ummm…yea. I am definitely not the ideal target market demographic for this product. Although…I do kind of like the fact that the colors from the DuWop Venom Gloss line has named it’s colors after various naturally poisonous plants/flowers lol. Here is how it works: Cinnamon, wintergreen, and ginger cause blood to rush to the surface of the lips, making them flush and swell - but be prepared for the sting-factor!!

Personally, I find it to be annoyingly unpleasant…but if I had thin lips then I might actually attempt to suffer with the discomfort. I dunno. Staci was wearing it the last time I saw her and it actually looked really nice on her - glossy plasticy looking lips, but she did mention that she was burning on the way out the door LOL!!! For you lip-plumper addicts, and I know you are out there - here is a free gwp for the VenomGloss at ELuxury from me to you…minus any sting!

DuWop Gift with Purchase at eLUXURY.com! *Offer good now until August 13th 2007 from Spa-View.com Plus - enter code JUNE imn the shopping cart to get free shipping while you’re at it.

Technorati Tags Coupon Codes, duwop, Make Up, Product-Reviews, the-body-shop, venom

probably not. But then again, I’ve never tried StriVectin…yet. I have my first week of using it starting tonight - so I shall keep ye posted.

Technorati Tags botox, mua, Product-Reviews, Spa-reView, strivectin

I swapped for a tube of the DermaDoctor Wrinkle Revenge cleanser which does have some glycolic acid in it but has super minimal sting (unlike the hardcore stingy-ness of previous reviews on facials w/ GA and Murad’s Vit.C facial - Ouch!!!) on MAU and I am SOLD on it’s non -stingy get your face uber clean qualities! After being super curious of the DermaDoctor stuff, I also purchased the microfiber hair towel which is way lighter for your head than a regular bath towel, better for your hair, easy to travel with AND will actually take out alot of the moisture so that you can go straight to blow drying - or slick it into a pony - as I tend to do most of the summer.

Anywhoo - here is a quicklink to some of my hand-picked future purchases from DermaDoc - hook it up!!

Technorati Tags anti-aging, Coupon Codes, Dermadoctor, Home Spa, mua, Product-Reviews, skincare, Spa-reView

I finally had a saturday free of mom-duty…so off I went to Spa Sanctuary in Granada Hills I had meaning to visit this particular place for over a year, or rather, ever since I was getting their snail-mail spam. And I am SO glad I went! It sits on the corner of a grocery store market with super easy parking and a nice little get away right in the valley. There’s a salon which takes up half of the space, and the spa area is actually behind closed doors so it truly is quiet.

Although getting a facial is probably my least favorite spa experience, I DO realize that it probably is one of the more important ones, especially as I get (just a little bit) older. My esthetician was cute and bubbly and did a fabulous job …and without any product pushing or pressure buying like the chick at Burke Williams put me through…so yea. Spa Sanctuary kicks ass.

Oh yea, and did I mention that they have a small boutique adjacent to the reception area selling “Designer Inspired” handbags…? Funny!

Check them out in the Valley woot woot!

Spa Sanctuary
18000 Chatsworth Street
Granada Hills, CA 91344

Technorati Tags AromaTherapy, Directory, granada-hills-spa, Spa Treatments, Spa-reView, spa-sanctuary-granada-hills, SpaLinks

ok so last week I went in for my measurements & my third session of 8 with Dr. Marks and omg I recorded an 8.25 inch loss in my mid-section. I have lost almost a whole pants size and am feeling so good & curvy - almost like I was 25 again…almost. Session 3 wasn’t even as painful as the 2nd session, however I did scale my appointments back from every 2 weeks to every 3 weeks so that I could have an extra week of recovery in there. The bruising was worse on session 3, but the swelling was the most minimal too - as it was the least painful of the 3 thusfar.

No one has really said anything so far, but I totally don’t care - my pants are falling off and I feel fabulous! Session 4 is next week and I will post the results from this past 3rd session next week too. By the way - Dr. Marks is now online!!! Tell him Sylvia sent you from Spa-view.com!

Technorati Tags Dr.-Marks, injectables, lipo, Medi-Spa, meso, Spa-reView, VVMConline.com

OMG I totally HAD to have the BE night treatment Rare Minerals after I went bananas with the mineral makeup phase…and it was just so chic that I was confident that it just couldn’t be disappointing…but…well, let me just recap what actually happened and let you make up your own mind as to if you want to use it or not. First of all, it comes with a signature built-in ‘puff’ that is supposed to make application super easy.

I eagerly opened it up my first night and puffed it onto my face. It was kind of weird to feel a powder on my face because to be honest, I am usually slathered in anti-wrinkle moisture goo every night that not feeling layers of stuff on my face was a bit odd. So i kept it up. Day 3 brought major dryness. I also thought that the puff thing was a bit clogged because it wasn’t really feeling like any product was getting onto my skin. After digging around with the applicator puff thing, I basically got frustrated and just picked it off. My 3 day old package was now officially ugly. Plus it had hella buildup that I can only describe as product-plaque on it and so yes, it was time to get rid of it.

Day 4 came along, and as I opened up the cannister, apparantly the puff makes the package obvious as to which lid you lift, and I opened the wrong one - causing the powder to spill all over my clean white sheets. Now I was down to 2/3 of the product. I still was feeling overly dry, and didn’t really feel like anything positive was coming out of this whole experience. I read the directions again and saw that if you need to moisturize before applying the rare minerals, you can do so - but then it was beginning to feel like I was applying makeup at night to go to sleep, and well that is just gross. Day 5 brought along another spill and by day 6 I was swapping it out on MakeUpAlley.com I’m totally admitting that I didn’t give Rare Minerals it’s full run, but as with the regular Bare Escentuals product line, this is just too MESSY to be a fabulous beauty product. Sorry to say that when it gets swapped, it simply doesn’t make the cut.

If you still MUST try Bare Escentual’s stuff, you can get it at Macy’s of course!

Technorati Tags apparantly, applying_makeup, bare-escentuals, bare_escentuals, cannister, goo, Home Spa, macys, Make Up, makeupalley, mineral_makeup, omg, Product-Reviews, product_line, puff, rare-minerals, rare_minerals, skincare, spill

Just an FYI for any of you looking for super great massage therapist referrals in the Camarillo area: Massage Envy has the best deals & the best therapists there are Gianna and Albert. These are two people whom I am SO glad are in my life!!!

Technorati Tags Directory, Faves, Massage, Spa-reView

ok the day has finally come. I am 36.5 years on this earth, and have finally officially retired the cleavage shirt. Why you ask? Well, because I have crows feet on my cleavage that I recently realized thanks to the influx of everydamnbody having a digital camera on hand at ALL times and well, they just don’t lie. This has been a hot-ticket issue with me for the last month or so, and while my attempts of blending it with dustings of Bare Escentuals minerals, Lancome lifting regeriste & H20 seaweed mineral masks, nothing is really helping.

But wait!!! Last night during an ambien induced commercial viewing session while drifting off to sleep, I remember hearing a commercial for Olay that is a BODY serum. And well, Oprah says that serums are a must, and that was for the face, so the body serum MUST be the cure-all for cleavage crows feet.

I found it at the local CVS pharmacy for 8.99 in the skincare/lotion aisle for a pretty large size. Today marks day 1. If in 2 months, I start to see my cleavage not so crows-feet ish, I may have to celebrate by wearing a hoochie-boobie shirt to the grocery store or something wild like that. Ok well maybe not, but still…Stay Tuned!!!

Technorati Tags drugstore-gems, Everything-Else, Home Spa, olay, Product-Reviews

Ok. I think I have waited almost a year for this review, and in the search for the perfect pedicure, I have mixed feelings about Spa Escape Nordstrom. On a high note, I was able to mix a pedi, a super good lunch, some shopping, some boutique visiting and free parking - so thusfar it seems like a good situation. Here is the breakdown:

Raw Earth Spa Pedicure (60 minutes) $65 (not including 20% gratuity)
A collection of earth-derived pedicure products filled with natural ingredients rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and essential oils to moisturize, soothe and polish the skin.

The real deal: the pedicurist was super sweet, the spa itself reminded me of some swanky bar one might visit on the west side of Hollywood, and very sanitary and clean utilities & products, i.e. the basin was actually a stainless steel kitchen sink (I kid you not) which was built into the lower part of the club-arranged seating, a really nice exfoliator & individually wrapped parafin treatments (the wax is melted into individualized disposable plastic foot-sock thingies) and an ok massage. Here is where it gets pretty out of control - I left there paying a clean $80 for what I would overall describe as an average pedicure. I mean I guess it was ok, but between me you and a thousand or so clicks, I would have been probably much more happy going to a neighborhood nailshop and getting a $15 pedi and even added a ‘flower’ to celebrate the discounted pricing.

Technorati Tags Directory, feet, nordstrom, Spa Treatments, Spa-reView

Ok so this visit to the Woodland Hill’s Nordstrom Anastasia Boutique saved my eyebrows!! A few weeks ago, I had purchased the big whoop-di-do stencils from Anastasia Beverly Hills and actually butchered my eyebrows to infinity. I figured that since the Anastasia stencils led me to this massacre, it was only right to go right back to the source to try to salvage my 1.5 brow that I now had. And omg she did! I now am the proud owner of two FABULOUS perfect Kim Kardashian-esque eyebrows, even tho O says that they look like Frida Khalo’s because he is used to seeing me with uber-thin brows methinks. I am going to take before and after pics to share the glory. Thanks SO much to Carly at the Anastasia Boutique at Nordstroms’ for being my salvation. I do suggest that if any of you attempt to ‘do’ your brows with the DIY method - totally book an appointment at either the actual spa, or your local boutique (nordstroms) and fork out the $25 bucks for the actual shaping, grooming, wax, application & tutorial with one of these skilled ladies before you end up with 1.5 brow like I did. word up.

Technorati Tags brows, Directory, DIY, Everything-Hair, Home Spa, Spa-reView, waxing

Writers are amazing. Salespeople are amazing. Staci and I spent a good 20 minutes at Nordy’s getting our skincare analyzed by the Elemis rep and had the suggested items she focused on had an estimated cost of $400, I might have actually bought something that day. But alas, everything she had said resognated with me and so I went on an ebay quest in search of more affordable Elemis products (probably stolen & being sold in sample vials by hotel, spa or cosmetic counter reps, but thats just an opinion of course) and so I scored “Elemis Exotic Island Flower Body Balm ” which runs for approximately $46 USD at TimeToSpa.com with the following description:

“Indulge yourself with this silky body balm as pure extracts of moisturising Pot Marigold and soothing St. Johns Wort envelop and soften the skin, whilst the Oat milk base restructures and nourishes.” Ahem. But of course, what REALLY happened was as soon as I opened the bottle, an overwhelming perfumary of florals and church-lady smells ran wild in my bathroom. G-R-O-S-S!!! Seriously - this stuff smells pretty heavy and floral, which I am finding that I really, really, really don’t like. For sure, I am glad I didn’t shell out $46, and am even sad that I spent $6 including shipping for the sample size. blah twice from sylG.

Technorati Tags AromaTherapy, body-lotion, elemis_products, Fragrance, Home Spa, Product-Reviews, skincare

Ok so I went in for my second treatment of meso with Dr. Marks - and got round 2. This time I was prepared for the pain, but it never really came…until a week later. Check it out: So I go to the appointment, and get measured. I lost a total of 3 inches. Then I got shot approx 8 more times, this time on my outer adominals. It was a strange sensation because it tickled at first and then pinched, way strange sensation. My last trip had me overwhelmed with pain on the drive home, but this time I wasn’t in pain or even showed any signs of swelling the next day either. About a week and a half later while I was shopping, I got an overwhelming pain wave that I knew for sure was the mesotherapy, so I had to cut my trip home and just lay down for a few hours. But all in all, round 2 was totally not as bad as round 1. My next appointment is tuesday. I’m excited!

Technorati Tags Dr.-Marks, lipo, Medi-Spa, meso, Spa Treatments, Spa-reView, VVMConline.com

I totally forgot to blog about my chemical peel comparisons. My last 2 facials at Porter Ranch’s Nail Forum consisted of 6 week spread apart appointments of

1. Lactic Acid chem. peel - in which the discomfort was super mild, almost more of an itch factor, and my skin looked like it was glowing. Lynn, my esthetician of choice, recommended that I take baby steps in my quest for a full-on chemical peel, and so I made my next appointment for a more mild phase

2. glycolic peel. Which was justthismuch more uncomfortable - but afterwards, my face has not been glowy, and actually, I can see more hyperpigmentation (read: sunspots) and so I am lagging on making any more chemical peel appointments. I dunno…I am way scared to end up looking burned or with worse liverspots (as my mom likes to point out I got from teenage sunworshipping practices). More later.

Technorati Tags facial, glycolic, lactic-acid-facial, skincare, Spa Treatments, Spa-reView, vitamin-C

Ok I totally was a sucker for this perfume…who wouldn’t be? A super cute name, an even cuter bottle and a descriptiion that reads: “an enchanting and alluring fragrance that gently balances the sweetness of ivy leaves and aniseed with delicate violet and iris root, and finishes with a smooth hint of vanilla and musk. This sensual fragrance is pure, light, and endearing.”
what they don’t tell you is that it really smells just like diapers! Blah. I’m out $80 bucks ordering from Sephora.com without proper investigation.

Technorati Tags alluring, aniseed, AromaTherapy, bucks, cute_name, delicate, Fragrance, iris, L, leaves, Lolita-Lempicka, musk, perfume, Product-Reviews, sweetness, vanilla, violet