Other -Tom's of Maine - Peppermint Baking Soda Toothpaste
awful_cherry 1/21/2006 6:16:00 AM
Love it! I must have a very sensitive mouth because most toothpastes burn. I don't find their "tingling sensations" pleasant. For awhile I used kid's toothpaste because it's gentler. This stuff also doesn't burn my mouth, like the kids' toothpaste, and makes my breath feel fresh.
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CD/Books/Movies -Paula's Choice - Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me 6th Edition
awful_cherry 1/21/2006 6:00:00 AM
This book is worth flipping through. I found it very informative when I first read through it a few years ago, not sure if it was actually the 6th edition. It taught me to stop treating my skin too harshly and to read labels. However, now that I've educated myself on skincare and cosmetics, I can read the labels for myself, and I find her advice often irrelevant. She also seems to be biased against natural and expensive products. I agree that natural and expensive are not always better but I'd prefer to read an unbiased review so I can decide whether to pay for the product myself, not a hissy fit about overpricing. Also, she has some strange opinions. In the version I read, she insisted that no one needs an eye makeup remover and you should just use your cleanser, but in her reviews complains about every cleanser containing AHA, BHA, sulfur, witch hazel, or any essential oil being irritating to the eyes. Well, if you would just pay $6 for an eye makeup remover instead of insisting on rubbing your cleanser into your eyes, these products would be effective. She gives bad ratings to any product with an spf rating without sufficient sunscreen. I understand that many moisturizers that claim SPF don't have adequate protection, but I'd rather she review the product for itself and specify that additional sun protection is needed. Also, for some reason she believes mineral oil doesn't cause breakouts, when for many people it does. Overall I'd say it's worth flipping through or checking out from a library but it's not worth paying for.
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Lip Gloss -Bonne Bell - VitaGloss O2 A Splash of Color in Sheer Cherry 
awful_cherry 1/20/2006 1:59:00 AM
Eeew. Normally I would give any product this cheap a decent rating if it didn't do anything harmful, but this was honestly not worth the $1 that I paid on it (apparently a lot of bonnebelle stuff is being discontinued as this plus many other things were 75% off at CVS). It doesn't look that bad, but the smell and taste make me physically nauseous. I'm sure it's because I associate it with cough syrup which I have a nasty taste aversion to (and it smells/tastes just like cough syrup) but it's not worth using. A nice decent sheer color, but there are plenty of nice decent sheer colors that don't make me gag. The smell is pretty strong, too, so even if it doesn't bother you, other people will still smell it, and I don't like smelling gross to other people. Normally I find it melodramatic to refuse a product because of its smell but when there are so many other comparable glosses out there for just a few dollars more, why use something so gross?
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Polishes -Sally Hansen - Chrome Nail makeup
awful_cherry 1/15/2006 6:46:00 PM
I used the bright blue one a few years ago and loved it. Granted, a few years ago I was 15 and had never used high quality nail polish. It really is shiny and metallic looking. It's decent nail polish if you're into that but at 19 I think that I would feel ridiculous wearing it.
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Polishes -Wet 'n' Wild - polish
awful_cherry 1/15/2006 6:43:00 PM
Granted, I haven't used this in years. But when I was in middle school I went through my black nail polish stage, and my mom wouldn't buy it for me so I went for the cheapest brand, which happened to be wet n wild. The stuff never dries, smears, and I could never get it to dry smoothly. Maybe I wasn't patient enough but it seemed like no matter how long I waited for it to dry it never dried enough for me to do anything with my hands without messing it up. Other drugstore brands are only a few dollars more and much better quality, imo.
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Lip Treatments -Smith's Rosebud Salve - Smith's Rosebud Salve
awful_cherry 1/15/2006 6:32:00 PM
Granted, yes, this is pink vaseline that smells pretty and comes in a cute case. But it's not that expensive, and certainly much easier and more glamorous to carry around in your purse than a tub of Vaseline. Does a great job of keeping my lips moisturized. Burt's Bees dries my lips out, and the CO Bigelow tastes yummy and looks pretty (the tinted version) but doesn't have any lasting moisturizing properties. Using this keeps my lips nice and soft, and I love the smell. I will definitely continue to repurchase, considering how much you get for a few dollars -- I think $5.50? (it's probably the cheapest lip product at Sephora and I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the more effective). You can also smear some on over pencil eyeliner for a shiny, smokey "rock star" eye makeup look.
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Lip Gloss -Burt's Bees - Burts Bees Lip Shimmers
awful_cherry 1/15/2006 4:22:00 PM
This is actually the only Burt's Bees product that I like. I wasn't expecting much since the line as a whole is totally overrated, but I love these! I have three of them. They go on sheer like a light stain or gloss, but they aren't super-shiny. They don't dry my lips out like the burt's bees balm does. I passed over the rest of my expensive makeup and wore the merlot shade to my prom and got tons of compliments on it. The only problem I have is the limited color selection.
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Eye Shadow -Bourjois - "Suivez mon regard . . . " Multi-shimmer eye loose powder (08 Bleu trompe-l'oeil)
awful_cherry 1/14/2006 4:42:00 AM
I like the packaging. If bourjois would make these in more intriguing colors I would probably buy a lot of them -- once you learn how not to spill the powder all over yourself they're fun to apply. But this color just did not suit me. I thought it might work since I have cool undertones and my skin is kind of pale, but it didn't at all. It was a very frosty blue-white. I could see this being absolutely astonishing on someone with very pale skin, blue eyes, and light blonde hair. I have dark hair and brown eyes that have a greenish tinge sometimes, and it just looked sort of out of place on my face. I suppose I should have known -- generally shadows must be dark and brownish to work on me. I may try the same product in a different color in the future, however.
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Lip Gloss -C.O. Bigelow - Mentha Lip Shine
awful_cherry 1/14/2006 4:29:00 AM
This doesn't work well as a lip balm. It's not as moisturizing as vaseline, smith's rosebud salve, or some of the more emollient of the dirt cheap lip moisturizers out there (it is, however, far superior to that ridiculously overrated Burt's Bee's crap). However, I do like the subtle shine and the candycane taste. I'll probably continue to purchase it for use as a very natural lip gloss (especially the tinted version) but I will use something more moisturizing underneath.
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Treatments -Alpha Hydrox - Intensive AHA Revitalizing Peel Mask 14 percent [DISCONTINUED]
awful_cherry 1/13/2006 1:35:00 AM
This product was only okay. It's extremely difficult to use. It's a cloth mask, so you obviously have to keep the cloth pressed down to your skin for it to work. I couldn't do this -- the hole for your mouth was right over my chin. I had to cut it up to get it on my skin, and that wasted a large amount of it, and it was still hard to keep pressed against my skin. The results were, frankly, not that great. My skin mostly just got red. I have much better results with the olay micro/peel set. For glycolic acid, I prefer the avon peel. It's only 10% but you can use it every other night, and it comes in pads that you wipe over your face instead of this ridiculous cloth mask. Also, I'm not sure that it's worth $16 for 6 applications of a 14% product when for the same price you can get a lot more applications of the %12 souffle. Definitely won't repurchase.
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Liquid -Almay - Moisture Tint Sports Formula [DISCONTINUED]
awful_cherry 1/5/2006 4:03:00 AM
Eeeeewwww!!! That was my first reaction when I squirted some of this out of the tube. It has a gross texture. The color is disgusting as well. I am not that pale -- I'm caucasian and bought this in the spring when I was just starting to get a tan. Still, the lightest color was far too dark and orange for me. Unless you are dark, orangey, and addicted to spray tans, I couldn't see it possibly working for caucasian skin. And it felt gross too. It was runny and kind of foamy. I used this once and never even left the house wearing it. Huge waste of money. No wonder they have it packaged so that you can't open it in the store -- no one would buy it that way!
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Lip Treatments -Too Faced - Lip Injection
awful_cherry 12/17/2005 3:15:00 AM
This did plump my lips, and it didn't burn too badly. It is, however, quite overpriced. It's sort of a dilemma for me -- it's too expensive for a VERY small tube to use only on special occasions, but the special occasions on which I want my lips to look their best are typically the ones in which I don't want something on them that will burn anyone I kiss! It plumps decently, makes my lips darker and very glossy -- overall I love how it looks. But it's very expensive, you only get a little bit, and you have to use a good amount to get all your lip glossy, so I save it for nights out (I'd love to use it for dates, but I'm kind of scared of burning my dates' mouths) and such. I would use it every day if it were cheaper. I'm not sure if I'll repurchase, simply because of the price. NOTE -- only buy the clear version of this product, unless you want to look like a frosty-lipped 80s prom queen. The tinted versions are goopy, don't plump as well, you have to use more gloss so they turn out to be more expensive, and they look HORRIBLE. I initially bought techno tarte because the name sounded so enticing and wound up returning it after one try.
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Shampoo -Dove - Intense Moisture Shampoo
awful_cherry 12/16/2005 10:36:00 PM
I got this in the free sample. I had to use the whole sample to lather up my hair, which I didn't like (I usually use expensive shampoos that I couldn't afford if a little didn't go a long way). It felt like it was drying my hair out, and it smelled pretty gross, way too strong. The next day, though, my hair was fairly soft and a little shiny. This definitely doesn't compare to my usual shampoo (formerly redken, currently l'occitane) but it's over $10 cheaper per bottle than what I'm using now so if I'm ever broke and must resort to something dirt-cheap I might go back to this. I certainly would use it above pantene or fructis, but frankly, you get what you pay for, and this just isn't close enough to the quality of my normal shampoos to be worth saving the money.
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Masks -Unlisted Brand - Aspirin Mask
awful_cherry 12/12/2005 3:23:00 AM
What a pleasant surprise! I didn't see how this could work any better than regular salicylic acid, and since I'm already using a 2% SA serum from philosophy, I didn't expect to have any results. However, it's great! I have clogged pores all over my nose and chin -- the ones that are not quite blackheads, but you can still squeeze lots of gunk out of them. They have been like this for years and I eventually learned to ignore them -- I've used, for other skin problems, salicylic acid, glycolic acid, baking soda, benzoyl peroxide, and other things, and none of them helped my clogged pores, so I stopped expecting anything to work. After using the aspirin mask, I actually have unclogged pores! I use 7 pills and mix them with aloe, and leave it on about 30 minutes. It's gentle enough to use every other day, and somehow it dissolves whatever is in my pores. I will definitely continue to use this in my routine. A good thing, because at CVS I had to buy a bottle of 1000 to get the uncoated kind.
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Conditioner -Garnier - Sleek and Shine
awful_cherry 12/3/2005 3:07:00 PM
This stuff ruined my hair. A stylist asked me what I was using because it looked so awful and I never chemical treat. Turns out the silicones build up on your hair, weigh it down, and make it break off. My hair was awful, damaged, and straw like using this stuff -- 2 weeks on another shampoo and it was lovely again. I suggest you wait a couple of months after you start using this to decide whether you like it. The ingredients make your hair look great at first, which is why you keep using it -- you remember how much better you liked it than your other conditioners -- but gradually it damages your hair. I will never use another garnier product; in fact, I've been too afraid to buy any drugstore shampoo or conditioner since then. This was a couple of years ago so I apologize if they changed the formula but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
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