Will you save money by buying Meaningful Beauty's kit? (Hint: Probably not.)
I don't know why I still use LJ. I might eventually switch to Tumblr? We'll see.
My face currently feels like silk. It is amazing. Meaningful Beauty had nothing to do with it. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, it will continue feeling like silk. And I also hope that my neck will soon follow suit.
As you all know, that is, the hypothetical you who has hypothetically kept up with my posts, as you all know, I had to stop using Meaningful Beauty. On April 29th, which was day two of not using the line, I was still experiencing roughness on my left cheek and dryness around my mouth. I also had large chunks of skin flaking off of my right cheek. I pretty much panicked and started using Indeed Labs Hydraluron again.
Hydraluron still tingles rather uncomfortably even though I've been using it twice a day for a few days now. I'm still not using it on my neck (for now). I think Indeed Labs could improve the packaging; every time I open it, it gushes out too much product. Maybe they need to make the opening of the tube smaller, or perhaps it would work better in a pump form or something? At the same time, the current plastic tube may have arisen from the need to keep the retail price down? I have QUESTIONS. Of which I will likely never get ANSWERS to. Woe.
This morning, I still had some dryness around my mouth and my cheeks, though better, weren't 100%. I took a nice, pampering, evening shower earlier and whatever I've been doing for these pampering showers seem to help a lot. Let me go into more detail on my facial care routine during one of these ultra-care "me" times I've recently come up with when my skin isn't feeling so good.
Remember that First Aid Beauty mask I had quickly reviewed earlier? I think it might be working. I washed my face with a Boscia cleanser (the exact formulation of which is discontinued, I think) which has lasted me an insanely long time. In conjunction with this cleanser, I used the Boscia konjac root sponge thingy. It's okay. I don't think it's a must-have cleansing product. It does feel nice around the eyes. Then I put on the FAB mask and sat around playing solitaire or something for ten minutes. It might have been spider solitaire. Or maybe I was reading. Crap, I don't know.
Into the shower I went to rinse off the mask and do showery things. I'm sure you all know what that consists of. I also used my Andalou exfoliator. Once done, I used the Andalou toner, the Meaningful Beauty eye cream, tea tree oil, Hydraluron, and finally, the Mychelle pumpkin cream.
At first, my face felt pretty good, but nothing spectacular. It wasn't until now that my skin feels so silky soft and smooth. I also want to point out that my annoying pimple had started fading yesterday, though from what exactly, I don't know. I also feel that the past couple of days, my forehead looked somewhat shiny when I checked it in the evenings. I used a mattifying powder this morning to see if it would help and it did a little bit.
I'm really excited to see my face resume some sort of normality, but it's a cautious excitement because my skin can change at the drop of a hat. If I had a hat every time my skin switched gears suddenly, I'd have a very large collection of hats. You know, that'd be pretty decent compensation for having troublesome skin.
I don't know if I can continue testing Meaningful Beauty (apart from the eye cream, which doesn't bother me but has yet to do anything significant), not when my skin feels this nice. Seriously, I am petting my face. Smooooth.
Still, I've decided to look at the cost of the line compared to what I would normally use on my face. A "one month" five piece supply from Meaningful Beauty costs CAD 39.95. I'll try to use equivalents in stuff I normally buy.
While I'm not currently using First Aid Beauty's cleanser, I've used it in the past and thought well of it to the point of introducing my mom to it, who likes it. A 5 oz. bottle goes for CAD 25.00 and lasted me (including splitting off a generous amount for my mom to try) at least a few months of daily use. I would also need to use less than with the Meaningful Beauty cleanser, which as 2 oz. For simplicity's sake, we'll say that 6 oz. of MB cleanser would finish in the same time frame of 5 oz. of FAB cleanser, which gives us three months. So one month of FAB cleanser would cost $6.25.
The Creme de Serum at 0.5 fl. oz. is half that of Hydraluron's 1 fl. oz. I don't remember the exact price of Hydraluron but I think it was 19.99. So, $10 a month.
Moisturiser was a bit tricky. Do I go with an equivalent, as in, something with SPF? Yeah, let's do that. One of the best regular-day facial sunscreens I've come across that doesn't irritate my skin is Green Beaver's SPF 15 for face. It's actually lightly hydrating, whereas a lot of other sunscreens don't moisturise at all. While it is thick, it's not too hard to apply; some "natural" sunscreens I've tried using are so thick it's actually painful trying to rub it all into my skin. It's a bit on the oily side though so you have to wait for it to sink in for a few minutes if you're wanting to apply makeup on top. May not work well for very oily skin types. And obviously, you'll need a higher SPF if you're going to be in the sun for long periods of time, but like I said, I wanted a close equivalent to MB's not-actually-moisturising SPF 20 lotion. I've seen GB's facial sunscreen at various prices hovering around CAD 20.00 for 40mL but I normally get it on sale, which happens often enough at different stores. Right now, it's on sale for $15.99, which I think was the same price I paid last time. I should stock up! MB's lotion is 15mL, so let's say I'll get two and a half months with GB's lotion. That costs me $6.40.
I've yet to find an eye cream I really love. Since I've been having some pretty good luck with Andalou Naturals, let's pretend I go buy an eye cream from them. This one claims to do what I want it to do and doesn't appear to contain anything I'm allergic to. It's 18mL for CAD 22.49, which is 2.4 times more than MB's 7.5mL eye cream. If I use the same amounts for both and if MB's eye cream really does just last me one month, the Andalou eye cream will cost me $9.37 a month. I think they'd last me longer, judging on how I was able to survive just fine on samples for the past month and a half. But MB will charge me again at the end of the month's supply.
Since it's a five piece kit (I'm not going to count the bonuses because I gave two items to my mom) and the last item is technically a neck firming cream (which I didn't use and tried the bonus Glowing Serum instead), I'm just going to put a regular moisturiser here. Everyone Lotion costs CAD 11.99 on Well.ca and the 32 oz. of it lasted me more than half a year of daily use on both face AND body. That's pretty impressive (and not very fair, heh). Let's say one year of just using it on my face alone. That's a dollar a month.
Altogether, forgoing Meaningful Beauty and buying individual items on my own costs $33.02 per month by my not very scientific calculations, which saves me almost $7. That's not much, especially if Meaningful Beauty does work out well for someone. But I wouldn't actually use all five items every day, and one could definitely cut costs by buying Jane Iredale's Magic Mitt for CAD 18.00 which lasts a year with proper use and care, though that particular washcloth doesn't work for everyone. And as I noted earlier, eye creams tend to last me a long time. Lastly, what the hell is up with not providing a night cream? I'd still have to buy a separate night cream to use with the kit. As it stands, Meaningful Beauty doesn't work for me, so it is technically a waste of money.
My face currently feels like silk. It is amazing. Meaningful Beauty had nothing to do with it. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, it will continue feeling like silk. And I also hope that my neck will soon follow suit.
As you all know, that is, the hypothetical you who has hypothetically kept up with my posts, as you all know, I had to stop using Meaningful Beauty. On April 29th, which was day two of not using the line, I was still experiencing roughness on my left cheek and dryness around my mouth. I also had large chunks of skin flaking off of my right cheek. I pretty much panicked and started using Indeed Labs Hydraluron again.
Hydraluron still tingles rather uncomfortably even though I've been using it twice a day for a few days now. I'm still not using it on my neck (for now). I think Indeed Labs could improve the packaging; every time I open it, it gushes out too much product. Maybe they need to make the opening of the tube smaller, or perhaps it would work better in a pump form or something? At the same time, the current plastic tube may have arisen from the need to keep the retail price down? I have QUESTIONS. Of which I will likely never get ANSWERS to. Woe.
This morning, I still had some dryness around my mouth and my cheeks, though better, weren't 100%. I took a nice, pampering, evening shower earlier and whatever I've been doing for these pampering showers seem to help a lot. Let me go into more detail on my facial care routine during one of these ultra-care "me" times I've recently come up with when my skin isn't feeling so good.
Remember that First Aid Beauty mask I had quickly reviewed earlier? I think it might be working. I washed my face with a Boscia cleanser (the exact formulation of which is discontinued, I think) which has lasted me an insanely long time. In conjunction with this cleanser, I used the Boscia konjac root sponge thingy. It's okay. I don't think it's a must-have cleansing product. It does feel nice around the eyes. Then I put on the FAB mask and sat around playing solitaire or something for ten minutes. It might have been spider solitaire. Or maybe I was reading. Crap, I don't know.
Into the shower I went to rinse off the mask and do showery things. I'm sure you all know what that consists of. I also used my Andalou exfoliator. Once done, I used the Andalou toner, the Meaningful Beauty eye cream, tea tree oil, Hydraluron, and finally, the Mychelle pumpkin cream.
At first, my face felt pretty good, but nothing spectacular. It wasn't until now that my skin feels so silky soft and smooth. I also want to point out that my annoying pimple had started fading yesterday, though from what exactly, I don't know. I also feel that the past couple of days, my forehead looked somewhat shiny when I checked it in the evenings. I used a mattifying powder this morning to see if it would help and it did a little bit.
I'm really excited to see my face resume some sort of normality, but it's a cautious excitement because my skin can change at the drop of a hat. If I had a hat every time my skin switched gears suddenly, I'd have a very large collection of hats. You know, that'd be pretty decent compensation for having troublesome skin.
I don't know if I can continue testing Meaningful Beauty (apart from the eye cream, which doesn't bother me but has yet to do anything significant), not when my skin feels this nice. Seriously, I am petting my face. Smooooth.
Still, I've decided to look at the cost of the line compared to what I would normally use on my face. A "one month" five piece supply from Meaningful Beauty costs CAD 39.95. I'll try to use equivalents in stuff I normally buy.
While I'm not currently using First Aid Beauty's cleanser, I've used it in the past and thought well of it to the point of introducing my mom to it, who likes it. A 5 oz. bottle goes for CAD 25.00 and lasted me (including splitting off a generous amount for my mom to try) at least a few months of daily use. I would also need to use less than with the Meaningful Beauty cleanser, which as 2 oz. For simplicity's sake, we'll say that 6 oz. of MB cleanser would finish in the same time frame of 5 oz. of FAB cleanser, which gives us three months. So one month of FAB cleanser would cost $6.25.
The Creme de Serum at 0.5 fl. oz. is half that of Hydraluron's 1 fl. oz. I don't remember the exact price of Hydraluron but I think it was 19.99. So, $10 a month.
Moisturiser was a bit tricky. Do I go with an equivalent, as in, something with SPF? Yeah, let's do that. One of the best regular-day facial sunscreens I've come across that doesn't irritate my skin is Green Beaver's SPF 15 for face. It's actually lightly hydrating, whereas a lot of other sunscreens don't moisturise at all. While it is thick, it's not too hard to apply; some "natural" sunscreens I've tried using are so thick it's actually painful trying to rub it all into my skin. It's a bit on the oily side though so you have to wait for it to sink in for a few minutes if you're wanting to apply makeup on top. May not work well for very oily skin types. And obviously, you'll need a higher SPF if you're going to be in the sun for long periods of time, but like I said, I wanted a close equivalent to MB's not-actually-moisturising SPF 20 lotion. I've seen GB's facial sunscreen at various prices hovering around CAD 20.00 for 40mL but I normally get it on sale, which happens often enough at different stores. Right now, it's on sale for $15.99, which I think was the same price I paid last time. I should stock up! MB's lotion is 15mL, so let's say I'll get two and a half months with GB's lotion. That costs me $6.40.
I've yet to find an eye cream I really love. Since I've been having some pretty good luck with Andalou Naturals, let's pretend I go buy an eye cream from them. This one claims to do what I want it to do and doesn't appear to contain anything I'm allergic to. It's 18mL for CAD 22.49, which is 2.4 times more than MB's 7.5mL eye cream. If I use the same amounts for both and if MB's eye cream really does just last me one month, the Andalou eye cream will cost me $9.37 a month. I think they'd last me longer, judging on how I was able to survive just fine on samples for the past month and a half. But MB will charge me again at the end of the month's supply.
Since it's a five piece kit (I'm not going to count the bonuses because I gave two items to my mom) and the last item is technically a neck firming cream (which I didn't use and tried the bonus Glowing Serum instead), I'm just going to put a regular moisturiser here. Everyone Lotion costs CAD 11.99 on Well.ca and the 32 oz. of it lasted me more than half a year of daily use on both face AND body. That's pretty impressive (and not very fair, heh). Let's say one year of just using it on my face alone. That's a dollar a month.
Altogether, forgoing Meaningful Beauty and buying individual items on my own costs $33.02 per month by my not very scientific calculations, which saves me almost $7. That's not much, especially if Meaningful Beauty does work out well for someone. But I wouldn't actually use all five items every day, and one could definitely cut costs by buying Jane Iredale's Magic Mitt for CAD 18.00 which lasts a year with proper use and care, though that particular washcloth doesn't work for everyone. And as I noted earlier, eye creams tend to last me a long time. Lastly, what the hell is up with not providing a night cream? I'd still have to buy a separate night cream to use with the kit. As it stands, Meaningful Beauty doesn't work for me, so it is technically a waste of money.