Happy 2010!

Hi friends!

It's been awhile! But I'm back with more questions, comments, and thoughts regarding the products that can be purchased at drugstores. While in a CVS today, I had a few of these thoughts such as:

CVS is now featuring a futuristic entrance sign. This particular one is in a shopping center in Arlington, VA, which currently holds a grocery store, Starbucks, dry cleaners, etc. but is suffering from a 1980's facade that is in dire need of a facelift. CVS, however, may have taken this a bit too far. It looks like a spaceship.

Now I have been really struggling lately with purchasing a new shower gel. I spent quite a bit of time at the beginning of the new year searching Sephora, The Body Shop, Target, the internet...and haven't really found an adequate shower gel for mid-winter. I typically pick shower gels that are on the heavier side, both in scent and viscosity, since there's really no other time of year to use them. Plus, I have been dryer and static-ier than EVER this winter, so I need to load up on the moisturizers. These were my considerations:

1. Philosophy - Cherry On Top @ Sephora. I wanted to love this one. It's new for Valentine's Day and I can't really say "no" to cherry anything. But, alas, I was underwhelmed. I think it might be best with a mix of that and some almond flavored soap, or perhaps the Belgian Waffle Philosophy. Just something to cut the sweetness of the Cherry. If I wasn't on a budget right now, that would probably be something to look into.

2. Philosophy - Snow @ Sephora. When I stopped in the other day, they were o

ut. I checked online and discovered it's still available, but wow people are divided on the scent. The comment section is about 50/50 with most people agreeing it doesn't smell like snow, but diverging on their opinions of the scent. Most people think it smells citrus-y, for better or for worse. I happen to like it, but since it wasn't readily available, I moved on.

3. Nivea - Touch of Honeydew. I was really attracted to the bottle and thought, maybe this would be pleasant. The shower gel sort of looked like a refreshing Italian soda, so I was pretty excited. It had a nice enough scent, but I decided I'm not ready to commit to a summery shower gel just yet. Stay tuned for my thoughts on this one.

4. St. Ives - Energizing Citrus @ CVS - Again, too summery for now.

I couldn't make up my mind, so I decided to buy two:

Softsoap - Apricot Scrub. I used this last winter, so it sort of reminds me of that shower. But I figured it's perfect for my needs right now. It's affordable, has a strong scent and it's a lotion soap with bead

s for extra moisturizing. I don't remember being so dry last winter even though I kept my bedroom at a solid 85 most of the time. So I'm going for it. It was between that, and the Johnson's soap Susan recommended on the previous post. That one totally reminds me of the Spanish Harlem apartment I shared with

her, when I totally copied off of her shower gel preferences. I will buy it again someday, but right now I already have a large amount of Johnson's Melt Away Stress shower gel, and one 20oz bottle is enough for that little shower.

I also purchased Johnson's Baby Magic. This was a childhood staple. I feel like I'm right back in my old bathtub. I purchased it a couple years ago and noticed that my skin felt extra soft, even when I wasn't expecting it to. But due to this obsurd skin-dryness I have going right now, it's worth bringing out for reinforcement.

So what winter shower gel/soap are you using right now? Have you tried Susan's 24 Hour Moisture recommendation? Is bar soap the way to go? Should I take that plunge into the Creme Ribbon soap?

Mid-Winter Update

Happy 2010! Here's what's new for me product-wise this January:

Laundry - I'm digging the new Cheer brightClean formulas. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like my whites are whiter and my colors brighter. Good job guys! As for dryer sheets, I'm in a bit of a bind. Downy stopped making the lemon verbena soothing sheets, and I was forced to pick up some Bounce sheets at Target. Bounce has never appealed to me as a brand, so we'll see how it goes. So far, the scent is more obnoxious in the box than it has been on my clothes so I will be using all 40 sheets.

Side note - Why doesn't Target stock more diverse brands? The dryer sheet selection was limited to 2394872384 Bounce and 2 Downy scents. What gives? I feel like Target is creating a monopoly with select lines and it's affecting my selection.

Shampoo - On a whim I purchased Nature's Gate Herbal Daily Cleansing shampoo last week. I really wanted to like it but the scent! The scent kills me. I felt like I had washed my hair in my grandfather's old spice. It is just too much for me to have to smell all day. I like Nature's Gate though so I'll give them another chance with another formula.

I'm also looking for suggestions on where to get a good brush. My trusty old cheap-y Revlon one from the last 5 years is basically RIP. Any ideas/suggestions where to go? I'm trying to avoid Target/Wal-Mart in the hope of a more substantial investment.

Soap - During the recent cold snap, my skin could have been in real trouble. Lucky for it, I use Johnson & Johnson's 24 hour Moisturizing Body Wash during the winter. This stuff is a life saver. It's just like the package says - all day moisture without being greasy. I've been using this for the past 3 winters and the smell is forever tied to this time of year. Also of note was a new find this year - Irish Spring's Moisture Blast bar soap. I like this variation because the smell is great. Aren't all Irish Spring smells great though?? I really like the zest it can put into a shower. Moisture Blast is a nice winter substitute for the regular formula.

Tea - Just because. I've really been enjoying Bigelow's Lemon Lift this month. It was good for my throat when I was getting sick.

Recent Visit to Duane Reade

So tonight I was just kind of sitting in my apartment watching some TV. The sky was overcast and I created a nice little mood with the lighting, but after a while I jumped up and felt the need to just buy something. Ideally when I'm in this mood, I have a Target available and a pal to share in this type of adventure, but tonight I just sort of had to make do with the situation at hand and I ambled down the street to my nearest Duane Reade. The CVS on Lex is probably a little bigger/nicer but I just wasn't going to walk up the hill to get there. So this is what I purchased:

Caress Tahitian Renewal body wash. After giving up on my search for PTR botanical buffing beads body wash, I decided there just has to be another summer shower gel out there that I could actually get my hands on. Now, I've purchased this body wash as a travel size for when I went on vacation somewhere in the south, and I originally thought I wasn't going to go bigger than that, but I went ahead and decided to make the commitment to the whole 12 fl. ounces anyway. The thing is, I'm using a coral-colored poof right now, and I just have this thing that the shower gel has to mesh with the poof color. I mean, I just couldn't use Dove's Cucumber & Green Tea with a purple poof, for example. Also, after doing a little research, I found out this shower gel was given out on the Tyra Banks Show! Wow! Since Tyra and I are in agreement on most things in life, how could I go wrong here? All in all, I'm happy with this purchase but it wasn't anything new and exciting.

So ironically, for my new and exciting purchase, I went for Johnson's Vanilla Oatmeal body lotion. Two scents that couldn't be further from the idea of excitement. BUT, it was New! and it stood out from the rest of the baby lotions with its more natural tones. I just thought it might be a nice light scent for after the shower that wouldn't compete with my perfumes. But looking back on this purchase, I'm feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse, only because this seems like such a fall/winter scent. Maybe I'll save it, we'll see. One thing I would like to add here, it's really annoying how you can't smell any of the baby products in the store since they always have that safety seal. So if you want to purchase anything baby-related, you have to just take a leap of faith. I've always wondered why it was OK for adult bath products to go unsealed while baby products are blocked from the world until after purchase. I suppose some things will never change, even if it is a mild source of frustration.

Strawberry-frosted Pop Tarts. I like cherry-frosted better. But I always pick cherry over strawberry for everything anyway so no surprise there. DR just didn't have them, so I went with these. This will be an exciting new addition to my breakfast routine this week, so I'm looking forward to it. I don't think there's much else I need to say. We've all had them, and I'm pretty sure we all like them.

Dial Daily Care Antibacterial Hand Soap with Aloe. So it's my turn to get the soap for our community bathroom, well, sort of. The weird thing is, everyone in my apartment has purchased their own hand soap. So we have 3 at our sink right now. I mean, I guess it's nice to have the backup option, but it's also just kinda funny/ridiculous. So for my personal contribution I went for the Aloe version. I bought the Melon-scented last time because I thought I remembered liking it at one point, but I was wrong. It wasn't great. So since I've been washing my hands a lot more often as of late (due to the humidity and the stickiness of the city in the summer), I had to go with something soothing/moisturizing. The scent is very boring, like a hand soap you would find in your aunt's powder room, but it will get the job done. In a soft and soothing way.

And lastly, I purchased Betty Crocker Warm Delights Fudgy Chocolate Chip Cookie because I wanted a snack for HGTV's Design Star finale. I haven't even watched any of the shows this season, but I figured I would watch the finale and then catch a marathon of the rest of the season sometime this week. But anyways, I introduced these to Susan last year and it was a big hit! It's basically like having a serving size of fresh warm cake. In NY, it seems that they only sell limited kinds, so I can't get my absolute favorite - Cinnamon Swirl Cake. But since I was feeling burned out on ice cream, I think this will be a nice change of pace for an evening snack.