Sunday’s Sensational Skincare Deal!

You’ve been preparing your skin and hair to hopefully capture the perfect holiday memories on camera. But what’s the use of a good hair day and flawless skin and makeup if your smile is dull and dingy? There’s still time to get your pearly whites to shine before Christmas arrives. Pick up a box of Crest Whitestrips Dental Whitening System Strips, Premium to ensure your smile is as bright as can be!

Drugstore.com is offering $5 off of all Crest Whitestrips Whitening Systems!

If you don’t take advantage of drugstore.com’s special price, be sure to grab your Crest Whitening Strips System from your local drugstore.

Can I get some Holiday Spirit?

Lowes Home Improvement store must hire customer service grinches for the holidays!

For as long as I can remember, my family has always had a real tree on Christmas. Since getting married and starting a family of my own, we have continued on with that tradition. Although putting up a real Christmas tree means added daily tasks of watering the tree and vacuuming up pine needles, we simply cannot resist the scent of a freshly cut pine tree. In addition to setting out Christmas decorations and enjoying the aroma of baked apple pie and mulled cider candles, the scent of a real Christmas tree really puts us in the Christmas spirit.

This year, we waited a little longer than usual to get our tree. Normally, we have our Christmas tree up by the weekend following Thanksgiving. This time around, however, we got our tree on the 2nd of December. My husband and I decided to check out the trees at Lowe’s Home Improvement. We found a great Douglas Fir that we thought would fit perfectly in our home. After paying a very reasonable price of $25, we headed straight home to get our tree in some water. We then proceeded to trim the tree, which is one of my favorite things to do. Everything was great, for the first couple of days. But, by day three, I noticed the tree had already began to dry out. I also realized that the water level had remained full since the first time I filled it. It appeared that the tree was not absorbing any water. I definitely found this to be unusual, but I continued to watch the tree’s condition for several more days. By day seven, the tree had dried out so much, that the branches drooped so low, causing all of my ornaments to be completely out of place. At this point, I knew there was no way that this tree was going to make it through to Christmas. After rationalizing it in my head, I decided to call Lowe’s and ask if there were any way that I could get a new tree. Much to my surprise, the man on the other end of the line was very understanding and informed me that it would be no problem at all to bring the tree back, either for a refund or exchange. Great! Or so I thought..

After removing all of the ornaments and lights from our half-dead tree, we hauled it back to Lowe’s in hopes of going home with a fresh and new Christmas tree. Instead, we ended up going home empty-handed. After browsing the selection of trees remaining on the lot, we decide against an exchange because 90% of the trees were already starting to turn brown. The other 10% were not what we were looking for. We head to customer service to get our money back so that we could purchase a fresh tree from somewhere else. Unfortunately, we were “helped” by a “grinch” of a woman who held the role of store Supervisor. She agreed that our tree was in very poor condition, but refused to offer us anything other than a store credit because we failed to retain our receipt. I reluctantly agreed, thinking how crazy it is to expect anyone to hold on to their Christmas tree receipt. Anyway, I was then told that my credit balance would be $12.04, the current price of their 6-7′ Douglas Fir trees. When my shock wore off, I argued that I should be entitled to the full amount I had paid only nine days ago. The Grinch told me that there was absolutely nothing she could do to credit me the full amount because the prices had changed since I had made my purchase. I found this to be ludicrous and here’s why. During my prior telephone call with the man from the tree department, I had been informed that the previous shipment of Douglas Fir’s (the same batch that my tree was in) had actually been shipped to this Lowe’s location (AL) from another store (FL) because they were not selling. In addition, after we arrived at Lowe’s and were greeted by the same man, he told us about how there were several other returns of Douglas Fir trees. I asked him why the trees were dying so quickly and he informed me that their trees were cut down back in October! That’s right folks, the trees were two months old and had been bounced around between stores, who knows how many times. Unbelievable, right?! Ms. Grinch denied this story and continued to remind me that she couldn’t do anything else for me. I then asked her to consider crediting me for the current price of an 8-9′ Douglas Fir tree, which was $20. Again, she refused. So, after almost two hours of trying to negotiate with this scrooge, I could not get her to budge. My husband, 21 month old son and I were forced to leave Lowe’s without a Christmas tree and only a $12 store credit.

Am I alone in saying that this was an absolutely ridiculous experience that no one should ever be subjected to? For goodness sakes, it is the holidays and I am just trying to have a Christmas tree that will be alive on Christmas Day. Not only that, I would like to have a tree that is not a fire hazard in my home! This woman, or so-called “store supervisor” assumed zero responsibility for selling us an obviously old tree and had absolutely no interest at all in helping to make the situation right for her customer. I feel she could have easily rectified the problem by honoring me a store credit for the full $25 that I had paid. I purchased a tree from them believing that it was fresh, based on their advertisement. I am dissapointed and downright angry at how terrible we were treated, especially during the holidays. I realize that customer service is not what it used to be, but you would think that people would try to be more empathetic and inclined to perform their job of providing customer satisfaction. I guess my expectations are just too high - even for a well-established retailer such as Lowe’s Home Improvement.

Skin Care Travel Essentials

Christmas day is rapidly approaching. Everyone is in a frenzy to get their Christmas shopping done. In addition, many are also preparing for that long awaited Christmas vacation, or simply ready to travel back “home” to spend the holidays with friends and family. That means, not only is there stress in having to bring along all of your holiday gifts, but there’s also your own personal belongings to pack up. As someone who travels a lot, I’ve learned what skincare and beauty items are essential to have while traveling, without going overboard or leaving anything behind. Here are my tips to packing light, while keeping your skin happy.

First and foremost, prepare your skin for the long trip by drinking lots of water. Several days before you intend to travel, drink even more water than the recommended daily consumption of 64 ounces. I know, that’s a lot of water, but the benefits are so worthwhile! Exposure to the very dry cabin air while traveling via airplane is extremely dehydrating. You will not only feel the effects of dehydration in your skin, but also throughout your body. Have you ever wondered why you tend to experience bloating, puffy eyes, chapped lips, and swelling of wrists and ankles after a flight? These are all symptoms of dehydration! The body will actually retain extra water in those particular areas in an effort to prevent total loss of hydration. The best way to avoid dealing with these discomforts while traveling, is to start hydrating your body beforehand.

Be prepared for possible travel delays or detours. Put together a travel size (3 oz or less) skincare kit which you can take along in your hand carry bag to include your facial cleanser, toner, moisturizer, sunblock and lip balm. If you don’t have time to venture out and find travel size containers for your skincare kit, consider a travel kit such as the MD Formulations Travel Essentials Kit.

Carry your toner in a small spritzer bottle. During your travels, a quick mist of your toner will help to revive tired and dehydrated skin.

Your hands will also need some TLC. Include a small instant hand sanitizer gel and a travel size of your favorite hand cream. While traveling, I find myself washing my hands more than usual. So when a sink is not available, I take comfort in knowing that I have my handy hand sanitizer. With all the hand washing and drenching in hand sanitizer, it is important to have a good and heavy hand cream to keep your skin moisturized.

If you are like me, then you cannot travel without your makeup. Here are a few suggestions for condensing your makeup bag. Consider a tinted moisturizer with SPF, such as the Juice Organics SPF 30 Light Tint Moisturizer to take on the job of your moisturizer, sunblock and foundation! A creme blush like the DuWop Blush Therapy For Cheeks, Elixir (natural taupe pink) or NARS The Multiple Multi-Purpose Stick, South Beach is great for your cheeks, lips and even eyes! Be sure to choose a fairly neutral color with just a hint of pink. Lastly, don’t forget your brow brush to keep those brows tamed and mascara to complete your look.

For those of you who can’t leave the house without wearing makeup, then a portable makeup remover like the Revlon Makeup Eraser Pen is a must-have. This convenient beauty tool works great for making small corrections to smudged or running eyeliner or mascara without having to wash off all of your makeup.

There are just so many things to worry about when traveling, especially during the holidays. Ease the burden by using my tips above to keep yourself looking and feeling great, while on the run.

Why Not Bar Soap?

It is interesting to me how many people in today’s world of beauty and wealth, still use bar soap for cleansing the skin on their face. Even after eight years of working in the skin care industry and sharing my knowledge with everyone I know and love, I still have a number of friends and family members who cannot seem to part ways with their beloved bar soap.

So I’ve decided to uncover the ugly truth about bar soap and it’s negative effects on the skin, once and for all! Bar soap may pose to be the most comforting and convenient way to cleanse your skin, but it is definitely the least favorable. Although you may have been using bar soap for years and have no skin issues to report of, it doesn’t mean that your skin is actually in good health. Let me give you some of the reasons why bar soap is the enemy:

1. Bar soap is extremely high in alkaline. Alkalinity = Dry and Dehydrated Skin.
2. Dryness and dehydration of the skin leads to sensitivity, fine lines and flakiness.
3. Excessive dryness and dehydration causes the skin to overcompensate for loss of moisture by producing too much sebum, which in turn, provokes the onset oiliness and breakout.
4. Moisturizing lotion or cream in conjunction with bar soap becomes useless. There is no way for your skin to achieve moisture balance when you continue to strip it with bar soap. It is a vicious cycle.
5. Fragrances and other harsh ingredients in bar soap will cause irritation to skin conditions such as eczema, acne and rosacea.
6. Due to it’s high content of comodegenic (pore-clogging) ingredients, bar soap will result in very congested skin.

There are some great alternatives to bar soap to consider. For instance, if what you desire is to experience that “squeaky clean” feeling after cleansing your face, then a gel or foam-based cleanser is perfect for you. These cleansers benefit all skin types, are pH-balanced and help your skin to retain moisture. Best of all, you will be able continue enjoying that good old “sudsy” cleanse that you are so used to having with your bar soap. When you are ready to jump on the beauty band wagon and finally make the switch to a facial cleanser, first determine what your skin type is, and then you can find the cleanser that is right for you. I am sure that after just a few times of using your new facial cleanser, you’ll drop that old bar soap like a hot potato and wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!

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