Posts to look forward to this summer!

Coming soon to Confessions of a Product Junkie!!


1) The secret to healthy, soft hair: Mayo???
(Mayonnaise has lots of protein and oils that just may be the key to the hair I've been hoping for... or a sticky mess?!? Check back and find out!)

2) Does the Bump It really create the perfect "bitch poof"?
(We've all seen the ads on tv, and don't deny it... we've all been curious... I'll report back once it arrives at my house!)

3) Latisse, the first FDA approved eye lash grower with the Glacouma drug everyone's been talking about!
(I've heard it actually works... but at $100 a tube, wouldn't you rather I try it out and report back before you go running out to buy it?!)

4) Biore' Pore Strips, the secret to a blackhead free nose!
(Pretty self-explainatory... but my personal favorite quick fix beauty product!)

It's some good stuff, and it'll be complete with pictures and my own first hand experiences! For those of you product lovers out there, you don't want to miss it! :)

Sarah

Horse Shampoo-- Does it really make your hair grow faster?

What’s the deal with Horse Shampoo?

I laughed out loud the first time my friend Kelsey told me she was using horse shampoo to make her hair grow faster. Shampoo designed for horses?! Whaaaat? A few months later, wonder upon wonders, her hair was significantly longer.

Being a product junkie myself, I needed to do some product research.

The brand of horse shampoo everyone’s been talking about is called “Mane’nTail.” When I first went to manentail.com/home2.asp, I was initially a bit thrown off. The website asked me to select whether I was using the products for “personal” or for “animal care.” I scanned over the picture of a well-groomed horse and selected the picture of a bored looking girl with very long hair and the words “personal care” plastered across her picture. I chuckled to myself that the website even had to ask.

According to the Q&A part of Mane’n Tail’s website, its products were originally developed for horses. Horse owners reported seeing “significant improvement in the health and appearance of their horses’ manes and tails.” The improvement in their animals’ hair prompted horse owners to try the shampoo out on themselves (which wouldn’t have been my first inclination, but hell, why not!?) Animal owners supposedly had the same results.

Still, I was skeptical.

After looking at the Mane’n Tail website, I did a bit more research into the success of the product from outsiders’ perspective.

Can horse shampoo really make my hair grow any faster than it already does?
The answer is “no.” Nothing you put on your head can increase growth (at least nothing that has been discovered thus far). However, Mane N’ Tail does give us Long Hair Hopefuls a few good reasons to buy it.

First of all, those of us trying to grow out our hair need a shampoo that moisturizes and helps to prevent breakage. Mane N’ Tail does just that. It also comes without the sticky and unhealthy residue that many other shampoos leave behind. All Mane’n Tail leaves behind is clean, healthy hair. And best of all, it’s CHEAP (A few bucks per bottle at most grocery and drug stores!).

So, I obviously had to purchase a bottle of Mane’n Tail to try on myself. Just so that I could write a fair and accurate review, I used up the entire bottle before commenting. As promised, the shampoo cleaned my hair without leaving it dry and brittle. It didn’t smell bad, and it didn’t turn my hair blue (as I’d heard a rumor it would). However, it didn’t do anything amazing to my hair, either. My hair grew at its normal rate, and for now, I’m going back to my old standby, SunSilk Captivating Curls shampoo (until I find something else intriguing, of course!)

More later!
Sarah

Lancome Oscillation mascara rocks my tired lashes!

I’ve always been jealous of those girls with natural beautifully long eyelashes, and bitter toward those boys with sexy lashes they’ll never appreciate the way a girl would (like my boyfriend). I’m one of those unfortunate people born with short, dull lashes... UNTIL NOW! Finally, after much searching, I’ve found the most incredible mascara.

My new god sent is Lancôme Oscillation mascara!!! Yes, it vibrates. Yes, it’s strange. But IT WORKS! It takes me about ten seconds to apply it and I only need one coat. It doesn’t clup, or smudge. It curls my lashes without an eyelash curler, it lengthens them to the max, and it carefully covers every single lash. This is by far the best mascara I’ve ever used.

The only draw back is the price… It’s about 34 American dollars. If you’re not quite ready to spend QUITE that much on a mascara (although I urge you to, this stuff is worth the $$$!) then Lancome also makes a mascara called Hypnose which is almost as good, and less expensive ($24). I’m all for drug store cheap makeup, but when I find a product that’s worth the extra cash, I just have to share it with the world! Trust me, you won’t regret this purchase.

(Image borrowed fromhttp://fashionesedaily.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/lancome.jpg)

Skin care: Acne-- Product reviews and recommendations

Section one of new blog: SKIN CARE!

At 20 years old, it's difficult to wrap my head around what my skin could look like when I'm 50, if I keep doing to it what I've been doing: Tanning beds, sleeping in makeup, picking at my face, not moisturizing, using harsh products on my face... etc. My future could be tragic... However, I think there's still hope! After doing some research and meeting with a dermatologist, I've finally come to a solid skin care routine to help revamp and salvage my skin.

Today we will be talking about CONFRONTING ACNE...

It's a zitty situation.. heh heh.. Ok... I know I'm not funny...

My skin: Fair. Somewhat uneven reddish tones in places. Burns then turns to tan. Freckles and is beginning to show sun spots (damage!). Occasional breakouts. Dry patches. Oily t-zone. Combination skin. Fairly typical of someone my age (20).

Being the product junkie that I am, despite many a failed product, I'm always convinced that I can find a magic skin care routine that will cure all my breakouts. Well, I've tried MANY a product... and here are my reviews of the more popular ones I've used..

-------------------------

REVIEWS:

+++Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash--

For me, this face wash worked OKAY. It left my face feeling clean, but it didn't clear up my zits very well when I had them. It also had the tendency to dry out my skin more than other face washes, which is a huge downside to it because moisture in the skin is important for it's long term texture and appearance.

Price: $6-8.

Where to buy: Walgreens, Target, Fred Meyer, pretty much any grocery or drug store...

Recommended?: Not really.

+++Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser--

This is a pretty decent cleanser. It has a nice creamy texture to it (so it doesn't dry out your skin), and it's oil free. It also smells good, and leaves your skin feeling tingly and clean. But even though it contains no oil, I felt like my skin got oily pretty quickly after using it, so that was a downside to the cleanser. But it did marginally help reduce the appearance of pimples. Personally, I like this product better than Clean and Clear's competing version of it.

Price:$5-10.

Where to buy: Pretty much any grocery or drug store...

Recommended?: Sure. For the price, it's not a bad buy.

+++Clean and Clear Deep Action Cream Cleanser--

Similar to Neutrogena's cream cleanser... Oil free, creamy texture and doesn't dry out your skin. However, it does a poor job removing makeup and it doesn't do anything useful towards clearing up acne. \

Price: $5-10.

Where to buy: Pretty much any grocery or drug store...

Recommended?: No.

+++Clinique Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam-- If you're going to spend this kind of money on a cleanser, it needs to be a damn good cleanser. Clinique's Acne Solutions Cleansing foam is supposed to calm, sooth, and reduce redness. But in my short usage of it, I noticed very little difference in my skin's appearance when comparing it to other, cheaper, drugstore brand cleansers.

Price: $17.50

+++Clinique Acne Solutions Clarifying Lotion-- It does everything it promises to do: it exfoliates, unclogs pores, and helps to reduce excess oil that can lead to breakouts. I'm a big fan of Clinique's toners. I've been using them since my preteen years when I noticed the first spot of oil on my face. Therefore, like every other Clinique toner I've used, I like this one very much. It helped me get those last bits of dirt and oil off my face that a cleanser can't quite get to, which is great and exactly what a good toner should do.

Price: $13.50

+++Clinique Acne Solutions Clearing Moisturizer Oil Free-- This moisturizer is great because it's oil free, light and moisturizing. It's also "medicated" to help clear up your breakouts. Well, I'm not sure if it actually cleared up my skin or if it was the toner that did that,, but it definitely didn't clog my pores or make my skin any worse while it moisturized, which is really all you can ask of a face moisturizer for acne prone skin.

Price: $16.00

Where to buy these products: Macy's Clinique counter, Nordstrom's Clinique counter, Sephora, www.clinique.com

Recommended?: Yes, all of the Clinique Acne Solutions products except for the cleansing foam, which I think could be replaced by Nutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser (cheaper option than Clinique) and still work well together.

+++Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment with Botanical Blast-- Try saying the name of this product ten times fast... Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment with Botanical Blast. Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment with Botanical Blast. Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment with Botanical Blast. Boscia Clear Complexion Treatment with Botanical Blast.... ANYWAY... I was recommended this product at Sephora when I asked for a spot acne treatment. Now, I don't know if it was some sick joke on the sale's lady's part, or if she just hated me, but somehow she convinced me to blow $35 on this worthless product. It did absolutely NOTHING to my pimples. Didn't make them worse, didn't make them better, the gel just made my skin sticky.

Price: $35.00

Where to buy: Sephora

Recommended?: No! Expensive waste of money.

+++Noxzema Deep Cleansing Cream-- A bad idea for acne... I know our mothers all used Noxzema, and many of us probably have too, but the tingling part of this face wash makes red pimples even redder. Although it might feel like the tingling sensation means that it's working, it's really just irritating your skin. It has cleaning power, but if you're acne prone, stay away from Noxzema.

Price: $5-$8.

Where to buy: Drugstores.

Recommended?: Not for acne.

+++ProActive 3 Step system-- I have mixed feelings about ProActive. It's effective, yet I don't feel like it's very good for your skin. It can irritats and dehydrates it. I was a tried and true ProActive fan for 4 years. It was the only thing that I'd found that REALLY cleared up my skin. However, my skin got addicted to this stuff. I had to use it every day, otherwise I would break out. Then, after four year, I must have built up some sort of immunity to it, because it more or less stopped working for me this summer. Another annoying thing about it is that it's really difficult to buy the three products separate from each other. This was really a pain for me becasue for the most part, I only used the cleanser (it was the part of the system I found to work the best). AND there is no SPF in their products as of right now. Overall, it's an effective skin care system. It's affordable. But it's hard on your skin.

Price: $39.95 for the whole thing.

Where to buy: Online.

Recommended?: I'm not sure...

+++Nature's Cure Two Part Acne Treatment System-- This system consists of a cream, and a daily pill. The pill lured me in... I don't know why. I think it just made it seem like the system would actually work for some reason. Well, I don't know if the pill does anything by itself, but the whole process works okay. As far as acne treatment, it's defiantly better than nothing. It dried out my skin a little bit though. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed by this product.

Price: $10.49

Where to buy: Drugstores and online.

Recommended?: Not really.

+++ZAPZYT Maximum Strength 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Treatment Gel-- This is a topical cream (they're calling it a gel) which you apply for spot treatment of acne. It's much like Nature's Cure and the Boscia product I reviewed, except in my opinion, it works much better. Finally, a fairly effective, CHEAP, spot acne treatment! The downside it that it will probably dry out your skin a bit, so be sure to use a face moisturizer.

Price: $5.29

Where to buy: Drugstores and online.

Recommended?: Yes

...And FINALLY... My MAGIC acne cure... The best system I've found thus far...

+Murad's Clairfying Cleanser-- $18.99 at sleekhair.com

+Murad's Clairfying Toner-- $15.99 at sleekhair.com

+Murad's Gentle (Moisturizing) Acne Treatment Gel -- $26.99 at sleekhair.com

(The gentle acne treatment gel is my favorite because it not only is it gentle, but it moisturizes AND clears up your skin!)

This system is INCREDIBLE. Cleared my skin right up after ProActive failed on me! Every Murad product I mentioned here is oil free and can be used day (the gel is even great under makeup because it helps reduce shine!) AND at night. However, for day use I would still recommend some sort of product over it with SPF in it. I haven't actually tried Murad's moisturizers with SPF, but I'd be willing to bet that they're a solid pick based on everything I've read about and experienced personally with this line of products.

Where to buy: sleekhair.com has a sale right now on Murad... so go there to get the best deals!

Recommended?: YES YES YES!

Check back soon for my next blog entry which will be on the top oil free moisturizers!

Ta-ta for now,

Sarah

Blog Makeover... NEW and improved? We shall see..

I'm a product junkie. I can't make decisions until I try everything! This habit of mine has been draining my bank account. All summer long I've been contemplating my spending problems, and although I've yet to come to any profound conclusions about them, I figure in the mean time I'll at least put the knowledge I've gained to good use.

So as of now, I'm transforming this blog (who knows how permanently), into--- product reviews and recommendations, shopping, and website reviews. So bare with me and the new, possibly improved, blog...

-Sarah

Media

           I choose Journalism as my major because I love to write, communicate, and hear myself talk (yes, I'll admit it). With that said, Journalism sounds just about perfect for me. Lately though, I've been having second thoughts. It's taken me a while to see past the glamorous haze surrounding the media and everything related to it, but I've really begun seeing the media's pitfalls and negative contributions to society. And let me tell you, they are not minor pitfalls. 

           On one hand, journalism does make very noble contributions: news and awareness... and therefore journalism has great power to make a positive difference in the world. At the same time though, Journalists can (and DO) easily lie, skew the truth, and take down society one naive citizen at a time. People are so easily influenced, it's frightening really.

          I'm not saying that there is no good media out there. I'm just saying that before I graduate college with a Journalism degree, I hope I discover a good way to contribute to the good media, and not to perpetuate all the trash out there.

Just needed to get that off my chest,

Sarah

Ps. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like to read a little trash every now and again. Can you say, "Perezhilton.com"? :)

iPhone 3G Review--The GOOD--The BAD and the UGLY

           As I mentioned on my birthday, the cell phone I've had for the past year stopped working when the lady doing my pedicure dropped it into the bowl of foot water. Rest in peace, my dear Sony Ericsson. Since then, I've waited patiently for the new iPhone 3G, which was backordered from AT&T, for quite a few weeks. Yes ladies and gentleman, I was cell phone-less for a few weeks. Actually just a few days, but I survived it! I'm a living example of life without technology (with the exception of my computer, internet, email, ipod, facebook, and television, but those don't count, riggghhhtt)? At any rate, on July 30th, I received my brand new, beautiful, shiny black iPhone 3G. And I haven't looked up from it since, with the exception of writing this blog (note how this is the first update since I got my phone) and while I'm driving (but I'll get to that in a minute).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t be fooled by the lengths of the “good” versus the “bad and the ugly”. I spent more time focusing on the bad because the good is so good that there would have been no room in this blog for me to explain everything, so I simply listed things. The bad needed to be explained in more detail so that it can be better understood.

 

THE GOOD-- Practically everything!! Oh gosh, where to start? You needn't ask, "what DOES the iPhone do?" But instead ask, "what DOESN'T the iPhone do?" And the answer to that is, "not much"...

           In addition to the replacing your ipod (you just upload all your music on your phone and plug in your headphones, which come with the phone), the iPhone comes with numerous useful features. To name a few: Email, calendar, notepad, weather information, iphoto, camera, stock updates, Safafi 3G Internet, calculator, maps, GPS with directions, clock with timer, alarms, stopwatch, and world clock, youtube, and a store where you can download and access practically anything you could ever need.

           This store is called the "applications store" and these downloadable applications range from games, to hospital patient locators, restaurant, bar, gas station and grocery store locators, to flash cards to interactive beer glasses, to calorie counters and electronic personal trainers. The store is so filled with applications that it categorizes them to make them more user friendly. Categories: Books, Business, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Games, Healthcare and Fitness, Lifestyle, Music, Navigation, News, Photography, Productivity, Reference, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities, and Weather. Each one of these categories have up to 400 different helpful applications to choose from. It might seem a little overwhelming, but apple did a good job simplifying it so that it's user-friendly. Honestly, I could go on about the applications for hours, but that would be a waste of your time and a waste of my time that I could be spending playing with my new iPhone. So I'll get into the "bad" now...

 

THE BAD AND THE UGLY-- The iPhone 3G is a fabulous invention. With that said, like any newer technology, it has it's bugs (that's tech speak for software errors) and it's letdowns.

           First of all, like I said, it's sold out all over the place. Many people have been trying to get the iPhone 3G since it first came out on July 21st but still haven't been able to acquire it. Also, once the phones do come back into stock, they're a pain to get your hands on. You need AT&T service for one thing, which eliminates a good part of the cell phone using population. Secondly, you need to activate the phone there in the apple or AT&T store, and be present for the activation. And there's the minor detail of the $200 it costs to buy the phone itself. The process of getting an iPhone 3G is, as of right now, a total pain the ass. 

           As far as bugs go, there are quite a few. The ones I've noticed the most are the crappy battery life, the random and annoying crashes where the apple icon comes up and stares you in the face, and the lack of a filter for shitty applications.

           As far as the battery life goes, you can turn off the 3G when you're not using it and apparently that saves a lot of battery (I actually never use the 3G to be perfectly honest). Also, my phone having a short battery life is probably my own fault, since I'm constantly using it for more than just talking because it can do ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. The random crashes are few, but annoying. They're not usually caused by normal phone use, but instead by faulty applications that I've downloaded on my own. Which brings me to the other bug I was going to talk about, the buggy applications. It's difficult to tell the smooth running ones from the buggy and pointless ones, and it doesn't appear that apple weeds through these very thoroughly. They could do a better job of this. It's very helpful to read reviews of applications before you buy them, so that you know weather or not you're going to be wasting your time, phone memory, and money (yes, many applications cost money, meh).

           My main letdowns from the iPhone are its GPS system, email system, and the fact that I can't type while driving anymore (which probably isn't a horrible thing...).

           The GPS works like mapquest.com, but a little bit better because it can determine your current location at the start of your journey. This is fine except for the fact that before I got the phone I had the unrealistic expectation that the iPhone's GPS would give me directions as I'm driving by talking to me (it's not that crazy, my friend's Razor cell phone does it!) and that it would correct my wrong turns. It doesn't talk to me, so I have to be looking down at my phone and reading directions as I drive, and press the "next" button to see the upcoming directions instead of having it all in front of me. And if I do take a wrong turn, the GPS doesn't react to it and try and help correct me. It just keeps the original directions on the screen. My friend's razor phone worked like a car GPS and corrected wrong turns, talked, and gave better directions. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

           The iPhone's email system is frustrating because emails don't come to your phone automatically like they do with the blackberry, you have to get into your email and check for them and upload them. This is unpractical for anybody who constantly needs access to their email like many people in the working world do.

           And as far as text messaging while driving goes, I probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but it's practically impossible with the iPhone. I could type on my old phone without even glancing down at it, but the iPhone's touch screen technology gives you no buttons as reference points. You need to look down at the screen to type a semi coherent message; it's just a fact.

OVERALL---

           In conclusion, I would highly recommend the iPhone 3G. Yes, there are a few areas that need to be updated, but that will happen soon I’m sure. And well, I’m OBSESSED! The iPhone 3G gives me constant entertainment to the point where boredom is not an option. I don't know what I did before my iPhone, back when I was naive enough to think that all I needed in a phone was text messaging and phone calls. Not only can I make phone calls and send text messages, the iPhone’s applications help me do practically anything. Currently, my obsession is the application game “Enigmo”, which is well worth the $10 download, and the “iDrink” application which provides me with a lengthy list of my cocktail favorites with recipes, lets me create and edit my own drinks, and gives me an extensive alphabetized cocktail menu which is all perfect for a night out at the bars. Hey, a girl’s gotta unwind every once in a while, right?

Ta-ta for now,

Sarah