Stink, Stank, Stunk

Last week I told you about a beauty oopsie I made while traveling. I asked you about your own beauty horror stories and was glad to see there weren't that many. Apparently my readers know better. The best (or worst,depending on your point of view) comes from my mother, who recently decided to make an all-natural scalp revitalizing hair mask. The recipe was simple:

Take one egg yolk, one tbs of freshly grated onion juice and one tbs olive oil. Mix together until emulsified then apply to your hair roots and scalp with
a pastry brush. Leave for 20 minutes and wash hair.

My mom, a beauty savvy non-blonde, says she has no idea what possessed her to put the smelly mixture on her head. She suffered quietly the whole 20 minutes before rushing to wash it off. The problem? Even double rinsing and using a proper hair mask didn't make the smell go away. It haunted her till the next day, turning her stomach frequently. She was too traumatized to even notice any benefits to her scalp.

What's the worst smelling thing you ever applied to your hair? Did it work?

Image: Art.com

Things you shouldn't do when traveling

This falls under "I really, really should have known better".

After spending a couple of days walking all over Paris and riding the Metro, it seemed like my face could really use some serious de-griming. It's not that my makeup remover and a mild cleanser weren't performing. But I had a feeling, probably more psychological than anything else, that my skin wasn't clean enough. So I turned to the stash of samples I had in my bag for something that could do the job.

Part of blogging about beauty products is making the choice of which cosmetics to test, which to ignore and what to put away to be considered another time. Occasionally, one of the places the "to be determined" items end up is a bag that gets shoved into my luggage. Just because samples are more travel friendly.

That's a mistake, of course, because a vacation (or a business trip, for that matter) is never the right time for testing a beauty product that you weren't sure about to begin with. First, you're too busy to pay attention. Also, the weather, environment and daily routines are most likely not the normal ones, so the products are not tested correctly. And, most important, if something goes horribly wrong, you might not have all the resources to fix the problem.

Back to Paris. After a little rummaging I discovered I had a little sample of a facial scrub and a clay mask from a favorite top brand. It doesn't matter which one, because this is not a product review, just a cautionary tale. That night after a nice hot shower I exfoliated my face with the cream. It wasn't anything special, despite the prestigious label. Probably a little more abrasive than I would normally choose. That should have been enough of a warning, but just like in a horror movie when you see the girl opening that door and entering the scary house, like she hasn't seen any b-movies in her life, she still goes there. So did I. I applied the mask.


It's been years since my last absorbent mask. Nowadays it's all about keeping a balance of a clean but well-hydrated face. Clay doesn't belong there, as I soon discovered. An hour after I washed off the mask, my face, stripped from any oils, good and bad, went into an overcompensating mode, trying to replenish the lost moisture. I could feel it getting worse by the minute. Thankfully, I had enough of my trusty heavy-duty cream to slather on several times that night (fighting the instinct to run to the sink and wash, wash, wash) before going to bed, which stopped the oil-fest before a serious skin freakout. The next morning everything was back to normal, and I just used my regular products, which is what I should have been doing all along.

Do you have any travel/skincare horror stories? Please share in the comments.

Image of vintage face sauna: http://www.ogradyimages.com/

Celebrity Beauty Secrets

Today's edition of Celebrity Beauty Secret is brought to you by the Garbage Pail Kids:

Skin Care, the Amy Winehouse Way

Detox, according to Demi Moore.

Anti-Aging with Priscilla Presley.

And a bonus question: What's up with Renee Zellweger's face?


Photo: DListed

Don't buy these pants

Rihanna is kind enough to show us what happens when a girl with a perfect figure wears what I assume to be high-waist wide leg pants. This is why I'm sticking with skirts this season.

The pooch is beyond adorable, and Dlisted has more photos of cute dog and fashion victim star.

Hippie Dippie

I'm spoiled. It's not very often that I come across a Really Bad Product. My guess would be that it's the same for most of my readers. When was the last time you tried a beauty product and found it horrible? I don't mean something that doesn't work too well with your skin or a color that doesn't match. Nor do I mean a fragrance you hated. That's more of a taste and skin chemistry. I'm talking about a product that is so bad you can't believe that in our day and age someone is actually selling this.

As I said, it's a very rare occurrence for me.

My local Whole Foods Market has a separate Whole Body store next door. It's a lovely place with a big selection of natural products, supplements, aromatherapy and anything else bath, body and beauty related. It's not Sephora or anything like that, but I go there to buy pure oils, shea butter and organic aloe vera gel. The last time I popped in to buy jojoba oil (which I use on my skin to make whatever perfume I'm wearing last longer) I stopped in front of the deodorant display.

This was probably another proof for the power of advertisement, as the thing that lured me there was a poster inside the main store about how much better and healthier are deodorants made of natural products, or something like that. I decided to give it a try and randomly chose Kiss My Face Active Enzyme deodorant. It looked innocent enough, active enzymes sound like something that is both natural and powerful and it promised to last all day.

Huh.

The first problem I encountered was actually getting the deodorant on my skin. It is so poorly made that unlike any stick deodorant you or I have ever seen, its shape is concave. I had to reshape it with a knife. Then there's the texture that is very solid and doesn't yield without putting some effort, but when it's finally on the skin it's unpleasantly sticky. Who wants to have sticky pits?

But the worst part was that it does nothing. At all. It just doesn't work, and all I can do is thank the patron saint of beauty bloggers for: a. this being winter b. trying it on a lazy weekend at home, within running distance from my shower.

To add insult to injury, the scent I chose, Peaceful Patchouli, serves to remind us why dear old Patch has such a bad rap. I love patchouli as a note in several good fragrances, but the way it was used here was in its stinkiest, dirtiest incarnation. Like an unwashed hippie.