Tuesday, July 15, 2014

How To Tell If You Have Dry Skin

Since I can't seem to stop making decision trees at work, here's one for a recent discovery that I thought might be entertaining:

In case you couldn't guess, I used the Origins Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight mask today as my normal daytime moisturizer. It sunk right in (no excess tissue-ing needed). My makeup lasted all day (about 12 hours). No dryness around some post breakouts. Basically, something that never happened, happened with a product that is meant to be a mask. I find that funny, really. But also, yeah, I have dry skin. So, if you also have dry skin, I might consider trying this as a daytime moisturizer, since it really didn't do much for me as an ultra hydrating overnight 'treatment' (for that I go to the big guns, oils and humectants).

This is brought to you by the workaholic who very occasionally decides it's hilarious to combine blogging and work. And I know I didn't use the right shape for the "decision" because the shape doesn't allow much in the way of text.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Review: L'Occitane Cleansing And Softening Shower Oil With Almond Oil

A rare moment occurred which made me cash in some of my Sephora Beauty Reward points. It was the L'Occitane 500 point perk from March. Primarily because it contained a pretty generous sample of the above product, the Cleansing and Softening Shower Oil with Almond Oil (yikes! Mouthful) and second because it contained a pocket or book bag friendly size hand lotion, which I accidentally got my husband addicted to (he won't use anything else - though he won't even try the scented ones).

Anyway, I recently used up a shaving cream (massive empties post on the horizon btw) so I thought I would give this a whirl. I do really like it. I was a bit surprised at the scent. I was thinking it was going to smell like marzipan, but it's more of a fresh scent, it doesn't even really remind me of almonds, but that's ok. I like that it rinses away fairly clean but still leaves my legs soft and not irritated, but it reminded me of shaving with something else and that something else somehow compelled me to blog after a nearly 7 months hiatus.

The L'Occitane is pretty luxurious and priced accordingly. The 8.4oz bottle will run you $25. I actually find that rather reasonable but only if you plan to use this sparingly. I can't even imagine someone using this as a daily full-body cleanser, though I'm sure some do.

So, you're going to think I'm a little crazy when I say what this reminded me of. But back during the winter months when my legs were so itchy that during the day, I would try to find ways of getting a good scratch at them under my work pants without anyone noticing, I tried using The Body Shop's Beautifying Oil to shave with and aside from not foaming up and rinsing away, it is very similar. You're probably thinking why I would be so excited since that product is even more expensive per ounce. Well, of course you've heard of The Body Shop's sales and promotions. And then you know that you get more than one scent option... and well. The L'Occitane is nice but I foresee getting tired of the scent. What if I want strawberry or mango or satsuma? Tough cookie.

Not so fast - I can get a similar product, pay less (more than likely) and still get a close shave which doesn't leave my legs looking like the sidewalk (and probably a similar result with any body oil on the market - especially for us dry-skinned folk).

So there, hiatus officially broken. What's up, oh beauty world?