DON'T try this at home: honey on your face

i read on bellasugar.com the other day that washing your face with honey is good for dry, flaky skin. they also said it was antimicrobial, so it wouldn't cause you to break out! sounds perfect, right?

ha! not even close. i felt pretty good about it at first. i mixed some honey with warm water, and rubbed it all over my face. it wasn't as sticky as i thought. and my skin felt smooth and soft. but the next day? i realized i had some honey stuck in my hair (yuck!) and tiny little bumps all over my face.

darn. i was hoping it'd be awesome.
 
BUT, i did read a tip in seventeen (hey, i was waiting in an eternal line at walmart) that you can dye your hair darker with coffee. since i'm apparently such a glutton for punishment, i might try that too.

but i think i'll wait until after graduation next week....

review: olay age defying daily renewal cleanser

well, i ran out of my st. ives scrub a while ago, and even though it's been working great for me, i decided to try something new. i was also slightly scared that i'm exfoliating my face way too much. for whatever reason, this cleanser looked appealing to me:

actually, i bought the generic "equate" version, but we don't need to get into whether we think generics are the same or not. all the ingredients are the same, so i say the generic is just as good. plus i only payed $3. woot.

you can't tell from the picture, but the label says it has small microbeads and beta-hydroxy complex. which means it will chemically exfoliate my face, and the microbeads won't be too harsh. when you pump out the cleanser, it kind of looks and feels like lotion. and it totally has an old-lady smell. but i'm not opposed to old-ladylike things (case in point: pond's dry skin cream!), so that doesn't really bother me too badly. 

i've been using this cleanser day and night for a couple weeks now, and i think i like it. nothing dramatic has happened, but i haven't broken out, i have less flakiness on my face by the end of the day, and i think it's getting rid of some red splotches. i still have some little bumps that aren't acne (i don't know what they are, but i deeply dislike them). my face just looks more.... even. yesterday i didn't even wear foundation, just some concealer. but of course, i wouldn't be me if i didn't change my mind incessantly, so now i'm craving this new facial "cleanser":

holy moly! i read some reviews about this "jane iredale magic mitt" on beauty.com, and basically you just get this mitt wet with warm water, and something about the fibers cleans your face really thoroughly! you can wash it whenever, take it on a plane, and even stop buying face wash. i'm just curious enough that i really wanna try this....

bad idea?

Review: Dove White Beauty Bar

If you have dry skin (like yours truly) this soap will change your life!! I hear you. You're asking, soap, on my face? Unlikely.

It's true! I've been so frustrated with my 21-year-old skin that thinks it's 81. I start the day out with a facial scrub, so the dry flakes are gone, and a good moisturizer. And my face looks bright and dewy. But then by the time I get home at night, I have little crusty spots on my face! And when I wash my face before bed, I can never seem to apply enough moisturizer. It keeps tightening up on me.

Well yesterday, I hit my frustration quota. I read some reviews online for good face washes for dry skin, and Dove's Beauty Bar seemed to take the cake. What really sold me was it's dirt cheap and says "1/4 moisturizing cream" on the package. Score!

I could hardly wait to wash my face last night (that's a first). And it was worth the wait! As soon as I rinsed my face off, I could feel that it was different. It didn't even feel like my skin anymore! It was supple and insanely soft. I couldn't stop touching my face! Good thing "Mr. Green" was asleep because he would've thought I'd finally lost it....

I was still excited to wash my face this morning. Still soft and supple. And I barely felt like I needed to apply moisturizer! And when I got home tonight? No flakes! Crazy. I've tried lots of face washes that were supposed to help dry skin (Cetaphil, St. Ives Olive Cleanser, etc.) but they've never made my skin feel any different. I can't believe that a measly bar of soap (that costs about a dollar!) could change the moisture levels of my skin in one day.

GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW, ALL YOU CRAZY KIDS WITH OLD-LADY SKIN!

(Just fyi, I tried this product and wrote this post of my own volition. I really do LOOOOVE IT!)

Review: Noxzema Plus Moisturizers

Because my face is so dry, I always wash it with something mild (like Cetaphil, or my Dial White Tea Hand Soap, which I wrote about earlier). But then I always worry that my face isn't actually getting clean. Like maybe I'm just rubbing warm water over my face every day. So, because of good reviews, I went out and bought Noxzema (hey, it was only $3 at Walmart!). I thought I'd be really tricky and buy the kind with moisturizers, that way my skin wouldn't know I was trying to deep clean it and dry it out. Alas, my efforts were to no avail. My skin didn't exactly feel dry and flaky like it does when I use something harsh, but it didn't feel good either.

When I got out of the shower and looked at my skin, I had magically morphed into a 48-year-old. My skin had moon craters for pores, and it felt kind of rough. But, it didn't exactly dry it out either. So confused. Maybe it just opened up all of my pores to get all the gunk out? Not sure. All I know is that it made my makeup look cakey that day. At any rate, I'm still using it a couple times a week, followed by my Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Triple Smoothing Body Lotion (phew, long name). Yes, it's body lotion, but it has AHA to "smooth dry, flaky skin", and I occasionally use it on my face and it really makes it look glowy and even. Hey, a lot of facial cleansers have AHA these days (aka glycolic acid), so I figure, what's the difference?

More about the Lubriderm tomorrow. As a body lotion, I mean.

Weird face wash

On Friday night, I made a run to Walmart to pick up some hand soap because we were completely out. This particular kind looked really appealing (and smelled great!). And it's been working really well as hand wash.

Then I read the back of it.... It said, "Dial White Tea & Vitamin E Pearls Hand Soap is a crystal clear sensation that cares for your skin. Enriched with White Tea extract, a natural antioxidant, and nourishing Vitamin E complex, it works with your skin's natural moisturizers to help maintain a soft, supple, healthy feel while it gently cleans." And I thought hmmm.... This sounds like a face wash.

So what the heck, I tried washing my face with it. It's been 3 days now and my skin is amazingly soft. I don't have one single blemish or any of those annoying dry, crusty patches I usually do (my skin is sooo dry). I think this is a keeper- as a hand soap and a face wash! And it's a total steal at exactly $1.37 for 11.25 oz. at Walmart.