Beautymint.com Essential Cleanser & Ultimate Replenishing Serum Review

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 9, 2011 . 9:04PM

A few weeks ago, here on blueshelled.com, I mentioned a site called beautymint.com. They were doing a really neat campaign to help fight breast cancer that was appealing to me because all you had to do was sign-up for their newly launched site in the month of October and you would add to their donation total for their campaign. As a part of this, Beautymint.com asked if I wouldn’t mind trying some of their products and writing an honest review for my readers. I generally don’t mind doing this as long as companies don’t mind that I am going to be completely and totally honest and they might not like what I have to say. Beautymint.com was up for the challenge and sent me two of their products: Essential Cleanser and Ultimate Replenishing Serum.

One of the neat things about the site is that they have a customized beauty plan for each person. You go on the site and before you can look at the products (which could be a pro or a con, depending on how quickly you’d like to view the products), you take a personalized skin test to determine which products would best fit you. I am a 3*6*3, which means that 2 different systems would work for me.

I tried the products over the course of a week and my verdict is that these are not for me. These may be for me over the summer, when my skin tends to be more oily, however, right now, with the weather cooling down, they dried my skin out even in my oily t-zone. My skin had extra redness after these products and a week after using them, I’m still dealing with the fallout.

Here is where I give you my disclaimer: I have super sensitive skin and I think that these products would work best for a person with normal to oily skin and no dryness or itching issues. I’m not a dermatologist, rather, I’m just someone that tried them and had a reaction. I also did NOT use the entire 4-part system that was recommended for my skin, so this may have contributed to the reaction I had to the products.

As such, I can’t say that I will be using these products for myself, but I can see that for those struggling with balancing an oily face, these might be a holy grail product. They are fairly inexpensive in that you can get the entire 4-piece set for $39.99 (so roughly $10 a piece) and they are only a little smaller than most department store sets. I did like the scent and the texture was nice. I didn’t have to use much, but I did feel like I would run out fairly quickly. Overall, if you are still searching for your perfect cleanser set, it’s worth a try, but if you’ve found something you like, you may not want to move in on this set.

Note: I received free products to keep in order to review them. I received no other compensation for my review and all opinions are my own.

Children and Compassion

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 5, 2011 . 6:13PM

I was reading an article recently that was discussing a study showing results indicating that babies have a strong sense of fairness and altruistic features. While I don’t know if I agree with the results, as I’ve read reactions citing that altruistic reactions could also be due to other factors and there is no causation when you do studies such as these, the study made me thoughtfully consider children and the way they treat others. I have seen compassionate and sympathetic babies. AJ was a particularly sympathetic little one and would cry when other babies would cry, matching their tone and stopping immediately when they would look at him in wonder and put their little baby hands out to him in a gesture of baby unity.

Little league ended a couple of weeks ago, but I have been remiss in getting my thoughts on this down. Little league is no different than any other setting for children to display beautiful acts of compassion for others. One child on AJ’s team was lovingly nicknamed “Roly Poly.” Roly Poly has such heart when he plays that when a ball comes near him he automatically dives and rolls for it. Roly Poly is a vivacious, thoughtful child who is a strong ballplayer and a sweet child. AJ, particularly, enjoys playing ball with him. The first game we had in October showed Roly Poly in some shockingly pink socks as well as a hot pink sweatband on his arm that designated it was breast cancer awareness month. Roly Poly is 10. He continued to wear hot pink the rest of the month, though no one else on his team or on the league did.

My son has his moments as well. He frequently plays catcher and can be particularly empathetic to those poor kids that strike out. I’ve noticed, repeatedly, that when someone strikes out on our team or the other, that AJ will pat them on the helmet and say, “Nice try, buddy.” It’s not just good sportsmanship. It’s not that he’s not competitive. It’s that he understands that feeling and it’s not a good one and he doesn’t want that other kid to feel bad or alone.

When a child goes down on the field with an injury, the kids immediately take a knee and I notice that many of them are fixated on how they can help the child who is hurt. AJ, as a catcher, is generally in the mix of this as many of those accidents occur near home plate. I see his little brow furrow, and him run to the child as the coaches surround them and he tries to help in any way he can. I see kids pat each other on the back after a great play, console each other after a bad game and, for those that have a bad home life, spend time talking to their team mates and trying to forget life for a while.

Yes, children are compassionate and I know that we want to know when all of that begins, but I’m not sure it matters. What matters to me is that it exists and that it is beautiful.