Body Moisturizers for Dry Skin

It's finally beginning to feel like Christmas... no it's just snowing liker crazy. I've mentioned before that I have an extremely oily face while the rest of my body is extremely dry. I wish the oil would just travel and spread to other parts of my body, but when does your body ever listen to you? My body has these chicken skin like bumps that gets irritated whenever it gets rubbed against something. I must admit that I have a high tolerance for itchy things because I just let my mosquito bites sit there without touching them however, these bumps have me scratching my skin till it's bloody and raw. 

Now these moisturizers are not a cure to the itches but they do keep them from getting too itchy and dry. Let me tell you a little of what I look for in a good body moisturizer. 

1. Non scrented. I like putting on my own perfumes on top of my lotions to help them last. I don't want the smell of my lotion competing with my perfume. Plus, most body creams smell too strong. 

2. Heavy duty moisturizing, as well as a heavy texture. I like mine to almost leave a thin film of moisture on my skin. Don't confuse this for oil but it's more of a moist silky feeling to the skin. 

3.How well it seeps into the skin. Can't describe it well but after applying lotion all over the body, I don't like to put on clothes because it would rub off on the clothes and not seep into the skin well. I still like to retain the moisturized skin.

Tada! If your expectations match mine, then take a look at these.

The go from my favorite starting with Cetaphil, Target's brand and Olive lotion*. I'm sorry but I'm not sure about the price. As you can see from the picture, I ran out and bought a fresh tub of this beauty, isn't it purty... *All the pictures have them going in this order.

The star of this show is the Cetaphil. I've read that people apply this onto their face. I really wouldn't recommend this because it's so thick and creamy and I can tell that if applied onto my face, it would probably clog pores. Although skin is skin, there are some products best left for different parts of the skin. This moisturizer is thick and heavy with no distinguishable scent. No glitter or anything, just plain moisturizer with an affordable, sometimes on sale, price at the drugstore.

You know I love to see if the grass is greener on the other side, so I strayed from Cetaphil to try this; it was three dollars cheaper than the Cetaphil. The Target brand is next and while most of the ingredients are the same, I still prefer the Cetaphil. This has a bit of a plastic scent, which does fade. This is also thick and creamy but not as moisturizing.

Now let me start by saying that the Olive is not my favorite choice of lotion. The Olive was given to me as a gift and I really am not too fond of it. It has an extremely heavy scent and isn't as moisturizing as the Cetaphil or Target brand. I do use this when there's nothing around, but meh, just not for me. It has an odd scent and I think that it's for people who want something light and not heavy. It has an odd texture where it starts out creamy and transforms into a watery texture. After rubbing this into the skin, it feels like I just rubbed a watery gel rather than a cream. Doesn't blend into the skin very well, but it does leave a strong scent and non oily but watery film.

I've blended the creams down into my skin at the bottom.

When comparing all three, the Cetaphil just blends and seeps into the skin, keeps it moisturized and isn't as heavy(minus the olive for this category) when compared to all three. It keeps my skin silky smooth and I don't find myself scratching my arms and legs as much. The Target brand is comparable however, it leaves an oily film rather than moisturizing. The feeling does fade, but I don't like to just stand there in my undies not touching anything for the fear of it rubbing off on anything.

It's freakity frick fracking cold here but look at these Pooh Bear warmers! Just plug them into a Usb Port and they keep my palms warm. Doesn't do much for the fingers but who cares? Blue Pooh! Lol

Physician's Formula Healthy Wear Foundation

I am on a roll with Physician's Formula products. Now this is more of a new product that I am still getting to know. It's not a complete and through review but I really wanted to write about it. Now I got this at my local Rite Aid for 75% off. I never would have picked this up otherwise because Physician's Formula tends to be pricey for a drugstore brand but with the sale and  9.6g of product convinced me otherwise. 

I wasn't going to get this but changed my mind because of the SPF 50. 50! Not even my moisturizer has that much. I am getting a bit lax with my skin and decided that this was going to be a first step towards change. This, like most Physician's Formula products, has bulky packaging with a mirror compact and a separate compartment for their sponge. Totally love that there is a separate place to put the sponge. It also has a little knob of ribbon at top that serves no actual purpose. I like the bright orange color of the compact because I can see this in the mornings and not have to fumble around my drawers for it. 

Now here is the bad part. This had a limited color selection that I had trouble matching up to my skin. Could be because of the clearance sale or just the normal color selection, but I don't know. This powder is supposedly translucent white but it was not translucent and was much too pale for me. There wasn't a darker color available in store and the other ones left were all bronzers. Luckily, I can blend this fairly well and I have to because this thing wasn't an easy blender. With the sponge that came with this, I patted a good amount and spread it all over my face. This managed to even out most of my rosacea and my red spots. With one swipe, I fell in love.

Here comes the test. A mole on my forearm with nothing on it. Used to sponge that came with it for a heavier coverage.

One swipe that was nicely patted in afterwards. See how decently that covered up the dark mole? Not full coverage but a nice cover for all of those tiny marks and red skin.

After a bit of concealer and the powder. Now it's not 100% covered but I think that it did a hell of a job on the mole. I find myself using less concealer on my skin on certain places because I know that this will cover it up. I haven't broken out so far but I also haven't used this for a long time. This also did not oxidize on my skin and kept a barricade on my oily skin for a while. In the end I still managed to get oily, but it still had great long lasting coverage.

Now here are some of the cons. This can make you look cakey. Luckily, I have oily skin so this helped me control a good bit of my oil prone skin but people with dry skin may need to beware. You can also set this with a setting spray to reduce the powdery look. Difficulty with blending and poor color selection are also some of the issues you may have with this product. However, the high SPF, medium coverage and no scent are one of the many pros that will have me reaching for this product.

My goodness it had been a fairly warm winter here and all of a sudden BAM. My little tootsies are getting so cold. I'm also starting to get chicken skin and cracks all over my body. Here's a trick. Get some Aquaphor or Vaseline, pronto if you have really dry skin, apply it to the affected area and put a bit of plastic wrap over it to seal it in. I used to get Aquaphor all over my clothes because I didn't cover it up. This method helps keep the dry skin moist and gets rid of the itches that come with it.

I've also picked up a bad habit. Scratching my scalp. I do this in my sleep as well and find my pillow littered with hair. My sister comes to steal my slippers a lot and she tells me that she can hear me scratching my scalp. Not even seeing but hearing. How gross. Premature baldness begone! I need to stop this habit and get my sister a pair of slippers. She tells me that she killed a spider with hers and can now no longer wear it. Wuss.

Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Color Correcting Pebbles

I picked this Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Color Correcting Pebbles along with their powder foundation from Rite Aid for about 75% off retail value. It comes in a sturdy container that looks a bit clunky with a powder puff, mini tri-colored brush and a mirror on the inside. The brush is flimsy and the powder puff dispenses a lot of the product with being able to buff it it so I suggest using you personal brush.

Now, when reading the instructions, it tells you to apply this all over your face in order to even out your skin tone. In my head I imagined this to be a matte powder that I could use before my new powder foundation that would hide my rosacea and any  other discolorations. Take a look at this and tell me if I could apply this all over my face. 

 No! Do you know why? Because it is nothing but shimmery colored pebbles that do nothing to even out the skintone. People who have oily skin can not/should not apply shimmer all over their faces.Now it does blend in nicely, but for a gal who gets the oilies after two hours of original application, I've learned that shimmer is best applied to limited areas. This is also low coverage and the colors blended together did not even out the skintone.This has now been delegated to the highlighter pile.

Before I continue further, let me profess my love for the Guerlain. Before I knew what a highlighter was, I used to set my makeup with this powder. Looking back, I shouldn't have because this has shimmer as well, but when I used to wear this all over, I used to get so many compliments on my glowy skin. My skin was always bad, so the glowing part had to be attributed to the Guerlain. I don't wear it anymore because
1) I am saving my meager stash
2) I like the matte look better now
3) Not a big fan of the scent after a prolonged use.

 This is with flash compared alongside my Guerlain Meteorites in Beige. Now the Physician's Formula has a noticeable sheen rather than the flecks of shimmer in the Guerlain. The glitter in the Guerlain can be tapped off and  for some reason, isn't so noticable once applied and buffed.

In natural light the sheen in thePhysician's Formula is much more noticeable while the Guerlain looks almost invisible except for the occasional glistening of glitter.

It's not that this product is bad, it's really decent. However, I really didn't need an another highlighter and do not like this purchase. I still have about 10 other highlighting products that look fully intact and I hate that now I have an extra albatross around my neck. It isn't so unusual that I had to have it but it's not so crappy that I can throw it away. Oh well.

See those purple lines? It was to remind myself on where each product ended and began. Had a bit of difficulty with removal but nothing like rubbing off the first layer of your dermis keeps it looking fresh. Since winter is here, I really want to go to a Korean spa. I really like soaking in the different tubs, getting massages and lounging in the oddly themed rooms while sipping some shikhye. The only problem is the full nudity. I know that it's normal to remove all, but I am a bit shy. All they offer you is a small hand towel that covers nothing. Nothing!

Lush's Dirty Toothy Tabs

Lush had their after Christmas sale and besides the Bath Bombs I managed to get this one as well. I've always flirted with the idea of making my own toothpaste, but after a disastrous incident with baking soda and coconut oil, I've decided to go a different route. That led to Lush's Dirty Toothy Tabs that you can get for $3.95. 

 Tada! In a tiny package that holds about 40 tabs, I thought that it could be a natural way to keep my tea and coffee drinking teeth, pearly white.

 I love that Lush always has a date and a face on their packaging. Thanks Stuart. Now I realize that a tube of toothpaste cost ~$3 and I could get a whole lot more brushing out of it but I thought that this would be a good way of trying something new. Dirty was supposed to have a Pepperminty taste but it didn't. It clearly had a cosmeticy taste that left me rinsing my mouth out for a while. After what I thought was a good gargling, I would sit down and right after that I would once again have that weird taste and smell left in my mouth. So this had me gargling in front of the sink for a damn long time. I drank a lot of sink water...a lot.

See how deceptively small it is? It foams up quite a a bit but is chalky and leaves a weird taste in my mouth. It neither kept my teeth white nor feeling minty fresh. I think that this is a big miss for me and definitely wouldn't repurchase. For now, I'll just stick with sprinkling my toothpaste with baking soda. 

Oh the Rasmalai was a big miss. Do you know what the worst part is? I had it made, packaged but forgot to bring it with me. Now I have to eat all of those sweet milky paneer all by myself. Oh the horror.

Happy Holidays are Over (No review)

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and look forward to the new year. This Christmas was pretty good and while it's not about the presents, I did get some awesome things. The things that I'm most happy to see are these.

The white blue box is a Merdiem emulsion that I want to try out, a bottle of this Daeng Gi Meori shampoo that I absolutely love and a Coach Poppy perfume. The best thing in this picture is the Love Box filled with Korean goodies in back. Its chock filled with delicious cookies and snacks that I've never tried before. Squeeee.

On a random note, here are the top five products that I hope to see again in the new year.

 L to R: Midnight Mambo (my most complimented nail polish), Bare Escentuals Sealent ( I've converted my half monolided sister into a believer), the UDPP (no explanation needed), and the Korres lip balm (its the longest lasting but has its flaws).

I once again reorganized my stash of makeup, but there were some casualties.

 Noooo. this was the best highlighter in my collection. Gosh darn. This is why I don't clean. That and I can't seem to find anything after I've cleaned up.

Once again, I have no cohesion in my post. I've also decided to make some rasmalai and I'll be sure to tell you how that goes. Going to use http://www.spicytasty.com/indian-sweets/rasmalai for the recipe.Besides, I have a Bengali and Goan friend that I'll be serving to, so I'll let you know about what they say.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips in Groove

During the CVS beauty sale, I picked up a bunch of these Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips. Usually retailing around $10, got these for $3. This isn't my first foray into the nail sticker business, however, this has to be one of the worst. 

As you see on the package, it tells me that with proper preparation, this lasts up to ten days. It's been three days since the. Tell me if you think that it has lived up to its c;aim. Comes with a mini nail file along with a cuticle stick. As the directions instructed, I buffed and cleaned my nails to ensure proper stickage. Now the strips were for people with a tinier nail bed because I had trouble finding the right sized one even with 15 strips. Now unless you are ambidextrous, it is extremely difficult to find the proper point to place these in the middle where it has to over lap your nails on both sides. I tried doing my pinky, but angrily started to rip the nail sticker into tiny pieces after several futile efforts. Now after my sister observed my angry gnomish temper tantrum, she offered to help.

 See my left hand? The suckers are very hard to rip properly. The sticker over lapped onto my cuticles, and it didn't rip cleanly off. It left a jagged edge that threatened to rip the whole sticker off my nails if touched. So after that threat, I just had to live with the sticker on my cuticles. Now here is the other thing, if the sticker hangs out because your nails aren't long enough, they tell you to use he gentle side of the file to take off the excess. Do you know what that leaves you with? No nail on the tip and outer rim of your nails. Let me tell you a secret. Do you now the trick to keeping your manicure for a long time without having it chip  from the base? Painting the rim of your nails. Without that extra sealant, the nails are prone to chipping and since this is impossible to fold under my nails without leaving the I think I have gunk under my nails feeling; I was unable to keep this polish from chipping ever after one day.

 SEE WHAT HAPPENS!

Now my sister became a pro after doing the right hand, and the left came out nicely. Geez, I have a whole stack of these to go through. The non drying part is really convenient, but the time it took to apply these is similar to painting your nails and applying a fast dry top coat, provided that you didn't apply a think coat of polish. Unless you have a bored sister like mine that took mercy upon my pitiful, stocky frame, I really don't recommend this unless you are doing the fancy designed ones. Those take forever to do and only then are these worth it.

Totally unrelated story. Do you know that I got myself the gift that keeps on giving? My sister wanted a espresso machine but guess what? She doesn't drink a lot of coffee but guess who does? So for her gift, I ended up getting her a espresso machine but who will reap the reward of delicious extra espressos? Little ol' moi. Unbeknownst to her, I will drink all of that foamy coffee goodness without the labor. BWAHAAA. Next stop world domination. Happy Holidays.

Maui Vacation

I'm back from my vacation and I'm finally getting back into the normal groove of things. My sleep patterns are a bit messed up, but being back just reminds me of how nasty NYC weather is. We're actually having a pretty warm winter here so far, but coming from a  place that had high 80 temps, it makes me shiver. The vacation was great, especially the scenery and the just too perfect weather but the one thing that really stood about about Maui was the warm hospitality. I've never met rude people on the island, nothing but smiles and a warm conversation. Even the tourists and vacationers picked up on the aloha spirit and were polite. I guess it's since everyone's on vacation or because of something in the air. 

Here are a few pictures that I took.

 This happens to be one of the views from the condo we were staying at. We didn't get ocean view but there was a beach right outside the property that we tried to use everyday.

 Driving around the South of Maui had us seeing a lot of brown patches. My dad was like "I thought it was supposed to be green all around. What 's going to happen when it becomes winter?" Lol. Find anything funny in that statement? Let me know if you get it.

 This was part of the hiking route next to the beach near the condo.

 Forgot to turn this picture, but this is a shot of the Banyan Tree in Lahaina. It was got huge and incredibly interesting to look at. Ended up buying some delicious smelling salt rocks. I'm going to put some of it in my closet, so that my clothes could smell nice. We started to wander around the historic trail and see at all of the local shops. My sister ended up buying shaved ice and began eating that everyday for dessert.

 When I say that the surrounding ares are gorgeous, I truly mean that here. This here is an unphotoshopped picture of the sunset.. Can you see that bits of orange and pink in the sky? We used to just sit on the beach and watch the sunset before heading out to dinner.

 The sunrise at Haleakala Mountain is also pretty but getting there was a pain in the ass. Woke up two hours before sunrise and couldn't see a darn thing when driving up the mountain. Luckily we ended up getting a great warm spot looking out the window of the gift shop. It was too darn cold to be outside, looking at the the sunrise.

 Afterwards, we stopped by the Komoda Bakery for some goods. Had the delicious glazed doughnuts. Honestly, I didn't like the cream puff because I prefer a whipped cream filling but everyone else really enjoyed the custard in this one better.

 Then we went to go see the black sand beach. Noting much to do there because the water was too choppy for swimming. I wore my bathing suit underneath and was really looking forward to the swim. But nope, no swimming.

 During the trip home from the Black and beach, we stopped at a tiny shack that had a huge farm in the back. We were able to look around and see how they grew their own produce and buy some of what they sold. My dad finally got this coconut drink while we picked up a bunch of other fruit as well as this still in the shell Macadamia nut. It was so nutty good. My mother managed to charm some random stranger  and ended up getting free bananas. My sister and I was like, dad why were you sitting in the car when mom's chatting up a random stranger? My dad told that what's the worst thing that could happen? I guess it doesn't matter after 30 years of marriage. The stranger ended up giving him a empty coconut but the bananas that he gave my mother were good.

 There were lots more pictures, but I'm unwilling to share. It has a lot of my ugliness in it. I gained about 10lbs. Been working out extra hard. If there was one thing that I didn't like about Maui, is the roads. I understand that you want to preserve the beauty of nature, but the Road to Hana was so dangerous and curvy. I was so scared during the ride. We thought that we avoid the curves by going back and taking the other road, but that road was dangerous, unpaved and took longer. Argh so much motion sickness. But saw so much cattle.

Btw, can you guess how much makeup I used? After bringing a bulging bag with our makeup and palettes, I ended up putting nothing. Not a damn slick of gloss. Got really laid back and lazy. Who was I going to look pretty for?

P.S.

HAPPY 30TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!