Ok so I won’t bore you with the fragrance details of this blend - here is a good link if you’d like to know all the details, BUT what I will tell you is that this fragrance is very blatant. I wore it today for the first day, and to get a true test drive of a fragrance I usually wear it for a week straight to pay close attention to how it develops, especially on me, because I have a tendency of making lovely things smell odd.

Here is my quick review: It’s definitely not “young” or “light”… I would moreso say it’s along the lines of ‘complex’ ‘vintage’ and ‘moody’. It kind of has an old school vintage incense kind of smell too…you know, the kind that you burn when your trying to disguise that joint you just finished smoking. I’ll keep an updated posting during the week as I wear it again. Oh! And if you’d like to swap a decant or two for this or some of my other favorite fragrances, hit me up on MakeUpAlley.com

Technorati Tags christian-dior-midnight-poison-perfume-review, Fragrance, poison-perfume

As a house warming gift, I got an Archipeligo home diffuser which has actually lasted me over a year. I was so pleased with the look, the reed diffuser mellow scent for my living room and the long lasting size…but whoa I was not ready for the $60 price tag. Good gift, but definitely not something I would buy for myself LOL! After cruising the net for some home fragrance alternatives for the holiday season, I ran across this page and found this recipe:

Sugar and Spice Blend

The aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and orange blend to make a sweet, spicy aroma perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The below directions are for creating a diffuser blend, but it is also lovely to use with potpourri. It is also a wonderful blend to use for the Scented Greeting Card & Tissue Paper recipe.

Ingredients:

• 10 drops Orange
• 5 drops Ginger
• 8 drops Cinnamon
• 1 drop Nutmeg

Technorati Tags AromaTherapy, Home Spa

For those of you who can’t watch it (like me) here is a quicklink to the official list - Let’s get it started ya’ll!

Technorati Tags Everything-Else, Oprah, Product-Reviews

I just got my first deep tissue massage - and I’m not really sure what to think. During the actual massage, it was soooo euphoric and relaxing and almost exhausting. It was probably the most effective massage experience I’ve ever had because it forced me to relax my muscles and focus on my breathing, but now, approximately 6 hours later, I feel like I have been hit by a truck. I’m sooooo achy and tired, and I just want to pack it up and lounge in bed for the first time at 10 pm in years.

Ouch.

Technorati Tags deep-tissue-massage, Massage

Ohh the tresses of life. I am a newly convert to the face serum, but I must tell you that I have been a follower and avid believer of the hair serum since the mid 90’s. Back then, the holy grail of product was Farrouk’s BioSilk, which regardless if my light bill was paid or not, I had at least 2 oz., a barrel brush and a blow dryer on hand. It wasn’t until I met Georgi B that I switched from Biosilk to Chi Silk Infusion - of which I bought a huge 12 oz bottle and only need a pea size amount before a blow out, hot rollers or flat iron. It totally kicks ass.  I wear hair extensions and with the use of this stuff, I only have to replace the wefts every couple of years (I swear!).

Recently, Chastity suggested some Fekkai product (the apple cider clarifying shampoo which was fabulous) so I decided to try the Glossing creme too. I think I wrote a review of it saying it was a bit too heavy and oily for my hair type.  Recently I tried out some of the Garnier serum, Frizzease, Marc Anthony and St. Ives and blah, it was pure garbage.

Chi Silk Infusion is the business. Word up.

Technorati Tags chi, Everything-Hair, fekkai, hair-extensions, hair-gloss, hair-serum, Product-Reviews

this post doesn’t have any photos because basically my face is swollen like the michelin man. but it wasn’t as painful this time, maybe because I took a couple of advils before I went in to Dr Marks to get my mesotherapy on my face/neck/chin. If you remember from my first fat face before and after pics, there was not much of a difference, and the good Dr. Marks says that you really won’t see any difference until the completion of session 4, so I booked session 3 for the first week of december and am hoping to be in to get the last session before Xmas, but we will see. The holidays always seem to be very inconsiderate on my schedule needs. As soon as the swelling goes down from my fat face I will post pics.

Technorati Tags Dr.-Marks, fat-face, Medi-Spa, mesotherapy-for-double-chins

Perez posted a blog on his site saying that Britney went alllll the way to Las Vegas to get some LipoDissolve done -

“This is not the first time Brit Brit has visited the LipoDissolve Center. She was caught there in April for PCDC treatments - injections of a soybean derivative into the body’s fatty areas. The procedure is said to dissolve fat cells in a matter of weeks.”

source: PerezHilton.com

I wonder if she read the reviews at RealSelf.com? With a 59% of the reviewers saying it doesn’t work and is super expensive, why not go the MesoTherapy route? It works and is way way cheaper and not as painful. I dunno… just an opinion.

Technorati Tags injectables, lipodissolve, liposuction, Medi-Spa, mesotherapy

omg, so as promised, I set out to do some research on the malibuwellness.com salesperson’s statement that sunscreen is actually toxic for your skin, and check out what I found:

“The idea that sunscreen prevents cancer is a myth. It’s a myth promoted by a profit-seeking tag-team effort between the cancer industry and the sunscreen industry. The sunscreen industry makes money by selling lotion products that actually contain cancer-causing chemicals. It then donates a portion of that money to the cancer industry through non-profit groups like the American Cancer Society which, in turn, run heart-breaking public service ads urging people to use sunscreen to “prevent cancer.”

“The benefits of sunscreen are a myth. Proponents say sunscreen prevents sunburn, but in fact, the real cause of sunburn is not merely UV exposure: It is a lack of antioxidant nutrition. Start eating lots of berries and microalgae (spirulina, astaxanthin, blue-green algae, etc.), and you’ll build up an internal sunscreen that will protect your skin from sunburn from the inside out. ”

Click here to read the rest of this particular article.

It won’t be the first time that dangerous and toxic procedures were mass produced and readily available for the public’s consumption…(i.e. phen phen, cocaine in coca cola, the junk food epidemic, the lobotomy, norplant, vioxx, the list goes on) but like Oprah says, “people who know better, do better”.

Wow, I am SO glad that I was at the same place at the same time with the saleschick. I am going to go toss all my sunscreen away.

Additional linkage of sunscreen’s toxic disaster:
toss your sunscreen!
sunscreen chemicals cause colon cancer
sunscreen health disaster
sunscreen causes cancer
sunscreen is dangerous
sunscreen is more harmful than good
BBC - Sunscreen may be Toxic

Technorati Tags anti-aging, beauty-myths, Product-Reviews, SpaBlog, sunburn, sunscreen, sunscreen-is-toxic, superfoods, Tanning

I absolutely love botox. Dr Marks in Canoga Park does mine, and I only have to get it every 9-10 months or so. He has fabulous bedside manner and is a great shooter, with perfect results every time. pain is minimal and the only precaution really is to not put any makeup or use any type of lotions for up to a day after.

It takes me around 7 days to see the results but boy oh boy is it worth it!!

Dr. Marks is at the Valley View Cosmetic Center in Canoga Park, CA - he is soooo good!

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

“Kanye West, his family and friends would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and kind words that have come in from across the country since the death of his mother, Dr. Donda West.

After working in higher education for 31 years, Dr. Donda West and Kanye West co-founded the Kanye West Foundation with the mission of helping to combat the severe dropout problem in high schools across the country. The first and signature initiative of the Kanye West Foundation is Loop Dreams. Designed to capitalize on students existing interest in hip-hop, Loop Dreams challenges students to learn more about what’s behind hip-hop culture in order to help them develop skills, express themselves creatively and be empowered.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Dr. West’s name to the Kanye West Foundation/Loop Dreams Teacher Training Institute. Those donations can be made by visiting the Foundation’s Web site, www.KanyeWestFoundation.org or by mail at Kanye West Foundation, 8560 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069. ”

Technorati Tags Everything-Else, kanye-west, plastic-surgery-gone-wrong

I just found this site called Realself.com that has a bunch of the latest and greatest cosmetic procedures with reviews, commentaries and specialists to answer user questions & inquiries…sounds informative!

Technorati Tags botox, cosmetic-surgery, enhancements, fillers, Medi-Spa, mesotherapy, plastic-surgery

ok so apparantly I was under the impression that LipoDissolve, Mesotherapy and LipoZap and Fig were all the same procedure but with different branding, and even though they all are injected in the attempt to dissolve fat cells, apparently they differ alot. The official treatment name that I get from Dr. Marks is “mesotherapy’ which are done 3-4 weeks apart and don’t penetrate that deep, hence the minimal bruising and what not. I’m doing more research so I will keep you posted with what I find.

Technorati Tags Medi-Spa

Interesting indeed!!! Today while I was getting my fabulous hair extension by Georgio B, a representative from malibuwellness.com came in and was giving a sales pitch, and a couple of things really caught my attention. One of the things that she stated was that too much sunscreen is actually not good for the skin! My immediate response was to think “Ok so every dermatologist, esthetician and doctor is wrong…not to mention Oprah Magazine?? Yea right.”

but then I remembered that one of my best friends has an allergy to sunscreen so I decided to give her a call. She mentioned that she had seen some alternative mineral based zinc sunscreen that has no added chemicals but that it was pretty pricey as opposed to the fake synthetic stuff that you can get for under 8 bucks from Walmart.

Here are a few other things that I found interesting from the sales pitch:

1. too much sunscreen contains tons of chemicals that actually are more harmful to your skin than helpful in preventing sun damage. SPF 15 is the most that you should ever put on your face.

2. Vitamin C is a natural sun protectant

3. When you get a chemical peel to remove all the wear and tear of environmental wear on your face, your brand new skin is actually totally susceptible to new and worse damage from the environment because now it has no protection against the elements. When you put product on your face after a peel and it burns, it is because your skin is desperately attempting to re-balance the ph level that it does not have because you had it removed.

4. Vitamin E is really all you need to fight fine lines and wrinkles

5. Any product that comes in a jar and that you have to dip your finger into contaminates the product, as well as lets oxygen in which decreases its effectiveness every time you touch/open the jar. (umm gross dude).

Anyway, those are what I remember right off the bat, Georgi actually placed and order for some stuff so I’m going to wait to see what his results are with the product, and of course, I’ve got to get some investigation going on to see how valid her points are…this changes everything if it is indeed the truth!

Technorati Tags anti-aging-skincare, beauty sleep, malibu-wellness, Spa-reView, sun-damage, sunscreen

L by L.A.M.B...aka Gwen Stefani is totally reflective of my perception of Miss Gwennie herself…totally throwback and 80’s fab.

At first spray, it instantly reminded me of YSL’s Paris with strong notes of sweetpea and orange blossoms. It’s bright and fresh and uber-floral which totally makes it not for me.

Now Smell This has a really good in depth review of the fragrance note breakdown if you want more.

As a graphic designer I absolutely love the packaging, the retro throwback bling feel to the bottle and the gradient on the glass - very Gwen Couture! You can score L at your local Nordstrom or order it online at eLuxury.com and get a free cd/gift. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags AromaTherapy, Celebrity-perfume, eluxury.com, Fragrance, Gwen-Stefani, L-by-L.A.M.B., nordstrom, perfume, Product-Reviews

totally off subject of spa-beauty-wellness (well kind of wellness-ish) is a very cool site called VotoLatino.org - be sure to check it out!

Technorati Tags Everything-Else