Love At First Sight: 10 Products I’m Smitten With
It’s a rough job but someone’s gotta do it: test out the latest and greatest new beauty products, assess their efficacy and impact, test again and again, decide which ones to share and which ones are not worthy of telling my readers about. And occasionally, there are products that just ‘WOW’ me right from the start, they often reveal immediately noticeable results or impact and they tend shout: “Check me out, I am FAB-UNIQUE-DIFFERENT or unlike anything you have ever seen before” and these are the products that I become immediately obsessed with, can’t get enough of and can’t wait to tell the world how darn fabulous they are! Lately, there have been quite a few products that have wooed me right from the start, so I am excited to share my robust list of the 10 products that I am currently having a love affair with:
1) Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Glow Pad for Body ($45 for 8 Applications)
Dr. Gross has done it again by creating this amazing swoon worthy Glow Pad for the body. This innovative textured pad is an exfoliating, anti-aging self-tanner with Active Vitamin D that firms, increases cell turnover, provides a natural glow, smooths bumpy skin and helps reduce hair growth. It contains, alpha hydroxy acid (AHAs) to tackle bumpy skin and deliver a smooth even application, the beta hydroxy acids (BHAs) address body breakouts, and the DHA and soy proteins deliver color deep into skin to prevent fading.
What do I LOVE about Alpha Beta Glow Pads for the Body? OMG, everything! This product is totally amazing! It is the fastest, easiest self tanning product that I have ever used. You don’t need to exfoliate before, it takes about 5 minutes, covers my entire curvy body, it’s mostly goof proof and delivers a gorgeous tan within hours! The trick is to immediately use a body moisturizer to blend the tan right after application. FAB!
2) Hourglass No. 28 Primer Serum ($65)
Hourglass is an impressive collection of luxury cosmetics products and this new Primer Serum is a fabulous addition to the line. No. 28 Primer is a richly concentrated oil blend that nurtures your skin, hydrates your complexion, shields it against the elements and creates a smooth and supple canvas for makeup. The 28 in the name refers to number of amazing botanical ingredients used in the serum including 14 skin-softening essential oils, 10 lipid-rich plant oils and 4 vitamins.
What do I LOVE about No. 28 Primer Serum? This is a yummy, silky serum that my skin instantly drinks up and it immediately makes it smooth, supple and makeup ready. It has a pleasant light scent of lavender and rose geranium and I just love the way it makes my skin look and feel, it gives it a luminous hydrated glow. This inspired serum can also be used as a night time treatment or to seal your split ends. It’s a lovely, multi-purpose product and I am a fan!
3) NUDE Skincare Cleansing Facial Oil ($36)
Beauty editors have been raving about this miraculous facial cleansing oil for a while and I was excited to finally have the chance to try it out. This is a luxurious nutrient rich cleansing oil that gently and thoroughly removes makeup without stripping or irritating your skin. It contains Omega 3 and Vitamin E to nourish and protect your skin and an intoxicating combination of fresh jasmine and gardenia to stimulate your senses.
What do I LOVE about NUDE Cleansing Facial Oil? It smells divine and transforms into a lovely cleansing milk when you add water, which then effortlessly removes my makeup and leaves my skin soft, clean and vibrant. I can definitely see what all the fuss is about!
4) Sakura Silk Mild Exfoliating Gel ($37.95)
This is one of those ‘wow’ products that I was recently introduced to at a professional beauty show and was immediately impressed because they demonstrated the visible results right before my eyes. Sakura Silk contains an exclusive blend of natural botanical enzymes and active ingredients that adhere to and react with protein on your skin and remove the dead skin cells on contact. You can actually see the dead skin cells flake off instantly and it leaves your skin silky smooth.
What do I LOVE about Sakura Silk Mild Exfoliating Gel? You can immediately see and feel this product gently removing your dead cells (don’t worry it doesn’t hurt) right before your eyes and its pretty cool to watch. I love that you can see the transformation and truly know that the product is doing something wonderful for your skin. It gets rid of that unnecessary gunk on your skin and leaves it clean, smooth and ready to absorb your products. You will love this one!
5) Masque*ology Hydrate & Repair Facial Mask ($24 for 3 masks)
These single use facial masks are all the rage in Korea! Every time I visit one of my fav Korean Spa’s, women everywhere have their faces covered in these trendy masks while basking in a sauna. Well, Masque*ology has brought this trend to the US market with their collection of ten skin transforming masks that contain advanced nutrients and ingredients to give your skin exactly what it needs. The Hydrate & Repair Mask contains a multitude of vitamins, amino acids and most importantly, caviar extract, an antioxidant that nourishes, repairs skin damage, provides moisture and stimulates cell metabolism.
What do I LOVE about Masque*ology Masks? These masks give your skin a concentrated and potent dose of skin transforming ingredients and immediately after I use it, my skin is moist, supple and radiant! I recently used the Hydrate & Repair Mask before an event and everyone kept complimenting me on how good my skin looked! Now you know my secret 
Spreading The Love This Mother’s Day Courtesy of AVON
Being a Brand Ambassador for AVON has it perks as you might imagine, and using my influence to bring joy to others is truly what makes my heart smile. So I had an inspired idea that I brought to AVON a month or so ago, that I would like to select a handful of women who are mothers and are very special to me, and gift each of them with their own personally curated assortment of my favorite Avon products in honor of Mother’s Day. I especially like the idea of gifting AVON products because they have such a vast selection of amazing products that are very affordable and high quality. Fun idea right?
So here is a glimpse of the lovely gift bags I sent out
And here are some of my favorite AVON products that I included in these special gift bags:
ANEW GENICS Treatment Cream ($38)
ANEW GENICS Eye Treatment ($36)
ANEW CLINICAL Resurfacing Expert Smoothing Fluid ($38)
Foot Works Beautiful Marine Salt Hydrating Balm ($5)
Jillian Dempsey for Avon Professional Perfect Eyes Kit in Smokey Eye ($9)
OUTSPOKEN by Fergie Eau de Parfum Spray ($30)
And who are these special women and amazing mothers that I sent these wonderful gifts to, you ask? Well, of course my own amazing mother, my two sisters-in-law whose mothering I respect and admire, my very dear friend who recently became a mother for the first time after 40, my dear cousin who is an amazing mother and recently got divorced and one of my favorite mommy bloggers whom I respect and admire.
I wanted to wish these special women a spectacular Mother’s Day and wanted them to know how special they are to me and how much I respect and admire each and every one of them as women and for being the beautiful mothers that they are.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL
THE AMAZING MOTHERS
ENJOY & CELEBRATE!
Disclosure: I wanted to extend a special thank you to AVON for being such an amazing brand to work with and for allowing me to send out these wonderful gift bags to the special women in my life!
Want a Luminous Fresh Face This Spring? Get Your Glow on with Benefit Cosmetics
I adore Benefit Cosmetics, I mean how can you not?? Not only do they have some of my all time favorite products (hello Erase Paste!), but I just love their creative problem solving products and kitschy branding. Benefit products really work and they make me smile when I use them. I am really excited by some of their newest products to come down the pike because they are all centered around having flawless, luminous, radiant skin which is hands down my favorite look these days.
Check out these FAB new products that Benefit has created to keep us Glow-a-licious this Spring and Summer:
the POREfessional Pore Minimizing Balm ($29)
This is an inspired new product that instantly minimizes the appearance of pores and fine lines, it gets rid of oil and shine and it makes your skin smooth, soft and make-up ready. This is a silky, lightweight, translucent balm made with Vitamin E and it really helps your makeup stay put.
What do I LOVE about POREfessional? I like how it immediately smooths my skin, minimizes flaws and primes my face for my foundation. I think this is the perfect product to use as your first step in the summer to combat sticky, sweaty skin and I will def throw it in my purse for touch-ups on the go.
Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup ($34)
This is an exciting new foundation from Benefit because it brightens your face and also has an SPF 25 PA+++ level of protection, currently the highest level of sun protection available. Hello Flawless is oil-free and builds from light to medium coverage giving you natural looking, luminous even toned skin.
What do I LOVE about Hello Flawless? This is a gorgeous skin transforming foundation that immediately wakes up your skin, smooths out imperfections and gives you a flawless even finish. I love the way it feels on my skin and how it makes me look fresher and well-rested even when I am not = FAB!
Sun Beam Golden Bronze Complexion Highlighter ($26)
This is a gorgeous golden bronze highlighter that gives you a natural, sunkissed radiance. It’s liquid sunshine in a bottle and it’s the perfect way to add luminosity and a healthy glow to your skin (think JLo).
What do I LOVE about Sun Beam? I adore products that add radiance and luminosity to my skin and help it to look younger and fresher than it actually is. Whenever people compliment me on my skin, I am almost always wearing a highlighting product like Sun Beam. And Sun Beam is the perfect warm shimmery color, I love the brush applicator for precise application and I especially love mixing it with Hello Flawless for that perfect lit from within face.
