My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

It’s a double review today!  I wanted to quickly review two hair products that I have recently used, one of which I have actually used before a few years ago and really liked and just recently repurchased and tried again still with high marks for performance, L’Oreal Color Vive Dry Defense 3 Minute Treatment, which is an uber-emollient and thick conditioner for those of us that color our hair, which quite often is anyone over the age of 35 or so since this is when we ladies tend to start noticing grey hairs.  For me, I was 32 when I noticed my first real grey hair.

I love L’Oreal hair care products, and usually theirs is the only home hair color I will buy and use because I think most other hair color products are inferior, but that’s just my opinion and personal taste.  The Color Vive 3 Minute Dry Defense Treatment is excellent for both right after you color, or also for the weeks following because it is so moisturizing and rich, but also because it contains a UV filter which helps to prevent against your color fading from the sun’s rays, one of the primary culprits of your hair color getting dull before it should.

It comes in a generous 6 oz. tube which lasts a long time because it is so rich and thick that only a small amount needs to be used at a time.  I remember the first time I used it I was amazed at how slippery it made the bottom of my shower because of it’s emollience, so be careful because it does make the shower floor very slick when using it.  It makes your hair so moisturized that you can comb right through it with no problem because it instantly detangles. 

I do notice a lot more shine after i use it to, and it seems to be manageable.  Now mind you, I have a thicker and more coarse hair texture, so this may not be the best product choice for those of you with thin or wispy hair because it may actually weight it down and be too moisturizing.

Now, for the review of Natural Instincts Hair Color by Clairol, which is not usually a hair care product line that I recommend.  However, I think they have a good thing in their Natural Instincts line, which is a non-permanent hair color that lasts several weeks, but does not permanently color the hairs on your head. 

It doesn’t contain ammonia, so while it is still slightly irritating to the scalp and still requires a little beating up of the hair to color it, it’s not quite as bad as those other permanent ones that have all the ammonia and other harsh ingredients in them so that they can be more permanent.  And honestly, I think it lasts quite a while, in fact, almost as long as the permanent ones, as long as you don’t wash your hair every day, like I don’t. 

It comes with an awesome after color conditioner that is better than L’Oreal’s after color conditioner in my opinion.  It imparts a great shine and makes your hair super manageable, so their conditioner is one of the biggest reasons to buy the color kit, because it really sets the color off nicely by making it stand out a lot more.  I bought the medium golden brown shade because I stay away from any browns with even a tad bit of ashiness to them, since I think this often washes a person out. 

Body wraps were made popular as a way to temporarily spot reduce fat and to help trim size off the circumference of typical body omplaints on women and men - their bellies, thighs, buttocks, and upper arms, and evolved into somewhat of a regular treatment for many who swear by it’s detoxification abilities and their great affinity for spot reducing size as well as the appearance of that thing we all hate, cellulite.

Body wraps started off as a pampering beauty treatment for those that could afford things beyond the expensive haircut and coloring on occasion, since they usually went for anywhere from fifty to one hundred dollars per appointment.  Add that up and you have quite a costly beauty habit!  For information on a product you can buy that you can make your own home made body wrap with by buying ace bandages and performing the wrapping yourself, see our Revitol cellulite treatment review.

Now, thanks to the innovation of a few companies offering at home body wrap treatments, we can do a body wrap on ourselves, in our own home, on our own time and in privacy and comfort.  There are a few excellent kits being sold mostly online now that can really give you that smooth, toned, smaller look on your problem areas just like the in-salon treatments can do.

Body wraps done at home are a simple way to help trim a few inches off over a few days or weeks with repeated use if you are anticipating a big life event, say you’re in a wedding, going on a big date, or you have a high school reunion to attend, these are the times that many people seek out body wraps so they can spot reduce their trouble areas without actually dieting or killing themselves exercising to do it.

Home body wrap systems often work by the user applying some sort of herbal botanical concoction to the area they want to treat first.  These special herbal mixtures may contain any combination of tightening and toning ingredients such as seaweed, caffeine and other ingredients that tend to help reduce water retention and encourage the smoothing out of the skin.

These kits then supply you with some sort of a wrapping devices, such as thin strips of wrap material that look similar to an ace bandage, which you then use to tightly wrap the area you are treating after you have applied the (usually herbal) formula.

These techniques provide size reduction and cellulite smoothing as well and tone improvement in the affected areas by using compression as well as the ingredients in the topical cream or serum to really force the fat cells to compress together, creating a smoother, leaner look, and often even temporarily reducing the size by “training” the tissue to stay smaller and tighter for a period of time as well as smoothing out the appearance of cellulite.

Often times once you can achieve the desired outcome after doing several treatments, you only have to do upkeep treatments after that to maintain the look you want.  Note that body wraps both at home and at a salon are not designed for actual weight loss, they only make the body parts they are applied to appear smaller, but they usually do not cause the individual to lose weight, only size.  Any weight loss should be viewed as a bonus.

Well, I have two for one reviews now, since some products are just very simple and you can only go on so much about their subtle nuances like smell, feel and effectiveness.  The first product I’m reviewing today is a simple but great moisturizer. 

I’m going to start off by saying though, that I think this moisturizer is better for winter than summer because of it’s high emollience.  I’d prefer a lighter one for the summer, but St. Ive’s 24 Hour Moisture cream is truly a great moisturizer, and it really does moisturize you for a long time, not just immediately evaporating as you feel some others do.

24 Hour Moisture is a thicker cream with an ingredient called “Hydratein” which they developed to supposedly retain moisture even longer than traditional emollient ingredients that are found in skin moisturizers.  It’s so moisturizing that when you first apply it, you have an almost dewey glow from the product, which is nice.  The scent is very light and clean, and there appears to be no artificial coloring as it is just a white cream, which is always good. 

St. Ives has been around forever with their skin care products and reasonably priced, if not cheap, hair care products.  I never cared for their hair care products, but some of the moisturizers they make do work well and are very reasonably priced.  Other ingredients in this value moisturizer are pure swiss glacial water, various swiss botanicals, and the hydratein complex.  Like many other moisturizers, the first ingredient listed is water.

The second product I am reviewing is a deodorant. Not exactly beauty related, but certainly hygeine and health related!  This one is a natural deodorant, which is the only kind I use now unless I’m planning on doing an extremely stressful activity that day or have a big meeting I have to run at work and don’t want sweat marks or odors, since aluminum deodorants tend to be better at absorbing odors and wetness.

Nature’s Gate is a great organic beauty and toiletry company that uses certified organic botanicals in it’s products and focuses on making chemical free, healthy alternatives.  The one I tried is the formula with Tee Tree and Blue Cypress, both of which are supposed to be excellent astringents. 

This deodorant worked very well on me, as I did not notice any odors when wearing it, and it seemed to also reasonably control my perspiration.  It did not however work on my boyfriend.  I love the clean, earthy scent, and the stick costs $4.90 at a natural foods store and has already lasted me a month (since the boyfriend’s not using it).  I’ll be buying this line of natural deodorants again, just may try a different formula to mix it up a bit. 

I remember hearing about this controversial surgery way back when, but I thought it was only for patients who had legitimate need for lengthening their legs, such as an asymmetry in leg length, or some other disproportionate and medically challenging attribute where one leg grows longer than the other.  Well, it seems that now a clinic in Russia is offering a leg lengthening procedure for anyone who wants it, no matter what the reason - mostly for cosmetic reasons.

The remote Russian clinic employs interpreters for it’s foreign customers, which are plentiful since most other places, such as in the US and Britain, will not perform such a radical , risky surgery if there is not legitamate medical need.  They use a technique (brace yourself, it’s kind of gruesome), where the legs are broken just below the knees, and a device is inserted between the bones which prevents the bones from naturally generating more bone tissue and fusing the bones back together.

By tricking the bones into believing they need to generate more bone between, they keep moving the contraptions so that the body keeps creating more bone tissue, creating length in the lower legs.  They do recommend that patients don’t go any more than a few inches though, since all the length is really underneath the knee caps, and it can end up looking disproportionate to the thigh part of the legs if they add too much length below. 

Many people who are just five feet or barely over have opted for the surgery and been happy with the results, which usually end up with a faint scar just below the knees, however, the recovery process is gruesomely painful as reported by some, and take a long time.  For some patients, the bone growth is slower than expected, and they are debilitated for longer than they had hoped, which is a pretty big deal, especially for a surgery that is not medically necessary. 

There are people though that get it done for medical reasons, such as an asymmetry between the lengths of the two legs, and end up happy and able to walk normally.  The surgery to lengthen the legs is expensive, ranging from the upper seventies to over one hundred thousand dollars, once the physcial therapy and all is said and done. 

So I just got two new L’Oreal HIP (High Intensity Pigment) eyeshadows.  High intensity pigment is just another word for super charged with intense, super saturated color.  It means that it is of a higher quality than the less expensive, normally pigmented makeups that have color that is not as deep or intense, and also happens to not last as long as deeply pigmented cosmetics. 

Often times what you are paying more for is the pigment in a given makeup, say lipstick or eyeshadow or any other makeup that relies on color of some sort to give it character. 

As an over the counter, cheaper brand of makeup, L’Oreal definitely wins my vote hands down for superiority over the other brands, and I’d have to say that Revlon is a close second.  I’ve never been a fan of Maybelline or Cover Girl, because I feel their makeup wears off too quickly and tends to contain irritating additives.  At least for my skin, maybe not for everyone else’s. 

I bought two new L’Oreal HIP eyeshadow duos, one in a rich forest green coupled with a deep suede color, and another a deep but brighter blue (almost a turquoise tint to it), paired with a deep cocoa brown, almost a mix between a grey charcoal and brown rather than a warm brown with red tones, if you can picture what I’m talking about. 

I aboslutely LOVE both of them.  The blue and suede pairing is perfect for when I want to add a bit of drama and focus to the eyes, and the green is intense without being obnoxious, and very earthy looking and bohemian, so it goes well with a lot of my earthier colored, light summer clothes because it pairs well with natural looks and muted makeup. 

The color is super saturated, and deeply colors the eyes from the first brush stroke, so much that you have to really focus on not putting too much on your makeup brush when applying it so you don’t get too much on the eyes and end up with a smudge of darkness in one area. 

Not only does it look fantastic, it really does last noticeably longer than regular eyeshadow does, and it looks ten times richer, more “expensive” on your eyes.  The cost is a bit higher, but nothing I’d say is cost prohibitive at all.  Because you need so little, the length of time it lasts over regular eyeshadow probably pays for itself anyways. 

There’s been so much in the news lately about sunscreen, since it is, in fact, summer everywhere and everyone almost can’t help but get a little sun exposure, no matter what their skin tone is.  Here it is the Fourth of July so it’s the perfect time to talk about summer sun protection, which we talk about often, but this was actually newsworthy enough to talk about on news sites, so we’re going to talk about it here as well.

There was that news about the new rating system for sunscreens being looked at as a more effective means to rate and grade the levels of UVA and UVB protection, since currently only a certain level of UV protection is FDA supervised and mandated, and now there is news that the American Academny of Dermatology is testing a lot of the more popular name brand sunscreens and saying that they are misleading customers about the level of protection they offer. 

They’re saying that they want to first test the actual effectiveness and efficiency of these sunscreens at providing the assigned level of protection, how long it provides protection according to labeling (which would include how often it has to be re-applied), and also if there are harmful chemicals or compounds in the sunscreen that may absorb into the skin and be harmful when applied, especially to children who use the product. 

One of the popular ingredients (chemicals) found in sunscreens today is called oxybenzone, and this ingredient has been tested and found in some cases to be a hormone interruptor, as well as a possible carcinogen (cancer causing agent).  This would be ironic, because the very thing we are trying to do when we apply sunscreen is protect ourselves against skin cancer, so it would obviously be disappointing if the very thing we put on to protect our skin was actually helping to create carcinogenic conditions in our body and on our skin.

However, other people say that the warnings about oxybenzone are unnecessary frightening and in fact the ingredient was safe.  If the FDA says so, it must be, right?  I’m being facetious by the way, lots of drugs approved by the FDA later come back to bite us in the butt, we all know that.  Critics of those that claim oxybenzone is unsafe say they are more worried about people not using sunscreen for fear of this ingredient.

In the past, another ingredient commonly used in sunscreen called PABA was eliminated from most because of it’s extremely irritating qualities.  Lots of people, including myself had extreme reactions to PABA, so it’s not found in many today. 

As far as the brands that tested on the low end of the effectiveness scale as discussed earlier, you will recognize all of them, and have probably even used them in the past.  They are Neutrogena, Coppertone, and Banana Boat.  No other recognizable names were mentioned.  
 

I had an interesting conversation with an “Avon lady” at a local flea market about sunscreen, and although I only took it with a grain of salt because she was trying to get me to buy something (which, incidentally I was already going to buy anyways), it got me thinking that baby sunblock may be the better way to go for adults.

Think about it, a lot of adults actually use baby products because they are formulated to be much more gentle than products used on adults.  For example, one of my best girlfriends proclaims that Johnson and Johson baby lotion is the best moisturizer she has ever used on herself.  She said that it is non-irritating, does not have any obnoxious scents in it, and also makes your skin feel baby smooth.  Some adults even go so far as to use baby shampoo instead of adult shampoo because of the gentle ingredients that don’t irritate the eyes, and they swear that the shampoo is the best thing for their hair. 

While I personally don’t use any baby products on myself because I already have favorites that are made for adults, I did purchase a sunblock by Avon that is made with babie in mind, and I love it.  It’s called Avon Sun for Babies, and it has an SPF of 40.  Not only that, it’s a thick and emollient cream and has no obnoxious scent, other than a hint of that typical sunblock scent to it.  It is nonirritating, and I’ve worn it a few times out in the sun when gardening, and where I’ve applied it I have gotten absolutely not a speck of color - not a freckle, not a hint of pinkness, nothing.

So, it definitely works, and although it’s in no frills packaging and has no fancy scents of ingredients, I’m thinking that it’s the perfect sunblock for adults too because it is so simple, and it does exactly what it’s supposed to - protect you from the sun.  It’s also very reasonably priced.  I purchase a 6.7 oz. bottle of the stuff for just six bucks.  Can’t beat that!  That’ll probably last me about half a summer, I figure, and it’ll be great for those intense days when I need maximum protection for my face and shoulders, and my hands also. 

An interesting, definitive study has come out recently that shows that in the new high pressure world our teens live in has cultivated an atmosphere where the “pretty” girls tend to be bullied more, to the tune of about 35% more than their less-pretty or average female counterparts.  I have to admit, this conclusion was a bit startling to me, since it seems like it’s the opposite way around when you think of it logically. 

It seemed that when I was in high school and junior high, the prettier girls were usually the ones that were held in higher regard.  They got all the attention from the boys, and all the girls admired them and wanted to be like them.  However, the study’s author stated that this was a thing of the past, and in our newer, more narcisstic society where looks and attention are regarded as the ultimate end all be all by kids, it is turning out that jealousy and envy play a part in the ones with the looks getting picked on more.

Apparently, when kids are in their teens, or tweens as it’s called now referring to the kids that are just approaching that awkward teen phase during the even more awkward phase right before it, it’s the boys that hold the most power (I didn’t make this up, this is all in the study, unfortunately). 

The boys show attention to the girls that are more attractive, and this creates a sort of pecking order in the female world, where the young girls who feel that they deserve that kind of positive attention as well aren’t getting it, and begin to pick on the object of the boy’s attention.  Now I did see a little of this in high school and junior high, except it also seemed these same girls enjoyed some sort of odd, unspoken popularity as well. 

So, what’s the message learned from this study?  Well, they say you should be very tuned into what your children are going through at school, especially since kids won’t always let on if they’re being bullied or teased because they are embarrassed or might feel ashamed.  You also want to make sure that they are not becoming a bully themselves by nurturing a sense of compassion and equality in your kids, making sure that they observe the “Golden Rule” and treat others as they’d like to be treated. 

After all, it’s bad enough having a child that may be getting picked on at school, but also imagine if your child became the source of another’s pain and suffering.  I feel lucky to have parents that taught me above all to be kind to others, as I feel that is a sense that is lacking in some of today’s children, and I’m not saying that to be preachy, but I think this “I’m special, and I deserve everything” attitude of entitlement is also dangerous and fosters almost a sense of sociopathy that is not healthy and in fact distorts a child’s view of how to treat people and how to get the things you want out of life, without being a bully or a mean or hurtful person. 

I just purchased Revlon Colorstay eyeshadow in a quad that has 3 very nice shades of brown, taupe and nudes in it, and I really like the specific colors they chose for this palette I bought.  One thing I really like about both the Revlon and the L’Oreal store brands is that they pick the colors I love, tending toward the more earthy colors, and both of them seeming to have richer, deeper pigments than their major competitors, brands like Maybelline and Cover Girl, both of which I’m not a huge fan of.

The Revlon Colorstay eyeshadow quad palettes were very reasonably priced, at about six bucks for four small strips of color, and they came in quite a few choices of colors, including greens, purples and my favorite of course, brown. In fact, brown was the most popular color they had, and they had two other palettes that were warm browns and taupes and nudes besides mine, so I liked that they offered several different shades of brown.

The Revlon shadow came with two small flimsy sponge applicators, of which I always throw away whenever I get these with any eyeshadow set, since I never use them and instead use my eyeshadow brush.  I like the color and the depth of it, but I do have to say, it takes quite a few swipes of the brush to get the right amount of color saturation, and you do have to keep swiping your brush on the eyeshadow and then on the eyes to get the right amount of color, but this is how I actually prefer to apply my eyeshadow, since I tend to overdue it if I’m using a heavily pigmented color.

I like the control of being able to apply it in layers, so then I don’t end up with a dark smudgy streak right away, especially if I’m going for a more casual daytime eyeshadow look instead of a dark and dramatic smokey look which I usually reserve for night. 

The color lasted pretty well, but it was nothing spectacular.  I work close to eleven hour days at my job, and I must say, you’d probably have to reapply this stuff if you had a date or something after ten hours, but I find that is true with most eyeshadows.  In contrast, it was not like some of the other shadows I’ve warn where they wear off in mere hours and look like you’re wearing nothing.  For the price, I’d say they’re a good buy, and they come in really fantastic colors, especially if you happen to love browns, like me. 

Remember that story we talked about quite a while ago, about how women were being put in jeopardy out of their desire to receive dirt cheap plastic surgery, and there was a ring of Brazilian “doctors” performing surgeries like liposuction at extremely reduced rates, who had no business or credentials to perform such surgeries?  Well, the case the killed a Maryland woman who had liposuction performed by a Mr. Ribeiro has begun and prosecutors are hoping for a conviction of manslaughter in the case. 

Liposuction, as we all know well, is an incredibly popular and expensive procedure which extracts fat pockets from targeted parts of the body, most often requested belly, buttocks and thighs.  It is not a cellulite treatment as well, but has been known to help tone down cellulite as well since it does in effect reduce the amount of fat bulging and the spongy effect. 

The trial is to determine that the man is guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a female immigrant who had liposuction surgery done by him, where he says he performed the surgery in a sterile environment (oh, he should get off then, right?  I’m being facetious of course).  The patient actually ended up dying of complication arising from the surgery, one that is fairly rare but has been reported before, where fat cells migrate to the lungs, or an embolism. 

The catch is that Ribeiro was a licensed plastic surgeon in his native Brazil, but was not licensed to perform surgery in the US, so he set up shop in unsanitary conditions in the basement of a condominium where his clientele was mostly Brazilian immigrants, and he had no sophisticated equipment or monitors like one would receive in a normal medical environment. 

Prosecutors contend that if the women were in a professional office, she would have lived since the proper equipment was available to monitor her progress.