My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

After hearing an advertisement on the radio for a product called NightSkin, I opted to look up  some information on this nocturnal treatment for wrinkles.  NightSkin is a serum that moisturizes your skin and utilizes four ingredients for skin health, so I started to wonder how it compared to the Revitol skin care system (see the Revitol reviews page for reviews on their anti aging system plus before and afters).
The four ingredients used are retinol propionate, vitamin C, glycolic acid and licorice extract.  The retinol propionate is useful in reducing fine lines and wrinkles.  The vitamin C is the active antioxidant in this serum.  For exfoliation, the glycolic acid is included in their formulation. Licorice extract is added as a skin lightener to diminish the appearance of age spots and blotchy discolorations. 
NightSkin is recommended for men as well as women for warding off the signs of aging to the skin.  Also recommended is usage before you have visible signs of aging to your skin as a means of fending off wrinkles before they begin.
NightSkin should be used at bedtime after cleansing your face without the use of a harsh soap.  NightSkin should be gently massaged into your skin paying close attention to target areas, but take care to avoid geting this product too near to the sensitive eye area.
The reason for applying NightSkin at bedtime is that the active ingredients, retinoid and vitamin C are light sensitive and are inactivated by light.  When applied at bedtime, you’ll receive the maximum benefit of these two active ingredients.  One of the ways in which NightSkin works is by stimulating collagen and elastin production.
Smoother skin should be noticeable within a week together with a reduction in adult acne and lessening of splotchy pigmentation.
For individuals with sensitive skin, there may be mild redness when first trying NightSkin.  If this occurs, they recommend using this product twice weekly and gradually increasing usage to every other night and then nightly.  This should allow your skin to gradually adjust to the ingredients in NightSkin.
NightSkin, like Revitol skin care products offers some sort of money- back guarantee if not satisfied with their product.  You must mail back the unused portion for a complete refund less the shipping and handling cost.
NightSkin is produced by Dr. Arthur W. Perry M.D. FACS and his research into the making of his product can be looked up online.  A bottle of NIghtSkin may be ordered for $39.95 or you may choose to buy 2 bottles for $79.90 and get 1 bottle for  free together with a free jar of antioxidant green tea cream.

Alba is a line of organically geared cosmetics and lotions, facial skin care and a growing line of other beauty products that are made with pure ingredients.  I first noticed their product line when I visited California a couple years ago, when I was mulling through the organic shops and herbal tincture offerings. 

It seems that Alba has finally made it somewhat into the mainstream though, as before I saw their product lines here in Ohio only when I was shopping in a natural health food store like Mustard Seed (a local natural foods store that I happen to love) and Wild Oats, which is a subsidiary of Whole Foods Inc. 

I was just in CVS today though and found Alba’s products on the shelves in the skin care aisle as well as with the other lip balms, including Burt’s Bees and your regular every day chapstick.  The lip balms that Alba makes, which come in stick form just like a chapstick, run about $3.50, which is even a little more than the Burt’s Bees runs for in some stores. 

I figured I would try it though, because it turns out that in the long run the new Burt’s Bees Pomegranate “Replenishing” lip balm I bought seems to actually dry my lips out more than anything else over the long term.  It felt good going on and tastes terrific, even adding a nice little sheen to the lips and a bit of a pinkish tint due to the dark red color of the balm, but in the long term of the day it dried me out more. 

So I bought the Alba Creamy Coconut lip balm, and I’ve used it so far about five times today (less than what I usually use of other balms), and my lips still feel soothed and moisturized.  It’s not greasy, so I think that gives it staying power.  Plus it has a nice flavor and scent, nothing too overbearing or fake smelling at all though.  Overall, I like it so far! 

Just wanted to take some time to wish everyone a safe, happy and wonderful holiday.  No matter what it is you celebrate around this time of year, here’s to the continued health and well being of you and yours!

Hopefully there will be lots for us to talk about here at MyBeautySpace this coming new year in the world of hair care, cosmetics, cosmetic procedures, body care, self tanning and more.  There always is, because thankfully it’s a booming industry that doesn’t seem to be slowing down or every going away!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!

On January 1st, cosmetic companies are gonna have to scrambe if they want to do business in Minnesota, and their products contain mercury.  Mercury can be very harmful when ingested, and many opponents of the use of the substance at all say that it’s application on the skin and outer body may also be detrimental to the health, because we all know that products and nutrients can penetrate our skin subcutaneously and can enter the blood stream that way. 

Look at the debate over aluminum in deodorant - same concept, and that’s even more serious because you apply deodorant in one of the places where your lymph nodes are concentrated most heavily, your underarms. 

The state (which is a surprising one to be the first for this in my opinion), is going to the first state to ban the addition of the substance to cosmetics, and will set a precedent for perhaps other states to follow, as having a higher standard in cosmetics than even the federal government does.  FYI, the federal government does currently allow trace amounts of mercury in cosmetics to enter the market. 

And they won’t just face embarrassment if they are found to have mercury in their cosmetics that are sold in the state either.  Oh no, they will also be slapped with a fine for each infringement on the new law to be enacted next year.  The thing is, a customer pretty much has to complain to bring it to the attention of enforcement, and I’m not sure how that would be apparent to a customer, other than if they had a chemical tester, or it was clearly labeled that way. 

This ban is in an effort to completely wipe the substance out of products that are used for human consumption (external and internal), as mercury has been known to cause neurological damage, even if ingested in small amounts.  Hopefully this ban will pass nationally so our cosmetics and makeup products can be a little safer and healthier for the long term. 

There’s a new trend at your finest cosmetics counters.  In addition to all the lotions, creams and cosmetics, there’s now ingestible capsules to make you look beautiful from the inside out together with the outside in.  There are natural breast enhancement products, herbal skin care products that are ingestable, and almost anything else under the sun that can help you achieve a better look from the inside out. 

Many of the supplements sold along with the cosmetics include omega-3 oils, grape seed, pomegranate extract and alpha lipoic acid.  According to the Harvard trained dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, Carolyn Jacob,” Your skin reflects what’s happening on the inside.  The creams and lotions you put on top of your face mean nothing if you’re not eating well.”

Some cosmetic surgeons insist their clients eliminate refined sugar and flour from their diets before doing surgery.  Dermatologists are in agreement that eating foods rich in antioxidants help preserve a youthful appearance to your skin.

Foods with high quality antioxidant properties include salmon, seaweed, lemons, ginger, cinnamon, raw almonds, walnuts and flax seed oil.  Foods with refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated fats and sugar should be avoided if you want to keep your skin healthy looking.

Some of the supplemental capsules found at the cosmetics counter include N.V. Perricone’s Peptide Blend at a cost of $65.00 for a 30 day supply.  This product contains vitamins, minerals and amino acids to revitalize your skin.  N.V. Perricone also offers a Super Berry Powder with Acai supplement which promotes cell health with a high antioxidant content and anti-inflammatories.

Dr. Brandt Skincare Antioxidant Water Booster in Promegranate promises to preserve younger looking skin and sells for $35.00 for 60 dropper-fuls.
First, most dermatologists recommend including the foods that are high in antioxidants in your diet.  The supplements are good for extra added insurance in an imperfect diet.
In addition to looking for the skin beauty supplements at cosmetics counters, they can be found at markets such as Wild Oats, Mustard Seed or Whole Foods or GNC.

You may be looking for a great hair remover that really gets in there, below the root, and makes for a nice shave free couple of weeks, but be carefull applying these in the winter.  The winter time is a time of noteably drier skin, and we must make sure that our skin is extremely moisturized and is used to retaining that moisture for several days before we attempt a permanent or semi permanent hair removal product like the one from the Revitol line of skincare products.

The reason is, while hair removal products are a great alternative to constantly shaving, they also can irritate the skin (understandably), becuase the ingredients they contain must be strong enough to actually be effective below the root, and some of them even eventually kill the root of hair with repeated use.  While this is excellent for those of us who hate to shave, we must be dilligent in preparing our skin for the hair removal treatment by nourishing it with plenty of moisture in the winter.

When soaping up the legs and other areas like under arms while showering or bathing, you may want to switch from a bar soap to a rich, creamy skin wash. Skin washes are often more gentle on the skin and less drying than any bar soap.  You could of course opt for more moisture infused soap like oil of olay or Caress, but for me personally, I don’t like the residue these leave on my skin. 

The new skin washes that are built for shower use offer a great alternative to bar soaps that moisturize the skin because they don’t contain the drying tallow and other chemicals that are used to keep bar soap in bar form.  Simply put, there are less harsh ingredients that are tending to dry the skin in liquid skin cleansers.  If you take care to moisturize and do only moisture-infusing things to your skin several days before you apply a hair removal product to the parts of your body you want to rid of hair, you’ll be less likely to have any skin irritation or dryness as a result. 

I love this time of year.  You know, when all those fun, ridiculously big (and cheap) cosmetics palettes are for sale, in fun festive colors and in every color under the rainbow?  You can just walk into a CVS or some other drugstore chain and see what I mean.  The department stores also get in on the holiday action too.  There are TONS of large holiday gift sets out around this time of year, with several colors of eyeshadows, liptsticks, nail polishes and so on and so forth. 

Some of them combine the whole thing, and give you a little of each, and some are just huge sets of many colors of one type of cosmetic ie nailpolish or eyeshadows.  At any rate, I’ve gotten some of my favorite colors out of these sets, and ideas to buy the similar colors in my favorite brands if they happen to be an offbrand that doesn’t go on so well, but I love the color. 

Most girls and women love to get these kinds of gifts, unless they are the type that is really not into makeup or cosmetics.  I remember getting eyeshadow kits from family members going back to about thirteen years old, and my eyes would light up, and I couldn’t wait to get home to experiment with all the different fun colors when I got home, and the new brushes that usually came with them too. 

I got some of the most truly creative ideas for applying my eye makeup from these creative gifts, and I credit them with my somewhat fearless look at colors and experimentation with makeup today.  I mean, I was the only thirteen year old at my school that was parading around in blue eyeshadow and purple eyeshadow, and the fun, sparkly pink lipsticks that signified the eighties! Sure, some kids probably thought I was weird or too flashy, but I really didn’t care

I keep seeing this ad allover the place for a product called “Raw Minerals” that claims to be better than “Bare” which I’m assuming they’re trying to insinuate means they are better than the Bare Minerals mineral powder makeup which has become a sensation over the past few years.  I haven’t tried the product yet to be able to review Raw Minerals, but wanted to solicit anyone who has tried it to please comment for our readers on whether you like it or not, and whether you can compare it to Bare Minerals or not.

I currently use the Bare Minerals products, and I do like them, however, I tend to switch between Bare Minerals when I feel I need less coverages, and my liquid foundation when I feel I need more.  I also like using the liquid when I feel I need to keep more moisture in my skin since it’s liquid form seems to hold in the moisture better than mineral makeup, which is dry and applied dry. 

I like using Bare Minerals in the Summer, because it does seem to even out skin tone while providing a lightweight coverage that’s not overbearing or too “made up” looking for the carefree summer months.  It also has SPF in the foundation, but not in the translucent finish, which is called Mineral Veil. 

I’ve read that the actual coverage you get from the foundation is very minimal though and that you should still use an additional sun block underneat it because the the SPF effects you get from the foundation layer of the product are not sufficient since so little is dusted on the face, as directed by the maker of the product. 

When I’m concerned about wrinkles and having a crepey sort of look under my eyes, I will also revert to using liquid, as this seems to camouflage the signs of aging a little better.  For a great anti aging product line see the Revitol reviews page, as they are a superior vitamin packed line that really helps combat everything from puffiness to the crepe look to crows feet, as well as nourish the skin with vital “youth” oriented minerals, compounds and vitamins. 

When it comes to covering up our flaws, whether it be those crows feet, sun spots, freckles, blemishes or blemish scars, we often wonder which is the best choice for our skin when it comes to concealer - stick or liquid?  Well, according to some cosmetics and skin care experts, the answer may depend on what type of skin you have, as well as what you are trying to cover up. 

For instance, those with aging skin who are concerned about anti aging and wrinkle skin care, they may want to choose a creamier, more emollient concealer, which usually is going to be a liquid concealer.  The problem with some liquid concealers, in my opinion, is that they are actually too watery or liquidy, and that means that they are both difficult to apply and that they really don’t go too far as a cover up since they are too sheer. 

Some of the concealers that are too watery may be ones that claim they are noncomedogenic or “lightweight”.  Just be careful in that arena, because “lightweight” may mean it’s too watery for what you’re trying to do which is cover something up, not apply something that is sheer (see through), so people can see what you are trying to cover up anyways. 

I personally use a stick cover up, which some makeup artists do not like, however, I’ve found through numerous experiments that this type of cover up works best on my skin.  I use so little of it that it would literally last me years if I did not replace it every 6 months or so.  Most large scale, drug store variety brands of makeup will sell the stick and liquid form, but some of the bigger names at department stores will only sell one or that other. 

If you are buying at a department store, you can always ask to test out the product to see how well it covers and you can also ask questions of the professionals at the counter, as they are usually trained at how to apply and suggest different cosmetics for different skin types.   

I happened to purchase a bathing set a little while ago, and a little instrument came with it that I ended up using as a circulation stimulator to help reduce my cellulite, as a cellulite treatment, along with manual massage with my hands and a good circulation stimulating cellulite treatment cream.  It has a wood base, with multiple rounded rubber prongs sticking out of it, about a half inch in length, perhaps a little shorter. 

You’ve probably seen these many times in bath kits, or you may have even purchased a bath kit with one in it for someone else around the holidays, since bath an spa kits seem to be a popular gift around the holidays these days.  It looks almost like a paddle brush, without the handle.  It often has a cloth strap so you can hold it on your hand a bit more securely when you’re using it to massage the skin.

The way I use it as an addition to my cellulite treatment regimen, is I apply my cellulite reduction cream to my thighs and buttocks, where most other women get this unfortunate texture, and let it sink in for a moment.  I don’t apply too much so that it will be a slick surface when I massage with the tool, but enough so that it will allow it to glide a bit more easily over my skin without painfully gripping it.

I then take the paddle and I apply a medium pressure in an upward motion, toward the heart.  You should always do your massage on cellulite in an upward motion.  You are trying to sculpt the thighs in an upward way, instead of encouraging the tissue downward, so that you get more smoothness and are also encouraging the tissue to stay up, rather than sage - which is definitely NOT what you want. 

I do this regimen for about five minutes on both legs total and the buttocks, every night, or every other night, depending on if I have the time or feel like doing it.  I do think that it helps smooth the appearance of the cellulite, because I have seen an improvement since using this tool as a massager.  It helps to break up the fatty deposits that create the puckerd look by essentially forcing them apart. 

Don’t be surprised if you’re a little bruised when you first start doing it.  Fat tends to bruise very easily, and this part of your body is not used to pressure, so it will probably easily bruise.  Don’t worry, it should subside fairly quickly, since it is pretty much a surface bruise and does not go too deep under the skin.