8 Tips on How to Survive Winter!

Oh My! It has been BITTERly cold this past week in New York. It got me wanting to write a post on how to beat the winter blues. Here are 8 of my must dos for the winter! Also, please check the bottom of the post for any coupon codes for these products!





1. Drink Water. Because of the colder, drier weather, we're not getting as much moisture in our skin as warmer weather, so its time to stock up! I remind myself by carrying around a cute water bottle with me. I love using my BKR bottle because its just so adorable and makes the perfect accessory!







2. Wear Sunscreen. Because its easy to remember when its uber hot outside, we tend to forget to put sunscreen in the cooler months. It's just as important to maintain our skin's health and safety during winter! My favorite all year round is the Coola Matte Tint Sunscreen. It has such a lovely scent (no 'sunscreen smell') and doesn't leave that icky feeling of greasiness on my face.



3. Take shorter, luke warm showers. This is a great tip that I read! Because the hot hot water (although it feels so good!!) tends to dry out skin, its better to use water that isn't quite that steamy.

4. Lotion up right after your shower. There is this window of opportunity where your skin drinks up moisture the best. Right after you shower, your pores are nice and open and it allows your skin to really lock in all that moisture. I actually keep my lotion in my bathroom and lotion up while the bathroom is still steamy before I leave the room. My two personal favorites to use are the Bliss Body Butters (often on sale at TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Nordstrom Rack!), Cetaphil and the Antipodes Joyful Hand and Body Cream.

5. Consider switching to oils. Every winter, I switch to my facial oil and oil cleansers. This post explains it better than I could ever explain it! But even for you oily folks, this would be a great switch for you too! My personal favorites are AmorePacific Oil Cleanser, Antipodes Grace Gentle Cream Cleanser (with avocado Oil), and Indie Lee Squalene Oil (from Olives, not sharks!)

6. Put lotion on before you put on gloves. My hands always bleed from being too dry and from my frequent washing, so my friend taught me to put on lotion before I go outside with my gloves. It helps to retain and lock in all that moisture! So nice! My favorite hand cream was gifted to me by my friend MisoJenny! I'm forever thankful for her introducing me to the Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream.






7. Exfoliate. Especially in the winter, because you have extra dry skin... which means wayyy extra dry skin cells, you have to exfoliate that away in order for your moisturizers to be effective in hydrating your skin. I personally love to use a sponge or wash cloth to help exfoliate my skin. My favorite is the Spongelle sponges!







8. Use a humidifier. My husband and I have heat that is either on or off. There's no inbetween and no changing it! Because of that it gets so hot and dry in our place! We love having this little humidifier where you just use a water bottle because its so convenient to fill and its great for travel! If you don't have access to a humidifier (if you're on vacation), consider placing a wet towel by your bed where you sleep!


I hope you enjoyed some of my tips on how to survive your winter! Wherever you are! For more tips on winter survival and some other amazing products you can use -- expert beauty author, Lara Ramos shares her own tips and products here.

For any products that are from hipapotheca.com, you can use the code JL2012 for 10% off your purchase!
For any products that are from imomoko.com, you can use the code YTJESS for 10% off your purchase!
(I do not gain anything from these coupon codes - they are made just for my readers :) 

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Asian Haul + GIVEAWAY! :)

I LOVE ordering goods from imomoko.com because I find that they have the best deals with some really competitive prices and the amount of stuff is just so fruitful!

I often haul stuff from them, so if you'd like to see my latest haul, you can watch it here:

 Imomoko was sweet enough to send me some goodies for you! So if you'd like to win these two awesome lipcare products and a sheet mask, feel free to enter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

IN ADDITION TO THIS: this is also a collab with my good and amazing friend misojenny, who is also a lover of buying everything in sight. she hauls amazing stuff and is also hosting a giveaway for a miss hana eyeliner and a bunch of awesome masks! Watch the video here:
 

Good luck ladies and gentlemen! This will end September 10!

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Eden Allure Review and Giveaway!

I've been lucky enough to have this product to use for a while now. I've actually been loving oils in general as a moisturizer. After trying Josie Maran's Argan Oil, Coconut Oils, etc. and this has definitely got to be one of my favorites!

Pricing: Definitely one of the better prices!! (I bought my .5oz Josie Maran for $14)

1oz. is $18
2.2oz is $30

Eden allure also has sampler packs where you can get
$29.99 for 1oz. Argan Oil & a beauty bar
$39.99 for 2.2oz. Argan Oil & beauty bar

Scent: This does not have a scent :) (to me the Josie Maran has a slight scent)

Overall Product: Absolutely LOVE this product. Although the product itself is just as good as many of the other oils i've used, I love the convenient pump (rather than a dropper or pourer) and the price. Those two perks make this product amazing in my book.

Ways to use it: I love using this during the winter for my hair, my skin, my cuticles, etc. I pretty much use it as an all purpose product.

In the summer, I hate using moisturizers and feeling more 'moist' than I need to- since during the summer I feel gross and sticky anyway... but this is TOTALLY wrong! More than ever in the summer, because of the hot summer heat, you need moisture!

How I like to use it in the summer: 

1. I lOVEEEEE to use this on my feet during the summer. Especially the torture I give my feet after wearing flip flops, my feet, especially heels, are VERY dry. After I shower, i use a pumice stone to really scrub off all the dead skin. Then I will put Eden Allure (about 4-5 pumps) all over my feet and I will put some socks on. I go to sleep. Then when I wake up, my feet feel wonderful and plump!

2. Ever wonder how celebs get their hot, dewy, glowy legs? You can get that beautiful look after you exfoliate your legs and put some of the argan oil on your legs. So beautiful!!!! :)

Coupon Code: 20% off with code 'youtube'

Giveaway: 
James Moore, the owner of Eden Allure was kind enough to allow me to host a giveaway for one of my readers :)

One lucky reader will be receiving a:

2.2oz bottle of Eden Allure Argan Oil 

and

an Argan Oil Beauty Bar. 

All you have to do is make sure you are a follower of this blog

and 

comment below:
your current favorite summer product right now
the name/email that you are following me from (so I can check:)

You may post once per day.
US only :( sorry!
This giveaway will end July 16, 2011 @ 10pm EST. 

*pr sample, but these are my thoughts on the product. my loyalty is always with my viewers!

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All Natural Sunscreens?

I'm looking for a great All Natural Sunscreen... for my face (sensitive and combo oily that won't leave me feeling greasy or smelly or feeling like I got product on my face!) AND for my body!

I've got some recommendations here and there but was wondering if there were any others out there that I must try OR if anyone has tried any of these products and recommend (or not recommend) them!

Here are the ones I've heard of!

Vive Sana Sunscreen in SPF 40

Josie Maran Protect Sunscreen with Argan Oil SPF 40+

LaVanila Sunscreen in SPF 30

Aveeno Mineral Block Sunscreen in SPF 30
(Tiffany from Naturesknockout recommends this! She said she's been loving it!) 

Chocolate Sun Moisturizer with SPF 30
(surprisingly doesn't smell like chocolate LOL!)

Thoughts?? xoxo

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Fresh Spa!

I've always been a die hard Fresh-ie, but can never justify the price for skin care since I hardly wash my face (I promise I'm changing!). Well, my friend and I were able to get appointments for a Fresh facial -- and it's SO amazing because although the facial is $125, you are able to get $125 worth of products. So basically you end up buying $125 worth of stuff and get a free facial! 

The facial was such an amazing relaxing experience. It's unlike a typical facial because you don't go through any extractions and there is no real 'pain' in it. It's just a wonderful spa-like experience! :) 

I tried to be a creepster and take pictures of the facial place! HAHA! 

The sink where the facial lady did everything! 

  That was the head of where I lied :D It was so relaxing!!! 

An incredibly dark picture of all the products she used on me! 

And then here are the products that I picked up!

Soy Cleanser - one of my FAVORITE cleansers in life. Its so gentle, yet it does a wonderful job at taking off make up! On top of that, it smells delish- like cucumbers and rose petals. Yum!

Floral Water - this is a hydrating toner. I absolutely love this. It is alcohol free and spritzing it makes me feel luxurious and hydrated! It also has a lovely rose scent to it!

Umbrian Clay Mask - such a great clay mask. I really love it! The facialist put this mask on with the rose petal mask on top which was AMAZING, but I couldn't justify paying the extra for the rose mask. but I have been using this mask and it does an amazinggg job at making my skin feel clean without feeling too tight or uncomfortable.

Pink Grapefruit & Sugar Lychee Soaps - YUM!!!! I haven't tried these soaps yet, but they smell amazing!!! :)

Citron de Vigne lotion - omg I love this scent! It's a nice sophisticated summer scent. Smells like flowers, pink grapefruit, citrus... it is just such a divine scent! I was so lucky because she gave me a sample scent for it! :D

Samples/Free Gifts: Sugar Lip gloss (smells SO good), Citron de Vigne perfume, Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask and a small travel size fresh cleanser!! :D

If there is a fresh store by you, i would DEFINITELY recommend going !!! - if not, they have fresh @ sephora where you can try out their products! :)

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Lioele Vita Shake Packs

Janie who is the owner of pretty&cute sent me a couple of these little babies to try. Ok. Before I begin reviewing anything, can we get something out of the way?? -- How adorable is this packaging? This product makes me want to go to a sunny vacation spot with a huge floppy sun hat & big framed sunglasses and sip on a nice mixed drink... you know, the pretty ones with the fruit garnishes? ;)

picture from prettyandcute.com

Anyway, besides being sold by the packaging already, is the product's quality as good as the cuteness of it all? Or is the cuteness just trying to mask behind a crappy product? I was ready to find out. 

So the Lioele Vita Shake Packs are basically face masks that you wash off. There are six different fruit flavors and they all contain grains of real fruit! whoa!!! -so now a complete assumption- this is why they come in little individual packages, so they remain fresh! Each flavor has a different purpose. Below are the descriptions.

picture from prettyandcute.com

Anyway, Janie sent me 3 in Cranberry, Kiwi & Papaya. She's so cute! She put them in this cute little baggy like they were little treats!

 My skin has been breaking out lately, so I decided to use the cranberry one. I was sold because it said some kind words to me on the package that got me thinking that I needed to use it.


It said this: Controls Skin trouble effectively and hydrates for softer and moister skin texture (lol, cute wording). It convinced me!

Unfortunately, after I opened it, I realized I could probably use the kiwi and papaya ones too.. haha dang. my skin sucks right now.. :P 

So the directions are to tear open the pack and SMOTHER (again, amazing choice of words) the product into a mask on your face. Leave it on for 10-15 minutes, and wash it off with lukewarm water. I did just that and this is how much product came out of that little pack! I was so surprised to see so much product! It was the perfect amount to cover my whole face :) It has a beautiful fruity scent to it - I'm supposing it is cranberry - but all it smelled like to me was fruity and sweet!

After about 15 minutes on my face, it didn't feel much different from when I first put it on except a slight cooling effect. It felt nice, but nothing special. When I washed the product off my face, it felt just as gooey as when I put it on.

By the way, I was sporting my pretty&cute bowhair fringes when i was doing my mask ;) 

After my face was washed, my skin did feel noticeably smoother. It felt like the day after I put on a my beauty diary face mask or something. It also felt incredibly hydrated. I find that usually after I put on any sort of face mask that helps to "control skin" -- it leaves my face so dry and so tight. I didn't feel that with the cranberry shake pack. It does feel a bit tighter, but at the same time, my skin feels incredibly moisturized.

It's been about 1.5 hours after I took off my face mask and I noticed that my face still feels really cool and it's beginning to feel a bit tighter. It doesn't feel dry or icky, it just feels a little bit tingly. Which to me, is a great thing because even after I washed it off... I know something in this product is still working inside my skin.


Am I completely sold that this product is awesome? After one use, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it's any better than any other sheet mask or face mask... but is it good enough for me to want to try more to see if it is? YES! After about 30 minutes after I washed my face, my fingers quietly tiptoed onto the prettyandcute website and ordered a variety pack. I'm pretty confident this is going to be an awesome product. I can't tell you that yet because I only tried it once... 1.5 hours ago, but I have high hopes. I think this is going to be a goodie.

But come on, seriously? It's worth a shot. Not only is the packaging ADORABLE, but it's great to share with friends who have different skin, it's really affordable and it's a one time use thing, so its great for travel! :D

The lioele vita shake pack could be found here  - you can order cranberry, apple mango, blueberry, kiwi, lemon papaya, or a variety pack. The cost is $14.50. (10% coupon down below which will make your total $13.05) Each package comes with 20 masks. The variety pack comes with 3 of each masks and 2 surprise masks ;) That comes out to be about 73c (really 65c with the coupon code) per mask. That's AWESOME compared to sheet masks that range anywhere from $1.50-3.00 each!

picture from prettyandcute.com

If you make a purchase from prettyandcute.com, you can use the coupon code: jessicalee422 to get 10% Lioele products (including the vita shake pack!) OR you can put jessicalee422 in the comment box to get a FREE SURPRISE gift :)

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