This will come as no surprise to any of you, but I feel the need to share anyway - I love cosmetics! Even better, I love the feeling of walking into a department store and discovering a new line. This week, on a routine shopping trip to my local Nordstrom, I stumbled upon our brand new Decleor botanical skin and body care counter! Much like Clarins, Decleor is a French line that incorporates the concept of aromatherapy through plant oils in all their products. Naturally, I was curious, so I purchased a travel sized kit ($36) for normal skin to see what Decleor could really do. Here's what I found:

Velvet Cleansing Milk
If you like lotion cleansers, and you have more normal-to-dry or dry skin, you'll like this one. It removes makeup well, rinses away easily, and leaves the skin feeling soft and supple (and it smells nice!). I would definitely buy this in the full size ($24 for 8.4 ounces).

Lotion Tonique Demo-Florale toner
This is a fairly standard alcohol-free toner chock full of botanicals like corn poppy extract, mallow extract, and sage extract, fine for any skin type.

Aromessence Visage Neroli for normal skin
Decleor's entire philosophy about skin care revolves around these aromessence oils, which are supposed to penetrate into your skin to do everything from moisturize to regulate oil production. Basically, whichever of the four aromessence oils you choose, you are still putting a mixture of plant oils on your skin. Can they really program your skin to act a certain way? I seriously doubt it, but if you have dry skin that is not prone to breakouts, they do feel nice and can relieve dryness and flakiness. For oily skin, it's hard to get past the notion that adding more oil to your skin is somehow supposed to help...

Soin du Matin Day Hydrating Cream
This is a pretty basic cream for normal or normal-to-dry skin that unfortunately lacks any kind of sun protection, making it a poor choice for daytime wear. The texture is nice, but I'd have a hard time spending $30+ for a day cream with no sunscreen.

Soin du Soir Soothing Night Cream
Again, this is an ordinary cream for normal or normal-to-dry skin. Additional plant oils make it only slightly more moisturizing than the "day" cream, so for dry skin, you'll probably need something more emollient, like their Hydratation Vitale.

All in all, I liked testing these Decleor products, but considering that many of them are fairly basic, it's difficult to justify spending upwards of $30, $40, and higher. Decleor is good about sampling, however, so you can see for yourself if they work for you.

In our continuing look at drugstore hair care products, this week I tried the brand new line from M Professionals, a popular drugstore makeup line that rivals colors and formulas from department store brands. Called simply M Hair, the line consists of Just Shampoo and Just Conditioner for normal hair, Abuse Shampoo and Abuse Conditioner for dry, damaged hair, and a selection of styling gels all priced around $5. For my freshly colored hair, I went with the Abuse duo and found they worked fairly well. The shampoo unfortunately left my hair rather tangled, but the conditioner made up for it, leaving my hair soft and manageable. If you are looking for basic, no frills hair care, M Hair does the job for a reasonable price.

Are you a lipstick lover like me? If so, you'll love the new holiday lipstick compacts from Aveda ($32). You get four gorgeous shades in your choice of warm or cool colors all packaged in Aveda's updated, sleek and slim environmental refillable compact. The "cool" compact, my personal favorite, comes with Wild Plum, Sheer Camellia, Matte Pomegrante, and Boysenberry. Both are perfect for taking with you in even the tiniest of handbags.

Make your beauty routine less complicated this holiday season with a few tips from our new Feature for December, Makeup Basics. Don't go shopping without it! From creamy concealer to great versatile lipstick shades, you'll find great products that fit your time and your budget.

It's Beauty Pack time again here at Cosmetic Connection! Congratulations to November's lucky winners... Karen Oleniach of Fords, New Jersey, and Jennifer Ogden of Fort Smith, Arkansas! December could be your lucky month to win a customized Beauty Pack of cosmetic and skin care samples. All you have to do is enter (one entry per person, please)!

The Makeup Diva is In! We are now entering the Holiday Zone! Don't let your eyes give away just how tired you are. With a few tips and product recommendation from the queen of little sleep, you'll look refreshed and ready to go!