Olay Body Quench Mousse (Active Hydration) ($7.99) is an amazingly powerful moisturizer. I say this because it doesn’t feel moisturizing to the touch, and you just don’t feel like something as light as a mousse consistency can be would give you all-day moisturization. But alas, it actually does.

It dries nearly instantaneously, which is a huge plus, because I often hate having to wait for a heavy body butter to dry–especially in the morning when it’s “go, go, go!”

It absorbs quickly, and yet it lasts quite awhile - I find my legs are still silky smooth at the end of the day, which is quite a feat considering how inconsistent I am with lotioning my legs up (aka they’re scarily scaley sometimes). I am definitely pleased to have this around for beach-going days, underneath my body sunscreen. It’s also great for when I need something quick and easy so I don’t scare people away with my dragonscales!

Lancome Resurface Microdermabrasion Body ($46.00) is my newest addition to my shower regimen. I love exfoliation; it just feels like I’m getting clean, my skin is always incredibly softer post-exfoliation/scurb, and if I could do it every day, I would.

For my body, while I do sugar scrubs once a week or so, I do find that they can be a little rough from time to time. Enter Lancome Resurface Microdermabrasion! They use aluminum oxide crystals and finely ground pumice stone as their exfoliators of choice, which is a very, very fine mixture that you smooth over your skin, massage into it, and come out with gorgeous looking skin.

It is such a fine/small exfoliant, so it is ideal for anyone who has sensitive skin, exfoliates regularly, or may be fair skinned and stronger exfoliants leave tell-tale redness behind. You get a pretty decent sized tube of the stuff for the price, and you really only need a pea-sized amount for each leg. Another thing I like about this is that unlike a lot of my sugar scrubs, this doesn’t have any oiliness to it, so I can use it right before I shave without getting film and residue in my razor afterwards. I’m so in love with this product, and it is the perfect addition to my body care–just in time for summer!

Belli is a skincare line that includes three branches: Belli Pregnancy, Belli Motherhood, and Belli Baby. Belli Pregnancy products are teratology screened to make sure that ingredients have never been associated with birth defects. Belli Motherhood products are Lact_med screened to make sure that it doesn’t contain ingredients that are problematic during nursing. Belli Baby provides incredibly gentle produts for the baby that exclude xenoestrogens (like phthalates) that may be potentially harmful.

I know we definitely have some moms on Temptalia, and I imagine we have some mothers-to-be, if not mothers-in-planning. Even though I have no plans [ever] to have children, I think it is worth every penny to ensure you give your baby the best health you can. Teratology screening is important when it comes to the products that may be absorbed through your skin.

Here are some products that you should definitely take a peek at, because I found them to work just as well as my normal skincare products based on trying and testing them out.

Belli Pregnancy | Acne Clearing Facial Wash ($22.00) exfoliates and uses acne-fighting ingredients without being drying. It uses hydroxyacid, and it is safe to use during pregnancy, unlike other acne treatments. Skin Smoothing Body Exfoliator ($24.00) is a body scrub with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory ingredients, and it is often used to prep skin for other Belli products. Elasticity Belly Oil ($42.00) helps prevent stretchmarks occurring–just like with anti-aging, prevention is more effective than repair.

But you know what products I want to REALLY try? Some of their stretchmark minimizing products! Unfortunately, mine are old and have nothing to do with pregnancy, LOL.

Check out some more product photos… Read the rest of this entry »

CeraVe Moisturizing Cream ($14.99)

Ultra thick and creamy, this Moisturizing Cream is designed to help with the driest, cracked and chapped skin. It includes ceramides, glycerin, water, etc. to help fatty acid esters get deep into the skin. The product claims that you can moisturize once, and you will find yourself moisturized all day. Believe it! This is a great heavy cream for dry spots, cracked elbows, and the like, especially in the winter months. It is a little thick for everyday use for my personal skin, but I know others suffer dry skin year-round (like my sister!), so this is a fab product find for her. You get a 16 ounce tub of this moisturizer for a good price.

You can find CeraVe products at your local drugstore!

Have you tried this cream? Thoughts?

Let’s not forget about the ladies!  I thought it was only fitting to do a bath/fragrance version for all of the females.

Davies Gate Sweet N’ Glow Set ($25.00) in Pink Grapefruit will give you a memorable bath time experience. The scent is only subtly sweet, but kind of a tangy, spicy grapefruit scent. I think the set is priced perfectly, because you get a little of everything and the sizes are decent. The Fizz Pop makes me a little hungry, though, since it looks delicious. Since I don’t always have time for a bath (and my boyfriend doesn’t wish for me to act like I’m 12 too often–seriously, I splash around like I’m a toddler and slosh water all over the place), I love to treat myself to a body scrub and shower gel duo for regular, more everyday showers.

Diesel Fuel For Life Gift Set ($55.00) contains both 1.7 oz eau de parfum spray and a 1.7 oz body lotion. I can note the mandarin, jasmine, and black currant in the scent, as well as a bit of musk. There’s a certain sweetness mixed with something woody that makes it perfect for me. I tend to enjoy scents like these compared to sweeter scents. What I like about this particular Diesel scent is that it lasts awhile on me, and I don’t find it cloying or overpowering. I find it wears down quite well throughout the day leaving a pleasantly softer version of the initial woody scent.

It may be only a few days away, but it’s never too late to pick something up for your very favorite boy.  These two ideas were items my boyfriend, who is low maintenance and not into beauty, enjoyed.  Although, admittedly, I think I’ll be stealing away his Every Man Jack body wash!

Try the Every Man Jack Valentine’s Day Gift Set, which is only $16.00, available at www.everymanjack.com or www.target.com. It includes a Shave Gel Hydrating Formula, Post-Shave Face Lotion, Body Wash, and Body Bars. The shaving products are fragrance free, while the body products have a lovely woody, spicy cedar scent. I’m actually opting for my man’s Every Man Jack Body Wash these days (what can I say, I give gifts early!). It’s just a great scent that I’m attracted to, because it is a bit atypical for a female scent, and yet it is so subtle that you don’t smell like the woods all day by any means!

Diesel Fuel For Life Gift Set ($55.00) contains both 1.7 oz eau de toilette spray and a 1.7 oz after shave balm. It is a packaged gift set of a fragrance that’s very much masculine, with some woodiness and spicy flavor to it. Notes of Star Anise and Dry Woods are noticeable, with a faint hint of raspberry in the aftermath. My boy, who is ever-so-picky, enjoyed this scent, so I feel EXTRA good about recommending it (but this comes from a girl who’d wear Unforgivable [for men] on herself).

LUSH Knows How to Spend Valentine’s Day

As evidenced by our guide to pampering yourself when you’re single, LUSH knows how to make the 14th one rockin’ day.  I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I adore LUSH’s massage bars for their portability and moisturizing capabilities.  So, it’s obvious I had to try out the Massage a Trois set ($29.95) as well as the Play Your Cards Right massage bar ($8.95).  I am happy to report that both are worthy of earning my approval.  I had the pleasure of having these fabulous products tested out on me (too bad I had to return the favor!), but they sink in so nicely and make massaging effortless. 

Massage a Trois includes Soft Coeur (honey cocoa treat with a melty center), Mange Too (lickable honey, white chocolate, and peppermint), and Nutts (extra rich, smells very nutty, and it’s a vegan product).  Of course, they all come shaped in big solid hearts, and I’m girly, so I love the shape.  I used Mange Too on my boyfriend’s elbow/arm because it’s been stiff lately and it made it so easy to get my fingers into the muscle and massage everything into a boneless puddle.  Oh, and while these are specially packaged together as a trio, all three flavors are available in the permanent LUSH line in their standardized shapes and sizes, so don’t fear getting addicted, there’s more where it came from!

Play Your Cards Right is a special Valentine’s Day offering, and it is a regular massage bar in the shape of a playing card.  Instead of numbers, it has hearts in the corners.  The red dye from the hearts does seem to smear a touch when you put it to the skin, but it disappears instantly once you start to work and knead your hands into the muscles, so it didn’t bother me.  The scent is full of jasmine and ylang ylang, as it is the famous Sex Bomb scent. 

As with whenever I use a massage bar, I like to sprinkle (I always tell my boyfriend I’m seasoning him) Silky Underwear dusting powder ($10.45) at the end, because I find it really locks in and absorbs the melted massage bar and lets you go about your business completely relaxed.

While many parts of the body are covered once the winter wind starts blowing, don’t forget to keep all your parts deliciously soft all year round!  Especially if you’re in the warmer parts, winter doesn’t always mean pants every day!  Here are four fabulous solutions to soothe that scaly skin.

Lancome Nutrix Royal Body ($34.00) is an incredibly luxe, entirely rich kind of body cream.  It is truly meant to help heal the driest of skin.  According to the description, it is equipped with Royal Lipideum, which helps to “supplement skin’s own natural lipids for intense hydration.”  Whatever that really means, I buy it.  I’m a believer, because this stuff really turned my dragonscales into gorgeous lady legs.  I have always suffered from drier legs with only sometimes-dry arms (used to be worse, but rarely get an issue in the past few years).  I find applying this in the morning provides me with a good amount of moisturization throughout the rest of the day.  For extra pampering, I’ll apply a light coat before bed and donning my stretchy yoga pants (don’t confuse this with the notion I exercise, they’re just comfy!) so I can awake with ridiculously supple skin.  Don’t let the price trick you–you get a huge TUB!  Honestly, it is more like a jug than a little jar you might expect when you buy a face cream.  For reference, most face creams come in 1 oz jars, and for $34.00, you get 7 oz.  Nearly half a pound! 

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Intensive Moisturizing Body Treatment ($25.00) is part of the miraculous eight-hour family (hands and lips complete the trio).  I adored what it could do for my hands, because I have to have a hand cream that sinks in quickly if I’m going to use it regularly.  The Body Treatment acts the same way; it absorbs into skin within minutes leaving behind no greasy or slippery feeling behind.  You just feel soft and re-hydrated, which is exatly what I want to feel.  The same pleasing scent of lemony-herb accompanies this lotion, but it is a very subtle scent that will probably go unnoticed.  Personally, thats a good thing, because I’d rather have the ability to spritz a perfume on without it being clogged by my body cream.  This is one skincare line that has won numerous Allure beauty awards, and I have to agree with the choice!

LUSH Running to the Embassy ($10.95) is exactly what it is described to be:  “a clean, minty-cool scrub for the feet.”  I found I got the best results when I applied this to rough, cracked skin around the elbows, feet, and knees and working it in for a few minutes.  After this, I would rinse them off in luke-warm water.  Results?  Oh, yes, indeed–incredibly soft skin that was practically smiling.  What I love about the body butters by LUSH is that they melt when they come into contact with the body as the heat melts it into your skin.  They work easily into the skin with your hands, and it is easy to rinse off the excess.  Running to the Embassy is meant as an exfoliating body butter to help slough off the dead skin and rough patches often found on feet.  You can easily use this on any part of the skin that cracks or is especially dry.

LUSH King of Skin ($11.95) is another body butter available by LUSH that is another hit in my house.  A subtle sent of sandalwood accompanies this moisturizing solution.  Body butters are great to use right after the shower, and what I like about King of Skin is that it sinks in so well that you don’t even need to rinse off afterwards like some of the other body butters.  I prefer this at night time, or on weekends, when I have time to give myself a bit of pampering.  When I’m in a rush, I find I turn to a lotion or cream (but to be honest, I tend to forget to use anything), like Dream Cream.

Missed part one?  Well, what are you waiting for–go read it!

While many parts of the body are covered once the winter wind starts blowing, don’t forget to keep all your parts deliciously soft all year round!  Especially if you’re in the warmer parts, winter doesn’t always mean pants every day!  Here are four fabulous solutions to soothe that scaly skin. 

vedaMAMA body creams ($50.00) in Relax and Scrumptious are both ultra hydrating, luxe creams targeted to soothe and moisturize the body.  Relax is a more typical body cream with a chocolate mint scent that restores the skin’s balance.  Cocoa butter is one of the main ingredients that helps to hydrate the skin, while peppermint helps to alleviate muscle soreness (hence the name “Relax”).  Scrumptious is a restorative body cream with shea butter to work actively against super dry skin.  Both creams contain organic coconut oil, Vitamin E, and Rosemary as some of their key ingredients.  Each cream comes in a cute little white tub with pink detailing, but I feel like the amount you get is small relative to the price.   I personally enjoyed both creams, but they aren’t far superior to other less expensive varieties.

LUSH Dream Cream ($20.95) is one of the first products I had ever tried by LUSH, and it is utterly fabulous.  I really love that it goes on easily, isn’t too thick of a cream, and it dries quickly.  I find that it does a good job hydrating my skin throughout the year.  I like that it is a year-round product, because I can maximize my usage out of it.  The amount of product you get relative to the amount you need to moisturize the body makes this a cost-effective choice.  It is lightly scented with a woody/natural scent.  If you’re familiar with LUSH products, you’ll instantly recognize it as one fo the scents of LUSH.  A part of me loves to dabble into these kinds of products, because I just know that they feel healthier and seem better for my skin because of their organic content.

bliss lemon+sage body butter ($35.00) comes in a large, bright blue tube.  The scent is actually incredibly pleasing; a light sweet lemony scent with an undertone of vanilla.  It’s a very luxe, thick cream, despite it’s tube packaging–so don’t let it confuse you as if it were a regular body lotion.  It contains both vitamin A and E, which are good antioxidants for your skin.   I found a little goes quite a ways, needing no more than a one inch “line” of cream for each leg (and mine always get a touch scaly come winter!).  Regular use of this completely eliminated any dryness, but if I stopped using it for more than two days, it would begin to return.  Although initially it seemed pricey and offended my delicate price sensibilities (okay, not really, these days I’m not usually shocked), knowing that it will last me six months or more makes it much easier to swallow and seem more in line with what I’d expect.  I can run through a tube of B&BW lotion in a month or two with regular usage because I find I need at least two inches of product, so it comes out to be roughly the same when the two are compared!

von Natur Grapefruit Whipped Butter ($42.00) is a thick cream (borderlines a solid, really, you kind of “scoop” out product because it’s so thick) with a very nice scent of grapefruit.  They advertise that “according to a study by Chicago’s Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, the scent of grapefruit on a woman’s skin can make her appear up to six years younger.”  I can’t buy that personally, but maybe other people’s noses would say it about me (then again, I’m not particularly old, so I’m not the best test subject!).  Despite its thickness, the cream absorbs fairly quickly, which is always a plus, because nobody wants to sit around waiting for their skin to dry!  Lots of essential oils can be found in here (far too many to list), but you’ll find shea butter as a key ingredient, as well as organic jojoba oil.  You get a fair amount for your money, better than vedaMAMA, and you don’t need to use much to soothe your aching, dry skin.  ]

Stay tuned for part two of our body series featuring Lancome’s Nutrix Royal for Body, Lush’s King of Skin and Running to the Embassy body butters, and Elizabeth Arden’s 8-Hour Cream for Body!
 

Pacifica Candles’ Soy Candles ($13.95), Pillar Candles ($15.95), Soaps ($6.95), Perfumes ($19.95), Body Butters ($15.95)

Each Pacifica candle is made by hand, using century-old techniques to ensure the highest quality. We combine our exclusive Pacifica Wax Blends, in your choice of food-grade paraffin or vegetable-based soy, with the highest quality lead-free cotton wicks, essences, and essential oils in order to create the perfect candle. Our fragrance oils and candles are made in small batches, allowing us to test our products regularly to guarantee perfection. We believe that if a candle isn’t burning well, quality ingredients are being wasted. Regardless of the wax, whether it is soy or paraffin, there must be a perfect balance between the wick size and the fragrance to create a safe, healthy, and smokeless candle.

What makes it worth it: This is not an organic line per se, but it definitely has the right feel and attitude about the environment, natural ingredients, and being a responsible member of its community.  Pacifica uses soy and food-grade paraffin in its candles, while they make sure to use natural essential oils rather than artificial fragrances.   They have excellent employment policies, are working towards becoming a carbon-neutral company, and take inspiration from culture around the globe.

• Soy Candles:  I tried Tibetan Mountain Temple (a spicy, woody scent of Patchouli, ginger, and orange) and Bourbon Island Vanilla (another spicy scent with lots of vanilla).  I enjoyed both scents, but my boyfriend adored the latter.  I felt like Tibetan Mountain Temple reminded me a lot of the holidays and the cinnamon-y goodness you find in so many holiday baked goods.
• Pillar Candles:  I tried Roman Frankincense (a blend of Frankincense, Myrrh, a touch of mandarin, and I’d swear some lime) and Vietnamese Ylang Ylang French (a lovely blend of ylang ylang, lavendar, and a touch of vanilla).  I’m totally reminded of Sprite or 7UP with Roman Frankincense, but I like the scent - pleasing, very masculine.  The Vietnames Ylang Ylang French pillar candle is a much subtler scent, entirely feminine and just lovely.
• Natural Soaps:  I tried Spanish Amber (deeply woody, amber scent) and Wild English Clary Sage (a great clean scent with clary sage notes).  Spanish Amber definitely takes me back to a few moments of my childhood; it’s a strong scent, distinctly masculine.  Wild English Clary Sage is also a bit masculine in its scent, but it’s such a clean scent that I know it’s a must-have for any family or couple who shares soap.
• Perfumes:  I tried Waikiki Pikake (a blend of jasmine and sandalwood) and Tuscan Blood Orange (sweet orange and mandarin scent with a touch of strawberry).  I found both of these scents to be pleasing, and they come in these petite containers.  They make great stocking stuffers!
• Body Butters:  I tried Sandalwood (rich Indian sandalwood that’s very woody with top notes of sweet orange) and French Lilac (a delightful spring scent of fresh lilacs and magnolias).  Sandalwood is a very rich, heady scent, which reminds me of seduction.  I felt like French Lilac makes a great spring scent, because it’s light and airy and utterly floral.

Why you might pass on it: You can’t.  They have a wide variety of products, scents, and the prices are perfect for this holiday season.  Everything feels a bit luxe and rich, and I really can’t wait to wrap these up and hand them out to my family and friends this year.

Find Pacifica products at www.pacificacandles.com and www.nordstrom.com.