The Daily: February 16th, 2023

Good afternoon my darlings. Today has been a day. Alas it started with more computer issues. but I did figure them out I believe. Apparently my babydoll tried to use my poor old desk top for gaming. It is ill equipped for such endeavors, which he figured out. He thought he removed all of the things he was using but apparently he missed a couple of elements which were trying to connect to things he already removed.

It was a bit of a mess.

But It is mostly cleared up now.

It did take more time than I had to give to clear it up though so I am running a little bit behind. Still trying to catch up, but beciase I have no one who needs to see my face today for work I am going sans makeup today. I’m calling it a skin care moment instead. I have a Summer Friday’s Jet Lag Mask. It does make my skin soft and hydrated and most of the mask absorbs in while I wear it. I then wipe off the rest with a damp wash cloth and go about my day.

I am also giving my lips a bit of the royal treatment. I Have the Hanalei Lip scrub to start. I keep trying other lip scrubs but this is the one I always come back to. it is a sugar scrub that is sweet and citrusy tasting and smelling. It is a nice gentle scrub and I really enjoy it. I will be following with the Tatcha Kissu Lip mask. I took it temporarily out of my skincare line up because I wanted to give a different product a try. and then my lips got dry and I thought it would be a good test, but then I couldn;t find the product i wanted to try. And then I started picking my dry lips. Sooo, I am going back to the lip mask that I know works. Later I will go on a hunt for the missing product, then skip the Tatcha again for a bit and test it out. For now, it is the return of Tatcha because I love it and I know it works.

And so my darlings, that is me today. I don’t regret taking the time off on Tuesday. I just wasn’t expecting the extra issues of Wednesday and Thursday. But most things are fixed today and I am fine for working today and tomorrow. It will be this weekend where the full scale clear out with the computer will take place. Oh yes, from clearing cookies and history to sorting through photos and podcasts to scrutinizing the programs, battle will be done.

Which will make next week a smoother operation. But for now, I’m taking fifteen minutes down for a skin care moment and then jumping back into the fray. Have a good afternoon my darlings.

The Daily: January 10th, 2023

I will be honest, today, I was not reeling the makeup my darlings. I woke up fairly well with no allergy sinus issues which was a really nice thing. With the weather bouncing up and down my sinuses have not been happy. The weather shifts and they clog up. Anyway, today the temperature dropped and there was (and still is) fog. I thought it would burn off by noon, but it hasn’t. I think it is because of the big temp drop and the high humidity. (If I am remembering my third grade life science classes correctly. Yesterday it was in the fifties and damp and today it is in the thirties and still damp. Hence the fog.

My brain felt a bit foggy too which I hoped my morning exercises would push to the side. They got my blood flowing but my brain still feels a bit foggy. And my muscles are sore. I’m still adapting to this new work out and my muscles are not exactly thrilled with me. By the time they stop being sore, it is time to go another round. in time they will adapt but at the moment, they are not happy.

Given the muscles soreness and the internal fog I decided to do something nice for myself today as well. I am working at my desk today with a mound of paperwork but there are no meetings and no scheduled phone calls. It is just me an my computer today. So I decided to do a hair mask. In general I love hair masks and while I often use them post shampoo as an extra bout of conditioning, or occasionally for twenty minutes before I step into the shower, I tend to avoid the overnight hair masks.

I just can’t stand the mask covered hair on my neck. I have tried sleeping in a cap with my hair bundled under it or tied in a knot but it never works. I don’t like wearing an overnight hair mask. It not only feels icky but my brain some how thinks of all of the calamities that could arrive in the night and how I could end up running from some sort of natural disaster with my hair in greasy mask filled hunks. And yes I know in a natural disaster there are much more important things to think about but somehow putting on the mask makes me think that now, NOW is the time disaster will strike.

And so what I do with the overnight masks is I use them during the day. Somehow my brain thinks I can see a natural disaster coming if there is day light. I know, it is not logical. But there it is.

So with overnight masks I chose a day (like today) where I don’t have to be anywhere and then I put this mask on and wear it while at my desk. It isn;t the most attractive look but it gives me all of the benefits without the ick. I put this one on after applying my morning skincare and will rinse it off after eight hours (between 3:30 and 4 pm). I love the results of the overnight mask, just not the overnight part. This is a mask I haven’t used before. It is the Amika Dream Routine Overnight mask. I really enjoy the scent. I let you know tomorrow how I feel about the actual mask itself. There is a clip holding my hair up off of my neck and a band keeping my mask coated bangs off my face. It isn’t a lovely look, but it gets the job done. And hopefully, the hair mask will be worth it.

As for me today, there was morning exercise, skin care and hair mask applied and then a day spent working at my desk. This afternoon will bring more of the same with the hair mask rinsed out mid afternoon. It is a quiet Tuesday but as last year had very little quiet about it, I kind of relish the nice quiet days. And if I can get a little self care in during them, even better.

Quick Fixes and Foot Detoxing…

This is the time of year where I hear the word Detox a lot. There is the understandable versions. I indulge over the holidays as do a lot of people. Each January I hear that people are giving up alcohol, sugar, caffeine and a host of other things. This desire for a new year detox seems to be a part of the same impulse that causes New Year’s Resolutions. And I get that, I want to be better in the coming year than I was in the year past. Every year that is my goal. Some years I make it, others I don’t, but it is an ongoing goal.

One of the things I noticed since I started trying to lose weight is that there are a lot of quick fixes out there. I honestly didn’t realize it until I started looking for elements to include in my own weight loss. My plan, if you are curious is to monitor my caloric intake and to include more exercises so that I can burn more calories than I consume. It sounds easy but there is a balance to it, even though the concept is simple.

And while it sounds simple, it is actually rather hard to do day in and day out. There are hidden pitfalls and one thing you really learn about along the way is yourself. There is far more introspection to weight loss than I actually expected. Motivating myself alone requires that I know myself to know what it is I would consider an acceptable reward if I will just get my butt up and do the required exercise.

And every step along the way it seems that someone is offering a short cut. And the short cut is always attractive. Why do a lot of hard work and mental evaluation when you can take one easy pill before bedtime and let your fat float away on the night taken away by magic fat stealing elves?

Although to be honest if you are seeing magical fat stealing elves, you might want to double check what sort of pill you actually took.

The same holds true for items like the Detox Foot Patches. Oh I would love if slapping an herb filled packet on the bottom of my foot pulled out all of the harmful toxins in my body and left my innards factory fresh. But I don’t really believe it. It sounds too good to be true. And usually that is the clue that it probably isn’t true. And when I looked into this Detox Foot Patch, the Mayo Clinic agreed with me.

…There’s no reliable evidence that detox foot pads work…no scientific studies have been published that show that detox foot pads work…As with anything that sounds too good to be true, your best bet is to wait for scientific evidence that proves a claim before investing your time and money…
Mayo Clinic website

The link will take you to the full post on the Mayo Clinic site if you are interested in reading it. So why would I try the Detox Foot Patches?

Curiosity and as a reminder to myself.

I added this to my cart a while ago when I picked up a bunch of things from the Shop Miss A site. So it was only a dollar and I can waste a single dollar on an amusement and mental reminder for myself. And honestly Shop Miss A has a lot of items that I may have seen in more expensive formats and want to try out but don’t know if they will work for me. Sometimes it is to try it out in an expensive way before I commit to something pricier. Sometimes the inexpensive item just proves fantastic so I don’t go back for a more expensive one. For example the silicone scalp massager (super fantastic and worth way more than a dollar). But I am getting off track.

I figured I could try this Detox Foot Patch out without spending a lot of money. The concept is simple. You attach it to your clean foot by peeling off the stickers and then go to sleep. When you wake up the patch has absorbed all of the toxins from your body and can be peeled off and discarded. Not exactly like magical fat stealing elves, but close enough.

The package suggests that you add socks over the patches to keep it in place. I had to add them to keep the patches from peeling off and the stickers getting caught in the bed sheets. And boy did they look impressive. In the morning the clean looking patch was filled with dark green gunk. And it was damp so it looked very impressive. Until I realized that with socks on over the patches it was a pretty sure bet that the dampness on the patches was simple sweat.

And while the dark patches looked impressive, so do mood rings and color changing lipstick if you don’t look at the formula. I am sure that the combination of oxygen, sweat and body heat activate whatever is in the packet overnight. The main reason being that the packet is exactly the same size as it was when I went to bed. If it absorbed anything in the night I think it would have grown just a little bit larger. It didn’t, there was just a color change.

Now I tried these as just a little bit of fun. I didn’t expect a magical purification of my body. And I only spend $1 on it. But for me it also serves as a reminder going into the new year. This year I am still working on getting myself to a healthy weight and I am sure there will be many short cuts to weight loss advertised to me in various ways. That is inevitable.

And they will be attractive as losing weight is hard work. Having this reminder that many of those short cuts are smoke and mirrors and even if they provide some benefits in the short term, they are not long term fixes really helps me out. Their benefits are ephemeral. Once I stop taking the magic pill the weight will come back. And I will have to take it off again. It is the same with any other internal change you want to make. There are quick fixes galore out there and all most of them do is take your money. In the end there is no substitute for putting in the work.

While using this Detox foot patch was fun, for me it is a reminder to pay attention and not fall for gimmicks in an effort to see big results fast. If you are looking at starting a healthier you in the new year program, I hope you too will remember this not only when you are putting your plan together but moving forward. And if you are going to try out a gimmick, do it for fun and don’t get discouraged when the magic as seen on television results don’t manifest in your old home.

Weekly Weight: December 30th, 2022

Here we are my darlings on the verge of the end of the year. Usually I like to look at a retrospective of my year in weight loss at this time. To see how I coped with life’s little ups and downs. Except that this year there were no little ups and downs. My world was more or less a small boat in the middle of a very angry ocean.

Often times weight loss was the last thing on my mind and many times my diet got left far behind because circumstances took over. This year had long stretches where no routine of any sort was possible. As a result I know I will be ending this year heavier than I was last year at this same time.

And I am okay with that.

It doesn’t make me happy of course. no one attempting to loose weight wants to gain it instead.

But here is the thing. Every once in a while you get a year that just kicks your feet out from under you. the ground will shake like your own personal earthquake and it takes all the effort you have in you to stand upright and hold on until the ground stops moving.

For me, this was just one of those years.

But here is the thing. Those years don’t last. eventually the ground stops shaking and the cyclops on the hill stops chucking goats at your head. And yes this year it felt like there were screaming goats being hurled down upon me. Go ahead take a minute close your eyes and picture it. I’ll wait.

Yeah, like i said, goats.

But eventually the world settles down. Your footing is regained and you can reestablish a routine.

You can breathe again.

That is how I am looking at this new year. I will not be doing a retrospective of the events that led me to this point. I will just put up my goat proof umbrella, maybe send if out for repairs because of the beating it took, take a deep breath and move forward. Because ultimately, that is what a new year is. A chance to move forward.

For me it will also be an excuse to drink champagne and wear a fabulous pair of heels. As we are having a quiet new years at home this year it will be a fabulous pair of heels paired with a fuzzy pair of pajama pants. But that is okay too. And rather suits me.

Was this year the best for weight loss? No, this year my weight loss journey took several dark detours. But here I am looking at this incoming bright shiny new year. And I am still standing and I am still willing to put in the effort to make next year a better one.

And honestly that counts for a lot too.

Once the champagne and heels are put away, The journey will resume.

Weekly Weight: The December Break

For the past few years I have given myself the gift of skipping the scale for the month of December. It is a way to enjoy family time and friends without the added pressure of worrying about the scale. It is a gift for myself but it is also a gift for the people I am with. I still monitor what i eat, mostly by controlling my grazing and making certain to have a good meal before I actually go to a place where it is mostly snacks and appetizers. That way I can still have a small amount of what I want to taste, but am not facing temptation down while hungry.

Also it means that as I have no real dietary restrictions no one has to worry about what I can and can not eat. while i don’t mind counting my calories, I don’t want anyone else to worry about counting them for me. I personally don’t think my diet should be anyone else’s concern.

This year as I did add a little weight back when i went to help out my mother post surgery and then came back to a brand new scale which had the audacity to add on ten pounds that I didn’t realize my old and ailing scale shaved off for me, I was going to skip my no scale December so that I could keep better track of things.

And then i went home for Thanksgiving.

I know I joke about the butter explosion at the holiday and how it has shown on my skin. While I did indulge I actually did fairly well with my consumption. It was richer fare than i am used to that broke me out and left me craving raw veggies (I can’t get enough of raw spinach salads at the moment) but I did monitor my portion sizes and actually came home with the same weight as when I left, no loss, but no gain.

However I had a realization when I went home. Or maybe it was just the solidification of several separate trains of thought into one cohesive whole. Or maybe like staring at one of those old magic eye pictures and suddenly seeing the single image behind it.

However you want to phrase it, something clicked.

I love my family, I really do, but we have what I like to think of as different sectors. We have one sector that leans into the naturalistic hippy sort of vibe and one sector that is former and active military. We have the British sector (with a healthy Scottish bias) and the Quebecois sector that after a spate of older relatives deaths makes it more of a quadrant, but as they always add butter tarts and Tarte au Citron to the dinner table we will still call it a sector.

We also have a sector of the family that tends to focus more on appearance over everything else. (they are actually balanced by the University crew that cares more about what you know than what you look like, pretty much each sector of my family is balanced by an opposing one it seems. It can often make things very…interesting. Yeah, we’ll go with interesting.).

This trip home I ended up spending a lot more time with the appearance sector than I usually do. Spending time with them, I realized that my weight bothers them far more than it will ever bother me. And as I thought about it, I realize that the only complements I have ever received are when I have a full face of makeup up on and the only accomplishments they have ever said they were proud of involved me dropping a jean size. I also caught several glances at my plate while they often pushed a few untouched morsels around their plates.

Which quite frankly pissed me off.

It also made me want to double down on my portion size, eating just to spite them.

Which I actually caught myself doing and stopped.

It made me sit down and think about the concept of saboteurs. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some guilt you into eating something because they made it especially for you. Some insist that you clean your plate because there are starving people in Africa (or wherever your family claims starving people live when you won’t clean your plate. Oddly enough my Great Auntie Olive always used to say ‘There are starving people in Hell’ And in case you are squinching your eyes and tilting your head to figure out that bit of logic, apparently the punishment for wasting food in this life is starvation in the afterlife. At least in the Gospel According to Great Auntie Olive. I’m not sure how the clergy of any designated faith feels about the matter.)

For me one of my sabotages is the implication or accusation that I am not doing in my diet what others believe I should be doing. Rather than shame me into behaving it makes me want to mentally flip them off and double down on whatever I am eating at the time even if I know i don’t actually want any more.

It is something I know about myself so it is a sabotage i need to watch. Luckily I don’t see a lot of the people who fall into that family sector very often.

Which leads me to circle back to the original thought of this post, skipping December Weigh ins. While it is a nice gift to myself and to those around me (one less thing to worry/think about anyway), skipping December always has a practical purpose. It took me a while to realize this actually. Without the scale, I tend to focus more on how my body feels rather than the numbers.

Now I can’t go for too long without the scale, a month is about if before i start drifting into forgetting about eating correctly and lose the diet completely. However a month off lets me think about my body a bit clearer. while I still monitor calories it is at this time of year when traditional favorites come out and annual indulgences arrive that I start to realize that it isn’t just the weighing of ingredients that limits my portion size. My apititte has changed and my tastes have shifted. Something I might have once gorged upon I can only eat a smaller portion of without feeling ill because it is too rich for my system. or too salty or too sweet. It is with the month off of the scale that i listen to my body more.

And honestly that is a bigger gift than not causing my friends dinner party angst.

So this year I will be taking December off from the Scale. I will still check in each week with my weigh and my thoughts, but it will be January 6th when I step on the scale and start recording for a brand new year. For me the step back and internal evaluation will be a help as I move forward. I don’t know where you might be on your own weight loos or healthy living journey, but it is so easy to get so tangled up with just bits of everything that come at you from pretty much everywhere. Perhaps taking a breather might do you good as well. But it is your journey and you know it best. No judgement from me either way. It is a journey of individualized pathways and for me, I need to do an internal systems check before I step back on the steep slope of the pathway. Happy trails.

Holiday Bundle: Soap and Glory

Each year without fail I pick up some sort of Soap and Glory Bundle. What is kind of amusing is that each year my purchase is driven by one factor. I look at all of their packages and bundles and then I purchase whichever one has the full sized Heel Genius inside of it.

I know, not the best decision making process. However it is mine. This isn’t to say I don’t like the other products in the bundle. This $40 gift set for example comes with several products I like.

Pinkly the Best Includes:

Clean On Me Hydrating Body Wash 500ml

The Scrub Of Your Life Exfoliating Body Scrub 200ml

The Righteous Butter Body Butter 300ml

Hand Food Hydrating Hand Cream 125ml

Heel Genius Foot Cream 125 ml

Face Soap Clarity Face Wash

Reusable Soap & Glory white and pink tin

The Clean on me Hydrating Body Wash and Scrub of Your Life are two products I purchase for my shower every so often. I like the scent and the effectiveness. The scrub of your life is quite exfoliation-tastic, although not overly harsh on the skin. Because of the exfoliation I can’t use it daily, but for a couple of times a week it is fabulous.

My mother loves the Righteous Body Butter and Hand Cream so those two items will be passed on as stocking stuffers. I have never tried the clarity face wash from the brand so i am looking forward to giving that a go. and truthfully the Tin is going straight into my laundry room. I have a collection of dryer balls, which I absolutely love, but I need a container to corral them in and this will quite frankly work perfectly.

So nothing in this gift set will go to waste.

But I did purchase it for the Heel Genius Foot Cream.

I am posting about this as part of the Holiday Gifts posts not only because this and many other Soap and Glory Products and Bundles make great gifts, but as a reminder that sometimes great products do not have to break the bank.

This Heel Genius Foot cream costs only about $7 and it is the best foot cream I have ever used. It is a drug store product although my local Walgreens tends to run out of this on a regular basis so picking it up is always hit or miss. Hence the reason I specifically make a point to pick it up at the holidays. I do a lot of walking and my feet really take a beating. I have tried a lot of pricier items but in the end, i always come back to this. I have forgotten about foot care for several months and then realized suddenly that i am going to be wearing open shoes where people will be assaulted with my heavily calloused feet and rolled in this Heel Genius for an emergency rescue.

An hour before bed, when I am settled and reading in bed before sleep, I will slather my feet with this cream and pull on a pair of socks. (I can’t sleep in socks for some reason so I take the hour before bed to do this and then peel the socks off just before sleep.) Three nights of this and my callouses are softened, A week and my feet are soft and hydrated. Every time.

Sometimes we get caught up in the new and expensive and we forget the old reliable, and inexpensive products. This is a reliably good product and it deserves to be remembered. And if you can get a squadron of other nice products at the same time, even better.

This year, for me, The Heel Genius was found in the Pinkly the Best Holiday set from Soap and Glory. (Surprisingly though on the official website it is not listed as included in the kit so that may just be a US version.) Each year this is a treat to myself and each year I really enjoy it. It is my self care moment before the craziness of the holidays arrives. Some of the products I will pass on to those I know will love them but most I will keep for myself. It is Happy Holiday to me and I am well pleased.

Weekly Weight: 235.7 lbs

You have no idea how glad I am to see the scale go down like that this week. I don’t expect all of the extra weight to disappear like that and to be honest, I don’t expect to have as high a number of loss next week as I did this week.

With travel or holiday weight gain I seem to gain that weight back fairly quickly due to lack of my usual meal plan and exercise, but the weight I gain that quickly tends to come off fairly quickly as well. It is one of the reasons why I watch myself around the holidays, limiting the extravagances to what i really enjoy and staying on my healthy plan for the rest of the time. If I gain weight from the extravagances then it too comes off quickly.

while this weight wasn’t from holiday extravagances (and ten pounds was just the new scale correcting the measurements of the old one) I am very happy to see the weight start to come back off. It was actually more than I expected and I had to get off the scale, let it drop back to zero and get on again just to double check.

The numbers were the same and so the happy dance began. Personally I am taking this as my reward for not giving up when I gained that chunk of weight back. I am determined to get to a healthy weight. Set backs are going to happen because life is a very unpredictable journey. But those set backs are dealt with and the journey continues.

And yes I know it is just a number on a scale but it makes me fell very good when it goes down. I will be less obsessed with those numbers when my weight once again starts with a one instead of a two. until then, it is a tracking tool that I will use to the best of my ability without letting it rule and or dominate my thoughts. which is sometimes harder than others. But today I am happy and I will deal with any socio-cultural issues regarding weight at a later date. Today there is just victory in getting back to a healthier lifestyle.

Starting Weight: 246.0 lbs

Last Week’s Weight: 240.5 lbs

This Week’s weight: 235.7 lbs

Lost this week: 4.3 lbs

Lost thus far: 10.3 lbs

And so the journey continues.

The Daily: October 20th, 2022

Good Afternoon my darlings. I have to admit that today I didn’t feel like putting on any makeup. It just wasn’t the day for it. No real reason and since my day has mostly been long phone calls taken at my desk and answering lots of e-mails, I figured it was perfectly fine not to bother.

I whacked my hair into a messy ponytail and called it good. I did however put on my Depology Black Caviar Collagen Under Eye Masks and the Kissu Lip Mask from Tatcha.

The Depology eye masks I am using daily as i work through the jar. The container recommended daily use and so I am working them in. I started on October 11th and so we aren’t that far in but i have noticed that when I wake up my eyes are naturally less puffy than they were before I started the trial. I am hoping it is a cumulative effect sort of thing.

either way, I am never going to say no to eye masks. I love the under eye ones.

And I couldn’t resist the Tatcha lip mask while I worked. It is hands down my favorite lip mask. AND they just came out with a plum version. It is tinted. I think it might be a limited edition. And I have to admit. i know I have been trying to use up products before purchasing new, but I couldn’t resist and ended up ordering the Plum one. This is just a fantastic formula and the fact that this one is tinted means that technically i can use one in the night and one in the day. At least that is how i am justifying it. Tatcha is just hard to resist.

Okay lip products are really just quite difficult for me to resist in general. And we are going into winter where even if i choose to go sands makeup for the day I do still pit stuff on my lips.

I know, I am reaching for justification but the truth is, I couldn’t resist so i ordered it. I can’t wait to try it out.

Other than irresistible lip product purchases, it has been a quiet day. There have been phone calls. there have been e-mails and there was a walk. Mostly my day has been filled with the sound of the computer keyboard clickity clacking through the day. which is fine as my super long walks yesterday threw off my schedule. But I enjoyed those walks and I have to say, even with the busy day today, I regret nothing.

But now it is back to work for me. I hope your Thursday is shaping up to be exactly the sort of day you need and want. Have a great one.

The just past mid week masking with Purlisse

The Purlisse Blue Lotus and Seaweed Treatment Sheet mask is not a new one to me. I tend to buy these in packs and keep them around. They are really good in the winter because they are very hydrating and soothing. I like them particularly when we have cold icy winds that slide down from the mountains and steal all your moisture leaving you with a full body chap.

Well maybe not full body unless you are running around naked like a lunatic, but the winter winds leave every part of me that is exposed to wind feeling chapped. And you really shouldn’t run around starkers in the winter. If you are a nudist, stay inside before you catch pneumonia.

hard to smile when the mask will cover your lips

So if this is the perfect winter mask, why am I wearing it now? well like it actually. And when I reached in I pulled this mask out. It is actually the last of the pack that I bought a while ago. After I purchased it i realized how crazy my sheet mask drawer was getting and told myself i couldn’t buy more sheet masks until I whittled down the lot. Now i am trying to eliminate all that i have left in my collection before the end of the year.

Then I am probably signing back up for my Facetory subscription. Not only does Facetory have a really good selection of sheet masks but I want to try out some of the other skincare they offer and I think that might be a good way to do it. But that is beside the point. I will also be getting a pack of these Purlisse masks for use in February. That is the month of wind around here.

This Purlisse Blue Lotus and Seaweed mask had a subtle clean scent to it. The scent reminds me of the other items in the Blue Lotus line from Purlisse skincare actually. It is a really god line. I especially enjoyed the moisturizer. It has been a while since I’ve used a lot of Purlisse products but for a while I was routinely purchasing the Blue Lotus Moisturizer from them.

a little extra serum but otherwise a nicely moisturized face.

This sheet mask is pretty juicy but it isn’t dripping. I did have to pat off my hands once I’d applied it to my face. That isn’t too big a deal though. The serum doesn’t drip down my face and that is the most important thing. The material of the mask is a cotton like cloth that clings to every curve of the face. This means that the mask stays in contact with the skin the entire time that it is on. Which is important because if the mask isn’t touching your skin then your skin isn’t really benefitting from the mask.

After fifteen minutes of wear, the mask is removed. I always find there is a little too much serum left over for me to simply pat into the skin so I end up lightly patting my face with a soft cloth. It doesn’t rub off all of it but it takes the drippy bits off. And my skin feels chock a block full of moisture. This Purlisse Blue Lotus and Seaweed mask is a mask I have used often so there isn’t really anything surprising about it. But it is also a mask that I will consistently reorder because I really like what it does for my skin.

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Using the Final Depology Derma Face Sculpting Mask

Recently Depology sent over a box of products for me to try out for the purpose of review. Among them were the Depology Derma Face Sculpting Masks. These are masks designed specifically for your lower jaw line. According to the product page…

The Dēpology Sculpting Mask is infused with essential ingredients to tone and firm your chin, jowl and jawline. Designed with a soft yet firm textured cloth, this mask can be worn whilst getting ready in the morning.
Depology

And so I have been wearing them every other day, which is the recommended use. And this is the last mask in the pack so I thought it would be the perfect time to go over the experience.

First there is the mask itself. It is as the description suggests, a soft, yet firm textured cloth. It comes with a backing on it and when the backing is peeled off, the cloth has a very sticky side. While you do have to watch out for the mask sticking to itself, it is easy to peel off skin and hair. So if you happen to get little bits of hair caught in the mask, it isn’t going to rip the hair out or leave sticky goo in your hair.

This is actually important because you are using this in the morning before work and you don’t want to be trying to get something out out your hair, and because to wear the mask it does need to be looped over the ears where it will almost always come in contact with hair.

while the mask will stick to itself, it is easy to pull apart. And the stickiness keeps it in place on the skin. This is a mask for you lower jaw and it would be pointless if the mask didn’t stick to your lower jaw. any sagging and the mask is not touching the skin and therefore useless.

There was no sagging. I wore the mask for thirty minutes each use and had no issues with it sagging. It fit snuggly, yet comfortably and stayed exactly where I put it. I’ll admit, the first few time I wore the mask I did feel a little silly, but I got over it with each use.

there is no scent to this mask at all. So if you are sensitive to scent you are all good. The full ingredients list is fairly short.

Full Ingredients: Water, Algae (Seaweed) Extract, Glycerin, Anthocyanins, Sodium Polyacrylate, Tocopherol (Vitamin E).

The water is in the mix because the mask is hydrating your skin so the moisture has to come from somewhere. It is better to come from the product than your skin. Seaweed also helps to hydrate the skin and can also help remove dead skin cells so your skin looks brighter. Glycerin is also a humectant, which means it draws moisture from the air and into the skin so it too is there for hydration. Anthocyanins are generally thought to be antioxidant and anti inflammatory. Sodium Polyacrylate is a synthetic polymer that helps stabilize everything and Tocopherol (Vitamin E) is a fat soluble anti oxidant that can help protect the skin from free radicals.

And that is the sum total of the ingredients. It is a combination of things that is designed to help hydrate and protect the skin. The band itself gives you some lifting time and I think over time would show some pretty decent results, a but like remembering to use your Gua Sha each day and seeing results from the consistent lifting.

In the pictures you can see my face before I started the mask and when I took the last mask off. I’ll grant you there is not a lot of difference, but there are some small changes. I did use the masks for a relatively short time. While there are some small changes, I expect that if I were to continue using these Depology Derma Face Sculpting Masks for an extended period of time, like a month or more, the effects would become much more noticeable. Like all skin care it requires repeated and consistent use.

So the end result of this trial is to ask if i would be willing to try more of these masks, using them more often. The answer is yes. I know there is nothing harmful in them, I rather enjoyed using them actually once I got used to them and I have seen some small changes in my skin and jawline since using them. I think these Depology Derma Face Sculpting Masks are well worth giving a try.