Jack & Hill: A Beauty Blog - make-up, cosmetics, perfume, and the substance of style

Aveeno Ultra-Calming Foaming Cleanser

For some reason, the switchover from Long's Drugstore to CVS means that those stores no longer carry my tried and true Clean and Clear cleanser and toner for sensitive skin. This was very inconvenient, especially as I was using the last of my travel-sized, self-decanted cleaner last week.

In desperation, I decided to try Aveeno Ultra-Calming Foaming Cleanser. I knew that a foaming cleanser might leave my skin feeling a bit tight, but I liked the "ultra-calming" claim. Plus, Aveeno has a solid reputation for living up to its claims to soothe skin. If I didn't buy it, I'd be washing my face with shower gel that night.

It was a risk worth taking. For less than $8, this product really does do what it says on the label. It's a real pleasure to use - light and somewhat creamy, but without the barrier cream effect of Cetaphil or Physician's Formula Gentle Cleansing Lotion (which contains mineral oil that just doesn't seem to rinse away).

I'm still going to keep looking for the Clean and Clear products, especially as the toner is now almost gone. Time to go treasure hunting online...

Become Creamy Cleanser

Reacting to my recent attraction to single-ingredient, natural cosmetics like jojoba oil and coconut oil, a commenter asked recently if we will continue to do product reviews. The answer is yes. There are lots of reasons to use products even if like me you'd as soon get your facial in the kitchen, not the least of which is the convenience of packaging.

On a recent cross-country trip I didn't think it prudent to carry a flask of messy oil on my person or in my bags, so I brought along some products that seemed unlikely to spill or leak instead, including the Creamy Cleanser from Become Beauty, which seems to be the Australian Mary Kay, which I'd received from a publicist.

The Become line of products tout their Australian ingredients, and this has aloe and sunflower oil in the top three, as well as other exotic sounding things like Australian Daisy. It's a pleasantly oily cream that did a great job removing makeup from my dry skin, and the packaging is great for travel, with a cap that actually stays on the product.

Visit the Become Beauty site and you will be pitched equally to buy products and/or start selling them. I did a fair bit of due diligence poking around online to be sure that Become is not a creepy pyramid scheme before I plugged them here, and found no evidence that it is anything other than what it says it is. I had a hair-raising narrow escape from an Amway salesman once, but having assured myself that we're not straying into the realm of high-pressure, cultish scams, I see nothing inherently wrong with social marketing like this. In fact, one of our more venerable and innovative non-profits, Freedom from Hunger, has a program in Africa that fights malaria by equipping village women to sell anti-malarial supplies like mosquito nets in a very Avon-like fashion. The lesson being, what may seem to some of us like a corny business model might just be the next revolution in female empowerment. Reason enough to always keep an open mind.

Jojoba Oil Cleansing & Moisturizing

I love the idea of the single-ingredient beauty product, which appeals to my yin side (the yang side loves to make a curry with a list of spices as long as my arm and wants to wear thirteen colors of eyeshadow all at once). So when I read about the practice of oil cleansing, I thought I'd try it with a bottle of organic jojoba oil I picked up for $5 at Trader Joe's. I've been using it as a moisturizer for a couple of weeks now, and am liking it. It's not oily once it soaks in, and feels clean and virtuous on my dry, sensitive skin.

Here's how oil cleansing works: taking your time, massage a liberal amount of oil into your skin, and then steam your face by tenting it with a piping hot wet washcloth. After the cloth cools, use it to remove the excess oil, giving an extra massage while you're at it. 

This sounds like it would leave your skin oily, but it doesn't at all. In fact, I have to put a few drops of oil on my face after this procedure, or it is too dry. But boy, oh boy, is it ever clean, and without that tightness you get from soap. Just don't get the oil on your clothes, and tie your hair back if you're not getting in the shower after.

This is the gentlest kind of deep cleansing, and seems to work as well on oily skin or dry. The oil loosens the oil-based stuff clogging pores, and jojoba oil is purportedly very close in structure to the skin's own sebum, so it works particularly well at removing gunk from pores. Lots of people do this with olive oil or castor oil, or both, and some do it with coconut oil, which I have and will try next.

Washcloth Alternative: Aveeno Daily Cleansing Pads

I like using a wash cloth on my face, but only do so when I'm staying in a hotel, because I don't like reusing them more than once, and I am not temperamentally equipped to to fuss over laundering the damned things.

I am also a reluctant nightime face washer, especially in the evenings when I can become positively hydrophobic--the idea of all that splashing and dripping, the wet sleeves and hair, puts me off when all I want is to get cozy in bed with a book. So I like to keep a stock of no-rinse cleansing towlettes to handy. Normally I buy Oats Makeup Remover towlettes when I am at Trader Joe's, but yesterday I forgot them, so picked up a jar of Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Cleansing Pads from Target instead.

I was disappointed at first to discover that they are messy, foamy pads that require one to rinse, thus defeating my purpose. But in the shower, for the morning face wash, they turn out to be a superb, disposable washcloth-alternative. The pads are as substantial as a cloth, with a soft side and a slightly scrubby side, and they foam up something fierce despite being soap-free (ie, no sulfates). I grew so hypnotized scrubbing my face just now that I completely forgot to wash my hair.

The skin you're in

Someone asked in the comments here what I use on my skin to avoid crows' feet.

The conclusion I am coming to is that for me, specific products don't make a huge amount of difference. Cleansing well, rinsing very well (at least fifteen times), and making sure my skin is moisturized as needed seems to produce consistent results, regardless of the specific products.

(Do not consider leaving even the smallest amount of eye makeup on your face. I read recently that dermatologists are stunned at the amount of makeup residue that they see under their patients' eyes when they look at them under magnifiers. These traces contribute hugely to an old, tired look. Why spend tons of money on treatments and products if one of the easiest ways to look fresh is so cheap and easy?) 

Also, I don't smoke, I eat fairly healthfully, and I use at least SPF 15 every day, while not spending much time at all in the sun. (I also stopped drinking alcohol almost five months ago, since which time I have received lots more compliments on my skin and overall looks.) I could stand to drink more water, I'm sure.

But for what it's worth, here are some products that I use regularly.

Dove SkinVitalizer

I have to admit that my first assessment of the Dove SkinVitalizer is that it was created for women who are too shy to buy a vibrator - a Hitachi Magic Wand "neck massager" for a new generation. Because who on earth needs a vibrating handheld machine just to wash her face?

I'm still very dubious of whether or not this whole vibrating thing makes much difference in the longterm look and feel of skin. I suppose an argument could be made for it increasing circulation, which is never a bad thing, as most women have very poor circulation. But it all just seems overly complicated to me: the cost and chore of having to buy special dual-sided pads (which Dove calls 'pillows'), the obscene excess of plastic packaging involved, and the whole gimmick all did much to dissuade me against this product before I'd even tried it. (As you may have guessed, I got mine for free, from Dove PR.)

That being said, my skin did feel pretty soft and smooth after using both the cleansing and exfoliating sides of the pillows (though the products I applied afterwards - none of which were Dove brand - probably also contributed to this). I also found a way to get more use out of each pad, by using the SkinVitalizer to scrub my feet after I'd done my face. And with all of the foaming going on, I think feet are probably the only place where the cleanser embedded in the pads should really be used. Check out the ingredient list: water, Glycerin, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Silicone Quaternium-8, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Phenoxyethanol, Polyquaternium-10, Polyquaternium-4, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Methylisothiazolinone. Let me have a cheaper, plain pad with which I can use my own cleanser of choice, and then we'll be talking.

Dove's website for this product is another horrible Flash monstrosity, so I won't link to the front page, which would only annoy you anyway. But they do offer a $3 off coupon on the purchase of a new SkinVitalizer with a 14-count refill of the cleansing pads. And all you have to do is fork over way more personal information than you should.

Sea Breeze Naturals Gentle Cream Cleanser: Quickie Review

I've been using this in the shower for the last several months, and it's just such a simple, straightforward product that I almost didn't notice how well it lives up to its name: It is gentle, it is creamy, and it does a good job of cleansing. It also has a nice mineral scent. At $5.99, this is a very inexpensive, oil-free, mildly anti-bacterial product, and the pump comes in very handy as well. (I've tried the foaming cleanser from the Sea Breeze Naturals line and found it way too drying for my skin, but my guy uses it on his.)

Murad AHA/BHA Exfoliating Cleanser: Quickie Review

I'm afraid this was far too drying for my skin. The texture of the cleanser was similar to the Cosmesis Self MicroDermabrasion that I tried and liked several months ago, but that product never left my skin feeling dry. I'm not a big fan of granular scrubs in general, as I prefer to let acids eat away at my face on their own. If you're interested in the Murad line, you might like to check out Paula Begoun's take on some of their products:

At the beginning, Murad's products were all about AHAs and his products were indeed well-formulated in this regard. But Murad also had poorly formulated products (now there are even more) that contained alcohol and other irritating ingredients, ranging from arnica to citrus oils.

Well, my boyfriend - who is the least hippy-dippy person you could ever wish to meet - swears by the all-natural arnica for making bruises go away, and a friend of ours even used it to help her recover from the soreness of childbirth. So perhaps take Paula's reviews, as you would any others, with a pinch of salt. (I've also found that exfoliating products for the face can successfully be repurposed as foot scrubs, always to be followed by a very emollient cream applied at bedtime and covered with thick socks.)

Murad Pomegranate Foaming Cleanser: Quickie Review

Pomegranate this-and-that seems to be a fad these days (I recently had some kind of frosty Pomegranate thing at Starbucks), and I'm not particularly interested in the so-called miraculous properties of the assorted marketing-driven ingredients I've encountered lately (caviar, red tea, rosemary, etc.).  I'm sure they're all fine and dandy, but buying a cleanser because it's got half an iota of fruit juice in it would be a bit like buying a car because the visor has a lighted mirror.  So, Pomegranate schmomegranate, I say.

And that said, I love the stuff.  Greasy cleanser offends my senses, although my dry skin is equally offended by cleansers that to an over-aggressive job, but the Energizing Pomegranate Cleanser Murad sent us last week works for me because it is foamy and lightweight, yet unctuous and non-drying like a cream cleanser--which it basically is.  Think of whipped cream, and you'll get the idea.  Lovely.

Elemis, TimetoSpa.com, and a jubilant Jack

Last week, at a New Media Age event, Hillary and I were introduced to Melissa and Jo from TimetoSpa.com. (That's them, at left; aren't they pretty?) The website is the official online retailer for, amongst other brands, Elemis. Jo told me that, sometimes, she feels like a spokesmodel for the brand, as she can't help but gush, whenever she gets together with her friends, about the wonders of all of the Elemis products she relies upon. Hmm.

The wine was flowing freely, the conversation was good, and before long, we'd been talking so long that Hillary and I were running late for the Samizdata Summer Party. But I was definitely intrigued to try out some Elemis lotions and potions, if they were good enough to reduce a girl to pub time product promotion.

So you can imagine my delight when, this afternoon, I took delivery of a massive box full of Elemis products from Melissa and Jo. This smaller, gorgeous teal and aubergine box was tucked inside the larger one, and looked so perfect that I almost did not want to open it. (Of course I did, though; it contained a voucher for an Absolute Aroma Stone Ritual - a stone therapy massage followed by an anti-ageing Performance Facial - at the Elemis Day Spa in Mayfair, and a little bottle of bath milk. Score!)

We're all beauty junkies here, right? So you know that when I say I was having palpitations of joy over this bounty, I am only exaggerating a tiny bit. No matter how many free products I get - and believe me, I am only moved to write about a fraction of them - I am always excited to try new things. Melissa and Jo sent me a box of about 25 new things, so my usual sense of anticipation was rather heightened.

The package also contained a beautifully handwritten letter from Melissa, covering two sides of an A4 sized sheet of paper, giving me explicit directions on a relaxing nighttime routine using no fewer than six of the products. I wasted no time in high-tailing it to the bathroom, my arms overflowing with Elemis. I added another two products to the mix for good measure. Here's the lineup:

1. Cleanse with Elemis Rehydrating Rose Petal Cleanser

2. Follow with Elemis Rehydrating Ginseng Toner (Smells fab, and you mist it onto your face before wiping with a cotton pad; I was wary of trying this, as my skincare routine has been toner-free for a few months now - with excellent results - but this toner is so mild that I could use it to wipe off my eye makeup. Freshness without stinging? My kind of toner.)

3. Apply Elemis Papaya Enzyme Peel (I'd rather use this than eat an actual papaya; again, no stinging)

4. Rinse off the peel after 15 minutes, smooth on Elemis Exotic Cream Moisturising Mask

5. Remove mask; massage Elemis Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsule (lavender capsule at night, pink in the morning) into face and neck (This is rich with moringa oil, but absorbs quickly and completely - no environmental disaster of an oil spill left behind.)

6. After a few minutes, apply a layer of Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream to the face and neck (This, their best-selling anti-ageing moisturiser, smells amazing - like the ocean if it didn't stink of fish corpses.)

I completed steps 1 through 4 while soaking in a bath containing five capfuls of Elemis Skin Nourishing Milk Bath; this can be massaged into very dry skin as a cream, and I think I will buy a bottle of it for my step-mother (who suffers from skin so dry that she sometimes uses Vaseline as moisturiser). The scent is floral without being grandmotherly - same goes for the Elemis Exotic Island Flower Body Balm that I rubbed in post-bath. These two would make a great gift for a woman with severely dry skin, and the latter absorbs quite quickly into a damp dermis.

Truth be told, I am now far too relaxed to be sitting upright, let alone typing this. But I jumped online to do just that, so thrilled was I with both the gesture from Melissa and Jo and the effects of tonight's routine. Watch this space for updates on how regular use of these products pans out, as well as reviews of the other products they sent me. Thanks, TimetoSpa team!