Reviewing Products - Business 2 Blogger

As you can tell from my blog, I like to do reviews.  If something is good, why not let everyone know.  And if it didn't live up to the hype?  Definitely something to write about! 

I came across the Business 2 Blogger site this morning, and was intrigued.  They send you an email with info about companies who are looking for bloggers to review their products.  You sign up, they send you the product, you revew it on your blog.  Sounds like fun, right?

I liked that they let you choose what you participte in, so I don't have to review random crap I would never consider buying.  And you can unsubscribe at any time.

I'm not sure about this site as of yet.  This morning I signed up and confirmed my account.  Then I got a welcome email.  That's it so far.  But I'll definitely keep you posted on how this goes.

And don't worry, just because someone sends me something for free doesn't mean that I'm going to sing it's praises.  I always tell it like it is, whether on my blog or in person.  For better or for worse, that will never change.

If you check out Business 2 Blogger, leave a comment or send me an email.  I really want to know what you guys think of this service.

Overrated Products

I love to blog about products I've discovered and fallen in love with.  It's great to recommend your faves to others.  But I think it's just as important to mention things that were a huge disappointment and waste of cash. 

The CoverGirl ShadowBlast looked so good on Drew Barrymore.  And I love Drew.  So I fell for the ads and bought this one.  The pigmentation is great on these, and they look lovely and metallic on the eye.  But they crease like crazy because they never set.  They stay greasy.  And when I set them with a shadow I get a shadow cake forming on my crease.  And it didn't matter how sheerly I applied this product.  And really, what's the point when it's sheer anyway?  Unless you want your shadow to crease.  Useless.  Thanks a lot Drew, you lied to me.  But don't worry I love you much more than I love the ShadowBlast.

The Cuccio Apple Cuticle Remover just did not work for me at all.  It has a waxy/greasy consistency.  You're supposed to put it on, rub it into your cuticles and then soak it in hot water for a couple of minutes.  At the end of the protocol my cuticles looked like they would have looked if I just pushed soaked them and pushed them back.  Plus I then had to wait for my nails to dry a bit before applying polish. 

I had heard so much about Rimmel's Lasting Finish foundation.  It was supposed to be so smooth, easy to apply and long lasting.  Well on my normal to dry skin it was a disaster.  I got a yellow tone of this foundation for my NC25 skin.  When I first applied it, this foundation looked flawless and a good color match.  However, after about an hour, this foundation oxidized and left me looking orange!  Not only that, but after about 4-5 hours this foundation started to crack on my skin kind of like a dry face mask.  This got progerssively worse throughout the day.  Though it was cheap and on sale, I still want my $6 back!

Lush Shower Jellies are the DUMBEST product on the market.  They're squishy and fun looking and come in great fragrance options like the scent of one of my favorite bath bombs, the sex bomb.  You're supposed to pinch off a bit, lather and use in lieu of shower gel.  But these have the consistency of jello.  Try holding on to a piece of jello under running water.  I dare you.  Your jello, just like your shower jelly, will end up slipping out of your hands and down the drain.  And it cracks me up that Lush thinks this is an environmentally friendly product because it doesn't need a container.  And then they sell them in unrecyclable plastic takeout containers that also look stupid in your shower.  Stay away from this gimmicky product, no matter how good it smells.

I hate MAC Lipglasses.  I realize I may be in the minority here, but these are a sticky mess.  Sure, sticky lipglosses last longer on your lips, and the lipglasses come in a great variety of colors.  But I hate the way these make my hair stick to my lips in any windy situation, and the way the product gathers in the corners of my mouth after a while.  Yuck.  I love MAC Slimshines and Lip Gelees so much more - too bad they're getting discontinued.  MAC, you're dumb.

 

I was enticed to try OPI Nail Envy by the promise of stronger healthier nails.  I should have read the fine print.  My nails were initially strengthened, but then they started peeling like crazy if I went even a day without Nail Envy.  So I stopped using it, and suffered through the ugliest peely and weak nails I've ever had while ever bit of nail affected by Nail Envy grew out.  Furthermore, I got the matte, thinking it would make a better base for polish.  Nope.  And OPI tells you to reapply nail envy over polish every couple of days.  But doing so gave me a matte finish, which I hate.  Stay away from this one.  It will actually mess up your nails rather than helping them.

OPI My Private Jet looks so beautiful in the bottle.  It is a dark grey/black polish with hollographic glitter.  And I have heard so many great things about it.  Too bad that when you apply it to your nails, the glitter is no longer hollographic, or even glittery.  So this polish just ends up looking like a concrete fax finish on my nails.  Not pretty and pretty boring.   Skip this one - there are much better OPI shades out there.

 

The Swiffer Sweeper Pads are useless.  Completely. Useless.  I love the Swiffer mopping system and got these dry pads with my Costco Swiffer set.  These don't pick up anything.  A regular broom and dustpan are so much more effective.   I even tried using these as dusting pads for my appliances and shelving.  Nope.  Left dust behind.  I don't have the heart to throw these away, and I have yet to find a use for them.  For now, they sit under the sink and collect dust.

Never, ever, ever feed your dog or cat any Purina product.   I was house sitting with Amelia and the dogs of the house were on Purina Beneful.  Of course Amelia had to sneak some, and a half an hour later she projectile vomited all over my bed.  NASTY.  This is an expensive dog food, but it scores only a 17 on the dog food assesment scale.  Comapre that the the Kirkland kibble which scores a 110 at 1/3 of the price!  I house sat a lot when I was a grad student, so Amelia got into all different varieties of kibble, and nothing gave her quite the explosive reaction of Beneful.

What were some of your biggest disappointments?

Lush Big Shampoo - When My Hair Needs a Little Pep

When I my hair has the 'blahs' several days in a row, and I want to give it a little pep, I turn to Lush's Big Shampoo.  This shampoo looks like a salt scrub and smells like a margarita.  For the longest time, I didn't believe it would EVER lather when I picked some out of the pot.  In my world, salt scrubs don't lather.  But with plenty of water in my hair, Big shampoo gives me BIG lather, and it gives my hair BIG life.

Big shampoo is too harsh for everyday use.  But as a clarifying shampoo, it's a miracle.  I'm sure I've used more than 10 pots of this stuff over the years, and it's the first product that reached HOLY GRAIL status for me.  More on that later.

So here's a margarita toast to a week of good hair days!

Cheers!

Review: MAC Brush Cleanser

A fellow tomboy is going to a wedding this weekend, and called me for a makeup consult.  I brought over some brushes and makeup to pick out some colors and teach her how to apply a total 'look'.  She pulled out her pithy makeup assortment and her single face brush.  I was appalled!  No, not because she only had one face brush.  It was the sad state of the brush that made me cringe.  You see, for the last one and a half years that this tomboy owned that brush (and used it every day to apply her mineral makeup), she NEVER washed it!  It was tattered and gross looking.  The bristles were frayed and uneven.  I would have taken a picture for you, but I didn't want to offend and upset my tomboy friend.  So instead, I decided to review MAC Brush Cleanser.

I resisted buying this brush cleanser for a long time.  But as time went on, and my MAC brush collection grew, I broke down and got it.  And now I can't live without it.

I have heard people complain about this brush cleanser, because it is too expensive and it is drying on the brushes.  My last bottle of brush cleanser cost me about $15, and lasted me several months of DAILY use.  I consider that a pretty good deal for ensuring that my brushes are well maintained.

I have also not experienced problems with the cleanser being drying.  I do condition my brushes (with hair conditioner) when I deep clean them. All of my brushes are as good as the day I bought them, despite the fact that some of them are over 5 years old.

I spot clean my brushes everytime I use them - and a brush cleanser is the way to do it.  I will post a tutorial on cleaning your brushes in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for it.

Bioderma Skin Care Review

I was cruising through our local drug store when I spotted some Bioderma skin care.  I thought that Bioderma was only sold in France.  And yet there it was, smiling down upon me from the shelf right here in Canada.  Since I've been DYING to try it ever since Gemma reviewed a cleanser on Youtube.

My skin is normal to dry, depending on time of year, climate and what skin care I've been using.  I the odd hormonal breakout around my chin.  But my biggest skin care issue is redness and skin sensitivity around the corners of my mouth and down towards my chin.  This area sometimes gets so irritated that the skin flakes.   As such, the two Bioderma items I picked out are both geared towards sensitive skin.

According to the Bioderma website "Sensitive skin makes its presence felt with feelings of overheating and diffuse or localised redness. It easily becomes dehydrated and the subsequent dryness contributes further to its weakness and is accompanied by feelings of tightness".  Yup.  Check.

BIODERMA SENSIBIO H2O
Bioderma describes this as a Soothing non-rinse cleanser and makeup remover.  It is alcohol and fragrance free, and is supposed to completely cleanse the skin and remove makeup.  Furthermore it is supposed to soothe irritated skin and minimize redness.


Like others who have tried this product, I was a little skeptical about cleaning my face without the use of water and some sort of creamy and/or bubbly cleanser.  However, I was impressed with the way this product removed ALL of my makeup.  No racoon eyes in the morning from leftover mascara!  And I figure that if it can remove my makeup so well, it can also cleanse other impurities out of my skin.  So I have been using this product as a makeup remover and cleanser.  When I have makeup on, I cleanse with two cotton pads.  The first pass removes all of the makeup and the second ensures no residue.

The Bioderma H2O delivers on all of its promises.  It does not irritate my skin.  There is no stinging and tightness after cleansing (which is what I've experienced with irritating toners in the past).  And while it is gentle, it is also an excellent cleanser.  I do not have any congestion on my skin that would suggest my skin is not properly cleansed.

SENSIBIO LIGHT CREAM
I usually tend towards heavier moisturizers when possible, because I find the light moisturizers are just white water that sinks right into the skin and does nothing in terms of moisturizing.  As such, I wanted to get the Sensibio Rich Cream.  However, the packaging is completely the same, so I picked up the light cream by accident.  I'm glad I did because the light cream is actually sufficiently moisturizing.  Bioderma recommends the Sensibio Light Cream for normal to combination skin.  It is supposed to restore the cutaneous barrier, allowing for a reduction in the penetration of possible irritants, and increasing the skin's tolerance threshold.  Translation: it strengthens the skin, allowing it to be better at it's main function - to be a barrier.  Bioderma also promises that this moisturizer is formulated with rigorously selected active ingredients, and is free of fragrance and preservatives.

To be honest, I am not sure if this cream delivers on all of these claims.  How does one tell if their skin has been restored and fortified?  The non-empirical evidence suggests that this claim has been met, since my skin is much less irritated and red.  The main thing I notice with this moisturizer is that my skin is well hydrated but not greasy.  And as an added bonus, it effectively moisturizes my skin without leaving my face greasy as an oil slick.  I should also point out that I have been using a smaller quantity of this cream than other moisturizers even though if I compare labels this one is 'lighter'.  This is great for my wallet!

All in all, I really like this skin care.  I am a minimalist when it comes to skin care.  I do not have separate products for day and night.  There is a mask with this range that I would like to try and also the eye cream.  I will definitely be keeping the cleanser and cream in my skincare routine permanently.  My skin has never looked better.

Alba Un-Petroleum Jelly Review

We all have petroleum jelly in our house.  When it comes to beauty/body/skin care, petroleum jelly is a real work horse.

From the Alba website:
With beeswax, moisture rich coconut oil and soothing, protective vitamin E, this natural, non-petroleum jelly is perfect as an all-over body moisturizer for soothing, softening skin rejuvenation...The original, multi-purpose skin moisturizer and protectant is made from only pure plant oils and all natural waxes.

I don't really believe all the hoopla about petroleum jelly being carcinogenic or particularly bad for you.  But since I put the stuff on my doggie paws (keeps snow/ice crystals from sticking to their feet), an they tend to lick it off, I prefer the natrual stuff.  I have been using the un-petroleum jelly for about 6 months now, and I have found it to be comparable to vaseline.  So if you are worried about petroleum products and want a more natural alternative, look no further than your local health food store.

Review: Rosebud Salve

Photo: www.rosebudsalve.com

I have heard raves about rosebud salve for YEARS before I tried it. Why bother? It's just another lip balm. Not only that but it's one that's in a pot, and I HATE sticking my fingers into lip products. And to top it off it smells like ROSES - a bona fide grandma smell to me! However, on a recent trip to Sephora I saw these little tins at the check out line, gave it a sniff - not as grandma rose-y as I expected, so I decided to try it out. The verdict: this stuff is pretty nice for a glorified petroleum jelly. It leaves your lips silky smooth. It is not at all sticky and the smell is actually ok. The tin is big enough to stick your lips directly into, hence no need for getting your fingers all yuck.  At only $6 at Sephora for a considerably large tin, it doesn't break the bank. I smelled the strawberry one, but it was too sweet - sickeningly sweet - smelling, so I passed. Another tip: this is a salve, so not only can you use it on your lips, but anywhere else you have dry skin - elbows, feet, hands. Keep in mind that petroleum jelly does not soak into your skin, it forms a barrier.  As such, I use it on top of a moisturizer (after it sets) on dry bits to seal that moisture in.