Hand Creams

It would be great if we could all have beautiful looking hands. On the narrow side with long fingers & even shaped nails. We would all love to have even complexioned hands with no marks like we see in magazine adds. Utopia for most of us! If we can't change the shape of our hands, we can at least help make then comfortably smooth with, hopefully, strong nails.

This category is so large, with so many options, that it makes it hard to chose. Price is also to consider. You can get sample sizes at the drugstore of about $1 as well as high end ones in the $100 range.

Once in a while on Makeup Alley's Skin Care Board, we get questions like “What is the best of this or that?” This implies most of the time, on the expensive side. Often there will be no answers. The reason being that once you start to get interested in ingredients, their purpose & actions on skin, you figure that they are all similar & some “lower” end products are in fact superior. But again, for some of us, the presentation, or, just the fact of saying we use Dior, La Prairie or Chanel makes us feel good. It's like owning a pair of Gucci sunglasses or a nice Guerlain compact. Most of them are good & so it only depends on how much you're prepared to spend.

Best Lip Balms

Which are the best?

Winter!

Playing in the snow, skiing, skating & shovelling. Those are some of the fun activities we enjoy, the last one being our second national sport after ice hockey. For all of us who enjoy, or not, spending time outdoor there are some consequences: dry skin & dry lips. Lip balms are, for many of us, an essential part of our daily routine. The wind, the cold as well as indoor heating can all make our lips extremely dry, especially since they are deprived of sebaceous glands. Since they're more sensitive to climate changes, we need to give them some good protective moisture.

With all the options available to us, how can we chose only one?

High End Skin Care vs Drugstores & DIY

After being a member on a very popular website about skin care for almost a year now, I've decided or must I say, I was encouraged to start my own blog. In the past, I've worked in the cosmetic industry for several years. I was a makeup artist & a national beauty advisor for a major cosmetic corporation. Even if I chose to leave that line of work, I always kept an interest for skin care & of course, makeup.

It was brought to my attention that not many Canadians do this. All the information we get comes from foreign websites, several of wich are excellent & others just plain stupid. Makeup Alley's Skin Care Board is probably one of the best discussion group about skin care out there. The only thing is that often the good information gets lost in longish discussions that are sometimes hard to follow. The other that is very informative is Beauté-Test. The problem with this one is that it's in french. It's very likely that I will refer to it often.

In Canada we have to deal with extreme weather. From incredibly hot & humid in the summer to siberian colds in the winter. Those changes can make our skin go crazy. We need a lot of stuff! Or do we?

Unlike our neighbors to the south, online purshases are not quite our thing. There are instances when we don't have any other choice, but, it's nice to be able to find what we need either at the drugstore or department store. What I will try to do, is whenever I mention a specific product, is give the information about where the product is available.

Please send comments & suggestions. This will only help the reviews get better & better.

Icaria