahead.

It’s time. You spring from your trench, balancing yourself on the muddy edge, and finally see what you’ve only till now known as a legend. It’s giant. Amorphous. Greased rainbows slither across its filmy skin. Smokey tendrils swirl within its core, the damped sunlight seemingly refracted by its odd composition. A slick trail extends behind it; a viscous, dark eschewal of this awful thing. And you know its name. OIL.

If You Have Naturally Oily Skin

It’s time to take the battle to the enemy. Oily skin is both a blessing and a curse, but that truth no longer justifies inaction. Even though your comrades with oily skin generally develop wrinkles later in life than those with dry skin and often retain more of their skin’s elasticity over time, they must also deal with makeup meltdown, large pores and potentially horrid acne. The large pores and blemishes can be concealed, but it’s relatively difficult to keep that viscous, dark eschewal at bay until the sun disappears behind a distant crest and sleep overtakes you.

Before you charge in recklessly, you need to establish a proper base of defense. The first line comes from the use of a mattifying agent prior to the application of your foundation, which will prevent or lessen oil production throughout the day. It may sound strange, but Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia is a spectacular sebum stopper (here’s some more info on it). Just apply about a capful with a disposable cosmetics sponge after your moisturizer and sunscreen, and allow it to dry.

Dry Skin

But perhaps you’re waging the war on a different front. If your home front — your skin — is dry and arid, instead of oily, where the harsh sun glints off of the filmy sheen left by the legendary beast, recall your basic training. Check every product you use on your face to see whether it is oil or water based.

Do you remember that experiment from elementary school? The one where you mixed oil and water together in a beaker and watched them slowly separate? Well, putting both oil and water based products on your face is essentially the same thing. It could cause even the best, most long-wearing products to detach from the skin and separate into their base components, some of which could appear as blotches of shine. It’s true: even dry skin can fall to the dreaded greasy smear.

But maybe you’ve been careful not to mix oil- and water-based products yet still struggle with shine. Another common cause of shine on non-oily skin can be due to the use of products containing silicone in combination with more aqueous ones. When mixed, water causes silicone to curdle (essentially becoming a sort of plastic). As the silicone microscopically clumps and collects in minuscule spheres, it can reflect light in various and unappealing ways, thereby allowing the OIL MONSTER to prevail.
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Get Bronzy, Brown Gams with Guerlain Terracotta Jambes de Gazelle

July 3rd, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

My relationships with shorts and skirts just got infinitely better thanks to Guerlain’s Terracotta Jambes de Gazelle Bronzing Mist ($59).

Part of the 12-piece limited edition Guerlain Terracotta summer 2011 collection, this liquid bronzing spray mist gives a temporary tan to legs that washes off at the end of the day.

I haven’t spent much time out in the sun yet this summer, so my legs (and my upper thighs, especially) could use a little extra color. Lately, before heading out in a dress or skirt, I’ve been spraying Jambes de Gazelle on my calves and thighs.

I love the light kiss of caramel it gives to my legs. Even Tabs thinks it’s a very pretty golden brown…

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5 Summer Staples: Show Some Skin with These Body Care Basics

June 24th, 2011 by Karen 24 Comments

Summer’s the season to show off a little skin, and to this I roar “Hallelujah!” After what felt like the longest, wettest, dreariest winter and spring in this century so far, I’m beyond ready to finally free myself from my cotton/polyester oppressors. So long, long pants, wool socks and turtleneck sweaters. Peace!

Summers in this part of Northern California can get pretty hot, but before I venture out in a summer dress or park my posterior poolside in a swimsuit, I like to do a bit of body beauty prep first (don’t want my hairy sasquatch legs to frighten the neighborhood kids, ya know?). For this I turn to body care basics like the fab five listed below.

1. A rockin’ razor

Furry girl says what? This vorpal gift to hairy women everywhere hacks away hair like a machete cuts through jungle. The Gillette Venus Embrace ($12 for a starter kit that includes the razor, a shower pod/case and two spare cartridges; additional cartridges are sold separately) takes care of the hair on my legs, lady parts, ‘pits and toes (don’t front like you don’t know what I’m talking about 🙂 ), and it does it with five blades.

FIVE BLADES!

You’d think that maybe four blades would have been enough, but no. Turns out that five is the new four.

This mighty multi-bladed monster gives this mini-Chewbacca the closest shave of her life. When I use it, not only does my skin feel smoother than it does after I use other razors, but the Venus shaves so close that I find I don’t have to shave as often.

2. An easy-to-apply sunscreen

Banana Boat Ultra Defense SPF 30

In my capacity as Tabs’ assistant/human servant, I have to be available at a moment’s notice, which means I don’t always have time to spend rubbing in sunscreen from head to toe.

When time is of the essence, particularly in summer, I like to have a good waterproof aerosol spray, and Banana Boat Ultra Defense Continuous Spray Sunblock ($10) is my current fave.

Just spritz on arms, legs and any other exposed parts, massage it in a little, and you’re done. It offers broad-spectrum protection against UVA/UVB rays and comes in three varying levels of SPF — 30, 50 and 85. It’s quick to dry and resists water ~~like most cats~~ incredibly well, ya know, just in case a shirtless Ryan Reynolds stops by to ask if you want to go swimming (I DO!).
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