My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

In an effort to keep the pace going on the new awareness of size realism in the fashion industry, long and rightfully criticized for pushing women to think size zeroes were desirable, Spain it seems, is instituting some new guidelines for its fashion models, starting in the next few years to even “upsize” the allowable size of window mannequins displaying designer fashions in an effort to remold the ideals of size. 

The program has been designed by the Spanish Health Ministry, and promotes a healthier weight image for the women of Spain through fashion.  This comes after some recent high profile deaths in the fashion and modeling world, which were direct results of women starving themselves to fit a fashion ideal of small size. 

The new initiatives hope to re-establish a healthier beauty stereoptype, although recognizably it will take time.  This hopefully signifies a universal change across the board in the fashion industry, and one that unfortunately (as usual) Americans seem to be reluctant and slow to pick up on. 

Have you ever experimented with color contacts before?  I did, although now it was definitely about ten years ago.  This was before they were as perfected as they are now, and it was really hard to find a pair that was realistic looking and didn’t make you look like you had cat eyes, or like something was definitely “not right” about your face. 

The thing I really didn’t like about colored contacts, at least back then, was that they had a “pupil” area that was blacked out, and it made it look as if your pupil was always the same size, and I think this added a lot to the fake look of the contacts.  They later came out with a slightly more realistic look, which was more opaque, so it was not as brightly colored, and looked like a color that a person might actually have in their eyes. 

I had tried a lighter gray-blue color, and while they didn’t look right at first, I noticed that the longer I had them, the more natural they looked.  The other thing I didn’t like was that they seemed to almost distort your vision, so that even by looking in the mirror to see how your eyes looked to others, you still could not get a good idea of whether they looked phony or not. 

You can actually buy colored contacts online now that are purely for cosmetic purposes and do not require a prescription (I believe), but buyer beware, these can cause eye hazards and any eye doctor worth his weight in gold will tell you to steer clear since they may cause eye infections, etc. if they are not cared for properly and are not under the supervision of a professional. 

I’ve been dabbling in mixing hair care products for a little while, and I think I came up with a good combination that works well for if you want to blow your hair straight.  I’ve mixed some hair cremes and gels before, but usually got so-so results.  I really tried to do it to get extra control, straightening power, anti frizz power, or whatever the product may be.  Heck, I’ve even combined a volumizing root serum at the roots with a straightener on the rest of my hair if I want a little more lift to the roots, but straight hair all the rest of the way down.

It works well if you do want straight hair, but still want a little lift at the root.  I’d recommend that you use a volumizer on the tip of your hair dryer, sometimes called a diffuser.  They usually come with multiprongs, that you kind of massage at the base of your scalp as you are blowing out your hair.

The latest combo I’ve tried is one that I think I really like.  I combine a little bit of Aveda’s Be Curly Curl lotion and some of the Brilliance Universal hair styline cream in my hands, rub it together so it’s all evenly distributed in my hair, and rub it on my hair from root to tip.  My hair is currently just a little longer than shoulder length, and I use quite a bit of each hair product, so that it evenly saturates every inch of my hair, especially my bangs, which tend to run wild if I don’t put a lot of controlling lotion or gel on them. 

This combo works great.  I come out of my blowout with smooth, shiny and manageable hair.  It even seems to work for a few days (I don’t wash my hair every day). 

I recently bought some new shades of eyeliner online (much needed, I’m growing tired of my good old brown and black eyeliner colors), and I came across a beauty brand name that I had never tried called Lord & Berry.  I bought a couple of the eyeliners, one in a color called Forest and another in a color called Bronze. 

They are regular “stick” style eyeliners, which is actually what I prefer, since I’ve had bad luck with roll-up eyeliners and others that don’t sharpen.  I like to be able to control the way my eyeliner comes out, and it always seemed easier to do when I could control the amount of sharpness of the tip of the color, so that I could also control the thickness of the line, depending on whether I was going for a lighter, daytime look, or a more dramatic, heavily lined evening look. 

So, nonetheless, the Lord & Berry was reviewed well by other users as a nice eyeliner that went on smooth and stayed pretty well, and at only $5 a pop, I figured what the hey.  So, here’s my review :

I’ve used both the colors, the Forest color, which is a deep, rich green, and I love it.  It gives me a slightly exotic eye look, and is just enough off of black that you can notice it’s not black you’re wearing, but can’t quite pinpoint what color it actually is, only that it gives a slightly more dramatic, colorful flare, especially when paired with a warm brown eyeshadow. 

The Bronze color, I’m not as fond of.  It’s not really the color I don’t like, as much as it seems like for some reason the bronze color seems to be crumbling when I sharpen it, and it almost seems to be dried out a little.  It does not go on as smoothly as the Forest green color, since it is harder to manipulate and doesn’t glide as smoothly.  But the Forest green, I will definitely buy again. 

Some people have excellent skin care routines, and use only the best skin care products on their skin, which I am definitely a proponent of.  They make sure they use an astringent, or toner, after each washing, they are impeccably thorough in their facial cleansing routines and make sure they wash their precious facial skin and make it free of makeup every single night before they go to bed, they even take the time to go get facials every once in a while.  But many people leave an important part out of their weekly skin care routine, and that is self exfoliation, done at home on the cheap.

Exfoliation can be as simple as buying an OTC grainy type of scrub for the face, but I actually like to use the home microdermabrasion systems instead, since they usually come with neat little tools that you can slather the stuff on your face with, or even a unique rotating brush or pad that helps the exfoliation process be a little more automated. 

I personally am using one right now that is by BioElements, which is just a brand that happens to be sold at the place I went and got my spa microdermabrasion done.  I didn’t really want to buy it, especially considering a tiny little jar was about $50, and I knew I could probably find a way better deal elsewhere on home microdermabrasion kits, but I ended up buying it to appease by aesthetician (which I will never do again, I’ve learned the way of the spa - they just try to get you to buy all your home skin care from them to line their pockets a little more). 

I like it, it works very well. I use it once a week, and I notice that if I skip a week of exfoliating my face, my skin definitely does get dull, and I do start to notice the pores around my nose more clearly, so I think facial exfoliation definitely helps a lot with clarity, tone and “fresh” appearance of the skin, and I think it should be done once a week, maybe on the weekends, as a regular part of anyone’s skin care routine. 

It’s been a while since I used this Avon product, but there are some things I remember about it that I liked.  Apparently I didn’t like it enough to continue to use it though, because I did just use one bottle.  I think Vitamin C anti aging products are best used if your primary focus is to brighten the skin and make your skin tone a little more even. 

So, if you feel your skin is lacking brightness, or has taken on a somewhat uneven coloring, I’d say this product, and probably other concentrated vitamin C anti aging products, are ideal for you.  However, if you are looking for the primary focus of your anti aging and wrinkle cream to be diminishment of wrinkles and fine lines, you may find other products are more conducive to that end. 

The Vitamin C concentrated serum by Avon went on very smoothly.  I liked the smell, and it did seem to sink in very quickly.  I would only use it at night however, and only under my eyes.  I did notice a brightening of the under eye area as I said, but did not notice any wrinkle or fine line improvement, as is my personal main goal with anti aging and wrinkle products. 

You may want to use this type of product on the whole face if you have discolorations or uneven skin tone, as it should nicely brighten the whole face.  Other products that are skin brighteners are those with soy extract, which has been shown to help brighten and even the skin tone.  I believe Aveeno makes a nice line with soy in it for the skin. 

This product is definitely one of the most genuine, bonified, effective bargains in tooth whitening that I’ve ever used.  For a mere $5 at Wal-Mart, or Target I believe, I picked up this tube of Plus White tooth whitening gel when my teeth were starting to not have so much luster to them, and were taking on a dull color, thanks to me drinking coffee just a couple days in a row (yes, that’s apparently all it takes for me to need a tooth whitening). 

It’s just a clear gel that has a slightly minty taste to it.  The way I use it that I find most effective is I brush my teeth, wipe my teeth off so that they are as dry as possible, and swab some of the gel over each tooth.  I let my mouth stay open for as long as I can stand it, so the gel has time to “air out” and adhere and oxygenate a little more so it can work better. 

Then I close my mouth, and usually just let it sit in there while I’m doing other things for anywhere from five to ten minutes.  I must confess, sometimes I let it stay in for ten minutes, and it’s only supposed to be five, but I haven’t noticed any sensitivity or anything from doing that. 

I then rinse my mouth out with warm water, and brush my teeth again.  My teeth come out “shinier” looking, and I swear it does lighten one shade just from one use.  Usually after just a couple days of use of the Plus White tooth whitening gel, my tooth are back to a nice, bright, gleaming shade.

I thought you might be interested in reading these Aveda product reviews, on our sister site, CosmeticsGalore.com.  I’ve actually used quite a few Aveda products, with mostly great results, and some mixed results.  Aveda hair care products are some of the best, all natural, botanical hair care items available today.  There’s a reason they’re kicking butt in the hair care industry, because their products, especially their line developed for curly hair, are superior.  Read Aveda Hair Care Product Reviews for more!

I used to be a fan of a shine serum product similar to the Regis product that I bought recently while getting my hair trimmed in a local “cut rate” hair salon.  They had an entire line of Regis hair care products, which is equivalent to a “store brand” almost, and the prices are a little better than the other salon brands like matrix, Redken, Tigi, and others that tend to drain your bank account just by looking at them.  This is a shine serum that comes in a small bottle with a point on the end. 

You only use very little of it, and it has a pleasant smell.  The only thing I do not like about it is that it does have a slightly heavy feel to it, and I do not like to feel like I’m weighing my hair down with my shine adding hair care products, rather I like to feel as though I’m adding a light coating to my hair, so the light reflects off of it a little better. 

The prices was kind of steep for a store brand product, it was nine dollars for a very small bottle, but that bottle has lasted me several months now (it was several months ago that I got my hair trimmed, I left that part out).  It does impart a nice shine to my hair, and it tames the frizzies down when I first blow my hair dry.  I use it after my hair is completely dry, as sort of a finishing product.  I would compare it to Biosilk shine serum, it actually looks and feels just like that stuff, if you like that. 

The focus after the holidays seems to be all about losing weight and that dimply, spongy stuff that unfortunately often goes along with excess weight called cellulite.  Cellulite treatments are in demand now, along with supplements which supposedly help to banish the rippled look.  But is this an industry that feeds on the desire of women to get rid of the hormonally driven unsightly problem, or are there products that actually work to get rid of cellulite and keep it away?

Most cellulite treatment products are formulated with caffeine to help tighten the skin in the area where cellulite appears.  Other products feature formulas which allow for maximum penetration of the ingredients which help to tighten and tone the skin.  Tightening ingredients may include marine extracts, seaweed, DMAE which is a substance found in the skin of fish which is known to greatly firm the look of the skin, and other ingredients which help to act as a “carrier” to deeper depths, where the cellulite eliminating ingredients can get to work. 

Cellulite treatment creams, it is important to note, must be used on an ongoing basis to maintain results gained.  Any product is like this actually.  Even if you go get professional endermologie treatments for cellulite, you will usually require some sort of maintenance schedule, as cellulite can most definitely form again, as soon as those bonds adhere again underneath your skin you’ll see the puckered look come back unfortunately.