More Product Mini Reviews

Hey hey, it's time for another post of mini-reviews! I got to try a lot of products during my New York visit, thanks to L's impressive collection, and will remark on them in a succincter-than-usual fashion. I've decided to post this rather than a monthly favorites/empties (or Skincare Saturday, for that matter, though there are several skincare products here), mostly because I'm sick and don't have the energy to write a new post. Here they are, in no particular order:

Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash

$25 for 8 oz, available from Sephora

This is a very nice, gentle exfoliator. I only used it the one time, since I spent 4 out of 6 of my nights at Z's, but I found it to do its job without unnecessary irritation. I'm not sure I'd want to spend that much myself, especially since I have my Clarisonic which takes care of my physical exfoliation needs, but if you don't have a Clarisonic and want something mild to exfoliate, Microdelivery is definitely worth checking out!

Tip Tuesday: Winter Skincare, Lips Edition

Up first in my as-yet-undeterminedly-long Winter Skincare series is How to Keep Your Lips Happy When the Temperature and Humidity Drops and They Start Wanting to Fall Off Your Face, or "Lips Edition" for short.  As it gets colder and drier (in most parts of the country, at least; here in the Pacific Northwest we get to look forward to near-constant rain, but that's neither here nor there), your skin and hair lose moisture and can get cracked, dry, itchy, scaly, and/or grouchy.  The first thing to go for me is my lips, hence why I'm discussing it first (that, and because I don't really have to do any research for it!).

You want to have a good lip balm, for starters.  This can be anything from Vaseline to ... whatever the opposite of Vaseline is (Burt's Bees, maybe?), but it should protect your lips from the elements and feel good on.  In olden times, people would use axle grease or lard to treat chapped lips; fortunately, things have gone uphill since then.  Petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) and mineral oil are common ingredients, as are shea butter, beeswax, carnauba wax, and lanolin.  Many balms have ingredients that make lips tingly, which can definitely be fun, but those things actually irritate your lips further and leave you in worse shape than you started (generally speaking, at least; if the base is moisturizing enough, that effect is mitigated).  Menthol, which is used in Carmex and Blistex, among others, is a common culprit, along with camphor, clove oil, phenol, mint, and salicylic acid.  Ideally, you want to heal your lips, not just make them feel cool (pun intended), and especially in the wintertime, when they're prone to chapping anyways, finding a solid balm without tingly additives is key.

Lip balm with SPF is also recommended, especially if you live anywhere with snow and/or sun (though even those of us in dreary rainy states should wear SPF, too!), because your lips can get sunburned, too, and nobody thinks to put sunscreen on them (and, if they do, they soon realize that it feels disgusting).  Some people are sensitive to SPF ingredients, though, especially in higher concentrations, so be aware of that when trying balms out.  You can also use a different balm at night than you use during the day; I don't like carrying around a tube of Aquaphor with me, but it's extremely moisturizing and works great as an overnight treatment.

To help keep your lips from getting dry and scaly, you can make a homemade scrub from sugar, salt, honey, and/or various kinds of oil.  Mix a little in the palm of your hand and rub gently over your lips to exfoliate, then rinse it off and apply a nice rich lip balm immediately after.  Alternatively, you can brush over your lips with a soft-headed toothbrush in a gently circling motion for gentle exfoliation.

If you wear lipstick, try and stick to the more moisturizing varieties.  Many matte lipsticks can be drying, and put that with already-dry lips and you've got a recipe for flaky disaster.  A tinted balm works nicely, or layering lipstick over lip balm (this can cut down on wear time, but that's a small price to pay!).

What are your tips for keeping your lips in tip-top shape through winter?

Tip Tuesday: DIY Beauty Solutions H-Y (Plus a bonus C)

For a summary of Tip Tuesday, see here.  For part one of diy beauty tips, see here.  And for a video of bunnies wiggling their noses, see here.

Honey
Used as: Cleanser, mask, scrub
Good for: Everyone
Bad for: People who don't like stickiness
I've already done a couple of posts on the wonders of honey, so I'll keep this brief.  Honey is great.  You can use normal honey, raw honey (opaque and light yellow in color), or Manuka honey (full of super nutrients, with a price tag to match).  I've used normal and raw, and prefer the latter because it's less sticky, but both work well.  You can put it on dry skin as a mask or cleanser, or use it on wet skin as a quick cleansing treatment.  Honey combines well with yogurt and aspirin in masks, and with sugar as a scrub.  The possibilities are many, and the results are great––it's moisturizing, anti-bacterial, and it smells and tastes nommy!

Jojoba Oil
Used as: Moisturizer, hair treatment
Good for: Everyone
Bad for: No one
Jojoba (apparently pronounced hə'hoʊbə, who knew) oil is very similar in composition to the sebum and oil produced by your skin, so it can help convince oily skin to stop producing so much oil by making it think there's enough already (I have yet to try this, so cannot vouch for it, but am intrigued!), and its moisturizing properties make it good for normal and dry skin, too.  It's also great for moisturizing hair and reducing frizzies.  You only need a leetle beet, no more than a few drops, which is good because it can apparently be expensive.  It should be available at natural food and health stores, and if you've ever used it, I'd love your input!

Tip Tuesday: DIY Beauty Solutions A-G

For a summary of Tip Tuesday, see here.  For reviews of diy beauty I've personally used, see here (or click on the "diy" tag at the bottom of this post).

There are many appealing things about diy natural beauty.  For one thing, you get to feel like a mad scientist, and who doesn't love that?  (If you don't, go away, this post is not for you.)  For another, you have control over exactly what you're putting on your skin, which means you can avoid ingredients you know irritate you, and don't have to worry about the negative effects from chemical additives.  This does not mean, however, that diy beauty is without its hazards, so please, use caution!

So, here is the first half of the many ingredients you can use in your beauty concoctions (though there are even more that I'm not covering here!), as well as what problem areas they address, and the major concerns to keep in mind regarding side effects and the like.  I hope this is helpful to you, and I welcome any diy suggestions of your own in the comments!  H(oney) through Y(ogurt) will be posted next week.

Apple Cider Vinegar
Used as: Toner, hair treatment
Good for: Acne-prone and/or oily skin
Bad for: Sensitive skin
ACV, as it's known in the biz, is used as a toner to restore the pH balance of skin and help combat acne.  I've never used it, but the intertubes say: it smells nasty, though the smell dissipates after application; you should mix it with water (start with a 1:8 ratio of ACV to water, then increase the amount over time); organic is generally gentler than conventional ACV; and tread with caution if you have sensitive skin.  If you pour it through your hair, it helps get rid of residue and build-up from hair products, though unless you want to smell like a salad, you should probably shower and wash your hair afterwards.

Aspirin
Used as: Mask, toner
Good for: Acne-prone, oily, and/or sensitive/red skin
Bad for: People who are allergic to aspirin
Aspirin, it is claimed, is a source of salicylic acid once it breaks down, though the Beauty Brains did a post about this and said the science isn't really there to back the claims up.  I've tried mixing aspirin in with a yogurt mask, and saw a decrease in redness and swelling, but that could have been due to the other ingredients in the mask.  To use, crush 4-6 uncoated aspirin tablets (uncoated can be hard to find, though health food-type stores often have them) and add a few drops of water to make a paste.  As a mask, you can either spread it over your face like that and let it sit until it dries, or you can mix it with yogurt or honey.  I prefer to do the latter, because the powder has a tendency to fall off as it dries, and mixing it with something else gets rid of that problem.  Some people swear by it as a toner, though when I tried it as such, I got really annoyed with the little pieces of aspirin that stuck to my face.  Do not use this if you have an allergy to aspirin (though I hope that would go without saying!).

Skincare Saturday: Baking Soda Facial Exfoliator Review

I've heard back from a couple of you that you'd like to see more skincare reviews, especially of the homemade variety.  Lucky for you, I've got quite the arsenal to share.  I'll try and post a review on skincare weekly (Saturdays, naturally), though it may be less frequent than that, so I'm going to have to ask you to bear with me!

First up is a scrub I've used and liked to tide you over until my next skincare posts.

image from Arm & Hammer

Adzuki (Azuki) Beans Exfoliator Review and Tragic Tale

For those of you who have read any of my skincare posts, you know that my skin and I don't always get along (understatement!).  In spite of its tendency to break out at the slightest anything, I have continued my dogged pursuit of diy skincare treatments in an effort to tame it without harsh chemicals.  I've had some successes (honey, sea salt, yogurt masks), and some failures (cucumber toner, green tea [which, in spite of my excitement at the time, has since broken me out]).  None of my reactions, good or bad, have been nearly so impressively epic as the effect adzuki beans had.  Brace yourselves.

raw adzuki beans, image from here