Snow white..I am not.

Tomato face

Googling "Natural whitening tips" and you will find main ingredients such as milk, honey, flour, lemon or lime and tomato. I read something like: Rub tomato and lime juice on face for 20 minutes twice a day for 15-20 days. Since I'm lazy, I rub only tomato on my face for 2 minutes, leave the juice on my face for 20 and hope to be snow white like the day I was born.

I got very tanned during our Chile trip and even though it sounds great, I had no desire to be a gazillion times darker. Knowing that my tans usually remain for more than a year on my body makes me worry that the darkness on my forehead will not fade away any time soon. I slathered SPF 40 sun lotion for face topped with another layer of SPF 30 for body. I don't know whether this Josie Maran organic sunscreen simply is not good enough or the UV down in Chile was too powerful. I have a feeling my LaRoche sun block for sun intolerant people would have done a better job. Yes having a tan is wonderful but I worry about sun spots in the long run because I am prone to them as an Asian. But for now, this new darkness means that I cannot wear ANY of my current lighter concealer nor foundation. I tried putting concealer under my eyes before going out yesterday and I got raccoon eyes. Cute but not the point. Therefore I want to quickly lighten up my skin without any chemicals and so, trying this tomato thing is my best bet. Any other advice?

You can't really tell from the picture. You have to look carefully to see where my sleeves protected half of the back of my hands and where my ring was sitting.

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MY BEAUTY "I need these" LIST [Sephora]

My most basic beauty products I use. I had an eyeliner too but I don't know where it is now.

From left to right: Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer, Kevin Aucoin mascara, Dior 5 color eyeshadow and Laura Mercier concealer.

I don't think that I own a lot of beauty products and if you think I do, it is due to an accumulation of all my old makeup which I haven't thrown out in the past few years even after moving from country to country to country. I just dragged that old mascara that I rarely wear around because it smells like roses (Anna Sui's voluminous mascara). I should empty my makeup bag one day and show it to the world and you will laugh! Ok, I do have many current beauty products that are not expired. I buy at most one lipstick every year or two (I bought this Chanel liptsick in May). I buy one tube of mascara per year because that actually runs out or dries to the point I cannot use it anymore. And then I bought this NARS Multiples stick in March to replace this blush I had for a reeeeally long time which I did not throw out yet! I should test it in the lab for fungal growth right?

"6 months shelf life for a mascara? 1 year for foundation? 1 year lipstick.."

I don't follow any of those petty rules but I know I should. I'm still happily using my DIOR 5 couleurs INCOGNITO eyeshadow palette I purchased with my Pharmaprix (equivalent of Duane Reade) points back in Montreal in 2008? Booya!

So the point of this post was to mention that I am running out of my Kiehl's Creme de Corps whipped body buttah and I've gone through two tubs of it for over a year now. I have decided that it is time to move on to better moisturizing things. I dread changes because you always stumble upon undesirables before finding your true love...body lotion. I was visiting Aussie brand Aesop the other day and tried some of their body lotions. They are really expensive but good thing I didn't like the scents so I gladly walked away buuut not before taking a buncha samples with me though. It smells better when it's free! Also, a large bottle of Aesop body lotion is $95 so my little samples are gold.

As your may or may not know, I have become a fan of Josie Maran's Argan oil skincare line and looked to the collection to find that she indeed has whipped body lotion. It is only available online on Sephora.com (I want the free samples!)! Since it is $50 for free shipping, I needed to find $15 more of something to buy. You'd think it was easy but it's not. So what else do I need? Mmmm I need eye lotion! I have been using samples or free eye creams gifted to me over the past few years. In fact, I don't remember the last time I bought eye cream or ever. It is is a high price to pay for just my eyes and I also read that Tyra Banks' mom uses good ol' Vaseline so I thought I could try that too! But I'm almost 30 now so I HAVE to take care of my skin. Josie Maran's eye cream is $65. Is the price justified if it includes 2 types of eye cream? A day and night eye cream. I didn't think I needed two types of eye creams do I? The day time one can help hold your makeup and that could be useful when I wear concealer and it would look blotchy because it is dry...So, do I splurge? It is definitely not the $15 that I wanted to spend to get free shipping and I still have various eye cream samples laying around. hmm

This is not an endorsed post! Cha-ching!

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Tender hair care [Josie Maran's Argan oil]

After years of neglect, absent use of hair conditioner, I hope to finally treat you right, hair.

After using Josie Maran's daily face moisturizer for over 2 months now and seeing something different, I decided that Argan oil will also do some good for my hair. My poor poor unloved brittle hair. I just don't like the greasy residue conditioner leaves in my hair AND bathtub.

Share your miracle hair care with me? But it has to be super low maintenance as I can't commit to anything that takes more than 3 minutes :)

xx

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I'm ready for you, sun! Josie Maran eco-friendly cosmetic line!

Sun protection for body and Facial daily moisturizer

I first heard about Josie Maran and her sunscreen products on Cup of Jo. Based on Joanna's review, I was really interested in trying these toxin free sunscreens as I also had no idea how harmful they could be for our skin. Read this extensive article mentioning the harmful chemicals found in sunscreens here and how sunscreen itself can be the cause of skin cancer when it's suppose to be protecting your skin!

I decided to pass by a Sephora last week to sample the sun lotions and quickly slather some on my arms and face before a sales person pounced on me since I knew I wanted to buy stuff online anyway (free samples!). It was light, absorbed quickly and non greasy-streaky-sticky which is an all around winning combination for me.

Not knowing much about the brand and who Josie Maran was, I then did some research.

Pic taken from http://www.tvfanatic.com

This is Josie Maran. She is a supermodel and actress and now an 'eco-entrepreneur'. Why does she look so familiar? Because she's been a model with Maybelline for a record of over ten years so you've probably seen her in numerous magazine ads.

She launched her cosmetic line in 2007 and it has the highest level of eco-consciousness I have ever seen.
Have you ever seen a line with so many icons associated with it? 'Made With Love' is a cute one but I end up buying both the daily moisturizer and the sun lotion for body and they had these icons listed:

-Organic argan oil (Also known as the Moroccan liquid gold)
-Toxin free
-Paraben free
-No synthetic fragance
-Natural ingredients
-Recyclable
-Peta approved
-Vegan
-Pur
-Organic

I feel good just buying the product and I hope it will protect me well this summer as I know I will be out in the sun a lot and will slather sunscreen in abundance.

I currently use Laroche Posay's SPF 60 sun block and have for the past few years (I know, too high, made for sun intolerant people but I need it!). The stickiness and white residue when I wear it is not ideal but I wear it because I don't want to be any darker than I already am. If you see me, you'd think that I am a person who likes to tan all the time since I'm so dark but I wear SPF 60, try to hide in the shade all the time and walk around with an umbrella if I must! Why? I'm Asian and there are high chances that in like 20 years or less, sun spots will pop up on my face and skin like seedlings in the Springtime. I tan once and it stays with me for the rest of the year! I still have prominent bikini bottom tan lines from my Turks and Caicos trip back in December 2011. 6 months later! And I did wear sun block at the time too!

Ordered from Sephora to get some freebies!

There are so many eco friendly beauty products out there actually but Josie Maran's line doesn't look like a typical eco-friendly line at all with cardboard packaging or green colored to make it obvious to consumers that it is a GREEN product. I like that it looks simple and luxurious. I never heard of Argan Oil but it's suppose to be anything but good for you so why not?

xxx
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