Showing posts with label Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Care. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Care . . . Sunless Tanners


First off, everyone please do NOT forget that today is April Fool's Day. My boss just pulled us all into his office, told us the CFO was in a panic and needed a massive report by Monday. Three of us had a heart attack and one of us was nearly in tears by the time we put two and two together. 

Last year, I wasn't working on April Fools, and I had been asking Hubby for a dog for a couple of years. So I gave him a call and told him a pretty convincing story of the mutt I had found while walking down by the wharf who didn't have a tag so I brought him home and he seems pretty clean except for the first few mud prints he left on the carpet . . . He was mid-way through yelling "Do NOT let it PEE!" when he realized there's no way this was possible - he would kill me and I knew it. Those three seconds of panic were so worth it though. And now, one short year later, we have Little Dog - who did pee in our house last night. And Hubby didn't like it any more in the reality than he did in the hypothetical April Fools joke. Hmm. Good thing Little Dog has a face like this: 

Because he's a little shit. 

ANYWAY - back to beauty. Since it's about that time of year when you start pulling out your tank tops and skirts, only to realize your skin hasn't seen the light of day in 6 months and is in no shape to be bared . . . let's talk sunless tanners! I was the Matron of Honor (ew, I hate the word matron- really? Matron?) in an April wedding last year so I went through a phase of testing every sunless tanner known to womankind in an effort to look presentable (meaning not sickly or streaky) at the wedding.  Here's a quick review of what I liked best: 

- For face, I love Jergen's Natural Glow Face with SPF 20 ($8). I recently got a reader email about this so I hope this helps answer your question RP! I love this one because the smell is barable, and the fact that it has SPF is a bonus. When you have combination skin like mine, the fewer poducts you put on your face, the better, so I skip the moisturizer and the SPF when I use this instead. I also feel the color I get from this is really natural looking. For those of you who want more dramatic results, you might want to try buying a shade up in this product - so try medium/dark, even if you have light skin. That worked well when I need more color from it. 

- I also love the Jergen's Natural Glow for body ($8). It just goes one easily and the color is the most natural and streak-free I've found. The one downside is that especially at first, you really need to use this every day and you really need to put it everywhere. Depending on whether or not you full-body moisturize already, this can add a full 5 minutes to your morning routine and gets old fast. 

- For those of us with little time or patience, I recommend Clarin's Get Glowing Self-Tanning products.  Nordie's has a nice little set for $32 right now. This stuff is great for a quick result - by using it every other day for a week I was able to get the color I wanted and then I used the Jergen's every week or so after that to maintain it and get the most bang for my buck. The one annoying thing about this one is that because it works faster and has more color to it, it's much more important that you fully exfoliate beforehand to get even color and avoid orange knees/elbows. So it takes longer upfront, but you get more immediate results. 
In other news - Lindsay Lohan's sunless tanner just launched at Sephora. I have yet to try it - mainly because of the ridiculous photo being used to promote it: 



See what I mean? Ridiculous. Put some clothes on and LAY OFF THE SELF TANNER (ironically) . . . But if you're a LiLo fan, by all means, try her Sevin Nyne line and let me know what you think. 

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Care . . . Love your moisturizer


I didn't really learn how much difference a moisturizer could make until a few months before my wedding when I signed up for a skin consultation at my local spa. I always thought I had oily skin, since I tended to breakout and struggle with shine, so I was surprised and even a little dubious when the esthetician told me I had combination skin that -at the moment- was seriously dried out. She explained that by using such strong astringent cleansers, I was stripping my skin of the moisture it needed and so it was over-producing oil to try to rehydrate itself. She gave (well- sold) me some cream based cleaner and heavy moisturizer and my skin really did transform over the next few months. 

At the Skincare 101 class I attended, I learned even more about how important having moisturized skin is. The specialist giving the presentation explained that skin has a very precise pH balance and we need to maintain that balance, not fight it, to have our best skin possible. If we use products that are either overly acidic or overly alkaline, we might unbalance our skin's pH. When you wash your face and it ends up feeling tight or squeaky-clean, that means you've taken off your acid mantle, which is a protective layer over our skin, protecting it from bacteria that cause acne. 

So how do you best take care your skin? 

- Use a cleanser with a neutral pH (try Clarins One-Step Facial Cleanser, $32)

- If your skin feels tight after cleansing, use a toner to restore the acid mantle (I like the Dermalogica Multi-Action Toner, $24)

- Find a good moisturizer for your skin type: If you have dry skin , try an oil-based moisturizer(I love Hope in Jar by Philosophy!); Combination/Oily, make sure it's oil-free (try Peter Thomas Roth's)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A little boost

I don't know if you've noticed, readers, but I've been in a bit of a rut lately. Maybe it's post-vacation malaise, maybe it's that two of my favorite samples ran out this week, maybe it's just a mid-blog-life crisis . . . but the blog needs a boost. 

And so I introduce to you, hot-off-the-press!, Pretty Analyst daily themes. I know, I know - so many blogs have cutesy themes, but I promise these are cutesy and relevant and will result in more posts, so you win! Here is what you have to look forward to - 

Wink - 
Mondays will be all about eyes


Kiss - 
Tuesdays are lip-licious


Care - 
Skincare Wednesdays


Glow - 
Thursdays are about fabulous foundations and all-over face color

Soul - 
Since it's not all about lip shine, some food-for-thought and 
inner-beauty tid-bits on Fridays

Love - 
Some of my favorite products, finds or random thoughts 
to titillate you on the Weekends

I'll be kicking off tomorrow with some skincare tips that I learned at Canyon Ranch, so get ready! As I kick this off, let me know what you think - love it? hate it? Too cheesey? Just right? Let me know!