Fragrances -Calvin Klein - Escape For Women
keumoak 12/11/2010 3:11:00 PM
I loved this when I wore it in college 20+ years ago. It was warmth personified if that makes sense. It always put me in a dreamy mood. i stoped wearing perfume but came across an ad for it recently and I was surprised it was still around and bought a bottle at beauty.com. Uggh, it smelled like the ugly imposter. It had some resemblence but now smelled acrid and had a distinct smell of Cat pee. Maybe my sense of smell had changed? Then I read the review how Coty had taken over and maybe the formula changed. Another reviewer mentioned smelling fecal, so maybe what I need to do is find a "vintage" edition.
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Styling Products -TRESemme - TRESemmé's Fresh Start Refreshing Mist
keumoak 12/4/2010 4:29:00 PM
This worked better than my expectations and a solution to a problem I have been searching for years. My 9 yr old has had really funky smelling scalp 12 hr after being shampooed. So even at next am his hair smelled bad. Only solution would have been shampooing him right before school but that was unrealistic when you are barely able to get the kids to school on time. I tried alot of shampoos including head and shoulders. He does not have dandruff or oily hair, just smelly. I tried the fresh start foam but that required alot of rubbing in and rubbing off with a wash cloth during hectic mornings. This mist is great. Few sprays and it deoderizes and leave a clean scent. Unlike the Angel hair freshener by Thierry Mugler. Yes, I was that desperate and spent about $30 for a small spray bottle and Duh, didn't like the perfumy smell on a 7 yr old boy (at that time). I would seriously pay $50 for this. I have one in the bathroom and one in the mud room by his jacket, so I can quickly spritz him as we run out the door :)
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Lotions/ Creams -Unlisted Brand - AmLactin 12%
keumoak 10/24/2008 6:49:00 PM
I was running out of my giant >20oz bottle of vaseline healthy complexion body lotion with AHA. It was i think<$8 but could find it only at drugstore.com. I order 3 bottles and it lasts me a year. Well, drugstore.com doesn't carry it anymore so I searched for an inexpensive AHA body lotion and came across amlactin. The reviews were glowing but seem pricey about $16 for 8oz. One of the reviewers mentioned getting it at Costco. At Costco it was about $17 for 17.6oz and was offering $3 off til nov 3rd. I grabbed 3 bottles. I have been using it about a week. It has a faint but distinctive ammonia smell which dissipates in about 30 min. It is also very sticky but it has been so far the most effective moisturizer I have ever used including aquaphor. It has done wonders for my heels and I have used dozens of products for them including buffing with metal foot filer on regular basis. My heels have not looked this good since I was a little kid. I also found it very effective as night time face lotion. I still keep the aquaphor for my lips.
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Treatments -Estee Lauder - Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refinisher
keumoak 10/10/2008 8:23:00 PM
I got this because I thought I needed something with antioxidants, glucosamine...stuff beauty experts are saying you need. I was using cetaphil cream as facial moisturizer and being over 40 decided it was time I try something that is supposedly better. Smelled good, felt nice. Gave a nice matte finish. I really wasn't expecting anything significant then after 2 weeks of daily use I realized I didn't have the massive flaking and peeling that I get 3-5 days post my weekly retin-a tx. I have been on it a month now and I am impressed. I don't know about it minimizing my pores or reducing lines but it is great for my flaking skin. It may not seem like much but I have been dealing with this awful flaking(more like shedding your skin) for 2 years on retin-a. Tried all kinds of peels, moisturizers including aquaphor masks and scrubs which all helped but none came close to idealist. Very happy.
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Hair Color -Clairol - Nice 'n Easy Hair Color
keumoak 9/25/2008 6:42:00 PM
The dark brown on me was black! This has played havoc on my coloring routine. I started going gray in my early 30's and for the last 7 years or so have been using Clairol's natural insticnts in dark brown/nutmeg. I need to cover the grays every 3 weeks so I alternate with clairol root-touchups in dark brown which blends in seamlessly. . These products and routine has been working well for me but my grays are getting more and more numerous and resistant to coloring so I thought it was time to go to permanent hair color. Since clairol has been good to me I decided to use this. It stained my scalp and hairline and it was really hard to get it off. The color was very dark but I was okay with it until I did my usual root touch up. There was distinct strip of brown hair much lighter than the rest of my hair. I thought maybe I should have left the root touchup longer and a week later I colored again with dark brown root touch up. Nope, no change. The strip of lighter hair is very obvious. It looks really sloppy. I remember seeing someone with about 6 inches of brown hair on top of their head then black hair rest of the way. It looked awful and I wondered why she was doing that. Now I know. What do I do? If I go back to my normal routine the lighter strip of hair by my scalp will just enlarge and I will have 2 tone hair like that lady. No way, Ugh. Easiest would be to switch to black but I don't want to go that dark. Should I mix dark brown and black and gradually use less black each time I color? What a pain not to mention doubling the cost. I noticed an odd thing when I was at Long's drugstore examining their offering of hair color products. Garnier Nutriesse had the exact same model and color number for the dark brown and soft black.
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Mascara -Maybelline - Volum' Express Ultra-Thick Mascara
keumoak 3/23/2008 4:12:00 PM
In terms of how it looks the first hour, it was the best mascara I have tried. thick, long very lush looking lashes without clumping. Unfortunately it smudged under my eyes after about an hour which I was willing to bear with if I could remove it easily but it was nearly impossible to remove even with a Qtip dipped in eye makeup remover. I even threw out the first eye makeup remover thinking it was expiring and not working well. A new bottle didn't do any better job. When I try to remove the mascara at night, my lashes feel crunchy when I place the pad with the eyemakeup remover to soak in before I swipe it. Next morning I will have pieces of broken or pulled lashes around my eyes. I went back to estee lauder's magnascopic. It definetly did not look as good but it didn't smudge and was easy to remove.
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Liquid -Cover Girl - Outlast All Day Liquid Make-up (foundation+primer) [DISCONTINUED]
keumoak 12/12/2006 8:10:00 PM
On the rare occasion I try to wear foundation,I find it settling into my pores on the side of my nose so I end up washing it off until I started using this primer. It did a great job of minimizing my pores and foundation does not settle into the pores. I still dont normally wear foundation but use this primer everyday just on my nose. I have not had any problems with breakouts. Even though I only use half of the product I find it very affordable compare to clinique's pore minimizer which is a tad better at $17 for 0.5ml. I usually can find BOGOF for cover girl poducts. I dont like to waste product and hope covergirl will sell just the primer.
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Styling Products -Sebastian - Potion 9
keumoak 11/21/2006 9:56:00 PM
I feel compelled to write a review as a thanks for this product. I have coarse, frizzy color treated hair. Potion 9 is only thing that has so far made it look like I have undamaged hair. Whenever I try another leave in treatment product, I come right back to it. Yesterday I tried another treatment and my hair just look fried. Even my husband noticed and this is the guy who didnt notice I was wearing frownies on my forehead one night. I looked like a Klingon!! Use very sparingly or you will end up with crunchy hair. I use a dime size amount on my palm, rub palms toghether and work through my towel dried shoulder length hair. I used to buy the metal tube which always cracked and leaked before I was 2/3 through about 6 months of use. I bought the 500ml tub with pump dispenser and its great. I had it for over a year and I think it has over 2/3 still left. After 4 years of searching I havent found anything even remotely as effective.
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Styling Products -Paul Mitchell - Freeze and Shine Spray
keumoak 10/15/2006 3:52:00 PM
I have a love/hate relationship with this spray. When it works its my HG when it doesnt it gives me clump of glued hair. It all depends on whether it comes out in a fine mist then its perfect great hold and shine without stickiness or that heavy sprayed look but when it comes out in a stream=glued hair. Its about 50/50 chance. I have tried taking off the top rinsing it out scraping it etc. but nothing works. There doesnt seem to be a rythm or reason why it does this. All the bottles did this 3 so far. I keep searching for hair spray that was comparable without this problem but I always come back until I get so frustrated I go on another search. For few years I found my HG Rave microspray and it was like $2 then it was discontinued. Back to PM spray. Why dont manufacturers put a notice on products they plan on D/C so you can stock up.
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Moisturizers -Alpha Hydrox - 10% Enhanced Cream
keumoak 10/14/2006 6:59:00 PM
I am really impressed with this cream. It totally took care of the flakies from Retin A. The night I used this I had the worst flaky skin in my life. It looked like I had dandruff ofthe face. yeah pretty gross. I had just resumed daily use of the Retin A after slacking off it when the acne started returning. The package said not for sensitive skin and I was a bit worried it would burn. I was surprised when I didnt feel anything no burn, itching, redness and worried it wasnt going to do anything. Next morning after my shower the flakies were mostly gone. When I applied the cream again over any remaining flakes they just rolled right off with a gentle rub. I dont use this on nights when I use Retin A because I am afraid the acid may inactivate it, but I use it in am and since I started using this for the past week I havent had any problems with flakes. Before this I have used the glycolic peel from Loreal 2-3x a week, microdermabrasion kits, EL micro thermal refinisher, beta and alpha hydroxy tonerand none of these worked even remotely like this cream. Thank goodness I found this. i believe Retin A along with a good broadspectrum sunscreen is top 2 things you can do for your skin but the flakies were really hard to deal with. No adverse reaction at all so far if any shows up I will update.
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Moisturizers -Estee Lauder - Daywear Cream SPF15
keumoak 10/12/2006 3:10:00 PM
This left my face too shiny and sticky if I tried to use it to provide adequate sunscreening. To be fair moisturizers do this to me thats why I dont wear a moisturizer during the day except since this has spf I didnt want to wear it at night. I do love the scent very refreshing cucumber like. The texture was very nice and spread easily. I got it as a gift o/w I would not have bought it bec I dont use spf moisturizer. I didnt want to throw it away. I hate wasting anything and if it came in a pump I would have given it to someone but not since I have been dipping into a tub. Well I found that it feels great on my neck :) No shine or stickiness just very soft skin,luxurious feeling but not enough to repurchase at that price.
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Moisturizers -Cetaphil - Moisturizing Cream
keumoak 9/26/2006 11:28:00 PM
Since my teenage years my face has been so oily that I dont own a facial moisturizer. My makeup mission has been to eliminate the shine. This all changed when I started retin a 3 months ago. Except for the t zone I was flaking and itching. I didnt get that my face was dry. A week ago this foreign concept occured to me as I studied my face. Well, no facial moisturizer in the house. What was sitting next to the sink was the cetaphil cream in the gigantic tub resembling crisco which I have only used for my hands and feet. I debated whether to use it on my face. I thought what the heck I can just wash it off if its horrible. I tried a tiny dab. WOW It melted into my skin. No shine or greasines. I was shocked at how elegant it felt on my face. The flakes and itching were gone. My face looked and felt sooo smooth. Since then I have been using it every day morning and night after cleansing. All the side effects from retin a is greatly reduced or gone. What serendipity. Maybe any moisturizer would have worked but I love this so much I am going to stick with it. I tried the cetaphil lotion which I also had in the house but it was shiny and felt tacky on the face until I washed it off. Maybe it was the amount I used but surprisingly heavier than the cream.
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Sunscreen -Ombrelle - lotion spf 45
keumoak 9/20/2006 6:22:00 PM
After discovering the dismal uva protection of us s/s, (thank you MUA), this is my first non us sunscreen. All high spf us s/s except for neutragena ultra dry have been too greasy and shiny for my face. Well this was the worst. First time I wore it I was embarassed to be seen in public. Never again I thought. Powdering didnot help. My hair stuck to my face and neck. I was embarassed and uncomfortable. Having said that, I love it on my hands. The heavy texture makes me feel protected and is reassuring. It does not feel sticky on my hands and arms, just feels like it is moisturizing. I now wear Shiseido ultimate spf 55+ on my T zone (too drying elsewhere) and the ombrelle around the T zone and neck with a very light hand probably only 1/2 of whats recommended but still better protection than a us s/s. Some powder and bronzer then I feel presentable. I have been using this for about 6 months and am almost out. I have ordered LRP anthelios peds spray spf 40 (had good reviews) and bioderma family spray spf 40 (400ml at about $27 a great deal) from tubotica.com. Both have better uva protection than ombrelle. I will review those two when they arrive and I have tried them for at least a week. If the bioderma doesnt work out as body s/s for me then I will reorder the ombrelle.
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Lip Treatments -Almay - Lip Tint
keumoak 9/19/2006 8:06:00 PM
I am reviewing the lip tint with spf 25. The spf was what got my attention and that as a tint it was not going to be too heavy. Well its more like a lipstick lite than a tint like other revewers mentioned. I have not noticed any taste or smell. (hmm I wonder when some reviewers mentioned an unpleasant smell or taste whether it had gone bad/rancid) Slightly moisturizing. Texture is fine. I like the slim tube, makes application a snap and I havent had problems with rolling the bullet up or down. Nude and mauve are my favorite. I wear them every day for last 2 or was it 4 years whenever it was that I discovered them at Ulta. I stash them everywhere. 2 or 3just in my purse so I am never without 1. In warm weather the color seems to intensify which I like in these colors. The berry is too garish and the blush (awful color) is very fake pale pink IMO. I usually stock them up when they are GOGOF (like 8) so last time I bought must have been nearly a year ago.
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Bronzers -Estee Lauder - Bronze Goddess
keumoak 9/19/2006 6:39:00 PM
This is my first bronzer so I dont have a basis for comparison. The sunscreens I was using were leaving a very noticeable white cast so I thought a bronzer would help. After looking at the reviews of bronzers I decided to give this one a try. I am asian but light complected. I usually dont wear a foundation just sunscreen and some loose powder on my T zone in am and blotting paper when needed during the day. This bronzer did what I wanted in a round about way. It was too red and brown when I tried to use it as a bronzer but it makes a great blush. I sweep it over my cheek couple of times then without adding any more bronzer, sweep it across chin, around forehead and nose area. I pick up more bronzer sweep across the other cheek couple times then around the neck and collarbone again without adding anymore bronzer. Perfect, a very believable and natural looking color over my face and neck . As a bonus the color stayed fresh and lasted the whole day without touch ups. My regular blush did not come close. I was going to dedicate one of my japonesque powder brush but the enclosed brush was very handy and did the job well. I took 1 lippie bec it was too dark as a straight bronzer for me. The way I am using it, its going to last me for years, and will buy again if still available.
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