Review: St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser

After hearing much hype about St. Ives' simple and affordable products, I decided to try out the St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Cleanser and Scrub while looking for their popular Apricot counterparts. I like green tea and the concept of using herbs and tea in facial products is interesting. I purchased my bottle at Walmart, but you can get it at CVS, Walgreens, Amazon, Target, basically anywhere.

My overall impression was that I initially really loved the product. I used the Green Tea Cleanser twice a day in conjunction with other St. Ives products. One pump produces enough gel to cover the entire face and the formula foams lightly. I did have to adjust to the strong herbal scent for about two weeks until it started smelling pleasant, but overall it's a light facial cleanser that leaves the skin feeling refreshed. However, after extended use with other products, I found that it dried out my skin and I had peeling all over my forehead one day and developed fine wrinkles in my undereye area. This is probably because it contains sodium laureth sulfate, to dry out fresh pimple spots. For the past few days, I have been using the Green Tea Cleanser in the shower at night and it has not been drying - the key is using this in isolation or moderation.

As you can probably tell from the half-empty bottle, I have been trying this cleanser out for almost a year on and off, and overall I like it. If I use this at night in the shower, the cleanser removes oil well but in the mornings I wake up with oily skin again. The Green Tea Cleanser does well as a makeup remover for foundation, concealer, and non-waterproof mascara, but for certain stubborn eye makeup, I have to use other products to remove the left-overs.

Packaging: simple with a useful pump

Clear gel

Lightly foams

Price: $5.29-$5.99 for 6.75 fl oz (200 mL)

What the product claims to do (from St. Ives website): This cleanser deep cleans to gently remove dirt and make-up and helps maintain skin's moisture balance. Clears breakouts and reduces redness.
- Dermatologist Tested • Hypoallergenic • Non-Comedogenic • Dermatologist Tested • Not Tested on Animals • Does not contain animal ingredients • Formulated without Parabens and Phthalates

Ingredients:

Pros:
- Very affordable
- Salicylic acid reduces breakouts
- Nice texture
- Removes oil and makeup

Cons:
- Sodium laureth sulfrate dries out skin
- Some people may not like the strong herbal scent
- No visible reduction in redness

Verdict: I like this cleanser for quick removal of oil and makeup in the shower or in the mornings, but I don't like being paranoid about drying out my skin. Aside from the sodium laureth sulfate, it is quite gentle and has a nice smell once you get used to it. After using this product, my skin did become clearer overall, but it did not magically remove spots or acne scars. It's good for the price but not the best acne-reducing cleanser out there.

Effectiveness:
- Oil removal: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
- Makeup removal: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
- Acne reduction: 3/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
- Reduce redness: 3/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

- Moisturizing: 2/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
Packaging: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
Scent: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
Price: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥


Would I buy it again? No. When I run out, I'll try new cleansers in hopes of getting more effective acne treatment.

Image credit: gentlemanstandard

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I was not paid in any way for this review; these are my opinions after use. This product was purchased with my own money. Results may vary from person to person.

FOTD: Parisienne Chic + My Beauty Diary Facial Mask

Traditionally, I am not a "red lip" girl. Bright warm colours tend to make me look more sallow and yellow so I usually avoid reds and corals. However, recently with a slight tan at the beach and lighter hair colour, it turns out that the perfect red lip complements a Parisian outfit. I was so excited when I found all my bags full of makeup nice and unmelted from the drive from Oklahoma and the year-long storage. I was so sad without all my lippies and nail polishes and now I have finally been reunited with them :D

This is the brightest red lipstick I have - Lancome Rouge Baroque that I stole from my mom a long time ago. She has such amazing skin - no acne, never dry, never oily, goes with absolutely any shade. I unfortunately only look good in certain shades but I find that over the years I have become more daring, and for me, daring is good. The consistency of Lancome lipsticks is very nice - not too creamy, not too dry, perfect pigmentation.

I dug out a Clinique shadow that I had handy in my rediscovered box - Foxy. It's a nice taupe-silver good for slightly smokey eyes. Complete with eyeliner and a cute beret recycled from my last Parisian chic outfit, I was ready to head out the door for my outfit photos. I have been using Revlon Photo Ready for all my photoshoots lately and it holds up pretty well. However in person, it's not the prettiest -looking foundation and I glitter disgustingly. I will write a review of it soon.

A few hours before the shoot, I did my first facial mask ever. Sweet Nikki sent me a My Beauty Diary facial mask in her love package and I finally let my skin be pampered with some serious TLC. It is the Yogurt one and is slightly soapy to the touch but not in a gross way. I am such a mask nub that when I took it out and unfolded it I wasn't really sure what to do about the plastic thing haha. I just put the unplastic side on and later peeled off the protecting layer, but not before having some fun with photos xD I let the mask soak for about 10 minutes and then peeled it off and washed my face. Afterwards my skin felt a little hard and dried actually but to my delight, I found that my pimples on my forehead had dried yay! I still have to experiment with different masks I guess but this was a fun first time!

I found that the bathroom in my new place is a great makeup photo-taking place. The wall is a nice green colour and if I open the door but don't turn on the light and use flash, it creates a great flash lighting result. Yay! Additionally, there's lots of nice white counterspace for product reviews : ) Lighting is slightly yellow but liveable.

Products used:

Anastasia Brow Wiz in Medium Ash

Clinique Eyeshadow in Foxy

ELF Studio Creme Eyeliner in Black

ELF Studio Blushing and Bronzing Powder -
blush on apples of cheeks, bronzer along hairline, under jawbone, on cheekbones

Revlon Photo Ready Foundation in 04 Nude

Lancome Lipstick in Rouge Baroque

Geo Angel Violet contact lenses

Flash:

 I'm terribly awesome I wore this bright red lipstick on my teeth for half the day. There was a stain about 2 inches across. When my dad came home he asked if I had eaten something alive HAHA fail xD

Lancome Rouge Baroque swatches (btw uploaded these to Imageshack because Blogger is the WORST at washing out photos!)

Just for comparison, this is what Blogger did to these photos T__T (Update: my bf just told me that these look exactly the same to him. He uses Opera on Windows 7. Will you lovelies tell me if the colours look the same below compared to the above photos and include your browser and computer operating system in a comment? Is it a super vibrant red or just kind of? That would be so sweet of you! ♥ I am using Firefox/Safari on Mac OS)

Bathroom lighting: No matter what hosting site I use, it won't keep the brightness of the lipstick. This is extremely frustrating. Perhaps this is my internet browser's issue? The swatches above are super vibrant as they should be but these photos below are washed out. Any techies/photography aficionados - I would love your help!

Onto the facial mask!

I'm a Jabberwocky! Hahaha I borrowed one of my brother's hats and pranced around like an idiot. It was the hardest 10 minutes ever because I kept laughing every time I tried to say something serious while wearing this mask

So, maybe bright red lips aren't totally out of the question for me. I think that fact that I was wearing a beret made it all appropriate :D Today was a pretty uneventful day - I woke up abysmally late and spent most of my evening moving boxes from the apartment. I did manage to cut up my DIY shorts pretty well and tomorrow I will throw some bleach on it before styling my outfit yay! I can't believe I only have 6 days left in Cali! When I head back to school, my friend and I vowed to dress to strut style because life is too short to melt into the background. This is going to be crazy, but I'm going to finally let my inner fashion geek out to play on campus *fingers crossed* I also wonder, where the heck am I going to take outfit photos outside without gathering a crowd of onlookers? I always get embarrassed when my "irl" friends point out that they've been following my blog :3 "So this is how you spend your time..." Wahhh! Give me courage lovelies to come out of my fashion closet this fall xD

Review: L'Oreal Go 360° Clean Deep Exfoliating Scrub

I haven't written a proper review in a long while and it's high time for some format and structure in determining the quality and effectiveness of products. Since I own so many ELF products, I figure I'll do a comprehensive review of everything with swatches because their site has blasphemous not-true-to-colour images. I admit, I've been very lazy in about everything this past week, from MCAT studying to taking pictures for posts. It's pretty hard to stay motivated during the summer when your only options are picking your brain for formulas and random enzymes and sleep.

I picked up the L'Oreal Go 360° Clean Deep Exfoliating Scrub (peachy colour one) a few months ago when it just became popular because I thought the scrublet idea was clever. I thought that it would diminish the size of my pores and clean out all the sebum. Wrong.

Price: $6.99 for 6 fl oz

What the product claims to do (from their site):
L'Oreal Go 360° Clean offers a complete range of four expertly formulated, high-foam cleansers that are perfectly calibrated to perform with the Scrublet. The deep exfoliating scrub is a gentle yet effective scrub, which exfoliates skin with natural apricot seed powder and salicylic acid to reveal perfectly clean, smoother skin. With a rich lather and fruity, apricot fragrance, this exfoliating scrub is gentle enough for daily use.

- Smaller pores: Go 360° Clean shrinks the appearance of pore size and refinishes the skin's surface to reveal skin with more clarity.
- Deeper cleansing: Unique formulas reach down deeper to every last pore for a deep, deep clean. Keeps pores clean day after day.
- Softer skin: Sweeps away dead skin cells for an extraordinary softening and smoothing effect.
- Easy-to-use: Scrublet cleanses pore-by-pore with a fuss-free cleaning process.

 I obviously took these pictures a long time ago, when I had my Strawberry and Watermelon nails xD

Notice the ingredients: it has salicylic acid to treat acne but it sure did not do its job

After about a month of using this cleanser every day in the shower (while my pores open up due to steam), my skin didn't clear up and I actually started breaking out more. After you apply this and wash it off, your skin will feel slimy-silky, a weird combination but after you towel off your face ends up pretty dry. The tiny micro-beads weren't that exfoliating and did absolutely nothing about my pores or sebum.

I tried something out with the scrublet. I tried to exfoliate the dead skin off my lips with it (I know, gross) and it didn't take anything off. No matter how soft this scrublet thing is, it's not effective enough at cleaning out the pores as we imagine it would (and as frequently shown on commercials) - it pretty much just flails around on the skin and removes oil, which ends up drying your skin. Don't worry, I definitely washed the scrublet thoroughly before using it on my face again. It is a very soft tool, so if you don't like exfoliating with your hands you can use this. I have no idea what the big bumps at the bottom are supposed to do.

The formula can remove quite a bit of makeup, so that is good. However, eyeliner and mascara don't come off easily with this. I haven't tried it, but perhaps you can use some of your makeup remover on the scrublet and try removing makeup that way. It's soft enough for your eyelids. A little goes a long way, so don't use more than a dime-size amount for your entire face. The only thing I like about this product is the smell. The peachy, apricot scent is really pleasing.

Pros: 

- Smells great

- Removes oil

- You can keep the scrublet

Cons:

- Made me break out more

- Doesn't exfoliate or minimize pores

- Scrublet doesn't deep-clean

- Doesn't remove all makeup

- Can be drying
- Price

Verdict: 

Save your 7 bucks. If you are acne-prone, go for something more effective like St. Ives. If you just want something to wash your face with and like peachy scents, this is a pretty pricey option. You're effectively paying $7 for a scrubber that works half-heartedly. 

Effectiveness: 

- Cleansing: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

- Exfoliating: 2/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

- Acne treatment: 1/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

- Minimize pores: 2/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Packaging: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Scent: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Price: 2/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

Would I buy it again?

Never.

I haven't tried out the others (Gel, Lotion for sensitive skin, Cream), but they probably do about the same thing ... promise you a clean face.

If you have tried these, let me know what you think of them!

I was not paid in any way for this review; these are my opinions after use. This product was purchased with my own money. Results may vary from person to person.

Biore Pore Unclogging Scrub Review

I've been using this Biore Pore Scrub ($7-8) for about 2 years now. It's very minty and refreshing when you rub it on and I mainly use it in the shower. The colour of the scrub is so delicious and it's full of little micro-scrubbing beads that I use my palm to rub into my face for exfoliation.

My skin comes out feeling very smooth but the main con is that it's very drying so you'll have to use lotion afterwards. It does make a dramatic difference - when I don't use it for just a day or switch to some other cleanser, I immediately start to get a few red pimples. Deep cleaning for the win!

A 5 oz bottle lasts me well over a year, so it's worth the price in the long run. I just wish it was somehow more moisturizing (add a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, anyone?) but other than that it does its job.

Verdict (after 2 years of usage haha):

Price $7-8: Good in the long run
Packaging: Easy-to-use squeeze bottle
Does it work? Yes
Pros:
- Prevents breakouts
- Deep cleans
- Nice minty feeling
- Clears some acne
Cons:
- Drys out skin
Overall rating: 8/10
You can buy this at Target, Walmart, Drugstores, anywhere that carries Biore

Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday, girls : )

I was not paid in any way for this review; these are my opinions after use. This product was purchased with my own money. Results may vary from person to person.