Clarisonic Competition?

No doubt, the Clarisonic gets mostly rave reviews. This product claims to cleanse the skin so well that it will help skin to look & feel younger as well as to absorb skin products a lot quicker. Of course, it comes at a hefty cost (there are several packages, most in the $200.00 range).

Photo from here

Being on a more modest budget, I opted for something that has a similar concept but costs much less:

Round Handle Facial Brush from The Body Shop. Total cost: $3.00 CND (I actually bought mine on sale for $2.50).

When I first tried this brush, I immediately noticed smoother, softer skin. I use a cream cleanser in the morning and an apricot scrub in the evening. My skin also does seem to absorb cleansers more. It takes just a minute to cleanse your entire face with this brush. When finished, rinse & store. The brush has a plastic cap so that it doesnt have to sit directly on any other surface (to prevent bacteria). I never completely snap the cap back on so as to allow the rinse water to evaporate from the brush.

I imagine that this brush brings very similar results to the skin as the clarisonic. For about $200.00 less, I'll take this one!

I would love to recieve comments or questions from anyone! It would be really motivating to know I have readers :) Thanks!

Recipe of the week ~ Avocado Sandwich, Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger & Garlic Press Review!

2 recipes this week! One is pretty close to the standard sandwich so it's not really a new recipe...but its the most delicious kind of sandwich that I've ever sunk my teeth into!

The main recipe is the Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger. The sandwich & the burger sort of tie in together at the end and make a great combination if you really like trying new things.

Avocado Sandwich

Avocados are absolutely full of healthy nutrients & healthy fats. They are not only good for our bodies, but it is said that they can help ease ailments such as depression.

I personally love to have pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, olives & mustard on mine (it makes a pretty big sandwich). All of these ingredients go great with avocado. Unfortunately I forgot to buy the olives, the grocery store didn't have alfalfa (I searched in the vegetable section 4 times!) & I couldn't open the bottle of pickels (whoops). At home I used my hamburger buns instead of sliced bread (it's all the same). This is how it turned out:

YUM. I ate TWO for lunch :)

Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger

When I feel like eating a burger, I usually crave vegetarian burgers. Throw in my favourite kind of mushroom & I'm a happy camper :)

You can see the full recipe here.

Ingredients

4 large portabella mushrooms, 5 inches in diameter

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Raw portabello mushrooms

Directions

1. Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth and remove their stems. Place in a glass dish, stem (gill) side up.

2. To prepare the marinade, in a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil. Drizzle the marinade over the mushrooms. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, turning mushrooms once.

Marinade pic with flash: reflects the olive oil

Marinade pic without flash: shows garlic

One of the mushrooms bottom-down on marinade, ready to be put in the fridge for 1 hour. The stem is cut off the bottom for maximum soakage, but I saved it (as you can see below). The only dish I had that was large enough to place all four mushrooms was much too large, so I opted for one shallow soup dish per mushroom.

3. Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler. Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.

4. Grill or broil the mushrooms on medium heat, turning often, until tender, about 5 minutes on each side. Baste with marinade to keep from drying out. Using tongs, transfer the mushrooms to a plate and serve immediately.

My Notes: I broiled the mushrooms in the stove & although it is a good alternative to grilling, I think grilling would be the best choice. You can use this as a side or as a burger as I did:

To tie to two recipes together, I threw some sliced avocado in the mushroom burger & voila!


This was DELICIOUS. The only problem I had was keeping it all from falling out of the bun!

P.S. ~ I always find that good garlic presses are hard to find. I bought this President's Choice garlic press at the Superstore. I think it costed somewhere between $8.00 & $12.00 & was worth every penny. It makes garlic mincing effortless.

I hope you'll enjoy these yummies as much as I did!

P.S.S ~ I totally didn't purposely make links for some of the ingredients above. I tested them & each ingredient leads to a detailed definition ... ? I would love to know how this happened, but it works for me.

Products I would not purchase again (but they aren't necessarily bad!)

I was inspired to make this post by juicystar07's Products I Regret Buying video blog. I can't honestly say that I regret buying these products, but I just know I would not buy them again for various reasons (explanations below!). In no particular order:

1. Bathtub Tea Bags

This is one of the products that I actually really liked, but was a little dissapointed in. I was actually planning to do a review on these alone, because I thought the idea was so neat! I experimented with hanging these in the shower & also putting them right in the bath.

I got Clarity Bathtub Tea, Refresh Bathtub Tea & Love Bathtub Tea.

The problem with putting these in the shower is that the smell, although very nice, is so subtle that any other scent from a shampoo or body wash will easily overtake it.

Hanging from my shower caddy

The problem with putting these in the bath is that again, the smell was really subtle if you like to squish the tea bag like me (I'm like a kid, yes), it will eventually break. Just make sure you have one of those drain strainers to catch everything as you drain your bath water.

I might not have good a sense of smell as other people, so if you want to try it, you can find them at http://www.hydrasoap.com/. Otherwise, I'm not sure where you can buy them as I bought them in a small privately owned store in a tiny little town!

2. Crest Whitening Expressions Cinnamon Rush Paste

I bought this toothpaste because it was on sale, and it was something new. Although it's a pretty red, sparkly toothpaste, I just feel like it might be made more to motivate kids into brushing than anything. I guess you can call me old fashioned, but I like good old fashioned tooth paste. This one doesn't lather up on my teeth like other pastes do, & it tastes a bit like candy. I don't have that clean & fresh feeling that I enjoy after using other types of paste. So, I have no problem with crest tooth pastes, I just don't like the new fancy pastes that all companies have been making lately.

3. Victoria's Secret Body 3-In-1 Wash for Shower, Bubble Bath & Hair

As you can see, I'm almost finished with the Juiced Berry. I'm excited to move on to the Coconut Craze because a) the scents are fabulous & b) I can't wait to move on to a body wash product that seems worthwhile. Am I contradicting myself? Perhaps.

Again, I am glad I tried these out because they are really fun colours, really nice scents & in nice packages. I won't buy them again because I strongly prefer more natural and exfoliating products to wash my skin, which just goes to show how personal product reviews can be! As for hair cleansing, it left my hair really dry. That is one thing I will not use this for.

I think almost anyone would really like this, but not everyone would continue to use them because they have so much stuff in them & don't seem to have any positive effects on the skin (besides making it temporarily smell good). Now I'm starting to sound like a tree hugger :) haha

4. Atmosphere Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash

Why do I feel so sad as I add this product to the list? Well, it promotes health, is made in Canada & is not tested on animals (I'm not sure if the other products are tested on animals - how can one find out?).

I don't know about how other's skin would react to this, but mine did not do well. This is what I started using right before I started to break out so badly. Is this the cause of my acne explosion? I may never know. All I know is that it did not help the situation!

I have combination skin. I get really really oily in the T-Zone, & although I can get slightly oily in other areas, it tends to dry and flake quite easily. While I was using this, the oiliness and flakiness just skyrocketed. However, it could just be a skin sensitivity.

I think that this product might work for you if you have very oily skin. I also would probably use it every other day instead of every single day.

I'm definitely still interested in this company though. They might just have something that works for me!

If you have any products that you would not use again, I would love to know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

Product Review ~ Bioré Deep Cleansing Pore Strips

In the last few months, I started to experience the worst acne of my entire life (including my teen years). I couldn't understand what the problem was. I was using a new cleanser in the evenings but I thought it wasn't working at all on my skin. I soon realized the opposite: the cleanser was overworking my skin to the point that I had an explosion of acne that I had never before experienced. My face literally hurt from the acne.

Last week I decided to start using some new skin products to help turn my unfortunate situation around. One of the products I purchased was a box of Bioré Deep Cleansing Pore Strips.



The next two pics are really pore quality (haha..get it?). Anyway, this is the shape of the nose strip:

Below is a pic of (eek!) my nose with a strip on it. It's really easy to put on (instructions can be found in link above). If you look at the skin around my nose, you can see how it is discoloured & reddish. That's when my acne was pretty much at it's worst. I cropped the rest of my face out because the acne was just that bad.

The Result:

It works!! Out of all the products I used, the first place that pimples started to disappear from was my nose. You can see (& touch) all the dirt & oil that comes out of your pores.

I was so eager that I was using the strips daily. It is not necessary to use daily. I would use weekly as instructed on the box, or you will be wasting strips (they take out so much dirt that there is little to nothing left to remove for several days).

So I totally recommend this product. Next time, I will be purchasing the nose and forehead strips.

Note!!: I have finally found a skin care routine that is working for my skin so I'm going to post all of my skin care steps soon! It has made such a huge difference that I think I should share more than just my positive review of the nose strips. I'll probably get that post up soon!

Aloe Vera Juice & a little about me

One of the first pieces of advice that my father gave to me when I told him that I was really sick was to start drinking Aloe Vera juice every day. My father has ulcerative colitis; a form of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). He was diagnosed around 5 years ago & was prescribed a lot of pills. In an attempt to help my dad in any way, my mother read some alternative medicine books to see what they had to say about colitis. At least one of the books suggested Aloe Vera juice because of it's natural healing properties.

Before my father started drinking it, he asked his specialist what he thought. His specialist said "Yes, its very good. One of my patients was almost cured from it." Almost cured. Wow. Now, the medical community has not found any cure for IBD, so this is a big statement.

So ever since, my father takes a shotglass full of Aloe Vera Juice every morning & he swears it has made a difference.

Where I come in:

My life changed in January of 2009. I had always experienced many health issues growing up, but never anything really major. It seemed normal to me to feel the way I did. It didn't seem normal to everyone else. Well, in January of 2009 I got sick. Really sick. I thought to myself - ok there's something going on here...this isn't normal. I looked up some of my symptoms online & BANG. There they were in front of my face. Every symptom led to 3 things: Crohn's Disease, Colitis & Celiac Disease. It never occured to me that I could have what other members of my family had (1 has Crohn's, 3 have Colitis).

So I went to the doctor & pushed for tests. They found stuff. Scary stuff. So far: a hyatial hernia, an ulcer, acid reflux disease & I honestly forget the other thing... (who would want to remember?). I have all the symptoms of Crohn's Disease, but it seems that the specialists in this city are rather busy (grr). I also have recurring eye infections, other recurring infections or ailments & I am always using up my sick days from work.

Now my life isn't horrible, but it takes more "fight" in me to get through the day without any sort of medication (besides Prevacid).

Anyway, the bottom line is that while I'm working toward getting healthy, I'm making a commitment to taking a shot of Aloe Vera Juice every day.

The Juice:

Aloex Aloe Vera Juice is the juice that my parents introduced me to. My mom bought it in the health section of the Superstore. I'm sure you can find different brands in health stores as well as the health section of any grocery store. You might even find it in pharmacies. I'm positive that it's amazingly healthy for everyone to drink but if you're not sure, check with your doctor first.





The Taste

I won't lie, it's gross. Thats all I can say. It tastes a bit like what you might imagine paint thinner to taste like. But you get used to it. Sorry for the bad news. Try different flavours & see what you might prefer :P

Thanks for reading my story!

If anyone is interested, here is the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada Website

Product Review ~ Radox Herbal Bath Salts

Hi everyone, I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration!

I'm starting off the new year by doing a product review on something that I totally loooove using after a hard day at work or if I simply want a super relaxing experience.

I am definitely a 'shower' kind of person but once in awhile I like to have a good bath to relax in while reading a book or just recouperating from a long day.

I first recieved a box of Radox Bath Salts as part of a gift that my mother put together as a care package for me when I was a student. I read the instructions (just pour suggested amount under running bath water) & went for it. It turned the water a pretty colour & smelled delish. When I went in the tub, it was so soothing. In all honesty, it is the only bath product I've ever used (and I've used many bath products!) that has a physical effect on me. My muscles completely relax after a few moments of sitting in a tub of bath salt infused water.

Storage Tip:

When not in use, place the package in a ziplock bag. When the package is moved or picked up, some of the powder can come out of the opening. If/when powder gets into the ziplock bag, I simply pour it into my next bath.

So I definitely recommend this product.

If you have any questions or feedback, please enter in the comments below!