Can You Can-Canela?

My boyfriend's parents go on vacation to the Dominican about twice a year. With the uncanny precision of a sixth sense, they always go right when the weather turns to absolute shit and we all hole up like rodents, under layers of blankets to keep warm. And, they return, tanned and smiling, bearing rum and coffee, right after the worst of the blizzard has passed. I don't know how they do it.


Anyway, they came back again a couple weeks ago, and brought us some vanilla, coffee, and coconut oil. My boyfriend loves to cook, and he wanted some different types of oils to try. His parents brought us back a squirt bottle with the words "For A Fast and Long, Lastin Tan" (sic) on the front, and a glass bottle called "Can Canela". Neither of them looked like they would make great cooking oils (although 'Fast and Long, Lastin" does smell a tidge like mushrooms... I'm not sure I could trust it). So, I carted both of them off to the bathroom to join the ranks of bathroom crap I try once then throw in a basket and never look at again.


But...the Can Canela stuff is wonderful! I opened it up to put a little on my lips when I was running late one day, and discovered that 'canela' meant that it was cinnamon. Heh. If my Spanish was better, maybe I would have known that, eh... Anyway, I've been using this for everything lately. It moisturizes hands and feet, plumps and shines up lips, makes a lovely bath oil, and gives a wonderfully close and satiny shave. I can't believe I haven't tried coconut oil before.


You don't have to wait for someone to vacation in the Caribbean to try this out. Health food and grocery stores sell tubs of coconut oil (it is a bit more expensive when it's imported...$10-$15), and seriously, all the Dominicans did was throw a cinnamon stick into the oil and let it sit there and steep. You can do the same thing. You could also use ground cinnamon, but I don't think I would use that on anything but lips, since it might be gritty. Throw some into little travel tubs or lip pots, and you have gorgeous on the go. But, be warned, this stuff switches from solid to liquid very quickly. It is solid in my house (about 18C), but liquid the second it touches my hands. Use with caution. And...maybe look for your "fast", "long", and "lastin" things elsewhere, m'kay?


Listening to: Summertime - Sublime

Milky Milky Cocoa Puffs

I've always liked the idea of moisturizers. I try every one that catches my fancy, thinking they will work for me the way they work for everyone else, and always wind up looking like I've covered my face in Crisco (which, by the way, I've heard is an excellent moisturizer...). My face breaks out, gets red, or feels like it has been sealed with wax. But I always try again...

This time my persistence has paid off! Befine makes a Night Cream with cocoa, millet, & rice bran that I absolutely love! I haven't broken out! My face isn't red! I don't feel like I've applied Burt's Lipbalm to my face! And (this is the cool part) I'M NOT SHINY!

This is a first, people. I'm always shiny. I am the Kuwait of faces. I use this morning and night, and when this soaks in, I don't look or feel like I've put anything on. There is no residual slick, no funny surface sheen. My skin feels like skin...just softer than it was 5 minutes before, and more like I can stretch it and make faces to match my emotions without my skin cracking like a salt flat. And I'm mattified, but don't have that weird grainy-chemically feeling mattifying lotions get. Yes, this is a miracle. I would like to nominate whoever makes Befine products for a sainthood. I'm pretty sure this qualifies.

Don't run out and buy this if you aren't of the extremely greasy of face, I really don't think this will be enough for you. And, I'll admit, this has a slightly off boiled rice smell, but it fades quickly, I promise!You oily girls with strong olfactory defences, listen up: if you moisturize, your face won't try to compensate and over produce oil. Adding moisture can be a good thing - if you find the 'right' product. This one might be it. I bought mine from Superstore for $7, but it looks like this normally goes for about $20. I'd say it is worth it. If you aren't sure you want to shell out the money for this before you discover the magic for yourself, Befine makes little sample packettes, with enough product for about 10 uses, that cost about $2.

Listening to: I'm In Miami, Bitch - LMFAO *This is the international song of the douche. Just listening to it makes me feel like I need to pop my collar, wear Axe, and drive a big truck. But it's sooo catchy...

A Steal Of A Peel

With the demise of the KMF Peaches and Creme AHA lotion, my hopes for an AHA product that works also died. However, being a resilient creature, and hopelessly addicted to beauty products, I recovered my broken heart and returned to the cosmetic aisle of my local drug store.

I love checking out the bargain bin; my love of finding a deal and constrained finances combine to give me quite a thrill when I find something that is actually good in the bin of separated nail polishes and broken powder compacts. During my most recent foray into the bin of lost retail hopes, I found St. Ives' Peel Off Hydroxy Masque for $1.99. I figured this was a pretty acceptable price for something that might just end up shoved to the back of my vanity, bought it, and rushed home to slather my face with goop.

The first time I opened the cap, watery gel rushed out. I'm going to suggest that you don't do that. Shake the bottle very thoroughly and carefully squeeze out a bit at a time. The consistency is a bit thin, so to prevent breaking when I peeled it off, I let it dry for about 7 minutes and then applied a second thin coating. This stuff smells like slightly fermented apples and what I can only describe as acid...something like what you would imagine a mad scientist's laboratory to smell like. And the vapours wafting up while my face dried made my eyes water. I'm serious, this stuff burns the eyes like it was made from the urine of satan's minions.

But for all of the terrible parts of this masque, it works wonderfully. It didn't burn while on my skin, and didn't give me any type of chemical burns along my cheekbones (where I usually get burned from bad products). It is actually pretty gentle when you peel it off, I didn't wince or have to pull slowly. It comes off fairly easily, and doesn't give you the impression that you just applied superglue to your face. My skin was smooth, radiant, and not at all red from over exfoliation. I also didn't feel too tight, and didn't need moisturizer after peeling the translucent masque from my face. And my acne scars and pores seemed diminished, probably from the salicylic and lactic acids. I've now used it twice a week for 2 weeks with no ill side effects or breakouts.I have to say I was suprised and impressed.

Here's the bad part: St. Ives has discontinued this product, so if you want to try it out, get it quick. They started to phase it out in January, so bottles of this should still be around, and should be super cheap. Go get some and join me in the disgusting fun found in peeling this crap off your face and then peering at it to see if any gross pores came loose with it. Repulsive but soooo satisfying...

Listening to: Eyes On Fire - Blue Foundation (Yes, from the Twilight soundtrack...you want to make something of it?)

Scrub A-Dub-Dub

I am a bath addict. I mean it. I crave baths during the day, and some may call me gross, but I will take a bath over a shower any day. I like to soak and then scrub the bejeezus out of my skin. As a result, I have silky smooth skin, even in winter (just so long as I moisturize after!).

My current favorite scrubbing tool is The Body Shop's exfoliating skin towel. Apocalypstick Now talked about a similar scrubbing cloth, the Salux Beauty Skin Cloth, back in February, and as I was reading it, I was going "Heeeeeey, I have one of those! She's right, they ARE magic!". Whichever brand you use, they are made of a rough, loose woven nylon cloth that scrapes gunk and dead skin cells from your body and satisfies every urge to itch your back, but they are still pretty soft and don't hurt. They dry very quickly, making these more sanitary than loofas, sponges, or washcloths, since germs don't have time to grow in the lovely wet environment. And these things are loooong. I cut 4 washcloth sized pieces for facial use out of mine and I still have a hefty long strip that I use to scrub my back and can ball up to make a loofa-style scrubber for body use. They come in all sorts of colours (The Body Shop one comes in green, orange, cream, and white), and they retail for about $5, so you can get several for different members of your household. That way you don't have to worry about contaminating yourself with someone else's cooties. Aaaaand these are washable, so chuck it in the machine on cold, or rinse out with some tea tree soap, let air dry, and you don't have to worry about rubbing your own dead skin across your body. Urgh.

A final word of warning: after exfoliating, no matter how you do it, please moisturize, or all of your insistent, border-line OCD scrubbing will go to waste. That lovely fresh skin will dry out extra quick if you don't slap some humecant lotion on there stat.

Listening to: Layla - Eric Clapton

Mission Update + New Products

Ok, so It has been a while since I started my skin regimen, and I figured I'd better give you an update.

Things went good for the first couple of days, although the KMF Peaches and Creme lotion made me super greasy by about halfway through the day. I'm talking makeup meltingly greasy. Then, I started having HUGE red zits pop up on my cheeks, chin, forehead. I got a little freaked out, but my skin is known to react from new products, so I toughed it out for a few more days. But, instead of going down, the zits made little zit colonies and got really red. I figured it might have been the lotion, and that I may have changed too much at the same time.

So, I cut my routine down to just the Pond's Cold Cream and the Oxy Benzyol cream. Things improved, but not by much. Then, 2 days ago, I was looking at Lush's Ultra Bland Cleanser (Which is basically a hipster version of Pond's) and some of the reviews said that customers didn't like this stuff when they just washed it off with water, but when they followed the DIRECTIONS and used a wash cloth to scrub it off, it worked wonderfully for them. When I looked at the directions on the Pond's cream, lo and behold, they instructed me to use a warm washcloth.

What a difference that has made! I used a cloth that night, put on my BP, and slept soundly. In the morning, my face was so much better, and the big red monstrosities had already started to shrink down. And here's something a little on the gross side... After srubbing with Pond's, my sick blackheads on my chin and nose come out like nothing else...apply light pressure, and they slide right out, leaving squeaky clean pores...

Even with this improvement, I feel like my skin needs to be cleaned in the morning. I'd like to continue to use the Pond's for nighttime makeup removal and cleansing, but I have this nagging need to have a thoroughly washed face in the morning.

So, I've bought ClayMedicx French Green Clay Soap to try as a morning cleanser. I've had success from bentonite masques before, so I'm hoping this soap will have similar results. Even if it doesn't, this soap has an amazing peppermint-vanilla scent (much more on the peppermint side though) that I would be more than happy to use as a bath soap. It has pretty minimal ingredients, just bentonite, honey, olive oil, glycerin, and essential oils. Nice and simple, and it is also hypo-allergenic, free of colouring, cruelty and animal testing free, and all natural.

Let's hope my successes with the coldcream-BP routine can be mixed in with my need for a cleaned face... fingers crossed...

Listening to: My dog snore...

An Affair To Remember

I bought Burt's Bees Garden Tomato Toner last night. And I already love it. I'll admit that I have serial love affairs with toners and astringents, but I rarely find one that I could turn into a long-term relationship. I think this might be 'the one'!



I guess I'd better justify how I fell so hard so fast...I like the way it smells - like tomato leaves that have been crushed. It's pleasant and herbal. And, unlike a lot of other toners that leave my face feeling dry or tight, this one made me feel clean and exfoliated without reddening my cheeks, and left me suprisingly soft feeling. Almost like I'd put on a light day lotion. And it cleaned up my greasies, and dried up a zit that was brewing on my chin. It really seems like it might be the real thing.

Oh, and the really amazing thing...this stuff is a cheap date. I'm not sure what it retails for normally, probably in the $10-$15 range if you find it at a health food store (like Nutters), or a drug or grocery store (try London Drugs or Whole Foods if you live in the States). I found it at Save-On-Foods for under $5. If you live in Alberta, get there quick. I doubt you'll find any date that affordable, and if you actually have a sweetheart for this Saturday, you only have a couple days left to refine your gorgeousness!

Listening to: Be Mine - Robyn