Skincare - Body -Unlisted Brand - Mr. Pumice - Pumi Bar
quiet1 6/23/2011 3:05:00 AM
I use this on my feet, but I also like it for my hands on places where I develop calluses from activities where I might actually WANT to keep the callus (for skin protection, they do form for a reason) but don't want it to be dry and nasty or crack. With the Pumi bar it's really easy to just do as little or as much as you want - so if you want to keep a callus you can knock it back a bit so it's not peeling or about to peel, but not all the way to normal skin.
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Accessories -Unlisted Brand - Blender Bottle - Original 28oz
quiet1 6/14/2011 8:36:00 AM
Added this because the fitness board is quite busy and a lot of folks do drink shakes of various types, and let's face it you don't always have a blender handy, and the range of shake mixing bottles out there is ridiculous, and a lot of them are awful. Enter the Blender Bottle. It's a plastic bottle with a screw-on lid which, instead of having some silly screen to mix, instead has a little wire whisk-like ball that you drop in the bottle with your ingredients. I have an original size one (28 oz) but they also make a smaller size, and so far as long as I make sure the lid is screwed on well and the flip-top (for drinking/pouring) is down tight, I have experienced no leaks even with quite energetic shaking. It also cleans VERY easily, which ime can be a problem with some of the other designs where the mesh gets clogged up with mix. It takes me about a minute after mixing up a shake and drinking or decanting it to get the thing clean - some hot water, a tiny bit of soap, and a lot of shaking, and it's 90% done right there. Getting down to the important part, mixing - I'm using a TP custom mix so I can't comment on what the normal mixibility of my shake is, but I've found the Blender Bottle does an acceptable job. There are occasionally a few small lumps (like the size of a grain of sea salt) that I just ignore, but it's entirely possible that someone with more shaking patience could eliminate those, too. I also like that while it mixes, and does create a little foam, it doesn't produce ridiculous amounts of foam cap on top of the shake. (I like a little foam to help give the shake some body, but I don't want to feel like I'm fighting foam to get to the darn drink.) It closes securely enough that I would have no problem putting my powder mix in, closing it up, and tossing it into my gym bag to add water to post-workout, or even a pre-mixed shake if you prefer to do it that way. The one drawback, and this is really true of any cup-type shake blenders, is that I don't think it would cope with big lumps of any additional ingredients, like a banana or a big spoon of nut butter. It's designed to whisk, not chop things up, so if you want to go that route I think you'd need to pre-mix those ingredients into some liquid with a proper blender of some type before adding to the cup. (I could be wrong about the nut butter, particularly if you put it in in multiple small clumps instead of a big spoonful - haven't tried that yet.) My plan (as yet untested) to get around that problem is to make up some ice cube trays of fruit purees, and then chuck the required number into the bottle with the powder before heading off to the gym - since the bottle isn't insulated, my expectation is that over the course of a workout the cubes would probably melt enough that by the end when you added additional liquid, they'd melt the rest of the way and you'd end up with a nice cool shake with your fruit mixed in even though you're on the go. I'll update this review after I've tried that, and let you know. :) All in all, however, this is the shake mix bottle I would recommend over any of the others I've tried. It works well, there's no fiddling about making sure it's closed properly, there's no sneaky hidden areas to struggle to clean... It does the job it's intended for with a minimum of fuss and hassle. (One tip for pricing - you can get them online easily enough from the company, but it is worth checking ebay or your local gyms/fitness stores. I've seen them for sale with ad-branding for less than the retail price of the plain bottle, so if you don't care about advertisements on your stuff, that can be a way to save some pennies.)
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Polishes -China Glaze - FYI
quiet1 5/13/2011 5:05:00 PM
So yeah, I caved and paid too much for this discontinued polish elsewhere because I was so intrigued, and I can honestly say that "OMG" was a good collection name - this color is AWESOME. A little boring, because it is basically beige, but the holo gives it color and a unique effect. Perfect for when you don't want your nails to jump up and down and scream "here I am!" but don't want them to be utterly blah. (Psst. China Glaze. RE-RELEASE, RE-RELEASE!!!!)
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Polishes -Zoya - Sooki
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:31:00 AM
This is THE perfect cherry bright classic red for those of us who are JUST on the cool side of neutral - not pink, not orange, just bright clear red. I love it. Applied really nicely, too; some Zoya polishes can be streaky but not this one. 2-3 coats (depending on your preference) and done. (Plus, the test coat I slapped on one nail the day it arrived - everyone does that, right? - no base coat or prep or top coat? STILL not all chipped off and it's going on two weeks. I'm leaving it at this point just to see how long it lasts.) ETA: It lasted another couple of days until I finally got sick of it and wiped it off. My Sooki manicure, with Zoya base and top coat, also lasted very well - about a week with minimal tip wear or chipping - until I took it off.
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Polishes -China Glaze - Flying Dragon
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:28:00 AM
I love the color, but this stuff is kind of difficult to apply nicely because it dries fast like a neon or a matte and that means I sometimes end up with a kind of weirdly clumpy-streaky finish even though the coverage is opaque. That said, with a top coat it is gorgeous, and seems to wear well for me. I'm just not sure that with the application trouble and the glitter issue with removal, it's a color I need to replace in my personal collection if I use it up. It's pretty dark on me, too, so it's not a color I turn to often - that's probably also a factor.
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Top/Base Coats -Orly - Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:26:00 AM
I sometimes have problems with the brush on my bottle sticking to the bottle and not the handle - screwing it back on tightly and then removing again seems to do the trick, but it is annoying. With this plus a good top coat, I get MUCH better wear out of my polishes than with just about any other base coat I've tried. I'm very hard on my nails, so that means something to me. :)
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Top/Base Coats -Poshe - Super-Fast Drying Top Coat
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:24:00 AM
I alternate between this and Seche Vite - I know some people prefer one or the other, but I personally find that some polishes seem to last better with one vs the other so I keep both on hand - otherwise they do much the same job. Seche Vite is maybe a little better on top of a really rough glitter polish, but an extra coat of Poshe will do the job too. (Like Seche Vite, this will thicken, so keep some thinner in your kit to keep it a nice consistency.)
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Top/Base Coats -Seche Vite - Clear
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:22:00 AM
I do sometimes get peeling from this - where the polish peels off in whole sheets from my nails - but it's normally after a couple of days of wear and tear, and honestly most of the time a coat of this or two is the only way I get a manicure to last more than three seconds without denting or getting sheet marks or something in it anyway, so it's a price I'm willing to pay. (That said - you do need thinner. This stuff thickens up like MAD.)
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Polishes -China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:20:00 AM
I love the color, I get good wear from China Glaze in general - only thing not to love is the glitter issue, and I've found that using craft felt with polish remover solves that problem nicely. Great winter/Christmas color if you don't want to go red like everyone else.
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Gels/Soaps -Jason Natural Cosmetics - Satin Shower Body Wash - Tea Tree
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:18:00 AM
I have converted everyone in my house to this. Sometimes I use something 'prettier smelling' like a scrub on my legs or something just for a more fun shower experience, but for getting clean, this stuff just plain works without drying out the skin or covering anything up with stinky perfume. (The large size containers don't fit in my shower rack, so I bought a smaller bottle and just top it up - I use this in all my bathroom hand soap dispensers also, works fine for that, so buying in bulk works well.)
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Shave Products -Kiss My Face - Moisture Shave
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:15:00 AM
This is my holy grail shaving product. My skin is ridiculously sensitive and even other 'sensitive skin' gels make it break out and get red and cranky, but this stuff leaves me smooth as silk, no cranky skin, and a little goes a long way. (Get this - I can even shave my underarms with this stuff and then apply deodorant right after the shower and not scream in agony. That's how gentle this is. I love it.) For price, it does pay to shop around - it's not bad, but you can sometimes find a sale.
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Lipstick -Clinique - Almost Lipstick - Black Honey
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:13:00 AM
I admit, I was skeptical. A color that looks good on everyone? Even incredibly pale me? No such thing. But it does. It's not the shade you're going to reach for when you want that 'full face all done up' look, but when you're going for fairly natural and easy and everyday? Perfect.
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Scrubs -LUSH - Ocean Salt
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:11:00 AM
It's expensive for what it is, but it does have a nice smell and a little goes a long way. I don't actually use it on my face- I use it on my hands as part of the "Lemony Fluttery" manicure and it works miracles on hands and feet. So I'll keep buying it even if the price does make me wince.
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Polishes -OPI - Yoga-Ta Get This Blue!
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:09:00 AM
All I can say is - why has it taken me so long to try this color? I love it!
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Polishes -OPI - Brand new skates
quiet1 4/17/2011 4:08:00 AM
For some reason, this is my go-to winter polish when I can't decide what else to put on my nails. It has a nice depth of sparkle that just makes me happy without being super-in-your-face holiday glitter.
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