Handy Product

Despite my love of luxury I have a modest nail care routine. I daily clean and cream, push back the cuticles, trim and file nails that aren’t long but are manicured. I only wear colored nail polish on my toe nails preferring to use a clear strength building polish on my nails so that chipping isn’t as noticeable and I don’t have to worry whether my nail polish is complimenting or clashing with my outfit. (This is a blog from a crazed beauty product fan; did you think I wouldn’t be concerned about my complete “ensemble” as well?)

In my quest for healthy manicured nails I have purchased all types of clear polish at all price points and found that regardless of their claims or brand names most, even the strengtheners, flake, peel and discolor just like their colored counter parts. I had all but given up hope until I reached into the goody bag and pulled out O.P.I’s newer version of Nail Envy Sensitive & Peeling - Nail Strengthener http://www.opi.com/trNenvy.asp.

I am typing this product recommendation with nails still wearing the same clear coatings from September 21st (before you judge, this is an experiment!). My nails have maintained a semi gloss, clear, non-chipped surface, feel strong, not brittle and are healthy looking. I must admit that I probably would not have reached for the box packaged bottle on the nail product shelves without recommendation since it retails for about $17.00 a bottle. I guess that's why it comes in a box, to make it "price worthy", but after trying it I truly believe it's worthy of its price. Besides, I’ll just be more frugal on my colored nail polish purchases ;).

O.P.I.’s Nail Envy Sensitive & Peeling Nail Strengthener is available on line. It seems to be more economical via Amazon.com than drugstore.com.
(There are even “used” listings for those who want to try before they “invest)

Here are both listings -

http://www.amazon.com/OPI-Sensitive-Peeling-NT121-Strengthener/dp/B000ORM64M/ref=pd_sim_hpc_38

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=151170&catid=9656&brand=15542&trx=PLST-0-BRAND&trxp1=9656&trxp2=151170&trxp3=1&trxp4=0&btrx=BUY-PLST-0-BRAND&cmbProdBrandFilter=15542

Shopping Spots Worth the Tip #1

Every magazine about beauty recommends that those of us who torture our hair with heated gadgets and modeling products deep condition it once a week. Deep conditioners are suppose to be more intense than daily treatments and beneficial in "repairing" the damaged hair. From all that I have read there is no real way, except cutting, that damaged hair can be "repaired" but we can treat it so that the cuticle is soothed and moisturized and it looks as good as possible. At one point I just left a generous amount of conditioner out in a bowl for a few hours allowing some of its water to evaporate so that the conditioner condensed. I’m not sure if that was a good move or not. Lately I have been using a product called Samy – Beyond Repair.

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp187757_333181_sespider/samy/beyond_repair_professional_intensive_hair_masque.htm
It is a professional intensive hair masque that comes in a generous 6oz Jar. As with most deep hair conditioning products after washing my hair (no I didn’t use the matching shampoo) and squeezing out the excess water I apply a generous amount of the stuff and let it set in for about 10 minutes. It leaves my hair soft and silky and the slight scent disappears after a while, which is fine by me. Besides recommending this conditioner because it's no better or worse than any other I have used, I recommend the place I purchased it from for $2.99 instead of its $8.99 standard retail price.

Lot Less Closeouts is a chain of sell out stores with 3 locations in New York City (80 Clinton Street just before Delancy, 299 Broadway, and 97 Chambers), two stores in the Bronx and one in Rego Park, Queens. Each store carries discontinued and closeout items, perfect if you’ve wanted to try something but refused to pay the original retail price or can no longer seem to find some of the things you have grown to use and love. Much of their stock bears familiar brand names though you will find some things that definitely failed to draw the attention or interest from the consumer market in this and other countries.

For a long while they had everything and anything to do with Betty Boop and cans of eggplant in olive oil selling for $0.99 each because they were sealed so that their labels were upside down. I have seen sterling silver and costume jewelry sets usually packaged and sold at Macy’s during the holiday season ($3.99-7.99), Timex brand watches ($9.99), pawed through piles of Wrangler and Bill Blass Jeans ($7.99-9.99) and purchased great fitted white t-shirts from New York. & Co ($3.99) and some silk scarves issued by Jones New York ($1.99-2.99). They also carry hair, make up and facial products from companies like L’Oreal and Revlon and have a home goods section where some of the items bear the name of designers still on HGTV and even some whose name’s grace their own magazines, hint hint - initials M.S and R.R. - cough, cough.

The goods can sell for 50-80% less than what they originally retailed for. Though they regularly restock some brands and items I find that because of the difference in space between the 3 New York locations sometimes they don’t have the same exact stock available at every one. I prefer the Chambers Street store because it boasts 2 large open floors filled with just about everything you can imagine. It is well worth the effort to of an occasional drop in with list in hand but no expectations. Even after frequenting this store for about 6 months I am still surprised and often amused by what I find.

Saving the World While Conditioning

I love essential oils and over the years have amassed a fully stocked drawer of the ones I play with and use regularly. My interest in scent goes back to a childhood filled with them. I can recall someone asking for the vanilla to dab behind their ears on a big date night, being sent to the store for clove oil to soothe a toothache, an uncle jokingly adding more pepper to a dish for punch and hair growth, a wash cloth soaked in peppermint tea and placed on a head burdened with a headache, the freckled face of a cousin being scrubbed with a wedge of lemon and a freshly made bed being spraying with lavender water for better sleeping. Smells are a big part of our lives, they comfort and recall memories we want to hold onto and some we may want to forget.

If you really pay attention you can smell the difference between a synthetic scent and an essential oil that is pulled from a natural source. There is roundness to the natural smell that falls, well flat, in most synthetic copies. You will have to start comparing to understand the differences and find out what you can and can not accept. It seems that every new item is loudly and proudly telling us which essential oils it contains and the benefits it will deliver because of them. Though there are some oils that can deliver from first use, pimples beware of tea tree oil, most require either application within a diagnosed time frame or continuous application for any beneficial affects other than perhaps the physiological ones triggered by the scents. We have all grown up with both natural and synthetic oils and I suspect will continue to be exposed to and use both despite the return to green being hyped by every Tom, Dick and Jane who make and package things that are natural and organic to sell while promising to deliver us back to a good earth. OK, so I have some issues with the green craze because despite good intent most of what is made at this time that is natural and organic isn’t consumer friendly because of price and tends to concentrate on saving some far off place that we, that’s right we, were destroying to begin with by producing products. (OK, that’s a rant!). I could fill pages with my opinions on that subject matter but instead I will get back to the original purpose of this post, essential oils and their wonderful smells and a product I am loving right now.

Noting my caution on being taken in by the organic trend I find myself in love with Save the World’s Regal Blossom Save Your Hair Conditioner. It has mango butter, avocado and coconut oils, aloe vera extract and smells of lavender, geranium and rose with support from chamomile and palma rose and it delivers. I like the strong heavy bottomed floral scent, which lightens up when used. People will definitely comment about how good your hair smells! Though I am hesitant to believe that if I use it for a year I, little old me, will save an acre of rainforest, I am confident in saying it makes my hair feel and smell great.

This is another item from the goody bag I received and I have to admit I may have never reached for the bottle otherwise because I have a regular conditioner that does the trick, but I did bookmark the Save the World’s site because I am thinking if I am to save an acre of rainforest I better do it with great smelling hair.

Here’s the site
http://store.saveyourworld.com/Conditioner-12oz-Regal-Blossom-p/c12ozrb.htm

A Cuppa Joe

This is my first entry on this blog. I have blogged before, mostly about my experiences with the net and people I’ve meet on various chat sites on the net. In between my rants, raves and personal opinions I often threw in tidbits about New York happenings and shopping. There were lots of pictures and gushing entries about products, accessories and shoes. I have a thing about shoes, not a fetish but I love a good pair of statement shoes. Hey, maybe that is a fetish? That blog is now defunct and though I've wanted to start up a new one I didn’t want it to be a continuation of the last. To be honest I can’t be certain I won’t rant and rave and throw in a lot of personal opinions but I can assure you they won’t be about net friendships or net chat sites and I can guarantee at some point there will definitely be some posts about shoes on this blog.

Last weekend I spent a few lovely days with my long time friend P. He and I have known each for almost two decades. We started out at the same publishing company. He stayed in publishing, moving to magazines, and well I’m here writing this blog (there's more, but that will come later). I was extremely surprised to find a large goody bag of items waiting for me in his guest room. The sweet, sweet man purchased all these amazing things for me during a clean out sale at the magazine he works for. The hemp bag (green is the thing) was filled with make-up, facial and hair products and hand and nail goodies that have either graced or had been rejected for the magazine’s pages. I don’t wear much make-up but I am a luxury junkie that prefers to try and use things at home instead of heading to a spa. Though I have some brand preferences I have no price point and reach for what attracts me, things I may have read about or have been recommended by others. I admit to being a kitchen chemist and enjoy making kosher salt scrubs with essential oils in my kitchen as much as I enjoy sniffing and smelling the overwhelming body scrub selections that every cosmetics and drug store seems to carry, which leads me to my first post about 5th Avenue Bath Co.’s Coffee Body Scrub, one of the goodies I received last weekend.

Contrary to popular belief there really are women that stay home alone on a Saturday night to wash their hair and partake in beauty rituals. It's not just an excuse to get out of a possible bad date. After a long week of work and play in New York staying home on a Saturday night without guilt is a luxury in it self. Tonight after putting the deep conditioner in my hair and shaving the legs I decided to try some of the 20z sample of coffee body scrub that was part of last weekend’s loot. It smelled amazing; just like a rich cup of French roast coffee sweetened with a bit of sugar. The label says that it is a mix of ground coffee, brown sugar and almond and jojoba oils, but the texture, which was gritty and dry, left a lot to be desired. Perhaps the sample, which was sealed, had dried out a bit, because there seemed to be less oil than needed to make the scrub glide and move easily into all those places we girls like to exfoliate. My tub ended up covered in brown coffee grounds and I ended up lathering up a wash cloth with soap and going old school. The wash cloth was our grandmothers’ exfoliant.

Testing the product did make me want a big cup of freshly brewed coffee, which I enjoyed as I typed this entry. I know have some almond oil somewhere, maybe I will add a drop or two and try it again next weekend.
If you are interested you can buy this item directly from the 5th Avenue Bath Co.’s website and give it a try -

http://5thavenuebathco.com/Exfoliating-Coffee-Scrub-pr-16.html#tabs