It’s a Claydate with Dew of the Gods for Face Mask Friday

There is something utterly fabulous about reaching the end of a difficult week and taking a short break with a face mask. It isn’t a spa visit or a sea side vacation, I know. But it is a few minutes carved out at the end of the week to just sit back and breathe. Not worry about if someone is going to take the wording of your e-mail wrongly, not worried about phone calls, or even what’s for dinner, just ten to fifteen minutes of nothing.

It is amazing how recharged I feel after just the short break. I suppose I feel it more because while this week was hard, getting back to a normal schedule and catching up for the things that didn’t get done last week, for the past few weeks I haven’t really taken that time. A lot of my face masks have been worn at my desk while I sorted through e-mails or made lists of calls. A couple of times I have put on a mask with the intention of taking a break and then remembered something and spent the ten or so minutes running around the house getting it done. I attempted relaxing with a mask Monday but I just ended up falling asleep. Which was useful, but not really the same thing.

Today I made an effort. I pulled the Claydate mask from The Dew Of the Gods out of the skincare drawer, mostly because it was the last one added and thus the one on top. I decided rather than rummaging, I would start with it today.

When I visited the website to look up the mask I found this description of the $42 Claydate mask…

Omg, pink clay? This mineral-rich, luxurious mud of the gods is meticulously extracted and formulated into a creamy, rich base for the ultimate hydrating & healing mask. Claydate is infused with rosehip oil, aloe, coconut oil and hyaluronic acid to purify, heal, tone and remineralize your skin. With clean skin and a clear mind, generously lather onto your face and neck with your fingers or a dry mask brush. Wash off with warm water after 10 minutes.
Dew of the Gods

mask on, nothing really lathering about its application

I don’t know why the word lather threw me for a bit of a loop, but I suppose it is because lather isn’t a word I associate with clay. It is definitely a clay mask, and Omg it is pink clay. I’ve actually used pink clay masks before and they have turned out well. The color of the clay isn’t that pig a deal. I’m sure there are specific minerals that make it pink and that are good for the skin. If I end up using this for a month of masking, I’ll do a deep dive into the ingredients, but for now, bring on the clay mask.

The container has an inner plastic lid, which is necessary for clay masks. The inner lid keeps it from drying out. It is clay after all. The scent is vanilla with a playdoh undertone. Which actually smells quite nice. It is a little odd but I kind of like the scent. The vanilla isn’t too sweet or heavy and it makes the playdoh scent a little less playdoh-y. I kind of dig it actually.

after ten minutes of drying down, it is dry but i can still smile

The pink clay is a light enough consistency that it spreads onto the skin easily, much more easily than many other clay masks. Because of this I found myself using less product than I expected. Which is not a bad thing. Once my face was covered in a coating of pink, I set the timer for 10 minutes and lit the candle by my bedside. It is in it’s last use phase. The candle is cinnamon and I am reminded that once again I forgot to look at summer scented candles. Still this is the last time it can be used and then the wick will be no more. The last of the wax will be taken out, the inside clean and I’ve decided to use this particular glass candleholder to hold makeup brushes in it’s second life. Partially because I need something to hold makeup brushes and it is the right height.

But it does mean that I really need to get in my summer candle order. I know, I have been dithering about it. Part of me wants to order the La Playa candles I ordered last year from Paddywax. They ae just the perfect summery scents. The ones I picked up were in the citrus line and really made the house feel summery fresh. The other part of me wants to try a candle subscription. I’ve been looking at the Wickbox candle subscription for a while now and I’m thinking that may be the way to go. As this is the last hurrah for my last winter candle I will need to make a decision soon. The problem is of course that I want both.

But that is a conundrum for later. Today, there is a cinnamon scented cloud for ten minutes of relaxation.

Except that this is not an entirely relaxing mask to wear. It is the kind of mask that feels a little stingy. It isn’t a bad sting, but it is definitely a prickling of the skin. This is not a face mask you can forget that you are wearing. It started stinging just after it was applied and remained stinging the entire time I wore it. Now i will say this is a first use for me of the claydate Mask, so there is the possibility that with repeated use it will end up stinging less.

But again, that it the subject for a future post.

I was a little nervous about the constant stinging and when my timer went off I fairly jumped up and headed to the bathroom. In ten minutes, the mask dried all the way down and lightened in color slightly. I was worried that such a dry down might make it difficult to chip off as clay can sometimes be a pain to remove. However I used a damp wash cloth and the mask simply wiped off. It was super easy to remove, no jackhammers required.

After patting my skin dry, I have to admit, It looked pretty good. My skin felt hydrated and soothed. And I don’t know if you can see this or not, but in the area where I tend to get clogged pores (along my lower orbital bone) I had a few clogged pores brought closer to the surface. I know dragging clogged pores up isn’t really part of this mask’s description but it was a bonus for me. They’ll be annoyingly bumpy for a few days and then they’ll clear off. As I have a quiet weekend planned I don’t really mind.

In fact I really liked this mask. The prickling made it a little less relaxing than I hoped but I have hopes that as my skin gets used to repeated use the stinging will fade. I do like this mask enough to make it the mask for a month of masking. I just need to figure out how often I can or should use it. I think three times a week should be fine, but i want to double check before I decide that it will be my Monday, Wednesday, Friday Mask for the next month. It seems like something I should find out first. In the description it had a paragraph about the mask being blessed by Buddhist monks instead of listing how often it could be used.

While fun, it is a little less helpful than I like in my description. However the fact that it is blessed by monks is familiar which means I have probably tried a product from this brand before. I just can’t remember what it was. So a files search will soon be needed. Especially if I’m using this for a month. I’ll let you know Monday what I find and if it makes the cut, for now, The Claydate mask from Dew of the Gods is a mask I enjoyed using and am looking forward to using again.

20% off your first box

The Skincare Line Up: May 20th, 2022

This week I have been using the skincare that I took home as part of my travel pack. I decided it was better to go ahead and use it up rather than put half empty tubes into the drawer to go bad and become forgotten. There are two full sized products and a couple will be lasting into next week but for the most part things were used up. Since I was trying to fit everything into a small travel bag, there is no break out between day and night, although some products certainly were only used at one time or another, but I’m sure that will be clear as we move down the list. First, The Products…

Makeup Remover: Elemis Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm

Cleanser: Clove and Hallow Cloud Powder Gentle Waterless Cleanser

Toner: Elemis Soothing Apricot Toner

Eye cream: Sunday Riley Five Star Eye Cream

Day Cream: Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream

Night Cream: One Kind Dream Cream

Sunscreen: Elta MD Skincare UV Sheet Broad Spectrum SPF 50+

Okay let’s break this down. I love the Elemis cleansing Balm. It is one of my favorite cleansing balms in fact. This was the first use of the Apricot toner from the brand but I really enjoyed it. And as the memorial service was held in a bare, open back yard and the temps reached 104 my skin appreciated the calming nature of the toner when even the sunscreen needed back up. Thee is plenty of toner left and I will be keeping it in my routine for a while. I enjoyed the light fruity but clean scent of it as well as it’s use.

the Clove and Hallow was interesting. It is a waterless cleanser which means it is a powder and you add your own water. It comes in a reusable glass shaker bottle which I love. Clove and Hallow is one of my favorite brands for reusable and sustainable packaging. I had several lipsticks from them that I absolutely adored, but this is the first of the skincare that I tried out.

Not a lot of powder is needed for each use so there is a lot of product packed into this small container. As it was powder there was no issue with leaks during travel which was nice. One shake was all I needed. I did notice that I had to be careful with the rust water added and rubbing as the way I brought my hands together could cause the powder to puff back against me. That just took a little maneuvering to figure out and I was fine. The scent of the powdered mango in the cleanser is the most prevalent scent, It smells a little like the vanilla scent you get from a mango rather than a mango itself. Which for me is better for skincare. Sometimes mango products make me think it is sticky just by the scent. This doesn’t. I’m really liking this this far and appreciate the gentle nature of it.

The eye cream was the Sunday Riley i was already using, mostly because i couldn’t see the point of opening a new eye cream just for the travel. I am really liking this eye cream as it is quickly absorbing, non-greasy and it doesn’t cause my pores to clog.

But here is where it get’s interesting. The day cream I used was The rich cream by Augustinus Bader. It is by far the most expensive item in this line up. In fact i am willing to bet this sample size is more expensive than the rest. The full sized 50 ml of this cream retails for $280. Now you know me, I am always happy to try out expensive products in sample sizes. Mostly because I really like to know something is going to work for me before I spend the money on it. And truthfully I am the same way with inexpensive products too. It doesn’t matter if it is a $280 cream or a $30 one, I want to try it out before I purchase it in a full size. part of that has nothing to do with money but rather with waste in general. The worst is when you get a full sized product of, well anything, try it and realize you don’t like it. For me the product offers recriminations about other people using it and how dare I waste it like that.

In this case, i was really looking forward to it not only because it was an expensive product but because I heard really great things about it. Opening it, the cream has a sort of playdoh like scent to it which I didn’t particularly care for. It was a thinner cream than I expected for something called a Rich Cream. It also took a while to absorb. It was a thin cream that left white streaks on the skin and once it was massaged in left my skin feeling a bit sticky. The second day I tried it, the cream seemed to have separated and a whitish liquid came out. I closed the tube, massaged it a bit and put a little on my hand rather than my face. It was sticky and after about ten minutes I noticed my hand was feeling very itchy. I don’t know if I got a bad sample or if this is how the cream always reacts but it was quite a disappointment. The sample is fairly new. If it didn’t arrive in May’s subscriptions then it came in Aprils. I only used it the one time and decided not to risk the rest of the tube. Instead I used smaller amounts of my night cream during the day time.

The night cream was the onekind Dream Cream. It is a thick white cream with almost no scent. To use it in the day I used half of what I used at night. For me that is usually a pretty good ratio whether it is using night cream in the day or day cream at night. I will almost always use twice as much at night. While the Dream Cream is not my absolute favorite night cream, it does a decent job and it did a great job filling in as a moisturizer. It isn’t sticky, has almost no scent and if left for a little while it does absorb well into the skin. It does take a while, about ten minutes for it to really soak in. i don’t actually have a problem with it, it is a good basic cream. It hydrates but doesn’t really do anything else. In a pinch it works reliably as a moisturizer but it isn’t something I feel the need to keep stocked.

And finally we end up with our sunscreen for the week. The elta md has no scent to it. there is no sunscreen scent and no mineral scent, there is quite literally no scent at all. It goes on with a white cast but as you rub it into your skin the white cast fades. It isn’t greasy at all and doesn’t leave a shine. It is the slightest bit sticky. Even if you are not planning on wearing makeup after putting this on, I would add a quick layer of powder just to take down the stickiness. Other than that it is a nice formula. It isn’t one I’d feel the need to keep constantly in stock, but it is one i wouldn’t mind using again.

And that was my skincare for the week. A few of these items will be back next week and a couple are off to the empties bin. Aside from the disappointment of Augustinus Bader, it was a pretty good line up.

Weekly Weight: 224.4 lbs

This week was about getting food back on track and exercise arranged in a more or less usual fashion. There were some extra garden exploits that I’m sure burned extra calories. Last week there were a few days I didn’t feel like eating at all and then came the arrival of comfort casseroles and food was eaten whether I was hungry or not. Now I am back home and it is more normal.

I had no clue what was going to happen when i got on the scale this morning and honestly I suspected there would be a weight gain. I was presently surprised by the 2 lbs loss. Pleasantly so. At the same time I am not sure I can take the credit for that. It was a very up and down two weeks with a lot of emotional upheaval. I am hoping that the weight is gone and I can continue the steady slope into a healthy weight loss.

Also I planned to try this before everything happened. As it is I will be giving it another week before I sign up but there is this site called Yoga Works. It has oodles of yoga classes that you can stream from home and I think I would do better with my inside workouts if I had a set yoga class rather than things I cobbled together from You Tube Videos. we are getting into the season where I can go on my walks if i leave first thing in the morning. Any later and the heat and humidity sap my energy for the day instead of simply providing an exercise outlet.

Which means I need to incorporate more indoor workouts. So I will be inventorying my in home work out gear and seeing if there is anything I need to add with a Prosource fitness order and bulking up my fitness clothing collection and then signing up for the Yoga Works. Since I can’t help but review everything, I’ll let you know how I feel about it as I use it. But I think I am going to give myself another week to settle back into normal before I sign up for it. I’ll post the link below for anyone else interested. As for now, I am going to be happy about the two lbs lost, however they ended up getting lost.

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last weigh in: 226.4 lbs

This week’s weight: 224.4 lbs

Lost this week: 2.0 lbs

lost thus far: 21.6 lbs

Yoga for every body – online. Discover more at YogaWorks.com!

The Daily: May 19th, 2022

Good afternoon my darlings. It has been a quite pleasant and productive day for me here. I got up a little early and took a walk first thing. Which was nice. It was humid but not overly hot when I started. By the time I got back to the house I felt like i was being smothered in a wet electric blanket, but that was at the end of the walk and I went straight into the shower. Admittedly the first few minutes I kept the water cool and then worked up to hot.

It is definitely time to start thinking about more indoor workouts.

I know, I say that a lot, but I really prefer the nice mind clearing walk in the fresh air sort of exercise to anything indoors. However as even early morning walks are now sweat and sun fests adaptations must be made. It was a great way to start the day. Lately my exercises have been pushed later and later, but I used to do them first thing in the morning. I really kind of miss that. I know I grumble, but that’s mostly because i really don’t like mornings in general. It is actually much easier to wake up, fall into the exercise clothes and get started before actually waking up completely then it is to convince myself to change clothes and begin the exercises mid afternoon.

It’s easier with walking as I can just walk when my brain needs a break. Less easy with planned workouts. I think it is because i am over all not a huge fan of perky people. And to be involved in fitness it seems you have to be perky. Plus they advertise goals that aren’t mine. I’m not trying to look bikini ready or run a marathon. I just want to get to a healthy weight zone.

I think I’d like to do an exercise video at some point. Instead of starting with things like, “Let’s get those bodies moving and feel those endorphins!” or comments about how fabulous you will look on the beach with your new bikini ready bod I think I’d start them with my own phrases.

They would include comments like “we know you’re here because your favorite jeans are a bit snug and you don’t want to break in a new pair in a larger size,’ or “You know moving is good for you after sitting in an office all day so stop whining and just get it over with.’

I admit, my workouts wouldn’t exactly be best sellers. Maybe i could just make them for me. Something to think about.

Today’s Look:

Primer: Lorac Light Source 3-in-1 illuminating Primer

Foundation: Catrice HD Liquid Coverage Foundation

Bronzer: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer

Blush: Benefit Cosmetics Gold Rush Blush

Eyeshadow: Tresluce La Flor de Mexico eyeshadow Palette

Mascara: Blinc Ultravolume Tubing Mascara

Lips: M2UNYC matte liquid Lip in SOHO

Today was mostly about the Lorac Primer. I went with the Catrice foundation because it is more matte. I really like the Catrice formula but hate the dropper dispenser. I usually just end up pouring the foundation onto my hand and dipping in with a finger. The dropper is why I don’t reach for it much even though it is a really good long wearing foundation.

It worked well with the Lorac actually. The lorac gave me shine under the matte which I like, especially as it wasn’t too much. I added a little bit of the primer as highlight over my cheek bones which worked well for me today. I have the shade dusk in the primer and the gold tones really work well with my skin. I am finding that with illuminating primers for me the gold tones work better than the clear or silver based ones. I think they look more glow and less wet and greasy. Perhaps it is just my perception, but I do like this on the high points. I am still missing the pore filling of other primers though so it is a trade off.

The Too Faced Bronzer is as always fabulous and we are entering the season where this one comes out more. It is a really nice blendable formula. It is a little dark for me in the winter but right about now it is edging into perfection.

You know I love the Gold Rush Blush from Benefit. And I know I reach for it a lot. I pulled it out today because i spend some time looking at their new blush releases. Yup that’s right, Benefit Cosmetics just released a new line of blushes. You can see theme Here. I am hoping this doesn’t mean that Gold Rush is going to be discontinued as it is one of my long term faves, but I have to admit that some of the new ones look fantastic. I am getting low in the Gold Rush Blush so I was going to order a new one soon. I may just look at one of the newer shades instead. I think they released yesterday in case you were wondering. I can’t wait to try them out.

The Blinc Tubing mascara I love. One swipe, fab lashes. What more needs to be said? Well perhaps that you need a waterproof mascara makeup remover to remove the mascara even though it technically isn’t a waterproof formula. It still defies water pretty well.

Then there was the Tresluce. I went for two of the darkest shades today using a dark green (Jardin) topped with the dark brown of Chocolate Cosmos. they blended well together, perhaps because they were so dark. But then I reached for the shimmer of green Nopal. I wasn’t expecting much but it is a beautiful green shimmer. I am in love. And I don’t say that about a lot of shimmers. I am over all a matte kind of person. But oh wow, I am in love. The dry brush didn’t work and I couldn’t find a setting spray so i used a finger tip and the green was just stunning. I can not wait to play around with the other shimmers. Nopal was just stunning and easy to use.

I think that is all of note today for both my look and my fitness plan. For now it is back to work for me. If I end up making that work out video, even if it is just for me, I’ll post it here for you to enjoy. Until then, it is back to work for me. Happy Thursday everyone.

Function of Beauty for Wavy Hair

Some of you are looking at the above bottles and thinking, those don’t look quite like the pictures on the Function of Beauty website. And you’d be right. For those of you who have never heard of the brand before, Function of Beauty is a fully customizable hair care brand. You go onto their website, take a quiz about your hair and your hair’s needs. You then get to choose your hair goals, scent and color and they make up a personalized batch of shampoo and conditioner for you. I believe they also have body care elements as well. I have seen a lot of people who are over the moon with the products and they have been on my list to try out for a while.

However, this is not that.

Oh, it is the same brand, just a little different.

I ran out of shampoo and conditioner and went to Target. Usually I have a shampoo and conditioner waiting in the wings for when I finish my current bottle. It isn’t that i am stockpiling it, I just tend to not remember I am almost out until I go to dispense some product and find the bottle empty. It is easier to reach into the linen closet for the spare pair then to wail fruitless ly at the shower head and hope that a simple rinsing will keep me from looking like a grease ball until i can pick up a new set. so usually I have the back up waiting and then on my next store run I replace the back up.

It’s my system.

Except that my system took a knock somewhere and I didn’t have a back up. I did have a small hotel shampoo (my babydoll takes them from every hotel he visits, puts them in a basket in the closet and then forgets them. I use them when I run out or the basket gets full.

which is a long way to say i went to target and was surprised to find the Function of Beauty products sitting on the shelf. They had three varieties: Strait, Wavy and curly hair. I went for the wavy option. It clearly isn’t as wide a range in the store as I suspect it would be if you went through the full customization on line, but i liked the three categories. The Shampoo has fermented rice water in it to help with elasticity and the conditioner has argan oil which helps with shine. The scent is fresh and lightly floral for both.

Quite honestly I like being able to try the brand in the less expensive store format before going in for the fully customizable option. It lets me know if their formula works well for my hair. and you know? It did. My hair felt clean, bit not stripped and I had a great healthy shine to it. During the course of this shampoo and conditioner use, I didn’t need to use a detangler at all and my hair was full of body. (I still used a heat protectant spray, and yes I use the Mane Club’s One hit wonder which is technically both a heat protectant and a detangler, but when I let my hair dry naturally I didn’t use it so i could see if i did need it, which I didn’t.)

I was actually quite pleased with this shampoo and conditioner set. At Target each of the shampoos and conditioners are $9.99. When I went to look up the price on line i saw that there are now other Function of Beauty products available as well. They have hair boosters that can help with strengthening, fighting frizz or simply growing longer healthier hair. I love the fact that you can try these out in such an easy way before committing to a reorderable regime from the brand. I will certainly be repurchasing this set again, trying out the boosters and when I do get around to trying the individualized formula, I will feel more comfortable with the shampoo and the brand. And yes, I definitely want to try out the individualized one and see how it compares tot the version available at target. It will be interesting to see how the store formula varies. But that is a test for another day. As for this test, Function of Beauty functioned impressively.

Testing out The Balm and The Beautiful Episode 1 Eyeshadow Palette

For the past two weeks or so I have been using The Balm and the Beautiful Episode 1 Eyeshadow Palette from The Balm. The Balm is a make up brand I have used for years. Their Bahama Mama Bronzer was my go to for a long time and I like the formulas for their eyeshadow. It is an interesting formula actually. But we’ll get to that in a minute. For me the trick with The Balm is getting the right palette. I have one palette that is all mattes. I have a face palette that includes a few eyeshadows.

For me, this was the right mix of mattes and shimmers and all in a new Clean and Green package. There is no mirror and the packaging can be completely recycled. Inside there are eight shadows, Four are mattes and four are shimmers. Over all it is a neutral palette, but there is quite a bit of interest about it.

(Top row: L to R: Cut, Green Screen, Autograph, Makeup Artist)

The first row has a matte shade on either end and two shimmers in the middle. Even though the rows are mixed I am going to talk about the mattes first and then the shimmers. The two mattes in this row are Cut and Makeup Artist. On my skin Makeup artist matches my skin well enough that it goes away completely. It can be used as a blending shade but not alone. On the other hand Cut is a shade I could easily wear on it’s own. Over all the mattes are well chosen. There is a white and and a much darker brown in the lower row (Chick Flick, and Cliff Hangar)Together the four mattes alone are a good mix of tones for creating several different neutral looks.

Second row L to R: Roll Credits, Red Carpet, Chick flick, Cliff hangar)

When you dip in, the mattes feel a bit powdery but if you tap off your brush before application there is no problem with fall out. While the top row is lighter and the second row darker, all of the shades apply lighter than you would think. They are buildable however. Personally i like this as it gives me more control. I am not a huge fan of high pigment right out of the gate. I really prefer to be able to choose how deep i want my colors. These shades blend really well also. I tended to apply the mattes and then reach for a clean brush to blend. then if I wanted to apply the shimmers I did so after blending the mattes.

In the second for the two shimmers are on the left and the mattes on the right. With the shimmers, they swatched really well. They applied tolerably well with a dry brush, better with a wet brush (sprayed with a little setting spray) and fabulously well with a finger tip. One in place they stayed in place with no glittery cheek dusting. If I tried blending them with the mattes then the shimmer got lost in the mattes. So what I ended up doing was applying the mattes, blending to where I wanted them, applied the shimmer and then with a separate clean brush blended them around the edges. I found this worked best for me. To be honest that was the only ‘difficult’ part of this palette.

I really enjoyed using it and suspect I will reach for it often. It has a good mix of shades in both mattes and shimmers. While it is neutral it is not a boring neutral. It has enough difference between the shades for it to be interesting to use over a longer period of time. It has shades I like wearing as a one and done and each shadow blends well with the others.

I know this is a rarity for me, but I honestly have nothing bad i can say about this palette. I thoroughly enjoyed using it, will enjoy using it again and love that the packaging is fully recyclable. With The balm and the Beautiful, The Balm has a hit.

The Daily: May 18th, 2022

Welcome to Wednesday my darlings. Truthfully my week is a little messed up and I feel that it is only Tuesday, regardless of what the calendar says. It is the danger of taking parts of Monday off. I’m just going to accept that I will be a little off for the rest of the week and then reset over the weekend.

Today however there is no makeup. As you can clearly see from the photo, it was an all natural day, just me and several layers of sunscreen. There was a follow up with the Avene Thermal Water when I came back in the house, but no makeup was going to survive today.

This morning I thought I would get some early gardening in since there was nothing done over the weekend. I pulled the weeds and most importantly the little treelets that were sprouting from the seeds thrown into the garden beds by the surrounding trees. If you don’t get them early they can be a real pain to uproot. They were still at the relatively easy to uproot stage, but there were a lot of them.

After they were gone I noticed a vine growing up and around some other plants. I don’t know what it was but I didn’t plant it and I wasn’t about to let it take over. So I went to pull it. It didn’t want to pull. So I went to the shed to find some trimmers. There were no trimmers. So I picked up the machete. I figured with a careful cut I could slice off the offending vine and be good. Then I got going, found the vines everywhere and just went a little crazy on the offending vines.

I can’t lie, it felt good.

I have no illusions about getting all of the weeds but I feel somewhat victorious, even if it is a temporary victory.

Unfortunately by the time I was done I was a sweaty mess. I figured since i was already sweaty I would go on a walk. It was kind of a mega sweat event. When I got back I washed my face and cooled down. In a little while there ill be a shower. (it would have been an earlier shower but there were several phone calls i was pulled into while I was cooling off.

After that i simply didn’t feel like wearing any makeup.

I did however revel in the use of my cleanser. I am currently using the new Clove and Hallow Cloud Powder and after cleansing I just liked my skin.

So bare faced today, but at least i can say that between the lengthier spate of gardening than I intended and my walk, I have certainly hit my calorie count. So I can’t really complain. But now it is off to the shower to get fully clean and into fresh clothes and then I will finish out the paperwork for the day. I took more time than expected but really, I can’t complain. It needed to be done, and it felt good over all to do it.

Unboxing the Allure Beauty Box for May 2022

The Allure Beauty Box for May 2022 has arrived. For those who don’t know the Allure beauty box is a $23 per month box that promises 3 or more full sized items in their box each month. This month there seemed to be a wide variety in the products. The version I received is version 3. The Version number is on the top left hand corner of the enclosed booklet. It has the month, year and version number (So mine is 0522V3).

I believe all of the versions received the sponsored product of the month and that was a deluxe sample of the LatinUs Beauty Shampoo and conditioner. I have never tried the brand before so I will be curious to try them out. The shampoo and conditioner set is designed to manage curly, thick or thin frizzy hair. I have thick hair that sometimes gets a little frizzy in the high humidity. So we will see how it performs. I always like trying out new hair care products and I like that these are large enough to contain enough product for several washes. They should give me at least a week’s worth of washes so I can actually properly test it. Which is nice.

I believe the second item is something that all subscribers received as well. It is a full sized AHAVA Mineral Hand cream in the scent cactus and pink pepper. AHAVA hand cream is often in subscription boxes and I really enjoy the formula of the hand cream but I have never tried the scent. I may have to give this one a try just to see how I feel about the scent. Since my mom adores everything AHAVA I generally pass all of their products on to her. This one, I may actually keep to try out.

The next item in my Allure Beauty box is a sample size of the Acure Resurfacing Glycolic and Unicorn Root Cleanser. It comes in one of those foil pouches with a spout. As far as foil pouches go I like these as they tend to be less messy as they have the spout to control them when there is more than one uses’ worth of product. I might actually be able to get a week of cleanser out of this packet, which is enough to try.

With cleansers it is important to have multiple uses as what seems fine at first can over the course of a week dry you out or break you out. It is something that needs repeated use to determine if it is for you. This pouch looks like it has enough to make that determination. It is especially good for me as Acure doesn’t always do well with my skin. It tends to be very hit or miss for me. I have to admit, I am curious about the unicorn root. That at the very least will bear further investigation.

Our last sample sized product (all the others are full sized) is the Haruharu Wonder Black Rice Hyaluronic Toner. I know this subscription is a mix of full sized and sample sized products, but personally I wish this had been one of the full sized items. I tried the Haruharu black rice essence a while back and absolutely loved it. I’m hoping this toner is as good. I’ll happily use the sample size and I am excited to try it.

Our next full sized product is the Mudmasky Vitamin A Booster Blue Clay Mask. I know loads of people love this brand. I tried one product a while back and thought it was just okay but not something to get excited about. But perhaps it was just not the product for me or the hype at the time was too great for the product to measure up to. Iam happy to give the brand another try and as anyone who has read this for a while knows, I do love a good clay mask.

The next item in this month’s Allure Beauty box is the Benton Aloe Propolis Soothing Gel. It is listed as a light weight gel moisturizer designed for use in warmer weather. In the summer time I do find that gel moisturizers make a great day cream. I am pleased to have this one around to try out and see how it feels and works with my skin. Now is the time to start shifting from winter skincare into summertime products. I have never tried anything from Benton but Aloe and Propolis both do well with my skin and gel is the summer weight formula. So I like the thought behind it and hope it works well.

And finally we have one makeup item in this month’s box it is the True and Luscious Super Moisture Lipstick. It is in the shade Vintage Rose which looks as though it might be a good shade for me. I’ve tried out a few powder makeup products from the brand but never a lip product. And we all know I love lip products. And moisturizing ones are a must for the summertime.

This month there were four full sized items which I appreciate. All of the products are ones I will try out and use. There are a couple of familiar brands and a couple I have never heard of. While this month was a little skincare heavy, the products are good and ones I will certainly get a lot of use from. I am very much looking forward to trying out the haruharu toner and in finding out exactly what a unicorn root is. And yes there is a part of me that wants to see unicorns sprouting from the ground with their tails still buried below, at least until they ripen and trot off. I’m sure reality will be less amusing but until I do the research that is the image that will stay in my brain.

All in all I have to say that May was a pretty good Month for Allure. I am very pleased with my box and already looking forward to whatever June brings.

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Perfume Review: Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana

I am continuing my quest to work through my collection of perfume samples and the latest one is Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. I know this perfume has been around for a while, but I for me this is a first use situation. I sniffed it once in a store while shopping and it didn’t have an instant appeal so I never bothered delving further into it. And to be honest, I put the sample in my box of samples and let it slide towards the bottom.

For me this perfume did not give a good first impression. My first sniff of it felt very astringent. So when I pulled it from the box of samples to give it it’s week of trial, I wasn’t that enthused. Still I moved forwards and I am glad I did. This scent proved to be an interesting one. But before I get into my thoughts, let’s see what the official description says.

The Dolce&Gabbana Light Blue perfumes represent the aroma of sparkling summer days yielding to evocative evenings. They describe a story in which man meets woman. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are extremely proud of Light Blue’s legacy, which includes several perfume awards. Dolce&Gabbana Light Blue featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York as one of the century’s most ground-breaking scents.
Dolce & Gabbana

I will say it definitely feels like a summer scent. It is a light one. It is however one that changed as I wore it. When first sprayed on the wrist it came off as very astringent. After a few minutes the astringency faded. The scent is very interesting. A quick sniff and the scent is floral. Then there is a back note of citrus to lighten it up so the florals don’t feel too heavy. I know there is bergamot as I can feel it tickling the back of my throat, but it isn’t the dominant scent , which means there isn’t the eye watering sear that i tend to get from bergamot.

The card of notes says that there is mandarin and grapefruit in the blend and I can find the slightly bitter notes from the grapefruit in the scent. while I’m guessing the floral notes come from bergamot, it has an almost magnolia scent to it. I looked for further scent notes to see if I could identify the florals but there wasn’t one I could find. I don’t think magnolia is right but it is very close. It is a magnolia like floral.

The scent requires very little to last a long time. The scent applied lightly to the wrist lasted a full eight hours and beyond. I applied it in the morning and it was still detectable at bedtime. It is what I like to think of as a mid range scent cloud type of perfume. It does not hold close to the skin to provide you with your own personal scent, but it doesn’t announce you before you turn the corner either. It is one that is noticeable to those around you who aren’t in your personal space. which is something to be aware of if you work in an office with those sensitive to scent.

It is definitely a day time scent and it is a scent that is more suitable to warmer weather. I would say it is a summer scent. I would also wear it in an out door environment. It is a scent that is suitable for working in the office, but because it isn’t one that sticks close to the skin, i would have a hard time wearing it in an office environment. This is a scent to wear to a barbeque or a picnic or an outdoor concert. It is not one that I would wear indoors.

I am glad I tried it as the scent shifted from what I thought i would be upon first blush. It is more complex than I first thought it would be. There is a moment of astringency but it does fade back. For me it is a nice scent but I don’t think it is one that I would reach for often. I am going to keep the remainder of the sample handy however so that if I feel like reaching for it I can. I might surprise myself. If I do find myself reaching for it over the summer I might consider picking up a larger size. As of now, I think it is nice, but not something I feel I need to add to my own personal scent library.

The Daily: May 17th, 2022

I know I missed yesterday’s daily post and I apologize. I was just exhausted. This weekend was as horrible as expected. On May 6th, my younger brother died unexpectedly. He sat down, leaned back closed his eyes and was gone. While we will need to wait fifteen weeks to hear back for a final diagnosis, preliminary thoughts lean towards either aneurism or stroke. Regardless it was quick and hopefully painless.

While the shock threw me (and everyone else into a tailspin, the world is on a little more stable footing now. This past weekend was the memorial service which made everything real. As horrid as it was, it did provide a bit of closure which was especially important as the death came out of the blue. While grief will clearly take a long time to settle, A return to a more normal course is helping me to regain my footing. I planned to start back to normal yesterday and I made a good start.

But then I decided a destressing face mask would be a perfect break as my walk was overly sweaty due to high humidity and then I closed my eyes and was out. Luckily it was a gel like hydrating mask that could be worn overnight if you wanted and not a clay based one. I was out for several hours. While most of the mask ended up on the pillow, I did get quite the hydration out of it, as well as a much needed nap.

So today we slide back into our regularly scheduled routine. There was a walk today. It is always interesting in the spring. The humidity rises even though it isn’t all that hot and I feel like my pores have opened up and are having a good clear out. I have to splash water to rinse off the salty sweat, but at this time of year the walking always makes my skin feel really good once the sweat is rinsed away. It is as though it has purged toxins that I didn’t know it was holding on to. Of course that also results in a spate of clogged pores. It is as seasonal as my allergies. I’ll need to put some pore clearing masks on my to do list to keep things clear, but otherwise it is a good feeling.

Food has been hit or miss. Last week I nibbled but didn’t eat much, then I went home and ate a lot, more because people seemed to feel the need to feed me more than because I was hungry. It was actually a relief to have one of my Smoothie Box Shakes for lunch today. (I went with the orange one). There were a lot of heavy sauces over the weekend. They were delicious, but very heavy. More than anything it is a relief to get back to my own food.

I think I am going to try to sneak in a second walk this evening after the heat of the day breaks. I’m pretty sure half of the calories I am burning off right now are Cream of Mushroom Soup based.

Today’s Look:

Primer: Lorac Light Source 3-in-1 Illuminating Primer

Foundation: Bite Beauty Changemaker Foundation

Bronzer: Buxom Staycation Vibes Bronzer

Blush: Benefit Gold Rush Blush

Powder: Kim Chi Beauty Puff Puff Pass Set and Bake powder

Eyeshadow: Tresluce La Flor De Mexico Shadow Palette

Mascara: Stila Huge Extreme Lash Mascara

Lips: Elf Sheer Slick in Black Cherry

When I was packing my travel bag this past week I realized there are several primers I haven’t full tested. I think several came in at the same time and I got distracted. Today I skipped the pre makeup base of Embryolisse because I wanted to treat this as a first use primer and this primer has some skin care benefits I believe. I’ll have to double check that as I dive deeper into it. I love Lorac lipsticks and eyeshadow formulas but I don’t think I’ve ever tried any of their face products so this was fun. I know I tried this when it first came in, but I don’t remember it. There is very much a skincare like scent to the primer. It glides on well and this far it is working well. I chose not to add a highlighter because of this primer. It is a bit on the glow-y side, but it isn’t overly wet looking. The wet look just makes me feel like I look greasy. I liked the way this primer turned out today.

Today I reached for the Bite Beauty foundation because I just heard the news that the brand is going under. For years they were my go to for lip products. Their agave lip mask was hands down my favorite for years. Then in 2019 they decided to reformulate everything so the brand was vegan. They released their new formula in early 2020 and as we all know 2020 didn’t go as anyone planned so it was poor timing for a release. The thing is that their new formula wasn’t that great, at least with the lip products. I’ve had excellent vegan lip products but this just wasn’t an excellent formula. So they are closing and pretty much everything on their site is 50% off. Including this foundation. this is the formula still on sale and now that I have the hang of the formula I really like it. It is one of those foundations you need to use a makeup sponge for and go lightly with instead of applying with a brush. Once I figured out how to apply it correctly I fell in love with the formula. It is very lightweight and feels and looks natural. I was really looking forward to summer wear actually. while I usually use BB creams and tinted moisturizers in the summer this was light enough I thought it would work for summer wear and I was thrilled for a summer foundation. I’ll still use it, but apparently this will be it’s one summer of use.

The Buxom Bronzer and Benefit Blush are also summer faves and it feels like i am starting to naturally shift to my summer wear makeup. I will be shifting things around in the makeup drawers this weekend so the summer wear products are nearer to hand. This bronzer and blush will make steady appearances all summer.

The Kim Chi powder is one I am really liking. Part of it is the powder puff. I think that I am going to try the puff with other powders to see if the puff application is the main reason I like it so much or if it is the powder formula. So that will be fun to play around with for a bit.

This was the first use of the Tresluce palette and the colors are really nice. They are a bit more pigmented than I expected and they didn’t blend as well as I would like today. I used all matte shades today. I’m going to see if I can get the blending to work a little bit better, but the shadow formula was nice to apply. I did have to tap off the brush as it was a bit on the powdery side, but there wasn’t any fall out during application. Over all it was a good first use.

I then finished up with two of my favorites, The Stila mascara and the elf sheer slick. I am almost out of the Elf sheer slick actually. It is a nice light formula that is a summer staple. When I replace the Black Cherry i am going to look for one that is more neutral for a natural look day.

So that was me today. I’m getting back to normal. I’m sure there will be a bit of rockiness ahead, but today was pretty stable sailing. I am sliding back into my routine and tonight, there will be a second walk, followed by bean burgers. (I make my own patties rather than purchasing them). There will be no cream of mushroom soup in sight.