Philosophy Makeup Optional Skincare

I'm pretty lucky, in that I hate hot weather, hate sweating and really hate sunburns. So, I live in Florida-go figure. The upside to this is that I rarely go outside, so at 41 I really have pretty good skin. My biggest problem are hereditary dark circles under my eyes and I've been rather laissez faire about washing my face and taking my makeup off at night. Suddenly I went into a little bit of shock and realized I need to actually take care of business, since I'm looking at 42 in a few months. After a lot of research on Makeupalley I went ahead and ordered the Philosophy makeup optional kit which is a combination of products that when used together promise to give you such amazing skin that obviously, makeup becomes optional. I ordered my kit from a website that has disturbingly seemed to not exactly disappear, but has changed to a static page with an 800 number to call if you have questions. I went with the Radiant Rewards program, which is an autodelivery system that gives you a monthly payment option.

The kit retails at Sephora for $78 and includes

8 ounce purity made simple one-step facial cleanser,
1 ounce when hope is not enough firming and lifting serum,
2 ounce hope in a jar world-famous moisturizer for all skin types,
.5 ounce hope in a tube eye and lip firming cream
3 week supply of the microdelivery peel

As a "gift" a full size jar of the mini peel pads was included. I received my box ironically on the day that I had a facial, including a peel-so I obviously couldn't try everything out the minute I opened the box. I'm such a girl that I jumped up and down in the living room with the box squealing to my daughter's friends about how I got my new cleanser and so I would soon be looking as young as they are. They're all theatre kids, so they're used to overly dramatic people-just not overly dramatic mothers. After the girls smiled politely and one of the boys got up and jumped around with me, I took the box upstairs and went through the very prettily packaged contents. The samples of Amazing Grace perfume and body wash were in a sweet white organza bag and all the full size products were nestled in a lavender plastic insert.

The Purity Made Simple cleanser is in a word, FANTASTIC. A yellow creamy liquid it takes off makeup (including my waterproof mascara) and leaves my skin feeling soft but not slimy. The directions say to use it morning and night, but I've begun using it only at night and rinsing my face in the mornings with plain water.

When Hope Is Not Enough firming serum is nice. I put 5 drops in my palm and smooth it over my face, letting it sink in. I'm not really sure if it's made any difference at this point, but it feels really luxurious and spa like when I massage it in, so I'm gonna keep doing it just for the hedonistic purposes of spoiling myself.

Hope In A Jar moisturizer is just plain horrible. It's heavy, greasy and smells terrible. I used it 4 nights in a row (I couldn't even put it on during the day, it was just too much for my normal skin) and tried to ignore the stench as I went to sleep. I developed a scattering of small pimples around my hairline and temples which I don't think are purging-so that's sitting on my shelf collecting dust.

The peel is another AMAZING part of the kit-it's the standard crystals and activator deal and it really does scrub off the gunky top layer, leaving my skin soft and bright-very bright-newborn infant bright. Which only makes the dark circles stand out more. Lovely. But I do like the way it makes my skin glow, so I'll tackle the dark cirles with something else.

The Savior Jean b & lu

Finding trendy plus size clothing isn't difficult-you can see that WalMart has even jumped into offering cargo capris and a little black dress. Finding interesting, fun and well crafted clothing in plus sizes is a little bit more difficult. While I love Lane Bryant, Torrid and Avenue, I gravitate towards smaller designers that have boutiques I can shop online. b & lu is one such designer that I fell in love with recently. I received my first order from them recently-the savior jean which was originally priced at $39 but is currently on sale for $19 plus shipping. I know my measurements and ordered a size 20, which according to the size chart should fit nearly perfectly. I'm not hung up on sizes, each designer cuts differently and even within a stack of jeans one size 18 may be as large as an inch or more off from another.

Shipping was reasonable, but it took nearly a week with priority mail to get my package. It was wrapped in tissue and mailed in a standard USPS priority envelope. The actual jeans, well-they didn't fit well. Being lower rise than I expected, they were a smidge tight to button, since my waist is significantly smaller than my abdomen (thanks to 4 pregnancies), and the boot cut was much closer to a flare. The 32 inch inseam makes heels necessary with these. b and lu does have a liberal 30 day return policy, minus shipping charges, but I am notoriously lazy about packing up and heading to the post office, so for now they're folded and back in the bag until I decide whether to try them on another day or just donate them.