Philosophy The Great Mystery One-Minute Daily Facial Review and Photos

I love Winners. I rarely look through their clothes anymore, instead heading straight for their beauty section. I've found lots and lots of goodies from Benefit to Bumble & Bumble to Dior to Butter London. I often find Philosophy products - haircare, their 3-in-1s and skincare. 

I used to work at a store that sold Philosophy products before any Sephora stores opened in Toronto, so we were the only ones who carried the line. Philosophy products were definitely our top sellers. I was able to try quite a few of the products. I was always impressed by their skincare products.

I picked up this tube of Philosophy's The Great Mystery on a recent trip to Winners. It's a one-minute daily facial. 

So basically it gives you a mild facial after only one minute and it's mild enough to use on a daily basis. What you do is apply a dollop to your fingers and massage it into your skin, after cleansing, avoiding the eyes, nostrils and lips. The instructions say to massage until it turns white, but the product starts turning white without any massaging. It's definitely safe to have on your skin for more than a minute or two (you leave it on for 60 seconds after it goes all white). It warms up a bit on your skin and though it says it is exfoliating, it's not gritty. It's a smooth, thick gel and easy to massage into your skin. Rinsing takes a bit of effort since it's so thick and you need to use your hands to massage it off your skin. 

Afterwards, my skin feels warm, smooth, clean and hydrated. It's bright pink, but in a healthy way, not in an irritated way. Moisturizer applied after is absorbed readily. My skin feels fantastic.

One thing of note about Philosophy is that they're rather proudly un-natural. Where many or even most brand these days tout the latest natural skin benefitting ingredients, Philosophy does not. They're more about how the product works then what the ingredients are and kudos to them for that. 

The Great Escape is unscented and retails for about $30 CDN (I paid about $20 at Winners). It's 5 oz.

Grade: A

Kiehl's Photo-Age Deep-Action Exfoliating Cleanser Review

Kiehl's Photo-Age Corrector Deep-Action Exfoliating Cleanser is designed to break apart surface discolouration and stimulate cells to restore fresh, even-toned skin. It's a creamy, gentle exfoliator designed to reduce the look of discolouration in the skin and to refresh the skin's surface. 

A friend of mine bought a tube and offered it to me to try, so I did. I'm not yet at the point where my skin is showing much in the way of aging so I can't verify for the ability of this to reduce discolouration, but it does do an excellent job of deeply cleaning and exfoliating your skin. My face felt incredible afterwards.

At $22 CDN and roughly $30 CDN, it's on the pricier side when it comes to skin cleansers but if you use this every few days or even once a week as a deep-cleaning exfoliator, it'd make the price more reasonable. You don't need a lot of product either, it increases in volume when you add water.

I would definitely buy this for myself. 

C.

How to Survive the Winter

I live in a very dry, cold climate and although I have combination skin, I find myself having to make some tweeks to my usual skin care ritual to combat the drying effects of winter (which lasts about 5 months where I live!). Here are my top tips to help you stay chap free during the long winter months.

1. Start your day with a gentle or creamy cleanser.

By not over stripping your skin, you give yourself a better chance of staying moisturized throughout the day. My top choice is Cetaphil Gentle Cleansing Bar ($5.99 CA), which will give you the clean lather you crave without drying your skin.

2. Apply hand moisturizer after every time you wash your hands and before you go to sleep.

My hands probably suffer more than most. As I am an artist, and always getting my hands covered in inks and chemicals, I'm forced to wash my hands way too often. Cold temperatures and winter winds make this situation even worse. The only way to keep your fingertips from splitting (a problem for me) and your hands from getting too lizard-like is to always apply moisturizer after you wash. If you wash your hands excessively, save the really good hand cream for just before bed and use something less expensive in between. My top choices for hand moisturizers are Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector ($18.50 CA) and Korres Body Butter ($38.00 CA).

3. Apply lipbalm before bed and before you leave the house.

For whatever evolutionary reason, our lips are not equipped with oil glands. On one hand I can see the benefits of this (no oil glands means no potential acne) but come winter and I start to wonder the purpose of this adaptation. That being said, keep your pucker soft and smooth by applying lipbalm religiously. It's expensive but it's very nice, my choice Caudelie Lip Conditioner ($12.00 CA). And right now Sephora has a great deal, a two pack of Lip Conditioners for $16.00 CA!

4. Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate.

Any of the above actions will be rendered useless if they are performed on top of a layer of dead, dry, flaky skin. My favourite, effective and gentle way to exfoliate is using a microfibre washcloth. Use once a day or a few times a week on cleansed skin will improve skin texture as well as increase moisturizer penetration. These cloths are especially good for exfoliating chapped lips and with some scrubbing do a decent job on hands. Care to not over use them on your face is essential, as it is possible to over scrub. Try Cargo blu-ray Polishing Cloths ($15.00 CA).

5. Invest in a humidifier.

If you live in a very cold, dry climate running a humdifier at night can make a huge difference to the moisture levels in your skin not to mention improve the health of your sinuses! Humidity must be at least 40 % to see an improvement for both. Look for a humdifier that will effectively humidify your living space.


From us at Beauty Squared, a special thanks to all our readers and subscribers! We hope your holidays are relaxing and fun and we look forward to seeing you here in 2011!

P.S: Boxing Day shopping? Check out Sephora, apparently they are having a sale with certain items up to 50% off!

TVAL Resurface Facial Scrub Review

I'm a sucker for exfoliators and my skin loves me for my addiction. Right now I'm in love with TVAL's Resurface scrub.

I picked this up at their Queen Street West store in Toronto (now closed, sadly) and it's sitting in my shower where I use it almost every morning. My skin is on the oily side, with large pores and a propensity to flakiness on my cheeks. Especially now when the temperature is dropping and the air is drier, I'm noticing flakiness so it's time to up the moisturizer and exfoliation!

Resurface is a very fine exfoliator and is ideal for most skin types due to the small size of the exfoliating agent (TVAL calls them "natural micro crystals"). Since they are so small, they are unlikely to do any damage to your skin (unless you scrub very hard) and because of their size they're quite effective at smoothing your skin to baby's bottom softness.

It's $14 CDN for 60 mL/2 oz and is available on the TVAL website as well as at Sears. Check the TVAL website for store locations.

Here's the product description:

This light and fluffy scrub contains natural micro crystals that will gently but oh so efficiently smooth away dead skin cells and leave your skin silky smooth and positively glowing!

To use: Scoop out a quarter size dollop and smooth out over damp skin. Softly and gently polish your skin to smooth away dead skin cells, debris and irregularities. The key word here is gentle, the scrub is more effective than you might think since the crystals are so small. If the scrub starts to feel dry, dampen your fingertips and keep polishing. Follow up with your serum or moisturizer. 

Resurface

The texture of Resurface is slightly on the dry side so make sure your skin is damp when you use it. 

The scent is lemony and pleasant, not overwhelming at all. This is an extremely effective scrub that smooths your skin gently. The small particles allow you to be gentle, you'd really have to press hard to do any damage to your skin. It's really a no-brainer scrub. It's possible to do too much as I find if I leave Resurface on too long, my skin starts to tingle a bit and feel dry, so it's not meant to be a mask. Scrub and rinse!

This scrub might be a touch too intense for sensitive skintypes, but it'd work well for normal, dry and oily skin.

Love, love, love!

C.

Olay Professional Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser

Sent to us for review is a new product from Olay - the Olay Professional Pro-X Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser. (See our review of the Olay Professional Pro-X Restorative Cream Cleanser here.) The Pro-X Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser has a lathering microbead formula that gently exfoliates and removes dirt and make-up. It's meant to be used 2-3 times a week for optimal results but is gentle enough to be used every day if your skin needs it. The Olay Professional Pro-X Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser comes in a 177 mL size and costs $28.99.

For the purpose of this review, we each used the Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser for a week.

We will again be using our 5 point scale to rate and review this product.  To read a full description of the scale, please visit this post: http://beautysquared.blogspot.com/2009/11/beauty-squared-review-scale.html  

C's Skin: 

I have combination skin that's oily in the T-zone (forehead, nose and chin). When I tried this cleanser it was winter and moderately cold (approximately -15 C). I wear full make-up most days and like a cleanser to wash off all my make-up including my eye make-up. 

J's Skin:

I have combination skin - an oily t-zone and dry cheeks. My skin is not sensitive but is fairly thin. I live in a very dry climate and so my skin tends to get dehydrated and flaky in the winter. I am not prone to breakouts.

C's Review:

Value: 3

This cleanser is pricier than I would normally spend on a cleanser, especially from a drugstore brand and especially for a cleanser that's best used a few times a week. If I was using this every day, the price would be more reasonable.

Application: 5

Despite the face this is an exfoliating cleanser this is not an abrasive cleanser. It is very slightly gritty but very gentle. The scent is mild and pleasant and the lather is creamy but not uncontrollable. 

Effectiveness: 4

Like Jill, I found this to be more drying than the ProX Restorative Cream Cleanser but not at all overly drying. I could use this cleanser in the summer when my skin is oilier and needs more exfoliation. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the Restorative Cream Cleanser so perhaps it would be slightly less drying not used every day. 

J's Review: 

Value: 3.5

Seems pretty expensive to me for a drugstore cleanser.

Application: 4

Lathers up quite nicely and has a pleasant scent. Rinses off fairly easily and though it leaves my skin a little tight, is not overly drying.

Effectiveness:  4

I am giving this a lower rating than its sister product the ProX Cream Cleanser not because it cleanses less effectively, but beacuse I don't find exfoliating cleansers very effective at exfoliating. In general I believe exfoliating cleansers are not very effective because people do not spend enough time working the product into the skin. That being said, this product cleanses quite thoroughly.

C & J

Please note that the following product up for review was sent to us by a PR firm. All the opinions expressed in this review have been made independently and are not in any way affiliated with the company supplying the products or the PR firm we are in touch with.