Battle of the BB Creams continues!

ICYMI: Round One and Round Two. My verdicts were that Wet N Wild's entry was none too shabby, but was a little color grabby. And Maybelline didn't particularly make a BB Cream, but what they did actually make was very nice.

At any rate, on to round three!

This round, we're on to Olay!

Olay Fresh Effects, they of the beautiful and bright packaging, threw their hat in to the BB Cream ring. And, since I spent most of the Maybelline entry crabbing about the fact that I think Maybelline actually made a foundation and just called it a BB Cream, let me be clear - of all the drug store BB Creams that I've tried, Olay Fresh Effects comes the closest to what I imagine the Eastern market BB Creams to be like. It's not just a light coverage foundation. It's a lotion. That just happens to be tinted. Which, just to point out the probably obvious, means that if you're one of our oily skinned sisters, this is probably not your jam, it's probably too emollient for you. And if you're one of our dry skinned sisters, this will probably be among your favorites.

My before shot came out just a tad blurry, but in the sake of...making everything equal (?) I'm going to run it anyway. Rounds one and two also included bare faced shots of me, if you really feel the need to get a good look at my no makeup wearin' mug. :D

I think at this point, I had on a bit of mattifying lotion, and that was about it. Pretty good skin day, as they go. Little redness, some uneven texture issues (which no BB Cream, regardless of how awesome, is going to fix...). None too shabby.

After shot. 

My skin certainly looks brighter, and has a bit of polish to it that it didn't before. But notice how the red around the nose is still visible? So the coverage is to the lighter side. Although I suppose if coverage was that much of a sticking point for me, I'd be discussing foundations, not BB Creams, right?

And I've found that in the past, I've also had trouble with this BB Cream grabbing my powder cosmetics. In fact, in person, my chin looked pretty orange. I applied my bronzer with the biggest, fluffiest brush that I had. 

The Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream though, loses out with me for one problem, and unfortunately, it's one you can't really see all that well in the pictures. Simply - it runs warm. The colors are warm. And I'm not - I actually fancy myself a bit of a Neutral tone. I've found that warm colors make me look cool toned, and the cool makes me look warm. 

So the "flaws" in this cream - couldn't completely camouflage the redness around my nose, little color grabby with the bronzer, scented for some inexplicable reason...those are all things I can look over. And if your skin runs to the dry side, you should overlook them too, cause this is a good product. It's just warm, and I'm not. Although, given that it's January and I'm in Michigan, I'd sure like to be. ;)

So so far, the winner in the "Battle of the BB Creams" is Maybelline, just by default. I stand by my contention that they didn't make a BB Cream at all, but when your competition is color grabby (Hi, Wet N Wild!) and limited in color choices (Hi, Olay!), you come out lookin' alright.

One more cream in our "battle!" See you next time!

I'm well moisturized, and working on my video skills...

This week, I get well moisturized, and continue working on my videos! I don't feel like I've got a house that's very conducive for videoing - the best places to sit and film a video, have warm lights! And that's no good!

At any rate, this week we're discussing moisture, courtesy of our friends at Olay!

First up, the Olay Fresh Effects "Long Live Moisture!" moisturizer. This moisturizer promises the "rich hydration of a lotion, with the light feeling of a gel". And that's mostly exactly what you get. If you've got dry skin, or just otherwise like a richer feeling lotion, this ain't your guy. If you want a light, basic moisturizer that will absorb quickly and get you on your way, and you don't mind scents - you have met your match, right here!

Next up, on this Olay moisture-stravaganza, the "Bright On Schedule!" eye roller. I talked about this once via text, back in the Spring (read it here.), so gave it a video try, just to really cover all my bases.

Similar to it's sister "Long Live Moisture!", "Bright On Schedule!" is a light, fast absorbing, all purpose eye cream. If you need your eye cream (or moisturizer) to be doing something specific, if you like the feeling of a richer, creamer lotion, Fresh Effects is not the line for you.

If you need a basic, all purpose moisturizer or eye cream, and you don't mind scents, you'll be very happy with either of these products! If you need or want a richer moisturizer, or you need something specific from your products (sensitive skin, anti-aging, etc.), or you're bothered by scents, you need to keep walking past these two.

So, I like to think I'm doing alright with this video thing, for being a new kid at it at least. I'll keep trying. ;)

See you later, my lovelies!

Confession...

A couple of nights ago, I had one of those big, ugly cries that girls are prone to having on occasion. And as a result, I've spent the last two days, tangling with puffy eyes, that felt like they were about to overtake the rest of my face.

Which is doubly bad, because not only is that not pleasant, but the one day I did try to put makeup on over all that puff, all you could see was my eyeliner!

So I spent today combating the puff. Pinterest is curiously lacking in tips for this sort of thing - most of the recommendations involved purchasing product. So I was sort of winging it on my own.

And for the sake of things, said puffery:

Pretty bad, right? Like, if it grew just a couple millimeters more, it could take over my eyelashes, level of bad.

First, I tried an eye cream, with a roller. I'm quite fond of Olay Fresh Effects Bright on Schedule eye roller (as evidenced here), so I gave it a shot. Felt great, didn't appear to do much to help.

Next, I even gave Allegra a crack at it. Figuring maybe I was having a reaction to something (last time my eyes swelled like this, it was because of Clean & Clear face wash - years later, when a dermatologist actually recommended Clean & Clear to me, I couldn't contain my laughter!). I actually feel like this helped some. My eyes were brighter, I didn't feel as foggy. This one was a bit unconventional, but it might have been worth something.

And then we turned to the ever popular torture chamber - SPOONS. Every website you read looking for tips, everywhere you turn - spoons. Put them in the freezer until they're good and cold, put them on your eyes until they're not. Simple, fool proof, everybody's got a spoon, right? I began dancing around my kitchen! This one was pretty brutal. And I really am not sure how effective I even think it was. I even proclaimed it worse than the Ice Bucket Challenge, and my eight year old went "Oh, it's not THAT bad...", haha...

And I resorted to that good old fashioned, cure all beauty trick - water. Lots and lots and LOTS of water. It seems super counter intuitive, but they always say that if you're retaining water, drink more, because it will start to flush out the water that's in there. I even went swimming, hoping that would help! When I was pregnant with said eight year old, I discovered that apparently, when I'm pregnant, I gain the super power of being able to retain water - simply by looking at it! Don't be jelly, ladies, haha! At any rate, my OB suggested swimming. He said that the water would put solid, consistent pressure on my body from all angles, thus forcing the retained fluid out of the areas that were retaining it. And I often said I think that man was super crazy, but I know he's right on this one! So I even gave that a shot!

So here's where my day of puffery battle got me:

Not bad for a days work, right? So maybe the spoons were worth more than I thought!

But here's a few more tricks that I found, just in case the spoons don't do it for you;

They say Vaseline works for everything, right? I'm actually planning on trying this one tonight, if I can remember where my vaseline is, haha!

Curiously, this website recommends mashed banana. I didn't get a chance to get to this one, but doesn't this just sound terribly messy?

The typical recommendation of cucumber. Potatoes actually got several recommendations, and curiously, so did soy milk.

I'm depuffed, and hopefully looking terrific for dropping my third grader off for school for his first day tomorrow. I'm not typically a first day of school crier, which I'll have to remind myself of tomorrow. Because sure as the world, I've said that, and I'll cry. I can't cry, I just spent a whole day depuffing my eyes from my last cry! Although I guess if I cry, I better stop off for a potato and some soy milk on the way home, right? :)

I'm also working up a special Wednesday edition of the blog, which I'm hoping to have live this coming Wednesday. Stay tuned for that! :D

Later, lovelies!

Bright on schedule? You betcha!

(Note: my seven year old helped me with these pictures, so some of them aren't great. We tried. Haha...)

After seeing the latest commercials for the Olay Fresh Effects line, promising a full nights sleep, no sleep required, I knew that I had to have it. I don't get a full nights sleep...well, ever - and I know I'm not unique in that. Even the slightest.

Olay promises that their Fresh Effects line will give skin a "refreshing blast of hydration" with honeysuckle and white tea. And judging by the looks of the advertisements, I'm a few years removed from their target market (ahem...), but I'm also a sucker for new products, so...you know how that goes. :D

The Bright On Schedule eye awakening cream uses a unique three roller ball system as the applicator. And I know that the roller ball applicator system isn't unique (Garnier has been doing it a while now), but Olay has THREE! They promise that it cools the eye. Does it? On it's own, I find it hard to believe that it would. But I popped mine into the fridge, for a little extra cooling power. Wowza!

The cream is easy to use - give the tube a little pinch, and apply to the eye. Bingo, bango. If you can apply lip balm, you can use this. I typically find that it absorbs quickly and easily, although the other day, I had a little trouble - I guess I went a little overboard, and found that the excess, rather than absorb, formed a crust under my eye. I went in to several stores before my son was nice enough to point that one out...oops. The texture is light, and silky smooth, so if you know you need eye cream, but don't generally like the feel of thick lotions, you should get along nicely with this one.

The one thing I've noticed in using Olay products for the last few weeks? They smell. It's perfumey, and it's a nice enough scent, but if you don't like smells on your face, you'll have a hard time with this particular quality. I was initially so thrown off by it, that when my seven year old got to me in the school pick up line, I promptly bent down to his level, and went "Smell my face!" He liked the smell, I've gotten used to it.

It takes almost no product to satisfy your needs, and as such, one tube lasts a long time. I've had it probably two months, and I've hardly scratched the surface!

The good stuff. Bright, cheerful packaging. Easy to use, easy to understand.

The three ball roller, with a little bit of product squeezed up. This is slightly blurry, this is one of the ones my seven year old took. :)

How easy the product is to use! Like I said - if you can use lip balm, you can figure this stuff out! :)

My rolled, rested, refreshed eyes! Instant sleep, no sleep required!

I totally bought this eye roller just on a larf - saw the commercial, went "Huh, that looks interesting...", the spokesmodel had gorgeous skin (because of COURSE she did...), and ordered it on Amazon. I love this stuff. I'd buy this again in a minute. I highly recommend it. The ingredients seem pretty standard issue for lotion, so unless you've got trouble with scents, you're probably fine that way. I recommend!

I've actually talked about this one more than once - the other time, I did it on video!