The Body Shop Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream Review

Not a very catchy title, I know, but I didn’t know how to make a night cream sound exciting. But if you’re looking for a new night cream or have been checking out The Body Shop products, read on!

I snagged The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil skin care kit not too long ago (the review is here if you missed it). I just so happened to buy the kit during a Body Shop buy one get one half off sale – pssh, no way can this girl let a good deal go by. Some of The Body Shop’s products are a little pricey! My skin is oily but sometimes gets really dry. How does that even happen? I certainly have no idea, but it makes a nourishing night cream sound good. Which is why when I spotted The Body Shop Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream a few shelves away from the Tea Tree Oil kit, I decided to check it out.

The Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream is a formula designed to revitalize and repair your skin by replenishing and balancing antioxidant and moisture levels – while you sleep! Your skin does all the repairs and resting it needs while you sleep, and this night cream is meant to capitalize on and help that process. This cream is usually $20/1.67 oz (what an odd number of ounces, right?), but with the sale? 10 bucks! Alright Body Shop, I’ll try it for $10.

Yay for no animal testing!

I bought this pretty little pink container and took it home, excited to try a new night cream. I was a little disappointed when I opened it because the tub was sealed, but it looked like someone had taken a big scoop out of the inside. This is usually $20 bucks and isn’t even completely filled? Body Shop – tsk, tsk!

What the devil is this?

At the bottom of the scoop slope, you can see the bottom of the jar. I hit the bottom of the jar without even using it; that’s impressive. Sigh. Anyways, I scooped some out and dabbed it on my arm, then smoothed some out next to it so that you could get an idea of the texture:

The pros:

1. This cream has a light, delicate scent to it that dissipates once it’s on your face.
2. It feels lightweight and rich at the same time and glides smoothly onto skin.
3. Although it is a rich cream, it absorbs fairly quickly into your skin.
4. A little goes a long way with this product.
5. It feels great on dry, winter skin…it’s like I can hear my thirsty skin saying “thank you!” as I’m massaging it in.

The cons:

1. If you have oily skin, you may want to use this sparingly, only on dry spots, or every other day. I used it every night when I first got it and I woke up every morning with my face looking/feeling significantly oilier than usual. I don’t like looking like an oil slick (does anybody?), so I had to really cut back.
2. The Body Shop is kind of a con artist with this product. The Shop website lists the container as having 1.7 ounces, but it only has 1.67 ounces (plus a big empty spot in the tub itself. Can you tell I’m a little salty over that? Cuz I am). Sneakiness is not appreciated Body Shop, just so you know.
3. My really dry spots that I focus it on are still dry by morning, although not as much as they were prior to applying the cream. However, the rest of my face is moisturized and soft.

My verdict? I don’t know, the verdict is still out on this one. I don’t think I’d buy it again for $20 since it doesn’t seem to mix well with my oily combination skin. However, it does feel really nice on my face after the winter weather has dried it out. Luckily, this container will last me awhile so I have plenty of time to decide whether or not it’s worth repurchasing.

You can snag this for $20 from The Body Shop or beauty specialty stores like Ulta. It’s listed as no longer available through Sephora’s website, but they may have it in store. The Body Shop is currently having a sale – buy 1 get 1 50% off, buy 2 get 1 free, or buy 3 get 2 free – so if you’re interested in trying this product, now might be a good time.

Vivant SkinCare Sulfur Clay Mask Review

Today I bring you a skin care product I recently purchased, Vivant Skincare’s Sulfur Clay Mask with Zinc. I use face masks here and there when I feel like my skin needs some extra attention, but usually just the drug store variety. Those kinds of masks do provide a nice short term fix for breakouts and/or oily skin, but I’ve been wanting a more in-depth treatment mask for awhile. I signed on to Hautelook one day and there it was – a Vivant Skincare section, like Hautelook knew I had been looking for some new skincare products.

Vivant offers several different face masks, but I chose the Sulfur Clay Mask with Zinc because it is designed specifically for acne-prone skin. According to Vivant, this mask contains 10% sulfur meant to help clear up blemishes and allow skin to heal.

The product is a very thick cream that feels a bit slippery when you first touch it. It is heavy but that also means that you get good coverage and a little goes a long way. The mask does contain sulfur but doesn’t stink like I thought it would – fragrance is listed as an ingredient, so I think Vivant took steps to mask any sulfur odor. The mask doesn’t smell great, but it doesn’t smell bad – I actually can’t quite put my finger on the scent.

Swatched onto my bare forearm

The directions on the container say to spot test this product on several areas of use before applying to your full face to make sure your skin doesn’t react poorly to it. I spot tested different patches on my face several different times before using as a full mask. According to the directions, you need to “cleanse skin thoroughly before applying medication. Apply a generous layer of the mask to face avoiding the eye area.” I washed my hands, then washed and toned my face and lightly patted it dry. Afterwards, I applied the mask using my fingers.

Just applied

Just applied – avoiding my eye area!

I made sure to avoid my eye area but somehow got the mask all up in my eyebrows. Woops.

I could feel this mask instantly tightening and tingling. I was actually a little freaked out by how strong the tingling was for a second because I thought maybe my skin was having a reaction of some sort to the mask. I decided to leave it on because all my spot tests were okay and figured if I ended up looking like a monster-face because of the mask then…well…so be it. Luckily, the tingling calmed itself down after a minute and my face felt fine, just uber tight from the mask drying. The product dries on your skin like a rock. I sat down and was reading the news on my computer while I waited out the 15 minutes you’re supposed to leave it on – I made a face at an article and my keyboard got showered in little dried-facemask flakes from it cracking off around my expression lines.

Desert-dry mask face

After sitting for 15 minutes

After 15 minutes of drying into a cracked desert-face, I got a washcloth wet and dampened my face in sections. Then I got the washcloth wet again and gently dabbed the product off my face before fully washing it off with my hands. If you just try to wash this off in the sink like a face wash, you’re not going to get far fast. On the flip side, if you immediately go at your face with a wash cloth, you’re going to scratch the bejeebus out of your skin. Take your time and be gentle.

The pros:

1. My face felt so clean and fresh after I took this mask off! It was oil-free and I felt like my pores were thanking me.
2. I actually had a few little blackheads on my face come right out after the mask on their own. Kind of gross detail, I know, sorry – but that impressed me because does that happen with your face wash? Probably not; it sure doesn’t with mine.
3. It doesn’t look like I made even a teensy dent in my container and I did apply it generously. I think this bad boy is going to last me a long time.

The cons:

1. My face felt pretty darn dry after taking this off. However, the directions do tell you to only use this once a week at first because excessive drying may occur. I just slapped some moisturizer on and was good to go.
2. The ingredients list talc and two parabens. This doesn’t bother me but some people are sensitive to these ingredients, so I felt like I should mention it.

I have only used this mask a few times so far, but I’m already really happy with my purchase. This mask feels much more effective than any drugstore masks I’ve tried, so those masks may be a thing of the past for this beauty blogger. I suggest giving this mask a shot if you have trouble skin like I do! The only catch – check with your doctor if you’re using any topical medications already, just in case. I snagged this face mask on a special from Hautelook for about $16; it normally retails for $31.50/4 oz. from Vivant Skincare.

 

Possible Good News for My Skin Woes – Kleraderm

Provided you are a daily/somewhat-daily reader, you probably know by now that I have some skin issues going on. I’m in my mid-20s and my skin isn’t sure if it still wants to belong on a teenager (breakouts out the wazoo) or on an adult (starting to get fine expression lines, womp womp). I’ve tried a lot of products and am currently giving The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Skin Care a try.

After experiencing a particularly bad waves of breakouts earlier this week, I was surfing the web and having a mini pity-party for myself when I stumbled across another beauty blog. This blogger was reviewing a company called Klerderm. This skin-care company started in Italy and has moved to Nordstroms in recent years. The women who run the company believe in using topical solutions that work effectively without breaking the bank (holla! Sorry, I had to). Supposedly, the sisters who run the U.S branch of this company have been using their own products for years and no longer need any makeup outside of lips and eye products. Say what? If you ask me what products I used on my skin, I’ll have to ask you how much time you have.

Anyways, the blogger said that if you emailed one of the sisters (Joanne) about your skin troubles, she’d email you back with suggestions. Yeah, okay – I’ve had enough experience with PR to know that sometimes emailing you back takes months, if it even happens. But I figured the worst that could happen is that I didn’t hear back, so I shot her an email. I emailed Joanne at night before bed and she emailed me back the next morning! Whoa!

I didn’t send Joanne a picture of my skin, just a typed description. She suggested not over-exfoliating because I have oily skin; according to her, too much exfoliation actually makes your skin produce more oil. Joanne also advised me to steer clear of mineral oil. Mineral oil is one of those products that has a reputation up in the air – some people swear it’s horrible for you, others swear it’s just fine. The proven problem with it is that it forms a barrier on your skin that doesn’t let it breath, which can result in breakouts for acne-prone people. Joanne also suggested Kleraderm products to try – and then asked for my address so she could send me free samples. Sweet!

I haven’t gotten my samples yet but will update you once I do and try them out. I’m super excited that this company is friendly enough to build their business in such a personable way. You can check out Kleraderm’s site here.

More importantly, you can find out details about the company and get Joanne’s email through the blog that I did, BeautyInfoZone – http://beautyinfozone.com/giveaways/its-finally-here-the-kleraderm-giveaway-enter-to-win-a-200-botofit-serum/.

Nailed it! Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

My skin is still going haywire, so today I bring you another nail/skin product – Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream.

Meet Burt

I had heard about this product before but never bought it because I had never needed it…until recent months. Winter weather dries my skin out like nobody’s business. Cold air comes around and just like that my hands turn red and chapped – not pleasant! I also have a polish addiction, which means I’m constantly putting polish on and taking it off. My nails can get a little brittle. Okay, a lot brittle (I broke a nail opening cereal a week or so ago – how does that even happen?). So I finally caved and bought Burt’s Cuticle Cream, although not the full-size product.

Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream is a blend of Lemon Peel Oil, Beeswax, Sweet Almond Oil, Cocoa Seed Butter, Vitamin E, Rosemary Extract, and Sunflower Oil. These ingredients work together to moisturize and soften cuticles while nourishing brittle nails. Basically, it’s a fix for fingertips that are in need of some lovin.

How do you use it? Wash your hands and then massage the cream into cuticles/nails. Easy peasy. Here is how the cream looks in the pot (after multiple uses) –

And freshly rubbed onto my nekkid nails/cuticles –

Nail nudity! The cream makes my nails look a little greasy, but not my cuticles.

The pros:

1. It’s got a nice, fresh lemon scent. I don’t really like lemons, but I like the clean scent of this cuticle cream. It’s a little like Pledge and a lemon drop mixed, which doesn’t sound good but I actually don’t mind it.
2. It absorbs fairly quickly provided you massage it in.
3. It works quickly to soften cuticles and nourish nails. The night I bought this I reapplied it every hour or so because I was loving how nice my nail area looked and felt after use.
4. My nails are no longer peeling and are not breaking as easily. I didn’t have horrible cuticles but they still feel better after using this.

The cons:

1. Lemon-scented things aren’t everyone’s jam. The scent doesn’t really linger but if you can’t stand that scent at all, you probably want to steer clear of this.
2. You end up with greasy fingers if you don’t massage it in.
3. This little tin can be a pain in the rumpus to open! I have to kind of wiggle it off half the time. Or hand it to my hubs since the tin seems to like him better.
4. It’s not actually a cream, as the name suggests. It’s like a hardened oil that melts with skin contact. I knew it contained oils because of the main ingredients, but figured they were worked into a cream. Nope. I could have probably guessed this texture though had I looked at the full ingredients list, which lists canola and vegetable oil at the end. I don’t mind the texture, but I think I would prefer a cream that I could scoop out and really rub into my nails – with this formula, you rub your finger through the pot and apply onto the nail area from that finger.

My verdict? I like this product; I can definitely see a change in my cuticles/nails after repeated use. It didn’t totally knock my socks off, but I can see myself repurchasing once this tin is empty. Lotion alone doesn’t cut it or help my nails, so I do need a product like this one. Try using it overnight so it can really work some magic on your fingers. I also rub this into my knuckles when they start to become painfully dry. I’ve heard that people have used this on/around lips and undereyes for moisture there but doubt I’ll try that for myself – I don’t want to accidentally ingest this or get lemon oils in my eye as the product is not intended for either of those areas.

You can purchase the full-size version of this product through Burt’s Bees for $6. It’s also available wherever Burt’s Bees products are sold, such as major drugstores (like CVS), mass goods stores (like Target), and beauty retailers (like Ulta). Keep an eye out for gift sets if you want to try this product but not buy it at full size – I got my small tin in a gift set with a Burt’s chapstick for about $4.00.