Review: REN Clearcalm 3 Clarifying Clay Cleanser

In the last couple of weeks, my skin has been acting up. I'm going to go ahead and make a totally crazy assumption, and say that it has to do with going back to school. I'm waking up early, I'm constantly on the run, I have what feels like a never-ending supply of homework, I'm staying up later to finish said homework, I'm probably not eating the best, and I'm drinking between three and five cups of coffee a day. And my skin looks as stressed out as I feel.

In comes the REN Clearcalm 3 Clarifying Clay Cleanser.

I'll be honest, before this cleanser entered my life, the idea of a cleanser that didn't foam was an entirely foreign concept. Before I got into higher end skincare, I just used Neutrogena and Clean and Clear cleansers. And they stripped my face of every natural oil that I had. I'm so glad I've been introduced to nice products since then.

Anyways, I was relying entirely on gel cleansers. My favorite was my Clinique cleanser (Liquid Facial Soap). I used it in conjunction with my Clarisonic. But then I got bored and I had some money sitting around, so I bought ALL the skincare. This one one of the face washes that I was drawn to, but I didn't really understand how it worked without foaming. I know, I can be dense sometimes.

So I got a sample of it from my local Sephora, and honestly, the second that I smelled it, I knew it was over. I needed to own it. Like with most products that don't have an immediately obvious scent, I can't tell you what in the heck this smells like. But it smells delicious. Earthy and clay-like, the smell is almost edible. I probably shouldn't eat this, though, so I can't really tell you what it tastes like.

I've said it about REN before and I'll say it again. I love REN packaging. Love, love, love. Even the boxes that the products come in are beautiful. The first time I opened a REN box was when I bought this cleanser, and this beautiful, flow-y, sort of flowery inner packaging appeared. True love.

If you're interested in the ingredients, here they are! What strikes me is that the first ingredient is chamomile, so this is definitely a soothing wash (something I can definitely attest to).

One thing that people love about REN is that it's "clean" skincare. It doesn't contain any sulfates, parabens, or synthetic fragrance, etc. I think it's pretty cool, but it isn't a deal breaker for me. But it does help to explain the high price we pay for REN (in addition to it being a British brand--I feel like they hike up prices when they send things overseas--think Soap and Glory, a British drugstore brand that we pay Sephora prices for).

Anyways, the Clearcalm 3 Clay Cleanser has a thick, creamy consistency. It has a slight brown-grey color to it. As I've said, it doesn't foam, but it definitely leaves my skin feeling clean and more soothed. Knowing that I have this product on my side makes me feel a lot better about my skin acting up.

I will give one criticism, although I don't think it even counts as a criticism. I wouldn't use it to remove makeup. That just isn't the function that it's meant to do. Women complain about it, but there's a simple solution. Take off your makeup before using this, or use this as your morning cleanser. Personally, I never wash my face with makeup on. I either use a makeup removing wipe or I use a cleansing balm (the one I really like lately is Julep's new Bare Face Cleansing Oil). I think that expecting your face wash to be able to do everything is just not realistic. Your face wash can remove makeup, or combat acne, or brighten your skin, or exfoliate. But it can't do everything at once. It's sort of like mascara. Mascaras that focus on one thing (lengthening, volumizing, water-proofing) are the most effective. Expecting one mascara to do everything under the sun is just going to leave you disappointed.

Now that I've waxed poetic on mascara uses, this REN cleanser retails for $32 for 5.1 oz. I love it. I'll recommend it to anyone asking what face wash they should use for acne prone skin. I even used it with my Clarisonic the other night! It felt strange, because there was no foam/anything even remotely like foam involved. But after I washed the clay cleanser off, I can honestly say that my face felt more clean and smooth and soft than it does any time I use a foaming gel cleanser. I'm a convert to the Clarisonic with clay cleanser!

The Beginning of a New Year

Now that the latest school year is into full swing, I figured I would update anyone reading this blog on my life as of the last couple of weeks. Whenever I read beauty blogs, I wonder what they do when they're not blogging it up, so here's my life!

Everyone has returned to Rhodes. I spent the summer here working, but now all of the students are back! I liked having campus to myself, but seeing everyone was really nice, too. It was great to catch up with people I hadn't seen in months, particularly those who went abroad! One of my great friends, Tyler, went on a study abroad trip with the business/econ department to Europe, we spent like three hours catching up on his life in Europe.

My littles came back to me! They did various things throughout the summer (Bailey had a camp counselor job, Madeline went to Ecuador, and Maria lived her life in Chicago), but I'm so glad to have them all back with me! 

Then there was sorority goodness! I can't participate in recruitment because I'm a Resident Assistant, but we just wrapped it up this last weekend. At the end of it was our Bid Day, I could finally return to the house and associate with my sisters again. Now my littles are getting ready to take littles themselves, and I'm helping them out with the crafting.

Then there's Mock Trial. In April, after spending the night on the floor of the Atlanta airport, we kicked ass at Nationals and our A Team became runner up to the championship and our B Team (my team) placed 5th in our flight. 

Trophy travels! Now we're getting geared up for another great year of Mock Trial success! In the rankings, we're ranked 2nd and 17th in the nation right now. We're ranked higher than a whole slew of amazing schools (our A Team is ranked above UCLA, Virginia, NYU, Harvard, Duke, Michigan, Brown, and Columbia, just to name a few).

Next week our in-class rounds start. They're the first set of rounds that determine who will get placed on which team for the coming year, and it gives us a pretty good starting point for building our case. This year's case is a robbery at a theme park, I'm super excited to argue the law on this one!

Finally, here are some of the guys at my new dorm messing around with my phone while I made coffee. Rhodes didn't have enough space to house all of the incoming freshmen, so we moved 40 students to a nearby dorm occupied by Victory University. The first floor is Rhodes, the upper two floors are Victory. I'm the RA for the Rhodes students, and I've really enjoyed getting to know kids I otherwise would have never met!

Review: REN Invisible Pores Detox Mask

Like all of us humans out there, I have pores. And while most of them don't feel the need to get clogged/be obnoxious/get all gross, some of them give me issues. Namely, the pores on my nose. I also occasionally have trouble with the area directly around my nose, my right cheek (is it from my phone? I'm disturbed to think about bacteria growing on my phone and causing acne), and the sides-of-my-chin area.

And even though I wash my face twice a day, exfoliate, and moisturize properly, sometimes I need to detox my pores via a nice mask. I like clay masks, but sometimes I like to mix it up. Thus, my love affair with the REN Invisible Pores Detox Mask began.

I've been wanting to try this mask for at least the last three months. But there were a lot of damn road blocks, considering that I live near two Sephoras and regularly visit the Knoxville Sephoras, too. First, my local Sephora didn't seem to have it in stock (in reality, REN had changed the name of the mask from Pore Minimizing Detox Mask to Invisible Pores Detox Mask. They also changed the color of the packaging, from a dark blue to this olive-y green. The color change threw me off, so I thought they were different masks).

Then I went to the Sephora at Carriage Crossing, and I wasn't paying attention, so I asked for a sample of the wrong mask, one that I already own.

Then I went back to my local Sephora at Wolfchase, realized the mask/packaging/name discrepancy, asked for a sample, and was promptly told that they were out. Well, it was worse than that, really. She managed to get the SMALLEST bit of product imaginable out of the bottle and acted like that would totally work for testing a mask! It was probably enough product to cover a pencil eraser.

Then, I went home to Knoxville. My mom and I went to the Sephora in the West Town mall, where I asked for a sample of this mask. The poor beauty consultant spent like thirty minutes trying to get some product out of the bottle. It was entirely full, but the pump must've been malfunctioning.

So finally, I just bought it. I could always return it. I just feel so bad returning products: they just get returned to the manufacturer and don't get any love.

Anyways, so now I own this mask! Success. First off, I love REN's packaging. Truly. It's beautiful and practical and just awesome.

I also love the system that REN utilizes for their products. Within the plastic, there's a vacuum sealed bag. The product (in this case a mask) is stored in that bag. Every time you pump some out, the bag contracts. This method results in a cleaner product for you--you're not dipping fingers in, and there's no contamination of the product with the air, so the risk of bacterial growth is almost entirely non-existent. And to prevent the mask from drying out in the pump and making it more difficult to use the next time, there's this little cap attached to the pump. Then there's the clear plastic body. You can see how much product you have left so that you know when you should repurchase it!

Long story short, REN has packaging their products down to a science.

This mask has a beautifully natural smell to it. I'm not sure that I can describe it, but it's the sort of clean-smelling product that I could just sit around smelling it for hours. Okay, I'll be honest. Right in the middle of writing this post, I sat around for 20 minutes with the pump of this mask held up to my nose. Beauty blogger struggles, right there.

So, the instructions for using this:
1. Apply generously.
2. Allow to dry.
3. Remove by rubbing with fingers.

"Wait, what? You remove this mask by rubbing it with your fingers?" You may find yourself asking these totally expected questions.

It's true. You remove it by rubbing it with your fingertips. It's super cool and unique. I think it's a particularly effective method, as well. Think about it: if you're trying to pull gunk out of your pores, is wetting the mask to remove it going to help? No. With this REN mask, it's like the mask itself adheres to the gunk in your pores, then when you rub it, the gunk comes out and off of your face. There's a noticeable difference when I look closely at my pores.

That being said, it's not a miracle product. No product is a miracle. But ones that claim to do absurd things bother me. This mask doesn't make any crazy claims, which I enjoy. The Sephora page says, "This mask reduces the appearance of pore size and leaves the skin purified, smoothed, and toned. It draws out impurities, helping to eliminate blackheads."


I've heard a couple of criticisms of this mask, one being that it flakes while it dries. I don't know what these women are doing while waiting for this mask to dry, I don't think it would flake unless you were doing some sort of weird facial exercises. In fact, the last time I used it, I tried to get it to flake by doing just that: I contorted my face all sorts of weird ways. And not a single bit of this mask came off. So until you're actually rubbing at it, I've concluded that it isn't going to randomly start falling off of your face.

The other criticism that I've heard is that it doesn't have any lasting effects. Women basically say that it shrinks their pores for a few hours, but then it wears off. This going back to the miracle theory. There isn't a product out there that will actually shrink your pores. It simply doesn't exist. But with regular bi-weekly use, this mask will clear out your pores and help keep blackheads at bay. And that's more than enough for me.

This mask retails for $34 for 1.7 oz. It's not a cheap product, there's no way around that. But it's still one of my favorite masks, so I'm not dissuaded by the price. If you look at it in terms of other REN masks, it's on the cheap side. All of REN's masks are 1.7 oz, and the Clearcalm 3 Mask is $45, the Radiance Renewal Mask is $55, and the Smooth and Renew Mask is $37.

Overall, I really enjoy this mask. It smells great, I love the packaging of the product, it has a unique removal method, and it does exactly what it claims to.

Review: Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick in Berlin

I'm forever on the hunt for a good liquid lipstick. When they're good, they tend to apply easily, dry quickly, and last forever. And I prefer my makeup to not require 10 touchups throughout the day, and I've found that a good liquid lipstick can survive just about anything. A good liquid lipstick can, in fact, survive better than any regular lipstick.

I heard that the Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick was phenomenal, and I am here to tell you that it really is. But I'll begin at the beginning.

I bought this lipstick in the color Berlin months ago, but I've been waiting to post about it because I wanted to make sure that it was as amazing as I thought it was in the beginning.

The packaging is very pretty; it doesn't look nearly as gothic as some of Kat Von D's products. I'm not a huge fan of the gothic look, so the packaging of this product makes me very happy. At first I was a little bit worried about the color. Berlin just looks so damn bright. But then I put it on. And I fell in love.

It looks much less crazy bright once it's actually on your lips. It dries VERY quickly, so if you're fairly slow at applying lip product, you'll want to speed up to put this stuff on. But once you get the hang of it, you can apply it fairly quickly with ease.

One of the things about this product that I can't rave about enough is it's longevity. It will look like you just put it on all day.

This photo was taken at 4:45 pm. I had been wearing this lipstick since 11:30 am. In between putting the lipstick on and taking this photo, I was in class for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I had one coffee, one bottle of water, one brownie, and one fruit juice (that required putting my lips around the bottle's top). I had spent my Great War class (2.5 hours) talking incessantly. Yes, I'm that kid in class that won't stop talking.

Basically, this is magical lipstick.

Because I waited months to write a review on this product, I also found out one more fascinating fact: it survives nap time. Let me explain. My favorite way to test the lasting-power of any given makeup product is to take a nap while wearing it. I have a whole series of eyeliners, mascaras, blushes, and eyeshadows that surpass the nap test. But rarely does a lipstick survive a nap. More often than not, lipstick ends up all over my pillow and I'm pissed. But not the Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick. It survived the nap test, looking like I had literally just applied it.

I only have two complaints, albeit small ones. The first one you can see illustrated in this photo. While it doesn't fade on the majority of my lips, on the upper outer corners, it disappears. I think it has something to do with the way that my lips are shaped and how they fit together. If I keep my mouth closed, it's not a problem, but if I'm talking a lot, you can tell that the lipstick doesn't reach all the way to the corners of my mouth.

The other problem is a packaging issue. The lipstick will leak around the edges of the screw top, sometimes resulting in pink lipstick getting on my other lip products in my lip drawer. It's easily clean-able with a cheap toner or makeup remover, but I wish that it wasn't an issue at all.

Overall, I LOVE this lipstick. Some claim that it's extremely drying, but I didn't find it to be more drying than your average lip product. It was actually less drying on my than some products I use (Apocolips comes to mind). It retails for $19 on Sephora.com. The next color I'm going to purchase is  Lolita.

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).