Changing seasons means change in routine

That's right, it's that time of year.  The time when leaves are falling off the trees and the temperatures start to drop.  Okay, so in Michigan, most of the leaves are already off the trees, but maybe not so much in the states a little further south.  I meant to post this sooner, but it still applies, it just won't be proactive like I wanted it to be.  For those of you in California and the South, this may not apply to you (and most likely not any countries near the Equator either).  But if you're in a temperate zone and you have four definitive seasons, read on!

So if you've lived with this type of weather for a couple years, you know that the change to colder temperatures can wreak havoc on your body.  The major problem that few people are spared from is dry skin.  Even my mom--who has oily skin--is no stranger to chapped, cracked skin.  Let's break our body into categories and see what we can do to prevent/heal the pain.


Body

A lot of people don't think about it, but the battle against dry skin can start in the shower.  If you use a moisturizing body wash or soap, you can send nutrients to the skin when it's in its most absorbent state.  I like Dove soap because it's made up of 25% moisturizing cream.  The "Nourishing Care" beauty bar with shea butter packs an added punch because shea butter is uber moisturizing on its own.  It smells good too.

It's important to exfoliate during this dry time, too.  And just because you're not using a body wash, doesn't mean you can't use a loofah or pouf.  Just lather up using your beauty bar and then scrub down using your pouf.  This is the method I prefer because I usually overdo it with the body wash and that's just wasted money.  Plus, the beauty bar is a great multi-tasker--I use it to shave, too.  In these hard economical times, who isn't looking for a way to save a little money here and there?

Another more obvious step is lotion.  One of my favorites is the Secret Wonderland Triple Moisture Body Cream from Bath & Body Works.  I love the smell and the moisture it delivers is great.  They have a shea version, a body butter, and a hand cream, too.  I love all these options because they're all very rich.  I think we've all come across those lotions that are real lightweights.  Those are good in the summer, maybe, but when it comes to winter's evil, you need something that packs a real wallop.

A body lotion that's rich enough to deal with hand issues (I get the worst dryness on the back of my hands--it's terrible!  They crack and bleed like no other) is from a brand called Onsen.  They have a lot of good smells and a nice one to use before bed is Lavender & Chamomile.  The Savannah Bee Company has a decent hand lotion.  I may be biased though, because I have a sick obsession with Magnolia blossoms.  Bath & Body Works used to have a scent called Magnolia Blossom and it smelled deliiiiiiiiiiiicious.  I'm so upset that they stopped carrying it.  I use Jergens Original Scent Dry Skin Moisturizer when my skin isn't in too bad a pickle, but it's not the most hydrating lotion out there.  If your skin is in serious distress, Olay has a great body lotion--their Quench Therapy body lotion.

Just like in the shower, it's important to moisturize while the skin is soft and absorbent.  So, apply lotion soon after getting out of the shower for the best results.

Face

When it comes down to it, the best moisturizer I have ever used is Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion.  When it comes to wintertime, I use it every night.  I've learned my lesson; if I let my face start to get dried out and flaky, there's no recovering until springtime.  So while my skin is still in pretty good condition, I'm starting to work this baby into my routine.  Another good moisturizer is Bioré's Nourish Moisture Lotion with SPF 15.  It's oil-free and it adds a beautiful radiance to the skin.  If you can't get to some Clinique DDML, then try the Bioré.

Just as exfoliating the body is important, so is exfoliating the face.  I have an apricot scrub from St. Ives that I use when I'm lazy (or if I'm particularly broken out, since it is targeted towards blackheads).  When I don't use that scrub, I use a cotton ball soaked in lemon juice and sprinkled with sugar.  It smells like lemonade and it leaves your skin feeling so soft and smooth.  I got the idea from Kandee Johnson--she's amazing!

I haven't tried this out yet, but it sounds very promising.  I have an Herbal Hydrating Mist from BeautiControl.  It talks about spraying it on top of your makeup and I feel like this might be really good in the wintertime to help prevent dryness.  I know there are a lot of sprays out there that claim to do different things.  I'll try it out and let you know what I figure out.  I also feel like spritzing your makeup with a spray bottle filled with water might work.  I'll try this, too.

Another thing to consider is the type of makeup you use in the winter.  If you suffer from dry skin, you should move away from powder foundations and towards things like tinted moisturizers and liquid/cream foundations.  Even some liquid foundations can be slightly drying, so if this is the case, try mixing your foundation with moisturizer or applying it with a wet sponge.

Hair

Since your scalp is skin and your hair is made up of dead skin cells, it's no surprise that your hair and scalp take a beating this time of year, too. I use a Tea Tree Oil shampoo and conditioner system from Swanson Health Products (Tea Tree Oil is known for having a moisturizing/soothing quality) and a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner from Bain de Terre.  Another good thing to have on hand is Dove Daily Therapy Nourishing Oil Care Daily Treatment.  It leaves your hair feeling so great that you'll have a hard time not playing with it constantly!  Which increases the damage.  Argh!!!  It's such an unforgiving cycle.

Two after-shower products that come in handy are Infusium 23's Moisturology Leave-in Treatment and Avlon's KeraCare Glossifier.  The leave-in treatment sinks into the scalp and hair to add much-needed moisture and the glossifier seals off the scalp and hair to keep in the moisture.  Just be careful to not go overboard on the glossifier.  A little goes a looooooooooooong way.  I have a review on it.

I might have some more to add later on, but this is a pretty decent springboard.  Now is the time to start treating the symptoms before they arrive or before they get way out of hand!!!!

~Stacie

New Video

Not really! Ha.... sorry about that. I posted this thing toward the beginning of summer, and I'm finally putting it up here and on the website after summer is over. Wow, that's a sad thought. I have a hair tutorial too, and it will go up, but it won't even be helpful for anytime soon. Well, it's here anyway. Sorry again. :\

Until next time,

Stacie

PS I'll try and do a review of something soon! I've just got so much going oooooon. Ack!

Videos and Reviews Postponed

I was planning on having that hair tutorial up a while ago, but things have been really crazy lately. And right now, I'm not even home to be able to work on it. I'll be gone for the next two weeks, but I might be able to do a review or two. But don't count on it. I am really liking the Revlon Colorstay bronzer in the darkest shade (I think it's Sunkiss or something like that, but I'm not sure). There's your review! Ha!!! Jk. Although I do recommend that product highly. I use it every day.

I hope at the end of the two weeks I'll have stories to tell. I should, but who knows?

Til next time,

Stacie

PR: L'Oréal Paris Sublime Mousse Permanent Color

I'm sorry it's been a long time since my last post, but I've been sooooo busy with everything going on you would not even believe it! Anyway, it's good that I gave this product about a month before I reviewed it because I may have something to say right away, but my opinion may change after a while.

A lot of people said that this really dried out their hair. It did kind of dry it out at first, but after about a week your hair is pretty much back to normal. That's the thing about chemically treating your hair, though: you have to take special care of it! Once you color your hair, you need a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner and/or a shampoo and conditioner specifically formulated for colored hair.

As for the color itself, it's really nice I think. It said that it preserves the natural tones in your hair, and it does. Beware: this also means that it will preserve your highlights/low-lights if you have any. So it's not some magical eraser that will make all your hair look the same. This may be bad for some people, but it was good for me because I'm trying to work my hair back to it's natural color so by slowly letting the roots grow out but kind of keeping them colored, I'll eventually be able to stop coloring it. Also, a lot of people said that it turns out darker than the box says. It did that a little for me, but it probably depends on how light/dark your hair is. Since my hair was already pretty blonde, it didn't really have that much work to do, so... you know.

Overall, I really like it. I plan on using it again when the time comes.

I hope this review helped you at least a little. I might do a video review, I don't know. I don't exactly have a lot of down time lately. I've got a lot going on in preparation for this upcoming year in school. Gotta start thinking about college.... Life is tough.

I hope your life is filled with many blessings!!!

~Stacie

Gonna dye my hair!

I'm so excited! I've never actually dyed my hair before, I've only highlighted. But my hair has been highlighted so much that it pretty much looks like it's dyed so I figured I might as well. I have the kit sitting in front of me and I'm gonna use it when my mom decides to show up. I'm pretty sure I could do this on my own, but she wants to be here to "help". I guess it's just become a tradition that she colors my hair that she doesn't want to break.

The kit I will be using is the L'Oréal Sublime Mousse permanent conditioning haircolor. I wanted to use the créme gloss or something like that, but it washes out in 28 shampoos and there are some days that I take a shower more than once (and every time I take a shower, I shampoo). I'm a teenager, even though I'm in the late years of teenhood, but I still need to shampoo often. I can't wait for those future days of not having to shampoo every day. I've only heard of them, and I really hope it becomes a reality for me. I really, really do.

So the color I got was the lightest they had in the store: 90 Pure Light Blonde. I'm actually looking to make my hair darker, not lighter, but in my research, a lot of the complaints were that the kit made your hair a shade or two darker than the box promised, so I'd rather have lighter hair that everyone's used to than super dark hair than I'm not even used to. I'll just keep working my way down to the darkness I want.

The color on the computer screen here looks a little darker and more like the color I want than the color on the box. If I can't get the darkish color I want, I'd like my hair to look like a field of wheat, not a fakey, yellowy color. We'll just have to see. I'll probably do a review on it and maybe even a video. I've got a lot planned for tomorrow, what with it being the end of the world and everything. I wanna look my best when I die XP

I'll talk again soon. Bye for now.

~Stacie

Website is officially up and running!

Woohoo! I've put so many hours of blood, sweat, and toil into this project and it's finally DONE! You have no idea how happy I am. When I first published it, it didn't quite look right, but I figured out the problem and it's perfect. If it doesn't look right in your browser 1) try a different browser, and if that doesn't work, 2) let me know. I'll see what I can do. I think it should work fine, though. The link is in the sidebar to your right so please check it out! It will have all the powerpoints in one place for you to download. Keep in mind that these powerpoints are my work, are copyrighted by me, and you cannot use them anywhere except for your personal viewing.

Have a beautiful day and enjoy this weekend!

~Stacie

PS Congratulations to William and Kate for their marriage! I thought it was ridiculous when I saw a headline saying "William and Kate headed for their honeymoon at some mystery location" as if it's our right to know where they're going. NO. They deserve some privacy for this special time, otherwise they might be flooded with people and wouldn't be able to enjoy themselves completely. I swear....

First Video!

This is super exciting news! I finally have a video uploaded that I'm not completely mortified to keep up on YouTube. I also have a PowerPoint to display, but I don't know how to get it up for viewing. I'll just put the video here for now and figure out the PowerPoint business later.

Collective haul

Wow, okay so as stated in the last post, I have done a bit of spending lately on makeup. It's like a scary addiction. I'm kind of worried that when I'm older and on my own that I'll chose makeup over food and end up dying of starvation. Not good! But anyway, I just wanted to post a quick thing on what I got so you guys can know what reviews to expect coming up. There's also been a little other buying in the past that I may review too, but I don't know. This is haul though and I figured since all the other people on YouTube post their hauls, I might as well.

So last Saturday I wanted to go to Target because emilynoel83 said she got an ecotools brush on clearance for a great price. Well I love ecotools and this brush looked big enough and I had been looking for a bigger brush for blush. So we headed to Target. Well Target decided they were gonna have a mass clearance on a lot of their makeup. That's good news for me! So I talked my mom into getting the following things for me from Target: Physician's Formula Eye Enhancing Gel CreamLiner for Hazel eyes, Maybelline New York Dream Mousse Concealer in Fair Light 0-1, and Boots Expert Sensitive Light Moisturizing Lotion.

Then we headed on over to WalMart because I'd been wanting a face primer for a while and decided this was the weekend to get it. The Hard Candy Sheer Envy Face Primer had been compared to Smashbox's face primer in Light or something and said it was as good if not better. And seeing as $8 is a whole lot cheaper than $32, we got it. Wonderful.

Finally we headed to one more drugstore and they had Rimmel for sale, BOGO 50%. That's not my favorite kind of sale because it's basically like saying 25% off but you actually have to buy two to get them both 25% off. Cheap. But since I wanted these two lipsticks, I thought a cheap sale is better than no sale. So I got two Rimmel Moisture Renew lipsticks (the kind in purple tubes) in Coral Shimmer (120) and Dreamy (140).

Then on Sunday the drugstore had an awesome sale (as if to follow up on Target's awesomeness) and had a 25% sale on Revlon and Maybelline, and 50% off on Wet 'n Wild. Well I went crazy. I got the coloricon 6-color eyeshadow palette in Greed Gourmandise, coloricon blusher in Pearlescent Pink, and MegaEyes Crème Eyeliner in Black/Noir (all Wet 'n Wild) and then a Maybelline eye shadow single in Champagne Fizz (one from their Chic Naturals line).

Then yesterday I was given $20 to go shopping with my aunt while here on vacation and we of course went to my favorite drugstore. They still had 50% off Wet 'n Wild so I went ahead and got the MegaGlo Illuminating Powder in Catwalk Pink (345) and a coloricon eye shadow single in Brulee/Crème Brûlée. Pretty fun. I wasn't anywhere near spending all $20, but that was my intention since Mom had gotten so much for me last weekend.

So be expecting reviews on these soon. Ciao!

A bit of news

Well there's definitely a more in depth update coming. I have bought so much makeup in the past week that I'm going to report a collective haul. The stores were awesome and put a bunch of their makeup on sale because Valentine's Day is coming up on Monday (don't let your significant other forget!).

Plus, lately I've been working on a tutorial to submit in a contest being held by bebexo. I don't know how to pronounce the name (so I'm a little irritated in the video) but it's nice to type it and not worry. So when I finally finish the video, I'll post it here. If I ever finish it. It's being a pain. A huge pain. Does anyone know a good video editor online or a free downloadable one?

So if the video works out and I end up getting a decent resolution camera, I'll make more tutorials. That's a little easier than typing everything out. Except that there's no good lighting at my house. Oh well, we're gonna make things work!

Even if I don't get the video to my satisfaction in time to submit by Monday, I'll still try and finish it and post it here. It's a pretty spring look with a simple pink eye and fresh face. Nice and dewy.

I hope you all have a wonderful, beautiful day tomorrow (it's night right now where I am) and make the most of the weekend! I love weekends. Who doesn't? Post a comment on what you feel!!!

~Stacie