Neutrogena Rapid Tone Repair Moisturizer SPF30

The term 'Holy Grail" is not a term I through around loosely. However, I have found my holy grail product to decrease the appearance of post acne scarring and other pesky spots that seem to take forever to go away or linger forever. 

I rarely break out (and I knock on wood every time I write that), but when I do it always tends to occur in the same spot - usually in between my cheekbones and the corner on my mouth - these breakouts always leaves me with a cluster of post acne marks that never go away and are tough to conceal.

I purchased Neutrogena's Rapid Tone Repair Moisturizer SPF30 (the day time version) 5 months ago (there is also a nighttime version, without the SPF). It claimed to diminish the appearance of spots and it had added bonuses of vitamin c, retinol and SPF30 - the perfect day time moisturizer in a nutshell. 

In all honesty, I had little hope that this would do wonders for my marks - but for $20, I purchased in anyway. 

I am pleased to report that after a month of use, my acne marks were barley noticeable. My skin tone is now more even. I have been skipping concealer around my problem areas completely for the past month and a half - 2 months.  I can't really report to much about what the retinol is doing for my skin, but it is a nice added ingredient. 

Onto the product itself - the packaging is nice and sturdy in the moisturizer's glass pump container. It's travel friendly as you can twist the pump shut. 

The texture is light which is somewhat of a con (for me). I do have drier skin and it does take some more product to feel my skin is adequately moisturized. This would be great for oily skin because it sinks in really nicely and doesn't leave and oily appearance. The texture also makes this product ideal to wear under makeup. The high dose of SPF also surprisingly does not leave a white cast over your face either. Below is the product almost completely rubbed in. You can see somewhat of a white shade, but once you completely let the product soak it, that disappears.

The scent is nice, a little citrusy but nothing too strong.

Overall, I do deem this my holy grail spot correcting product! My spots have diminished significantly. I love that I don't need to use a separate product with SPF in it during the daytime, and it's a 'comfortable' moisturizer to wear without it feeling heavy at all. I am definitely going to repurchase this moisturizer in the future.

Have you tried the Neutrogena Rapid Tone Repair Moisturizer?

MAY 2013 Favorites

And another month goes by and we are 6 months from Christmas. How crazy is that LOL. Okay I don't want to get so ahead of ourselves so I will go on with my favorites !

I purchased the Paul Mitchell Deep Cleansing Shampoo at a beauty supply store for $7 when my hair had that 'it needs to be cut 'feel. I don't know if you ladies can relate, but my hair can tell when it's ready to be trimmed. It doesn't feel clean when I wash it, it has build up, and the ends don't cooperate when I style my hair The Paul Mitchell Deep Cleansing Shampoo really helped my hair look and feel clean. The shampoo washed the buildup away and my hair looked healther than it actually was . This shampoo also has a nice lemony scent to it which I love also. 

tarte tipsy blush: Aside from this being a beautiful blush, Tarte's products are cruelty free which is a major plus for me. 

Tarte's Amazonian Clay Blush in Tipsy is a stunning matte coral shade that lasts all day. I went away to Dewey Beach a couple of weeks ago and this was the only blush I packed. It lasts all day, is totally bendable, and the color is just stunning! (full review to come)

NYX Cherry Cheese Cake Lip Butter Gloss - this opaque orange lip gloss has been pairing perfectly with the tipsy tarte blush. These non sticky, buttery glosses feel really smooth on the lips and are really comfortable to wear. The orange shade is rally great for summer as well. You can read some more about the NYX butter glosses here

Bath and Body Works White Citrus Body Lotion - I hadn't been in a bath and body works in, probably years, until recently. I was looking for a citrusy lotion and I found the White Citrus to be perfect. The scent has a hint of grapefruit and lemon and is not overpowering whatsoever! The Triple Moisture Body Cream leaves my skin felling really nice and smooth without that greasy feeling some lotions leave behind. 

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer in Neutralizer - I did purchase this when every blogger was raving about it and frankly, I did not like it at all and had no idea what the hype was about. However, I gave it another chance and think it was a matter of me using it improperly. Anyway, now that I am getting enough product out of the tube I am enjoying it much more. I find it lasts all day and does not crease! The neutralizer shade is a great shade because it conceals and brightens under my eyes. 

Real Techniques Powder Brush - I love this brush when I don't want to buff a bunch of powder on my face with a kabooki. The Real Techniques powder brush is really nice and fluffy. The bristles area so soft and it applies powder really nicely to set my makeup

FOTD: Using past favorites

Hi girls, Happy Memorial Day Weekend! 

First off just let me say sorry for not posting any nail posts. My nails have been in awful shape and I am trying to get them back to the standards that I want in order to post :)

Anyway, I have not really done a face of the day yet and wanted to show you guys what I have been wearing pretty much everyday with the exception of my lip color. A lot of these products you will recognize from my fast few monthly favorites. I have been really obsessed with creating super white inner corners of my eyes and translating it to the middle of my lid. I think it helps me look even more 'awake' and bright. I accomplish this by using my mac painterly paint pot and using Wet N Wild's Brule all over my lid. Brule is a few shades lighter than my skintone. For my inner corners NYX's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk is a great way to brighten up the inner corner. To line my eyes I used L'Oreal's liner intense felt tip liner and applied a few coats of L'Oreal's million lashes mascara.

For my foundation I am wearing my new favorite base - Revlon's Colorstay Whipped. I have grown to love this even more than my Nars, which I have been using for 3 years. The wear time on this foundation is amazing and I find it gets better as the day goes on. I do have a post on this but I do ahve to say that I recently wore it to my sister's graduation this past week in 85 degree weather, and it held up! amazing. I always set it with my Mac MSFN!

On my cheeks I am still obsessing over Mac's Cream Soda Blush.

Recently, I have been wearing brighter lip colors, but in this photo I have on Mac's Shy Girl lipstick and Revlon's lipgloss in Peach Petal

The Best of: Spring and Summer Lip Products

As the temperature rises, my lips get brighter! Right now, the drugstore has some amazing products that make me question whether I need to purchase another high end lipstick ever again. 

I get a lot more brave in the summer with brighter lipsticks/glosses..

Since everyone has been talking about the Revlon Lip Butter's I will start with those and get them out of the way! The lip butters are great for summer because they have a hydrating formula. I have two of the new colors - Juicy Papaya and Wild Watermelon. The pigmentation of these two are a little different -Juicy Papya is pretty sheer and needs a bit of layering to bring out it's warm peach/coral shade. I like to layer one sheer coat of wild watermelon so it looks like a red stain. The lip butters have a shiny finish and are really comfortable to wear. Revlon lip butters

The Maybelline Vivids are also really popular, with good reason. My go to shade this summer will definitely be Shocking Coral. The formula on these lipsticks is so amazing and the color range is great. I have a full post on the Vivids here.

NYX butter lip glosses are very pigmented glosses and feel really smooth once applied. I have two shades: Peaches and Cream and Cherry Cheese Cake, which is bizarre because the shade is orange. The texture of these butter glosses is really creamy. One coat gives a nice pop of color, but you can build these up to look really opaque. NYX's butter glosses have a decent lasting power, a couple of hours or so.

Finally, I am including a Victoria Secret Beauty Rush Sunset Kiss gloss in Orange Rush. I picked up on a whim the other day. I loved the ombre effect in the bottle and purchased it! Orange Rush is a sheer  gloss with gorgeous gold shimmer in it. It is a little thick for my liking - but a gorgeous gloss nonetheless. 

Swatches Left to Right: Maybelline Shocking Coral, Revlon Jusy Papaya, Wild Watermelon, NYX Peaches and Cream, Cherry Cheese Cake, Victoria Secret Sunset

what are your must have summer lip products?

April 2013 Favorites (Beauty and Accessories)

Okay, I felt as long as I get my favorites up before the 10th, its not too late to feature a monthly favorites! I did skip march favorites so some of these products account for the past two months!

I have been wearing Mac's Cream Soda blush constantly! It's perfect for spring and summer. I actually can't wait till I get a tan going to see how nice it looks with bronzed skin. I have a full review of the blush here

Another blush I have been wearing the past two months is Lorac's Rose blush. I have been reaching for this while getting ready for work and just want a subtle flush for my cheeks. Rose doesn't look very special in the pan but on the skin its a really nice warm dusty rose shade with a nice amount of pigmentation. It can be worn with any look and it lasts all day - more so than any of my Mac blushes.

If I wore anything on my lips other than my Mocha Rose lip balm (made by Rosebud Perfume Co.) the past couple of months, it was Mac's Shy Girl. Shy Girl is my favorite mac lipstick finish - a creamsheen so it is the most creamy texture. There are no pink undertones to it at all so paler girls beware! It's a true nude and looks great with a smokey eye on just some liner and mascara. 

WHY WHY WHY have I not purchased L'Oreal's Voluminous Million mascara before. It's not seen in this photo because i cannot find it which is freaking me out lol.

My lashes are decently long, but this mascara does a great job at fanning out my lashes, making it appear that I have more lashes than I actually do. I am going to do a full review of this blush in the near future!

I have not been doing much with my eyes but whenever I want to play up my eyes a little I have been popping Macs Espresso eyeshadow in the corners of my eyes. Espresso is a nice chocolaty brown that gives nice depth the my eyes. I have also been using it daily to fill my brows in. 

Lorac's eyeshadow base has been treating my well this month. I received this as a sample with the Pro Palette. It helps my shadow stay in place all day and night. I don't really use many eyeshadow bases other than Mac's Painterly paint pot, which I know isn't a 'true' base - but it works for me. I actually like this a lot better and will definitely purchase a full size once I am out. 

One skincare product that I had to include was the Neutrogena Rapid Tone Repair moisturizer wih SPF 30. This stuff has been a miracle worker for me. Stay tuned for a full review

There have been some accessories that I have been wearing EVERYDAY this month. All of them were purchased at Khol's! The sunglasses are LC and the two bangles and other bracelet are by Apt 9.

What are some of your monthly favorites?

xxx

I graduated graduate school!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to pop on here and apologize for my lack of posting! I defended my master's thesis last week. This last month has been crazy trying to get my 30 page paper all ready so I have not had much time to take photos or write in my spare time! But I am happy to announce that I passed my Thesis defense and paper. I just handed in my FINAL revisions, so I am eager to post beginning tomorrow!

Jindie Nails Honey Blue Blue

"......cuz you better red-neck-ognize!"  - Jindie Nails

Even though I think this show is an awful disgrace, I do love this nail polish. 

Honey Blue Blue is a medium robins egg blue cream // jelly base, with multiple sized blue and green glitters. The application of this was easy peasy. There was no balding issues and the glitters applied effortlessly.

I usually put underwear under glitter polishes, so for this one I used 2 coats of Honey Blue Blue over L'Oreal's Now You Sea Me.

Jindie Nail polishes can be purchased here and here 

And in case you are unfamiliar with what this all means ... here you go