My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

I have to add this side note on Listerine Whitening Mouthwash.  I do like the product, don’t get me wrong, but this product is not for use by people with sensitive teeth.  I’ve reduced my gargling with the mouthwash to once every two days, instead of the recommended twice daily by the Listerine label. 

Why?

Because my teeth are incredibly sensitive, and seem to only be getting worse.  I noticed that I started getting shooting pain when rinsing with it too often.  This is especially due to the fact that I have receding gums.  SO, if you are very sensitive, you may want to modify your rinsing habits with it, and cut it down.  Some people with extreme sensitivity may even want to avoid it.  It might be due to the peroxide in the product, but I’m not sure.

Jergens Natural Glow Gradual Self Tanner allows you to “build a tan” slowly, kind of as if you were really getting a suntan with the sun.  The idea is that you slowly build a natural looking tan, instead of becoming instantly shades darker.  The stuff works, and it looks pretty good.  It also comes in three different shades now, so that’s an extra benefit.  I have one problem with it, and that’s the reason I’m sticking to my regular self tanners from now on. 

It just takes too long, and you have to apply the stuff every day and smell that awful self tanner smell all day long, all for the same amount of color you can easily get from L’Oreal Sublime Bronze, or Estee Lauder Go Bronze, in one or two applications.  Call me impatient, but I can’t say that I’m going to have time to slather on a gradual self tanner every morning at 5:30 before I go to work!  It’s just not realistic. 
For those of you that don’t mind using a product every day, or would simply use it on your entire body as a moisturizer replacement, I say go for it.  The color is pretty realistic and it is fairly easy to apply.  But don’t expect any less odor from this because it has less of a concentration of DHA’s, it smells about the same - unfortunately.

OK, this is a REALLY BAD review of the lip bloom product, if it’s even still called Lip Bloom. You see, when I first started investigating lip plumpers about two years ago, there weren’t too many promising ones, until I came across the Lip Bloom website, which sells two things - the Lip Bloom cream which is applied at night and the roll on gloss with a cinnamon flavor for daytime, called Lip Lush.Everything about this product did not work. The gloss sort of worked in making my lips LOOK a little bigger due to its high shine, but the enhancement cream I put on my lips at night did absolutely nothing. Nada. Not only that, but the only reason I even bought the two products was because of the convincing testimonials and before and after pictures posted on their website - all of which were STOLEN from plastic surgery sites of women who had various lip augmentation procedures.

I’ve used a LOT of lip plumpers in my life in the last few years since they’ve become popular, and one those plumpers the left something to be desired was Lip Venom. Lip Venom is in the class of lip plumpers that relies solely on the burning and stinging/irritation factor to get your lips to swell up, unlike my favorite lip plumper currently which is Lip Fusion (you can find both in the beauty product ad to the right for cheap).

I purchased a few different things to whiten my teeth recently, one of them being the fairly new tooth whitening product by Crest called Night Effects. What Night Effects is, is a brush on whitening formula that is brushed onto the surface of the teeth you want to whiten with a small brush. You also get the formula in individual “serving” packets, so you know exactly how much to use.

My spa where I get my microderm performed got me to buy a pretty expensive skin care product by BioElements called Stress relief.  What it is is a serum/gel like product that is supposed to go on first, before you actual moisturizer. 

I personally think it’s a crock, because I paid $45 for a smaller bottle and noticed later that the primary ingredient is some sort of silicone.  So basically I’m paying $45 for a jazzed up silicone protectant!

Since I’m a fraidy cat and don’t like returning products in person, I’ll probably just suck up the forty five bucks I wasted on this expensive product, but I’m none too happy about it.  I think of how many tanks of gas….oh wait no gas is expenisve now - I think of how many normally priced moisturizers I could have bought for that price and it just makes me sick!

I do however love their crucial moisture moisturizer, but again, it’s too expensive - $45 for a small bottle.  And it doesn’t even have big time ingredients in it - like the cosmeceutical grade kind.  Oh well, just ranting I guess.

Ever hear of a famous dermatologist named NV Perricone? Well, Dr. Perricone wrote a few famous books on anti aging and beating the aging process of your skin. I’ve only read one of them, called the Perricone Prescription, but I was absolutely mesmerized by his writing.He has a way of getting through to you the importance of both what you put in your body, ie supplements and foods you eat, as well as the things you put on your face topically ie creams, lotions, cleansers, toners and all that other stuff we use to make our skin look gorgeous. Anyways, I do recommend his book, which is actually available through the link to your right in this blog - so are all of his products available there - for a cheaper price too (that’s where I got mine). It’s great reading and you feel like you really learned a lot about how to keep your skin healthy and young looking for as long as possible.

Just a quick note.  This thing is pretty cool, I just hate using it every stinkin’ day!  more to come on this, I just don’t have time now to write a full worthwhile review!

OK, where to start with this hair removal product? I’d love to give it a glowing review, but honestly at the moment I’m upset that Nair did not spend a little more on good packaging. To make a long story short, I left the bottle on its side in my bathroom cupboard and I now have a sticky, gooey mess to clean up. The entire bottle of the sugar wax leaked in my cupboard and everything the sat near it is now stuck to the bottom!But that little rant aside, I generally did not see a great benefit in using this product, and I don’t really know why I bought it, because all of my past experiences with Nair dipillatories and permanent hair removal products have been less than stellar.

I had gotten a question on this high end self tanner from a reader (thanks for keeping the questions alive who wanted to know how well it works.  I’ve used this self tanner a couple of times and it is truly one of the best self tanners you’ll ever buy.  And it’s not really cheap either.  I know when I purchased my Xen Tan it was about $40.00 a bottle, and it’s only like 8 oz., so I have to admit when I got my package in the mail I did feel a little ripped off.

But then I used the tanner for the first time, and the first thing that struck me was it’s wonderful cherry almond scent.  I also liked the fact that the formula was unbelievably thick, and went much further than most other self tanners I’d tried in terms of body coverage.  It just seemed to go a lot further, and the small  bottles lasted me a while.

Xen-Tan does give you an immediate coloring, so if you want to go out, you can get an instant, natural looking tan.  The difference between Xen-Tan and a lot of other self tanners, they claim, is that it gives you the natural “olive” colored undertones that make a tan look real, and not “bottle fed”.  I also noticed my self tan lasted a lot longer, and I only needed to apply one layer to get “dark” instead of like 2 or 3.  It’s also a very emollient formula, so it was nice to put it on dry skin.

This is the truth too, it’s not just marketing nonsense.  I got a lot of compliments that I had nice skin, or that I looked like I’d been out in the sun when I wore this self tanner.  The ONLY drawback to it, is I think the price tag is too much.  They should really cut it in half, and I think they’d sell a lot more of the stuff.  But then again, I guess they’re catering to a market who they know will pay a lot for tanning!