Great for Acne/Sensitive Skin Grapefruit Bamboo Facial Scrub from Green Beaver All Natural/Vegan/Gluten Free

I'm a fan of all things cute. Cute packaging can really draw attention to a product in the beauty world. When searching for the best products, you can often find them in plain packaging by smaller companies. The Green Beaver company seems to be one of thse hidden gems. It offers a whole bunch of great things for your skin that are all organic, paraben and gluten free. On top of that they are vegan products and they do not test on animals. The products seem to only be sold in Canada but I'm surprised at how many health stores carry them! They have a ton of retailers listed on their website.

I was sent the Grapefruit Bamboo Facial Scrub to review a while ago. I have been avoiding scrubs since I heard they irritate acne and make it worse. (St. Ives Apricot scrub anyone? That stuff rips apart peoples faces and yes, I was once a believer it was helping my acne.) I gave in and tried it, hoping there was a gentle scrub out there somewhere.

Beaver's scrub was surprisingly nice and a great option for anyone who feels they need an exploiter for their sensitive or acne prone skin. There are no large beads to irritate you or leave your skin feeling dry. The bamboo micro-fibers are very tiny and light. The grapefruit adds a nice scent and leaves skin feeling clean. The scrub is also made of an aloe vera base that soothes the skin and leaves it feeling soft. Aloe has been known as a great product for acne. Just a word of caution, the product can come out very fast! The biggest downside perhaps is the price which can be a little steep for some at $13.99 for 60mls. I'm totally now rooting for beaver to get into every major drugstore in Canada and the US now though! Btw, I tested out their grapefruit cleanser from a friend and the scent was AMAZING. I'm hooked on grapefruit products now.

Just incase you wanted to see, I stole the ingredients from their website.
Purified water, vegetable emulsifying wax and glycerin, bamboo powder, beeswax, grapefruit seed extract, grape seed extract, green tea leaf extract, lemon peel oil, aloe vera extract, grapefruit peel oil, sodium borate (natural borax)

Is vegan/organic/whatever skincare important to you?

This has to be the most bizarre thing I've seen all year..

I honestly don't even know what to think of this. This child is a possessed sea creature.

Another Way The Internet Is Making Us Feel Like Crap About Ourselves

As if the pressure of myspace, facebook and formspring wasn't enough, we now have the added pressure of robots judging our looks as well! Anaface.com, is the newest way to feel crappy about yourself. The website "analyzes facial beauty and attractiveness by performing complex calculations on the lips, nose, and face." I decided to try it out and here are my results.
It's great being told some of your features are too wide or small, no? I don't believe a machine can calculate if someone is attractive or not. Attraction isn't just based on facial widths. Not everyone will be affected by a computer telling them ways they can look better. The same goes for people getting anonymously bashed on formspring. For some people though, we have seen major impacts with the harsh vanity of the internet.

Heidi Montage is one good example. While some may argue she brought her downward spiral of plastic surgery on herself through her fame whoring ways, you can't help but wonder what effects the internet had on her. It doesn't take being a real life celebrity either to have tons of backlash. Their are numerous pages devoted to posting pictures of normal people one person might consider ugly. Formspring is a breeding ground for jealous girls to make each other feel terrible about their looks. I myself have avoided this website altogether as I had enough torture from my honest box comments. The internet has had some pretty negative effects on me. I experienced a ton of bullying in grade nine and it truly has affected my confidence. I admit that I have put myself out there though. With the photo shoots and singing, I did expect some of this. Just not at such a hateful level. At first I didn't think it had any effect on me but I began to notice it did after a few months. My confidence now is different, maybe from growing up. I'm just glad I never took the comments to seriously as I would be a wreck.

What do you think about websites like this? Do you think the internet had any affect on your confidence?

I have a job handing out flyers downtown. FHDJSAIOPA!! Long dayss! I'M DETERMINED TO GO TO JAPAN! Sorry about the lack of blogging. I'll try to get something interesting done over the weekend.

BTW. KOREAN CHAT ROULETTE IS SO MUCH FUN. TALKING TO PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES ARE THE BEST!

Cosplay and Anime Conventions

I know I've been wayyy to MIA lately! Everything has kinda hit me at once. I have to do a bunch of school work, find a job to get to Japan this summer, make a costume for anime north, write music. Crazy!

I'm excited to go to anime north this year. I haven't been to an anime convention in about two years. I grew up at them, going to every one starting at age 11. I loved being able to just be whoever I wanted to be and let loose. Cosplaying is dorky but fun. I love playing dress up and getting to pick and make a beautiful costume is an amazing experience. The details and effort that goes into a cosplay is amazing. Cosplayers almost always take costumes very seriously.

I can't wait to go and just have fun. HOWEVER. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I'M COSPLAYING YET! I've got under two weeks now. FYI, most people start MONTHS ahead. Sadly, I usually always panic like this. I want to do sailor moon but I don't think I could get it looking good in time. Plus it could get very pricey fast. Not so good for my Japan fund. The other costume I have in mind and bought some fabric for I'm going to look like a fat cow in. I guess I'd rather look like a fat cow then not cosplay though.. I think. Also, I want to enter the masquerade! That used to be the fun of it for me! Without competing for costume prizes I'm not sure it will be as much fun for me.

Have you ever cosplayed? Have you ever been to an anime convention? What are your experiences?

Here's some pics of amazing costumes!

Benefit Realness of Concealness Kit Review

I love great concealer (who doesn't?) and I thought Benefit was among the best brands for it. The thought of the lines correcting power in a cute little kit was to hard to resist! Sadly, I was not impressed. Not only was I unimpressed by the kit, I'm now reconsidering what I think of the brand. The packaging is adorable and comes with some basic concealer instructions. The kit itself is smaller then I expected in person. I was a little disappointed by that but it is cute! The erase paste is a mini size but still has a lot of product in it, so its not a bad. Its nice to have a concealer that can be taken out of the kit and used anywhere. The brushes were pretty decent and can be very useful to someone without many. The two circle pots are of boi-ing in different shades. The dark one is way to dark for me though, so for myself it was a waste. The shade selection for me, was a huge reason this kit pissed me off so much. The erase paste was useless to me as it was quite dark (in shade 2). I also can't use one of the boi-ings. As for the products, I'm really not impressed. Although I don't hate the erase paste (I own it in the full size) I can't say its the best concealer. It's quite cake-y if your not super careful and creases badly. I also found boi-ing to cake easy and look very un-natural. The That Gal Primer failed to both brighten my face or provide a good foundation base. Pretty disappointing. I also found eye bright to do nothing at all. I honestly saw no difference with it! The only good thing from this kit was the lemon-aid which does a good job of concealing redness and veins on the eye.

For about $45.00 Canadian I'm SUPER unimpressed. My recommendation is to get lemon aid and skip the rest of this lines gimmicky concealors