Loose Powder

The theme for this month’s Birchbox is Beauty Innovations. I’ve read a few reviews on other blogs where people seemed a bit disappointed with this month’s selection and while every box can’t be a winner, I was pretty pleased with what I got.

I do admit that this month’s box wasn’t as amazing as the last three I’d gotten, but there are still things to like in it!

My box included:

• blinc eyeliner
• Carol’s Daughter Monoi Repairing Hair Mask
• Pangea Organics Cleanser for Combination to Oily Skin
• Wei Tibetan Chrysanthemum Correcting Eye Treatment Pads
• Extra: Twistband hair tie

I just opened the box so I haven’t had a chance to try everything out yet. I’m really looking forward to trying to blinc eyeliner – they make a fiberwig mascara and have created an eyeliner with the same type of formulation. I also love Pangea products, so I’m keen to try their cleanser.

The Monoi hair mask is a new product from Carol’s Daughter. It’s paraben, mineral oil, and petroleum free, which is great. Looking forward to trying this the next time my hair is feeling a little fried.

Now, the thing people seemed the most disappointed by – the Twistband hair tie. I actually am a fan of this hair tie! It doesn’t leave a deep crease in my hair, doesn’t snag when I pull it out. Because of it’s made of an elastic ribbon, it looks much nicer on my wrist than a regular hair tie. I’d certainly buy more of these!

Here’s a closer look at the items in my box:

I’m still loving my Birchbox subscription and I can’t wait for next month’s box!

Birchbox is a subscription service. For $10 a month, you get a box filled with large sample sizes from various beauty brands. Reuse the sturdy boxes for gifts or to hold whatever you want!

In January, I reviewed Luxury Lane‘s Tardis Soap and mentioned that I wish that fabulous rose scent came in another bar form. Kylee contacted me via Twitter to let me know that some of the bars in the Hemp Bath line came in that scent and I immediately purchased a massage bar and a beauty bar.

Look at these beautifully poured soaps! The beauty bar has the kanji for “beautiful” on it. I love, love, love the rose scent of these soaps. It’s a greener scent than a lot of rose scented soaps which usually end up smelling too powdery.

The ingredients of the soap bars, as listed on the site are as follows:

Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Safflower Oil, Hemp Seed Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan Oleate (emulsifier) and Soybean Protein (conditioner), Aloe Vera Gel and Fragrance

Hemp oil is supposed the help smooth the skin and relieve the symptoms of eczema, psoriasis, and acne.

The massage bar is approximately 6oz and the beauty bar is approximately 5oz.

I highly recommend these soaps! While you’re at Luxury Lane, be sure to check out the other fun and geeky soaps there!

Being a fan of both handmade soaps and Doctor Who, the moment I heard about TARDIS soap, I knew I had to get one. The first one I heard about is made Geeky Clean. There was a bit of a mix up that I will talk about later in this entry, but it resulted in me also purchasing another TARDIS soap by Luxury Lane Soaps.

I’ll talk about each soap individually, but in the above photo, the Luxury Lane soap is on the left and the Geeky Clean soap is on the right.

Geeky Clean’s TARDIS Soap

Geeky Clean’s soap is available on both their site and Doctor Who North America for $10. The soap measures 6″ x 1.5″ and weighs about 14oz. As described, it smells like a vanilla custard, but I’m also getting a bit of citrus.

The police box sign and windows are printed on paper and attached to the plastic wrapper. The soap is extremely detailed on the front and sides, but there’s no detail on the back.

As I mentioned above, there was a problem with my order that was probably due to the fact I placed my order with a thousand other people who bought one after Wil Wheaton mentioned it on his Twitter. I placed my order  at the end of October and after about a month, I contacted the shop owner via both e-mail and twitter. Twitter was much more effective, for anyone needing to contact Geeky Clean. Still, it was about another month before my order was finally shipped out, The shop owner was very apologetic and offered a partial refund and a free soap. It seems I was unfortunate enough to get lost in the shuffle of the pile of orders, but I did appreciate the effort made to finally get my order to me. I have a couple other Geeky Clean soaps that I bought and have to try, but I would probably order from them again.

Luxury Lane Soap’s TARDIS Soap

Luxury Lane’s soap is available from their site for $12.50. It weighs about 8oz. and measures 4″x2″x2″. The soap has a really lovely rose scent that’s more green than powdery. It’s my favorite kind of rose scent!

The order arrived from Luxury Lane in about a week. I’m keen to try her other soaps, but I wish the rose scent of this Tardis soap was available in a soap bar. I would buy those in an instant!

[Update: Kylee Lane contacted me via Twitter to let me know that the TARDIS Rose scent is available in her hemp bath line! I have purchased a hemp beauty bar and a hemp massage bar and will be reviewing those.]

The police box signs and windows are also printed on paper like the Geeky Clean soap, but there’s a bit more detail and they are attached to the soap itself. The soap can be viewed from any side and there’s nice wood grain texture on all the surfaces.

The Luxury Lane soap is my favorite of the two Tardis soaps. Of course, it’s so pretty that I can’t really bring myself to use it. Instead, I’ve put it in a glass jar with some fake moss. If you decide to do this too, here’s a tip: cut a piece of plastic to put under the soap or else it will absorb the dye in the fake moss and leave green spots!

It looks great sitting on a mirrored shelf in my bathroom!

I haven’t actually used either soap as… soap, but both of these are quite nice and worth the purchase. The different attributes of each might make you decide to buy one over another, so I hope this review was helpful!

Since becoming more active with outdoor activities, I have been looking for an alternative foundation that was sweat resistant, protected my skin, and had a light tint that smoothed out my blemishes like a foundation. Because I could not use just any kind of moisturizer, I had to find one that had all of the above in addition to being oil free, hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic, and paraben free.

I hit the jackpot when I found Physicians Formula’s New Healthy Wear Tinted Moisturizer. It contained everything I was looking for and it was SPF 50 since most makeup with SPF protection tends to stop at SPF 15. Though recently there have been higher SPF cosmetics being produced.

SPF 15 is sufficient protection for your skin. A higher Sun Protection Factor (SPF) number only means that your skin is protected longer. The number basically says that your skin is protected x times longer from burning than without sunscreen. So I tend to like higher SPF products because I have a bad habit of not reapplying sunscreen in a timely fashion.

I usually use one or two pumps of the moisturizer, and the coverage of this tinted moisturizer is quite decent and it is like having a light weight liquid foundation on. Though I have to admit, this tinted moisturizer does make my skin a bit oily, but I usually dust my face with a mineral veil to control oil and shine on my face.

I have gone hiking and snowboarding for hours using this tinted moisturizer as my main facial sun protection and it does its job. After hours of sweating and exposure to the hot sun, my face remains burn free. Of course, I don’t suggest you go hiking for 13 hours without a hat or other supplemental sun protection.

I use this tinted moisturizer as an alternate foundation for my face when I know I will be outdoors, swimming, or sweating. I highly recommend this product if you are looking for a cheaper tinted moisturizer that gives you coverage and protects your face from the damaging rays of the sun.

It took me years to figure this out, but I have combination skin and this might be due to the acne medication I use. My T-zones would be ridiculously oily, but my cheeks would be dry. I had tried all kinds of moisturizers before discovering Neutrogena. I had previously used Nivea, Olay, Ponds, and some others, but all had the same problem of having oils that caused me to breakout after a few uses, or they would dry out my skin then cause me to breakout.

When I saw Neutrogena had an “oil-free” moisturizer, I was sold. I purchased the SPF 15 and Combination skin moisturizer.

On back of the bottle, it notes that the moisturizer won’t clog pores and it is hypoallergenic, alcohol-free, and fragrance free. Though I notice that the SPF 15 has a light scent that is usually accompanied with sunscreen, and I’m not talking about the tropical coco butter scent. The combination moisturizer has a very light scent that I like and you don’t even smell it after applying it on your face.

The directions tell you to use only one pump, and one pump is more than enough. Once I even tried using two pumps and it was moisturizer overkill. I ended up with excess moisturizer all over my hands. The 4 fl. oz. bottle can last quite awhile. I usually use the SPF 15 moisturizer in the morning under my makeup and it keeps my face moisturized throughout the day. Before bed I would use the combination moisturizer since the benzoyl peroxide in my facial cleanser dries my skin. This routine has kept my face from drying out during the winter months, and the SPF 15 moisturizer offers my skin protection during the summer months.

If you’re looking for an oil-free moisturizer, I recommend giving Neutrogena: Oil-Free Moisture a try. In addition to the SPF 15 and Combination Skin moisturizer, Neutrogena also has a moisturizer for Sensitive Skin.

About a week ago I discovered the Lush store at one of my local malls. It’s pretty new and I think I’d noticed it once or twice before, but never gone in. Big mistake going in, because now I’m going to keep going back and spending money.

The store partially drew me in because it is called “LUSH – Fresh Handmade Cosmetics”, which made me think they also had makeup. They don’t. It’s all bath/body/hair stuff, but what wonderful stuff it is! The products are all-natural/vegetarian, with over 70% being vegan. They use natural ingredients and about two-thirds of their items are preservative-free; the products are hand-made, they do not test on animals & don’t do business with suppliers that do, and they use ethical suppliers for their ingredients (this is all from their website).

I’ve been in twice so far, and the salesgirls have been very friendly and eager to help, but not obnoxious. The store smells delightful and it’s hard to choose just a few things to buy! My first time in, I started with two things: the Buffy body bar (bottom in pic) and the Therapy massage bar (top in pic).

The Therapy massage bar is a shea and cocoa butter bar with lavender & orange oil for a relaxing scent. They use organic fair-trade shea butter and cocoa butter for this product. It is designed to be massaged into the skin and not leave oil on your skin; it does absorb in pretty well. Cocoa butter is good for stretch marks & they advertise it as particularly good for pregnant bellies. Personally, I’ve been using cocoa butter products for years now on the stretch marks on my hips (from weight loss/gain, not pregnancy, lol) and it works very well to minimize them and really moisturize the whole area.

I picked up this bar because of my love for cocoa butter and the yummy scent: it smells like other cocoa butter products I’ve had before, but with a hint of lavender. The girl at the store explained that the reason the bar has one raised bump and three little holes on it is because apparently one out of every four babies is born with an outtie belly button, and this bar is marketed as being good for pregnant women. Cute! I’ve used this about a week now & it’s moisturizing, working great on my hips, smells yummy, so overall a great product; however, it basically does the same thing as the Cococare cocoa butter stick I have been using for a long time, which costs less than $2 at drugstores. I probably won’t buy the Therapy massage bar again just because of the cost as compared to the cococare stick, but it is really a great product.

Now onto the Buffy body bar. I cannot even begin to express how much I LOVE this! It is a scrub bar of shea and cocoa butter mixed with ground rice, almonds and aduki beans for exfoliating. It smells like shea and maybe a little oatmeal-y to me, but there’s no oatmeal in it – not a delicious scent, but I like it. I bought the smaller one because it was cheaper, have used it for over a week every other day, and it’s almost gone, so I will buy the larger one next time.

(Buffy after a few uses, showing the abrasiveness of it)

I use this bar in the shower right before I get out: just scrub wherever you want, then rinse & dry off. It leaves your skin feeling like you’ve already put lotion on - it’s not greasy, and your skin feels just so soft & smooth. I have a huge problem area of dry skin in the winter on my hips, and I usually have to slather on lotion after a shower because it gets itchy.  I use the Buffy bar and don’t feel the need to put any lotion on whatsoever, and it has eliminated dry flaky skin I get on my hips. It is actually a bit abrasive so be careful if your skin is super sensitive, but I love it on my arms & legs in addition to any other dry skin areas. I will keep buying this again and again, I can’t say enough good things about it!

One other thing; at Lush they use very little packaging. The bars, soaps, bath bombs etc are sold without any packaging and displayed in bins and stacks (which makes for pretty cute displays). They put things into little paper baggies when you buy them, for which they use as much post-consumer recycled materials for as they can, or you can buy tins for $2.95, which are re-usable of course. I bought tins with these two items.

 So to conclude, Lush is a new favorite of mine. I’ve made a second purchase  already and will be continuing to go back to try things out. If you have one near you and haven’t been in, absolutely check it out.

EDIT 5/2/10: DO NOT leave your buffy bar in a hot car Mine melted to liquid in the car yesterday on the 6-hour drive home from Jersey. I was so sad last night when I got in the shower & realized it was totally dead! I don’t know what you can do to remedy this if it has to be in a hot location, but my apartment gets pretty hot in the summer so I’m going to have to figure something out.

Everyone knows someone who knows someone who sells Mary Kay. It’s the more expensive Avon. Plus, well, to be real, those who sell MK get a bigger commission, and they know and love the product they sell. I actually ran into a convention of MK reps in an airport and after an eye-opening conversation, discovered that they do indeed still give out the pink Cadillacs, and that amused me. I actually don’t sell MK myself (though I am thinking about it – have been for awhile), so this review has the benefit of being unbiased in that I’m not linking everything back to my sales page.

Predominantly, the things I get from MK are skin care products. Their Velocity line has the medicated acne-treatment skin care, but I’m not a huge fan when I can use a combination of Clean & Clear and St. Ives products to get the same result. However, I do enjoy and utilise their TimeWise line of skin care products.

TimeWise is their anti-aging line, and while I wasn’t too concerned with those products at 19, I started trying a few of them anyway and in general, despite my excessive sun exposure, I’m seeing a fewer tiny lines and discolorations than others my age (which would be 26, while we’re disclosing to prove the usefulness of a product). My favorite is their TimeWise Moisturizer (for oily/combination skin) - it’s a very light moisturizer that you’re supposed to use day and night, but I never put anything on my face at night – that’s when my pores get to breathe. I’ve used over-the-counter moisturizers that feel greasy and make me break out, but this is the first one that’s passed all the tests. Oil of Olay is generally a recommended moisturizer because they are department-store quality (think the gals at Macy’s who are hawking brand names few can realistically afford) at over-the-counter prices. In my experience, even their formula for oily/combination skin made me break out a little. Your skin changes as your hormones change and you age, so this could very well no longer be the case, but at 19/20/21, I still had very angry skin, and Oil of Olay was not cutting it. I simply have not gone back and retried it, I’ve  become an MK brand whore, as it were. I use a very tiny amount and it goes a long way, so my single 3 fl. oz. is worth the money to me ($22). 

MK Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover: As Cyn already showed us, there are plenty of options for eye makeup removal. Since we’re talking Mary Kay, I thought I’d share my one of my favorite products, which is a fantastic eye makeup remover. It’s oil-free, and gentle on the skin in the eye area. Another plus, I accidentally poked myself in the eye with a Q-Tip removing eyeliner with the product, and I only suffered a poke in the eye, not a situation that required EMERGENCY EYE WASH from one of those goggle-sinks. So it seems to be gentle enough you can be a klutz and not blind yourself. Well, unless you poke yourself really hard with that Q-Tip. That could do some damage. ANYWAY, back to the product. It looks like it should be oily, because it separates in the bottle, but wonderfully, it’s not. I shake up the bottle, and drip the product (which is about the consistency of water) onto a Q-Tip for eyeliner and most eyeshadow removal. For mascara (even waterproof! I almost don’t want to know what magic is in this stuff – I just know it won’t give me cancer and isn’t tested on animals, so that’s enough for me right now) and sometimes with eyeshadow where I’ve done more than a quick swath with my Victoria Secret EyeShadow Wand, I use a cotton pad. You don’t need a lot of product, and while it doesn’t leave any residue behind, I do usually wash my face afterwards just in case anything is left behind. The big plus here? You just gently wipe. No scrubbing, no rubbing, just a gentle swish and it takes off everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Easily, simply, without irritation, residue, or hassle. Aside from the moisturizer, this has quickly become a favorite product now that I have to be all girly-professional for work.

 Satin Lips Set: I’ll admit up front, I hate that the balm no longer comes in a little pot. I kept my little pot, and tend to buy it in the tube, squeeze it all into the little pot, and stick it in the fridge to set it before I use it. Through some weird magic of chemistry (yes, it IS magic…leave me alone), it doesn’t go back to being all gooey unless it gets REALLY warm. At which point, back into the fridge overnight it goes! But back to the usefulness aspect of this duet. Wearing a lot of chapstick in general, inevitably you’ll get dead skin on your lips. Most of it comes off with a good regular scrub, but sometimes I just want to do this with my lips – and most facial scrubs are going to be a little harsher than you want on your lips. This isn’t called a scrub for that reason – it’s a buffing agent. It removes dead skin cells with a gentle, tiny-beaded (okay, so I’m going to do it anyway) scrub. After washing it off and patting your lips dry, putting on the balm is fantastic. It sinks right into your lips and, I know this might be funny to say, but it makes my lips feel refreshed. Even though there isn’t a minty tingle I usually associate with the word “refreshed”. And did I mention soft? I actually really like touching my lips after this process. I use the balm more often than the buffing agent, but I’ve found that if there is a build-up of dead skin cells on your lips it doesn’t absorb as well and can feel a bit waxy sitting on top of your lips. I don’t use this exclusively – more like when I’m feelin’ sassy. It has no scent, flavor, or color, and doesn’t in general play well with others (the no-smear lipstick from MK lives up to its name, but smeared when I put the balm on top…curious?), but is a useful product to keep your lips healthy.

Next time I’ll sing the praises of varying makeup products themselves, but these three are products that I keep myself supplied with on a regular basis and still haven’t gone out of style for me seven years after I bought my first “dose”.

I was asked to compare & review some of the cleansers I have used for eye makeup removal. Until recently, I haven’t used many difficult to remove items like mascara and eyeliner so my regular facial cleansers and a wash cloth seemed to work just fine.

However, once I began using eye primers (like Pixie Epoxy), mascara, and heavy eyeliner for smokey looks, I quickly discovered that the normal cleansers weren’t going to be effective. Sure, they worked — it just required a bit more scrubbing, which might be fine on other parts of your face, but around the eye? Not so much.

In this article, I’m going to talk about three products: Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple Foaming Cleanser, Philosophy’s Just Release Me Eye Makeup Remover, and Burt’s Bees Orange Essence Facial Cleanser.

You might be thinking it isn’t fair to compare one eye makeup remover against two face cleansers. Well, why not? Some people suggest using sunflower oil and that certainly isn’t a cleanser!

To start with, I picked several eye products: e.l.f. mineral eyeliner w/powdered eye shadow on top, e.l.f. waterproof eyeliner, NYC liquid eyeliner, Wet N Wild liquid liner, e.l.f. sugar kiss glitter liner, and NYC waterproof mascara.

And made four sets of lines on my arm with each product. I used Tarte Clean Slate primer underneath and let everything for about 3 hours.

My method for each product will be the same: I’ll use a q-tip with the product and some water. At the top of the test patch, I’ll use minimal pressure when rubbing on the product. Below that on the same patch, I’ll use a bit of scrubbing pressure, which you probably wouldn’t use on your eyelid. Then rinse with water and see what happens!

Now for the results!

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