My Skin Care Regimen Review

I thought I would take a moment and share my skin care regimen with you (hyper-linked for your convenience).  I don’t know about you, but I am always very interested in what other people use and like.  I’ve always been a gal that is really into her products for as long as I can remember!

 

I’ve always been a firm believer in washing my face in the morning and at night and using a good face cream, I rarely have skipped that daily routine in my past 20 years.  On the other hand, I’ve not always been good about anti-aging care and using sunscreen but this year I started slathering on the sunscreen more than ever before.   If you noticed, in my last post about Lush products, I didn’t review a lot of face care products because I’m very picky as to what I use on my face.

 

In my teens and 20s, I was kind of all over the place and not very committed to one face wash or cream.  I would use one for a year or so then switch.  I’ve always loved Neutrogena products and still use Neutrogena face wash several times a week.   6ish years ago, we got an Ulta here in Des Moines, for a product-lover like myself; this sure is a dreamy store!  I have spent countless hours browsing and it’s where I really started upping my game in my skin care regimen.  I actually was on a search for a neck cream.  I was starting to get the infamous leathered chest look from tanning too much that Aaron absolutely despises.  He was the one that named it the ‘leathery chest’ look, not me.   I was just starting to barely get one and was a little paranoid so I explained to an Ulta employee that I need the BEST chest cream they have because this was my first signs of aging I’ve ever had.   She took me over to the Exuviance products, which was a total life changing moment.

   

The Exuviance toning neck cream did the trick!  I was really impressed how the fine lines just went away and my skin brighter and healthier as well as how quickly it worked.  I immediately went back to Ulta to buy more Exuviance products.

 

Wanting to keep it simple, the next product I checked out was their basic daily face cream, which was the Sheer Refining Day Fluid.  Again, I really liked it.  It seemed to really hydrate my skin and yet was lightweight and matched well with my make-up.   It was never greasy nor made my skin breakout, although it wasn’t designed specifically for anti-aging, did it have everything I was looking for in a basic face cream.  I don’t use it daily anymore but do use it on occasion, more so after or before a workout.

The reason I don’t use the Sheer Refining Day Fluid anymore is because I started to try their Anti-Aging products and really loved them better.   I’ve been using the Anti-Reverse Day Repair in the morning and the Anti-Reverse Night Lift in the evening.   Highly recommend them!

The most impressive product of all that I have tried is their eye cream.   I was definitely starting to get a lot of fine lines in the corner of my eyes and decided to try the eye cream.  I kept very close tabs on the progress and was astonished by how this eye cream cleared up those lines!   Great, great product! 

I have tried other Exuviance products, I’ve liked all of them I’ve tried and there are many more I haven’t even tried yet.   The Dermatologists that created these products really did a phenomenal job.

Now, switching gears…. A few months ago I was invited to a Rodan+Fields party.  My friend who invited me had been raving about how much she loves their products on Facebook and I’ve always thought she has awesome skin and is a few years older than me.  When she invited me to the party (and enticed me with wine) I was definitely a sucker for it. I knew little about the products other than they were created by the same dermatologists that created Pro-Active.

All their products were a little overwhelming for me as I wanted to try all of them and was very curious.  I started out with the Redefine kit.  What I really liked about Exuviance is that it didn’t ever seem expensive to me because I just bought each product individually when I needed it.   You can do that too with Rodan+Fields but they emphasized, like all products do, that you really need to use the kits to see the full benefits and so given that I wanted to give this a good shot, I bought the $200 kit.   I’ve been using it for a few months and here’s what I think…

The products smell amazing, very spa like!  I love how the cleaner does a great job of cleaning my face and has gentle exfoliating beads and acts as a daily mask.  The toner helps my skin feel extra clean and I don’t generally use a toner but now definitely will be part of my daily routine no matter what skin care products I’m using.  The morning and night cream, well they are just okay.  They pair well with my make-up and seem to be just as good as Exuviance.   Overall I think it is a really good product and if I wasn’t already using a very comparable product, I would probably be blown away by it.  I have heard a lot of raves about the eye cream, it was sold out during the party (and still is) so I do plan on trying that product.  What I love most about the product over Exuivance is the smell.  And I’ll probably still continue to use the face wash, it really is a favorite of mine; but as for buying another full kit when I run out… I probably will not.  I have nothing bad to say about it and I’m seeing the popularity of this brand grow more and more so I know people really love it. 

One thing I’m still stumped on is that at the Rodan+Fields party, they stressed that the kit should last 60 days and if it is lasting longer than 60 days, then I’m likely not using enough of the product to see the right results.  My Exuivance lasts normally 5-6 months, replenishing more frequently sounded expensive to me.  I’m at 90 days on my R+F kit and I still have plenty to use and I’m not being ‘chinsey’ in my applications, in fact I’ve been more subconscious now to use a generous amount each time.  I think replenishing every 120 days is probably a more accurate statement in my opinion.  This girl at the party (who seemed a little coo-coo or maybe had too much wine) tried to tell me she has a huge face and likely would go thru it that often.  Um… her face looked normal-sized to me.  #Weird.

Being a Financial Consultant for a living, I need to talk how much because good skin care gets expensive!  Given that I can get my Exuiviance products for 20% off when I stock up during coupon time that brings the total to $239 for the wash/toner/creams(face, night, eye).  Rodan+Fields Redefine Kit + Night Cream totals $253.  Comparable products, comparable prices, really!

If you aren’t invested in a really good skincare product, you really need to be!  I’m a total product freak so it’s easy for me to say.  Whenever I travel anywhere, I always have a separate bag of just product that is like the size of a small carry-on (and this is excluding my make-up).  Imagine me in the TSA line trying to use a small zip lock baggie to cram as many of my products in as I can, it’s ludicrous! 

Lush Product Review

Earlier this year, Des Moines got a Lush Cosmetics store here in Des Moines.  I was somewhat familiar with this store, as I would walk right past one in Chicago every year and it was a store front that would catch my eye.  I was intrigued but from the outside looking in, it just appeared to be a soap store and given soap shopping wasn’t high on my list of dos while in the big city, I always kept walking right on by.  To my surprise, it’s totally not just a soap store!  They actually have really cool cosmetics that are unique and different and I’ve been enjoying trying out their products, here are some of my latest (unbiased) reviews on what I’ve tried so far, I’ve hyperlinked the names for your convenience.

No Drought Dry Shampoo                                                                                                                      I know I’ve talked about this product before on my blog, but this is my favorite Lush product by far! This dry shampoo is unlike any I’ve ever tried as it’s a powder formula, not an aerosol and I think that in itself is what makes this dry shampoo better than others.  It really absorbs the oils and leaves my hair feeling very clean and fresh.  It even adds a bit of volume without too much of that grimy, gritty feeling some dry shampoos can leave behind.  The only downfall is the application isn’t well thought out.  The only thing I can think of that may make the application of the powder better would be to transfer it to a salt or pepper shaker.  I haven’t tried that yet but am planning to give it a whirl.  It’s a bit challenging to evenly distribute it in my hair.  I usually start around my roots by shaking it in.  Then I take my hair brush and literally scrub it in back and forth.  Then I apply some directly onto my hair brush and pull it root to end.  I use a lot in one application but would suggest only buying the smallest size of this product.  It really goes a long, long way, even given how much I use per day.  Lately, I’ve been going 3 days between washes, and this stuff is the reason why I can get away with that.  Love it!  Best. Stuff. Ever!

BIG Shampoo

This was the second product I ever tried from Lush and again, love it!  It’s a shampoo made from sea salt and lime juice and it smells ah-mazing!  It really lathers well too, you’ll feel like you are in a shampoo commercial.  This product boasts about giving hair lots of volume and I must say, it really does!  I was very impressed as I’ve tried many of volumizing shampoos just to feel dissatisfied.  It also cleans my hair amazingly, like squeaky clean.  If you are looking to extend between shampoos, this one will accomplish that for sure.  I’m skeptical of the ingredients though… it specifically says on the bottle that the sea salt will not dry out your hair and it specifically says it does not strip away natural oils but with the way it makes my hair so clean and what I’ve read about sea salt, I’m just not so sure I believe it.  I actually get a professional smoothing treatment done every 6 months and I’m not supposed to be using anything with sea salt as it ruins the treatment I get.  I use this product more so for special occasions, I really love it and want to use it all the time but I’m just not so sure about the ingredients and the long term effects it could have on my hair. 

Blousey Shampoo

One thing you should know about Lush is that they will give you a free sample of any product that you can take home for FREE and try.  Score!  The samples I find generally get you 2 applications, which is nice to give you an idea if you like it or not.  I sampled Blousey as it was recommended to me by a Lush employee.  This shampoo is very interesting.  It has zero lather.  In fact, it kinda feels as if I’m putting lotion in my hair and not shampoo.  I really thought I wouldn’t like it but when I blow dried my hair I was impressed with the fact that I had more volume than I was expecting and it left my hair feeling very clean but not that over the top squeaky clean feeling.  This product is mostly made up of mashed up bananas, strange stuff but somehow it’s a winner!  I’d recommend it. 

Daddy-O Shampoo

I’m a dark blonde.  Not really loving my color lately but I don’t want to go back to being too blonde and have all the extra maintenance but feel like I still need highlights to keep me from looking dull.  The problem is being the dark blonde color I have, as the highlights wear, I start to look brassy.  And I really don’t like that either.  Daddy-O is a purple shampoo meant to reverse the effects of brassy color for bottle blondes.  This product may be my least favorite Lush product.  I was really hoping for a home run and I think it’s a dud.  It’s a mediocre shampoo that I don’t think did anything helpful for my highlights.  Unfortunately I do not recommend buying this one.  It does no harm but personally did not find that it really worked.

Veganese Conditioner

 I don’t know what to think about this stuff.  At first I matched it with the Daddy-O and was not impressed with either.  Then I matched it with the Blousey and thought it paired well with it.  Then I decided to try it completely on its own so I wouldn’t have the bias of the other Lush shampoos and at that point in time, I just still couldn’t make up my mind.  Given that, I would just say it’s okay.  I’m really not a fan of the smell of it.  I can’t quite pinpoint why I don’t care for the smell but I just don’t.   My hunch is telling me I wouldn’t recommend this conditioner given its likely mediocrity.  The reason I bought it is because of its light weight conditioning description, it is very light weight so I would say that is a true statement for the product.

Roots, Hair Treatment

This stuff is interesting.  It’s a 15 minute treatment you use before shampooing to help add shine and volume.  At first I paired it with Blousey and loved it.  Then I did the unbiased approach and used it on its own, again I liked it but not as much as when I used it with Blousey.  I liked the smell and the way it did coat my hair but the verdict is out on this one.  The potential pro about this product is I feel like you can maybe skip the conditioner when using this first, although I tried this as a sample so I haven’t used it enough to know for sure. 

Ocean Salt, Body Salt Scrub

I bought this intending to use on my face and it’s composed of sea salt and vodka.  At first use, I thought it was way to abrasive for my face, the salts felt rougher than a normal exfoliating product.  The second time I used it (on my face again), I liked it more.  I don’t use it daily, more like for a weekly or bi-weekly exfoliation.  And it taste good too, just like a margarita, ha!  I do like this product but it did have to grow on me as at first I was little turned off by the rough texture but it does give me a little glow and a very clean feeling.  Again, I’m careful about this one and the usage, using sea salt on my face may not be a good idea in the long run for stripping natural oils your skin needs.

Ayesha, Fresh Food Face Mask (not sure if still an available product)

This stuff is interesting.  It requires refrigeration as it’s made from fresh kiwi and asparagus.  The first time I used it, it was really refreshing as it’s obviously a cool mask.  It felt a little weird on as I’m use to using masks that tighten the skin where this one I didn’t get that tightening effect.  But when I washed it off, my face was super soft!   I like the cooling component for the summer but think this one is more ideal for the winter when my skin gets super dry. I think this mask is best to use when you don’t plan on putting make-up on, since it is so moisturizing.  I wore make-up and it didn’t necessarily feel slimey or greasy but my face definitely felt different and I liked it better when I used it on my lighter make-up days.  The only downside is, the product is only good for I think it was 2 weeks, given the fresh ingredients, it does have a very short shelf life.  But it’s pretty cheap, I think it was $6.  I would recommend this product and I do hope to try it again in the winter months.

Curious But Haven’t Tried…

Anyone ever tried Lush’s shampoo bars?  It’s a very interesting concept to me.  I shampoo bar that looks just like a soap bar but it’s really shampoo.  I’m going to try one but haven’t decided which one yet!

They also have a men’s skincare line.  I am married to a man that does put on my grocery list from time to time “night face cream” or “face cream for fine lines.”  Aaron can be a total ‘girl’ when it comes to face creams.  I love him for it though.  I haven’t yet tapped into the Men’s Lush line but would like to get Aaron to try some and see what he thinks.   

SLS’s.. Why do you have to go and ruin a good thing, Lush… WHY?!

One thing that I really dislike is just about every product has sodium laureth sulfate (SLS) in them, which long story short its basically a detergent.  It s what make their products feel super clean but SLS’s do have a bad rap.  When I started to look at Lush products I noticed sulfate in their list of ingredients right away and it’s made me leery to even try them.  Although most shampoos do have sulfates in them, I had been making a conscious effort the last several years to buy sulfate-free shampoos.  I would be a 100% user of Lush if they would take that ingredient out of their products but not sure how soon that will be, in fact when I Googled ‘sodium laureth sulfate Lush’ it took me right back to their website and found it interesting that they actually address it here in this link, the last sentence remarks how they are working to replace that ingredient… but they just not there yet:

https://www.lush.co.uk/article/dont-stress-about-sls

You can decide for yourself on your stance on SLS’s but my overall opinion is Lush I pretty awesome and I have been loving some of the products enough to make it worth sharing my reviews with you!    

A Weekend of Life Lessons {Learning the Hard Way}

Last weekend, we decided to put our house on the market (which is blog post on its own soon).  Given there was a lot to do around the house, we decided it may be best for Annie and I to visit my family back in my hometown and leave Aaron to get some things done, because frankly, trying to get anything done on the weekend and keep a tidy house with Annie there is nearly impossible.

  

This would be the first time Annie and I would be traveling without Aaron and so I needed to learn to put up the Pack N Play for Annie to sleep in.  Thursday night, I spent about an hour trying to put it up and take it down.  Who knew that darn thing could be so difficult?!  Aaron kept showing me how to do it and each time I couldn’t get it to pop into place or I could get it all broke down but one side.  I was a little concerned how it would go over the weekend trying to put it up and down myself but come to find out, that little life lesson was the least of my troubles.

  

We left Friday night near Annie’s bedtime so that she could just fall asleep in the car as it’s still disastrous traveling in the car with her, she hates car rides and usually cries all the way thru them but when we plan it around her sleep schedule, she usually falls asleep fine in the car.  As I was hoping, she fell asleep on the way there.  When we were about 30 minutes outside of town, my gas light came on.  Darn it!  Life lesson #2, pay more attention before leaving at how much gas I have left.  Aaron always fills up my tank on Sundays and given it was a Friday, I was almost empty.  I’ve become way too reliant on him filling my car up that I rarely put gas in myself so it’s something I just don’t pay much attention to.

 

I debated if I’ll make it to Fairfield or not but decided that being as late as it was and traveling with Annie, it would be really bad if I ran out of gas.  So I pulled over at the next gas station and I was hurrying as fast as I could, I didn’t want to wake Annie so I grabbed the pump, slide my credit card and stopped at $20 thinking that would do for now.   I kept peaking in on her as I was antsy for my receipt that never printed.  Annoyed now that I have no idea if I actually paid for my gas or not, I had to go into the station so I ran in quickly, found out that I choose a pump that the card reader wasn’t working (of course I did) and hurried back out back to my car.  Nothing like leaving your sleeping baby in the car all by herself, terrified a cop would pull up and arrest me for bad parenting!

Back on the road, we were set, we were only 20ish minutes outside of town and Annie was still fast asleep.  About 5 minutes of being back on the road, my car started to make this catching/pull that I could feel ever so slightly.  I thought, hmmm that’s strange.  And then as we get closer, it kept happening more frequently and I knew something wasn’t right.  As we are only miles outside of town, my car completely lost power and I am barely moving on the highway.  I pull off to the shoulder, with my foot all the way on the gas, going about 10 miles per hour.  I barely make it to my Grandparent’s place and my Grandpa is standing outside waiting for me.  I get out of the car and tell him something is seriously wrong with my car and that I think I put bad gas in it.

 

I hurry, grab the Pack N Play, get it set up with little issues, get Annie transferred then grab my gas receipt and called the gas station to ask what kind of gas is the $2.59/gal.  Clerk’s response: DIESEL.   My response: OH S@$T!  Yes folks, I put $20 worth of diesel in my VW Tiguan.  It’s getting late, there is nothing I can do about it at this point.  I call my Dad and call Aaron, there responses were practically identical “You did WHAT?!”  Yep, I sure did.

Saturday morning rolls around, I call every mechanic in Fairfield and it’s just my luck that there is not one open shop in town on the weekends.  Are you kidding me?!  Not a one.  So Grandpa and I run out to try to problem solve this situation ourselves.  We purchase a small gas can and fill it up with premium gas in hopes of diluting the diesel.  Came back and ended up with half the gas on the garage floor, half in my car’s tank.  What freaking mess trying to get it to pour right, cheap Wal-Mart gas can!  My car won’t even start.  After a good hour of problem solving in 90 degree heat with a garage that has a strong smell of gas fumes, we give up. 

After grabbing a quick lunch, I told my Grandpa that we have to figure out how to get the car seat out of my car and into theirs.  Next life lesson: installing a car seat.  Well more like life lesson on how to uninstall first.  We watched numerous YouTube videos, we called Aaron and he tried to talk us thru it on speaker phone, 30+ minutes later we got it out.  Then to install took FOREVER!  We thought we had it in right then I gave it a tug and it literally pushed completely over on its side, obviously not strapped down correctly.   Then when we decided to go with the seat belt method and during all this we messed with Annie’s straps and then had the seat’s harness straps too tight and couldn’t figure out how to loosen them.  90 degree day, no breeze, gas fumes are strong, working in a hot car.  Both my Grandpa and I were a mess!  2 hours later, we had a car seat installed.  By this point my Mom was super impatient and dying to see Annie so I wiped my face off with a cold wash cloth, hurried to get Annie ready to go, loaded up and headed out to my parents. 

Exhausted, we arrived and I was making phone calls to get my car towed.  90 minutes later, I finally had my car towed.   Too many life lessons were learned that weekend but I am beyond thankful that we made it to my hometown safely and Annie and were not stranded in the middle of the country.  As well as the fact that my car was totally fixable and actually didn’t cost me that much and we were able to drive back down Monday to get it.  Life lessons can be learned the hard way, and the hard way I certainly did learn!  In a weekend’s time, I can now set up/take down a Pack N Play (don’t laugh, that’s a big feat for me!), install a car seat and know to pay attention at the gas pump.   Good grief!