Dead Sea Clay Whipped Facial Cleanser by Spa Therapy Works!

Hello everyone!


As I promised last week, here I am again, with another review!


This time, I'm reviewing something that unfortunately is no longer available at the shop, or at least, not for now.


You all know about my love affair with Spa Therapy Works' facial care line, and how her facial soaps, velvet cream, night repair and antioxidant toner are my staples every day. Well, last year I asked Jus for another set of samples of them all for my travels, and I also asked to include a sample of a new product she had back then, the Dead Sea Clay with Meadowfoam oil whipped facial cleanser. I got it and tried it once, but then for some reason it got placed into another cosmetic bag, and I forgot about it completely.




Well, a few weeks ago, I happened upon it again, and tried it, and completely fell in love with it! It's amazing! Lathers greatly and leaves the skin so clean and soft! It's not just like a cleanser, it's also like a quick mask! Since I only have a sample size, I don't use it daily, but only when I want to add a lil boost to my routine. I have dry skin and it cleanses up, but doesn't dry up my skin at all, and I just love how silky it feels after wards!


So, I spent a few good minutes going thru Spa Therapy's sold items, till I found one of the original listing for it, and here's what Jus said about this cleanser:

"Combined with Dead Sea Mud, Natural Sea Clay, Meadowfoam Oil and Lavender Essential Oil, this face cleanser cleans, revitalizes, clarifies, protects your skin and removes excess oil and dead cells from your skin's surface. It also leaves your face feeling soft and silky, giving you a fresh, healthy appearance."


I intend to ask Jus if she plans to bring it back to her shop any time soon, cause I'd love to have some more once my small sample jar runs off. Luckily a lil goes a long way, and it'll still last me for a while... I'll keep you posted!

Essential Care for a nurse after night shift!

Hello again!

In this entry I'm gonna share my care routine after night shift, when I do go to sleep in the morning, most of the products are handmade, well, all expect for one, and I've been looking for a good handmade replacement, but I can't seem to find one!


Here are all the products I use: a tired legs lotion, a high hydration moisturizer for my face, intensive lip therapy balm, hand cream and feet cream.




The tired legs lotion is the only one of all the products that is not handmade, but from a supermarket brand, and at least is not tested in animals... I have been looking for a similar product on Etsy, but I haven't really found anything like this... It gives a super fresh feeling to your legs when you massage them with it, and soothes my poor tired legs after a 10 hour shift!




I also change a lil my regular facial routine, instead of using my Velvet Face or Night Repair, I go for the Pure Hydration facial creme from Dress Green, since it's a very thick & highly hydrating cream that helps my skin recover from the dryness at work with the heating or AC, and it doesn't feel right to me to apply a night cream at 9 am, even if I'm going to sleep then!




I spend most of my work hours going around the ward, and my Happy Feet cream from RightAsRain Creations is a must for me every day after work, even more so after night shift, and even though since I have my Crocs my feet don't hurt, they do get tired! And this cream is pure bliss for them!




Dry air at work, due to heating or AC translates on dry face, and particularly on dry limps, and though I always have a lip balm with me, I always do some extra care when I'm going to sleep after work. I use the Intensive Lip Therapy balm by Mirasol Farm, and it works like a charm! No more waking up with chapped lips, and I've also noticed that it works great when I get my stress rash in my upper lip, so it never gets as bad as before, no more using cortisone creams for it!






And last, but surely not least, it's taking care of my dry and damaged hands. As a nurse, I wash my hands hundreds of thousands of times in each shift, both with regular soap & water, but also with the alcohol-based solutions, and even though they're great for killing germs, they aren't kind to my hands! So, I use my hand-saver cream from Mirasol farm, the Sweet Orange Calendula Cream, just the thing to daily treat my hands and help them recover!

SkinJourney's Serums

Second day of the New Year, how's everyone faring? Got rid of the hangover?


I started the day with Aunt Irma's arrival, so I could be better, but such is life, nothing that tea & ibuprofen can't manage!


After Jussara from SpaTherapyWorks stopped making her serum, I started looking around Etsy for a serum that would help my skin look the best. This year is the year I'll turn 30, and though I still look younger (I can easily pass by 23 or 25, or younger if you believe the assistant of my Amsterdam-Detroit flight that thought I was the unaccompanied minor of the flight... he even asked to see my passport), I still want to look younger than my age for as long as I can!


The first thing I started looking for was an eye serum, because with my changes of schedule as a nurse, working night shifts, then back to 8 to 3, or 3 to 10, the lack of sleep and all that, bags under my eyes were getting a lil too common for my liking. So that's when I turned to a shop I had eyed for a while: Skin Journey and their Bright Eyes serum!


Bright Eyes is full of nutrients for the skin and since it's in gel formula is non-greasy, very easy to absorb and since it comes with a pump, you only have to use a lil bit. I first got a sample size of it, and a little does go a looong way, so I'm sure the full size bottle will last a lot, and in perfect condition since it never gets in contact with the air, so none of the ingredients can get oxidized and lose their properties. I've been using it since the summer, and it's been a great help getting rid of the puffy eyes after working night shift! As a rule, I always use it as the last part of my facial care routine, on top of the moisturizer.




After trying the Bright Eyes serum, I started wondering about Skin Journey's Anti-aging Firming Serum, and after a friend of mine using it and recommending it, I thought I really had to give it a try. It also comes in a container with a pump, so ingredients don't degrade and as the Bright Eyes serum, a little does go a long way! It's a thick cream, that melts great with the skin, and it contains DMAE (according to reseach it helps smoothing out lines and evens out the complexion), Squalane and Vitamin E. It's always recommended to use the serum right after the toner and before the moisturizer. I've been using it for over a month, it makes my skin feel silky and I'm really pleased with the results!




So now, these two serums have been added to my daily facial care, both in the morning and at night! If you want to know and read more about them, in both their Etsy listings there's the full list of ingredients for each!

Body Language Soap's amazing facial masks!

Happy New Year!


I'm hoping you all had a great beginning of 2010, and had a fun & safe New Year's Eve!


If your plans involved a lot of partying & make up and not sleeping enough, your face and skin are gonna be in need of some extra facial care, and what better than some awesome facial masks?


I have to make a confession, I love trying new facial products, and one way to get to my heart is scent, why? Cause I always smell everything first! From soaps, lotion, masks to make up! But my obsession with facial care products shouldn't come as much of a surprise, after all I'm one of the Two Girls with a bar of soap, right? Right ;)


Well, these two facial masks I've got & tried this week are so amazing that I pushed back everything I had in my list of blogs pending to make to talk about them! Wondering what masks could have impressed me that much? They're Body Language Soap's Triple Comfort & Parisian Glow!


This masks are dry masks, what does this mean? This means that they're in powdery form, which means you have to mix them yourself, which means a lil extra work than your usual store bought masks, but it also means that they're preservative free, and that means no harmful chemicals, and no expiry date! You mix them right the moment you are going to use them, AND you can use different liquids to mix them with, depending of what you have handy or your skin type, which means an even more personalized facial care!


The Triple Comfort mask has to be, scent wise, my favourite! It has chamomile, calendula, comfrey and ginger, and it does smell like a nice & comforting cup of tea! I'd recommend this mask for days when your skin is dry or looks tired and need of some extra care. Like on a day after a long night, like today.





I mixed it with milk, cause I have dry skin with a tendency to get dehydrated easily. I had a few issues finding a bowl that'd be a good size for mixing it, but the mixing up is really easy if you add whatever liquid you decide to use for it in very small quantities at a time, remember you are gonna make a paste for your face, not the entire neighborhood! I left the mask on for approximately 10 minutes (recommended 10-15 min) but I didn't time it, I just grabbed a book and read for a while to pass the time.




When I scrubbed off the mask with warm-ish water I looked at my skin and wow, was I impressed! My pores looked waaaaay better than before! And I mean WAY better! So I thought, okay now here's a keeper! And of course, I knew I needed to try the other mask and tell you guys all about it!


So, though for dry skin is not recommended to use a mask more than once a week, it had been so long till I had used facial masks, that I thought that twice a week my skin wouldn't mind it. So the next day I used the Parisian Glow mask. This one has French Green Clay and Green Tea Powder with essential oils that make it an awesome detoxifying mask!





This one I mixed with Greek Yogurt (well, the yogurt was part of my breakfast, and I thought, why not?) and this time I timed it a lil better, I left it on the entire duration of Iron Maiden's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and that's over 13 minutes . Once again, I was thoroughly impressed! Glowing skin and barely noticeable pores! Another must have! Ideal mask to leave your skin looking amazing for any special day/occasion!




Final words? Get one of these masks, or both, or even all of them! Lindsay from BodyLanguageSoaps also has three more masks: Zebra Face (detoxifying for acne prone skins), Lavender Soothing (for sensitive skin) which I think Brooke should try and Pomegranate Power Clarifying, that I think it's the one I wanna try next!

Spa Therapy's Facial Care Line

Well, well, well, well! Finally I got to write my first review and contribution to this blog!

As a woman, you keep on getting bombarded on TV and magazines and the like with all sort of facial products that promise to keep you younger for a longer time, trying to make you feel the need to look like you were 25 till the day you die. All those products tend to be filled with an obnoxious number of chemicals, most of which the regular customer has no clue what they do, and if they're safe for their skin.

I started using my first moisturizer when I was 16, and decided to go for a French company that claimed all products were made using the best of natural products, and very few chemical products, called Yves Rocher. I kept using it till after turning 25 I started hearing about the whole "once you turn 25 you need to start using anti-wrinkle cream" and about the convenience of getting into a proper facial care routine, with the use of cleanser or soap, toner and the anti-wrinkle cream... Mind you, I've always looked younger than my age, so at 25 I wasn't particularly worried about wrinkles, but working as a nurse takes big toll on everything, included the skin, and you are more prone to bags under the eyes if you work night shift a week every month.

I started looking at other options, feeling not enterily too keen on starting using anti-age or anti-wrinkle cream, so when my favourite B&B shop on Etsy started offering a facial care line, I jumped at the chance and tried it all! First I had a conversation with Jussara, the owner of Spa Therapy, about what she'd recommend, and she was amazing explaining all about her products!

I decided to order a complete facial care set, with a facial soap, toner, serum, day cream, night cream and facial scrub. Let me tell you, I had tried a number of soaps to wash my face, but after a pair of days I had stopped using them, my skin is not particularly problematic, a bit on the dry side, with a pair of pimples sometimes before my period, the only complication of my skin are the times when my atopic dermatitis starts to have a field day when I'm horribly stressed. When that happens, any chemicals can only make it go worse...

I started using my Patchouli Mint French Green clay soap and from day one I loved it! The lather, the smell and how soft my face feels after using it! I have tried another of her soaps, the Dead Sea Mud soap, and although it's a really nice soap, I very much prefer my Green mint soap. It helps my skin a lot when my dermatitis threatens to appear, and my skin doesn't feel dry or patched, and I don't feel lazy about using it, so I can stick more easily to the day & night routine.

After that comes the Antioxidant Aloe PH Balancing Herbal toner, and this toner feels so fresh in my skin! It cleans up all the impurities or rests of lather on my skin, and makes the skin ready for the serum and/or the day cream. It doesn't feel harsh for the skin and seems quite moisturizing in itself. It does help making your face even cleaner after the soap, and prepares the skin to absorb the serum and the cream afterwards.

Now after the toner you can either apply the serum that will help your skin absorb the cream better, or go straight to the moisturizer. I like applying the serum cause it helps with the bag under my eyes, and whenever I come home from working night shift I always apply it before going for my morning nap.

Now, depending on morning or night, you go for your Velvet Day Cream or the Night Repair Cream to finish your routine. The day cream is a thick but not greasy cream, it feels really light when applied but VERY moisturizing! It's not one of those creams when you have to wait for long to apply your mineral make up cause it won't look good otherwise. My skin literally drinks the stuff and feels truly velvety to the touch afterwards! The night repair cream is thicker than the day cream, but it's absorbed equally well, and the skin looks positively glowing and refreshed the morning after.

Now, once a week, it's always recommended to use a facial scrub, to get rid of impurities and clear off dead skin cells. I tried a pair of Spa Therapy's scrubs, and I must say that I'm absolutely in love with the Pink Grapefruit and Guava facial scrub! It has a very fine grain, salty and feels very cleansing and scrubby, but not rough at all, completely non-abrasive. You can also leave it for a few minutes and it'll act as a mask. Once you clean it off, you feel your skin absolutely soft and radiant!

All in all, highly recommended line of facial care, I've always been rather lazy with my facial care, and now with all this wonderful smelling products, I'm looking forward to my twice a day facial care routine.

You can even try the facial care in small sampler sets to see if it works well for you, or even use it as your travelling set, cause her samples comply to the new rules for hand luggage liquid items. I know my set has been to a few airports without a problem! And it's always helpful to have it in your hand luggage, in case the suitcase goes missing by any chance!

Also, if you have any doubts about which of her products would be better for your skin type, you can always ask Jussara, she will always be more than happy to help!