Desired Diva "I've Been Carded" African Black Soap and Coffee Scrub

Desired Diva I've Been Carded! Black Soap Facial Wash

Rewind the clock with this youth-renewing black soap facial treatment. Made with powerful African ingredients, this natural treatment deeply nourishes each pore, leaving you soft, toned, and fresh. African black soap is bursting with antioxidants that protect the skin from free radical damage. It helps to even out and fade age spots and discoloration. Rich in Vitamins A and E, and pure African shea butter, all working together to soften and smooth your skin. Also includes African coffee which exfoliates your skin while the antioxidants in coffee help to cleanse and nourish. And did I mention that it makes your skin feel absolutely incredible? 

Indie Love

Trillium Organics   

I am absolutely nuts about Trillium Organics Body Polish. Whenever I need an instant pick me up, I hop into the shower for a quick refreshing scrub, bringing my Trillium Organics Pink Grapefruit Organic Body Polish with me. This stuff is da bomb and is handmade in Wisconsin. Another great item to perk you up after a long day when you have more ahead of you, the pink grapefruit scent is invigorating and refreshing and returns you to a state of alertness and energy. Not only does it remove the day's debris from your skin, but safflower, soy and vitamin E oils leave you feeling so silky you don't need a body moisturizer. A plus- Grapefruit is a detoxifier AND reduces cellulite! They are also certified organic by the USDA!

Sweet Peanut Pie Sugar Scrub

 I got the honor of trying out a new product being developed by Sweet Peanut Pie, a peppermint sugar scrub. Super energizing and soothing and the perfect blend of smooth oils and scrubby sugar granules. It wasn't so oily that it made the tub floor slippery, but had enough that I didn't even need a body lotion afterward. The peppermint was zingy and gave a lovely tingling feel. My skin was soft and and rid of all dry spots. Yummy, and I can't wait until they start selling it- keep your eyes open, and in the meantime try out some of their adorable bath fizzies!

I've raved about Overall Beauty's mineral line before, but I wanted to revisit their awesomeness. 
I love that they have sampler packs that you can play around with, and the colors are generally pretty eye popping, especially if you do a wet application. They have a number of metallics that I'm quite fond of and they specialize in a lot of "gothy" colors that are really lovely. The minerals can be applied just about anywhere, even mixed with clear polish for nail color! Silly as it may seem, I like to use some of the blues and greens as lip shimmers when I feel like really standing out- though granted this is a look that I tend to not wear to work at the library.....A little goes a long way so they last forever- I have sample jars from them that lasted longer than some full sized pans. Go check out some of their awesome sparkly colors like Flash and Imagine! And let me reiterate, for $1.50 you can a generous sample jar of any color!

Sweet Tarts

To think, a few short years ago, I'd never even heard of scent tarts. I received some and thought they were soap samples! now I'm an addict and lucky for me, there's tons of folks out there making some good ones. It's a great way to support independent artisans without breaking the bank.

I like that I can have the type of scent dispersal as with a candle without worrying that I'm gonna set the house on fire. (I used to have a very curious kitty that was constantly singeing her whiskers on candle flames. Poor thing just never learned....) but these are much safer than candles as there's no actual flame and the wax melts at a much lower heat point so even if you spill some wax on you, it won't burn. As a matter of fact, I often dip my fingers into the wax pool to provide relief to the arthritis in my hands and love to rub the wax into rough patches on my skin for deep moisturizing. The warmed wax also makes for a terrific (and relaxing) massage. While most folks toss the wax after the scent is gone, I keep a little cup by my burner to pour it into to reuse for just such purposes.

So if you've never tried out anyone but Scentsy and don't know where to start, here's some good businesses who make great products to try out!

The Gingerbread Cupboard makes generously sized tarts and tends to throw in extras with your shipment as well. I always know I'm getting quality product with DIVINE smells! A jazillion scents to choose from, though I'm crazy for the apple scents....

Ugly Duckling Designs has a mind blowing assortment of items, not just tarts, but candles, decor, dolls, and just about anything country style primitive under the sun. You can even host an online candle party for your friends to get free products! There's monthly candle and tarts clubs too! Talk about your one stop shopping! Mmmmmmm, orange dreamsicle.......

 Don't you want to EAT these!?!?!?









Anam Cara Candles  specializes in triple scented tarts and candles, so they have a really good strong scent that lasts a long time. They will also make wickless candles for those with wickless candle burners. The bakery scents are my particular favorites, the husband often asks me what I've been cooking when I melt one of these!

Delightful Scents makes wonderful tarts and what I really love is that you can get sampler bags so you can mix and match your scents. (Guess what my friends got last Christmas?) They also offer e-parties with hostess gifts and unlike a lot of tart sellers, they have an absolutely ENORMOUS selection of warmers as well! There's always a good deal on whatever is the scent of the month, so be sure to see if that tickles your fancy.

This is just a tiny handful of the options out there, but for those of you new to the world of scent tarts, it should give you a good place to start.

Now that's a spicy meatball! Yummy food inspired body products

I absolutely LOVE handmade items, and especially bath and body care. I love knowing that I'm using something on my body that was made with love, thought, care and personal attention to detail. So lucky me, there's some great ones out there. Take the time and buy things like soap handmade and you'll be amazed at the difference.



Brieabella's Penguin Love makes some absolutely mind blowing soaps. I've been meaning to do a full individual review on this store alone, but the Hubband promised to do a video with me and I'm holding him to that! See, Hubband was complaining one day that I have all these fabulous handmade soaps and that he loved the way they made his skin feel when he was out of his store bought stuff and had to borrow mine, but mine tend to be scented in not the most masculine of ways. Well Brieabella's to the rescue! I told Stephani (the adorable soap mistress part of the team) about this and voila! TONS of manly soaps for The Hubband! Well, before he even got to use one, a friend of ours who's a mechanic came over to work on Hubband's car. After 2 days of laboring on the beast, he was ready to clean up and be presentable again. He saw the soaps sitting by the sofa and started tearing through them like a kid in a candy store, sniffing each bar and proclaiming over how great they smelled. I figured after many hundreds of dollars worth of free car repair, least I could do was give him a fabulous bar of soap to use, and he was BLOWN AWAY. How often do you hear a guy who just worked on your car gushing about how soft a soap made his skin while stroking his arm like a kitten?

So I went ahead and let Matt pick out his first one to use, despite wanting to save them for a video. Good choice, Babe! He decided to start with the Creole style- Red Beans and Rice. WOW. I could not stop sniffing him! And ya know what? I couldn't help myself, I had to use it too. I'm a sucker for spicy, woody and earthy smells and this fit the bill. I restrained myself so he could feel like it was special all his, but I snuck in a few uses ;-) Whod'a thunk it? The beans and rice made a wonderful exfoliator and after a weekend on the river left me covered in mosquito bites, this stuff was SOOOOOOOO amazingly soothing. Purrrrrrr. Turned me into a kitten too!



Formerly Om Shanti Handcrafts, they are now The Vagabond Tabby, but the awesome products remain the same.

From The Etsy Page:
I’m a wicked girl saving myself, an outlaw flying alone in the Black, a pirate and a good man. An herbalist, a shewolf, a catmommy and a friend to dogs. At the root of it all I’m Kate.

I started Om Shanti Handcrafts for small, personal reasons — dry skin from the dry air of Colorado, trying to get out of a hellish Walmart job — but I stick with it out of sheer love for what I’m doing.

I love making my products. I love experimenting with new scents, new blends, new ingredients. I love taking baths and calling it market research (though alas, I can’t claim my hot water bills with the IRS).

I even love the business end of things (though marketing still annoys the crap out of me). And speaking of crap…

Crap Free. Guaranteed.

I use only natural ingredients. Most fragrance oils make me sneeze, and most of the ones that don’t make me sneeze just don’t smell good to me. So it’s essential oils, herbs, a few natural flavourings, and some extracts. Nothing artificial.

Nothing I can’t pronounce, either, and nothing I know can be harmful, even if it’s technically ‘natural’. And I test everything on myself before it even gets put into a jar.

Not Just the Ingredients…

My containers are mostly glass, and all of them are recyclable. I use recycled packing material to ship, and I reuse boxes to ship when I have the right size available. I’m doing what I can for the Earth; it’s still the only place we have to live.

Well I've used a number of the products, but today I've got a theme, so those will just have to come at another time!

 

Kate's spicy scents make my eyes roll back in my head. Pure essential oils make for a heady, heavenly bath or shower. With cocoa butter, mango butter and jojoba oil, these feel as luxurious as they smell. She'll even do custom orders! Hubband wound up appropriating one of these for himself that I had in the shower, but luckily I had a second bar hidden away ;-) I like to keep the sampler sized ones in my bathroom for guests as well- they always get a compliment.

Crows Nest Primitive Shoppe makes a DIVINE Brown Sugar Scrub. 
You can even get a trial size for $1.75 if you just want to check it out, but trust me, it's fabulous. Made with fractionated coconut oil (which has a much longer shelf life than other oils, on top of being a miracle product for the skin) brown sugar and essential oils of amber and vanilla. It leaves your skin feeling like silk, and you don't need a lotion afterwards- your skin is in Valhalla. PLUS- you smell like, I dunno, Heaven or something.

And while these aren't body products, they are food inspired, so I want to recommend Crow's Nest tarts. I love the Black Cherry and the Cran Orange melting tarts. Smells just like the real thing. YUM!!!!

So be nice to your skin and happy bathing!

Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Foaming Scrub Pink Grapefruit (and a great deal on Amazon)

I am not a label whore, though I do tend to have the best results with higher end products. Sometimes though, there's a commercially accessible brand that impresses me up there with the big boys. Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Foaming Scrub Pink Grapefruit
is one of those! Every month (you know where this going) I will break out just a tidge. Not a ton, but like, one or two blemishes. Well, the last two months, when I knew it was coming I used this scrub for about the week beforehand, and guess what? NO blemishes at all! I don't know how it works on daily chronic acne, but on my situational acne it works like a charm. It's gentle enough for my sensitive, rosacea prone skin and left my skin feeling thoroughly exfoliated. I don't recommend this for dry skin, simply based on other reviews by people who have dry skin, but mine is combination and it treated me just fine. Obviously you should use a non-comedogenic moisturizer after using it, but it really does clean out your pores and tighten them. A little goes a long way, and the grapefruit smell is fabuloso and muy invigorating! A total bargain.    I found a GREAT deal on it on Amazon- even with shipping it's cheaper than any other retail price I've seen!

Skincare RX 21%discount code & Weird textured cleansers

 I've recently used two different cleansers that had textures that were WILDLY different from the normal cleanser that I've come to expect. One was no problemo, and one SUCKED. Which was which? Well the one that was completely Bizarro Land but actually is awesome is Jurlique Daily Exfoliating Cream. You squeeze it out of this metal toothpaste like tube and this nasty, stinky GUNK comes out. Seriously not a pleasant smell- those wackjobs that review it and act like they like the scent have questionable olfactory tastes at best. But we ain't using this to smell purdy, are we? No, we are using it to LOOK purdy, and on that it does a smashing, bang up job! I recommend using it in the shower since it's a weeeee bit messy. Or a lot messy. Take your pick. So once you squeeze this creepy gook out into your hands, you get it wet and work it into a sort of paste that you you then put on your gob. They say to "press and release" it into the skin, but I just do a very light rub. Lo and behold, you have just gotten rid of every bit of nastiness on your skin and you now have the kisser of an angel. It's so insanely gentle that you don't even realize that you're using a scrub - this would work for the most sensitive delicate flower.

The Ingredients:

• Almonds, Oats and Oatbran gently exfoliate and cleanse the skin.
• Sesame Seed Oil, Macadamia Oil, Wheat Bran Extract and Honey work together to moisturize, rebalance dryness and prevent moisture loss.
• Green Tea, Grapeseed and Turmeric help protect the skin against damaging oxidants.

Use code END21  and get a 21% discount

Jurlique Daily Exfoliating Cream Intense cleansing that doesnt harm your skin? Its possible with Jurlique Daily Exfoliating Cream. It uses natural, gentle ingredients to pull oil, dead skin cells, and dirt from the skin as it nourishes, hydrates, and protects from damage.

Then we come to the dud. I have raved about products from BeFine Food Skincare line over and over again, so my deep disappointment here was particularly resonant.
Yeah, it's gentle, because it's apparently just water! Seriously, when I opened it up and went to put some into my hand, it literally poured out like water. So upon my first attempt to use the stuff, half of it went flying down the sink. Greeeat. It's a real shame too, because the ingredient list reads like a dream and what little bit I could get to attach to my face had a wonderful crisp minty sensation. It was so watery though that I had to splash it onto my face- not a very effecient method of facial cleansing. So yeah, over half of it was wasted- I can't imagine that was the intention! I did contact the company to see if perhaps what I got was expired or something but I haven't heard back from them yet. I'll let ya know if I do, but in the meantime I cannot recommend peppermint water to you :-)

What would I recommend instead? June Jacobs Pore purifying Facial Bath is boffo.

June Jacobs Pore Purifying Facial Bath, 7 oz What is it: Paraben and preservative free, this purifying cleanser offers deep pore-cleansing action with a natural antiseptic, tea tree oil, to rid the skin of surface impurities, absorb oil, and slough off dead skin cells. Who is it for: Sensitive, dry, and normal skin types. Why is it different: Nutrient-rich algae extract acts as a humectant, retaining the moisture level of the skin. A powerful antioxidant blend of white, red, and green tea extracts, combined with goji berry, pomegranate, and grape seed extracts, help to fight free radical attack and leave the skin clean, radiant, and revitalized. How do I use it: Apply a small amount of cleanser onto dampened skin. Gently massage onto skin with a circular motion. Rinse skin thoroughly with water and pat dry. Follow with toner, serum, eye cream, moisturizer, and sunscreen. From June Jacobs Spa Collection.

What is it: Paraben and preservative free, this purifying cleanser offers deep pore-cleansing action with a natural antiseptic, tea tree oil, to rid the skin of surface impurities, absorb oil, and slough off dead skin cells.

Who is it for: Sensitive, dry, and normal skin types.

Why is it different: Nutrient-rich algae extract acts as a humectant, retaining the moisture level of the skin. A powerful antioxidant blend of white, red, and green tea extracts, combined with goji berry, pomegranate, and grape seed extracts, help to fight free radical attack and leave the skin clean, radiant, and revitalized.

If you go to look at the reviews on QVC, EVERY LAST ONE is a 5 star review. Seriously! You will see a difference in your skin immediately, it cleans your skin deep down, getting all kinds of gunk. The toner test didn't pick up one speck of anything left on my skin after using this. It makes your pores smaller and gets all the oils but doesn't leave your skin tight and dry. It's super rich and creamy and a little goes a long way. This stuff will last you an eon! It has a lovely mild smell that makes you feel like you're getting some high end spa treatment. Love it!