My cheap favorites: the best skincare for $10 or less

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

Here is the long awaited (by me) sequel to my cheap makeup post: skincare. As with the makeup, these are all things I've tried and repurchased because I liked them so much. Trusty and reliable! There are other good cheap options out there, of course, but I'm not going to vouch for anything I haven't used. Please leave your suggestions in the comments, though.

Some categories, again, are missing, because I don't use that type of product (e.g. toner), or I don't have a current favorite, or my favorite is a little more expensive (e.g. targeted products like retinol, or exfoliants, or my favorite sunscreen). And because I like to experiment with new things, I don't have all of these products on hand to photograph at the moment. You should keep in mind that I have combination-oily skin that is not particularly sensitive, and that I don't usually like fragrance in products I put on my face. If you have a different skin type, your results may vary (though you may find some of these things effective anyway).

That's enough preamble and disclaimer. Here's the list:

Favorite Cleanser: I'm using some Paula's Choice face wash at the moment, but my favorites are from Neutrogena.  I especially like the Redness Soothing Gel Cleanser and the Ultra Gentle Daily Cleanser. They do a great job of removing oil and makeup without drying out my skin. The latter comes in a really big bottle for $8-10, so it's an especially good value.

Favorite Facial Wipes: I try not to use these too often because of the waste, but a few times a month when I'm too tired to wash my face properly or when I'm traveling, they are handy. I've tried a lot of brands, and my favorite are the Simple Cleansing Wipes. They are unscented and they remove makeup effectively without causing dryness. They also have a very soft but durable texture (make sure you get the regular ones, not the exfoliating variety). The cheapest place to get them online is in a pack of two (50 wipes total) from Amazon for about $7 (and right now there is a $1 off coupon).

Favorite Makeup Remover: I don't use actual makeup remover on my eyes most of the time (only when I end up with a free sample somehow). Although dual phase formulas can be very effective, I don't like the oily residue they leave behind. It tends to cause milia around my eyes even if I wash it off. Instead, I wash my face first, and then I spread a small amount of Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion (about $10) on my upper and lower lids and wipe it off with a dry tissue or cloth. It removes all the makeup residue and--bonus--my eye area is left moisturized. If I have a lot of waterproof mascara caked on my lashes, the lotion doesn't remove it instantly, though it does clean up any that has transferred to my skin. And I have a huge bottle of decent, gentle moisturizer that I can use for whatever other purposes I want. (You can also use moisturizer like this as a cleanser in a pinch--or if you find most cleansers drying. Apply it to your dry skin and massage lightly, splash on water and massage some more, and rinse.)

Favorite Daytime Moisturizer with Sunscreen: This isn't my sunscreen. As I said above, the everyday facial sunscreen I use costs more than $15 (though a bottle lasts me a year). But I work from home, and some days I don't get out of the house until after dark. On those days, I like to just use SPF in moisturizer for a little protection and one less step in the morning. I'm a big fan of the Simple Protecting Light Moisturizer SPF 15. I tried to go without it when I finished my last bottle, but I really missed it, so this is my second. As the name suggests, it's not fancy, but it does a great job of moisturizing and absorbs quickly. It doesn't burn around my eyes like lotions with higher (chemical) SPFs tend to do. This is the theme here: it does what it's supposed to do very well and doesn't do anything I don't like. It's cheapest on Amazon, where it's around $8 (I've seen it in stores for up to $14).

Favorite Acne Spot Treatment: Lots of people like benzoyl peroxide for acne, but I tried to get it to work for years and it never did anything for me other than bleach my sheets and towels. I've found tea tree oil more effective. I dip a q-tip in it and dab it on individual zits. With oils like this, there's a lot of variation in strength (even though they all say "100%" on the bottle, they are actually diluted), so look for good reviews. I've been using the Mason Natural Tea Tree Oil ($8) for a few years with good results.

Favorite Facial Oil/Anti-Aging Treatment: I love rosehip oil. It does all sorts of wonderful things for your skin, no matter what skin type you have. (Read more about it from Lab Muffin.) The only downside for me is that I have to avoid my eye area with it, or at least use it sparingly there, because my eyes don't like oils and again with the fucking milia. You also have to read reviews of this stuff, because the quality and potency will vary between brands. And make sure it doesn't smell like roses--it's not made from rose petals. In fact, it usually smells a bit like cooking oil. I've had good luck with the Aura Cacia Rosehip Oil ($7) and Life-Flo Rosehip Seed Oil ($6). You only need 2-3 drops for your entire face, so a bottle lasts a long time, at least until it spoils.

Favorite Mask: Hands down, Freeman Avocado and Oatmeal Clay Mask. Reviewed here. It really absorbs oil and helps to clear pores without drying out my skin. Love it, and it's $4 for a huge tube that never ends. I've tried more expensive clay masks. This is better.

Favorite Lip Balm: Palmer's Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick ($2-4). It looks like a glue stick, smells subtly like white chocolate, and keeps my lips super soft all winter. My favorite, forever. This enormous tube lasts a long time, as you can tell from my beat-up photo. Do not make the mistake of buying the teeny Palmer's lip balm with the sunscreen in it! That one is bitter and a fraction of the size for the same price. If you can't find the giant Swivel Stick with the other lip balms, look next to the Palmer products in the lotion section (or at Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada, sometimes it's with "ethnic hair care"). Or get it from drugstore.com for less than $3.

Favorite Hand Cream: I love, love, love Caldrea Hand Balm in the Ginger Pomelo scent. It's way better than the more expensive hand creams I've tried (ahem, L'Occitane), though it might be a tad splurgy at $10 a tube. But it smells amazing, and moisturizes extremely well while still absorbing quickly and not being greasy.

Favorite Foot Cream: O'Keeffe's Foot Cream ($5). Reviewed here. Put a very small amount on your feet before bed and they will be softened up significantly by morning. In a few days of using it, all the rough skin will be gone. It's really good. I don't recommend using it on hot and sweaty nights, because it has a slightly greasy feeling, and I think that's gross when I'm already sticky.

These are the best of the (cheap) best in my opinion, but I'd love to hear about any other affordable skin care you'd recommend--especially if you have a different skin type, since I can't really evaluate things that don't suit mine.

(Note: The title originally said "under $15," because when I started writing, I thought that the Simple moisturizer was over $10. But everything on the list can actually be found--in the U.S.--$10 or less. Excellent!)

Empties 2015, Part III (Hair and Body)

Here are some more things I've finished up so far this year. It's kind of fun to keep track of this shit. It's nice to feel like I've accomplished something, even if it is incredibly fucking trivial. I finished a bottle of shampoo! Whatever! So many things in my life are incomplete, but that's not. Plus I have a record to look back at for future purchases.

Hair Products

Generally, I don't write much about shampoo and conditioner or foils, since the former are rarely exciting enough in a good or bad way to warrant comment, and the latter are usually too small to form an opinion about. In the absence of any other information, assume something is just fine. So this should be fairly short.

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Cherry: I've reviewed a bajillion dry shampoos on the blog here, but even though I went through two cans of this in the fall, and it's the best one I've tried yet, I haven't written a proper review of it. (Mini Instagram review here, though.) I'll do one with before and after photos when I buy some more, but first I have to use up some more expensive and less impressive dry shampoos (including the Oscar Blandi one reviewed here).

Davines OI Conditioner (mini)

Pantene Smooth & Sleek Shampoo and Conditioner (minis)

Carol's Daughter Sacred Tiare Anti-Breakage Anti-Frizz Leave-In Cream (mini): It didn't really seem to do anything. I don't have much frizz, per se, though I do get quite a bit of breakage. Maybe didn't use this regularly enough to notice a difference.

Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Beach Spray (mini): I like this product, and it smells great. If I were in the market for another beach spray, I'd get this one. I used it to make loose waves in this post, which is maybe not the best advertisement for it. My favorite part is the spray nozzle, so I saved this bottle for some future purpose, to be determined.

Davines Minu shampoo (mini)

John Frieda Luxurious Volume Shampoo and Conditioner (foils)

Teadora Rainforest at Dusk Shampoo and Conditioner (minis): Smelled better that Rainforest at Dawn (mentioned here), but otherwise just as mediocre and overpriced.

DermOrganic Daily Conditioning Shampoo and Masque (minis)

Pantene Expert Age Defy Shampoo and Conditioner (foils)

L'Oreal Total Repair 5 Shampoo and Conditioner (foils)


Body Products

Unknown foaming body wash: Got it as a consumer trial, so I have no idea what it is. It comes out of the pump as a moussey foam, and I haven't seen anything like it in store yet. It lasted forever.

Essential Elements Wake Up Rosemary Body Lotion (mini): One of the endless fucking supply of hotel lotions Birchbox has been sending me. Very strongly scented; the initial rosemary fragrance fades quickly to just mint. Worked okay as a hand lotion.

Vitabath Fragrance Mist in Nouveau Rose: I got this from Influenster a million years ago (or October 2012, to be more precise). It had a perfectly fine rose scent, but I don't really use body sprays, so it took some creativity to finish it up. I used it as room freshener, fabric deodorizer, etc. Finally, when there was about an inch and a half of liquid left in the bottle, I just started spraying it on myself every single time I got out of the shower and that eventually killed it.

Nivea Extended Moisture Body Lotion (foil): Makes a good moisturizing hand lotion.

Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream: Spent some Birchbox points on this and used it for most of the winter. It has a nice, fresh grapefruit scent. I wasn't particularly impressed by it while I was using it, but when it was gone and I was left with other things, I missed it. It moisturized well without being greasy, yet it didn't leave my hands feeling really soft. I think I prefer hand creams with a little more silicone for a smoother sensation. While I liked it, I wouldn't spend real money on it, because it costs $15 for 2.5 oz. That's too much for hand cream.

Avon Haiku Roll-On Antiperspirant: I don't usually include deodorant in these things, but there it is. Pretty fragrance, incredibly fucking cheap ($2), and it works well, but there is something supremely unpleasant about rolling cold goo in your pits - and then flapping around like a chicken while you wait for it to dry.

Curel Intensive Healing Cream (mini): I think I finally only have 1.5 of these little tubs left. I use it as hand cream before bed. It's okay (reviewed here).

So that's that, though I still have photos of empty makeup and skincare stuff to post once I have a chance. Getting shit done.

Quick and cheap: O'Keeffe's Foot Cream

Disclosure: This post affiliate links.
My dad gave me a tub of this foot cream for Christmas and raved about it. He wanted me to try it right away. Being the stubborn bad daughter that I am, I insisted that I needed to finish up the tube of foot lotion I had at home before I opened up something new. So I spent all of January with hard, rough, dry feet.

It's hard not to make some stupid "father knows best" joke right now.

Anyway, he was right, this stuff is the shit, and my feet would have been much happier if I had been using it all along. I don't have any before and after photos, because you probably didn't want to see the crusty bottoms of my feet, and I honestly didn't expect to post about some foot cream that my dad bought at Canadian Tire. Yeah, this stuff sold at hardware stores in addition to drugstores, but you can get it online for about $6.

It's has a weird texture. It feels kind of hard and dry initially, but when you scoop some out it's soft and buttery. It's unscented and not overly greasy (a little, though). If you use it during the day, you can walk on a hard floor after a few minutes without slipping and falling. I put it on my feet before bed a few times a week, and it definitely makes a difference. It doesn't peel off your skin and leave you with new feet, but it will soften them. The main thing I noticed is that my feet got a lot smoother. You know how really dry feet are kind of scratchy and they catch on bed sheets or socks like velcro and it's really unpleasant and blehhhhh? This stuff cures Velcro Foot Syndrome. It works better than any other cream or lotion I've tried on my feet. And I don't hate the teal and orange packaging. Matches my blog.

I guess when your dad gives you skin care advice, you should listen. Unless he recommends Windex.

Adequate product roundup

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I realize that most of the time I post about things either because I really love them or because I really hate them. It's just easier and more fun to write about something if I have strong feelings about it or if it's particularly intriguing in some way.

But I have a bunch of shit lying around that I thought at one point I would review here and just never got around to. Not because it's bad, but just because it's not exciting. I think, however, that pointing out that something isn't exciting can be useful, even if it doesn't make for the most enthralling blog post (or one filled with a lot of expletives). So I decided to make a single post with brief reviews of bunch of things that fit into the category of "adequate", rather than writing eight separate "meh" posts. They are not bad, but they are not wonderful. They are perfectly functional, and I don't feel like I have wasted money on them, but I wouldn't necessarily buy them again. They do their job, but they don't fill me with joy. They're adequate.

I can see two main responses to reading this: (1) you were excited about something, and you subsequently become less excited about it; or (2) you were excited about something, and you subsequently remain excited and are satisfied that it's not utter shit. No wait, the third possible response is that you didn't care before and you still don't care. Okay, a fourth possible response is that you are enraged that I am dismissing one of the BEST PRODUCTS YOU HAVE EVER USED. Be aware that there are few things on my list that many people out there seem to looooooooove, so if you're curious, you might as well give them a shot, knowing that they are not going to turn out to be garbage. You might turn out to be one of their fans.

Not Your Mother's Knotty to Nice Conditioning Detangler

This stuff is fine, but not exciting - which has been my experience with every product I've used from the NYM brand. It's a leave-in spray conditioner that does make wet hair somewhat easier to comb out. It smells okay, but not too strong. Sort of like fruity candy. I don't find that it has much effect on the appearance or condition of my hair. I can spray it very generously, and my hair doesn't get stringy looking.

Nivea A Kiss of Olive Oil & Lemon Moisture Rich Lip Care

Normally I'm not a big fan of these Nivea/Labello lip balms, so I'm not sure why I bought this one. This version does seem to be a little more effective than most, though. Less waxy and more moisturizing. The scent is pleasant: slightly citrusy, not too sour, like Sprite or 7Up. It has a faint perfumey taste, but it's not obnoxious. It has very little sheen. Good enough, but I wouldn't buy it again when there are a million other lip balms out there to try.

CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion

I know that people swear by this one, and it does have a good ingredients list. There are some things I really like about it and other things I find disappointing. For example, I absolutely love the way it feels when you apply it. It's like a refreshing drink of water for your skin. It soaks in very quickly and doesn't leave a greasy feeling. On the other hand, I don't find that the moisture it provides lasts very long. On dry days this winter (i.e. all of them), my skin feels parched again a few hours later, which doesn't happen so much with lotions that are less pleasant immediately. Maybe this would be best layered under something heavier, though that would mean more greasiness.

Smith's Rosebud Salve

Another popular one. Personally, I don't love it. I've tried it a bunch of different ways. On my cuticles, it's too greasy during the day, and it doesn't seem to have much effect when applied before bed and left overnight. I don't like it on my lips. I actually find it a little drying in the long run, and the floral scent means it doesn't taste very good. I have found a very specific use for it though. I tend to have dry, flaky skin on my nose. If I put some of this stuff around my nostrils before I go to sleep, it definitely cuts down on the dryness by morning. Plus it means I have a pleasant rosy scent to fall asleep to. $6 is kind of a lot of money for dedicated nostril balm, though. I don't advise buying it at Sephora, since you can get it cheaper elsewhere (like drugstore.com, link above).

Suave Moroccan Infusion Shine Conditioner

I had high hopes for this one after reading many, many positive reviews. My opinion is that it's a decent conditioner, but nothing special. It doesn't make my hair any shinier or smoother than other decent conditioners do. It may be that it works better for people with hair types that are different from mine (which is fine, but not thin, and quite straight). I also really don't like the scent, though I think that is one of the major selling points for a lot of people. It's very strong and sweet, slightly spicy. I'm not great at identifying/describing fragrances - sorry. But this is the sort of fragrance you get in a lot of drugstore products (like body wash) that are supposed to be "exotic" or "eastern". Maybe a hint of incense?

Here are swatches of the last three products on my list, the makeup:

Swatches (left to right): L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eyeshadow in Sultry Smoke, Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Fig Jam, Revlon Photoready Eye Primer + Brightener

L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eyeshadow in Sultry Smoke

Matte grey eyeshadow is tricky. It tends to be patchy and dry and not very pigmented. This one is very smooth, but it takes several layers to build up the color to anything other than very sheer. The swatch above is not over primer, which does increase the pigmentation somewhat. Like the other Infallible eyeshadows, it works best when applied with your finger, rather than with a brush. But it's not nearly as impressive as the shimmery Infallible shades, and it's not the answer to all your grey eyeshadow needs. Better than average, but not great.

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Fig Jam

I heard that this was a dupe for the beloved Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey. I don't think that it really is, especially if "universally flattering" is the main attraction of the Clinique stuff. From photos, this Lip Butter seems to be warmer - it has more of a brick red/brown thing going on. It looks okay on me, but it's not something I find particularly attractive. The formula is just as nice as the other sheer Revlon Lip Butters, though.

Swatch of Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Fig Jam

(I guess I did include this Lip Butter in my previous post about them, but it seems worth talking about in more detail for its potential dupe status.)

Revlon Photoready Eye Primer + Brightener

I've had this for ages. I'm not sure why I bought it, either. I guess maybe I was wondering if it was a dupe for YSL Touche Éclat, though I don't have that, so I'm not sure how I would be able to tell. It's the same type of product, though: highlighter in a click pen with a brush. This packaging seriously suffers from the click-click-click-click-nothing, click-click-click-click-SPLOOGE effect. It it definitely not a concealer - it provides almost no coverage. It does seem to reflect the light from undereye circles in a way that makes using it slightly better than using nothing. It is not reflective enough to be used as a highlighter, though, at least on someone pale like me, and I have no idea what sort of priming effects it's supposed to have. It's not very good layered under something else, because it doesn't apply especially evenly. Overall it's just not that impressive. I use it on days when I'm not going to be out and about much, since it camouflages my dark circles a little bit, provided that no one looks too closely at me. I'm basically just trying to use this up at this point.

So there you go. None of this things are disasters, but none of them are revelations either, in my opinion. Feel free to rage at me in the comments about how shockingly wrong I am.

L'Occitane and LORAC are on HauteLook today (up to 92% off)

I think L'Occitane is just okay, but I know lots of people love it. But LORAC! There are some nice eyeshadow palettes available, which is what I think LORAC is best known for (not the Pro, of course), and lip glosses and eyeliners and foundations and tanners, etc. I'd skip the double-sided mascara. I had a tube of it once, and it was not at all impressive. The Wet-Dry Powder is what is 92% off, fyi, but several other things are 70%+ off.

The links above are my invite link (you need an account to browse HauteLook). Shipping is $6 and usually takes a few weeks.

Curel Intensive Healing Cream update

So I said I'd let you know if this cream made any lasting difference to my dry cuticles and nails or my feet. Here's the photo I took after using it for 4 days straight, several times a day;

A little better, maybe? I don't really see a big difference (you can see the before photo here). Certainly not more than what you would get from regular use of any other decent hand cream. So I'm going to say no to the "healing" properties of this stuff. (I didn't notice a huge improvement on my feet either.)

It moisturizes very well and makes things look and feel better when you use it. It absorbs quickly and doesn't have any fragrance whatsoever. If those things are important to you, you could give it a shot. Personally, I'm going to stick with lotions and creams that don't come in a jar or pot, because I don't particularly like rubbing it on my feet and then stick my fingers back in there.

BzzAgent Review: Curel Intensive Healing Cream (Part I)

Disclosure: I received this product free for review from BzzAgent.

I got some little tubs of this stuff to try out recently. Let me tell you: this is some utilitarian shit. For some reason I feel like this is the kind of cream that your grandmother brings home from the hospital. I don't know where I'm getting that image from, but there it is. It's there to do a job. No frills. It's absolutely unscented, for one thing.

So usually in a review of something like this, I get into the ingredients. The ingredients here are definitely workhorses. No nonsense, tried and true. How many cliches can I fit into one post? Let's find out! Here are the ingredients:

Water, Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Glycerin, Microcrystalline Wax, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Glyceryl Dilaurate, Paraffin, Dimethicone, Cetyl PG Hydroxyethyl Palmitamide, Magnesium Stearate, Isopropyl Myristate, Magnesium Sulfate, Glyceryl Oleate, Ethoxydiglycol, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, Butylene Glycol, Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Extract, Propylparaben

Those are all your basic ingredients designed to moisturize and leave your hands feeling smooth. I'm not going to analyze them one by one, but I don't see any problems here. If you don't like petroleum products for environmental reasons, then I guess that's your thing, fine, but mineral oil is a good moisturizer that rarely causes allergic reactions and is non-comedogenic. Glycerin I've talked about before. The formula for this stuff is pretty similar to this cream designed for babies, except that this Curel one includes preservatives, which I am glad for, since it's packaged in a jar/tub.

Ugh, jar packaging. Another thing I've complained about in the past. What is the point? I guess it makes it seem more medicinal? Or heavy duty? I don't know. It's definitely trying to create some psychological association for you, because it would be more stable and less prone to contamination in a squeeze tube. This cream is thick, but it's not so thick that it wouldn't dispense perfectly well from a tube.

But on to the actual test.

I've been using this stuff for a little over a week. I wouldn't say that I have "extremely dry skin" at this point in the year, but I have some dry and/or rough spots, like the bottoms of my feet and my nails and cuticles. So that's where I tested it.

I'll spare you photos of my feet, but here are my nails an hour or so after removing nail polish and then doing my usual whatever around the house. I might have washed a couple of dishes, but mostly I just fucked around on my computer.

My nails and cuticles are pretty dry and just all-around shitty. That is their normal state.

Review: Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream, Part II

Disclosure: I got these products free from BzzAgent.
Final Thoughts:

Here is my hand and nails after using this hand cream exclusively, two or more times a day, for about 10 days. I took this immediately after applying the cream.

Smoother, but still the same peeling nails and hangnails.

Better, but the poor quality of this photo also sort of airbrushes out some of the problems. It's hard to photograph your own dominant hand! Why did I decide to do that? Here is the before shot, for reference.

This is what my tube says on the back: It is so concentrated that only a small amount instantly leaves dry, cracked hands noticeably softer and smoother after just one application. Used daily, it heals and helps keep dry skin from returning.

So what do I think about that? Well, a small amount did make my hands feel "noticeably" smoother after the first use, but it wasn't because my skin itself was softer. It just left a smooth film on the surface. It never felt greasy, though, which I appreciated. I could pretty much immediately go about my business without feeling like my hands were slick and gross. The unscented variety was also truly unscented - another plus. No smell at all. The original variety, which has scent, is very, very subtle. Unless you are extremely sensitive to fragrance, you should be fine with that one too.

After several days, it did improve my skin, but no better than any other hand cream I've used. I never really felt like my hands were being deeply moisturized. They remained kind of shriveled and almost calloused feeling, though my cuticles improved. So I don't know what I think about the use of the word "heals" here. That's just what my hands are like in the middle of winter, and this didn't fix it. After a few days, I wished that my testing period was over so that I could go back to my old hand cream. This just wasn't doing it for me.

The other marketing claim that the Neutrogena campaign put out was that this would "extend the life of manicures". I'm not sure exactly what that means. It certainly didn't make my nail polish stay on any longer than usual. And my nails still broke and peeled just as much as they usually do. So I'm going to say it failed on that account.

I wonder if this stuff would work better in a more humid environment. If one of the ways glycerin works is by attracting moisture from the environment, it wouldn't have had much opportunity to do so, in the parched, furnace-heated air of my house in the winter. Maybe that's why the Norwegian fishermen were more into it than I was.

Overall, this is a decent product. Not great, but fine. I think it would work well in conjunction with another hand cream, but I would prefer to just use a single product that smoothes the surface of my skin AND provides moisture that soaks in. I'll be going back to my trusty Avon lotion. But if you're not already using something that works well, this could be an upgrade.

I'd give Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Review: Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream, Part II

Disclosure: I got these products free from BzzAgent.

See Part I here.

First impressions:

The marketing copy for this stuff says that you only need a "small dab" to repair damaged skin and nails. So I decided I would use this amount, at least twice a day (but really whenever my hands felt dry):

I start by rubbing it into my finger tips and nails, and then spreading over the rest of my hands. I'm not using any other hand creams/lotions on my hands during the testing period of one week. I'm also following my normal routine, which means a couple of nail polish changes during the week. Ultimately I want to see if this stuff works as well as my favorite hand cream (which is really a foot cream), Avon Foot Works Beautiful Lavender Overnight Cream. The Neutrogena cream's main claim to effectiveness is that it contains glycerin. Glycerin is a standard ingredient in moisturizers (for more info, see Part I). The Avon cream also contains glycerin. 

The first time I used the cream, my hands were very, very dry, as you can see in the photo in Part I. After putting on the hand cream, they felt smoother and slipperier, but not immediately more moisturized. It was like having a layer of soft stuff on the surface of my skin, but underneath it was still rough and leathery. Even after a few days of use, I still didn't feel like it was soaking into my skin and improving the texture and moisturizing the deeper levels. Okay, I don't know if lotion normally does that, but it normally doesn't leave my fingertips still feeling just as shriveled and tough. I definitely didn't feel like their claims of instant soothing and healing were panning out. But maybe long term use will have a transformative, healing effect! I can be patient.

Stay tuned soon for the final result of my week(+) of testing.

Review: Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream, Part I

Disclosure: I got these products free from BzzAgent.

Product Claims:

When it comes to protecting hands from the rigors of daily use, Norwegian Formula^® Hand Cream is the first choice of fishermen and manicurists alike. What makes this Neutrogena classic better than the rest?

• Just one dab repairs 7 signs of damage: dryness, chapping, splitting nails, dry cuticles, scaliness and roughness
• 2012 Good Housekeeping Seal award winner
• First hand cream to heal with concentrated glycerin
• Keeps Manicured hands looking beautiful
• Long-lasting
• Glycerin-rich
• Concentrated
• 2oz product good for 200 uses
• Available in Original and Fragrance-Free
• Suggested retail price of $4.99 per 2oz product

What I'm interested in:

• a small amount undoes skin damage and improves look and feel of nails
• extends the life of manicures
• pretty cheap at $5, though you only get a moderately sized tube for that price
• glycerin is a "skin-identical product"

I started testing this product at a particularly good time. I had just spent 10 days at home with my family, in an extremely dry climate, with very hard water, and without access to my usual hand creams. My nails and cuticles were a mess. Take a look, if you can handle it!

Soften Up: Avon Foot Works Lavender Overnight Treatment Cream

I just love this lotion/cream/moisturizer/whatever. It smells fucking amazing, but not too strong, and it moisturizes without being greasy. And it’s cheap.

It’s supposed to be for your feet, but it’s my favorite hand cream. It makes my cuticles nicer. I use it for everything. Between this and the Cetaphil moisturizer, you’re pretty set to grease yourself up for any occasion.

(Just as a reminder, I’m not getting anything for suggesting any of this shit. Except the BzzAgent stuff, and I’ll tell you if that’s the case. And even then, I only get a free product to try out, and I’m not going to lie to you about whether or not I like it.)

Fix Your Face: Makeup Remover

Here’s something I mentioned in my skincare routine post, but it bears repeating.

I don’t actually own any makeup remover. I think it’s kind of a pointless product, unless maybe you’re dealing with some heavy duty face paint. Here’s what I use to remove all my eye makeup, including waterproof mascara:

Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion. You can get a big-ass bottle of this for less than $10, and it will last forever. Just smear a tiny bit of this around your eyes and wipe it away with a tissue or cotton ball or whatever. It works really well. As well or better than any remover I’ve ever tried. And then you’ve moisturized the skin around your eyes at the same time, if you think that helps with wrinkles or something (I don’t). Really, any lotion/moisturizer/hand cream etc. will work if you are in a bind, but this stuff is gentle and not perfumey, so it’s good to use near the eyes.

Not only is this a million times cheaper (I’m pretty sure that’s the correct math) than a little bottle of makeup remover, it’s also, you know, moisturizer for whatever needs moisturizing on your body. You know I like multipurpose shit.

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