A Post Quickie: Thoughts on Borghese Continuous Hydration Serum and Moisturizer

So...... in my last post I told you how I bought a gift set with items for Borghese Continuous Hydration line.  It's a pricy line and it has few detailed reviews online.  I decided to try this out to see exactly how effective this would be.

For reference, I have combination skin with a usually oily T zone yet I have dry patches around my nose and mouth.  My hope was that this line would smooth out those patches and make my skin look fresh and moisturized.

It's been two whole weeks and I am so sick of using this serum and moisturizer.  I ended up destroying it out of frustration.

Now I know two weeks isn't a lot of time to know how a product would fully work but these products did absolutely nothing for me.  It may have caused a few pimples but other than that I found no change in my skin after using this day and night for two weeks.

SERUM:

It feels really good when you apply it, but it is kind of slimy and the fragrance gave me a headache.  I'm not usually sensitive to fragrance but this was just straight perfume-y.  After application, I didn't notice any increase in moisture.  This serum is a gel and like many gel products, I don't really like them because I feel they don't really work as well as creams.  This is mainly because every time I apply a gel product to my face it peels after setting like some kind of facial lint.  Not cool.

It also seriously feels just like flax seeds and water.  If you never tried this, all you do is stir flax seeds with warm/hot water and you got yourself a moisturizing slime.  

For $90 retail this is a most infuriating dud.

If you must try this out for yourself get a generous sample first.

CREAM:

I love how this dispenses so I will give them points for that.  The cream is suppose to continuously hydrate for 24 hours.  I don't know how this is suppose to occur since most people wash their face twice a day.

Anyways....

This is a great gel cream formula that absorbs quickly into the skin.  I was told to use half a pump but found that my skin drank that up before I could go over my whole face so I used almost a full pump.  The skin feels soft afterwards but not necessarily moisturized.  What worst is that my dry patches around my lips and nose were still there.

At the end of the day I didn't feel any more or less moisture retention on my skin but I also didn't feel too greasy.

It was completely lackluster for a $69 cream.

So after using these two products I found them to be incredibly underwhelming.  It's almost as if the two weeks didn't happen.  It wasn't good but it wasn't bad.  It was like Limbo skincare.  After I decided to no longer use the serum and moisturizer I had a Clarisonic scrub down and my face feels fresh and glowing.

So bottom line, these didn't work at all on me and I will not be purchasing them in the future.  With that kind of money I say invest in a Clarisonic Mia and use the left over cash to get some lunch.   

Memories with Make Up (A Nostalgic Look at Borghese)

So it's Friday night (Saturday morning now) and I felt the need to use a face mask.  As I looked in my cabinet I saw a seriously old jar of Borghese Fango mud and a not-so-old Estee Lauder So Clean Deep Pore Mask.

After contemplating for a while I decided on something totally different and mixed up a random mud mask for Indonesia with some Tea Tree oil.  But this led me to think about some of the beauty products I use and how the brands evolved.

Let's start off first by saying that I've been in a de-clutter mood the last week.  I went through a few places and cleaned out what I don't use anymore or rearranged what I do and intend to use.  I used to do this more often as a kid but as I got older I had more important things to do.

In my de-clutter I discovered a Borghese gift set that I bought during the holidays.  I got one for my co-worker of the classics (Fango, Tono, etc.) and I got one for me of their Continuous Hydration line.  The set came with a serum, moisturizer and mask.  I quickly turned to Google to look for reviews and was very surprised to find none that were comprehensive enough to satisfy my curiosity.

From the Borghese website the line is suppose to provide continuous moisture and protect the skin from external influences.

The gist I gathered is that it's supposed to leave skin soft, plump, protected and moisturized.  Sort of like recapturing pure youth.  The products are also pretty expensive so I'm happy I was able to get it in a set for a pretty good deal.

Since there weren't any detailed reviews I decided to take the plunge and try it out myself to see if it works.  My skin has been pretty decent lately although it does have dry patches and my nose is more clogged than usual.

I tried the hydrating concentrate and the 24-hour continuous hydration moisturizer and I really like it so far.  I also don't get why you would need to apply a 24 hour moisturizer twice a day, but I figured I would just follow with the instructions.

Pros:

Absorbs quickly

No greasy feeling

Cons:

Dry patches still present

Skin doesn't feel moisturized

This is only from using the products twice.  I will give it a good 2 weeks (or up until my skin can handle) and come back with a thorough review.  Although it says it's for continuous moisture it really feels more like a product for younger skin.  Everything feels so light I almost feel like it's not working.  This may all be years of brainwashing where I equate a heavy moisturizer as better but we will see.  I love a lot from Borghese and hope this doesn't disappoint.

This led me to memories at the Emporium (now Macy's) and spending quality girl time with my mom.  She loved how luxurious and spa-like everything felt and I guess that rubbed off on me.

I really think that this line has become very underrated.  There's good stuff to be had yet it doesn't get the crowds in like MAC or Chanel... ah marketing.  If you ever do swing by a Borghese counter check out the following:

 Fango Active Mud for Face and Body

Tono Body Cream

Bagno Di Vita Body Soak

B Gloss lip gloss in Fiore

State of the Art Lipstick in Sheer Porto (discontinued but still fairly easy to find)

Eye Shadow Trio (the one product I found reviews on, I wish I still had mine from way back when)

Il Bacio perfume 

This is a long-winded post but my mind wouldn't be able to rest until it was out.

Have a good night!

  

Holy Haul That's A Lot of Physician's Formula!

So the last few days CVS was having a generous sale with Physician's Formula.  It was basically $7 off anything that cost more than $7.  While I didn't find the products that were just over $7 (totally sold out) I did get a good deal of products.  I bought 10 items and "saved" $70.  I believe I spent about $37 on all the stuff so not a bad deal at all.  If you look on the CVS website you'll notice they sell online and the prices are a bit cheaper than in store.  But this was strictly store only and it totally brought out my mini hunter instinct.

This will be fairly long since I will be reviewing what I got so bear with me.

First off, I got yet another 2 in 1 Lash Boosting Pen in Ultra Black.  My other goal of the sale was to find products that offered bonus product.  This included the clear lash serum with it.

Orig. Price : $11.49

Price Paid: $4.49

I've been hoarding these since last week when there were BOGO 1/2 off.  I only got one since it was the only bonus pack left and I do love the clear serum.

The eyeliner is amazing and it is probably going to replace a lot of the black liners I have.  I will keep Urban Decay Perversion around for my smoky eye but I will never buy any other black liner but these two.  When I hoarded them during the BOGO 1/2 off they ended up being about $4 each pen (Rite Aid was slightly cheaper).  With this deal, the last two pencils I got came out to $2.25 each.  Can you imagine paying that little or an eyeliner and lash serum?

Next I got the Shimmer Strip Palette in Nude.  I really love the colors and thought it would be really great to try out.  I got two of them.

 

Orig. Price : $11.49

Price Paid: $4.49

There has been a lot of comparisons of this as a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette.  I have to say it is not.  The colors are all shimmer, and the Naked Palette does contain a couple of mattes.

While this looks like a very wide assortment of colors, the shimmer in them tones it down and they look very similar when on.  I have the same issue with the Naked Palette as well.  The palette is kind of sectioned off in 3's.  Each set of three shades corresponds to a look (Natural, Playful and Dramatic).

It comes with one sponge tipped applicator, which honestly, I'm not used to.  I find that while the sections are on the small side, I find that my brushes fit just fine.

The box also indicates that the shadows can be used wet or dry.  Wet will give a bolder, longer-lasting finish and dry will be softer.  I can agree that the shadows are bolder when applied wet and also wear longer even without a primer.

The application can be tricky and these don't blend as well (especially wet) as some of my other shadows.  But the colors are lovely and I do think I will be getting good use out of it.  They wear really well (10+ hours) when used with a primer and still look okay even after a long day.

My only real gripe is that shimmery shadows are mainly used for highlighting so to have a palette that uses them all over the lid seems like overkill to me.  I think I'm going to try to blend some of the shades out with face powder or the not-so-shimmery darker shades in here so that I can get a bit more versatility out of this palette.  But as is, it's way too much shimmer for a grown woman to wear.    

I also got a couple of concealers.  I tend to get red around my nose and when I get pimples so I decided to try out some color correcting concealers.

I got the Concealer Twins (CT) and Perfecting Concealer Duo (PCD) in Green-Light.

 

 

Orig. Price : $8.29

Price Paid: $1.29

The  CT is a cream concealer.  You are supposed to apply the green to areas and blend.  You then apply the light over the green and blend out.  This has not gotten many good reviews and judging by how they tell you to use it I can understand why.

I however, found this concealer to work very well provided that I don't touch my face afterwards.  My trick is that instead of applying green directly to my face, I mix in a dab of green into a liquid foundation to give the foundation the color correcting properties.  I then apply to my trouble areas with a brush and blends with a make up wedge sponge.  I then use the light (which is too light for me) to brighten my darker spots on my face like I would with my Dior Skin Flash pen.  I finish with a good dusting of powder and I am done.  This came in a twin pack so each CT came out to be $0.65 each.

The PCD is a cream to powder formula that works really well for ruddy areas like cheeks and chin.  I get some green with the included brush and dot in my trouble areas.  I blend with a make up wedge and repeat if needed.  When I get the cover I want, I dab the light on and blend out.  I then finish with powder.

These work pretty well.  I find that the PCD last longer than the CT but I still like them both.  The CT goes well on areas that can be tricky to cover like the nose area.  The PCD is great or larger areas with a smooth surface like cheeks.

Just remember that patting is your best friend when concealing.  Never rub.  If you're using powder to set then apply with a stippling technique.

Now then, the worst of the worst products that I got..... the Custom Eye Enhancing Kohl Kajal Eyeliner Trio.

This sucks so badly I want to punch!

Orig. Price : $11.49

Price Paid: $4.49

Seriously, I paid way too much for this.  This is touted to be a 100% waterproof eye kohl that can be used on the waterline.  The colors looked so pretty that I grabbed it and thought "What the hell, I'll give it a try."  Even the worst liners have some redeeming quality right?

WRONG!  So wrong in fact that I will tell you everything that is wrong with these.

1- The formula on these is so greasy.  This is why it's 100% waterproof because oil and water don't mix.

2- Smudges like a mofo because it's basically grease and once it gets to your body temperature it will melt like butter and spread everywhere.

3- Only the black in the kit is intense.  While the other colors are nice, it takes a lot to make them as bold.

4- They should come with a fragile warning.  The company could have packaged these as an automatic pencil like their other liners, but they didn't.  Because of that, the liners can't be sharpened, will only get increasingly thicker and if you apply any pressure on these they will break apart.  I had the black on break off at the base when I was swatching it.

5- The formula irritates my eyes.  They don't get red per se but they do feel congested.  I blame the oil in the product.  I it's melting on my waterline and going into my eye then I'm going to get a film of this stuff all over my eye.  Not cool.

6- What you see is what you get, literally.  There is nothing to twist up and that giant pencil you're looking at is all the product you get to work with.... if you don't break it.

Can I still return this if one of the liners is missing?  What the hell am I going to use these for?

Onto something happier now.  I bought their Mineral Wear Airbrushing Pressed Powder in Beige.  For reference I use MAC MSF in Medium and love it.

 

Orig. Price : $14.49

Price Paid: $7.49

Now if I'm paying regular price I would rather just get MAC, even though it's $29.  Only because it is superior for me.  I originally wanted to try one of their powders in Buff but couldn't find it.  I settled for Beige and I'm happy to say that it works on me.

 

The casing is cute and it comes with a useless brush and an awkwardly placed mirror.  Why they decided to put it below the pan I will never know since it totally negates the practicality of having a mirrored compact.  The brush is useless and the company should stop making them.

The powder itself isn't half bad.  It feels "stickier" than my other powders but it does provide a decent amount of coverage.  It is darker that MSF in Medium but it still matches well.  I noticed that this does accentuate flaky spots and pimples so moisturize well.  Also, the best technique I found in application was to stipple it on with my MAC 187 brush.  If I tried to just brush it on, too much product would get on my face and it would darken to an unnatural color it would also make my pores very noticeable on my nose once I started to sweat or get greasy.  I don't know if this is just oxidation or too much powder or both.  When I stipple, it find that takes care of these two major problems for me and it actually becomes something I would wear.

As for 16 hours of airbrushing finish... not really.  But it will last me most of the work day.  If I use this I will set with a finishing powder.

Almost done here.  I also bought the Organic Wear Mascara.  I guess it was my inner hipster looking to be green.

Orig. Price : $10.49

Price Paid: $3.49

This was in a bonus pack so I got 2 of them.  That comes out to $1.75 each.  The box says that it's suppose to boost lashes by 5x and that it lengthens, volumizes and defines.

First off I love the brush and the formula.  It's a dry mascara so there will be a bit of clumping but not a lot.  It really does define the lashes and it lengthens well enough.  Volume wasn't really noticeable.  This give a great natural look for when you don't want dramatic lashes.  But, the product contains beeswax and though I'm not 100% sure this is the reason, it does smudge on me and I get light raccoon eyes in a couple of hours.  This is very true when I'm wearing the Mineral Wear powder because the stickiness helps the mascara transfer.  But most mascaras smudge on me so this isn't news.  I can usually prevent any mascara from smudging by finishing off with a layer of MAC Opulash.  But for mascara, Opulash works great without it so it's pointless to layer this beneath.  Might use it as emergency mascara and just be mindful to check for smudges every couple of hours.

Finally!  My final items are the Baked Collection Wet/Dry Eye Shadows in Baked Sands and Baked Oatmeal (BS and BO hahaha!).  These are super cute in their little domes.  The colors are very similar between these two sets but Baked Oatmeal is more neutral and Baked Sands is warmer.

Orig. Price : $9.39 (BS) $8.79 (BO)

Price Paid: $2.39 (BS) $1.79 (BO)

 

 

They apply very well when dry and they give a sheer natural finish with not too much shimmer.  I have yet to try them wet but I am happy with them as is.  Be sure to use a primer with these for maximum staying power.  Each set contains 3 shadows (base, highlight and contour) and directions are given on the back of the box.  I don't know why these are priced differently since the packaging is the exact same but it is what it is.  I wouldn't pay the original price (maybe $5 at most) for these shadows but for the sale price I think these are a great deal.