Manolo for the Beauty

I like to check out Sephora’s sale pages from time to time, as they can feature some pretty good deals.  Here are some products that tickled my fancy, and trust me, my fancy is hard to tickle.

Sephora Collection Classic Double-Ended Brow Sculpting Brush

Rave reviews and over 50% off!

Hello Kitty Shimmering Powder and Eyeshadow Palette

Again, lots of glowing reviews and for those holding back on any of the Hello Kitty products, this might be a good one to go for.

benefit Cabana Glama

Just the thing to keep that summer glow going at sixteen bucks off the original price.

philosophy Candy Cane™ Body Scrub

Christmas in July for a steal!

Meh.

I received this as a Christmas gift because my family knows I enjoy a good exfoliator.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing that they know this or not, but hey, if it gets me free stuff then I’m all for it.

I like my exfoliating washes, especially for the body, to be thisclose to being painful.  You see, in my irrational mind, if I can’t feel the top layer of skin being removed as I use it, then it isn’t any good.

In this department, The Microdelivery  does not deliver.  Actually, I’m not even sure how this could be considered to be even mildly exfoliating.  Whatever the things are that purport to be scrubbing your skin are VERY soft.  Therefore to me, FAIL.

And, unlike many philosophy products, this doesn’t even smell good.

So I find using it to be a colossal waste of time, because if it doesn’t at least smell good, then I’ve got much better things to do.

But for those of you who enjoy fooling yourself into thinking your washcloth has fantastic exfoliating properties, then this just might be your thing.

I added that caveat above because I have suddenly noticed a flurry of dark spot concealers that had gone unnoticed by moi from the likes of philosphy, Caudalie, Dr. Brandt, and even Clinique.

I have two medium sized dark spots on the top of each cheek, and they are starting to bug the heck out of me.

My two unwelcome guests first appeared during my first pregnancy.  I panicked, and then found out that it was something that happened quite commonly to pregnant women, and relaxed.  After my son was born, the spots faded quite a bit, but never truly went away.  But, I could easily cover them up without a problem, even though it annoyed me to do so.

My second pregnancy is when they apparently decided to make my cheeks their permanent home, since my daughter is turning two next month and they haven’t faded in the least.

And who knows? It could also possibly be sun damage as well, since Lord knows I didn’t use much sunscreen for the first 25 years of my life.  I also have a thyroid disease, which is listed as another possible cause.

So fantastic, I’ve got this ungodly trifecta of causes and it will probably take some sort of miracle for these things to pack their bags and leave.

Has anyone tried any of the dark spot concealers?  Any recommendations?  Anything to avoid?

You all were so helpful to KESW on the e.l.f. post, I thought I would give all you experts out there a chance to help ME!

I  normally tend to stay away from products that purport to be multi-purpose.  For some reason, I don’t trust a product that says it is going to work as well on my hair as it does on my skin.

But, it was a semi-emergency in that I was already in the shower and too lazy to get out and get my shampoo, which was on the kitchen table.  OK, so maybe not much of an emergency, but I bet you would have done the same thing.

I used the philosophy product both as a soap and shampoo, even though I didn’t really need to use it as a soap, just because I love you guys that much.  How can I give a review of only one part of a three part product? 

Let me just say this, if you don’t have anything else, yeah, you can use it as a shower gel.  It isn’t outstanding, though.  Definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to use it for that purpose.

Surprisingly, I preferred it as a shampoo.  It cleansed my hair nicely and didn’t leave any kind of weird residue.  My biggest concern was that it would dry my hair out, but it did nothing of the sort.

And my hair smelled like cake, which was a bonus.   They’ve got lots of different, delectable scents, so feel free to go wild.