For years I’ve used the blemish-clearing formulation of  St. Ives Apricot Scrub as a body scrub, in conjunction with a foaming shower gel and waffle scrub gloves and some DIY skin oil immediately after. That quadruple-combo usually helped, but only if I was REALLY regular with scrubbing and moisturizing, which I generally am not.

So I bought Diana Yvonne Lactic Acid 10% gel and Fruit Acid gel 15% combo, plus KP Duty by DermaDoctor and Peter Thomas Roth Max Complexion Correction Pads.

Combining the above-mentioned products really did the trick. I eased in, using part skin oil and part one of the gels, and I would kind of try to homogenize them in my hands first and then apply. I would sometimes use straight KP, sometimes mix KP and a gel, sometimes wipe arms down w/ pad when I couldn’t shower. It all really helped!

My arms were lovely and bump-free for the big day, and not nearly as discolored/blotchy as the KP used to make them look. The Diana Yvonne products were fab — not chock full of propylene glycol like so many other AHA/BHA formulas. I now just do a little bit of any one of the above when I think of it or notice the stuff coming back!

If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t bother with the KP Duty. Pretty pricey and kind of stinky. I’ll use it now that I have it, but the Diana Yvonne was better bang for my buck.

While I did have more success with gel liners, I’ve recently been more willing to give the liquid stuff a try — thanks entirely to a newer genre of liquid liner applicators. Back in middle school I first discovered some cheap but great stylo-type liquid liners from L’Oréal and Cover Girl, but they got discontinued — so I had to just wait it out until makeup companies put these awesome flexy soft-tip markers for the eye back on the market. But my cat-eye prayers have been heard, and answered!

Smashbox, MAC, NARS and Hourglass all have pen-like liquid liners out now. The only one I’ve tried so far is Smashbox, because it seemed like the most water-resistant formulation when I tried them all out (sans MAC) at a Sephora.

I first bought one of these four-way buffers at Pharmaca a couple years ago, and that $1.99 was one of the best beauty investments I’ve ever made. The thing is supposed to just be a buffer, but it works as both a file and a buffer. It’s small enough to carry anywhere and durable enough to hold up after being knocked around in my purse for ages. The four different portions do a great job of sloughing off length more gently than a pair of clippers, and with less risk of accidentally trimming too much.

But I’ve found the real kicker is the buffers — not for buffing, per se, but for post-filing. Previously, when I filed my nails, they’d still be kind of rough and imperfectly finished, so I’d catch them on something and inevitably tear them. But I find that using the buffing edge right after filing makes them perfectly smooth and snag-free — which ensures that my nails will all stay a happy uniform length for longer. Thus fulfilling my freakish need for symmetry — if one nail snags I have to cut them all off to match.

I’m going to start strategically placing these in all of my purses, at my desk, in my nightstand drawer, etc. — that way I’ll always have one on hand for a nail mishap. A cheap and easy solution!

Along with the weight-loss goal comes a set of skincare goals for me.  And much like losing weight, for me these goals are things I’ve been meaning to do in or out of wedlock, just to keep my skin feeling and looking its happiest and healthiest.  And now I have a really good excuse to make it official! So I’m writing myself a set of skincare vows to follow while leading up to the big day and beyond.

1) I vow to use my Clarisonic at least once per day, with no more than one lapse per week. (I mean, I paid enough for the thing, and I love the results… when I actually take the time to use it!)

2) I vow to at least remove my makeup before going to bed, no matter how tired I am. (A very bad beauty habit of mine — I always tell people that I’m full of great skincare advice that I have lots of trouble following!)

3) I vow not to skip lotion/body oil after more than one shower per week. (Taking care of dry skin needs consistency!)

4) I vow to file my nails BEFORE they break and tear from getting too long. (I’ve been carrying a top-notch nail file in my purse since January 1st, but I have yet to use it once this year!  And I notice my ragged nails much more now, every time I show off my ring… it feels wrong to have crappy cuticles and crooked nails next to such a beautiful heirloom.  I should give the rock the respect it deserves and take care of my manicure!)

5) I vow to be consistent in the application of my topical actives. (No more starting things like Retin-A but skipping it six nights a week — no good will come of it, and I hate getting perpetually stuck in the dry flaky phase!)

Hopefully the fact that I made these vows public will mean that I actually follow them, to some degree.  I’m also going to post them on EDS so that my pals online can help egg me on.

So I did a little research. The Smashbox description of my newly-received swap item recommended using their #21 Arced Liner Brush, so I checked out that product on their site.

I’d actually never seen a bent brush like this — probably because I’ve never used cream/gel eyeliner before. I picked up a slightly cheaper (but still very high-quality and super-soft) Sephora version, their Professional Platinum Angled Eyeliner Brush #23. It also looks like you can get Bare Escentuals or Benefit versions for cheaper, but I don’t trust those brushes as much as I trust Sephora’s Professional line. (I strongly prefer dense, synthetic brushes that never shed a hair, and Too Faced and Sephora are my go-to brush companies.)

This cracks me up, because I should’ve known the right brush would make all the difference. I could never master those artfully deep-set slightly-smoky triangles you can do on your eyelid, until I got my Too Faced Angled Eye Shadow Brush. And applying mineral powder concealer to blemishes became infinitely easier with my Sephora Professional Concealer Brush #46 and my Everyday Minerals Oval Concealer brush (I alternate them so they have time to dry between applications). I may be a makeup savant, but I’m only beginning to call myself a tool savant. Once I can fully master an eyelash curler without getting that horrible crimp line, I’ll be ready for my certificate.

I’m just loving how my new eyeliners look. They create great definition, without disappearing like a normal eyeliner pencil, and without creating as sharp a line as a liquid liner. (They’re much more forgiving during the application process than liquid liners, too.) I find it a bit more awkward to do my left eye than my right, but I manage okay — the bent shaft of the brush really makes it a lot easier. Now, if only they could make ALL beauty tools so ergonomic — I might never burn myself with my straightening iron again!

The bummer about this device is that you have to wait a full 24 hours for the thing to charge, before you can safely use it. So cruel! It’s not fair to make me wait after I paid that much. But the good thing is that this allows me to more fully research exactly how to use this alien device.

Thankfully, EDS already gave me some help. A thread about which cleanser to use with the Clarisonic was particularly helpful, since I know I won’t wind up using the stuff that comes with it. (Surprisingly nice in texture and ingredients, but still too synthetic for my natural tastes.) And it turns out there were a few prior threads on this, too.

Yet another good thread (h/t Rachel) gives some general usage tips that may seem obvious, but apparently weren’t obvious enough to make it into the usage manual. I particularly like the point about doing your forehead last so you don’t have cleanser dripping into your eyes the whole time.

Here’s hoping this post can help guide anyone else who’s gone Clarisonic crazy, or at least answer a few questions that Phillips may have neglected to address.

In the past few years, it seems like Costco has tried to branch out into the high-end beauty market — they stock names like Kinerase, Lancôme, Shisedo , Stri-Vectin, Freeze 24*7, DDF, and Prevage, as well as some Costco-brand Kirkland exclusives by Borghese. I always knew they carried higher-end dental care, like Sonicare and some whitening systems, but I didn’t realize they’d also expanded into high-end skin and hair products.

I didn’t see any CHIs on Costco’s website, but I did see T3 and GHD straightening irons, which both look cheaper than retail (though still more expensive than I’d hoped). And I saw some other hair goodies I liked the look of, like an affordable 6-pack of microfiber hair towels, and giant bulk-priced vats of the much-praised Terax Crema conditioner.

I may have to take the plunge here — I’ve always wanted to try microfiber towels for their alleged faster drying time, but I figured I’d want several and I never wanted to splurge for a bunch of them at $30 a pop. But $15 for six — now THAT I can get behind! And while I’m not about to try Terax Crema for the first time by grabbing a Costco-sized pump bottle, I’ll definitely keep it in mind once I try out a sample someday.

I guess I always breeze through the beauty section of Costco after I grab my obligatory 24-pack of razor blade refills. I always assumed they only carried cheaper drugstore lines, but now I see that they’ve upped the ante a bit. I may have to extend my Costco shopping time in order to take in some of the affordable beauty treats! Now if only they had Clarisonics…