Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub | Hello Yum Hello Smooth

One of the brands I was way too excited to get my hands on in London was Soap & Glory a beauty range that actually looks like a bath & body first cousin of Benefit Cosmetics…they’re not related though. These guys do bath and body like nobody’s business.  They do an excellent blend of clean and gourmande scents with a balance that’s uniquely hard to come by.  This Sugar Crush Body Scrub seriously does not smell sickeningly sweet to me…it’s a yummy, tart sort of sweet.  It makes me think of those sweet cola jelly bottles with a zesty dash of tart lime.

I made a mad dash for this at the Soap & Glory shelf and contemplated getting this or the body wash.  I thought having the scrub which is more “touchworthy” in experience would set me off better the first time around. It’s got moisturizing and smoothing almond oil which I fully believe in aside from the scrubby bits of brown sugar and macadamia grains. The better way to use this so you get a thorough scrub and don’t waste product is to not have the shower running while applying this. Slather it on and rub generously…it isn’t painfully abrasive but it’s abrasive enough to be your smooth operator. As you will see in a bit I soooo needed this scrub right now as I delightfully thumb-type this from Norway. For a moment for truth’s sake, let me show you the semi-disgusting reason why I’m ever so glad I bought this when I did (believe me this was the compromise…showing my leggings instead of my scaly legs).

Don’t.judge.me…lol, and I have been bathing don’t you dare suggest that I wasn’t! What you’re seeing right there are my leggings having been pulled inside out so you can probably guess in what sort of state my lower legs were…it was not a pretty sight. I’d been faithful in moisturizing my face and hands here in Europe but I’m afraid I can’t say the same for my body. I used the scrub 2 nights ago and it set me straight for a day and a half but coming to Norway really dried up my legs again so it was time to convene with this star find once more.

“Use in the shower once, twice, or three times weekly, depending on the level of scaliness you struggle with. (Four times-even-if you’ve ever been labelled ‘old lizard legs’.)”

Two hours ago I used the Sugar Crush Body Scrub on damp legs with my feet in warm water sitting on the side of a hotel tub. It’s best on legs that aren’t too wet so the dense thick pasty consistency with the grains can exfoliate to the fullest. Whats lovely is you don’t just get the physical exfoliation…the almond and lime oil just makes the job a smooth, moisturizing, and nourishing experience and once you rinse your legs off you get a soft supple feeling that suggests no lotion required…but because we’re in a really dry country I still finished off my legs with my fave Nivea Baby Smoothy Cream which you can get in Manila. However you could walk out the door without doing so…because this is just a really fantastic scrub that moisturizes and doesn’t just exfoliate. Love this stuff.

Conclusive Post After 17 Days | Shiseido White Lucent Serum & Brightening Mask

I know that the Shiseido White Lucent Challenge, which began with this post here,  was supposed to be a 7-Day one, but I really personally wanted to see what the dynamic duo could do over a longer period.  I used the White Lucent Spot Targeting Serum with the aid of the Brightening Mask for a more realistic 2 weeks ++, a time period in which for me promising skincare products truly begin to kick in. In case you didn’t read my previous post, the serum is meant to “crush” the unwanted melanin beneath the skin surface and the mask is meant to “eject” it.

I used up both brightening masks in the first week and then continued with the serum once to twice daily (more often twice).  Here are the results, see for yourself.  Sorry about the slight difference in angle and lighting (there were a few more clouds on Feb 10).  I made sure both shots were taken between 8 and 9am in the morning with the same camera shutter speed and I did my best to color balance just so the lighting was even and results are as close to reality as possible.

First off, I have to point out that the top little dark spot and the ones near my nose and jaw are moles, not freckles or blemish marks so the serum would certainly not fade them out.  What is completely obvious when you first view these images is the overall improvement of my skin’s health seen in the supple skin surface and less oiliness along the T-zone.  You will also see a slight  increase in fairness that isn’t unnatural, less patchiness and redness over my sensitive areas, and my pores have diminished not just in appearance but in actual physical size.  I actually don’t feel my pores on my nose now.  If you look closer the pigmentation marks between the moles I mentioned may not have disappeared completely but they’ve faded noticeably.  I’m actually excited to see what happens after 4 weeks, a whole month.

What I love about the serum is it didn’t have any side effects and didn’t irritate my skin at all.  No sting, just whopping good skincare that sinks in so quickly.  The serum at this 30ml size costs about Php5650 from your local Shiseido counter.  It’s available from local counters here.  So what do you think, having seen the results for yourselves do you want to try this and see for yourselves?  Like Shiseido PH on Facebook to get more updates and information regarding the launch of Shiseido White Lucent skincare!  By the way if you haven’t joined my special Shiseido giveaway that ends tomorrow, go to this link here!

Shiseido White Lucent Challenge Day 1 & Shiseido Spring Makeup Giveaway!

I’m beaming with delight and it’s all thanks to Shiseido Philippines and blogger friend, Sophie Uy.  I’ve got something special  that I’m about to sort of embark on as well as a makeup item to give you lovely readers today, but before we get to that nationwide giveaway prize, be still your beating heart…patience is a virtue, we’ve got to start at the beginning.  I’ve got a full 7 days to take two wonderful skincare items out for a “road spin”.  Something by Shiseido suddenly got us bloggers “arrested” just the other day at the Shiseido Pop-Up Beauty Lounge at SM Makati, which will by the way be there until March 31st for purchases, facials, and free consultations.  It’s amazing how one mention of revered cosmetics brand, Shiseido, drew quite a huge bunch of us Filipina beauty bloggers together…and on a weekday, too.  To be honest, my mother and I are quite a couple of Shiseido fan-girls I tell you.  The first main product the bloggers were introduced to, The White Lucent Intensive Spot Targeting Serum, coupled with a brightening mask, is designed to nourish skin, help radiance resurface, and help lighten or eliminate unwanted spots brought about by small clusters of hardened melanin beneath the surface of the skin.

1. SHISEIDO White Lucent Intensive Spot Targeting Serum – crushes melanin,

2. SHISEIDO White Lucent Brightening Mask – ejects melanin

Getting ready here for my skincare treatment, this was shot in the middle of having my own makeup removed by a Shiseido lady.  Here I am side by side with Sophie Uy of Beautynomics who has already been using the White Lucent serum several days ahead of me, she’s naturally a shade or two fairer than me.

On that day we were being presented with Shiseido’s White Lucent Intensive spot targeting serum and the partnering brightening mask.  The serum is a targeted treatment containing their proprietary “Melano crush” to cause spots to, in theory break apart into finer particles or disintegrate.  Our White Lucent 7-day skincare challenge involves the twice daily use of the White Lucent serum  coupled with the intermittent use of the brightening mask on top of it every few days.  Click “Read more” to continue to my experience at the Shiseido Pop-up lounge and get to the Rafflecopter widget at the end for my single Shiseido giveaway.

My Valentine Makeover Giveaway! | Nationwide Until Feb.10, 2013

Hey, Beauties!  I’d preferably put up a Valentine Giveaway on the 1st of February to mark the month of love, but since there’s a major wedding the following week and I’m a bridesmaid I just really had to get this up sooner.  This, Ladies, gets the gussy going starting with skincare at least a night or two before VDay which also explains why I’m making the draw on February 10.  No sulking allowed even if you haven’t got a fella, bring on the pamper and polish because you’ve got to look your best!

The winner gets to take home ALL these prizes. It’s a fine mix of skincare, makeup, and haircare this time with brands like Laneige, Lush, Nivea, Benefit Cosmetics, K-Palette and more!  I’m so happy that I’m able to share these prizes with you just before Valentine’s Day!  In order to facilitate this giveaway I’ll be using an embedded Rafflecopter widget like the last time to make it fair for everyone.  Click read more to get to the list and close-up photos of these prizes and enter the giveaway by using the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this blog post .

My Lil’ Black Book of Beauty Pt. 2 | Foreign Blogs I Love Reading

Beauty videos, to say the least, are all very engaging but sometimes silence and a wash of beautiful photos over some prose is golden.  It’s equally relaxing to have a read through some of the most prolific beauty blogs online.  By the way this is part 2 of the Lil’ Black Book of Beauty Pt.1 post I began first containing the channels I watch.  I sometimes don’t  have the time to download or wait for a full video to stream, so reading these blogs is the quickest way to stay updated.  To save even more time I don’t always cart around my 17″ ASUS laptop (which baffles everyone who sees it) to read these.  I have most of the blogs booted via RSS on my Android Pulse Reader app (available for Apple, too) which allows me to view all the blogs I choose by row and I can immediately scroll to see if there’s a new post or not because of thumbnails then I can read them via Pulse, too.  This way I don’t waste precious time loading up each website /channel only to find some may not have an update.  Also once you’ve loaded them you can read the posts offline if you’re on the go, great for traffic on certain days.

I have a Pulse page for blogs, local blogs, and a pulse page for YouTube channels.  Many of them are British and reading through a ton of British blogs has actually improved my writing because no one  writes English like the English…ahem.  I do have a certain bias towards European beauty blogs simply because it’s the dead smack center of carefully developed luxury beauty brands using the freshest and best ingredients and also because they’ve banned over a thousand questionable chemicals for use in cosmetics (the U.S. have reportedly only banned 9?).  Okay, enough blabber, click  read more to see what are more or less my daily beauty reads.