Skin Deep

A friend recently told me about the website Skin Deep, where you can look up the ingredients to basically any cosmetic/beauty product and the website rates these ingredients on a "safety rating." This rating is based on a 0-10 score, with 0 containing no harmful ingredients and 10 being the worst for you. You moms out there--they also score children's products as well.

Ever since I found out about this website I've been looking up all my products just to give me a sense of what I'm putting on my body.  I'm not 100% sold on this yet, but I am thinking it wouldn't hurt to switch to the safer products on a few of these. For example, some body lotions surprised me. Having a healthier lotion is more important to me (probably because I literally lather them everywhere almost everyday).  Here was what I found: 

1. Jergen's Natural Glow was rated a 7. Yes, I knew self-tanner wasn't probably good for you, to be a HIGH health concern?!

2. Lubriderm Daily Moisturizer was ALSO rated a 7. This shocked me.  Lubriderm claims to be made by dermatologists for healthy skin and containing ingredients naturally found in the body.  Hmmm...

3. Aveeno's Daily Moisturizer is a 2.  To me, Aveeno feels comparable to Lubriderm, is about the same price, and can easily be found everywhere. I'm definitely switching to this one.

Have a successfully freaked you out yet? Hahah! Again, I'm not sure where I stand with this and I'm definitely not ready to throw out all my make up, but I think switching a few things may be in order and I think it's interesting enough to pass along.

 Thoughts?

Almost....

My last final EVER is this afternoon :) Wish me luck--Lord knows I'll need it badly! Here are a few final funny test answers as a little Wednesday pick me up:

 

Completely unrelated, I'm going tomorrow to get my hair done for graduation.  I'm thinking about cutting it off--it's gotten so long now--and I'm ready for something more professional, maybe?  I'm generally Sampson-like with my hair.  I almost never cut it short and just get a trim, but I think I need a change.  I feel like my hair is getting super heavy. 

Any thoughts on these haircuts (I know, they aren't short-short, but still, that's about 6-8 inches shorter than what I have now):

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder..or Graphic Designer

And I feel like this is something every woman (and especially teenage girl) should see. I often grow tired of trying to look as beautiful as these faces and find myself wishing or thinking i could be prettier. This puts it all back into prospective:
 


Here is additional proof of the powers of photo shop..

Faith Hill

Katie Couric

Madonna

Jessica Alba

Here is just what the wonders of a make up artist and hair stylist can do: 

Mariah Carey

Ashely Tisdale

Cameron Diaz

Angelia Jolie

Lisa Kudrow

Jennifer Lopez

Eva Longria

Blakely Lively

Katherine Heigl

Tyra Banks

Penelope Cruz

Halle Berry

Just reinforcement that not only are these are not only beautiful women after, they are beautiful women before--just like you or I. I think we all need to be reminded of that more often. 

Here are some of my favorite beauty quotations:

Beauty is an experience, nothing else. It is not a fixed pattern or an arrangement   of features. It is something felt, a glow or a communicated sense of fineness.   What ails us is that our sense of beauty is so bruised and blunted, we miss   all the best.

         -D.H. Lawrence

I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep   enough. What do you want—an adorable pancreas?

         -Jean Elliot

I Went to Law School and All I've Got Was...

THE AWESOME CLARISONIC CLEANSING SYSTEM!

Clearly, I'm not excited or anything.  

In law school, the different legal research companies give "points" for rewarding students for using their free research systems (like google, but for lawyers) that you can save up for various items (so that, in turn, you are hooked on using them after graduation and will then pay to have it). 

I saw this baby in the catalog and have been saving up my Westlaw rewards points to order it. Now, hopefully in a few short processing/shipping weeks, I will be the proud and clean-skinned owner of this bad boy. 

This, by far, has been the best thing law school has given me yet. I can't wait to catch up with the times and hopefully have better skin!

I've heard their face washes aren't fabulous--anyone have any good facial cleansing lotion suggestions for it? Any reviews/tips/tricks for it? 

100th Post/Sephora Giveaway!

**NOW CLOSED**

Happy 100th post! 

Thanks Google!

To celebrate, I am giving back and giving away a $25 gift card to Sephora.

There are numerous, easy ways to win.  Please post a separate comment for each entry and include an email so that I can contact you if you are the lucky winner! 

• follow my blog and post a comment on this giveaway (1 entry)
• follow me on twitter and re-tweet about this giveaway (1 entry):  

Win a $25 gift card to Sephora :) : http://tinyurl.com/yfh98tc

• blog about this give away (5 entries)
• put my blog in your reading list (5 entries)

I will select the winner by random on April 11th.  Hope everyone had a good weekend--despite the awful loss!

Tips & Tricks Tuesday

Here is a quick hair tip that I use all the time and love: 

Even Carrie Bradshaw rocks the giant scrunchie....

When just hanging around the house by myself or when I sleep, I throw my hair up in a higher bun with a silk scrunchie. It keeps the hair out of my face and when I take it down, my hair always has a ton of body, volume, and general bend/curl without leaving a normal elastic hair tie line. For extra curl, I put it into two buns. 

What are your favorite easy tips and tricks (on any topic)?

A New Woman

Ethics portion of the bar: COMPLETE. hopefully. Fingers crossed I didn't fail and have to retake it in March. I will say, it was not an easy test. Now a five-week waiting process. 

The rest of my Friday and Saturday have also been eventful. On Friday, I got a call that I had been selected for a medical study on seasonal allergies. After Claritin became ineffective last year, I was more than willing to participate in this study. 

 

I went into the test facility, where drew blood and they irritated my skin with different allergens. After five minutes, I developed rashing/welt combination and they had to wash off all the allergens because I was so allergic to ragweed. Beautiful. Pending my blood results, I clearly passed the test.

It was slightly distracting today during the test because I still have extremely itchy rash on my arm. I have never done any medical studies, but it seems like a fine way to make some extra money and get treated for my awful allergies, as long as they don't turn me purple. 

Cam and I also got our hair cut (and mine colored).  We look and feel like a new couple! Cam got his hair cut shorter, like it was at our wedding.  I went blonder for the spring.  I'll post pictures once we take some. 

Also, Mom and I went shopping at Sephora and ended up with quite the loot, especially of Laura Mercier:

Our purchase includes some good finds: Laura Mercier foundation powder, Dior DiorShow Mascara, Sephora Flashy Eyeliner, Sephora Pure Nautral Believer Eyeshadow Palette, Sephora Age Prevention Moisturizer, and the Sephora Yellow Poppy Bag.  I am so excited to finally have some make up--I am running low on almost everything right now. My mom is the absolute best :) 

What are your favorite make up staples? I am excited to try my new stuff, but I don't think I could live without Benefit Benetint. It is an absolute must have for me.