lip salvation.

Smith’s Rosebud Salve

Smith’s Rosebud Salve HAS been my lips’ salvation. For one reason or another I’ve suffered from chapped lips for about…13 years now. I specifically remember a girl in my 8th grade English class pointing out how chapped my lips were and asking, “How do you kiss a guy with those lips?” I was horrified, of course, but also thinking “kiss a guy? how ’bout getting one to ask me out??” I hated my chapped lips, but how they’d feel on a boy’s lips was probably the furthest thing from my mind. (Yeah…I was that naiive.) Anyway, fast forward 13 years, and I’m 25, still suffering from the chronic chapped lip. I’m sure all of you know how maddening this can be. Especially when my lips (once made fun of by my siblings for being, “big and juicy”) are one of my favorite features (if I can say that…). I’d thought I’d found my holy grail what seemed like hundreds of times. Softlips, Carmex, plain old Vaseline. Until Sephora came along and delivered the special ingredient I’d been reading about in all my favorite magazines. I was headed to check-out after my first experience in the store (where they talked me into purchasing way too much, but graciously refunded when I returned) and there I saw it…a round little tin, very old-fashioned looking, navy and white with a hint of pink font and bearing those three all important words: Smith’s Rosebud Salve. I dropped it in my basket without a second thought and was barely out of the parking lot before I was slathering it on my winter-parched lips. Instant. Heaven. Of course I waited a few days to see if the effects were noteworthy and within a week I was hooked. The salve does everything. Moisturizes cuticles, under eyes, and of course, LIPS. Not only does it moisturize, but exfoliates. Go to bed with dry cracked lips? Slather on some rosebud salve and the smell will not only intoxicate and relax you, but the salve with work it’s magic overnight. Slough off the dead skin with a washcloth in the shower the next morning and you’ll swear your lips are smoother than the day you were born.

product junkie.

To keep things interesting (and somewhat consistent) around here, I’ve decided to use Fridays as an excuse to post about one of my favorite things..beauty products!  I’m a bit of a product junkie. I’ve been trying to be a little more conscious of the space I take up in the bathroom and the budget, since I could spend thousands of dollars “trying out” new things with “oooh pretty shiny new packaging!” I’m a sucker for some nice, clean, enticing packaging. A marketer’s dream I tell you.

I’ll never forget the look on my sweet husband’s face the first time he came out of my bathroom in the apartment I lived in before I moved to this house. He and his friend had just “popped by” to visit my roommate and I so I didn’t have time to scoop up all the products covering my bathroom counter  and throw them in the cabinets underneath like I usually do. (It was a really big counter too…that was a great bathroom).  They took it upon themselves to survey our living quarters and when B emerged from my room he looked like he’d seen a ghost, “I’ve never seen so many things in one bathroom in my entire life.” Maybe he was flashing forward to what life with me might be like in the future…but thankfully it didn’t scare him away! Anyway…back to the topic at hand. Product of the week:

Philosophy Purity Cleanser and Hope in a Jar 

(I tried to figure out how to post a picture…but my dashboard is acting up. I’ll try to do that later.)

This stuff is a little pricey, especially since I pride myself on using MOSTLY drugstore make-up, skin care and hair products. The ratio has become a little skewed since Sephora came to town, so I try to stay out of there as much as possible. But the combination of these two products have done more for my skin than absolutely ANYTHING else I have tried. I’m 26 years old and a year ago (before I started using this stuff) I was still breaking out. It was annoying and frustrating and I could not understand why my skin wouldn’t just go ahead and CLEAR UP already. Well, less than a month into using the Purity cleanser, my face was smoother, softer and more clear than it had been since about 7th grade. I was hooked. I then decided to try the Hope in a Jar moisturizer and there was no turning back. This stuff actually makes your skin GLOW. I may get a small break-out around that time of the month, but other than that, my skin has completely changed. Tune in next week to find out about the absolute BEST cure for dry and chapped lips