Refresh Your Face with Cleansing Wipes

A while back, Bao was on a plane ride, and as they were landing, she told me she saw a Japanese girl using cleansing wipes on her face to freshen up. She thought that was a GREAT idea, and I totally agree because we all know how our face feels after a long a$$ stuffy plane ride — oily, greasy, icky.

Bao and I are actually going to Hawaii next month (unfortunately at different times), but I thought it would be a good idea to re-investigate some nice facial cleansing wipes that are not tainted with harsh chemicals for our trip. After doing very little research, I came across Josie Maran’s Bear Naked Wipes.

I haven’t tried them out, but I really like the description on the website:

Wipe off makeup and dirt nature’s way, with a blend of natural and healthy ingredients including aloe vera, cucumber, and vitamin E. Free of fragrance, parabens, and petrochemicals, these luxuriously soft wipes are kind to tender eyes and skin and are biodegradable. Leave your skin feeling nourished and refreshed! 30 wipe count.

In support of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Polar Bear SOS initiative, a portion of every package sold will go to protect these endangered animals. To learn more or get involved, please visit www.polarbearsos.org

I like how they are great for the sensitive area around your eyes and have no nasty parabens. Cucumber sounds great too! And of course I like how it supports polar bears.

I’ll post a comment or two on how they turned out.

By the way, not that it matters at all, but Megan Fox also recommends these — I saw it in US Weekly -_-

Get the wipes here at www.josiemarancosmetics.com ($12 for 30 wipes)

Sephora Rewards Program

What?! You’re NOT a Sephora beauty insider? A cute girl like yourself should be ashamed! This program serves only to benefit you. The Beauty Insider is pretty much a rewards program where you earn points based on the dollar amount you spend at Sephora in stores and online. These points will get you FREE makeup, perfume, skin care and more!!!  It is the world’s greatest program and it’s entirely free to join.

Here are just a few of the freebies I’ve received just by being a member.

Benefit Mini Mascara

Boscia Eye Treatment Cream (super silky!)

Sephora Brand Lip Gloss Trio (as my Birthday Gift)

Benefit Cream Shadow (love it!)

Girly Cute Bubble Bath by Sephora

Sure you’ll get a few Sephora e-promos, and sure you have to spend some $$$ in order to receive the items regularly. But even if you don’t buy anything, you can still snag that free birthday gift. So join today!

Click Here to Join!

How to Properly Use Oil Cleansers

Oil Cleansers are the best thing since sunscreen. It’s so easy to use, and cleanses the thickest, most unwavering mascara right off. I was introduced to oil cleansers on one of my many trips back to Japan. I explained to the lady at the cosmetic counter that I have oily, combination skin and need a good, gentle makeup remover that also cleanses. She introduced me to the Shu Uemura High Performance Balancing Cleansing Oil. It was awesome because it took off all my make-up, cleansed and even moisturized. I loved it and used it for about 6 years.

On a more recent trip to Japan, I was really hit hard by the all-natural products and was brainwashed into only buying lotions, makeup remover, and sunscreens that was as close to all-natural as possible.

So I found Boscia. I really like Boscia and I use a lot of their products now. Boscia’s Makeup-Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil (far right in photo) does pretty much the same thing as the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oils, but it has no parabens or harsh synthetic chemicals. It’s extremely gentle and even has a hint of mint so your skin feels nice and tingly afterwards.

So here’s how to use the product:

1. Make sure your hands are clean.
2. Pump a dime size of Boscia’s Makeup Break up oil into your palm.
3. Rub both hands together.
4. Gently massage across face and especially the eye area. You’ll actually feel the mascara crumbling off your eye lashes. Sounds and feels gross at first but that’s how you know it’s working. You’ll get used to it.
5. Once you feel your face is covered pretty evenly throughout with the oil, run you hands through warm water. Don’t completely wash your hands; just run water over the palms.
6. Rub your watered down hands together and gently massage across face (again, especially focus on the eye area if you wear heavy eye makeup)
7. The oils will slightly foam. Very slightly.
8. Rinse and repeat steps 5-7 until all the oils turn to foam and wash easily off face. If you are rinsing and repeating these steps more than six times, you’ve probably used waaaay to much oil.
9. When you feel the oils are pretty much gone, wash face with warm water as you normally do.
10. Pat dry with towel.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how smooth your face feels and how all the make up came right off without using copious amounts of eye makeup remover and cotton balls. And your skin won’t feel oily at all. The oils actually help make you less oily. Conventional cleansers often remove dirt and grime, but they also strip away all the good oils that keep your face naturally moisturized. To compensate for this loss, your face will produce an abundance of oil, which gives you that dreaded super shiny face leading to multiple trips to powder your nose, and even worse, breakout extravaganza.

Seriously, go to your nearest Sephora and ask for a sample of Boscia’s Makeup-Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil. Sephora’s customer service is excellent and they’ll pretty much let you sample any of their products. So try it today!