Sightings: New Rimmel Products

Last week, I did my regular walk through CVS and found some new (to me, anyway) Rimmel goodies. 

There's a new Rimmel foundation on the shelves, Rimmel Clean Finish. It was only $4.99. That's really cheap! Not sure how it performs though. 

I think it retails $7.79

 Now we know why Sexy Curves mascaras were all on sale during the last CVS clearance. The newest addition to the Sexy Curves family is Sexy Curves Full Body Mascara. Looks like the new one is all about upping the volume. I haven't had the best luck with Rimmel mascara, so I'll be watching for other people's reviews first

I haven't kept up with sightings as much. Even though I do see new products, take pictures, I'm a lazy mofo when it comes to uploading. :P Let me know if I should keep this up!

Would you like to see more Sightings?

Did any of these products pique your interest? Your thoughts!

DIY Natural Whitening Cleanser/Mask

I'm cheap so I love hunting for bargains. But if there's one thing I love more than shopping around, it's making my own stuff! Many months ago, I saw a post on Kalmo's blog raving over Kuan Yuan Lian's Bean Cleanser. It's a dry cleanser that you add water to to use. You can use it to cleanse the face or leave on the face untl dry as a mask.

Photo courtesy of Sasa.com

Part of me really really wanted to just buy it, since it was so cheap. But my conscience chided me for having a small bag of beans shipped the ocean for me. It looked easy enough to make: Job's tears, green beans, pearl powder.

Here's my version:

Yes, it's an old spaghetti sauce jar. No worries, the contents within are just as edible as its predecessor!

You'll need:
Job's tears powder
Green bean powder

I know some people will have trouble finding these ingredients. You usually can find these powders at a Chinese/Asian grocery like Ranch 99.

I took some photos at Ranch 99, so you have a good idea of what to look for.

Make sure to get the pure form of the powders. Sometimes green bean powder comes mixed with sugar, because it's sold as a drink or cereal mix. Check the ingredients!

And note that companies sometimes call Job's tears "pearl barley" or "coix seed" or "adlay". As English translation can differ from brand to brand, here's the Chinese for the ingredients.

Name	Traditional Chinese	Simplified Chinese
Green Bean Powder	綠豆粉	绿豆粉
Job’s Tears Powder	薏仁粉	薏仁粉

Lol, the simplified and tradtional don't differ too much here. You can scan the shelves for the words above or show these words to a kindly shop person to help you!

Directions:

1. Mix the two powders together.
2. That's it.
3. Seriously.

The fun part comes in figuring out the proportion of Job's tears:green bean that works for you. Green bean powder is good for acne and Job's tears is for whitening (ever read the ingredients in Japanese whitening skincare? it's usually there!). You can start off with half and half of each and go from there. If you want whitening, you can add more Job's tears. I've noticed Job's tears can be slightly irritating, so you might end up with less Job's tears than you'd like.

Kuan Yuan Lian's cleanser also included pearl powder. I had some pearl powder on hand, so I've tried the cleanser with pearl powder. But I honestly feel that it does nothing to whiten, so I've omitted it here.

How to use:

1. Add a few teaspoons to a shallow cup.



It's an old laundry detergent cup. I like repurposing!

2. Add water until the mixture is a runny paste like salad dressing. Mix out the lumps with your finger.



Should look like this. Like bird poop. Jeez, I'm not telling you to eat it! But you can if you want. :)

3. Apply to face, avoiding eyes. If you want to use it as a straight-up cleanser, gently exfoliate with bean particles and rinse.
4. Let dry until hardened if you want to use it as a mask, around 10-15 minutes. Rinse off. It may be a bit difficult removing the mask, since it gets stuck on good! Best for use before you shower, so you can hose it off then.

Heads-up

• As Kalmo has mentioned before, it might be slightly irritating the first time you use it. It feels prickly as it dries on my face and my face is slightly red after first use. But over time, your skin will be desensitized.
• It's kinda annoying to clean up the bean residue left over in the sink and shower. But a good spray of water should do the trick.

I hope this doesn't scare y'all off from trying this, because it really is an awesome cleanser/mask. It gets my face squeaky clean without overstripping the oil on my face and dries up my zits. It's also pretty good at whitening. Best part is that it's travel friendly: 2-in-1 mask/cleanser that's liquid free! Just pack some in a camera film container (if those still exist) and you're good to go! 

Have you tried the Kuan Yuan Lian cleanser? Want to try this? Your thoughts!

My Love Letter to Grocery Outlet

To my dearest Grocery Outlet,

As evidenced by my latest haul, I have quite the relationship with you. Shh, don't tell my partner! I'm sure some people might be skeeved out by the idea of you (would you ever buy food at an "outlet"?) They might call you names like "Gross Out" (because bullies are sooo clever). But I get you, I really do.

I even get your silly commercials that might garner the attention of the lawyers of Jim Henson's estate.

 I know that you have tons of makeup goodies, tacitly reserved for those who can look past your "skeeviness."

Kiss My Face Shave Cream

L-R: Beverly Hills Skincare (picked up some for my mom!), L'oreal Collagen and Skin Genesis

L-R: Neutrogena scrub, Tree Hut body wash and body splash

Some Revlon lippies, Almay foundation, Physicians Formula makeup

L-R: Revlon mascara, Maybelline, Almay eyeshadows

L-R: Clean & Clear eye makeup remover (bi-faciltype) and cleanser, Clearasil cleanser, night treatment, and serum

L-R: ELF Mineral, Almay mascara, Revlon mascaras

Freeman cleanser, moisturizer, masks!

Garnier Nutrioniste cleanser, treatments, scrub

More Tree Hut body washes

And some reason, Grocery Outlet, you double as a storefront for ELF cosmetics, not that I'm complaining!

But my absolutely favorite aspect about you is that you're adventurous. You introduce me to products I would never get to try otherwise. With awesome prices, I'm not afraid to try!

Here's a beloved brand that I owe you for introducing us!

Petal Fresh Whitening range with cleanser, toner, moisturizer and mask! Petal Fresh is an American brand, so I don't feel guilty trying, since it doesn't have to ship from another country. :)

Some products that intrigue me, but haven't tried.

Creams from an unknown brand and Nivea scrub

And don't just think I'm after your beauty products, you're so much more than that! I'll actually buy your food (though I'll check your expiration dates meticulously). I can always count on a cheap fiber bar from you and a chuckle looking at the products that were obviously bad marketing ideas. And ice cream: ZOMG. You know me so well that you know I'd eat discontinued flavors like Haagen-Daz's Sticky Toffee Pudding (in case you're wondering, yes I bought backups. ;) ) and out of season flavors like Girl Scouts' Samoas (are we still allowed to call them that?).

And I treasure your quirks, like your inexplicably Japanese Spam.

I made delicious musubi out of you.

What I'm trying to say in so many words is that I love you and I want you to be mine. Let's take the next step and move in together. I'll sleep by the freezer on hot nights (I'll guard the ice cream).

Yours, 
Angelica

Review: CVS Cold Cream Deep Cleanser

When it comes to beauty reviews, controversy abounds over the issue of comedogenicity (ingredients that cause clogged pores) and acnegenicity (ingredients that exacerbate existing acne).

Mineral oil and other petrolatum-based products have a notorious reputation for clogging pores. I've read reviews that sounded so terrible that I've long put mineral oil and petrolatum on my no-no list.

However, a 2005 lit review article in Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology titled "Is mineral oil comedogenic?" concluded that cosmetic grade mineral oil even at high doses was not comedogenic. 

Despite widespread hatred of mineral oil, it ends up in much of our beauty products: moisturizers (face and body), cream cleansers, cleansing oils, foundation, eyeshadow, blush etc. 

Being a skincare snob, I had actively avoided products. With this revelation, I wanted to see for myself the effects of mineral oil on my face.

I wanted to start with cold cream, which is chockful of mineral oil.  I had always been intrigued by those chubby jars of thick white cream with a rosy scent. I've read rave after rave about how cold cream was an amazing makeup remover that was not stripping to the skin.

Why the CVS brand? According to this post, Pond's had reformulated and I wanted to try the original formula. The knowledgeable gals of MakeupAlley say drugstores' generic brand uses the original formula. 

With this looong preface, so begins my review!

Finally using these babies a year after my haul!