What a Lush

It's no secret that I am crazy about Lush products. They smell amazing, leave your skin soft and smooth and don't test on animals. I started out buying the bath bombs and then started trying out all of their lotions, potions and hair cremes, but there is one product I will not ever give up the Ocean Salt Cleanser.

I generally workout 5-6 days a week in some form or capacity (unless I am doing manual labor then I skip the workout, because that kind of work is punishment enough) and as a result I get sweaty. This can lead to some less then desirable issues like bacne (acne of the back). Years ago I struggled trying to figure out why I was breaking out back there and tried every product I could get my hands on. Then I happened to come across a Lush store with the most helpful lady that immediately showed me this cleanser. Ever since then I have used it every single day and as a result have maintained a lovely smooth and non bacne back.

The whole reason I bring this up is that it is summer time so bikini's, tank tops, back showing dresses/tops are all around and if you struggle with this at all, give it a shot. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Flakey

No not me. It’s my head. Remember this trip on the boat?Well apparently my scalp got a little sunburnt even though I have pretty thick hair and it looks as though mybrain is trying to escape one little flakey piece at a time. Now that you know all about my current grooming woes you are probably asking yourself why I brought it up. Well summer is in full swing and now that I officially live back in the land of sun and warmth I realized that this particular problem could happen again. Since I really don’t want to have to rub sunscreen into my hair at thebeach (that would not make for pretty hair) I turned to the internet for options. Surprisingly there are some really awesome non-bald guy options that I just had to share, so you can avoid the flake!

I am thinking the hat is a must just because you could eat dinner off that brim. Dramatic and Southern. Just my style!

The reviews on this are awesome. It has an SPF AND it reduces frizz.
Sounds like worth a try to me!
via Nordstrom

This is a leave in conditioner that has a built in SPF.
Super easy, no additional steps necessary. Wash and go.
via Skin Store

This hat also contains an SPF so not only is it stylish, but gives extra sun protection.
I do love a big hat!
via Sunday Afternoons

Beauty Junkie

When it comes to beauty products I am like a moth to a flame. I am drawn to them. It like shoes, but worse because there are so many categories to choose from. 

My travel has stepped up a notch with my latest exploits and as a result I have been on a plane at least once a week for the last month. While I have discussed my needs for a nighttime hydrating regime as a result of this, I have found that my daytime routine needs a boost as well to keep up with the dry environments of planes and hotels. Luckily my friends at BirchBox have once again read my mind and two months ago I received Olìe 004 Huile Moderne. Right on the bottle it declares that it is the ‘Everyday Everyone Everything skincare Oil’, so of course I tested it’s limits. With three different kinds of oils, including my beloved argan oil, it goes on smooth and penetrates quickly, fully nourishing my deeply dehydrated skin. It even perked up my way too many cocktails and trying to pretend I was 20 again the night before skin. That is a true test of miracle oil if I do say so myself. 

This does not mean I have given up my argan oil though, it just means that I use it on my hair and nails instead of my face each morning. It still is magic!

Sky High

Off we go again. We are headed out today to the Netherlands for the majority of the month of March. I have vowed not to get sick and/or have crappy skin because of the airplane. I totally have the sickness under control with everything I can (Emergen-C, Advil, AYR, etc.) and for the skin I am working a new hydrating toner. I discovered this one when I treated myself to a facial for my birthday at Massage Envy since it was a rockin' good deal and really who says no to a facial? They use Murad products which I have never really tried so I was excited to give it a go. During the facial Erin (the esthetician) was telling she was putting on a toner and I was struck by how lovely it smelled. She filled me in on the benefits of it for my skin and how it can really help me since I travel back and forth between to different environments. So I went home and did some research on it and went back the next day to purchase it. It is great stuff and I am looking forward to seeing how this adds to my already extensive travel skin care routine. Curious about the product? It's Murad Hydrating Skin Toner and by the look of the reviews on the site I am not the only one loving this product! Totally worth a try if you are looking for a hydrating boost to your routine.

So while I will totally miss the Ocean, I am looking forward to getting back to Europe. I have some very important little people to see. Goodbye warm Southern California we will return soon.

Fly By

My time here in the US is coming to a close and we are getting ready to head back to Europe for a month, so obviously I am worried about my skin. Traveling takes a toll out of my body, head and skin. I always feel like a lizard upon arrival no matter how much water I drink or lotion I slather on my skin (and then have to go to bathroom every 5 minutes). That is until I rediscovered Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Gold Ultra Restorative Capsules Intensive Treatment for Face and Throat courtesy of Birchbox. I know what you are thinking, these are super old school and only used by little old ladies with three cats and a house full of really cool old things, but there is no way you could ever find them because they are under 10 feet of newspaper and canned food. Well you would be wrong then, because I am now a user and totally don't own any cats or even get the newspaper.

These little capsules have helped transform my sickly, fever soaked skin into a normal looking face in just a few days. In fact I went make-up free for a few days when we were packing and moving and had a friend tell me that my skin looked amazing. I am not thinking that it's that good, but I must admit I am super happy with the results. The capsules contain a silky material that goes on quick and easy and instantly absorbs into the skin. I used this every morning for a week and really saw a difference in my skin tone.

Is it a miracle worker? Probably not, but I am hoping that it will help keep me from the lizard status today on the plane!!

Peel for Real

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was trying a new face mask/peel and would give you a run down on how it turned out if I liked it. I had never tried anything like this before so it was a new and different experience for me, but all in all pretty cool.

The Earthen Instant Peel is a very interesting product. You get in the shower and wash up allowing your skin to get prepped for the peel. Once it’s ready you apply a little bit of the product to a small area of your face and then rub it in and then keep rubbing. And then you rub a little more and then finally you feel it starting to peel. At first I thought that it was just the product getting flaky then I realized it was the top layer of my skin (this is what it is supposed to do. I triple checked. Seriously.).  I moved through the different parts of my face and repeated the process as instructed. At this point I didn’t know what to think. That is until I got out of the shower. Holy cow my skin felt so soft and firm it was amazing what one little mask can do!

It is a pretty cool product, but I am on the fence on purchasing it only because of the price point. Since I have dry skin they recommend that you only do this every two weeks (oily and normal would use it a little more often). So it would last me for awhile, but I have about 5 different masks in my arsenal right now that I am using. I am trying to streamline my beauty routine, because I plan to be traveling quite a bit in the very near future. Got to keep simple and easy so I may hold off on this, but maybe this is exactly what I need. We will see.

I do however recommend trying it out, it’s not harsh at all, my skin didn't freak out and it really did have a noticeable difference with one application. Pretty cool. Let me know what you think if you have given it a chance. 

Mile High Skin Club

So as some of you may have guessed I have been on vacation livin' it up in Italy. It was great and fantastic and fun was had by all. The only downside to this was the 10 hour plane ride to and the return, as it leads to havoc on my skin. I travel quite a bit and this has lead me to be searching for products that help rehydrate my skin and make me feel a little better about the world upon my arrival (Since of course my outlook on life is dependent on my skin and hair feeling and looking fabulous. This can lead to bad days. I am just saying). A couple of years ago I had the craziest travel schedule that involved me crossing the country in a non sensible fashion with 6-7 hour flights every few weeks and I must say the outlook on life was grim. That is until I found Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega Mushroom Skin Calming Mask and my outlook turned sunny!

I used this on a Seattle to Boston trip and noticed that by putting it on when I went to bed on the first day I arrived I woke up to soft, silky, ready to face the day skin. I have also used this if I have a red skin day and put it on as a quick mask and really, truly see a difference. It does exactly what it says calms my skin, truth in advertising. What a concept. Now that I have also found my magical oil and use this in combination with the mask I have not had the dry, red skin I used to get while traveling and being stuck in hotels and convention centers all day. Outlook is clear skies and temperature is in the 80's, everyone is a lot happier to be around me now. Thank you Origins.

Thistle while you work

Summer and bugs seem to go hand in hand and nothing makes a vacation more uncomfortable than itchy, scratchy bug bites. If you are like me when you do get said bug bites it turns bright red and swollen and can completely ruin an outfit. So the big problem for me is that I don't like putting on bug deterrent stuff. Even the most natural of sprays you find in the drug store have a toxic fume that just can't be masked. So you have two choices, get bitten by every bug on the block and lake or smell like chemicals and not have anyone want to sit next to you. Not great choices.

So I have tried so many different sprays because for reasons I can't even begin to understand bugs love me. I can be in a group of 10 people and be the only one that has bites at the end of the day. I must be pretty tasty. So after reading an article The Community of Magdalene, a residential community founded for women with a history of prostitution and drug addiction and helps them gain job skills and create a better future for themselves, I wanted to find out more. Part of this program is the women create natural hand made bath and body products and all sales and profits go back to the program. There are so many great products that they offer that I had a hard time figuring out what to get. Then I saw something I had to try. Geranium Spray. Apparently geranium is a natural bug repellent and they combine this with lemongrass and citronella (also of the repellent sort) with a dash of lavender to create a scent that you don't shy away from putting on your body. SOLD.

Next up was the test and I must say that I didn't get one bite while wearing it in a pretty bug crazy environment this weekend. So not only are you supporting an amazing program, but you get great products that are good for the body, environment and soul. Not bad for a bug spray. I can't wait to try out some of the other products they offer too!!

Oh and a small tip. Don't forget to put the spray on your feet. I made this mistake when I was in Minnesota for a wedding and could barely put on my bridesmaids shoes without wanting to tear the skin off my feet. Flip flops didn't even help since it cut right on the bites. A weekend I will never forget and not just for the wedding.

Salt in your Coffee

I have been trying to really clean out my house the last few weeks. I have so much stuff that I am not using and since the annual family garage sale is coming up it's time for some stuff to find new homes. In the great clean out '11 I have found somethings that I forgot I even had. How does that happen? It must be a result of having so much stuff you no longer can keep track. It's even crazier if you think that only two years ago I moved into this place so I must have seen this stuff then. At least that is what you would think.

So when going through my bathroom I came across some dead sea salts that have not been used in easily a year. We all know the benefits of dead sea salts (No? Check this out) so I had to think of something to do with them. After some thought I decided I wanted to make a body scrub out of them for the shower and turned to the Internet for ideas. The only problem was most of the recipes I found had a heavy oil base and I wanted a thicker less oily scrub then what I was finding. So after taking some ideas from the recipes I had seen I made my own scrub that has a heavy salt base with sweet almond oil, coffee and essentials oils. It's really thick so you use a small amount and less oil means you don't feel so oily after the scrub or leave a ring around the tub. So far I have only used it only a few times (I don't suggest exfoliating everyday), but it is doing it's job and not leaving me a slick mess afterwards.

1/3 to 2/3 cup of dead sea salts (or a course salt)

essential oils (I used vanilla)

3 tablespoons of freshly ground semi course coffee (Here is some information on the benefits of coffee in your scrub)

3 - 5 tablespoons of sweet almond oil

I started by adding the essential oils to the salt directly (about 5 drops) and let it sit for a few minutes to get soaked up and followed by adding in the coffee grounds. I then added the sweet almond oil little by little until it was the consistency I wanted.  Where I ended up was somewhere around what you would find as the waves roll back into the ocean and the sand is wet, but not super soaked.

This is the result and I really love this scrub and plan on making a few other types too. Look for them soon!

I finished it off by placing it in this cute jar!

You can really tell that it isn't super runny. It's perfect.

It smells just like a vanilla, almond latte!

I Got Your Back

Not trying to get all personal and stuff, but summer is seriously thinking about coming around soon and this means tank tops, dresses, bathing suits...do you see where I am going? Skin is going to show and if you have the winter blah skin or even if you have a little back acne (bacne anyone?) I happen to know of  a little secret. See I had this problem. My skin gets crazy with every change of the season no matter how careful and vigilant I am with my body care routine. The cause of this can range from hair product used during showering, lack of air to skin (due to winter causing us to wear layers and layers of clothes and then for most of the country spring still acting like winter) and even just plain neglect. I mean really it is the most inconvenient place to get to and then when you do it turns you in to a contortionist in the shower. For me the tip of the blah skin iceberg came when I was in Vegas for work and happened to be staying at the Mandalay Bay which has a Lush store. I took this as a sign to try and get this back issue solved.

The best thing about Lush is the people in this store know everything about their products. You ask a question about what would be best for you and they know exactly what to get for you AND then they have you try it out in the store. Combine this with the fact they use natural products, everything is made by an actual person and all of the products smell amazing, how can you go wrong? After I told my story of back issues the sales girl ushered me over to the Ocean Salt Cleanser and declared I had to try it. So out came a scoop of blue looking scrub and on my hands it went. During the scrub session the sales girl mentioned that she had a similar back issue awhile ago and used this product to solve the issue for her. I must admit she did have nice skin. So after a scrub and rinse my hands were clean, soft and felt lovely. I was sold.

Must admit that it has been working absolute wonders on my skin. I am a believer with excellent pool side worthy skin! Now just to get the legs and behind into shape...

No scrubs

Twice a week I exfoliate followed by an enzyme peel and then a moisturizing mask like clockwork. That is unless I have other plans that get in the way of such things. Then I see the bad things that happen to my skin. Like right now. As in today. Totally sucks. I have sensitive dry skin that hates the changing of the seasons and right now my skin is in full freak out mode. This particular 'at home facial' mixture of products works really well for my skin, but I have learned through trial and error that the exfoliate process is one of the most important things especially if I forget to do my routine and only have a few minutes. My secret product allows me to skip the other steps at least once a week if I absolutely have to miss the full experience. After years of trying different types I found my Holy Grail of facial exfoliates, Eminence Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant.

Seriously this is one of those OMG moments the very first time I tried. I happened to come across this product as a recommendation from one of the Sugar Sugar goddesses, Tobi. She said and I quote, "Your skin will feel like butter" and I swear on my wine glass that it did! It's a light exfoliate that gently (and I truly mean gentle, my boss has the most sensitive skin known to man and can use this stuff) removes the layer of yuck on your skin and leaves nothing but soft, pretty looking skin. It also uses a super small amount so the cute milk container looking jar lasts forever! I swear I should be running out by now, but it still keeps coming. Besides all of the rest of this wonderful things it does this is a truly organic product. So you can feel confidant about what you are putting on your skin won't have crazy effects on you or the environment! Oh and did I mention that is smells AWESOME? Well it does.

The entire Eminence line is pretty darn amazing. OK so I can't say I have tried every single thing, but I have tried a lot of their stuff and I have not come across anything that hasn't been lovely on my skin and my dog likes the blueberry masks a lot. He seems to think my face mask is a snack, while it isn't he can actually eat it as there is nothing to hurt him or me included in the ingredients. We call this winning and not in a creepy Charlie Sheen way.

You can get Eminence products in more places now online then ever before and if you live in Seattle I know Sugar Sugar carries the vast majority of the line. Keep in mind all of the products contain no water so you use less and the product lasts much longer so in the long run it is very affordable!

Magic from Morocco

I actually was going to wait another week to post about this magical oil from Morocco, but I just can't wait to spread the word about this stuff.    

I am sure some of you may already know about this, but maybe you haven't tried it or you haven't heard a word about, because unlike me you have never been stuck at home on a Friday night with nothing but QVC to watch. Don't judge, Joan Rivers is a genius. ANYWAY. This all started when I was watching QVC as mentioned above (I swear this was a one time thing. I also learned about Diamonique that evening, but that is a post for another day) and there was a segment for Josie Maran argan oil and I think it included some sort of blush stick as a bonus. I must admit that I was intrigued, but couldn't focus on the product. Between Joan Rivers making jokes about the people that were milling around the fake garden studio set and Josie Maran constantly applying the oil and the stick to her face, skin, hair, lips to the point that was a little insane I was a little distracted. However this stuck in my brain.       


So while perusing the interwebs the other day and deciding that I need to buy a clarisonic and if I spent $50 more dollars I could get free shipping, I remembered the argan oil. So in my cart, checked out and through the mail it went. As soon as I received it I cleaned my face and put it on and true to Josie's word it was fast absorbing, moisturizing and non-greasy. IT DID WHAT IT SAID! Amazing. Throughout the week I have been using this day and night and I am not kidding that I saw a difference immediately and see even more of a difference every day. My skin is balanced, my rosacea lessened, my complextion glowing, but not like a grease pit and you only use a few drops so it lasts! Love, Love, Love.

There are a several ways to order the oil (Sephora, Nordstrom, QVC, etc.) and I used the Josie Maran version, but since it's pure oil I am sure you could use any source. Another great thing about this oil is that it also helps women of the rural region of Morocco where the Argan trees grow.  All argan sold today is produced by a women's cooperative that provides a fair work environment and wages to women of the region. You can find more information about this by going to http://www.arganoilsociety.org/argan-oil-women-cooperatives.