Hope you had a relaxing Monday! It was pretty quiet at work for me today so I can't complain. I'm counting the days down until my birthday adn I cannot wait!! So this morning I woke up to find not one, not two, but FIVE "blemishes" on my face! WTF?! I have been using Proactiv and Skin ID religiously for the past month or so and all was looking "ok" but now my skin is lookin a hot mess! What gives?! I am so sick of always breaking out, at this point I'm thinking I might just give it up and go to a dermatologist! You wouldn't look at me and think that I have bad skin but I do always seem to be battling blemishes, which is getting old and really annoying!
Products
05/10/2010
05/08/2010
The Results Are In!
So the pictures of me yesterday were not the "after" those were the "during". I got some comments like "wow, that is really uneven and gross looking", however St. Tropez goes on almost like chocolate syrup that you then rub in, so it looks really streaky while it is on you but then you rinse it all off and are left with a bronzed glow. Unlike alot of self tanners that have a base of orange this one has more a base of red so it definitely looks natural. I am really pleased with the results and as you can see on my back in the left picture you can see the spot that I couldn't reach (upper back) and the difference the lotion made.
They recommend using the product over a period of a few days to get a deeper color, which I am going to do before my birthday (Memorial Day weekend) but I don't want to use up all of my lotion now so I'm just going to ride out this application for the next few days (it lasts about 5 days per what I've read). I also got the Bronzing Mousse yesterday which is a much shorter application and is great to build on top of what you have done with the lotion. I would definitely recommend this product, it works great and is pretty foolproof, again make sure to watch the application video before you apply. I paid ~ $30 for my 8 oz bottle but if you consider how much a spray tan or a monthly tanning membership is I would say it is worth it. The smell is not bad, but there is like a flowery fragrance which I didn't care for too much but it went away when I washed it off. Definitely get gloves before applying as I've heard this can stain your hands pretty bad, but overall this is a definite must have and I can totally understand its cult following!
Huggable Hanger Makeover
I ordered about 72 huggable hangers from HSN a few weeks ago and ever since their arrival have anxiously been anticipating making over my closet. Let me just start my saying that my closet/storage situation kind of sucks and having too many clothes strewn about is the bane of my existence. I am actually staying in my sister's old room as my mother has taken over MY old room, plus it is bigger and doesn't get hot as balls as hot at night like my old room does. Not only does my sister, who has lived in Florida for 4+ years still have clothes in her dresser, but my mother has a bunch of clothing in both my old closet and my new closet. So I have very limited space to store my wardrobe. Thus the appeal of the huggable hanger, said to "triple your closet space".
I don't know if it was the huggable hangers or the fact that I donated tons of items to the cancer foundation (mostly crap from Kohls my mother buys me unsolicited) but I definitely have more closet space than ever! As you can see on the right side I still have about 30+ hangers left, which means more shopping needs to be done!! Two little storage bins (on top) came with my hangers as well and one is filled with sweatshirts and I think I'm going to fill the other one with the jeans I don't wear that often. I definitely would recommend these to everybody and considering they come in a rainbow of colors (I chose platinum grey) you are sure to find one that suits your closet decor.
05/07/2010
A Tan Plan...
Please excuse the nip slip but this is currently what I look like as I am sitting here in my St. Tropez tanning lotion. The application process took about 20 minutes and 1/3 of the bottle I would guess to cover my whole body. I highly suggest viewing the application video before you do this as it gives some great tips and the number of pumps you should use for each area of your body. I have about 3 hours left until I can wash this off, I did everything but my face as I think I"m just going to use my bronzer as I don't want to break out (oil is an ingredient in this product). I've read of other people using it on their face and they even provide the tutorial in the aforementioned video, but I don't want to take a risk and break out!
As you can see I got pretty much my entire back except for one patch, not too shabby considering I didn't have any extra helping hands. When I do this before my birthday I think I'll get my cat mother to get that patch on my back, don't want to be splotchy!
04/05/2010
Weider Adjustable Dumbbells
It has been a little over two weeks since I started using my Weider adjustable dumbbells. I had been using three sets of neoprene dumbbells of varying weight (3, 5 & 8 lbs) but wasn't feeling as challenged as I had been in the beginning (progress!) so I was looking to increase my difficulty. I liked the idea of having an adjustable dumbbell because I can change up the strength to suit whichever exercise I'm doing at the time. I'm pretty much maxing out around 10 lbs right now and really only on chest and back exercises, most of the time I use 8 lbs and rarely do I use my 5 lbs (tricep kickbacks, OUCH!), The 3 lb weights have officially been put to pasture.
Basically it is a set of handles that comes with 16 removable plates, each weighing 1.25 lbs. Each dumbbell can be increased in weight by 2.5 lb increments providing for a total weight of 2.5 (no plates at all), 5, 7.5, 10 or 12.5 lbs. The plates are locked in by a sliding mechanism which so far has proven to be fairly secure. The plates can wobble a bit which isn't exactly the best sound to hear when you are holding them directly above your face (cue the Marcia Brady "oooh my nose!" soundbyte) but so far so good! They are relatively comfortable as well and appear to be well made. I appreciate that it comes with a nifty little tray as to not leave too many dents in the carpet and/or roll away under the couch. The only downside I came across was that you can't just swap out the plates all that quickly so I wouldn't rely too much on the "interchangeable" aspect of this product so much during a workout DVD. In fact, I still keep out my 5 and 8lb neoprene dumbbells during my DVD sessions so that I don't get left behind.
Overall I'd say this is a pretty solid investment if you are anything like me and have varying levels of strength depending on the muscle group. I only paid ~$60 for my set, although I have seen this on Amazon for around twice that. Sears currently has it for $69.99 which is a pretty good deal, and I'm sure if you poke around you might find it for even a cheaper price. If you were to add up the cost of two sets of dumbbells for all the varying weights this definitely saves you money in the long run.
