Is exfoliating your body part of your routine?

Do you exfoliate your body? How often? Do you moisturize after? Exfoliating your body is just as important as exfoliating your face.  It doesn't take long nor much effort to do so.  Just exfoliate your body once or twice a week.  If you don't want to continuously spend the extra dollars on tubes of exfoliating scrub, just run to the dollar store or Wal-Mart and grab yourself a loofah.  While you're in the shower and smearing yourself with body wash or gel, take your loofah and scrub away the layer of dead skin cells.  Don't be scrubbing vigorously until your skin turns red, just go scrub back and forth two or three times.  Personally, I think the crucial areas to scrub are the upper arm area where I would get little bumps from the in-grown hair and the legs, especially if you have stretch marks.  Why loofah the stretch mark areas? Well the stretch marks exist because your skin is dry and lacking moisture.  So as you may or may not know already, exfoliating the layer of dead skin cells can trigger the growth of your next layer of skin cells AND it allows better absorption of the moisturizing product you put on.  Right after you hop out of the shower and towel-dried your body, cover your body with a moisturizing cream or lotion - my personal preference: body butters.

PS: Hand wash your loofah once in a while to avoid bacteria build-up.  ;)

Makeup Removal

From the time I knew how to apply makeup (I was probably around grade 8 or 9) until now, I think there has been - at most - a handful of times that I didn't wipe off my makeup, nor cleanse my face and went straight to bed.  BUT I haven't skipped this important process for a looong time.  Even during my undergrad years, no matter how late I came home from studying or partying, I'd remove all my makeup, cleanse my face before going to bed.

My recent makeup removal routine has been a two-step process.  Here's a little experiment I did so I can share with you, blog readers, on the effectiveness of Bobbi Brown's Cleansing Oil.

I've done a review on the Bobbi Brown Cleansing Oil last September.  I'm still on that same bottle of Cleansing Oil with one-third of the bottle left.  But I thought this little experiment I wanted to share could be an additional review on BB Cleansing Oil and my makeup removal routine.  Anyways, here's how I remove my makeup after wearing it for 6 - 7 hours.  Most of my makeup has melted off already.  Oh and don't mind my greasy hair and my minor breakouts.  =\

 Left: Before removing makeup ; Right: After removing makeup

Before makeup is removed

After using Bobbi Brown Cleansing Oil

 I take 2 pumps of Arumee Pro-Moist Cleansing Milk and massage it into my face

Dirty tissue with wiped off Cleansing Milk from my face

Washing my face after using Cleansing Milk

Ta-da! My face is makeup-free and feels smoooooth.  =)
Clearly, BB Cleansing Oil did do its job - in terms of makeup removal.  But if you zoom in on that dirty tissue, you can see there is still very little - what looks like - foundation on there.  Oh and may I add that I definitely did wear mascara, eye liner and eye shadow, but BB Cleansing Oil has taken that off already.

Haul: Cosme-de.com

I have another haul here.  This time it's from an online shop called Cosme De Net Co. Ltd.  I find this company is much like SaSa or Sephora, but CDE is a smaller company with a limited beauty supply and variation.  I find them frequently running out and replenishing their stock.  Now the only thing I have a problem .... ok, maybe not problem, but more annoyed ... with this online shop is how fast things go out of stock.  I guess they don't stock up a lot in case their stock doesn't get sold as fast, and they'll end up getting stuck with the old stock.  Also, depends on what you're looking to get, some things may be a little overpriced - i.e. brands we can easily find in North America - more specifically, MAC, Bobbi Brown, etc   
I made my order on Monday, June 6 and received it today (Friday, June 10).  Considering CDE is based in Hong Kong, I find its overseas shipping is super fast.  I expected it to take about 2 weeks, but I got it within one week.  In addition to fast shipping, my order came with tracking.  For those of you who, just like me, feel more secure ordering online when your items are trackable, it's a bonus.  Also, the extra thing I find great about CDE is it accepts PayPal.

Overall, I find they put a lot of care into packaging.  Everything I bought was bubble wrapped individually.  The outside box was packaged sleek and clean.  =) So I'm really satisfied with my purchase.

Anyways, here is what I ordered from CDE and their prices:
1.  Dr. Scholl MediOtto Sleep and Slim Long Socks --- $31 USD
2.  Dr. Scholl MediOtto Slimming Leggings --- $34 USD
3.  Vitacreme B12 Regenerative Cream --- $33 USD (but they have an additional 20% discount this month so it came up to $26 USD)

Basically, I spent a total of $91 USD.  They offer free shipping.  =) I didn't have to pay customs when my package arrived at my door and they do require signature confirmation.

Now about the products, I'll definitely do reviews on these products after a good long use.  I've done a little research on these Dr. Scholl MediOtto products and most say they work really well - some say temporarily, others say they have long-term effects.  But either way, I'll know after trying them out for a good month or so.  =D

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Random Rant about My Clarisonic

I haven't done a random rant for awhile, but anyways.  So I think it was last week or maybe two weeks ago, I was taking a shower and usually, while I shower, I do my normal skincare routine.  Right after I scrub in the shampoo in my hair, I let it chill in there while I cleanse my face.  Unfortunately, while I was scrubbing in the shampoo, I accidentally knocked over my Clarisonic sitting on the ledge and man, did I ever regret not being careful! It made a loud thump when it fell and I was thinking, "Oh shit, I broke my $250 Clarisonic!"  So I was testing it out to see whether it was still working.  *Sigh* It was.  But it was making a loud vibrating noise.  ='(  So I'm like, "ok whatever, it works."  But now, every time I walk into the shower and use it, I just get more and more annoyed at the fact that it was in perfect condition before and now it's flawed! Errr! So now, I'm sitting here with a dilemma.  Should I call up Clarisonic and get that loud noise fixed, even though it still works? Or should I just let it be? I bought it in January of 2010 and I believe the Clarisonic Classic's have a two-year warranty, so I'm still good for 6 months.  Well that's if they would classify my case as under the warranty.  Oh man, I hate it when I'm so careless...  it's just the consequences that follow with the many problems!

Review: Avene Cleanance Anti-shine Purifying Lotion

Ok, so I bought this bottle of Avene toner back in from Shoppers Drug Mart.  Initially, I walked into SDM to look for a solution to the mini bumps near the bridge of my nose and the large pores.  So the beauty consultant at the Beauty Boutique suggested to me this product.  At that time, I stopped using toner for awhile - after noticing the Shiseido White Lucent Brightening Refining Softener Enriched N was drying out my skin, well, plus the cold winter weather.  Anyways, I stopped using toner in my skincare routine and that mistake cause the mini bumps and enlarged pores on my face, near the bridge of my nose.  =(
So the beauty consultant recommended this Avene Cleanace Anti-Shine Purifying Lotion after noticing the enlarged pores and shiny T-zone. =T  Now I've never tried any Avene products before this.  And neither have I heard of any product being outstanding.

Cost:
$24.50 CAD + 13% tax = $27.69 CAD

For skin type:
Oily, blemish-prone sensitive skin

Application:
After cleansing my face with a cleanser, I take a cotton pad and first go over my T-zone area.  Then lightly go over the rest of face and neck.  This product is made of a bi-phase formula, that's activated via shaking.
 
The smell:
There is a slight fragrance scent to it, smells like a floral scent.  It gives me a refreshing and clean impression.  Not irritating or overpowering.

What it claims to do:
"With a very high content of Avene thermal spring water, Cleanace Lotion contains specific active ingredients that gently purify the skin as well as matifying powders to absorb excess of sebum and provide long-lasting anti-shine effect.  Cleanance Lotion tightens the pores and leaves the skin clear, purified and matified."

Results:
I've tried toners and astringents before and they both give me a stingy feeling.  But surprising this product didn't AND it appears to have shrunk my pores.  After using this for the past 3 months and now that I've got 1/5 left of the bottle, I'd like to say that I was satisified with the results.  Though I'm not super happy.  I see less little bumps but they're not gone, even after 3 months of using it everyday and I'm almost done the bottle.  I did use this during those chilly winter-to-spring months.  Therefore, I believe the season has a role in the performance of this product.  I felt it worked best during the chilly season/months compared to the warmer weather.  For the last few warm weeks, it seems to work or rather showed that it worked best when I first apply it right after cleansing my face.  So it appears to have matified my skin, but after a few hours, my T-zone area gets shiny again and my pores didn't really appear to have shrank.  Therefore, I would have to disagree on the "long-lasting" effect.  It's not as effective during the warmer days.     
Also, I'd probably have to disagree on the type of skin this product works best for.  I'd assume it works best for combination skin rather than oily skin.

Product: Avene Cleanance Anti-Shine Purifying Lotion
Rating: 3 / 5

Pros:
- It worked during the cooler season - did give me the purified skin-look
- Minimized the bumps on my face
- Matified my T-zone area for a short period of time
- Doesn't dry out my skin
- No stingy or irritating sensation
- No overpowering scent

Cons:
- Doesn't work well in the warmer season
- Didn't make all my bumps go away
- No long-lasting effect
- Way over priced for its not-so-consistent results