February Empties.. The Moisturizing Month

Not only is February the shortest month of the year, but it's usually the coldest here as well. Because of that, the only products I managed to get through were ones that I thought would provide me with some heavy duty moisture.

Kiehl's Superbly Smoothing Argan Hair Pak: Winter plus heat styling have turned my hair into a hot, brittle mess this year. I went on a hunt for the perfect hair mask to combat whatever the heck is happening up there. Unfortunately, most of my hair 'miracle' workers from Memebox turned out to be duds, aside from the ones I went through last month. I was so desperate that I went to Kiehl's and paid the $35 for an 8oz. jar of this stuff. I blame all the positive reviewers at MakeupAlley. Aside from all of the raves on performance, the one downside everyone listed, and I will confirm, is that it stinks. It's not going to make your hair smell nice and pretty like a lot of other argan/coconut based oil treatments. To be honest, I used to wash my hair with apple cider vinegar and condition it with olive oil so, to me, anything beats coming out of the shower smelling like a salad.

enesti Apple & Honey Shea Butter Hand Cream: Memebox Special #53: My Honey Box had some real gems; however, this hand cream wasn't one of them. So what if it smelled spectacular and I wanted to eat my hands every time I put it on? It didn't really do anything else for me. After the smell wore off, it appeared as if the moisturizing effects did as well. To be honest, I considered tossing this hand cream a few times before I had finished it, but the scent kept sucking me back in. Perhaps Julep has spoiled me for all other hand care, because I probably would have loved this had I not tried my Maven products first. I mean, it didn't feel greasy, but it didn't automatically give my hands a healthy look or make them baby soft as soon as it absorbed either. Often Korean drugstore and low-end skincare outperform their much higher priced Western competitors, but in this case, the $5 value given by Memebox for the cream seems pretty accurate.

The Face Shop Lovely Me:Ex BeBe Lip Essence: As I've mentioned before in my November Empties post, this is my holy grail lip product. The only reason I haven't used more of them this winter is because I've been trying to use up the million or so other balms, treatments, glosses, and butters that came in some of my monthly subscriptions. So far, this one has them all beat. I can't get through more than half of something else before returning to my Bebe Lip Essence. If The Face Shop ever discontinued it, I'm convinced my lips would just shrivel up and die.

insobeau Super Yellow Intense Renew Essence: Now that I'm a bit more familiar with the Korean skincare regime, I can confidently say, this product is not an essence in the traditional sense. Most of the essences I've tried have been much thinner. The consistency of the insobeau product is more like a lotion or an emulsion. I'm not complaining. I've never had dry skin, but for some reason, my face decided this winter it would throw me a curve ball. I had to cut out a lot of products, like most of my toners and serums since they dried me out. If I didn't have this 'essence' on hand I would have had to go out and emergency buy even more Western skincare than I did. It still functioned well amid my Bioderma cleansers and toners, while providing sufficient moisture to the greasier parts of my face. While using it I was able to only spot treat my dry patches, so I wouldn't break out the areas that were retaining their moisture. I wish I had a backup because I'm really going to miss it. I can't find it anywhere online. I'm hoping someone is hoarding it and will put it up for trade soon so I can make it through the rest of the season!

Julep Hand and Cuticle Stick: I have a confession to make. I bite my nails. That's not the horrid part. You know that skin around your nails that usually gets dry and hard during the frigid winters because you refuse to wear gloves? I used to bite that too. Notice I said 'used to'. I consider Julep's Hand and Cuticle Stick my little saviour. Not only is it super moisturizing without being greasy, so the skin stays soft and supple, but in the event it does get a little chapped, the balm tastes NASTY. That's incentive not to bite right there. It also makes my hands look less shriveled and worked in after a long day of steering wheel gripping, snow shoveling, and driveway salting (all done without gloves). Thank you, Julep, for you peptide, shea butter, and vitamin infused wonder! Even after all the praise though, I would never pay the $22USD that Julep 'charges' for the product. I've always waited until they put one of their hand care kits on sale to get more bang for my buck. I usually pay about $20 for 5 products versus full price for 1. In desperate times I've also been known to check out every coupon site on the web (retailmenot.com is my fave!), since Julep always seems to have a few out at a time.

Disclaimer: My camera is still on the fritz, so I had to use stock images from manufacturer and retailer websites. Also, some of the links are affiliate links.

November Empties aka The Great Topbox Purge of '14

This month's Topbox was such a disappointment to me that I decided to purge my stash of the remaining products I received. I want to start a fresh beauty routine in 2015, and there is no better way to do that to de-clutter.

Here's what I managed to use in November, from worst to best (in my opinion):

Barefoot Venus Lip Fable in Honey: This is from a Topbox I received ages ago. I was saving it for the winter since I had heard such great things about this product.  What a letdown. Their website lists the retail value as $7.50, but I probably wouldn't pay more than $2 for this product. Why? I find the moisture effects hardly last and it just sits on top of my lips, rather than absorbing like the many other balms I use. The texture is a bit like Vaseline, and to be honest, I prefer the latter for dry lip season.

Redken Extreme Rescue Force Fortifying Treatment: Yet another Topbox sample product, and another that didn't do much for me. This hair mask has actually been discontinued by Redken and so it's hard to predict the actual value, but it works just like any standard drug store conditioner. Also, I wonder whether it was sent out by Topbox before or after it had been discontinued. Just another strike against the subscription in my book. I swapped out my Moroccan Oil Smoothing Conditioner in order to use this up, and while it's not terrible, when something performs slightly less than what I'm used to, I notice right away.

 Skinfood Facial Water Vita-C Cream: Another product I am indifferent to, but surprisingly, this one came from my favourite beauty box, Memebox. My skin is quite picky, and while this one kept my face hydrated as the weather got colder, without causing me to break out, I've received products that are far superior to this from Memebox. I did love the light texture and the morning pick-me-up it provided. Skinfood recommends keeping this cream in the refrigerator, and to anyone who has it in their possession, so do I. The card I received with my Memebox lists the value at $13. This is actually less than most of your run of the mill drugstore brands, which is what I would have to run out and buy if I was in a pinch. The issue is that the cream isn't readily available anywhere nearby and so I'd probably purchase something from Neutrogena before I got my hands on this again.

Bioderma Sebium Purifying Foaming Gel: I really enjoyed this cleanser, which I received in my September 2014 Topbox. It did take me a while to get to it since I was mad at Topbox for sending me three Bioderma products in a row. I was planning on boycotting Bioderma all together, but then my Clarisonic died and their cleanser stopped being as effective. I tried a few other samples I had in my stash and this Bioderma gel outperformed them all. I didn't break out, produce any excess oil on my t-zone, and my skin didn't feel overly tight or stripped of moisture, I got a good two weeks out of the 15ml sample and considering the full size is $20 and 200ml, the value seems to be there. I am really considering buying this again at my local Shoppers Drug Mart if the cleanser I'm using from Memebox doesn't work out.

 

Mizon Magic Peeling Foot: I am a foot peeling mask convert. The whole idea of this product was gross to me, mostly because I think feet are disgusting, but after trying my first one, I am a woman changed. This little sachet saved me from spending $40 on a sub-par pedicure. I admit, it took a lot of patience not to move around too much while the booties were on my feet (for at least an hour and a half), but I got to catch up on Arrow in bed instead of making strained small talk at a salon. I received this in my Foot Therapy Memebox, and while they have a retail value of $11 listed, I managed to pick up a few The Face Shop foot peeling masks on Black Friday for 40% off. I'm set for the whole season!

The Face Ship Lovely Me:Ex BeBe Lip Essence: This is my holy grail lip product. I am absolutely in love. I will probably use about five of them before winter is over. It's not necessarily the hydrating aspect that sucked me in, even though it performs in that department, but it looks so pretty on! This is what I use during the day because it actually makes me look like I'm wearing an lip product and not a balm. It makes my lips look soft and pillowy, and enhances my natural colour. I just cannot gush about my BeBe Lip Essence enough. It's $9 at The Face Shop, but I bought a few during their 20% off sale, and then more of them on Black Friday.

It Takes Me Twenty Minutes to Wash My Face

For the past few months I have been ranting and raving to anyone who will listen about The Face Shop. They are a Korean beauty retailer who bought out the Fruits and Passion chain in Canada and converted all their stores into perfectly lit slices of kitsch heaven. My mall actually has two of them.

Besides a few masks here and there, my Face Shop purchases have been strictly makeup. I am pretty sure I own their full line of lip balms, lip tints, cheek blushers, nail tattoos and Mini Pet hand creams. When I decided to branch out to find other Korean makeup retailers, I came across Memebox, the online K-Beauty 'subscription box' service. Everyone knows I can't resist a sub-box.

I've received a few masks, cleansers, and serums along with the makeup I was after, but used them casually. I tried to integrate them into my Western skincare routine, but I didn't really think they were making much of a difference. It turns out, I was doing it all wrong. Each one of these potions and lotions serves an important purpose, which I'm still trying to understand. Honestly, I didn't realize the composition of the products and the order they were used in was such a big deal until I read this amazing blog post over at Harlot Beauty.

Today I tried it ... and my face feels like a baby's butt. I actually unwrapped all of the items I received in my Skinfood Memebox, picked up the missing essentials at The Face Shop, and did a full run through. It took twenty minutes and it was twenty minutes well spent. I mentioned previously that the skin on my face is comparable to that of an elephant, well, not anymore!

I'm going to give it a few days before I write a glowing review of these Skinfood and Face Shop items, only because this euphoria could be temporary. But for my face's sake, I hope not!

Note: I've included my Memebox affiliate link in this post for anyone interested in checking it out. You can use the code XP1OWK to get $5 off any order of $30 or more.