Time to move on. Anyone want to keep it going?

Back when I started this little blog, I had recently given birth to my 4th child and experienced a TREMENDOUS bout of post-natal, super hormonal induced, adult acne attack along with a later in life onset of mild rosacea. Sounds like fun, huh??

I’ve learned so much on this adventure and I really have LOVED every minute of it. It’s been a total blast!

Several weeks ago, I got a surprise in the form of 2 small pink lines however. Yes, that’s right. Baby #5 is on the way! As a result, I feel it’s time to pare down my life, minimize my responsibilities and activities, and make more time so that I am not stressing either now, or when things get even more crazazy with another babe in my life.

Also, with all the hormonal muckety-muck that’s going on with my skin prior to the baby being born, and the skin adventures I may encounter afterwards, it just wouldn’t be possible to give a fair review to any cosmetic. My skin won’t be “normal” for a good long while at this point, and it wouldn’t be right to give a crap review about something making me break out if it were just hormonal madness taking place.

All that said, I’m looking for an adoptive parent for this blog. I’m going to leave it up until it finds a new mom, and then when the right person comes along, we’ll get it transferred to their hands and hopefully it will continue to live on!

If any of you feel like taking it on, please post a comment so I can get in touch with you. I hope someone comes along soon so my poor blog baby won’t be here all alone and abandoned.

I wish you all beautiful, smooth, clear skin and many happy adventures in gorgeousness. It’s been a blast!

Fragrance Roundup

Taken straight from the pages of those annoying magazine sample inserts!! And after I sniff these out, they’re going into my dresser to keep things smelling fresh in there!  Enjoy!

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Burberry London by Burberry for Women: It’s kind almost a citrus top note to it. I think it still smells like a man’s scent. It smells like a man’s overcoat. If I were to ever wear this (and I wouldn’t) it would be for a stuffy board room meeting where I wore a suit, a severe bun, and a bad attitude.

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Mediterranean by Elizabeth Arden: A little tangy with a hint of floral. It’s ok, but I would feel about 10 years older than I actually am wearing this. (at least!) That said, it’s not offensive – just not for me.

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Armani Code by Georgio Armani: It has a subtle, kind of sexy night time scent to it. The bottle is the sexiest part I think though.

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Rock ‘n Rose Couture by Valentino: This one I kind of like! A little sweet, a little floral, a little spicy! I would have thought by the name that it was a night time fragrance, but it definitely smells like a day time scent to me. It’s too feminine for a “rock ‘n rose” evening. It’s nice though!

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Tresor Sparkling by Lancome: Smells like date night!… but with the teensiest sharp notes in there that put it in that middle ground between PTA mom and sexy time while the kids have a baby sitter. Not bad. While you’re putting together that meatloaf, you’ll definitely be sending out the signals to your SO.

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ckin2u by Calvin Klein: Whew!!!! I smell a 16 year old boy trying to be hot and pick up chicks for the big dance!! Sharp!!

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Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel: Very classic. Very mature, but not in a stodgy way. This one could go between the boardroom and the dinner out and still be classy and sophisticated either way. Very nice.

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Very Irresistible by Givenchy: Subtle, sexy, and not too heavy or pushy. This is a Big Girl’s perfume!

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Daisy by Marc Jacobs: This is for spring or summer for sure. It smells like an afternoon picnic in a beautiful field. Simple and natural and clean scent. Very well-named!

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Princess by Vera Wang: My pre-teen girl would go CRAZY for the packaging! Holy Play Makeup!! It smells like candy. Not in a bad way, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone over the age of 17. I think anyone under that age would absolutely love it though. It is a nice scent, it’s just not for grown ups.

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M by Maria Carey: It’s not offensive, but it does smell like a tuberose that’s juuuuuuuussssst about to go bad. I think she should probably stick to singing and getting Photoshopped.

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Malachite by Banana Republic: Very slightly masculine, but in a very feminine way if that makes any sense. It’s nice and it’s subtle, but it’s not for the frilly girly-girl. This one is for the woman who feels very strong and confident, but always very much a woman.

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If you’ve tried any of these fragrances, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Kiss My Face Peaches & Creme Moisturizer w/ 8% Alpha Hydroxy

Rating:

Kiss My Face is one of my favorite product lines for several reasons, and they have another winner with this product! It’s definitely the kind that becomes a staple of your beauty cabinet. While all kinds of other products are rotating in and out and cycling through, never to be seen again, this is the kind you make sure you have all the time.

Here are the claims that it makes, and then I’ll break down my experience with it:

* exfoliates, allowing healthy skin cells to emerge
* quickly absorbing, long-lasting emollience
* improves even severely dry skin
* improves skin tone and texture
* reduces discoloration and age spots

I did find that it was helpful with exfoliation. With continued use, my skin looked brighter, felt softer, and was less prone to clogging. One evidence that it was doing it’s job is that when I applied it after using a loofah, I sometimes felt a bit of stinging around the sensitive areas of my face. I understand that this is fairly common for Alpha Hydroxy products, and I didn’t much care for it, but it was only occasional and not awful.

The consistency is very light and smooth, and you only need a small bit. It absorbs right in without leaving you feeling dry or greasy, just nice and soft! I did wake up in the morning with an oil slick on my face, which I didn’t care for because I’ve been able to avoid that with my olive oil moisturizer, and had gotten spoiled by it. (Note: This stuff doesn’t make me oily; I am always oily with the exception of when I use the olive oil moisturizer. ) I don’t like it, but I can live with it because of how great it is in other areas.

Skin tone, texture, discoloration and age spots: Check, check, check and check. It did a fabulous job on my face! Now, it took regular use over a period of time, but I definitely noticed improvement. I also noticed that the fine lines beginning to form around my eyes were softened, and got no worse while using this. I was very happy about that!

The scent is of course, from the name, meant to be “Peaches and Creme”, and it does smell peachy…. but it’s a slightly unusual peachy. I read a few people’s reviews saying it smelled like cat urine! After reading that (and only after) I got this psychological bug in my head, and every so often I too would smell the cat pee, but I think it’s only because the idea was planted in my head. Go ahead and sniff it in the store first, because if you’re one of the ones who are determined that it smells like cat pee rather than peaches, you aren’t going to want to use this lotion on your face!

The KMF Peaches and Creme Moisturizer runs about $8.59 for a (very cute) 4 oz bottle, and it’s definitely worth it. Most AHA products are much more expensive, and the little pumper in this is very regulated, so you never end up pumping too much and wasting it. Additionally, you need so little of it to take care of your whole face, that it lasts forever (mine lasted about 9 months!) so the price is more than worth it.

This is one that I highly, highly recommend!

Ingredients: Water (Purified), Mixed Fruit Extracts of Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Tartaric Acid, Isopropyl Palmitate (Coconut Derived Emollient), Emulsifying Wax (Coconut Derived Emulsifier), Stearic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate (Vegetable Derived Emulsifier), Coco Caprylate/Caprate (Coconut Derived Emollient), Glycerin (Vegetable Emollient), Safflower Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil, Jojoba Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Olive Oil, Soybean Oil, Shea Butter, Squalane (Olive Oil Derived Moisturizer), Aloe Vera Gel, Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Allantoin, Lecithin, Peach Leaf Extract, Lemongrass Extract, Orange Blossom Extract, Sugar Cane Extract, Citrus Pectin Extract, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate (Vegetable Derived Preservative)

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Ambi Cocoa Butter Cleansing Bar

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The Ambi Skincare line continues to disappoint with their Cocoa Butter Cleansing Bar. I’ve got one more of their products to review coming up, and it’s going to be worse than the two (including this one) than I’ve done so far. Watch for it!

The specific claims on the packaging for this bar are that it “Helps naturally moisturize skin” and that it “Helps visibly even skin tone”.

Do you know how your hands feel after handling a lot of paper? They feel all dry and chalky? That’s how my skin felt after using this product, and I have very oily skin It wasn’t a soft and silky or clean feeling… it just felt dry and chalky – yuck!

I didn’t notice any changes in my skin tone either, but I think that this product line is designed for women of color (which I am not), so it’s possible that while I have unevenness myself, it would work better on someone with a darker skin tone than my own. It didn’t do anything for my unevenness though.

Overall, the product is just not impressive at all. It’s full of chemical garbage, it smells like another similar bar that was popular in the 70’s and is still on the market today (hint: 1 word, and the packaging colors and bar color as well as the scent are almost the same!) . It doesn’t do anything special, is only mediocre at cleansing, and has no exfoliation benefits. What do I need it for? Boring and useless.

If you decide you just have to try it, it’s no great loss at $1.99 for a 3.5 oz bar, but why waste your time?

Ingredients: Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Water, Fragrance, Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter (Cocoa), Diethylhexyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate, Titanium Dioxide, Pentasodium Pentetate, Xanthan Gum, Glutaral Tetrasodium Etidronate, Simethicone, Iron Oxides, Yellow 5, Orange 10

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Badger Unscented Healing Balm

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This lip balm is another on my favorites list. When you feel like you just don’t want a bunch of hard to pronounce garbage on your mouth, or don’t want weird scents, this one is for you.

It’s basically OCM on a stick! That’s how basic the ingredients are. You could actually use a dab of it on a dry place on your skin for relief with no issues whatsoever, and I bet it would work great – like on dry, chapped winter cheeks after a day outside or something? I’m going to try that this winter.

Anyway, I get distracted. As far as scent, there isn’t any added, so the only thing you smell is the mild scent of the olive oil. It goes on very smooth and slick with no stickiness or dragging. The only thing I didn’t like is that it doesn’t have great staying power, but everything else, I was very impressed with.

The folks at Badger Balm make this lip balm, and an assortment of other body balms and treatments. $2.99 for The Badger Balm for lips, and pretty well worth it.

Ingredients: Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Organic), Castor Oil, Beeswax (Pure & Nothing Else)

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Earth Therapeutics Loofah Complexion Pad

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I’ve always loved using a loofah, especially on my face. It does wonderful things to my skin, so when I saw this little one from Earth Therapeutics, I thought I’d give it a shot. The bigger loofahs are great, but they’re just too hard to manage on your face with all the curves and all.

I’ve gone through 2 of these now. (I’m actually still using my 2nd one) The first one got too soft too fast and didn’t last me long at all. The second one has stayed firm for quite a while and I’m getting a good life out of it.

The way the first one gave out on me so soon, I would have said that $2.29 was a waste of money if I would have to keep replacing them that fast. The life I’ve gotten out of the second one has already been worth the price, so I guess it’s kind of a crap shoot. It IS a vegetable after all. There’s only so much control you can put into that.

At any rate, it did a pretty good job for me, and the smaller size was easy to use on my face as well as my body. I would have given it 4 kisses except that I saw the small print on the package and discovered that it is a “Product of China”.

For me personally, the soft, acne-free skin bought by the blood of the martyr’s and the oppressed really isn’t all that appealing, so next year I’m going to grow my own and in the meantime, find some other alternative.

If you are interested in growing your own oppression free loofahs, I found this cool page: How To Make (and grow) A Luffa It’s a pretty cool site overall for ways to DIY and live a little more natural, so be sure you go check it out.

I bet they aren’t reading this post in China.

Ingredients: Loofah is a natural vegetable cleansing fiber that exfoliates dead skin and surface impurities. Effectively unclogs pores- allowing skin to breathe freely, naturally.

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Desert Essence Lip Rescue with Shea Butter

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I’m always on the lookout for products that are mostly or all natural, as you know. When I came across this lip balm by Desert Essence, I knew I had to try it… like a bird, the pretty tube didn’t hurt either.

This is hands down one of the best lip balms that I’ve ever tried and I was thrilled to find it!

I don’t know how to describe the scent, but I love it. It’s very delicate and not silly like so many lip balms. It’s not a caricature of what a fruit would smell like if it smelled like molded plastic and children’s cartoons, like some of those other lip balms. (You know what I’m talking about; Don’t you pretend that you don’t!) It’s almost a floral, almost a fruit, but not quite either. It’s nice, whatever it is.

The texture of this lip balm is silky smooth both on your lips, and gliding over them when you apply it. There is no hardness or dragging, or stickiness. It just feels smooooooth!

Most importantly, the ‘lip rescue’ part: My lips immediately feel soothed when I apply it, and it lasts for hours. When I use it overnight, I have no dryness or flaking, so my lip color the next morning goes on much nicer and looks prettier as well.

I absolutely 100% recommend this lip balm, especially as winter months approach. At $2.49 per tube, it’s also reasonable enough to keep one in every coat pocket, desk drawer, and hand bag to make sure you never find yourself without when you need it!

Ingredients:  Soybean Oil, Beeswax, Candelilla Wax, Ozokerite, Carnauba, Shea Butter, Ginkgo, Rosemary, Vitamin E, Propyl Gallate, Essential Oil of Mint

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

e.l.f. professional Natural Radiance Blusher

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You can’t complain too much about any product that costs just $1, but occasionally, there are some that are just not worth messing with even for that price!

e.l.f. professional comes through again with this one though, and you get well more than what $1 is worth in cosmetics land!

This blusher comes in 6 different colors, all for just $1 each!

When I’ve read other reviews of this blush, what I kept seeing was people complaining that it went on too dark – and that is true, but you have to follow that thought process through. Too dark means there is a lot of pigment in the mixture, and that’s a GOOD thing! It’s a sign of quality. Most of the lower cost cosmetics skip on pigment because it’s an expensive ingredient. Lots of pigment means you are getting your money’s worth and then some.

The other issue I saw noted, and I also saw this myself, was that whatever ingredient they were using for adhesion was not quite adequate, and when you touch the bristles of your brush to it, it turns to dust pretty quickly.

To fix the crumble and pigment problem, here’s what I did: I took an empty shaker container from mineral makeup, and crushed the entire blusher into it. I added 1 teaspoon (which is a lot more than it sounds like in makeup!) of my loose mineral finishing powder to it and mixed. The blush now applies absolutely perfectly without being too dark or too light, and is diluted enough that it will probably last me a good 6 months or more….. FOR $1!!

I tried the colors Coy and Bronzed and was happy with both – especially after a little DIY rescue. Just so you’re warned: They look a bit odd in their containers – especially bronzed which looks like sparkly burnt orange – but they look absolutely fine once applied.

One kiss deducted for being manufactured in China, and for claiming “natural ingredients” which are really only about 75% of this particular concoction it appears. This is balanced out by no animal testing though.

Ingredients: Talc, Mica, Mineral Oil, Magnesium Stearate, Polyethylene Wax, Isopropyl Myristate, Silicon Oil, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Iron Oxides, FD&C Red 6 Barium Lake, Pearl Powder

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Mudd Spa Treatment 5 Minute Masque

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I love a 5-kiss product. The people behind the Mudd mask have been doing this a long, long time, so they surely know what they’re doing. I’m nearly 40, and I remember as a little girl seeing grown women and teenage girls with the original Mudd mask, and them raving about it. Good stuff!

The only caveat I have for you is that it rarely dries in 5 minutes, and if you try using it in a hot tub, it may never dry… but I’m not totally sure it really needs to for it to be effective. Two of the main ingredients are bentonite and kaolin clays, and those both will suck up impurities dry or not.

I used this mask 2-3 times a week on a regular basis and really noticed a difference in my skin. When I stopped using it for a while, I also noticed a difference.  My pores were larger and more clogged, and my skin just didn’t seem as bright and healthy without it.
I liked the scent of it because it was very mild and inoffensive to me, but some people have reported that until they got used to using it, that it made their eyes water, and they experienced some facial stinging. I think I may have had a mild dose of that the first one or two times, but it certainly wasn’t unbearable, and for the results I got after getting used to it, it was definitely worth it.

The Mudd 5-Minute Masque sells for $4.99 / 6 oz. and is definitely a very worthwhile product. This is one that should be a permanent staple of your beauty supply.

Ingredients: Water, Kaolin, Propylene Glycol, Bentonite, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Sodium Magnesium Silicate, Titanium Dioxide, Cucumber Extract, Papaya Extract, Grape Fruit Extract, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Diazolidinyl Urea, FD&C Red 33

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!

Booth’s Tea Tree Therapeutic Toner

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I think I could pretty much sum up this review by just saying, “WTF??”.  Seriously.  I’ve begun to think that Booth’s / Delicious Brands just delight in creating interesting, weird, intriguing sounding potions that in actual application aren’t actually much…. but they SOUND really neato!!

Let’s start with toner that you just spritz on and don’t wipe away. Huh?  How exactly do the traces of whatever come off if you just layer some of this toner on top of it?  I don’t get that.  I’ve never totally gotten toner at all to be honest – just wash well – but this really makes absolutely no sense at all.

I think they are hoping that the addition of tea tree oil  into the mixture will dry up any zits or blemishes that are created by not washing the rest of the mess away.

At $7.99  for 4 oz, this is definitely a novelty cosmetic.  Booth’s seems to be all about the novelty cosmetic.  Save yourself the trouble and buy an ounce of tea tree oil for about the same price and put a few drops into your favorite toner, or into some witch hazel, or just dab right onto your blemishes with a cotton swab.  It’ll clear you right up, and since you only need a drop here and a drop there, it will last forever.

1 kiss for the nice smell of tea tree oil.  Not a bad scent for this product at all, just otherwise useless.

Ingredients: Water, Alcohol Denat., Hamamelis Virginiana Extract (Witch Hazel), Rosa Centifolia Flower Water, Polysorbate 20, Glycerin, Melaleuca Alternifolia Oil (Tea Tree), Oriza Sativa Bran Oil (Rice), Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil (Meadowfoam), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Allantoin, Sodium PCA, Urea, Trehalose, Polyquaternium 51, Sodium Hyaluronate, Parfume, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

If you’ve tried this product, leave a comment and tell me what you thought about it!