It is going to be a long week at my end, apart from the fact that I need to research on immediate annuities, I have got so many deadlines, work-wise. So I made sure to have a very relaxing bath early this morning using my favorite L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil. It gives me such a relaxing and moisturizing bath without leaving my skin with greasy feeling. A must for me especially since I have a few bumps in my arms. Afterwards, I applied L’Occitane en Provence Almond Tonic Body Oil all over my body to give me the glow it needs. It also leaves me with therapeutic smell that also adds to that relaxing mindset. The combination of these 2 Almond Products from L’Occitane surely relaxes the bumps in my arms, I noticed that with constant usage of both, my bumps have extremely lessened.

Then, I massage my feet and hands with L’Occitane Shea Butter Foot Cream and L’Occitane en Provence Dry Skin Hand Cream. I am totally a L’Occitane junkie.

L’Occitane Shea Butter Foot Cream – 1 oz $10.00

L’Occitane en Provence Almond Tonic Body Oil – 3.4 fl oz $38.00

L’Occitane en Provence Dry Skin Hand Cream – 1 oz $10.00

L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil – 8.4 fl oz $22.00

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: A+

Value: 4/5

Ease of Use: 5/5

Packaging: 5/5

Before I check on this tourmaster site for a friend, let me share a new staple in my bedside + travel kit.

A piece of Pond’s Wet Cleansing Towelettes in Evening Soothe is what I needed after a day’s worth of stress and heavy make-up. It feels like I had a cold masque on my cheeks and freshly sliced cucumber on my eyes. I do not use it daily but when I feel like I needed a cold masque to relax me before I hit the sack, I get one and pat it gently on my face. I use this AFTER cleaning my face with Cetaphil and SK-II facial cleanser and BEFORE I apply my night cream. While it claims to remove make-up especially mascara, it cannot remove mine. So make sure to remove your make up with your regular facial cleanser then gently pat a towelette before you apply your night cream.

Evening Soothe with Chamomile & White Tea

Lifts away impurities while soothing the senses, Removes waterproof mascara, New Seal Helps Towelettes Stay Wet

Breath deep and unwind. A perfect end to the day, Pond’s Evening Soothe Towelettes gently clean away all traces of dirt and make-up, while calming the skin and senses. These soft, textured cloths wipe away the day while releasing the relaxing fragrance of Chamomile and White Tea.

• Removes waterproof mascara
• Dermatologist tested
• Ophthalmologist tested
• Leaves skin perfectly clean and make-up free
• Removes waterproof mascara with ease
• Soft, textured cloth works gently, without drying skin
• Ideal for all skin types

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: A

Value: 4/5

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

Ever since I started using the Lancome Genefique line early this year, I cannot stop raving about these skincare products to my friends, family and of course in this blog which you can read HERE and HERE. Now, here is your very rare chance to try it for free. All you need to do is click on this Facebook Page and get your FREE Deluxe 7-day Supply of Lancome Genefique Youth Activating Serum. I swear, if this product works for you on the 1st couple of days then you would see amazing results in a week. However, we all have different skincare needs and what might be good for me, may not be good for you. Thanks to these jumbo free samples, we get to try out skincare products before deciding on investing on them. Let me know what miracle happens to you after 7 days! Remember, this invitation lasts until October 20 only. Off to check these Marcus nursing scrubs, ciao for now!

Finding the perfect skincare products is like winning a lottery, I know I may sound OA to some but God knows how long I have been searching for one. Imagine the various amounts of skincare products my face had to take as it always had been a hit or miss for me. There were times when I felt like this certain product is going to be a hit, only to find out after 3 months or so, it would turn to a disaster, giving me unnecessary break-out episodes. To add to this, I do not have that much budget to buy skincare products that I would just end up dumping or giving away, not all brands give out free samples. (Although, I still have to find a skincare product that would lessen the flabs of my cheeky face hee hee, kidding! Perhaps one has to discover reverse osmosis for flabby body parts and cheeks.)

Anyway, when I blogged about the success of my experience with Lancome Genefique Youth Activating Serum, I did not plan on using the whole line, that’s just too much my wallet can take. But since, Lancome was generous with giving their customers jumbo-sized samples, I just had to give it a try. After almost a year of using the Genefique line, I am satisfied with how it works on me. I started to invest more on skincare products than make-up. This is also the reason why I blog less this time because I have no make-up hauls to share anymore hee hee.

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: A+

Value: 4/5

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 5/5

Then I got so lucky to have a friend who works for P&G ang made me try the SK-II products. Specifically these 4. After merely 2 days of using the SK-II line, my face instantly brightens up and I have seen how much my freckles/age spots lightened too.  I also noticed a more even skin tone. Since, I only have few amounts of these 4 SK-II products (read: jumbo–sample-sizes), I am wishing someone would give me SK-II shopping money so I can buy the jumbo sizes hee hee.

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: A+

Value: 3/5

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 5/5

I have finally found 2 skincare brands that I can alternately use and hoping that in the next 5 years or more, I would still be using the same skincare products. Now for my friends at Twitter and IG who asked how I combine all these skincare products, FYI: I do not use them all at the same time. Here is list of how I alternately use these 2 brands. I do not know if this combo will work for you too.

1st Combo:
Morning: Wash with SK-II Facial Skin Treatment Cleanser and Tone with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence (sometimes I skip this in the morning). Apply Lancome Genefique Eye and follow with Lancome Genefique Activating Serum. Lastly, moisturize with Lancome Bright Expert, then apply make-up (sometimes I use a primer or sunblock, depends on my mood).

Night: Remove make-up with Cetaphil. Wash face with SK-II Facial Skin Treatment Cleanser and Tone with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence. Apply Lancome Genefique Eye and follow with Lancome Genefique Activating Serum. Then moisturize with Genefique Night Repair Cream.

2nd Combo:
Morning: Wash with SK-II Facial Skin Treatment Cleanser and Tone with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence (sometimes I skip this in the morning) . Apply Lancome Genefique Eye and follow with Lancome Genefique Activating Serum. Lastly, moisturize with SK-II Cellumination Essence, then apply make-up (sometimes I use a primer or sunblock, depends on my mood).

Night: Remove make-up with Cetaphil. Wash face with SK-II Facial Skin Treatment Cleanser and Tone with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence. Apply Lancome Genefique Eye and follow with Lancome Genefique Activating Serum. Then moisturize with SK-II Cellumination  Deep Surge.

The constant products I always use are the first 5:

1. Cetaphil as make-up remover.
2. SK-II Facial Treatment Cleanser as facial wash.
3. SK-II Facial Treatment Essence as toner.
4. Lancome Genefique Eye Activating Concentrate as eye cream.
5. Lancome Genefique Youth Activating Serum as serum. (they say always use the serum first as it absorbs easily).
6. Then, alternating the rest of these on top of the Serum: Lancome Bright Expert, Lancome Night Repair Cream, SK-II Cellumination Essence and SK-II Celluminator Deep Surge.

Just a quick post to share with you the new packaging of my favorite Summer’s Eve feminine/cleansing wash before I check on this floor cord cover.

You see, I got a huge rebate from Drugstore.com/Beauty.com a few weeks ago. I am trying to stop myself from buying another make-up which I would end up not using, so I used the rebates to get me and my boys some toiletries staple. To my surprise, when my order arrived, I got this! I haven’t seen this in Walmart or any drugstore but yes, after much research, I have known that Summer’s Eve revamped their old packaging to this. Looks cute huh .

Yikes! I am totally behind in terms of updating this blog . I am unsure if I will ever recover from my backlog.

I was checking my drafts section and I realized I have started a lot of entries but failed to finish them. Here are the pending reviews in my drafts section:

• NARS The Multiple
• NARS Orgasm Illuminator
• Benefit Benetint
• Benefit Coralista + Sugarbomb
• Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic
  
• Travel Light: What Make-up to Bring on a Trip
• etc… etc…

and now that I have a wee bit of time left online, I still need to check on this video baby monitor for a friend we are visiting for a trip this week. Yes, dear friends, we are bound for another long trip (well, long road trip is actually an understatement, keep us in your prayers because this got to be longest time I would spend on the road) this Thursday and will be back Monday. After this trip, we will be having a short downtime, travel-wise, and off we go again to another Summer getaway in 3 weeks time. I am hoping that during the 3-week-window, I will find time to update this blog.

In the meantime, I am about to purchase 2 items in the MAC Sized to go collection. Fix+ and Pro Eye-Makeup Remover, these 2 things will definitely complete my travel make-up kit. I am so glad MAC introduced this 1-oz-size make-up must haves because the last time I brought my Fix+ on our trip to Chicago, it spilled and I got nothing left to use .  So tell me, what are you going to get from this collection?

The MAC Sized to Go Collection (all are 1-oz.)

* Fix+ (not the Rose version; $10 US/$12 CND)
* Cleanse Off Oil/Tranquil ($10 US/$12 CND)
* Cleanse Off Oil ($10 US/$12 CND)
* Pro Eye Makeup Remover ($10 US/$12 CND)
* Demi-Wipes (30 full-size sheets; $15 US/$18 CND)
* Oil Control Lotion ($15 US/$18 CND)
* Green Gel Cleanser ($10 US/$12 CND)
* Strobe Cream ($15 US/$18 CND)
* Studio Moisture Cream ($15 US/$18 CND)

Before I go looking for trophies as my contribution for our neighborhood Summer sports festival, here’s a quick review on my current IT undereye treatment. You see, I have blogged about this more than a year ago but I have forgotten to make a follow-up blog entry. I only got reminded when this was talked about amongst my twitter bebots friends.

I have tried Clinique’s eye treatment serum as well as Lancome’s but this very affordable Garnier Eye-brightening roll on treatment which is meant to reduce puffiness and dark undereye circles seems to be the most effective for as long as you do not fail to use it every single day, twice a day. I guess the cooling effect that we get from cucumber when put on our eyes shut is the culprit for it to work on me. But nothing else will hydrate and brighten your eyes more than a good sleep, healthy diet, stress-free life, and plenty of water.

Go ahead and try it, it’s less than $15 a pop!

My friend, C and I were talking for 2 hours last night. Initially, we were talking about our kitchen must-haves, say this set of le creuset pans and our newly discovered recipes. Then like we would always discuss, we tackled on our most current beauty product lemmings! We both agreed that while we loved MAC products especially their lippies and eyeshadows, their foundation collection tend to cause us breakouts and make us look yellowish if not finished with another loose powder, although, my everyday powder foundation is a MAC Studio Fix  powder plus foundation. We are both on the fair side, by the way. I was telling her that I noticed more dark-skinned women suit MAC foundation while Laura Mercier, NARS, Benefit, Shu Uemura, Lancome and Clinique are popular on fair-skinned women. That is just my opinion.

I also realized that I do not own a MAC blush (save for THIS as I just find it too powdery and too matte/dry on my cheeks. I am a huge fan of NARS and Benefit blushes. On the other hand, a dark-skinned friend dislikes NARS and Benefit blushes because they do not seem pigmented for her skin color.

So if I were to pick my top 1 foundation, that would be Laura Mercier collection. In fact, I am lemming their Spring Collection ‘11.