Push The Button/ Glycolic Acid

Even though my contest isn't working and you guys fully suck, I'm going to keep blogging. You will probably keep reading and not push the harmless blue button found at the right hand side of this screen. You see, I know you're reading. Not a lot of you, but over 50 a day. The cool thing about Blogger's newer format is the statistics tab that tells me my trends in readership. Someday, in like a couple years at this rate, I want to have enough readership to get sponsorship. You see, when makeup and skincare companies see that you have infinity followers they have no problem sending you a free thing or two to review on your blog. It's this innovative new thing called "cheap advertising." They are also sometimes open to sending their product to you for giveaways. As in, giving products away to readers. But I won't give anything to closet readers so you better push the button. Thank you Megan, Amie, and random person for pushing the button.

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One of my favorite skincare ingredients is Glycolic Acid.  Glycolic Acid is derived from sugarcane and, molecularly, is the smallest alpha-hydroxy acid. Because it's the smallest it penetrates deeper into your skin than any other acid can. It helps with aging and hyperpigmentation (everyone is aging...everyone. Always).

When you think acid, you probably get creepy thoughts of some obscure substance on the top shelf of an unknown shed tipping over and burning your face off, forever blinding you and robbing you of your beauty.  It should be self-explanatory that nobody would be allowed to formulate products with drain-o or something, but people seem to be too afraid of the prospect to really think it over. You're not going to find life-threatening acids in a professional cleanser.  So calm down.

Think of your favorite scrub (and if it's an apricot scrub, throw it out as soon as you're done reading this).  Is your scrub scary and sinister? Is your scrub going to eat your face off and blind you while its at it? No. Your scrub is a mechanical exfoliant. Glycolic Acid is a chemical exfoliant. It does the same thing (except a little better in most cases).

My favorite cleanser (so far) with Glycolic Acid is by Image. It's the Ageless Total Facial Cleanser, and it's a better friend to me than all of my school friends who haven't pushed the "join this site" button yet. The cleanser has less than 15% acid in it, but believe me... its enough. You might expect a warm sensation when using it but I would actually describe it as very cold. My skin is pretty sensitive but I've heard many reviews from first-time Image users and its been described as almost uncomfortable for a lot of people the first few times using it. You're supposed to lather it in for at least 60 seconds, how many of you actually do that with your cleansers? Try it ONCE, it makes a happy difference.

Before using this cleanser I had some pretty heavy acne scaring, and the occasional acne freak-out flare-up. Granted, I've still got some ground to cover but my skin is healthier than its ever been after four or so months of using this AND I rarely have more than a few pustules (whiteheads) at a time (partially because I kill them at first sight) and I have almost no papules (the ones that don't come out as happily) at any given time. Plus my skin is generally much, much less inflamed which is nice because I already have enough of a pink tint to have irritation on top of that. That's a big deal my friends. I'm very acne prone and this cleanser keeps it under control. 

P.S. friends don't let friends use Proactiv, because it's overpriced (for a Benzoyl Peroxide product) and instructed to be overused in a way that will strip your skin and mess it up further. No skin care professional would have you use a Benzoyl Peroxide product morning and night FOR 3 TO 6 MONTHS WITH NO RESTING REGIMEN. Except Rodan and Fields, of course... because, you know, money is money. Do yourself a favor and get a reasonably priced product with Benzoyl Peroxide (or maybe Salicylic Acid) AND an inactive counterpart and switch off. It's much better for your skin. Unless you think it sounds like a blast to strip your skin; making it tight, itchy, inflamed, irritated, red, angry, and generally hating you. In that case Proactiv and their recommended regimen is right for you.

My First Giveaway, HIZZAH!!

Here's my thing, I LOVE samples. I recently went to an esthetics conference in Vegas just for the samples. The classes I took there were just a bonus. It's kind of silly that I spent all that money to get to and stay in Vegas that weekend just for what was probably under $20 worth in samples. I'm not a roller-coaster person, products are my thrill. I love the way they look, smell, and feel. I love dispensing product for a facial.  I look at it on the pallet and get super excited knowing that I get to touch it soon.

You know that cosmetic marketing technique where they cut up the lipstick or make a mess with the powder or spill the nail polish? I'm the target of those campaigns. Those pictures are so freaking exciting to me. Someday I want to be the lipstick chopper for those pictures. That would be the best job ever.

bare escentuals

This first giveaway, my friends, will be rather small. It will be a sample giveaway (very, very good samples), I'm hoping some of you guys like samples as much as I do and that they will be enough to motivate you. There will be five winners, and each winner will receive two samples from Sanitas, one of my favorite skincare lines. 

The first sample will be Sanitas' Rose Facial Scrub

You use it as a cleanser, but it also exfoliates with silica crystals which are round so they won't tear up your skin (microscopically) and cause problems (unlike apricot scrub, which isn't a good choice for anybody's skin because of this reason). It also has vitamin C which stimulates collagen production and vitamin E which is an antioxidant (fights free-radicals, aging prevention). 

The second sample, and yes, the even better sample... will be Sanitas' Cranberry Enzyme Mask

Part of me is begging myself to keep the cranberry mask samples for myself because words can not describe my love for this mask and it will be hard for me to send them out to my five lucky winners. I love enzyme masks in general. Pumpkin enzyme masks are common because pumpkin does awesome stuff for your skin, but this is the first cranberry mask I've come in contact with and I love it more than any other so far.  In school I learned an easy way to think of enzymes, they're like little tiny pacmen (apparently they're shaped like pacmen) eating and digesting your dead/gross/ready-to-slough-off skin. After 15 minutes of this mask (which is slightly active, mind you) your skin will be brighter, softer, and your skin-tone will be more even (if you're uneven, like myself).  You can think of this mask as a very light chemical peel, it does as much as some peels that I've performed (no, your skin will not actually peel, the enzymes dissolve your dead layers and leave newer, brighter tissue. Therefore there is nothing leftover to be peeled) (p.s. chemical peels are nothing to be afraid of, they promote good cell turnover). This mask is also formulated with hyaluronic acid which literally holds 1000x its weight in water. So if your skin is dehydrated (which most people's skin is), you will find this very beneficial (especially if you have a good moisturizer that you can pair it with). After using this mask make SURE you wear your spf because you won't have extra, dull, and useless skin layers to protect your true skin from the nasty, evil sun (who acts like he's your friend but really just wants to ruin your skin in any number of ways) for a while and you may find it easier to burn (but really with fall coming this probably won't be an issue... but you REALLY should wear an spf of at LEAST 30 EVERY DAY with physical sunscreen ingredients, NOT chemical spfs... or never leave your house except at night... or get skin cancer, your choice). 

All Sanitas products are paraben and preservative free, they are also kosher.  I like to get preservative free products when I can but I am also not a no-preservatives freak.  It would be extremely difficult to live a 100% preservative free life these days. 

anyway...

HOW TO ENTER:

ONE entry for becoming a follower of this blog

(thank you Megan, you're a good friend)

ONE entry for pushing this button (found just under Followers)

TWO entries for sharing this blog on Facebook as your Status, or on your own blog (ONE if your blog has less than 50 followers, TWO if your blog has more), or on twitter for ONE entry (found at the bottom of this post)

Leave me a comment on this post letting me know which entries you've done. Obviously I'm doing this contest to grow my readership, so if you have another mode of communication that will make me famous don't hesitate to tell me about it and I will reward entries as I see fit. 

This giveaway will close NEXT WEEK on September 22, 2012 OR when this blog reaches 25 followers WHICHEVER COMES SECOND. So if I don't have 25 followers by next Saturday I will just keep the contest open until I do, but if I get those followers say, tomorrow, then of course I will close the contest to be fair to my contestants (if everyone does all of the entries, you will have a one in five chance of winning, if you do more entries than everyone else, your chances go up). Remember, there will be FIVE winners. It's also a comment race, so if you do some entries but are the 26th to comment saying that you did your entries, you're out of luck (but I will still like you for doing it, not that you will care because you just want these magical Narnian samples).

Good Luck :)

The Best Primer of All Time/ Parabens & Preservatives

...and it's not even a primer...technically.

Philosophy The Present Clear Makeup. $28/2 oz.

This product is formulated and intended to be a "skin perfecter" which gives it qualities that go above and beyond your everyday primer. It has silicone in it which sounds threatening if you don't know your ingredients, but silicone does amazing things for the skin like:

-improves texture

-helps with dry and flaky skin. So if you're sick of putting on your powder foundation just to look like a gross peeling/chafing/molting monster, try this underneath.

-acts lightly as an occlusive (keeps moisture in, keeps crap out...like a skin shield)

        "But don't silicones suffocate the skin?" Ha! No. You have been misinformed my friends. Silicone products may feel heavy going on but the heaviness evaporates and leaves a smooth and breathable surface, "filling in" your imperfections. But it doesn't actually penetrate into your pores at all, it creates a sort of protective sheath and a perfect canvas for your foundation- liquid or powder. If you're not a makeup person you could wear this product alone and still see an improvement in the texture and tone of your skin. 

Is it paraben free? No, and you're probably thinking like a dumb bucket. If a product doesn't have parabens it almost certainly has another kind of preservative that is just as likely to give you cancer if your water bottles or hairspray doesn't first. So stop wasting your time with caring or abandon all products with preservatives (yeah, have fun with that). How often do you see products that say, "paraben free"... and how often do you see products that say, "preservative free"?  Not as often, but they're out there. Next time you read, "paraben free", revise it in your head to, "I want to take advantage of the fact that you haven't done your research." I'm all for preservative free products, oh yes, but I'm not all for the price tags that they frequently come with. 

New Blog

Here's to a new blog.

I will probably change the title of this blog 20 times. I don't really know where I'm trying to go with this blog except that I want to do makeup reviews and talk about my clients (when they exist, so far its just been friends and family).