Amarte Wonder Cream

Back in Winter I had my first chance to try Amarte skincare and came away  impressed. I especially loved their BB ( a true Asian BB ) and their retinol filled eye and face creams.

Now there is Wonder Cream with even more retinol power.  Encapsulated retinol is  1%  along with caviar extract, propolis  and elemental sulfur to help fight fine lines, discoloration , inflammation .

Shea butter , argan kernel oil and glycerin provide plenty of soothing moisture.

I had thought with the shea butter this might end up being too moisturzing for  my Summer oily skin but that wasn't the case. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it added just enough moisture and felt good on skin but wasn't heavy. The addition of sulfur which helps to reduce sebum and is an acne fighter is a help for skin like mine.

Over  a fairly short time I got some brightening  ( mind you these things take time and my use was about 2 weeks) and overall felt it was doing a great job on my skin. Using over a longer time should bring even better results.

Amarte Wonder Cream is a  solid retinol product for any skin type except perhaps sensitive. It's $ 79 at www.amarteskincare.com

philosophy Holiday 2013

The Cookie Exchange

 Various sites like Nordstrom ,  Sephora  and Macys are slowly rolling out philosophy Holiday.  It's one I always look forward too , and makes some of the best gifts you can give. Everyone loves these in my experience.

Old favorites like ( Have a ) Cherry Christmas are back and new ones like Buttered Rum Cake sound very good.

Here are a couple of the new  gift sets.  There are a lot of sets/gifts so browse around. Many of the stores have sets exclusive to only them  as well.

Chanel Fatal Illusion D'Ombre - Holiday 2013

Fatal is one of two new Illusion D'Ombres eyeshadows in Collection Nuit Infinie de Chanel for holiday.

Fatal is a dark purple flecked with silver shimmer .  It's  a medium pigment I would say, not sheer but not full coverage. I apply more than one layer to get the color I want. I love a good plum/dark purple eyeshadow and oddly enough don't have many so I will get a  lot of use out of this shade . It's going right into the fall/winter rotation. I generally get good wear time from these as well,  both as main shadow or a base for other colors.

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Fatal is LE and $ 36.

Cover Girl Capitol Collection Glosstinis

Cover Girl 's Hunger Games Captiol Collection is here in advance of the 2nd movie installment . Part of the line  are 9 new LE shades of the adorable nail Glosstinis.

The Glosstinis are just so cute and those little bottles are priced well and  come in a good formula ( which I talked about here )

The full list of new shades :

 -Flamed Out (605)
 -Seared Bronze (630)
 -Scalding Emerald (635)
 -Rogue Red (610)
-Violet Flicker (625)
 -Pyro Pink (620)
 -Inferno (615)
 -Sulfur Blaze (600)
 -Black Heat (640)

Approx. retail $ 2.99 - $ 3.79

Also, if you or someone you know is thinking of being a Hunger Games character for Halloween, Cover Girl has a site devoted to getting the look for the 12 districts. There are product recs and  how to videos over at www.covergirl.com/capitolbeautystudio