Origins’ Modern Friction ($37.00) is a super citrus-scented exfoliant that uses rice starch to help slough off dead skin cells. You might remember I posted about this product a few months ago, as I bought it for my younger sister after she fell in love with the difference it made on her hand (she tried it in-store). Being a beauty addict, I figured she couldn’t have all the fun, so I had to get my own jar to try, too!

The product leaves me a little torn, because sometimes I find it seems too acidic that my eyes tear/sting a little just from the scent (because I definitely don’t use this near my eyes–at least not deliberately!).  I think I must be particularly sensitive to an ingredient in there that causes that problem, so it probably isn’t something the average person would experience.  Also, I do find it can be too harsh/abrasive when used dry (I find myself having to use water to soften it a bit). Origins says it is “nature’s gentle dermabrasion,” but it doesn’t feel that gentle to me. I love to exfoliate–and I have a whole slew (err, bin) of exfoliants and scrubs for face and body–so I’m no stranger to the feeling!

But on the other hand, my skin feels ridiculously smooth and instantly brightened post-use. The product is designed to be used over dry, clean skin two to three times a week. They do mention to use it over damp skin if you have more sensitive skin. After you’ve rubbed the product in, work it into a lather with a splash of water, then rinse. It really can be an amazing product to help soften, smooth, and brighten skin, so I definitely suggest stopping by your local Origins’ counter/store and getting a sample if you can.

It’s easy to use, but I know a lot of people are going to be put-off by the packaging, which is a large 4 oz. tub of product, which you scoop out product of. It’s just not the most sanitary way of doing things, so be sure to wash your hands before using to minimize contamination. Personally, I wash my hands thoroughly before I start my AM/PM skincare regimen, so it’s not a huge deal, *but* the jar contains so much product you’ll have this on-hand for at least a year. You just don’t need much to get the job done (especially if you use it with water rather than just dry). So while it helps stretch out the product’s cost, it is longer than I’d like for this kind of product. I do think this is a product better off in a tube and sold in smaller sizes (obviously at an equivalent price).

Overall, I still use the product regularly, but I wouldn’t say it’s my holy grail, just because it’s a bit harsher than I’d like on my skin in particular. The results definitely make it worth checking out, and like I said, I still find myself using it periodically, because I love the way it makes my skin feel afterward.  If you find it’s too harsh for your face, it does work just as excellently as a body exfoliant, too!

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Soap & Glory is my new favorite budget bath & body line. In my shower product post, I told you how I adore their Flake Away Body Polish. It’s an awesome salt-based scrub that works wonders on your skin, gently exfoliating and sloughing off all of the dead skin cells. I also tried their Righteous Body Butter Lotion, which has the same scent as their Flake Away scrub. I often will apply this rich body lotion after my shower, because it’s quite moisturizing, and it reinforces the scent and smell of the scrub. I actually got my boyfriend to use this on his rough spots (elbows, mostly), who would have thought? I like the products I’ve tried from the brand, and I hope to try out more in the future. I know many of you expressed an interest in more drugstore reviews/coverage, so consider this in that direction :)

Soap & Glory is available exclusively at Target. In-store may offer more product selection than online, FYI!

Aveeno is one of my favorite drugstore brands, because it is soothing, gentle, and works when it comes to healing and dealing with incredibly dry skin. My sister and I both suffered from ridiculously dry skin as babies, and this is what our dermatologist recommended (in addition to a prescription medicine–yes, it was that bad!). My sister suffers from dry skin even now, while I’ve lucked out with mostly normal skin (though my legs can get scaly). Aveeno is a brand I trust to help me cope with making sure my legs are dragonscale-free so I can show ‘em off all summer long without scaring away the children!

This summer, I am really loving their Eczema Care Body Wash & Moisturizing Cream ($9.99 each) (not pictured), because these two products are meant to soothe and help with the most intense skin issues. I use these and my legs feel SO soft and hydrated, even as the day wears on. I actually feel pretty good just using the body wash, surprisingly! If I’m running late, I imagine I could probably skip lotioning up if I had to and be okay. Their Stress Relief Foaming Bath ($5.99) is a soothing bath additive to help you come down from the excitement of the day, and the soft notes of lavender and chamomile, along with ylang-ylang, definitely turn a terrible day into one you can cope with. And you know me, I’m a total lip balm junkie, and we often forget to put SPF on our lips, so here’s Essential Moisture ($3.49) to save the day with SPF 15 in a product that keeps my lips moisturized for hours.

Find more Aveeno products at www.aveeno.com.

Have you used Aveeno products?  Do you like them?

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!

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?

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!

Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion is an amazing moisturizing lotion that can be used on any part of your body from face to feet to hands to legs.  This product works differently in comparison to other moisturizers in that is uses a shielding method where the lotion helps to moisturize and then locks in moisture to rebalance your skin’s natural moisture.  It’s important to follow the directions, because you do not need very much product to do a full application.  I have been using this mostly for my face and feet, and this lotion really does work to reduce overall dryness and requires me to use it less and less over time.  Users are recommended to apply the product to skin every four to eight hours for the first few days to a week, and then users can taper off the frequency of their applications as their skin adjusts and starts to moisturize itself.

I absolutely love how light weight it is, and it absorbs incredibly quickly—even better.  It makes a great hand lotion to minimize dryness because there is no oily residue or slippery feeling left minutes later.  Really, the lotion absorbs in less than a few minutes.  Skin MD Natural is also hypoallergenic, not tested on animals, non-comedogenic, and fragrance-free.  I love fragrance-free lotions when it comes to my face, so this is definitely on my list of top three facial lotions. 
This is one product I very much endorse and hold out as a miracle worker when it comes to aiding dry skin.

You can find Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion www.skinmdnatural.com!  You may also find it a retail location, which you can find through the site, as well.