All Eyes On Her

I’ve been reading cult reviews of Urban Decay’s Primer Potion for ages, and I finally broke down and impulse-bought some at Sephora a month ago.

I wanted to really give it a good run before I reviewed it, but my goodness has it earned its stripes! Or rather, lack thereof — I’ve NEVER found an eye shadow base that actually prevented that mid-lid crease line before. (They all say they will, but most don’t.) Sadly, I can’t show you amazing pics of my shadow holding up, because I don’t have a camera that really captures it well — you’ll have to trust me for now! I’ll upload a pic once we get a real camera.

I only have a couple problems incorporating this new product. First of all, if you’ve been using a product like Retin-A around your brow bone like I have*, it can highlight any flaky patches you may be going through.

Secondly, it really grips your shadow, which means you have to be much more precise about application — I find that it’s a lot harder to blend shades with a coat of Primer Potion on, so no more sloppy half-awake shadow jobs!

These aren’t big issues — I just use it up to and slightly above my crease, avoiding my brow bone. And I think it’s actually trained me in better applications techniques for my shadows!

And thankfully, I had come across buzz in the beauty blogosphere about how to remove all the excess product from the adorable but poorly-designed container. Clumps of Mascara writer Brittany has laid out a helpful how-to here, complete with pictures to guide you.

Read the rest…

Turns out that toxic ingredients like toluene, formaldehyde and phthalates actually serve a purpose in nail polish — they help it cure.

I went in to butter LONDON today to trade in three old polishes for three shiny new 3-Free ones, and the clerk painted each of my nails up with a different shade. He applied approximately two thin coats to each digit, and I let them take it easy for a good 10–15 minutes before I went back to running my errands.

When I got home and inspected them, they were all significantly smudged. You may not be able to tell from that fuzzy iPhone pic, but trust me, they’re pretty ugly in person. (But to be fair, I’m a very hands-on person, and polish jobs don’t usually last long on my fingernails.)

I had hoped these new semi-natural polishes would hold up like regular icky ones, because I hate waiting for things to dry. (The long curing time is the main reason I was turned off of the Honeybee Gardens polish collection.) I’ll update as to whether a full and properly cured manicure still smudges…

For many years I’ve cautioned readers against bubble baths, singing the tune that skin soaking in harsh detergents is only going to get dried out and flaky. Instead, I’ve said, you should use a body oil, and apply it directly to your skin before you slip into the tub. (Or go for a therapeutic bath additive, like Epsom salts for muscle tension, or aromatherapy essential oils for mental tension.)

That’s all well and good, but sometimes you gotta indulge those old-school cravings. And ever since I started using 100% Pure’s bath gels, I’ve been shocked by how non-dry my skin has been! (Their lotion ain’t half bad, either — I’ve been meaning to post a detailed review of their products, and I promise I will soon!) These babies truly are pure, with no icky fillers like dimethicone or harsh detergents like sodium laurel sulfate (SLS). So I decided to give them a whirl in a bubble bath, on the off-chance that I had finally found a cleanser that was gentle enough to soak in for an hour.

I have to admit, my expectations were low since these don’t cause much foam during shower time. But I think that must be largely due to their liquid-like consistency, because BOY was my bath bubbly today! I was surrounded by fluffy, light, nectarine-scented foam that took me back to my days of pretty princess dresses and My Little Ponies. A much-needed escape! I still recommend the other, more skin-friendly baths I’ve prescribed for so long. But on those days when you just wanna jump in rain puddles and play with makeup, I finally have a go-to bubble bath option! My inner child is grinning. :)

Okay, perhaps not TOTALLY broke. But with their new Turn In Your Toxins Earth Day deal, I’m totally planning on cashing in six old cruddy nail polishes for two new shiny ones. (I double-checked the site’s fine print, and it looks like each customer can do this 3-for-1 deal twice, for double the fun.)

More than anything, I’m excited to check the place out and get a feel for it. I’ve been wanting to explore their products and treatments ever since I first spotted them in the Sea-Tac Airport terminal, especially since they don’t use any unhygienic water-based treatments. (I’m a bit skeptical about ingredients, because “free of carcinogenic toxins” doesn’t necessarily mean their stuff is free of the zillion other ingredients my skin hates. But it’s a start.) And they’ll do a straight-up polish for just $10, which is nice — I don’t actually enjoy the full-on manicure… not a good service for control freaks such as myself!

Most other natural nail polish brands are sadly pretty worthless — I’ve heard from EDSers that the polish by Honeybee Gardens is a very weird formulations that’s slow to dry and hard to remove, and I’m not a fan AT ALL of those peel-off versions that remind me of fake makeup from back before I was permitted the real thing. So this may be a nice compromise, at least until something better gets developed.

I think my Clarisonic and my Vitamin C Serum might sorta be canceling each other out.

A few EDS members expressed concerns that C serums gave them really obvious blackheads, in weird places like their cheeks. And I believe the theory here is that vitamin C oxidizes the gunk in your pores, so it makes it all the more obvious.

And, of course, the theory behind the Clarisonic is that it helps *remove* the gunk from your pores. (Amongst other things.) I think it helps a little, with this and with maintaining a smoother and evener complexion. But I’ve always been of the philosophy that some people just get blackheads, and some don’t, and there’s very little you can do to change that.

Anyway, I’m going to bail on using C-Serum after I finish up this bottle of PSF, and see if my blackheads don’t improve a bit more. At $48 a bottle, I don’t think I can justify the “maybe” results anyway!

One of the most frustrating skincare myths (according to my very naturally-biased views) is that Cetaphil is a wonder cleanser. Every beauty magazine and schticky dermatologist seems to endorse this crap, claiming it’s one of the gentlest things out there. I call BS on you, Beauty Industry!

This stuff is chock full of filler ingredients that are irritating and drying. I’m sick of hearing people claim how great it is, and I’m frustrated when friends and acquaintances approach me for skincare advice after using Cetaphil and seeing less than wondrous results.

It’s true that soap-free, creamy or milky, non-foaming cleansers are often better for your skin than harsh sudsing ones which strip your natural moisture. But there are creamy, milky formulations that don’t contain a bunch of junk guaranteed to stress out your skin, and there’s something for every price range. It’d take up an entire blog post just to list them all!

Read the rest…

I’ve been wanting to add a good beta hydroxy acid product to my regime, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding the right one. I’ve read before that salicylic acid (the main BHA in cosmetic formulations) is only soluble in alcohol or oil, and I’m not interested in using alcohol-infused products on my sensitive and dryness-prone skin.

So of course, I started keeping an eye out for BHA products that were oil-based instead… but I haven’t found a single one. Nearly every BHA product out there is chock-full of harsh alcohol that this picky complexion just won’t tolerate.

One BHA product I found which doesn’t seem to contain large amounts of either alcohol OR oil is Juice Beauty’s Blemish Clearing Serum. However, this stuff is weaker than I’d like at only 1% salicylic acid, and the texture is kind of unbearable. It goes on incredibly sticky and the sticky feeling never really leaves you.

So my search has continued. I was thrilled when I found Devita’s Acne Solution Pads, since they claimed to be 3% salicylic acid but completely alcohol free, which is obviously a rare find.

I was a little skeptical, since I’d read those solubility claims elsewhere, and since I know witch hazel (the main ingredient in these puppies) can often be chock-full of alcohol even if it isn’t listed in the ingredients. But I figured that since they make a specific point of calling out the glaring absence of alcohol, then these must be safe.

And boy, was I wrong. I opened up the jar, and one whiff nearly knocked me out. These pads CLEARLY contain alcohol, and quite a lot of it — I haven’t been able to use them on my face at all. (I still use them to exfoliate after trimming my bikini area or shaving my underarms, because the BHA helps prevent ingrown hairs. But I had intended to use them on my face, and this is simply not an option.) Normally, being the consumer-hound that I am, I’d be more frustrated that these products are using deceptive marketing. But instead, I’m just still focused on finding a dang BHA product that I can use!

Years ago, I had used Aveda’s Botanical Kinetic Exfoliant, so I looked into going back to that stuff. But my older and now wiser self noticed that this stuff also has a high witch hazel and alcohol content, so that’s out (now that I know better). It would seem that everything in a toner-like consistency is completely off the table as far as alcohol concerns go. Read the rest…

I recently became interested in cream and gel eyeliner formulas, after reading some EDS raves about how long-lasting and smudge-proof MAC Fluidline is. And I wound up doing a couple of MUA swaps in which I inherited a MAC Fluidline pot and a Smashbox Cream Eyeliner, so suddenly I had a cheap and easy way to test these babies out. But I was TERRIBLE at applying them! I just couldn’t figure out how to make them go on nicely, even though I consider myself a relatively savvy makeup user.

So I did a little research. The Smashbox description of my newly-received swap item recommended using their #21 Arced Liner Brush, so I checked out that product on their site.

I’d actually never seen a bent brush like this — probably because I’ve never used cream/gel eyeliner before. I picked up a slightly cheaper (but still very high-quality and super-soft) Sephora version, their Professional Platinum Angled Eyeliner Brush #23. It also looks like you can get Bare Escentuals or Benefit versions for cheaper, but I don’t trust those brushes as much as I trust Sephora’s Professional line. (I strongly prefer dense, synthetic brushes that never shed a hair, and Too Faced and Sephora are my go-to brush companies.)

This cracks me up, because I should’ve known the right brush would make all the difference. I could never master those artfully deep-set slightly-smoky triangles you can do on your eyelid, until I got my Too Faced Angled Eye Shadow Brush. And applying mineral powder concealer to blemishes became infinitely easier with my Sephora Professional Concealer Brush #46 and my Everyday Minerals Oval Concealer brush (I alternate them so they have time to dry between applications). I may be a makeup savant, but I’m only beginning to call myself a tool savant. Once I can fully master an eyelash curler without getting that horrible crimp line, I’ll be ready for my certificate.

I’m just loving how my new eyeliners look. They create great definition, without disappearing like a normal eyeliner pencil, and without creating as sharp a line as a liquid liner. (They’re much more forgiving during the application process than liquid liners, too.) I find it a bit more awkward to do my left eye than my right, but I manage okay — the bent shaft of the brush really makes it a lot easier. Now, if only they could make ALL beauty tools so ergonomic — I might never burn myself with my straightening iron again!

So I was finally able to try out my new Clarisonic last night.  I didn’t really want to internalize all the information about how to program it to scrub at different speeds or for different lengths of time, so I kind of just plugged it in and hit go.  My first impression?  …Underwhelmed.

I used the thing on my forehead, nose, chin and cheeks like it suggested, but I guess I was expecting it to be “scrubbier.”  Instead, it’s fairly gentle, and kind of tickles — the same way the Sonicare toothbrush did before I got used to it.  It was particularly ticklish to use it on my nose, as the vibrations kind of resonate even more through the bony bridge… but it wasn’t unbearably ticklish, just kind of odd.

When the auto-cycle was done, I wound up firing it up and using it for another couple minutes, because it didn’t feel like I needed to “take a break” or anything.  And I didn’t even get to my neck or decolette, so I think I’ll try using it in the shower today to see how badly it tickles my throat.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it feels so, well, subtle — the company (and many users) specifically point out that it’s less irritating than traditional “scrubbing” forms of exfoliation.  And I definitely do feel a result the next day — my dry, patchy Retin-A-crazy skin feels smoother and more eve and calm.

I can tell it’s going to take some time to really get a feel for how this thing does, and what kinds of results it produces.  For now, I’m hanging on to the receipt just in case… but I suspect I’ll fall in love with it sometime soon.  I’ll keep you posted!

Turns out vitamin C did more for my skin than I thought! I used my PSF sample faithfully for almost a month, and I noticed tiny changes but nothing massive. But now that I’ve suddenly stopped using it, my skin seems so much rougher, patchier, and less generally happy.

I’m actually kind of happy to note this — it’s nice to see a product that really does work and show results, ya know? I can tell my skin isn’t any worse off than before the C regimen began — if anything, it’s better, thanks to the Retin-A I’m still using. But the C seemed to really chill out any negative effects from the A, so maybe those vitamins just need to work in tandem? Who knows!

All I know for sure is that I’m definitely going to purchase a full-sizer of PSF’s Vitamin C Serum. And based on how fab this stuff was, I just might have to give some of their other products a try!

I usually order whatever I can from Essential Day Spa, since I get loads of high-end samples and freebies, plus a discount for forum participation. If it weren’t for all that, I’d make sure to order directly from PSF so they could keep that profit. I try to make a point of doing this for smaller companies, if there isn’t a good reason not to. But I can’t resist the EDS goodies!