All Eyes On Her

Lots of skincare-savvy gals have been gaga for the Clarisonic face brush for years. It’s from the same folks who make the Sonicare tooth brush, and Grant and I absolutely adore our shared Sonicare. I’ve been hearing more and more good stuff about the Clarisonic, so I started looking into at least trying one out.

Turns out EVERYONE heard about the Clarisonic from Oprah, and now they’re sold out everywhere! Couple that with the fact that there was a pretty major recall due to a manufacturing error that caused many brushes to overheat, and you’ve got a massive backlog of purchase orders. Nordstrom wasn’t even able to guarantee me one in time for my birthday in late March. (Not that I’d be ready to spend $200 on ANYTHING so soon, but I wanted to at least have the option!)

Normally, I’d be fine with waiting and really being sure. But I figured I might as well check out a tester model and just see how it felt and how it worked up close. Turns out all the testers are gone too — SAs from Nordies and Sephora revealed that fellow employees were the culprits! Apparently, since no one else can buy them, neither can they, so they just hijack the store ones to satisfy their Clarisonic cravings in the meantime.

I tell ya, I never knew something that expensive and creepy-looking could get so popular! Grant’s horrified at the idea, and keeps asking me not to buy the brush that “flays my skin”. (No matter how much I try to explain to him that it’s not actually very abrasive, he’s understandably freaked out — I’d be horrified, too, if someone tried to use an actual Sonicare on their face.)

Anyway, I guess I’ll have to wait in line like all the other good girls, which is just as well since I haven’t actually landed that new job yet. Rather than hunting it down from some random store that still has a few in stock, I’m determined to get it from somewhere like Nordie’s that has a really good return policy, just in case I hate it. Or in case it flays my skin. ;)

I’ve been wanting to try a vitamin C serum ever since I read about people’s glorious results on EDS.  But it’s a tricky substance: most C serums apparently oxidize really quickly, which means the highly unstable C “turns” and can actually do your skin more harm than good.  It can be really hard to find a C serum that’s stable enough to last through the whole bottle.

To complicate matters further, the base ingredients that help keep C stable are exactly the sort of thing I hate to put on my face.  (Petrochemicals and/or potentially irritating acids, to name a couple.)  One solution is to try making your own C serum in small batches, so you can control how fresh it stays.

This is above and beyond my normal level of DIY crafting, but I think I’m up to the challenge.  Thankfully, C is a little more forgiving than some other DIY actives, and I’m not that invested if it doesn’t work out.  This may be my first leap into varsity-level DIY, which should be fun!  I wonder if Maggie Bullock will seek me out again. :)

I only recently started feeling like I need to use an eye cream. (It may have had something to do with the fact that my eye shadow — which I tend to wear both on my lid and just under my lower lash line — started settling into the fine lines that are developing under my eyes.) I got lucky with a generous sample that I tried of Best Bath Store’s Intensive Undereye Treatment, and I placed an order for a full-size jar.

Unfortunately, the cream went moldy on me after I was less than a quarter of the way through the jar. And at $35 a jar, I’m not interested in having to re-purchase whenever this problem hits every month or two. Thankfully, Justin from BBS is an exceptional customer service pro, and he immediately offered to send me a new jar for free, as well as giving me a few tips for how to help prevent this in the future.

However, I’m not a fan of having to refrigerate products, or store them in a humidity-proof container, or go to other great (and inconvenient) lengths to prolong their shelf life. I go through most products quickly enough that I think they should be able to stave off any creepy contamination.

Needless to say, the free replacement jar Justin sent me got moldy even quicker than the first one. I was so disappointed! This is truly the best eye cream I’ve ever found, and I hate having to part with it. But I’m just not willing to pay $35 plus shipping for something whenI only get maybe $10 of product out of it. I’m not sure what the best solution is — someday, I dream of having a tiny mini-fridge in my bathroom, so I can conveniently store low-preservative items like this without having to traipse to the kitchen for every application.

For now, I’ve been seeking a different eye cream with a longer shelf life, but so far this search is fruitless. I guess I’d better start saving up for that cosmetic mini fridge!

I was very excited to pick up this month’s ELLE magazine, even though it’s not one of my typical reads. On page 111, there’s an article on do-it-yourself skincare, and ELLE writer Maggie Bullock quoted me twice (including an ending quote, yay!).

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t appear in the online mag, but I’ve uploaded a PDF (with permission) here, in case anyone wants to check it out. (And no, it wasn’t printed that way — my boyfriend ever-so-subtly highlighted the parts with me in it.)

Dr. Hauschka recently released the new Pure Care Cover Stick in the US, but I only realized today that it’s meant as a replacement for their old Cover Stick Puncto. Had I realized this, I probably wouldn’t have purchased it — the old Puncto went bad on me surprisingly quickly, and the color was never quite right. (I’m much too pale for an 02, but just a shade too dark for an 01.)

I bought the Pure Care in 01 to try it out and see if it’s any better with my coloring than the Puncto was, but they look like they’re exactly the same. And they feel the same. And they smell the same. The only real difference seems to be the packaging — which is good, really, as it *does* expose the product to less oxygen, so theoretically it might protect it better from going bad.

Either way, I was pleased to learn today that my local Whole Foods allows you to return any cosmetics or skincare product you try and don’t like, as long as you keep the receipt. This actually really surprises me, but I’m thrilled — especially since they foolishly don’t have testers for many of their products. So I’ll be returning this, and thus returning to my Great Concealer Search.