There is nothing wrong with the lip plumpers- they are good fun anyway (“Ow…hey…OW…dude…Whoa My whips wook so gwood” hehe). From a blurb I found about Lip Venom: "It will give your lips what the company describes as a “bee-stung” look. It does this because the ingredients in Lip Venom enhance your natural lip color and fullness by increasing the circulation in your lips. " Along the same lines, I’ve heard that you can just rub cinnamon (the main ingredient in Venom) on your lips for a similar, but less intense effect.
I suggest Lip Venom (the original, big name plumper)- the tube is smaller, but you really can use a lot less of it than the other products I’ve tried. There are two kinds: regular Venom and Venom Flash (which has either gold or silver glitter); I think Venom goes for $15.
Victoria’s Secret also has a new plumper that they are pimping for about $15. The packaging is HUGE, but I think it holds a comperable amount to the Venom. Also, it doesn’t work quite as strongly or for as long.
I would argue that makeup is different than skin care products, strictly because the results are obvious in a way that they’re not with skin care stuff. Like I said, the effects of a given facial care product are likely to be subtle (unless it provokes an allergic reaction), and may only be obvious after extended use. But there’s no arguing it when a foundation only stays on for half an hour or a line of blush only comes in shades that make you look like a ventriloquist’s dummy. It’s easier to objectively evaluate makeup on your own, so it’s not really directly comparable. (There’s still plenty of expensive but crappy makeup out there, though.)
Wet n Wild is pretty notoriously crappy in most of their cosmetics, judging from what I’ve heard from others and my own experience with their shitty nail polish. I think it’s pure myth that good skin care products cost a lot of money, but the absolute cheapest thing out there is more than likely going to be bad. Same goes with shampoo - you can get Thermasilk at any drug store, and it’s as good as any expensive shampoo out there (and there’s nothing special about it that makes it particularly suited for use with curling irons). But if you decide to buy the VO5 because it’s the cheapest thing on the shelf, you’re not going to be happy.
You’ll probably have to make peace with using two products, then. If your skin is that dry, it’s unlikely to cause you to break out or anything.
Hey, at least you don’t wipe your hand across your forehead and discover your skin is shiny with grease afterwards. Oily skin is gross, I can tell you.
I am 58 years old (this is me). I’ve been told that I look about 35. People sometimes ask me what my secret is.
Well, there isn’t any secret. I buy cheap imitation-Oil-of-Olay moisturizers. Sometimes I use hand lotion or hair conditioner on my face if I’m out of the cheap moisturizer. I’ve never used any exfoliants (sounds too much like something that Robert Duvall would drop out of a plane onto the Viet Cong rice paddies).
My sister is eight years younger than I am, and she looks her age. What’s the difference between my sister and me? She has spent a lot of time in the sun (without sunscreen), and I have languished indoors maintaining a lily-white pallor.
I am convinced that the biggest skincare tip of all time is this: stay out of the sun. If you can’t stay out of the sun, use sunscreen.
Of course, if one’s skin trouble is caused by hormones, as mine is, I haven’t the least clue how to fix it. I do work the lily-white pallor, though. Sunblock is a good, good thing.
Pinkfreud you look maahhvelous! Wow. I would NEVER guess that you were pushin’ six-oh. ITA on the sun thing. I started tanning salons around 18, which was 20+ years ago and before we all knew it was bad. And I plastered my face to that glass. A tan face, to me, meant less makeup needed.
Well, after many years I quit tanning. Even admonished my BFF when she’d go, telling her to not tan her face. Last year I succumbed to the siren-call of the tan legs (better tan and fat than white and skinny, I thought) and started going again. I NEVER let the light touch my face now. But it’s too late.
ALL of the teenage girls I talk to (few) are advised to use sunscreen and to start NOW. It’s one thing that I really, really regret.
Ah, well I talked about eyeshadows because you said Indygrrl was a sucker for refusing to use cheap cosmetics. And my point still stands with even higher end drugstore makeup (l’Oreal, etc); I just used Wet n Wild for a higher contrast.
Yeah but I’m laaaaaaazy. And we don’t have a/c in the summer, so it sucks glopping on stuff and then glopping more stuff on. Sure, now my face isn’t dry anymore, but since I’m sweating too, I feel like a greased pig. It’s not as big a deal in the winter, since I’m not going to be sweating in high humidity.
What I’ve done in the winter is buy a regular daycream (with sunblock) and added 2-3 drops of olive oil to the dab on my palm before applying it, which seems to help (and not block my pores). If I got a decent moisturizer and a sunblock, would mixing them together work just fine? I’d think so since I’d be doing the same thing by rubbing both on my face.
But yes, definitely sunscreen for me. I’m 23 and people often still think I’m in high school (and I have big hips, small waist and big boobs, so it’s not like I look undeveloped!). I’d like to keep that going as long as possible!
Personally, I’ve tried expensive skin care products, and the ones I like best that I’ve actually finished bottles of have all been from Burt’s Bees. They’re not expensive at all, they’re made of things you can identify, and they work very nicely. People do often complement me on my skin.
Mixing them shouldn’t matter so long as you’re putting on enough of the sunblock. Liquid oils like olive oil are fine, too; it tends to be solid, waxier oils that block pores. But I wouldn’t use extra virgin - bacteria could probably feed on the green crud that makes it fancy and delicious.
Excuse me. If this was the pit I’d have choice words for you. Do NOT call me stupid.
Do you wear makeup? From your posts I gather that you are male. I’ve been experimenting with lotions, potions, and makeup for right around 20 years. Yeah, the label may read that certain things have the same ingredients, but in my experience you get what you pay for.
Lancome foundation is much different than Cover Girl, believe me. Just like Lubriderm is superior to Suave lotion. There ARE differences. As for certain things like mascara, yes, I believe in the pink and green cheapie Maybelline tube. Eyeshadow, I don’t care about the brand. But when it’s about skincare, I spend a little more, and I enjoy the luxury of smooth, even skin.
I don’t wear drugstore perfume either, want to call me stupid for that as well?
Why’d you ask, then? I’d already made my opinions about expensive beauty products clear. It’s almost as if you asked because you counted on me to to backpedal rather than share what I really thought, out of some desire to spare your feelings. Would you try a passive aggressive approach like that to make an argument rather than argue on the merits of the issue? I certainly hope not.
And in my experience, and according to marketing research, people’s subjective appraisals of a product’s quality are heavily influenced by how much they spend on it.
The question is whether those differences correlate to price (and, of course, whether you are magically objective in forming opinions about beauty products, unlike everyone else on earth.) Which, as I’ve tried to explain, they don’t. And there’s no reason to think they would - after all, it’s not like expensive skin care products cost more to manufacture.
Yes, I believe you’ve mentioned your hot body and good looks before on this forum. But pinkfreud also has nice skin (look at her photo - does she look like a 58-year-old? Uh-uh.) Let me know when your anecdote is done fighting with the others. Then we can talk more meaningfully.
One can smell the difference between different qualities of perfume. It’s far harder to evaluate skin creams. As I’ve pointed out. And perfume formulations are far more exacting than moisturizers, and they involve far more expensive materials. Which is not to say that perfume is not overpriced.
Interestingly, though, straight guys in my experience are pretty oblivious to the subtleties of good perfume. Most of them probably would be equally happy to smell a woman wearing body spray from Bath and Body Works, even if it doesn’t cost seventy-five bucks a bottle.
Gee Excaliber, I thought we were just gabbing about makeup and stuff. I didn’t realize you would take my rhetorical question as an opportunity to rail on me. Notice that I’m not arguing with anyone else on this thread. We are all entitled to our opinions here, subjective as they may be.
And why is it ok with you for Pinkfreud to say she has great skin (which she does), but take issue with me for saying the same thing?
Sorry about that. She used an interesting rhetorical trick - either agree with her that she’s a sucker (thus insulting her) or backpedal. That’s a rather sleazy little trick, when you think about it. It’s tough to respond to that sort of thing without breaking forum rules.
I don’t take issue at all. I was agreeing with you - all the evidence I have at my disposal does indeed indicate that you are one hot, sexy woman. Congratulations on that.
I didn’t know we were debating. I was chatting about skin and makeup, no trickery was intended. Not sure why you feel like anything I said was a personal affront to you.
And we don’t have a/c in the summer, so it sucks glopping on stuff and then glopping more stuff on. Sure, now my face isn’t dry anymore, but since I’m sweating too, I feel like a greased pig. 
It’s not as big a deal in the winter, since I’m not going to be sweating in high humidity.
Why’d you ask, then? I’d already made my opinions about expensive beauty products clear. It’s almost as if you asked because you counted on me to to backpedal rather than share what I really thought, out of some desire to spare your feelings. Would you try a passive aggressive approach like that to make an argument rather than argue on the merits of the issue? I certainly hope not.
