All About Cie Marquise

Confession time: I don’t wear makeup on a regular basis. In fact I mostly wear it on special occasions or when I realize I haven’t played with my collection in a while. With that being said, I hardly ever wear makeup when doing reviews so the face you see, is au naturel. I might wear a bit of mascara and/or tinted lip gloss, but I neglect the full face routine.

Time is one of the major reasons I avoid daily makeup. It takes me about 45 minutes to go from bare to completely done. I’d rather sleep! I am an extreme blender, so I hate lines in my eyeshadow. The extra blending takes a lot more time. I also use a minimum of four colors on the lids because the basic two color thing just doesn’t look complete to me.  Well anyway I say all this to say, that since I pass up on daily makeup, I make sure my skin stays smooth and well cared for. I have oily to normal skin and tend to use products designed for sensitive skin just to avoid any harsh chemicals. So here’s my skincare routine:

In the morning I usually use a warm towel to wipe my face and remove any moisturizer from the night before. I then apply my “day” moisturizer. I use my Olay Complete All Day UV Moisturizer in the morning to protect against any harmful rays I may encounter throughout the day. I like this moisturizer because it isn’t thick or overly oily.  It has an SPF of 15 and is formulated for sensitive skin. After a few minutes, I don’t even notice that it’s on my face. And yes that’s the point! =).  I love that the moisturizer and SPF are together and combine two steps into a single process.

At night, my routine is a little more intense. I start off cleansing with Boscia Purifying Cleansing Gel. Here’s an overview from Bosicaskincare.com: Preservative-free. Dermatologist tested. Alcohol-free, pH balanced, 100% artificial fragrance and color free. No animal testing and no animal ingredients.

 I absolutely love this stuff. I’ve been using it for over two years and must say I see such a difference in my skin. It is a very concentrated cleanser and I use about half a pump (seriously a full pump is too much) and it removes all my makeup, grim, and dirt all in one step. I sometimes use an eye makeup remover, if I used dark colors that day. Since it is so concentrated, I only buy this product once a year. I love that this product has NO anti-acne medication so I can use it with a variety of other products. When I want to exfoliate (always at night), I add a little sugar (or salt) to the cleanser and swirl in my hand and then over my face. Now that I have the Olay Pro-X Advanced Cleansing system, I generally just use that to exfoliate.

Next I apply prescription acne treatments if needed. I do not use these everyday rather I use them as spot treatments for blemishes.

Finally I finish up with a moisturizer. Here’s where my method differs from experts and other bloggers. At night I use a lighter moisturizer, Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. Although I can’t figure out what’s “dramatically different” about this moisturizer, I do like the fact that it is extremely light and formulated for oily skin. I notice this moisturizer removes any tight feelings I may have (if I use water that’s too warm) and leaves my skin without any dry patches. This product does not have any SPF so if you choose to wear it during the day, it would require another SPF product on top.

Olay Complete is available at Target and other drugstores for $8.99 for 4 floz.
Boscia can be found at their website, and in-store and online at Sephora and Ulta for $26.00 for 5 floz
Clinique is available at major department stores and here for $13.00 for 1.7 floz.

I’ve been using the Curl’s Coconut Curlada all week as an in shower conditioner. This product is made with organic ingredients and doubles as a detangler. It has a very strong coconut and pineapple scent but refreshing nonetheless while in a warm shower.

Let’s get right to it, I was not impressed. This conditioner reminds me of a sample you would find at a hotel—great for a day or two but not anything you’d constantly use. Once it hit my hair, it felt like it disappeared. Almost like cheap lotion. Giving this conditioner the benefit of the doubt, I thought maybe after the shower my hair would feel moisturized and super soft. Umm….yeah, I’m still unimpressed. I even used it as a “mid-week rinse” as suggested on the bottle. It STILL did nothing for me. Save your money, this one’s a dud. I’m thinking of just using it as a shaving cream.

Curls Coconut Curlada can be found at www.curls.bit and select Targets and Rite-Aid at $9.99 for 8 floz

This week, I searched through my rather small collection and found Revlon’s Stary Pink. It was a limited edition fall color that has now been re-released under the name Popular (which I now believe is permanent). This color is a pale pink with small and hexagonal silver glitters. As with most medium to large size glitters it is very difficult to get the exact same amount of glitter on each finger. However, the small glitters keep the look uniform. I have noticed to get the same color pay off as the what's in the bottle, I need three coats of polish. In my opinion, that’s a lot of polish and creates thicker layers that chip a lot easier. To combat this minor issue, I decided to use a basic white polish as a base and then apply one layer of Stary Pink. I got the same look as if I would have used three coats.

I love this polish. It’s so unique. Revlon Popular is available at Target and most major drugstores for ~5.99. (I paid a little less than $4 during a sale promotion).

Meet my new favorite shampoo… Johnson’s Natural Baby Shampoo.

I absolutely loved this hair product when I first started using it, but I wanted to continually use it before I gave it a thumbs up. I went to the doctor and was told my scalp was flaking due to an allergy  most likely to an ingredient in my shampoo, so I decided to go the natural route and look for a gentle shampoo without all the harsh chemicals. I figured a natural “baby” shampoo was the best way to go since most baby products are created for super soft and sensitive skin. At first, I was worried that a shampoo made for the mild scalps of babies wouldn’t efficiently clean away my “adult” dirt. Well, all my worries were put to shame after the first use with this product. I was thoroughly impressed with the cleanliness of my scalp and the softness of my hair.

 

Now here’s the skinny, this shampoo has a consistency that’s only slightly thicker than water. It feels like it might run out of your hand if you pour too much, so I prefer to add the shampoo directly to my hair to decrease the amount of product going down the drain. It also takes a minute to get a good lather going, so if you’re an immediate lather person this product would leave you unsatisfied. The fact that the shampoo is 98% natural with only one sulfate (Sodium CoCo Sulfate), seems to account for the small amount of lather. The Natural Baby Shampoo has a very light, clean fragrance. The Johnson Company has trademarked it as their “ALLERFREE” fragrance.  One small gripe I have with this product is its “No More Tears” claim. I found that this product stung when it came in contact with my eyes. Although it was less pain than normal shampoo, I believe it is too much for a baby and definitely does not live up to the “No More Tears” claim.

Here's my scalp after shampooing (I used my usual three rinse and repeat cycles). My hair only has a light mist of Motions Leave In to prepare for air drying. 

I have used Johnson’s Natural Baby Shampoo both with and without the coconut oil pre- treatment and it has performed well in both occasions My hair was not oily at all after using the coconut oil first. Super plus! Again I absolutely love this shampoo. It’s AMAZING =)

You can find Johnson's Natural Baby Shampoo at most drugstores. I found this product at Target for $4.79 for 10 fl. oz.  

I have now officially started my last winter quarter of my undergraduate career. Yay! Yay! and more Yay! With that being said I am taking five extremely intense classes and have decided to limit my post to the weekend. This way I can actually have something to look forward too when my week starts to feel a little overwhelming. Think of it as you keeping me going =).

Now let’s get back to this review stuff. As a mentioned in my previous post, I purchased the Shea Moisture Purification Masque from my local Target. This product is marketed as a hair and scalp detoxifier while also exfoliating. It’s supposed to “alleviate itching and irritation”.  It comes in the same size jar as the Curling Soufflé, 12oz.  It smells like bananas and something that I can’t quite put my finger on. The scent isn’t overpowering, so I’m sure if you wanted to leave this product on for a while it wouldn’t interfere with your perfumes. It’s definitely a far cry from the Coconut and Hibiscus line’s tropical smell. The texture is kinda grainy, but again you could wear it out in public without looking a mess.

Here’s the deal, I truly DISLIKE this product! I have no idea why so many people liked this on youtube. The directions are simple: apply to damp hair, wait up to 30 minutes, and then rinse out. Maybe this is just me, but if it’s a purification masque it should be applied before shampooing. What’s the point of purifying after I’ve shampoo’ed isn’t that the purpose of a shampoo? Ok so anyway, I wet my hair and towel dried and applied it to my scalp and roots. I think that using a hair color brush would have gotten more product on my scalp than the basic finger method I used. I left the Masque on for about 30 minutes and washed my hair. I did my wash and rinse cycle three times like usual. Well when I finished I still didn’t have a clean scalp. I could still see dirt and other impurities. Usually even if you miss a section during one wash cycle you definitely should get it in the next two washes. After another rinse and wash cycle, everything appeared to be back to normal. Again, what was the purpose of this product if it didn’t make washing easier? And, I still had to condition because my hair wasn’t super smooth so I didn’t save time with that either.

The dislike doesn’t stop there. So not only did I spend an extra 30 minutes before shampooing on an unnecessary product that didn’t shorten my actual shampoo time or leave my hair soft and smooth, I also ended up with the most flaky scalp I’ve had in a LONG time. Instead of exfoliating while on the scalp it seems like this product did more work afterwards. NOT OK! It is just not ok to walk around with flaky hair, especially from a product that claimed to reduce them.

I was so excited to try this product, especially since I loved the Coconut and Hibiscus line but this for me was an EPIC fail. In fact, if I wouldn’t have bought this product at Target I would have taken it back. (At Target you can only return unopened and unused beauty products). I’m going back to my pure coconut oil and I suggest the same for you if you’re looking for a purification product. .

If you STILL want to try this product its available at Walgreens and Target for $9.99 (12oz)