ProductWhores

Instant Gratification

I'd heard so many people raving about Prescriptives' new Instant Gratification Skin Renewal Peel that I was kinda nervous to try it because I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype.  I was totally wrong.  It's fantastic - a quick fix for when your skin needs a little pick me up.  It's super easy to use (which makes it even better, because as much as I love some of the peel treatments that I have, when it takes seven different steps to make a product work, I inevitably get lazy and stop using it).  With Instant Gratification, you just apply it to your damp skin and it warms on contact.  You leave it on for five minutes, then massage it into your face for another 30 seconds or so, then rinse it off.  It's as easy as that.  When you take it off, your skin is super glowy and refreshed-looking.  It's like getting a quick, simple facial without spending the $150 it usually costs.  (The $45 tube will last you a long time, so it's very cost effective).  I've been using it once a week and I absolutely love it.  This is a definite re-purchase, which I don't often say.  (Also, I kind of want a second tube to take on trips with me.  I always find myself wanting to use a mask when I'm in a hotel and I never have one, but this container would be easy to pack).  If only all products had such instant gratification...   

Green Tea is Great on the Face

I have fallen passionately in love with a new product.  I know I must sound like a broken record, but I have finally found a face scrub that is gentle, yet highly effective.  In just a few weeks of use, my skin is glowing and my blackheads are less noticible.  Also, those nasty dry patches (a big "thank you" to winter air) have all but disappeared.  Green Tea Exfoliating Scrub by local brand Fenix (they are out of Irvine) has changed the way I look at facial scrubs!  It smells magnificent and the little granules feel wonderful on the skin (not that horrible scraping feel some facial scrubs produce).  It's gentle enough to use a few times a week and a little goes a long way, so the 4 oz tube will last you a long time.  There are tons of online retailers that carry the product and if you live in the LA area, the entire line can be found at Blue Medi Spa in Sherman Oaks.  Seriously do not just take my word for it - this stuff is the best.  I even added it to my wish list on Amazon (oh, I hope my family is reading this post) and marked it as a top priority.  Now I just have to try the rest of the line, which I'm sure is equally as wonderful.

It retails for around $30.00 and can be found online at www.amazon.com, www.b-glowing.com and www.fenixcosmetics.com.

Scrub a dub dub

I love strawberries.  On ice cream, in salads, by themselves, it doesn't matter because I just love them.  I even made my brother's girlfriend buy me a cute stuffed seal dressed as a strawberry when she was in Japan.  Anyway, enough about my boring obsession.  The real point here is that I had to try Mario Badescu's Strawberry Face Scrub and it was love at first scrub.  The exfoliator smells of fresh strawberries and actual strawberry seeds do the exfoliating for you.  (Who knew my beloved strawberries could handle that task.)  While the scrub may not feel like it's sloughing off dead skin, after using the scrub for a week I noticed a big difference in the texture of my skin.  My face looks and feels fabulous and I owe it all to the deliciously sweet strawberry - oh, and I suppose to my bud Mario.  So you can eat strawberries and make your skin soft?  The wonder fruit truly is a multi-tasker.  I'd like to see a tangerine try that one.  Yeah, I didn't think so.

Just Add Milk

The other day I realized that I have a ridiculous amount of face scrubs. I mean, how many exfoliating products can one forehead handle? But asking me to choose between them would be like asking me to choose between my Joe's jeans and my Seven jeans. Or maybe my True Religion's. Possibly my Citizen of Humanity's. See? I can't even do it in writing, much less in reality. But lucky for me, face scrubs cost less than denim, so I can continue to keep adding to my product collection (relatively) guilt free. My latest acquisition is Kiehl's Milk, Honey and Almond Scrub. It's definitely more of what I consider a "special" product - one that I only use every two weeks or so, but that's only because it works so well, that's all that's necessary. It's much thicker than most of the scrubs I've bought before - it's almost solid, so when you scoop it out, you only need to use a tiny bit to get the job done. And it smells exactly like it sounds, like something you should be putting in the oven instead of on your face. I'm such a sucker for products that smell like food. Seriously, Sephora could probably sell me cheeseburger lotion if they just put it in a cute bottle and marketed it right. I also like that the almonds in this scrub are finely ground, so it does its job without making my face all scratchy. Plus, my face always feels really smooth and soft after I use it and I love products that do that. And there's nothing better than visiting a Kiehl's store because of all the free samples. I love, love, love free samples. You can try out something expensive that you don't want to invest in just yet, or go for the always awesome Blue Astringent in portable, vacation friendly little packages. So you're gonna go out and buy it, right? Okay, good. Now, let's get back to talking about that cheeseburger lotion idea...

Pineapple Goodness

I don't really like to eat pineapple. It's one of those odd fruits that I would never buy at the supermarket, even if it was already neatly cut up for me and ready to go. Of course, throw chunks of it on a pizza with ham and cheese and I'm all over it, but that's a different story because all pizza is good pizza, even the kind that tries to fool you into eating your vegetables by using broccoli as a topping. But even though I don't like to eat pineapple, I love the smell of it, which explains why I like Benefit's Pineapple Facial Polish so much. It's a facial scrub/exfoliator that smells exactly like one of those tropical drinks you get when you're on vacation sitting on a beach oogling half-naked foreign men who don't speak English but know how to communicate in the universal language of love (Damn, there I go oversharing again. Moving along...) The scrub is a great exfoliator, but it's gentle enough to use every day, or as often as you like to exfoliate because really, who does that every day? I feel like if I exfoliated as much as some magazines tell me to, I'd have no skin left on my face and that would make putting on makeup a lot harder. Although I would save money on foundation, I guess. Plus, the scrub is $24 for a 5.5 ounce container, so you might want to space it out a little so you don't blow through it in a week. There's nothing more annoying than getting to the end of a product you love, especially when it's kind of pricey. After all, you need to save some money to buy those tropical men. Uhm, tropical drinks. Oh, you know what I mean.

Not Scrub-y Enough

While I’m a huge fan of Mario Badescu, the Almond And Honey Non-Abrasive Face Scrub is one of their products that I’m not psyched about.  I understand that it’s made for sensitive skin and that it’s supposed to be a gentle exfoliant, but I hardly feel any sloughing at all when I use it.  Unless I position the cream exactly on my nose, to where the almond pieces do their work on my blackheads, I usually feel nothing when I use it on my face.  I’ve been using it religiously for a month now and, while my face is very soft, it was just as soft before I started using this product (because of their Orange Cleanser and Collagen Moisturizer).  Therefore, you can do the math:  Almond and Honey product not useful.  They do offer other exfoliators that I’m going to try.  Hopefully one of them will actually help decrease the nastiness on my nose.  I wonder if blackheads could be genetic?  If so, I have a phonecall to place to my mom. 

Give Me Some Sugar

As long as I can remember, I've coveted the Fresh Sugar Face Polish. I can't even count the number of times I've put it in my basket at Sephora, only to take it out when I got up to the register. Even in my advanced stages of product whore-ism, I can't bring myself to fork over $55 + tax for a small container of face scrub, even if it does smell like fresh strawberries dipped in sugar that you would eat for dessert after you-- Ahem. Where was I? Oh, right. So I've never actually owned the Fresh Sugar Face Polish because once you start paying that much for a product, it's a slippery slope down to Manolo Blahnik's and living in a cardboard box. So you can imagine my delight (seriously, I screamed like a little girl at Christmas) when I discovered yesterday that C.O. Bigelow has just put out their own version called Brown Sugar Crystal Face Polish.

First of all, it smells awesome, just like the Fresh version, which I thought was weird until I read the label and realized that it too has strawberries in it. Score one for C.O. Bigelow. And it's only $10 right now at Bath and Body Works. $10! It's normally around twice that, but this is a special price since it just came out. It's so new, in fact, that it's not listed on any websites yet, which is why there isn't a picture of it at the top of this review. (I'd almost think I was hallucinating it if I wasn't staring at the bottle right now and my friend hadn't bought one as well).

The scrub itself is grainy and a little rougher than I was expecting, but it was all worth it because when I washed it off, my face was so soft and clean. It was fantastic. The bottle says that you can use it as a mask or a scrub, but I personally think I'd use it more as a scrub a few times a week to exfoliate. Plus, the smell lingers even after you're done, so you can sit on the couch and inhale the brown sugar goodness a little longer. Awesome.

It's like I've finally gotten a chance to own the Fresh Sugar Face Polish without having to sell a kidney. I love this scrub so much, I feel like I did when I first discovered the Louis Vuitton knockoff bags on Canal Street. And this isn't even illegal! Way to go, C.O. Bigelow.

Rolling with Cream Peel

I have to start off by saying that I have a passionate love affair with Mario Badescu.  The day that Mario made his way into my bathroom, has to be my face’s favorite day.  Never before has my skin been so soft, glowing and clear.  He has even helped me to get a good stronghold on those damn blackheads that infest my nose!  I decided to try his Rolling Cream Peel with A.H.A. and for the first time, I have mixed feelings about a Mario product.  The instructions are very simple:  After cleansing your face, rinse and pat dry.  Then you are to apply a thin layer of this cream and massage until tiny rolls appear.  Remove the remainder of the residue with a toner.  I followed exactly what Mario wanted me to do and upon applying the thin layer I found myself having to massage my skin FOREVER.  Seriously it was as if time stood still until I saw the rolls appear.  Actually, as I was massaging I was thinking about how it takes about the same amount of time for stovetop pudding to bubble.  (big shocker, I had food on the brain)  Anyways, when the rolls finally started happening I quickly realized I had better get my face over the sink because little clumps of the stuff was falling all over the floor.  Also, my fingers were a bit tired and raw from all the massaging, so overall not the most pleasant face-scrubbing experience.  The after effects of this cream are great – my skin is very soft and looks fabulous – however, I got the same results from using their face scrub.  So, to avoid the mess, the waste of time and the raw fingers, I would stick to just using their scrub.  Then, with all the time I’ve saved, I can go make my chocolate pudding.  Yum, chocolate pudding. 

Ole for Olay!

I know that scrubbing my face is essential to keep my skin glowing, but I could never find a scrub that smelled good, was fun to use and was delicate enough to use everyday - until now.  Our good friend Olay has come out with a master of a scrub - The Regenerist Thermal Skin Polisher.  This little badboy actually heats up on your skin to give you that extra fun scrub - and not the kind of "heating up" where you think your skin might actually melt off your face - oh, no, this amazing scrub just heats up enough to give you that comfortable heated-washcloth sensation, but with the added bonus of exfoliation.  Using micro crystals (aww, how cute!) and glycolic acid, this face scrub made my skin glow like never before.  And at 12.99 a tube (if you go to Target) how can you go wrong!  I know I've dropped a hell of a lot more on some fancy department store scrubs that are far inferior to this one.   Also, if you keep adding water to your face while you're scrubbing, it keeps heating up.  Man, I must've been over the sink for an hour tonight.  I hope there's a support group for people who scrub too much.  I feel like I need to admit I have a problem.