Negative Nancy Says Winter Means Blahs, Dryness and Frigid Weather

I've talked about winter blues and how to stay warm. Now, it's time to talk about dryness. Dryness is a terror that deserves it's own post. It isn't a footnote in the long list of what is terrible in life about winter.

Instead of focusing on alligator skin and scarecrow hair, let's talk about suggested fixes.

Dry Skin

Aveeno! I love Aveeno. It's genius. It's cheap. It's widely available. All year round I use Aveeno Moisturizing Bars for Dry Skin. This bar is so gentle that it soothes my itchy, irritated skin. (Itchy and irritated are common words to describe me.)

In winter, I buy some kind of Aveeno lotion. It doesn't matter which; they've all been wonderful. This year I bought Aveeno Active Naturals Positively Nourishing Body Lotion, Energizing Pomegranate + Grapefruit. I'm a sucker for bath and body products that are grapefruit scented. (Sometimes, this ends badly, and I end up smelling like dish soap or worse bug spray.) This lotion smells great and once it absorbs is subtle. It does take awhile to sink in - especially on my hands and feet.

My coworker Sue introduced me to Nivea Creme. I buy it in the travel sized tins. The packaging is cute and small. It's easy to carry in the palm of my hand or throw in my purse. I find that I use it most often on the bus! I'm sitting there and BOOM my weirdo cuticles pull a run in my stockings like that is their main function. Solution: mourn the tights, silently swear, moisturize the cuticle.

Dry Eyes

Go to the drugstore. Buy five or sixty bottles of eye drops WITHOUT vasoconstrictors. Put them in your desk at work, every purse you own, in your bathroom, on your mantle. Hang them from your Christmas tree. Make earrings from them! 

Dry Hair

Sometimes lather, rinse, repeat isn't quite good enough. Here are the three things I use on my dry, coarse hair during winter - along with instructions on how to best utilize them.

Biolage by Matrix Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner
wash hair well, massage liberal amount of conditioner into scalp and through hair focusing on roots, sit in tub until unbearably pruney, rinse in a half-assed way

Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Conditioning Repair Cream
apply utterly ridiculous amount to dry, dirty (like 3rd day dirty) hair, play video games for four hours OR watch four blood-soaked episodes of Vampire Diaries, take a normal shower

CHI Keratin Mist 
realize your hair is disgustingly dry but you have no time to do anything listed above, hold your ends altogether making your straw hair into a sort of broom, spray that shit until you drown that broom like you're a magician's assistant

Dry Lips

Lately I've been loving Maybelline Baby Lips Moisturizing Lip Balm SPF 20 Sunscreen. I bought it in cherry. It really doesn't have a color to it (which I like). It tastes good (enough). It isn't sticky.

For those with cash to burn, I do like Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15. It tastes good, has a little color (and is sticky in a good way?)

It's better to realize what you don't want than what you do want in makeup (and all things), because then it's easy to say no. What I DON'T want in a chapstick-but-not-chapstick: Glitter, stickiness, strong odor, strong taste, odor or taste that isn't based on something edible (read: floral), no SPF.

Website Love: http://www.8ty8beauty.com/

This category should be called "Websites You Should Know About if You Want to Go Broke in No Time at All."

Last month I ordered five new nail polishes from 8ty8 Beauty Supply. I was led to this website after going to Sally Beauty Supply and looking through the China Glaze Bohemian collection. We got to talking about China Glaze holographic nail polish collection coming out this summer (I want ALL of them).  In 2009 China Glaze released holographic shades in the OMG collection. The woman helping me dig through a bin of polishes said that by the time she heard of the OMG collection she couldn't find it anywhere and had to order off of 8ty8 Beauty Supply. How she described the website it sounded like an archive (or elephant graveyard) of hard to find nail polishes.

I was a little off. It's more like a no-frills website that sells China Glaze, Color Club and other name brand polishes at lower prices.

I made order in early October.

I ordered China Glaze Twinkle Lights, China Glaze Tinsel Town, China Glaze Cast a Spell, Color Club Cloud Nine, and Color Club Angel Kiss.

China Glaze polishes sell at Ulta for $7.50. 8ty8 Beauty Supply sells the same polish, with the same release dates for $3.00.

The polishes are packed together well in boxes that hold three polishes each. If you order a number of polishes not divisible by three, then they pack that space with newspaper. They ship USPS  priority mail out of New York. I received my first order three days after it shipped.

The only downside I have found, is that shipping is expensive! It's $11.00! And, you have no clue how much the shipping will be until it invoices.

I look through the polishes they offer, and look them up on Google. Generally, Scrangie has covered the older (pre-2010) polishes, and The Polishaholic covers current polishes (2010-present).

I just made an order yesterday! I'm so excited.

Product Review: L'Oreal Voluminous False Fiber Lashes

Two things:

1. I don't buy drugstore brand makeup anymore.
2. I have no idea how false eyelashes work. And, frankly, they frighten me.

However, after reading Gabi Gregg's review on Maybelline Illegal Length Mascara with Fiber Extentions I made an exception to the former. 

I was in Target and couldn't find the Maybeline version of fiber lashes mascara. I ended up buying L'Oreal's Voluminous False Fiber Lashes. 

So far, I've experienced no clumping and find the wand easy to use. I can see a noticeable difference in the appearance of length. If you apply multiple layers, it heightens that illusion. 

I like the packaging. It's gold and geometric. It doesn't look "expensive" but it does look unusual. 

The negative reviews I've read have to do with clumping and having a hard time applying to the lower lashes. I don't put eyeshadow on my lower lashes, so I don't have much to add to that. I usually apply to the top and blink a lot. Voila! My lower lashes are darkened.

Anyone have any drugstore brands they're raving about?