Fantastic Body Wash Recommendation!

Hello, ladies! I’m excited to be here with another beauty recommendation. It’s been forever since I’ve updated this part of my blogosphere, but I recently found this body wash, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you!

Olay Daily Moisture Quench body wash…*swoons* not only does it smell amazing (I sniffed every scent choice, and went with this one because it’s less tropical and flowery, and more perfume-y). 

It really does add moisture to my skin, while not leaving it feeling greasy or unclean. I also like that the scent lingers. I hate that most body washes instantly lose their scent as soon as you rinse off in the shower. No me gusta. This one, however, lasts me nearly until lunch when I shower in the morning. 

It also doesn’t take a lot of product to get the job done. Literally maybe a nickle sized amount on my luffa creates gargantuan suds. Nothing is worse than blowing through a product in a week, because it takes too much to get the job done.

Overall, I’d give this baby a 5 out 5. Would recommend! ;)

A great powder foundation!

7 out of 10 stars.

This is a fabulous matte powder! It's nicely priced for a drugstore product, and it has amazing coverage.

I do, however, feel that the colors offered, aren't that impressive in range which is one of the reasons I took off stars. I don't think people with darker skin tones will be able to find a good match. Another reason I took off stars, is because there isn't all that much in the package. It comes in a huge compact, but the actual powder pan is only maybe 1/2 an inch deep and 3 inches in diameter. Not exactly a lot of bang for your buck, but then again, it is a drugstore product so you're not paying that much for it in the first place.

That being said, the smoothing texture of this powder really is like a foundation. It does a fantastic job of covering any blemishes, or redness in skin. It also has little to no odor, which I find appealing. I don't want a strongly scented powder or foundation, because then I feel that I'm constantly surrounded by the perfume all day at work, so that's a plus!

A shampoo to avoid!

1 out of 10 stars.

This quite possibly the worst shampoo I've ever used. I don't usually hate a hair product this much, but this one just takes the cake for being the all time worst product I've ever used on my hair.

The one star is because the smell isn't too bad. It's the same kind of smell you'll get with any keratin based product.

As for the actual cleaning of your hair, ie. not having a greasy head, I would use this product hours before I had to go somewhere, give myself a thorough washing, and within 2 hours of leaving the house, my head would start to look and feel greasy/oily. Not something that you want out of a product.

The conditioner is a joke. I use a coconut oil regularly in my hair that with every other product, has kept my long hair lush and soft and healthy, even the salon I go to comments on how healthy my hair is. However, with using this set, I found that no matter what I did, the ends of my hair looked fried and completely unappealing.

What's further disappointing, is that I purchased this product as a kind of splurge on myself while my fiance and I are saving to buy our first home, and I thought "Oh this isn't too expensive, but it's a little higher end than what I usually use, let's go ahead and spoil ourselves just this once."

Mistake. I will never purchase another bottle of this set. In fact, I couldn't finish the product, I got a little more than halfway through the bottle, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I've since switched back to a more generic TRESemee keratin shampoo and conditioner while keeping with my coconut oil after-shower treatments. Slowly, but surely, my hair is getting back to normal. Sadly, though I had to trim my hair to get rid of horribly damaged ends.

Beauty Rec!

Beauty Recommendation!

9 out of 10

Howdy, ladies! I'm so excited to share with you, the most effective lotion I've found to battle PCOS rough/dry skin. 

This lotion is non-scented, which I found to be very important to not aggravating my dry and rough skin even more in the winter months. 

It's got a great oatmeal base, which is what my grandmother used to use on us to soothe our skin, so when I saw it on the the label, I was thrilled.

This lotion is light enough to wear in the summer time when the humidity in my area makes even the most expensive lotions a miserable experience, yet moisturizing enough to be used as a winter aid to dry skin.

I would recommend this to any and everyone. My boyfriend has started using it on his itchy winter skin, and he loves it as well, especially since it doesn't have a perfumed scent. 

This was a great find. A little pricey which is why I don't give it a 10 out of 10, because I don't like my everyday products to be on the high end of  anyone's price range, but it is worth every penny. 

-EM

My PCOS Reveal

I was 19 when I realized that perhaps, I should go to the gynecologist.

I grew up thinking that having irregular periods was a normal thing, and that my experiences were everybody's experiences.

I think this came from the fact that my two sisters also have PCOS, and so does my mother. So, I was surrounded by these women who were having the same problems that I was having, so it must be normal for everyone.

It wasn't until I lived in a dorm room with other girls who were having normal cycles and average symptoms of PMS that I realized there was something not quite right with my body.

I think a contributing factor was that when I was in high school (and most of my young life) I'd been a gymnast, so none of the extreme weight-gain had happened to me, until I went to college and I was not longer exercising 5 hours every day. Suddenly, no matter how healthily I ate, I was gaining weight at a pretty steady and horrifying pace. I realized that most women have a period every month, and that it isn't usually excruciatingly painful.

I booked an appointment.

My family practitioner was a completely insensitive jerk.

She told me that I shouldn't be trying to make up different medical excuses, just because my fatness was causing unwanted symptoms. 'Go on a diet, and get off the couch,' she told me. I was mortified. Not only was I having this kind of mental breakdown over how my body wasn't functioning properly, but my doctor was telling me it was all in my head, and that my only disease was being fat.

Not the best experience, but luckily, I wasn't totally satisfied with her answer, and I picked myself up, and made a specialist appointment.

My ob-gyn appointment couldn't have gone any different in terms of my experience.

My doctor was comforting, and new nearly immediately what I was probably experiencing. He ordered an intra-vaginal sonogram of my ovaries, several blood tests, and called me back promptly.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome was the diagnosis, and he explained to me, that with proper medications to regulate my body's hormones, and with the right kind of diet, I wouldn't have to worry about having children, or really it affecting my relationships at all.

This was such a relief to me, that I had an answer, that I wasn't crazy, that it wasn't just me being a hypochondriac. It was a wash of emotions, of course, but I had a foundation to build off of. I was ready to take the next step. I was young. I could conquer this thing.

-EM