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!

Mini Haul ~ Foundation

Yesterday I went by the mall & stopped in Sephora to see if they had any Brush Guards, introduced in this video by Michelle Phan. The brush guards were nowhere in sight, but I remembered my recent split with an old bottle of MAC foundation. I was previously using MAC's SPF Cream Foundation in NW20. Probably due to age, the foundation was beginning to look really streaky. I sadly had to throw it out with 1/4 foundation remaining (anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to throw things out!).

Since I've heard so much about Smashbox & Make Up For Ever, I took a look at their cream foundations. I ended up with the following:

1. Smashbox Photo Finish, Oil-Free, Foundation Primer: $44.00 CDN

2. Make Up For Ever, High Definition Foundation: $46.00 CDN

3. Make Up For Ever, High Definition Powder: $34.00 CDN

Total Cost: A whopping $119.10 CDN

I can justify this because when the associate helped me to find some products, she put them on my face and proved that these are great products. I haven't used them on my own yet but I'm pretty excited! I'll do a review after I get more experience with them.

Do you use foundation? If so, which products are your favourite?

Rice Water Skin Toner

Hello everyone, how was your week? I hope it was fun & that you had a great weekend! Mine mainly consisted of working, studying & catching up on some Zzz's.

So I really really wanted to introduce this cool skin care idea a long time ago because it is a totally natural & free thing to do. Not to mention the fact that it is so easy.

I got this idea from MichellePhan a.k.a RiceBunny's Rice Water for Healthy Skin video. If you're interested in this idea, please watch!

When I tried it on my own, it just took a few short minutes to do it all. Unfortunately, the bag of rice that I had was once in a little bit of water due to a leak. My mom kindly scooped out the "good" rice from the top of the bag & I discovered that even this rice was not good any more. Because of that, I don't have the best pictures.

When I mixed the rice in the water, I got cloudy water like this:


Then I used a strainer to drain the water into a glass (the darkness of the water will depend on the type of rice you use):

You can use a cotton pad or paper towel like Michelle Phan does to soak up the rice water. I decided to try a cotton ball to see if that would work as well & it definitely worked.

I cleaned the skin on my entire face & neck with the soaked cotton balls, & it felt more fresh and clean after (not to mention the fact that I saw quite a bit of dirt on the used cotton balls!).

Although Michelle explains how to contain the excess rice water, she doesn't explain how to store it. I would suggest putting it in the refrigerator & only keeping it for up to one week (this is just what I would do). If you use it every day, it should get used up pretty fast.

Since I realized that my rice was not the freshest anymore, I threw the rest of it out along with the excess water. I'll be doing it again with my new batch of organic rice. Please remember to do this with organic rice, as it is so much better for your skin.

If you try it out, please let me know what you think.

P.S. ~ I found out how to upload videos on youtube! It is so easy :) I experimented uploading an old video I took from my camera a couple of years ago of my cats. I don't have them any more (I had to give them away) but I do think about them a lot! You can see the 3 second video here.

I wanted to know how to upload videos because I have a posting idea that might be easier to demonstrate on video.

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!