review: Forever Red by Bath & Body Works

Fragrance is such a personal taste thing so its somewhat hard for me to review this because I know it has to be more subjective than usual. I have a few things to comment on, but you should just know that you may have a completely different experience with it than I do.

On their website, Bath & Body Works describe Forever Red as "A passionate blend of pomegranate & red osmanthus with a sexy surprise of vanilla rum". I believe this perfume would be categorized as "floral". Even though I love flowers I tend to prefer perfumes and colognes that are "woody". I think floral scents are considered more feminine, but I tend to find florals too sweet and they make me nauseous after awhile. This almost always happens with Victoria Secret perfumes. However this one is balanced out by that vanilla rum. I personally would wear it on a date with my husband or in some situation where I don't have it on all day. 

My sister gave me several Bath & Body Works products last year and I was quite surprised at the perfumes. I had always just thought of that store as hand soaps and lotions, but my mind was changed. My favorite one so far is "Twilight Woods" and I now wear it most days. My other favorite perfume is "Shi" by Alfred Sung, I just absolutely love it but it is not woody, it is actually floral but it has a much more delicate scent than average. 

*Influenster sent me this complimentary product for free.

"Healthy" Skin and Hair

I always find it interesting how we talk about healthy hair, getting healthy hair, keeping healthy hair, "I need to do _____ so my hair is healthier". Hair is made up of keratinized dead skin cells. So when we speak of "healthy hair" we are actually talking about the hair that seems and appears less dead. So there is a very good reason we need to get hair cuts, the dead skin cells get to a point where they can no longer pretend to be undead. (Let's leave the obvious zombie/vampire jokes alone for the moment.)
When you completely damage your hair beyond repair the best solution is to cut it off, or keep going till it breaks off on its own (I've seen and done a lot of both). I know a few people that can help you with the haircut. ;)

Don't get me wrong you can use products and do things to keep your hair in its best state as long as possible. I'm just saying it is not the same as taking vitamins or working out your muscles. It is like the difference between working with a daisy plant that is still in soil, a freshly cut daisy, and a daisy that has been dried in a flower press. The live plant can be given nutrients that will help it stay alive and be in the best condition. The freshly cut flower can be kept in water but it will eventually wilt. The dried flower, while pretty, is very brittle and can easily crumble to pieces. Dealing with hair is like dealing with the freshly cut flower that eventually becomes like the dried flower. The brittle end is inevitable.

However skin is a living organ. You can feed your skin what it needs and improve it in a way hair cannot be improved. So why is it that most women (I'm conjecturing based on what I have seen, I have no real statistics) will go to much greater lengths to take care of their hair? Why is it that most people have a daily hair routine that they do not deviate from but skin care seems to be optional? Yes there are many people that faithfully use a skin care routine, but when I talk to people in general I hear more stories of the "soap & water" routine for their skin. Can you imagine taking a bar of soap and quickly wiping it over your hair, rinsing and being done with it? 

We probably get by with ignoring our skin because in many ways it is more forgiving as it keeps replenishing itself. However, I ask you to consider giving your living organ at least the same care you give it's dead byproduct. As you think about this in the upcoming posts I will be talking about how to better take care of your skin, but I will also be discussing how to keep your hair in better condition too... so stay tuned. 

review: Pilot FriXion Erasable Gel Pen

Just two CosmoVoxBox reviews left and then back to skin. 

If these pens just wrote, they would be good. They are gel ink which are always fantastic in my opinion. But they don't just write, they erase too! Perfectionists of the world join me in a unified cheer. You can write in pen and then erase it. It is not the type of erasing where you don't see anything, you can tell a thing was written there. However, it is the type of erasing where you make a mistake and erase and rewrite and it looks beautiful. I love to write in pen and have learned to be okay with the permanence of ink errors, but this changes that. No more compromise.

I cannot wait to try the FriXion Erasable Highlighter. I'm completely serious, I don't joke about writing utensils. 

Watch out for my FriXion pen doodle, coming soon. 

*Influenster sent me this complimentary product for free.

review: Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape

Let us stray from the beauty theme for a bit to talk about chocolate.

I absolutely love chocolate and consider myself a connoisseur. At my wedding reception my husband and I opted for a "chocolate bar" featuring many choices of chocolates instead of a cake. When my family and friends travel they bring me new and sometimes exotic chocolates to try.

I used to be much more into milk chocolate but find my tastes are changing as I eat less and less sugar. I used to obsess over varieties of Belgium milk chocolate, but now I find myself trying chocolates that have alternatives to sugar, which seems more likely in dark options. (If it is cheap chocolate I think milk is better, dark chocolate really needs to be a good quality.)

Ghirardelli is a great chocolate. I find that even their unsweetened bars have a silky smooth quality that other similar chocolates do not. When going to San Francisco, Ghirardelli Square is pretty much a required sojourn. You might even say I am a Ghirardelli fan.
Therefore, I was so excited to see this in my VoxBox:

So it is with a heavy heart that I report I was slightly disappointed. The majority of the problem was my fault because I kept thinking it was Sea Salted Caramel but then I looked at the package after sampling it a couple times. The reason there was no caramel flavor is that it wasn't salted caramel duh! hahaha

It is a very good chocolate bar. The milk chocolate is superb as always, the almond pieces are delicious and the sea salt rounds out the flavors quite nicely. But even after I repeatedly told myself there wasn't caramel I still wanted there to be caramel. I can't say it was bad in any way but somehow it was just missing something. If someone offered me this bar I would not refuse a square but if I was standing in the chocolate aisle I would likely buy the Dark & Raspberry filled, the Dark & Orange filled, or the Milk & Caramel filled. 

Before I wrote this I went to the Ghirardelli website and discovered they do in fact have a Dark & Sea Salt Caramel bar that I will need to try now, if nothing else to fulfill that missing piece of the puzzle. I just remembered that I think I've seen it in the store recently so maybe that is why I was so confused with my assumptions. I also noticed they have a Gourmet Milk Coconut Rendezvous... oooh I love coconut and chocolate. I am not generally a white chocolate fan but if you ever see their white chocolate coconut, give it a try. It may have been a different brand or a limited time one, I dunno, but it was good.

Dear Ghirardelli, this wasn't a complete miss... keep at it buddy. 

*Influenster sent me this complimentary product for free.

review: Gillette Venus Embrace and Venus & Olay Razors

Ok to be perfectly honest I've never liked Venus razors and for some reason I really want to. Every few years I try the latest iteration out to confirm I just wasted my money on pretty packaging and an unpleasant experience. So when there was a Venus Embrace razor and Venus & Olay razor refill in my VoxBox I instantly rolled my eyes but also wanted to try it. Ha!

The current marketing strategy seems to be that all the different blades work with all the different razor handles. This really doesn't impress me. In fact I would think it was ridiculous if that was not true. 

Venus razors rarely ever nick and cut, which is a great asset. However my problem has always been that I don't feel like it is a close enough shave. With 5 blades how is that possible? I don't know. I just have found better results with a razor that I unfortunately can never remember the name of unless I see it and can rarely find refill blades for. *Ah because the Bic Soleil (of which I was speaking) apparently no longer sells razor refills, just disposable versions of the original which are really not as good. Grrr

So I tried my new venus razor out, the Embrace blade on one leg and the Venus & Olay blade on the other. In the shower I really liked the Venus & Olay blade. Am I convert? I don't know yet but it felt really nice and it felt like a closer shave, but I can't compute how that is possible... look at the blade, it's surrounded by pillows of Olay?

 

Afterwards I let my legs dry and did not put lotion on them. I wanted there to be a difference but there really isn't. I have to say they did not feel stubbly at all, but the hair is there on the verge of coming out. Maybe I'm too razor critical but in the end my favorite hairy leg solution is waxing. I will probably continue to use these razors and may even buy in the future but I wasn't wowed and I'm not running out to praise them to my girlfriends. :)

*Influenster sent me this complimentary product for free.

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox

I recently joined influenster.com and qualified to receive the Fall 2012 Cosmo VoxBox. They send out these boxes containing a selection of free products to try out, then review and recommend. My next few posts will be focused on these products.

You can find the reviews in the archives or just click from here:

• review: Gillette Venus Embrace & Venus & Olay
• review: Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape
• review: Forever Red by Bath & Body Works
• review: Pilot FriXion Erasable Gel Pen

It's today.

No one who has ever known me would probably peg me for beauty obsessed. You generally won't catch me pouring over Glamour or Vogue magazine (unless I'm in the salon getting my hair done), I have almost never gotten up at 5 am to have my hair perfectly curled before facing the world, and I do not sacrifice our family groceries so I can have some of the latest fashions. But nevertheless beauty is a passion of mine, especially beautiful skin. 

I really love skin. It's more likely that I love the nervous system because it is the touch and feeling parts of skin that I'm most drawn to. Feeling textures on my fingertips like velvet or glass, dipping my hands into a container of beads or uncooked rice, stroking my child's super soft cheek and holding his tiny puffy fingers. 

I love to touch and feel, but I love other things about skin too. It completely fascinates me. Its entire makeup and how it works is so interesting to me. I also really get into skincare, I always have. From my childhood I had to be super aware of my skin because of it's sensitivity to the sun and penchant for burning. In high school I got into making my own skin & hair care products and learning about natural treatments for skin problems. 

Since then I have sold different skin care products and types of makeup. I went to school for Cosmetology which just reinforced everything I already knew about skin, hair, and nails and my interest in skincare. 

This blog is going to be about skin and the many products I like and dislike to do with skin and beauty. I will showcase my favorite Artistry products that I sell but I will also talk about other products that I have no affiliation to. Occasionally (and immediately) I will also feature some things to do with Influenster. 

Everyone should have a perfect skin day, and I think it's today. ♥