Winter Skin Care

2 years ago at Christmas I came back to the midwest for about 5 days. By the end of my visit my skin felt like and was peeling off my face. There was nothing I could do to keep the moisture in. Last year, I purchased the Kiehl's holiday 'moisture rescue' pack just for my trip. It contained all of their intense moisturizing products in travel size. Perfect for my quick trip!
Needless to say, I'm spending a little more than a week in the depth of midwest winter this year. I started scrambling for every cream, serum and mask I could find about a month ago. I've finally widdle my collection down to the select few below!

Olay Total Effects Moisturizer Plus - Mature Therapy 
This is my everyday, every season moisturizer. Why "Mature"? Apparently during menopause your skin dries out so you need a better formatted moisturizer. I did try the regular version and I just didn't feel like it penetrated deep enough. It did a great job on the surface, but I find the "Mature Therapy" to be more cream like and moisturize thoroughly.

 

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Overnight Hydrating Mask
So easy, convenient and DEEPLY moisturizing. When my skin gets really dry it starts to feel "crispy" underneath my skin. This gets rid of this feeling almost instantly. I also have really dry skin on my arms that this works great on. I imagine it would have divine effects on the feet, but I haven't tried it yet.

Aveda Hand Relief
It is a little greasy, but I like the smell much better than Keihl's hand cream and you can get it in purse size!

Kiel's Creme De Corps
I normally use Aveeno, but in the winter I've switched to this. It gets moisturizes deeply and gets rid of the "crispy" feeling on your body.

Friday Five

Just a few things that have made a life a little better in recent days ...{or months}


1) Lemon Water
I had heard about the glories of lemon water before and started to give it a try. It's quite honestly been perfect. Soothing, sweet and quite easy to turn the kettle on, wash my face, brush my teeth and pour a cup of water.  It has plenty of other health benefits that Wellness Mama discusses here.

2)Laura Mercier Lip Glace
About 6 months ago a friend convinced me to splurge Laura Mercier's lip glace. I was in NYC and need a new neutral ASAP. She claimed it would be worth the $28 price tag and I have to say it is.
Winter in notoriously dry and having returned from a 2 week trip to the midwest, I was on a pretty heavy chapstick regimen, but was loosing the little guys everywhere. I'd often just have to turn to my Lip Glace and it seemed to work just fine. It wasn't until I brought out my Chanel lipgloss that I truly noticed the difference. I wanted a bright for NYE and turned to Tocade. My the end of the night my lips were basically peeling off. It was not pretty by any means. In that moment I realized what I had in Merciers Glace, not only a fun gloss but a powerful moisturizer for every day use. I went back and bought several shades, my favorite for everyday use is Blush.

3) Yummie Leggings
Tummy taming and a solid quality legging? Yes. Please.

4)Amazing Hairdryer
I finally got my fan-cay hairdryer for Christmas! My finger dry time is down to 10 mins, 30 mins for a blow out! Cannot get better than that. If you have thick hair, or blow dry daily I cannot stress how much you should invest in this!

5) Wunderlist
For some reason when I updated my iPhone, the Reminders app crapped out. I downloaded Wunderlist to keep my random daily thoughts and reminders and shopping lists together. I do my best thinking on public transportation in the morning and its great to have this guy handy to write things downs and set deadlines.

Weekend Wish List

I've been in major electronic lust lately! I hope that doesn't mean I'm becoming a grown up. They're {mostly} for functional reasons so that makes large purchases okay right?

Blender
One of my girlfriends, my current Junior League Co-Char, got me hooked on this amazing protein powder. My old job had all the supplies so I was able to just come into work with my container of powder. No such luck at my new job and spending $8 a day on a smoothie is just not economical. After, extensive, research I think I'm going to go with this Ninja NJ600. It rated better than all but 1 Vitamix in Consumer Reports and it's 1/3rd of the price.

Did I just mention Consumer Reports in blog post? Who am I right now?

Hairdryer

I've spent the last year growing my hair out and I'm searching for new ways of managing it and maintaining its health. Straightening seems to be the quickest, but also the most damaging. Again, at my old job they had super nice hair dryers in the gym so I was able to use them there and blow dry in ~ 20 min. My current $25 Walgreens number takes about 45 mins to blow dry and still leaves all sorts of frizzies. I am sooo longing for a Super Solano!

Clairsonic

I absolutely love my Origins Rice Microdermabrasion scrub. I do it once a week, but I usually wash my face in the shower and its hard to fit into my routine. I'd love to be able to just turn on this little guy and scrub everything off!

Decent Speakers

My company got free tickets to a concert at the symphony hall and I was able to go to, somewhat oddly, Melissa Etheridge playing with the symphony. The sound in there was. ABSOLUTELY. AMAZING. From classic Ravel to 90's rock, everything gave me goosebumps. I really need to upgrade my sad little laptop speakers.

Recent {Beauty} Obsessions!

Almay Liquid Lip Balm ( in Rosy Lipped)
I have largish lips and it bothers me to bring tons of attention to them. I usually stick with a nude lip gloss to add a little color, but isn't over bearing. I was using a Gap lipgloss for a while (soo 1998, but I loved it) and then they stopped making it. On a trip to Target, I needed a quick replacement  (because finding the perfect lipgloss requires months of research and sampling) and I grabbed this lip gloss mostly because of the color. #1 it turned out to be on sale for $2.99 and then #2 it turned out to be awesome. The color is a neutral with a hint of pink so it doesn't wash out your lips, it lasts forever and isn't sticky at all!!


Origins Modern Friction
In the summer, my skin is oily so I wash my face twice a day. This leads to drying in my t-zone and really attractive skin flakes that attract all the foundation I put on to 1 area. I've used Orgins Modern Friction a couple times a month, but I've upped it to once or twice a week now and it keeps my skin so smooth and those really attractive skin flakes in check!

Bliss Ingrown Eliminating Pads
With all the summer weather I have been shaving a TON (and maybe mixing a little shaving with waxing...sshhhh) but with shaving a lot and cross-waxing comes copious amounts of ingrowns. I've tried a couple things but my Waxer turned me on to Bliss Ingrown Eliminating Pads and they work great! They're not overly drying and they're easier to travel with then liquid roll-ons....oh and they smell great too!

Aveda Damage Remedy Daily Hair Repair
I'm trying to grow my hair out, but it gets frustrating when the ends start looking dry and I have to get a trim. My hair stylist told me it was due to heat damage and recommended this heat protectant to keep the ends looking great. It's also a detangler and has quinoa protein to repair existing damage!