I'm up to my eyeballs in products to try, so here are a few that had their 15 minutes of fame recently in my "testing facility" (a.k.a. my bathroom!).

Estee Lauder Unline Total Eyecare
($35 for .5 ounce)
I have hot and cold periods with eye cream - sometimes I use it faithfully, sometimes it's an extra step I can do without. I am not quite sure why Estee Lauder decided to come out with yet another eye cream, but I'm taking a guess that they are targeting the 20something-approaching-30something market with this one. Unline is the be-all, do-all of eye creams: it smoothes, soothes, protects, prevents, lightens, brightens. Hey, will it wash dishes and fold the laundry? Sorry, but it's just an eye cream! It moisturizes and that's it! Its green tea and vitamins C and E are supposed to fight free radicals, but can you really see that working?

Having sufficiently bashed the Unline concept, I do think it is a fine eye cream. It has a light cream-gel texture that absorbs fairly quickly and doesn't ball up under makeup like some gels can. I like the pump design, dispensing just the right amount for each eye. If you can wade through all the hype and just see it for the moisturizing eye cream that it is, Unline is a decent product.

Komenuka Bijin Facial Clean Powder
($36 for 30 packets)
Let me start off by saying I like aspects of this product and I think it's a mostly clever idea.

Facial Clean Powder comes packaged in small paper packets that look like a stick of chewing gum, with 30 packets per box. Each packet contains a light cleansing scrub powder made of rice bran, collagen, glycyrrhiza (licorice root), aloe, seaweed, chamomile, honey, and coconut oil. The idea is that each packet has three applications inside, so you only pour out about a third of the packet and mix it with water each time you wash your face.

What I do like about this product is that the scrubbing action is very gentle (the textured part breaks down into a light lather as you wash), and the powder has a very nice aroma of honey.

What I find very annoying about this product is the packaging. Trying to keep the little paper packets from disintegrating around water (like by the sink or in the shower) is next to impossible. I also found it very difficult to dispense the "right" amount of powder and ended up going through the product rather quickly. The company offers a pre-mixed version called Facial Cleansing Foam, but since the rice bran breaks down so easily, the foam ($40 for 3.3 oz at Beauty Habit) does not exfoliate at all.

I decided with about 15 packets left, I am going to open them all and pour the powder into a container with a lid, and just dispense the amount I need. If you decide to try this, you might want to do the same.

Komenuka Bijin Skin Lotion ($40 for 120ml)
With my Beauty Habit order, they generously threw in samples of this toner and the Komenuka Bijin eye gel. I did like this alcohol-free toner, but it is not amazing enough to spend $40; really, is any toner worth that much? This one has rice bran, aloe, chamomile, seaweed, sake, and Japanese towel gourd - but it's still not worth that kind of money.

Komenuka Bijin Eye Moisture Gel ($50 for 40ml)
Again, I like this eye gel, but not enough to spend 50 bucks. It contains rice bran, aloe, liquat leaf, mint balm, and lemon, and has a light cream-gel consistency that leaves the eye area very moist and supple. I don't think it performs any better than other basic eye treatments I've tried, like Garden Botanika, Beauty Without Cruelty, or Kiehl's, so I am not jumping to recommend it.

I got my Komenuka Bijin products from www.beautyhabit.com (who were very generous with samples), but I also found the line for a few dollars cheaper at www.diamondbeauty.com. The choice is yours :)

UPDATE: Clarins Energizing Morning Cream
As promised, I have an update to my original review of Clarins Energizing Morning Cream (9/2/99). Clarins claims that this cream will energize, revitalize, protect, stimulate, etc., etc., and after just over a month of using it, I have found none of those qualities to be true. At first, I liked the slightly warm feeling on my skin, but as time passed, my skin became oily and it developed those annoying little bumps that creams sometimes cause. This is yet another gimmicky cream with everything but the kitchen sink in it.

Product Review Spotlight
Check out this week's new review on Cosmetic Connection, Zia Natural Skincare and Stila. You'll find it in the new Spotlight section on the Product Reviews page.