That Should Have Been Great

I WANTED it to be great, it would have changed my life.  OK, that's a bit dramatic, but it certainly would have freed up a lot of space in my hyper-overcrowded hair products drawer.  I'm wailing about Arrojo's Styling Whip, Argan-Infused Does It All Styler.

This mousse brags that it tames frizz, adds shine, controls curls, and enhances straight styles.  So in theory, replaces straightening gel, anti-frizz serum, curl control cream, and setting lotion all in one.  Right?  RIGHT?  My dream come true.  I tested in out during the Mission Impossible - Hair Episode trip that I took recently, which involves the polar extremes of bad hair, eg, San Francisco, CA and Park City, UT.  San Francisco is more humid than Miami, causing frizz, curly bangs, and limp lengths all at once.  Park City is bone dry, with weird water, causing straw dry hair that sticks out in odd directions for no particular reason.

In San Francisco, the mousse was...basically useless.  My bangs wouldn't straighten at all.  Period.  Plus curled into hair horns the second I turned off the blow dryer.  My curls looked like frizzy seaweed.  DRAG.  In Park City, it worked like a dream.  Defined, fluffy, shiny curls and bangs that straightened in a second without losing volume and laying down dead on my forehead.  Almost worth the fright that I presented in San Fran for a full week.

Was it worth checking my bag, given that my arsenal of three products can all be decanted into tiny bottles?  No.  But for a dry winter at home, it gets a lot of love.

Puff the Magic Dragon

There are days when we leap out of bed, looking fabulously fresh as daisies, rosy cheeked, ready to take on the world.  In general, New Year's Day is not one of those days.  I'll hazard a guess that any number of you woke up looking like me:  as if a horde of blackflies attacked your eye areas in the middle of the night.  Not a good look.

I almost passed out when I saw myself in the mirror this morning, and wasn't exactly thrilled when J dragged me out to go...shopping.  What the hell would be open on New Year's Day in Miami anyway?  It turns out that Sephora is open.  Or was still open from the night before.  Hard to tell.  But while J suffered from a fit of Sephora Rage (characterized by actually shoving me out of the way in order to get to the Clarsonic display a nanosecond faster), I wandered over to the Sunday Riley shelf, and picked up a bottle of Start Over.  It says 'instantly de-puffs and cooling', so like the zombie I felt myself to be, I obediently patted a bit on under my eyes.

Whoa!  This stuff is indeed ACTIVE.  My eyes watered a bit and I actually felt a cooling sensation.  I looked in the mirror...and....yes, my eyes were pretty much totally de-puffed.  In seconds.   This deserves a longer review.  But not today, because I'm going back to bed.

Product Review - IS Clinical Super Serum Advance Plus

Now that's a lot of superlatives in one title, even for an industry hell-bent on simultaneously making us insecure and promising to solve all of our problems at exactly the same time.  (And yes, it works, damn them.)  I've been using the same vitamin C serum for quite a few years now, and I love it.  Within a week of starting it, a co-worker gasped, 'your skin looks like glass!' So as you can imagine, the bar is set pretty high.  Vitamin C is one of the most powerful tools in the anti-aging arsenal, and has the bonus effect of increasing the efficacy of sunscreen.  Downside, unless stabilized, these serums tend to oxidize quickly, losing effectiveness (and starting to smell funny on occasion.)  Don't be a scrooge, use daily, and get the smaller size even if it seems uneconomical!

PACKAGING:

Brown glass apothecary bottle with a dropper.  De rigeur for this type of product, which is a straight-up liquid, and one which needs to be protected from light exposure.  Yes, glass is hell in the bathroom, but plastic reacts badly with vitamin c, so there's no getting around it.



TEXTURE:  Nearly clear liquid that turns slightly yellow-brown as the product runs down.  I found that this serum oxidized more slowly than my go-to serum, which was a plus.

USAGE:  I use this stuff in the morning, on a clean face, step one.  Do NOT combine with a retinol, save that for your night routine.  New users may find that its a bit strong; if so, use every other day until you build up a tolerance.  (This can be an even bigger problem for people with compromised skin barrier function, eg, those of you who suffered from acne in youth and baked in the sun.)  Use two to three drops for face and neck, and two drops for the decollete.  Let it absorb, then do your usual routine.  Bonus:  once absorbed, the serum cannot be rubbed, sweated, washed off.  Period.  Once its in there, its in there.

MIRACLE INGREDIENTS:  Vitamin C (duh) at a level of 15%, copper tri-peptides (which is a peptide consisting of three amino acids joined by a peptide bond.....which was not enlightening at all.  This particular set of amino acids delivers copper into the skin, which is particularly handy at healing, promoting firmness, and encouraging collagen production.) Also Asiaticoside, asiatic acid, and madecassic acid (antioxidants), Vitamin B5(hydrates), Arbutin, (increases cellular metabolism, aka waste elimination), and Kojic Acid (inhibits melanin production and lightens brown spots).

VERDICT: Super Serum Advance Plus is super.  Really.  Working together, you not only prevent future damage, but rapidly see improvement to past sins, particularly in the firmness and brown-spottedness departments.  I did the dread half-face test, using my proven powerhouse product on the right side of my face and Super Serum on the left side (which is kind of unfair, anyone who drives has more damage on the left side), and actually saw improvement in a stubborn sunspot, and a bit of improvement in a basset-hound type line that's been bugging me.  Bonus points for the stability of the formula.  Downside:  pricey, but then again, most of the Vitamin C serums are on the high end.  Enjoy!

Who Doesn't Love a Sale?

I can't resist one.  Exhibit A:  the number of pairs of shoes in my closet.  Cosmetics almost never go on sale, but every now and then, we all get lucky.  Evologie, reviewed previously, is not only having a sale,
http://www.evologie.com/shop-now.html (20% off with the promo code 'heather') but is also having a giveaway.  Shop and get a chance to win a full size Clear Skin Set, wahoo!  Good luck y'all!

Random Thought Bubble

But first, I have been totally absent.  Sorry, this work nonsense is....nonsense.  I will be better, I promise!

So I do a lot of shopping for skin, hair, nail stuff this time of year (no snide remarks like "when do you NOT buy lots of that stuff").  And the level of insanity that goes on in department and specialty stores has to be witnessed to be believed.

Case in point:  I recently visited SpaceNK, seeking a body scrub.  I specifically asked for something moderately priced, in a tube or a bottle, and NOT in a tub.  Personally, I cannot for the life of me understand why ANYTHING intended for the shower comes in a tub; you open the jar, it fills with water, you have to scoop it out, you no longer have a hand available to close the damn thing.  So what does the salesbabe show me?  The most expensive scrub in the store.  In a jar.  And she actually had the temerity to say that they don't carry anything in bottles or tubes, when on the shelf above, the shelf below, the shelf to the left and the shelf to the right, were tubes of body scrubs at one-third the price of the scrub she directed me towards.

To add insult to injury, she actually congratulated herself on helping me to find exactly what I was looking for when I shoved her out of the way and grabbed what I had asked for in the first place.  Remind me not to ask her or her colleagues to help me to find my dream hair product.....

How to Wear Red Lipstick

Something every woman should know, because it never goes out of style, takes you from day to night in a flash, and lets you be super lazy about eye makeup.  Bonus:  its sexy as all get out.  Unless, of course, you've chosen a horrid shade and/or your lips are chapped, cracked and flaking.  Maddeningly, the wrong formula can actually CAUSE these problems, so what's a girl to do, buy every lipstick at Saks?

No, of course not.  I've already done that for you, many times over.  (Don't laugh, its sad, really.)  The first step is commitment.  Meaning exactly how committed are you?  Wearing red lipstick is a bit like strutting around in a bikini, you need confidence.  And confidence is partially material, partially spiritual.  You're on your own with the spiritual stuff, but the material can be broken down into three parts:  formula, shade, and preparation.

Choose a formula that has the right mix of pigment, shine, and emollients for your skin and your personality.  Not feeling bold, and suffering from a change in seasons?  Less pigment, medium to low shine, high emollients.  Channeling Veronica Lake?  True matte, tons of pigment, don't forget the liner.  Need a suggestion?  Email me, I'm happy to help.

Shade shouldn't fight with your skin tone, and I don't want to hear any nonsense about not being able to find a red that doesn't fight with your face.  Red is universally flattering, though not every red is universal.  I'm sallow and pale, but a brunette, so I generally trend toward more yellow-y reds.  Bluer reds will whiten your teeth.  Olive skinned types can lean to coral.  Porcelain blondes can rock a true red.  Raspberry looks amazing on virtually everyone.

If you've picked your ideal formulation and shade, but failed to prep, you could be toast.  Flaking lips, bleeding, smudging.  All potential disasters, and I've committed every possible sin in this area.  First, exfoliate your lips using either a baby toothbrush (soak it for five minutes in warm water please), a warm wet washcloth, or a scrub made of almond oil and coarse sugar.  Blot well, and apply a super hydrating balm (that absurdly expensive Sara Happ stuff really can't be beat) OR a super hydrating plumping balm if your lips tend to have lines.  After you've done your hair, makeup, etc., blot off all of the balm.  If you're not using a long wear formula or a matte, prime using a tiny bit of the gooped foundation from around the neck of the bottle, dabbing onto the entire lip, upper and lower.  (Skip this if your going for the stained look.)  Trace around the edge of your lips with a concealer pencil.

Now decide if you want defined and bold, or stained and casual.  If the former, use a liner in a very close shade.  If you want your lips to look fuller, stop 2/3 of the way toward the center of the lower lip on each side.  (Bonus fullness fakery:  dip a tiny stiff brush into sheer highlighter, trace just the outer top of your cupid's bow.) Fill in with lipstick (use a brush), blot, then fill again.  If the latter, simply press the lipstick into the center of your lower lip and to each side of your cupid's bow on your upper lip straight from the tube.  Press your lips together and rub a bit.  Voila!  You're glam and ready to go.

Lovely and Amazing

There are few places on earth quite as wonderful as French pharmacies.  You don't need a prescription for most medications that you have to jump through three hoops to acquire in the US, the pharmacist will actually give you advice on everything from stomach upsets to cellulite, and they have a glorious bounty of beauty products found nowhere else on earth.

Slimming water! Slimming spray! Slimming bubbles (don't ask)! No, none of those actually work but they do come in lovely bottles with pictures of 14 year olds with perfect bums on the box. At the same time, one can find amazing creams, lotions and oils that do what they promise to do, and then some.

During my most recent trip, I discovered that the evil geniuses at LaRoche (evil because they ship a crap version of their amazing line to the US) have developed an SPF 50 body oil.  And not a greasy, stinky Hawaiian Tropic-y oil either.  No, this oil sinks right in but moisturizes all day, leaves a dewy sheen behind that doesn't stain one's clothes, AND protects one's skin amazingly well.  This alone is worth a trip to Paris...plus the macarons at Gerard Mulot.