NOTD: Julep's Florence

After I got my most recent Julep box in the mail, I wasn't entirely in love with the color Florence. Honestly, I got the box for the dark purple color, Padma, and to try the Bare Face Cleansing Oil.

But I decided that the next time I painted my nails I would use Florence, in an attempt to fall in love with it. It just seemed sort of bland, but now that I'm wearing it, I really like it. It's very much a great neutral.

It's a very light, tan, creamy color. It has a creme finish. It reminds me of coffee once you've added cream. I drink enough coffee that anything that reminds me of my beloved beverage is something that I really enjoy. It doesn't really look coffee colored in the bottle, but it's definitely the color of coffee on my nails.

See, that looks more like coffee.

I'm so glad that I forced myself to try this nail polish. At first, I didn't really see how it fit into a fall nail polish collection, but after wearing it, I totally understand now. Florence really is a great neutral, one that I will wear again and again.

Review: The Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask

If there's something that I love, it's a good face mask. And I own more masks than I can actually use up in my lifetime, but I just keep buying more. I try to use masks as often as possible, at least 3 or 4 nights a week. And I like variety in my life: I'll use clay masks, sulfur masks, brightening masks, masks that do double duty as scrubs. I'll even dip into a good anti-aging mask, even though I'm only 20.

But I come back to clay masks time and time again. There's something about them that I just can't get enough of. I love Origins Clear Improvement, and I love GLAMGLOW's Super-Mud Clearing Treatment even more (although, to be perfectly honest, I've never bought the GLAMGLOW mask--it's $69!! So instead I just regularly ask for the Sephora beauty consultants to make me samples of it). This leads me to The Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask.

This mask has gotten rave reviews from folks on The Body Shop website, as well as on various beauty blogs. My sister over at Nature with Nurture did a review of this mask recently, and Jen just didn't like it. But I was stupid. My brain argued, "Just because your sister doesn't like a beauty product doesn't mean that you'll feel the same way. You should buy it." I should not have listened to my brain, Jen was entirely right. Although, she disliked it for different reasons. If you want to read her review, you can find it here.

Of the clay masks I've tried, this one has a thicker consistency. It definitely wouldn't be smart to put it in a squeeze tube. And I like The Body Shop's mask packaging because you can stack them one on top of the other (I have three The Body Shop masks, so stacking them REALLY saves space).

It's a pretty light grey color--it's the lightest clay mask that I've used.

So, obviously, I put it on my face. Sorry about the non-natural lighting. I don't do masks during the day. You'd probably have to pay me like $50 to get up early enough to do a mask in the morning before I get ready for classes. It's just not going to happen.

I went about my business. When I did this mask the other night, I was in the middle of reading for class, so I plopped down on the couch and became super enthralled in my assigned readings. Until this mask started to sting. And I don't mean sting in a oh-that's-tingly-I-wonder-if-it'll-start-hurting-but-it-feels-kind-of-nice sting. I mean, it stung in a oh-my-God-why-is-this-killing-me-I-need-to-take-it-off-like-now-or-my-skin-is-going-to-burn-off-ow-ow-ow.

But when it came to this mask, I was just flat out stupid. Maybe I was stressed that day, so I tried to power through in an attempt to not give up. It stung so strongly that I had trouble focusing on my homework, but I swore to myself that I wouldn't give in to the pain.

So the mask dried (mostly). By the time it was as dry as it looks in that photo, I was done. I couldn't do it anymore. So I took it off. Even taking it off hurt. When it was gone and I was just rinsing my face to ensure that there weren't any tiny remnants, the water hurt my face. Drying my face with a towel hurt. To be exact, it felt like the area directly surrounding my nose had been chemically burned.

So I thought, "Okay. That hurt. I'm going to use a very basic night moisturizer to try and make this better, otherwise my face will probably look like the Saraha Desert in the morning." I used Korres Greek Yoghurt Advanced Nourishing Sleeping Facial. It's about the most bland, non-irritating moisturizer I've ever come across. AND EVEN THAT HURT.

Here's a beautiful picture of my nose area after I took off the mask. The amount of redness on my face here is just absurd. And even worse, it was sort of raised and bumpy and red. Exactly what I want in my life: a face that looks like I have a rash. Not to mention that you can basically see every pore on my face.

Luckily, by the next morning my face didn't look diseased. I had survived The Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask. I think it's safe to say that I'll never use this mask again. Since I can't give it to Jen because I already know she doesn't like it, I'll probably give it to one of my sorority sisters. It's so well-loved, I doubt that my reaction can be something commonly experienced by folks. And in case you were wondering, it retails for $22 (4.2 oz).

Julep: Classic with a Twist August Review

Quick overview of Julep: it's a monthly subscription nail polish and beauty item box. It's $20, you can pay $35 extra to upgrade to the full collection. There are a couple of different box options (you can choose to receive only the beauty items, 3 polishes, or 2 polishes and a beauty item. There are 3 different nail polish combinations if you choose the 2 polish/1 beauty item box). I'm a Classic with a Twist, but sometimes I go out of my comfort zone and choose another box. That's another great thing about Julep: you can choose to skip your box or choose one of the boxes that fits with one of the different style profiles. I love that you aren't pinned down to one style profile.

It has been months since I've actually purchased one of the Julep monthly boxes. I had a couple of bad experiences (I'm looking at you, DD Creme), and the polishes just weren't speaking to me, and the beauty products didn't just look so-so, they looked flat out unappealing. But this month, with the beginning of fall looming so close, I decided to get my box. I also wasn't entirely disgusted with the cleansing oil concept. I've been intrigued by cleansing oils for a while; I just didn't understand how they worked. But now that I've tried this one, I might get into this trend a little bit more.

As always, the packaging was very pretty. And it looks like fall!! 

Here are the products before their unveiling. This month's little gift was a polish removing pad. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard they work very well. If you look at the nail polish (the small, short box on the left) and you're familiar with Julep, you'll notice that their packaging is different than in previous months. They just changed it. When they initially announced the change, I thought the packaging looked tacky. But I reserved final judgement until now, and I'm glad that I did. I really love the new packaging. It's sleep and just looks sort of luxurious. 

My favorite part is that the polishes are also individually packaged, as well as being in one larger package. And if you turn one of the packages clockwise, they read, "Julep Color Treat." It's adorable.

Padma looks blackish in the bottle, but in reality it's a very deep, slightly metallic purple. It's beautiful. I'm a little bit less crazy about Florence. Florence is sort of your average nude cream color. 

I think the next time I paint my nails, I'll paint them with Florence. I want to give myself a chance to fall in love with it.

Then there's the cleansing oil. Like I said, I had never used a cleansing oil before this one. I thought the idea of removing my makeup with an oil was just plain weird. I think this product may have legitimately changed my mind. 

The oil is yellowish, it's pretty runny, as you can see. It's got this delicious citrus smell. I was sort of tempted to eat it, but rest assured, I didn't. It took me quite a few pumps to feel like I was using enough. I used four pumps of the products (and I wasn't wearing any serious makeup-no smokey eye or anything going on). Maybe I was using too much, I'm not used to cleansing oils. Regardless, it worked well, I enjoyed using it, and it didn't sting my eyes. 

You can sort of tell that I look pretty oily in this photo. I was worried that the cleansing oil wouldn't all rinse off. It would be silly to use a cleansing oil then have to use a cleanser to remove the oily feeling. But it all came right off!

Overall, I loved the cleansing oil and I liked the box. I'd definitely recommend Julep to someone who loves nail polish and wants to try beauty products (but who has a keen understanding that Julep beauty products are pretty hit or miss). 

Review: Clinique Liquid Facial Soap Dry Combination

In either February or March of this year, I finally got off of my lazy butt and picked up a skincare regimen. Before my life-changing trip to Sephora, I was using a drugstore cleanser in the shower and just removed my makeup (sometimes) at night with a makeup removing wipe.

After that fateful trip to Sephora, I came back to my dorm with a Clinique skincare set and a Clarisonic. While I rarely use the toner I got in the set, the moisturizer and cleanser became regulars in my life.

If you read my post about how I have a serious skincare obsession, you'll already know, but I actually have two bottles of this cleanser. Back in the day when I was in a traditional dorm, one bottle hung out by the sink in my room (so I could wash my face at night) and one hung out in my shower caddy. That way, I didn't have to carry one bottle back and forth to the shower with me. But now that I have my own bathroom in what is basically a studio apartment, having two bottles just seems silly.

This is a clear cleanser that foams when I use it in conjunction with my Clarisonic. Personally, when I'm using my Clarisonic, I love it when a face wash foams a bit. Otherwise, I just feel like the Clarisonic bristles are digging into my skin all awkwardly. So this face was is optimal for my purposes. In the last few months I've found foaming cleansers that I like more than this one, but all of them have some sort of a secondary use (other than just removing makeup). I have anti-acne cleansers, anti-aging ones, etc. But this is a great basic cleanser, one that I use with particular frequency when I'm planning on doing a mask or some sort of complicated serum/moisturizer process at night. When I'm afraid that an agent in one of my other cleansers will interact poorly with my mask/moisturizer, I always find myself reaching for this Clinique Liquid Facial Soap.

And coming in at $16.50 for 6.7 oz, it's definitely one of the most price-concious cleansers you can find inside a Sephora. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a basic, foaming cleanser.

NOTD: Julep's Claudette

It's finally September!!! I took the first day in September to be the appropriate time to start wearing fall nail colors. I've been waiting for this day for months. There's something about deep, rich, dark colors that I just can't get over. I'm unbelievably sick of pastels and even of bright nail colors.

So yesterday, I painted my first fall nail: Julep's Claudette.

Claudette is this beautiful deep red color, but it almost feels like it has a little bit of a burnt brown going on. Basically, ever since I received this color in like March in my first Julep Maven box, I've been waiting to try it. And I'm in love. I also love the consistency of Julep polishes: they always apply evenly, but the polish is also thick and opaque. And except for the occasional struggle: I'm looking at you, Julep Peyton, their polishes are consistently in my good graces. 

In the background, you can see a new base coat I'm trying out: Essie's Protein Base Coat. My nails have been looking a little raggedy lately when I take a polish off, so I'm trying to strengthen them up. I'll do a review of this base coat once I've been using it long enough that I should logically be able to see a difference. 

Review: Korres Pomegranate Deep Cleansing Scrub

A couple of months ago, I was living my life, visiting home. In Knoxville there's a Sephora at the West Town Mall, but then there's also a JCPenny Sephora in Turkey Creek. My sister and I went to the JCPenny Sephora because sometimes the sale section there has things they would never put in the sale section at a regular Sephora or at Sephora.com. This particular trip to JCPenny proved fruitfull: I got this scrub for $11.99. It's reguarly $21!

I had actually been eyeing this scrub for quite some time: I love Korres, and was dying to try a product from this pomegranate line.

 If there's one complaint that I have, it's the packaging. With all of the scrubs/exfoliators/masks/cleansers I have, I need products to be able to stand on their own. But the cap of this scrub is so small that it can't really stand: if I nudge it even slightly it topples over, creating a domino effect that results is products and bottles flying everywhere in my medicine cabinet and all over the floor of my bathroom.

But one of the things that I love about this product is the consistency. I love that it doesn't feel mass produced. Cheaper scrubs (and a lot of scrubs I own) have very uniform consistency. The particles of whatever (microbeads, walnut shells, pumice) are all the same size. But with the scrub, the Greek olive stones have clearly been reduced in some way that has resulted in beautiful inconsistencies in texture. The overall look just is more natural.

Overall, I really like this scrub. It leaves my skin feeling clean and exfoliated. I'd definitely recommend it to someone who's comfortable with scrubs.

I Have a Problem

To begin, I just finished up my first full week of classes at Rhodes. And let me say, this semester is going to HURT. Currently, I'm trying to force my way through Christopher Clark's new book, The Sleepwalkers. I have to have the entire 560+ pages read for Thursday, so I'm reading 80 pages per day. That's like 3 hours of reading. For ONE of my classes. Basically, I need to crawl under a rock and never come out.

It's a good book, but it's kicking my ass. But I will go down fighting (and posting blog posts).

To the actual topic of this post: I have a problem. At some point during the summer, I began purchasing cleansers/exfoliators/masks at an alarming rate. And now, I don't really have the space to store them.

 It's a miracle I could even fit it all on that entertainment unit thing.

First, the cleansers. I have two bottles of the Clinique Liquid Face Soap Oily Skin Formula. I know, I know. Who needs two bottles of the same cleanser? Apparently, the answer is me. This was my first real cleanser purchase, and I had two bottles because one stayed in my shower caddy and one stayed in my room by my sink back in the day when I was living in a traditional dorm without my own shower. Now, though, I'm just annoyed that I have that much more cleanser to go through. I recently received samples of the Ole Henriksen African Red Tea Foaming Cleanser, the Murad Clarifying Cleanser, and the First Aid Beauty Facial Cleanser. Then there's The Body Shop Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash and Tea Tree Cool & Creamy Wash. Finally, the REN. My favorite. I have the Clearcalm 3 Clarifying Clay Cleanser (one of my favorites) and I just bought the Ultra Moisture Cleansing Milk. I know, I have a problem.

Then there are the exfoliators. Right to left there's the Aveeno Positively Radiant Skin Brightening Daily Scrub. I'm trying to use this one up (so close!!). Then there's the Korres Pomegranate Deep Cleansing Scrub, the Lush Ocean Salt and Herbalism, The Body Shop Seaweed Pore Cleansing Facial Exfoliator, the Yes to Blueberries Age Refresh Softening Facial Exfoliator, the Kate Somerville ExfoliKate, and the REN Micro Polish Cleanser.

Finally, the masks. Left to right: REN Glycol Lactic Radiance Renewal Mask, the Clearcalm 3 Acne Treatment Mask, and the Invisible Pores Detox Mask. Then there are The Body Shop Tea Tree Face Mask, Seaweek Ionic Clay Mask, and the Blue Corn 3-in-1 Deep Cleansing Mask. Origins Clear Improvements Mask in next, followed up with the Boscia Clarifying Detox Mask, and finally the Garnier The Ultimate Cleanser 3-Way Clean. 

I know, guys. I have a problem. My goal over the next month or so is to review all of these products, then to use them up so I stop feeling like a crazy person. Seriously, I don't have eight faces, I only have one. And a person with only one face simply does not need this number of washes/exfoliators/masks. 

Is there a skincare anonymous I can join?