Welcome to the Cosmetic Report^™ newsletter. It's our goal to bring you unbiased information about cosmetic products and trends so you can make educated buying decisions. If you've been searching for straightforward beauty information and advice, you've found it here. The Cosmetic Connection Panel of reviewers are consumers just like you who face the same issues and challenges, and look to the beauty industry to help solve them.

Vicky is a 38 year old office manager who has always loved makeup and skincare products. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona where the dry climate and high summer temperatures make taking care of your skin and melt-proofing your makeup a challenge! Vicky has dark brown curly hair, dark brown eyes, and a medium/light olive complexion. Her skin is normal-to-oily (t-zone) with large pores and occasional breakouts. Her hair is fine, highlighted, on the dry side, and Vicky regularly straightens it with a ceramic flat iron.

Coppertone Endless Summer Sun and Tanning
Living here in Arizona, I tend to take the sun very seriously - especially when the first wave of 100+ degree days starts to hit in early May! Since Arizona has a high rate of skin cancer, blocking the harmful rays from your skin on a daily basis is a necessity, so finding a good sunscreen/sunblock is the first step in protecting your skin. With so many brands flooding the shelves at drugstores & supermarkets, Coppertone is perhaps one of the most recognizable; it's been around so long it almost has a retro feel to it! But rest assured the company has kept up-to-date with technology.

The Endless Summer line (which is what it feels like sometimes in Arizona) has a wide range of products that are formulated to be ultrasheer. Ultrasheer does not mean sheer protection; on the contrary, there is so much good stuff for your skin packed into a bottle it makes you wonder how they got the formula to be so light. Aside from the features that most every sunscreen has in it today (the broad-spectrum UVA/UVB that blocks both types of harmful ultra-violet rays, the water-resistancy, and the oil-free factor), Endless Summer Ultrasheer Sunscreen has anti-oxidants, called their AO-7 complex, that helps to protect the skin against the damage done by free-radicals. It also has collagen, elastin, and vitamins A,C, and E - even more good stuff for your skin! Plus a high SPF of 45! This sunscreen has some of the same ingredients found in a lot of the moisturizers and repair products we use. What a long way from that brown and yellow bottle of Coppertone with the "suntan lotion" smell from years ago!

Okay, now for the real test: how does it feel when you apply it? You can have the most advanced-formula sunscreen in the world, but it won't do you any good sitting in the bottle! Endless Summer has a nice consistency that is like a lotion, not too creamy & not too runny. It is easy to spread and absorbs quickly, which is great because I know I don't like skin that feels sticky right before I get dressed. My skin felt nice and smooth. Plus, there is an expiration date stamped on the side of the bottle. I really think that Coppertone stands apart from the other brands of sunscreen out there with their Endless Summer line.

A nifty product that I have always liked because of its neatness and portability is the sunblock stick. It's like a huge tube of lipbalm that you can use all over your face, especially the hot spots like bridge of nose, cheeks, lips, around the eye area (crow's feet!). Coppertone has one of these in its line also, the Endless Summer Ultrasheer Sunscreen Stick. It has all the same benefits of the lotion, plus it's fragrance-free and has zinc oxide (sheer, not the white opaque kind). It also has an SPF of 35. It doesn't leave your skin feeling sticky or looking shiny, so you could even apply it over makeup if you needed to.

Now, just because I need to protect my skin from the sun by blocking the rays (which include the "tanning" rays as well) doesn't mean I like to look pasty white. One of the best products around is self-tanner. You can get a nice toasty color to your skin without having to spend time just lying in the sun, knowing that it's bad for you but wanting to look good anyway! Self-tanner is fast and safe, and the formulas keep getting better all the time. Since I am such a fan of self-tanners I have pretty much tried then all. My biggest complaint is the drying time; sometimes is takes 45 minutes to an hour to dry despite labels claiming that it dries in 15 minutes!

Naturally, when I tried Coppertone Endless Summer Sunless Tanning Foam I was skeptical of its 5 minute dry-time claim. This self-tanner comes packaged in a rather bulky container that holds only 3.7 ounces of product. The bottle is actually two chambers that dispense two separate kinds of foam. The pink foam contains the color activator that reacts to the proteins in your skin, and the white foam contains alpha-hydroxy acids and moisturizers to keep the skin smooth. I can tell you that does make a difference because I usually need to apply moisturizer before I self-tan to get smooth color, but with Endless Summer I don't need to do that. I pumped the bottle twice and out comes this pink and white foam. I rubbed it quickly between my palms and applied it to my legs. It spread very quickly, and the amount I used is enough for one whole leg. By the time I got done with the second leg, the first one was DRY! I couldn't believe it. I have found the holy grail of self-tanners! Aside from this very important factor, the color is natural, not orange-y and overpowering, and it didn't streak. There is only a slight odor (I read somewhere that the strange self-tanner odor is from one of the color-developing ingredients in self-tanner - a necessary evil, you might say). Before I tried this product, I thought I had found the perfect self-tanner in L'Oreal's Sublime product, but, guess what, it never dried in 5 minutes. After trying Coppertone, I am hooked, even though it is a little more expensive at around $10.

After not having used Coppertone products for many. many years, this way a very pleasant re-introduction to a very good line of sun products.

Biotherm Make-up
All I knew about Biotherm before I did this review was that a neighbor liked their sunblock. So, there are no expectations in this review. Sometimes, if you know the line and like products in it, you are a bit more forgiving if something isn't up to your standards.

Glossy Shine
I love them, and I am NOT a fan of juicy tubes or any of the knock-offs. These, however, are a great blend of gloss and color. I would buy them all if I could! I tried three shades. The first is #37, an orange color in the tube, but went on clear for me. When I blotted my lips, there was a slight hint of color, but this is the closest one to a real gloss. Shade #150 is a pretty pinky/slightly peachy iridescent color that looks great over a lipstick or with just with a lip pencil. The one that I wear the most though is #140. It's just a fab color that goes with whatever I have on. Some days it is pinky and other days its tan/peach but always with a gold shimmer undertone. I get lots of compliments when I wear this one! And, these glosses have a nice fruity smell to them.

Lipsticks
As much as I loved the glosses, I'm neutral on the lipsticks. The two colors I tried were 240 & 205. Shade 205 is a bright red/peach. I thought it would be horrible, but it actually went on pretty sheer. The problem was that it sunk right into the crevices of my lips and looked terrible. It reminded me of the old Cover Girl lipsticks that I wore when I was 12. But, the color is great for the summer. So, prep your lips and wear a gloss over it and you'll be stylin'. Shade 240 is a mauve/purplish color that has a much better texture on my lips. However, this color just doesn't go with my coloring, but is a very popular color choice for the summer season. That said, the lipstick lasted through most of the morning.

Foundations
I tried two foundations: Sense To Go Touch-On Foundation with a built-in sponge, and Touch Long-Lasting Matte Compact Foundation with SPF 15. I like the SPF built in there, but wasn't thrilled with the compact foundation. My skin is on the dry side of normal, and this just isn't for my skin type. However, if your skin tends to be oily, this would be an ideal foundation. The color selection is good with 9 shades to choose from. Shade 240 was the perfect color for me. The Sense To Go foundation was in the wrong color, but I really liked the feel of this foundation. It is perfect for the summer, as it was almost a tint and not a traditional foundation. What I didn't like was the built-in sponge, which is supposed to distribute the right amount of foundation. I had to use another sponge to spread the glob that came off the sponge. But, don't let the sponge be a deterrent in trying this foundation. The glow you get from this foundation makes it worth trying.

Eye Shadows
I tried two single eye shadows and one eye shadow duo. First, I have to say please get rid of the tiny little applicators that comes with the eye shadows. They'll drive you nuts! Honestly, cosmetic companies should just forget about putting in applicators unless they're willing to make them durable and usable. Otherwise, you just get frustrated with the product! Grrr! Anyway, the eye shadows are nice, they didn't crease until the afternoon and you can layer on the color for a deeper shade. I was intimidated by the color choices at first, a dense mossy green and a deep purple, but both went on very sheer and only intensified when I kept adding layers. The duo was in a neutral brown/beige that worked for a daytime look. But, by lunchtime, you couldn't tell that I was wearing any eye color at all.

I liked all the products, but definitely liked some more than others. You can view the colors on the Biotherm website. Go to International and there you can view the colors. But, beware, I found that the colors on my computers didn't do justice to the actual cosmetic colors.

We hope you enjoyed this issue of The Cosmetic Report!