Xotic Items

Tantejoan here! As the youngest of three girls, I often found myself on the low end of the totem pole, last to the table, holder of the short stick – you get the picture.  Wherever I went, my sisters -- seven and ten years older -- had been there before me, and as memorable and talented as they were, late arrival moi was saddled with their brilliant reputations as not-very-added-value.  “Oh,” chirped the teacher, “you are (enter sister’s name here)’s sister.  You must be wonderful at dramatics/rope climbing/creative writing/pottery/butter churning.”  Whatever I wanted to do, or was expected to excel at, my sisters had been there, done that, and had left me a daunting legacy as they moved on to their next triumphs, literally years ahead of me.

Ah, but there was one arena in which I was the clear leader, superior in every way, and it has lasted me all of my life.  I have inherited all of the good calcium genes both parents had to offer.  While my sisters were plagued with cavities in virtually every tooth, spending Saturday after tortuous Saturday clamped into the dentist’s chair, I skipped blithely through my childhood and young adulthood with but three cavities.  Ever.  My hair was strong and thick, while theirs was fine and thin.  My bones were strong; even now, when I have a bone density test, the result shows that I have the bones of a thirty year old, leaving me to conclude that somewhere in the world there is a poor young woman cursed with my elderly bones.  My sisters?  They are charter members of the Sally Field School of Bone Maintenance.

Stylemama here! It is good to be back! Sometimes you go on a trip and have fun but really relish the idea of sleeping in your own bed, right?  Other times you go away, and have thoughts of uprooting your entire family and never looking back.  For me, Maui is that special place.  After all, tropical environments are awfully good for people with my particular skin ailments.   Justification? Possible denial? You bet.

On to the meat, yes, I’m talking about Keratosis Pilaris (KP), again.  Listen, I hear the collective sighs, I’m right there with you, but chronic problems warrant chronic discussions.  At times, I’m even the KP Ambassador.  Do I like the title? Hell No! Do I deserve it? Well, Yeaaahhh.  Alas! I embrace my funky skin, flaws and all.   (Most of the time.)  My goal is to help my sister-sufferers to do the same.  Is it working yet? Is it? Is it?

Our faithful Leader sent some fantastic products to help me with m’bumps!  Thanks Meg!   I’m talking about DERMAdocotor’s KP Duty Dry Skin Repair Kit.  The lovely and talented Dr. Audrey Kunin, created the impressive DERMAdoctor line, (Have you seen her? She’s awful purhty.)  The good doctor just made my life a little easier.  (I love it when that happens.)   If you have KP problems and questions, get ready to find the answers with this impressive kit.

Sharond here to finish up a week of great lip product reviews.

 As I have stated many times, I love Cat Cosmetic’s products.  I have been very pleased with everything I have tried and that list is almost her entire line.

Today I want to introduce you to a wonderful combination of two of Cat’s great lip products.  The first is an automatic self sharpening, waterproof, beautiful neutral colored lip liner called Buck Naked.  This liner glides on smoothly without tugging while lining your lips so you can create a nice clean line.  You can also color in your entire lips for a unique new color when used under your favorite gloss or lipstick.  Buck Naked is a neutral pale mocha/mauve type color that will work miracles on all lips, especially little ones.  As someone once said to me, “What God didn’t give us, we draw in.”

Below are tips on applying lip liner I have picked up from Ehow.com.  This site has wonderful videos on applying not only lip products, but all types of makeup, hair ideas and more.  Check them out for great ideas and hints on making you look your best. To line your lips, begin at the indent in the center of your top lip and use short strokes of the lip liner to trace along the edge of your top lip line all the way to the corner.  Do not press too hard; just light enough to see the color.  Then start in one corner along the bottom lip and trace the entire edge of the bottom lip with the liner.  If you color your entire lips, since lip liner is bit drying, you can put a gloss on for light feel or lipstick for a more matte look.

Now to kick things up a few notches, try Buck Naked with Lip Nibblers Fleck.  Fleck is a beautiful almost sheer, yet shimmery with flecks of real 10k gold, apple strudel scented lip gloss.  This gloss is moisture drenched causing your lips to become hydrated thus making them appear fuller.  The Fleck is a neutral color, neither warm nor cool, so it would be good for all skin tones and is good to top off any lipstick you want to give a little extra kick.  You can wear it alone for a nice day look with shine but not too much.  This gloss is my new go to and I have been putting it on all sorts of lip colors and giving them a much needed update. Of course, the scent is tantalizing.  Who doesn’t like apple strudel?

Sharond here! People who follow this site know that I am very fond of Cat Cosmetics and even list her Six Kitten palette as one of my favorite items on my profile page.

I used to go home for lunch everyday for years since I could not miss a single episode of the soap opera, One Life to Live. Lindsey, played by Catherine (Cat) Hickland, was one of the most beautiful, luminous women I had ever seen.  I used to read Cat’s Product Queen column in a soap opera magazine where she would review cosmetic products and was impressed at her honesty. In one of her articles, Cat mentioned she had developed her own makeup line since she could not find products of the quality she wanted and needed. She had been a makeup artist before turning to acting, and is still doing her own makeup before going on camera, so I felt her background what was needed to develop high quality cosmetics.  I was so impressed with Catcosmetics.com’s selection and information about the products that I had to put my first huge order on a credit card!  Cat’s site also had a wonderful chat where people could offer all sorts of cosmetic advice.  One day we got an e-notice that Cat was discontinuing her chat area and advised us to check out Megsmakeup.com for honest, straight forward reviews on drug store to high end makeup plus other great makeup ideas and skin care information.  Impressed again, I signed up with Megsmakeup.com immediately and have been voicing my opinion ever since.

Today I want to tell you about a fairly new item on the Catcosmetic.com website called Hello, Gorgeous!  This six well glossy black case is filled with some of Cat’s most popular items along with a good quality brush and a large mirror.  The first two wells have my favorite blush and bronzer, Whiskers and Catnip, which work with any skin tone.  The remaining 4 wells are filled with Cat’s eye shadows, a formula which is soft, silky and long lasting.  Start with Purity, a yellow based beige tinted base shadow which would be great for a matte even wash of color from lash to brow.  Highlight your brow bone and lid with Treasure, a soft pinkish beige shimmer shadow. Play with the antique shimmery bronze colored Peace, using it to darken your contours and as a great way to smoke your eyes or dry line. I blended Treasure with all the eye shadows in the kit with amazing results. Last but not least is Joy, a dark matte brown with just a small hint of shimmer.  Again, this is great to dry line, smoke and mix with any of the other colors to make new ones.  Cat’s Hello, Gorgeous! palette has it all on one nifty package.

Sharond Xplores. . . .As mentioned in the past, I am one of those people who finds bath and beauty products in the most unique places; hospital gift shops, craft fairs, unique boutiques, hardware stores and Tuesday Morning.

I design and sew one of a kind handbags and totes so I work with a lot of fabric causing my hands to become very dry.  Living in an alpine desert also doesn’t help.  Because of my dry hands, I am always on the lookout for a good moisturizing non greasy lotion to use while sewing.  A couple of days ago I found a new fabric store in a neighboring town and while checking out I spotted hand lotion by Wildflower Botanical Bath in Bonsai.  I asked the girls working there how they liked and they gushed over it.  I sniffed it and decided to give it a try. I have to admit that I am extremely disappointed in this product.  It does smell lovely, it is non greasy, but has hardly any moisturizing properties and when it dries it scrapes off.   I do have sensitive skin and this product makes my hands itch.  If I had looked closer before handing over the money I could have spotted all the artificial ingredients and waxes and would have saved myself $8.00.

A number of weeks ago when I was browsing Tuesday Morning, which is one of my favorite places to find non common brand name bath and body products at extremely good prices, I came across a 5.2 ounce Steamed Vanilla Milk Body Butter from Upper Canada Soap and Candle Makers for a mere $1.99.  This thick, decadent moisturizer contains shea butter, glycerin, milk protein, jojoba oil and sweet almond oil.   These ingredients are well known to not only moisturize, but for locking in moisture.  I have been using this product day and night and find that it has to be one of the best inexpensive body butters I have ever used.  Now I kick myself for not buying two or all of them when I had the chance.  As with a lot of items at Tuesday Morning, the item you want might not be there on your next shopping trip.  Hoping I could find this product online I looked up Upper Canada Soap and Candle Makers and could not find this particular product, however their website is filled with all sorts of delicious sounding items.  Based on the very good luck I had with the body butter, I would not hesitate to try any of their products.