Winter Face Creams

Looking to improve your winter skincare routine to include a better face cream? Here are our current favorites, and they are perfect for all skin types.

L’Occitane Immortelle Precious Cream ($56): Don’t let the thick texture of this cream deceive you – it’s light and fast-absorbing, with just the right level of hydration. If you like a more natural product with plant extracts and essential oils, this is one to try.

Super by Dr. Nicholas Perricone Super Hyper Hydrator with Coconut Water ($40): Either alone or layered with treatment products, we are totally in love with this coconut lotion. It’s super lightweight but incredibly hydrating, and it smells amazing! No trip to Sephora is complete without picking up an extra jar or two.

Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream ($19.99): We love drugstore finds, and this anytime cream is an easy choice for any skin type. It’s no miracle worker (like any cream really is), but it softens and hydrates as well as the higher priced brands.

Favorite Hand Creams

With the hope and promise of a new year comes something we find rather unwelcome, but thankfully avoidable: winter dry hands. We’ve had enough! Here are a few of our favorite hand creams, from budget to more indulgent, to help you get through the dry skin season.

Avon Care Silicone Glove Protective Hand Cream ($5 for a full size 3.4 oz tube, $0.99 for the 1.5 oz size)
Our favorite hand cream comes with a bit of nostalgia: we used to get a holiday-themed tube of Silicone Glove every year in our Christmas stocking. It still evokes that special memory every time we smell it. It has a fresh, baby powder scent, is non-greasy, and makes our hands soft and supple. We also love how it lasts through a few hand washings.

Nivea Soft Moisturizing Creme (available in 6.8 oz jar or 2.6 oz tube; $4-6)
If you are the kind of person who routinely slathers on lotion after a bath or shower, Nivea Soft is the cream for you. The soft, delicate scent won’t clash with other scents you might wear, and it’s lightweight and non-greasy.

Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream ($19)
Caudalie is decidedly more indulgent than a drugstore hand cream, but it is also more of a skin care treatment. Caudalie uses the antioxidant benefits of grape seed polyphenols in all their products, so this hand cream boasts anti-aging properties. Considering that is does not contain a sunscreen, we are not convinced about the anti-aging claims, but it’s still a nice hand cream. It has a fresh, grapevine scent and is non-greasy and fast absorbing.

Our Ideal Makeup Kit on a Budget

Cleaning out a makeup bag is much like cleaning the house: there is a sense of relief and lightness without all the clutter. Every season we like to switch out eye shadow palettes and our selection of lip glosses, but we like to keep the basics classic and simple. These are the go-to products we count on every day.

CoverGirl Natureluxe Foundation ($11.98)

We don’t normally spend this much for foundation, but the versatility of Natureluxe really won us over. It’s a perfectly pigmented liquid with a light feel like a tinted moisturizer but enough coverage to be worthwhile. It also blends seamlessly, so if you only need coverage on certain areas of your face, rather than all over, it won’t look splotchy or haphazard. Natureluxe comes in 14 natural shades, which makes finding the right one even easier.

Maybelline Fit Me! Pressed Powder Blush ($5.50)

We are so over spending too much for makeup, so this pretty pink blush is an easy choice at around $5. The texture is soft, the pigment isn’t too heavy, and the color is super flattering for all skintones. We are even pretty happy with the enclosed brush.

Maybelline Fit Me! Concealer Makeup ($4.99)

On those mornings when we don’t look as fresh and awake as we’d like, a tiny dab of this richly pigmented concealer under each eye really does the trick for dark circles. We love that it doesn’t slide, doesn’t settle into creasy areas, and it’s also great for the occasional red spot or blemish. There are only 6 shades, but we found them to be very natural and blendable.

Maybelline Full ‘N Soft Waterproof Mascara ($5.27)

While we love our occasional $25 Lancome mascara, we just can’t justify spending that on a regular basis. We love trying different mascaras from the drugstore because there are so many, and they are so inexpensive. Our latest love is this waterproof one from Maybelline. We like a more natural look, and this mascara does the job.

Kiss Everlasting French Pearl Nails

We’ve often entertained the idea of gel nails, or even the trendy new solar UV nails, on mani-pedi days at our favorite salon, but the commitment (and expense) is a bit of a turn off. Now we have a fun and easy option for prettier-than-plain nails: Kiss Everlasting French nails.

Each kit (around $10) comes with plenty of sizes of nails so you get just the right fit, and the shorter lengths even have handy tabs on the ends to make application super easy. Kiss also makes a variety of patterned nails, so you get the look of detailed nail art in an easy glue-on nail.

Our personal favorite is Everlasting French Chip Free in Real Short “Endless”. We can have the polished look of a French manicure, but with a shorter length for our active lifestyle. We found they stayed on well and did not chip at all for over a week.

You can find Kiss nails at stores like Target, CVS and Walgreens, as well as online.

Dove Nutritive Therapy Nourishing Oil Hair Care System review

We are always looking for reasonably priced hair care that helps with frizz, and now there is something new to try from Dove. Nutritive Therapy Nourishing Oil Care is a collection that includes shampoo, daily conditioner, treatment conditioner, leave-in smoothing cream and anti-frizz serum designed to eliminate dryness and frizz with weightless oils that won’t leave hair lifeless and greasy.

We put the products to the test recently on both fine, wavy hair and thick, curly hair – both with a tendency to frizz, especially in high humidity – and we were very pleasantly surprised at how well the products work, both individually and as a “system”. We tried different combinations of the products with frizz-free results, and we quickly discovered our favorites.

For fine hair, the shampoo, daily conditioner, and a pea-sized amount of smoothing cream is the best system for eliminating frizz without a weighed down or greasy look.

For our testers with thick, curly hair, we like the shampoo and daily conditioner, with the treatment conditioner substituted in once a week, plus daily use of the smoothing cream on damp hair and an application of anti-frizz serum to dry hair before styling. The cream penetrates quickly and seals in moisture while the serum is great for finishing.

The Dove Nourishing Oil collection is available in stores now, and prices range from $4 for shampoo or conditioner and $5 for treatment conditioner or smoothing cream, but the anti-frizz serum is only sold at Walgreens (we wish it were sold everywhere the other products are available), also for around $5.

Another stop on the search for the perfect skin care routine

Like most women, I think I have tried just about everything there is to look younger, short of cosmetic surgery. I don’t have too much to complain about – some lines around my eyes, the occasional dark circle – but I definitely want to prevent looking any older than I have to. Good, consistent daily care is essential to getting and keeping the best looking complexion you can have, so to that end it has been my pleasure to try DHC’s reformulated line of co-enzyme Q10 anti-aging skin care products. The Q10 Essentials Set ($85) includes one of my already-favorite DHC products, the Deep Cleansing Oil (amazing for removing makeup), plus Q10 Facial Film Soap, Q10 Lotion and Q10 Cream.

The Deep Cleansing Oil is one of the best makeup removers, and it works well for any skin type. Just work a pump or two into dry skin and rinse off. It removes makeup, eyeliner, and mascara effortlessly, then lightly lathers and rinses clean away. Another cleanser in the set is a box of Q10 Facial Film Soap, incredibly thin sheets of soap that activate with water, completely dissolve into foamy lather, and quickly cleanse your face at the gym, while traveling, or just if you like that squeaky clean feeling after using the Deep Cleansing Oil. Even though my skin can hint at dryness, the Q10 Facial Film Soap work great for me.

After cleansing, I like to splash on Q10 Lotion. This toner gives an extra anti-aging boost, and if you apply a small amount with your hands instead of a cotton pad, you use less. I like to use just enough to leave my face damp, then I apply the last product of the set, Q10 Cream. A thin layer of this silky cream traps in the dewy layer of  Q10 Lotion for even more hydrating and anti-aging benefits. The Q10 Cream delivers just the right amount of hydration without being too heavy, just right for any skin type.

If you are looking for something new in anti-aging skincare, the Q10 Essentials Set is a great way to try the products at a discount, and you have a complete, morning and night routine in one set.

Afforable luxury: Alba Botanica’s new Rainforest Hair Care

We recently had the pleasure of trying Alba Botanica’s new Rainforest Hair Care, and now we fight with our teenage daughter over who gets to use the products! The smell is amazing, and the way it makes our hair look – super silky and shiny – makes us reconsider our recent drugstore-only hair care proclamation. Sure, these are more expensive at about $10 each for the Acai anti-oxidant shampoo and conditioner, but we think we will treat ourselves in this case