One of the things I love getting done when I visit my mom is a pedicure from Studio 3 in Athens, Tennessee. Keisha, the girl that also does my mom’s tootsies does amazing pedicures. And the best thing about it is that she uses a callus shaver to take every last bit of dead skin off your feet. If you’ve never had your feet shaved, you’re missing out, although I’ve found it difficult to get this done in the UK. Many beauty technicians have told me it’s not common practice here.

It has been a long, long time since Keisha went to work on my hooves so luckily I was sent a callus shaver from Japonesque to review recently. I was already familiar with the Japonesque brand, having used some of their makeup tools when I was at the London College of Fashion. When the shaver arrived at work, I squealed with delight and amused my colleagues with my new toy. This comes in a really nice box and would be great for gift, I know that sounds a bit daft but I’d be happy to get one!

So what does this bad boy do? Well it takes off all that hard skin on the bottom of your feet that you’ve been trying to get rid of with foot scrub and pumice stone. While things thing have their place, I think it’s fair to say that some hard skin isn’t coming off unless you take drastic measures. The best thing about using a callus shaver is that it is gentle and doesn’t scratch the way scrubs can. Yes you do need to be careful, and this isn’t recommended if you are diabetic or a hemophiliac. The shaver itself is also easy to grip as the handle is a smooth matte finish plastic. It’s always best to soak your feet first or have a shower/bath before you start shaving.

Because I love you all, I won’t be showing you before and after shots of my feet or a little pile of dead skin. I’m sure you all have vivid enough imaginations about how smooth the bottom of my feet have become. I’d much rather leave you with some photos from the Japonesque catalogue which are far more exciting…

Yes, those are spatulas that you see in top left-hand corner. Everyone should have spatulas! 

Play pick-n-mix with these gorgeous palettes, and the divider can be used to make custom shades. 

Are you on the eternal quest for perfect brows? This brow groomer has scissors and comb to guide you. 

 Has anyone else tried Japonesque goodies? What did you think?

As much as I love MAC Brush Cleaner I can’t always be bothered to visit MAC when I run out – clearly I don’t visit the counter as much as most beauty bloggers do. I bought the The Body Shop Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash to take with me on my trip to the US and honeymoon in Aruba as it’s something both James and I could use. Did I remember to pack it – no of course not because I officially suck at packing suitcases.

What I did discover when I got back home (which seems like months ago now) is that my makeup brushes and sponge were in a state from two weddings and all the travelling I did. Plus I’m sure my cousins borrowed them at some point too so they were in need of a good clean. Having finished my bottle of MAC cleaner ages ago I grabbed my unused and unloved TBS Tea Tree Facial Wash and went to town watching all the foundation, blusher, glitter and other makeup goo wash down the plughole. Now keep in mind my brushes are synthetic ones from Sonia Kashuk and Clinique, my makeup sponge is from Superdrug and my eyebrow brush is Ruby and Millie so none of these items were super expensive. I don’t know if this would work on brushes made of animal hair as it may dry them out. Over time I don’t know if it will dry mine out like a haystack but I’m willing to take that chance as they smell fresh and clean afterwards. If it’s a good enough for my face, it should be good enough for my brushes right?

Back in 2008 I bought this lovely device for it’s promises of helping to get rid of spots in a more humane and friendly way instead of using harsh spot treatments that can dry out your skin. Even though everyone said it looked like I was holding a mobile phone to my face as I was using it, it did indeed work. It lessens the redness of big spots as it ‘cooks’ the bacteria inside making your spot appear smaller in a few days. Unfortunately ZENO has it’s limits. It doesn’t work on whiteheads or blackheads and I’m lead to believe that people with severe cystic acne might find this difficult to use. Here lies the problem.

Just to recap, I bought ZENO in 2008. I think I’ve used it about 30 times and that is a generous estimate. So why haven’t I used it that much? Well since I bought it I realised I really don’t get the kind of spots that ZENO treats on a regular basis. Now obviously this is a good thing so I’m not complaining but I was just wondering how many other people have found themselves in this situation. ZENO has brought out several different models since and it the device itself has gotten smaller and cheaper. American retailer Target sells the ZENO Hot Spot for $34.99. I’ve never seen a ‘hot spot’ device on sale here in the UK but I also haven’t been looking. So do you think the Clarisonic has replaced the ZENO?

Have you bought the newer models of the ZENO? I would love to hear from you!

]]> http://skinscrubs.co.uk/zeno-where-art-thou/feed/ 2 http://skinscrubs.co.uk/thank-you-santa-for-my-clarisonic-plus/ http://skinscrubs.co.uk/thank-you-santa-for-my-clarisonic-plus/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:59 +0000 Annabella http://skinscrubs.co.uk/?p=6649

This is the beautiful Clarisonic facial brush head that oscillates at 10 degrees in either direction, working at 300 movements per second. It goes so fast it looks like a blur. Getting this is my equivalent of getting a diamond ring. I can’t wait to get acquainted with my new friend and tell you all about it. I told you I was good girl this year.

Four months ago I did a post on Soap & Glory Exfoliating Gloves vs. Body Shop Bath Gloves. In the next battle Body Shop is going up against Menscience who make various different types of men’s grooming products. I’m quite picky about my ‘scrubby’ gloves and I bought these because of the glowing customer reviews on the Mankind website. I was quite disappointed when they arrived to find that they didn’t look much different to the Body Shop ones. So I decided to compare them. The Body Shop gloves are on the left, Menscience ones on the right.

Because the Menscience gloves are black it may be difficult to tell from the this picture how alike they really are. Below is a close-up of the texture of the Menscience body gloves which are made of nylon.

Below are the Body Shop body gloves which are also made of nylon.

Below are the elasticated wrist of the Menscience gloves.

Below are the elasticated wrist of the Body Shop gloves. Note the little nylon loops which makes it easy to hang your gloves up to dry.

Now that you can see that I am comparing like with like I will give you my thoughts.  I use body gloves every day and I’ve been doing so for 18+ years so I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert in this field. To test these gloves I used the Body Shop on my left hand and the Menscience on my right hand. I used Molton Brown Blissful Templetree Shower Gel on both gloves.

Both gloves helped to lather the shower gel and both gloves did the exact same job of exfoliating my bod. I would say that the Menscience gloves are about 20% rougher than the Body Shop ones and this is probably due to a tighter nylon weave. This 20% percent extra roughness however does not explain why the Menscience gloves are 288% more expensive. The Body Shop gloves retail at £4, the Menscience gloves at £11.50! For this price I was expecting gloves made of sandpaper. I’ve gone back to read the reviews on Mankind and I’m going to assume that the men who gave their opinions have never stepped into a Body Shop or else they would have known the Menscience gloves were way overpriced. Several of them mention the Menscience gloves are better than the £1 sponges/gloves you get in shops and they would be, but that still doesn’t justify the price.

The fact that the Menscience body gloves are black is a total marketing ploy. The Body Shop gloves usually come in a myriad of lovely colours but if a man is going to use these does he really care what colour they are? His mates will still see them in the bathroom!

My conclusion is the Menscience gloves are a complete rip off so if you have male friends, colleagues, lovers, boyfriends, husbands etc. that are interested in body gloves just tell them to buy a pair of green/blue/red Body Shop ones and with the extra money they saved they can buy you a drink!

I think around the age of 10 or 11 is when most of us start washing our faces with some kind of soap and looking in the mirror a lot more. We then discover these little black plugs of sebum and whiteheads and feel compelled to pick at them mercilessly until our faces are red. For all the beauty advice we’re given – not picking our faces seems to fall on deaf ears. Even with the threats of scarring, make it worse etc. don’t seem to stop us. Zeno is great for getting those hard, bumpy spots but it will do nothing for blackheads and already formed whiteheads.

The Tweezerman Professional Skin Care Tool looks like some kind of knitting needle, has a flat side for blackheads, and hooked side for whiteheads. It’s made from stainless steel and you obviously need to make sure you clean it after every use. I used it to get to grips with a few pesky blackheads that have taken up residence around the corners of my nose. I really didn’t understand how this was going to work let alone on the corners of my face but after much pressing said blackheads dislodged. Don’t worry, I will spare you the gore of my results – I’m sure you can use your imagination. You do need to press down fairly hard but it doesn’t hurt. I (fortunately) have not had any whiteheads to test this out on so I wouldn’t be able to tell you how well it works for those. I’m quite happy with this method of blackhead removal and knowing that I’ve not used my fingers. Not touching my face will also help to prevent spreading even more bacteria around my face. This tool is a good go-between leaving spots alone (as if) and seeing a dermatologist to sort them out.

This is available at Lookfantastic and Mankind!

I’ve been using exfoliating or ‘scrubby’ gloves for about 18+ years. My first pair came from US store Bath and Bodyworks in the early 90′s. Up until then the closest thing to getting exfoliating action was using a flannel or wash cloth (useless), loofah’s (even more useless) or a back brush. Exfoliating gloves are brilliant because the tool is your hands so there are no fiddly objects to hold whilst you de-scale your bod. Since the invention of these gloves there have been several other body wash sponges made of nylon that have come on the market. Most of them are also useless as the weave is too big to get a good scrub. I am never without my scrubby gloves. Lot’s of people use them in place of body scrub but I use both. For me the gloves are for everyday use, body scrubs are for intense scrubbing several times a week.

I’ve been using Body Shop bath gloves for about 15 years now because the 100% nylon weave on the glove is quite tight and because they are made from nylon they dry very quickly. These only last about 2-3 months max as the weave starts to get loose and the elastic around the wrist area will slacken. I was going to replace my old Body Shop ones with a new pair but decided to go for Soap & Glory ones as they look a bit more durable.

The Soap & Glory gloves are like putting on a falconry glove. The elastic on the wrist is thicker and larger so these gloves aren’t going anywhere. Whilst the Body Shop glove texture is smooth, these gloves have bobbly bits in addition to the nylon texture for exfoliation. There is also a Soap & Glory ribbon attached to each glove so you can hang them up. You can see a comparison picture here; S&G on the left, Body Shop on the right.

S&G gloves are on another level to the Body Shop ones. They feel more durable and the exfoliation action you get is rougher which is always a good thing in my book! The only downside I see is that they are at risk of being discontinued as Soap & Glory hasn’t been around as long as the Body Shop, and they seem to chop and change their product line more often. Body Shop gloves have been around for at least 15 years, I doubt they will get rid of them any time soon. Both gloves are the same price point (£4) so the S&G ones to me are better value. It will be interesting to see if they last for longer than 2-3 months. I will be recycling my Body Shop gloves though, if you slip them onto traditional rubber gloves they make a handy cleaning tool for bathroom sink taps. Happy scrubbing!

Soap & Glory Exfoliating Gloves are available at Boots!

As the beauty market grows evermore crowded with products and devices, it’s difficult to know which are worth the money. When I bought my Zeno Acne Treatment device several years ago for £99 most people thought I was crazy but it works. However I was able to watch ‘real’ people reviewing it on YouTube before I made the decision to buy it. As much as you want to believe manufacturing testimonials, it is difficult unless you watch somebody genuine using the product.

Clarisonic Plus is available at Beauty Expert and Feelunique

My lovely friend Rebecca from Beauty Gala has been kind enough to let me post her video review of the Clarisonic. Her review is for the Clarisonic Mia which is not available in the UK at the moment, but the principle is the same. The Clarisonic is rechargeable, and you can use your own cleanser with it. The Clarisonic Plus package contains Cordless Clarisonic Plus with 3 speeds, charging cradle, Sensitive brush head, Body brush head, Gentle Hydro Cleanser 30ml, Refreshing Gel Cleanser 30ml, Nourishing Care Cleanser 30ml, Refreshing Skin Polish 60ml. You can also purchase brush heads for Delicate and Normal skins. Over to you Rebecca!

I hope you are all enjoying Mothering Sunday. I unfortunately cannot be with my mum as she lives on the other side of the pond and I’ve been having trouble finding a gift for her. You see my mum has everything; a wonderful husband (my dad),  a gorgeous house, cars, shoes and bags that would give any celeb a run for their money and don’t get me started on her collection of bling. So while I was looking through my favourite beauty websites I happened upon the perfect thing. It combines practicality and with extravagance.

Swarovski Crystal Tweezers! She plucks her eyebrows and collects Swarovski Crystal so this is perfect. Now which colour to get black or white? These are available at Gorgeous Shop.

This is available at Beauty Expert and Boots.

I always found pumice foot scrubbers to be awkward to use as they are usually too small and aren’t actually rough enough to really take off hard dead skin that can usually be found on feet/heel area. Metal foot files have also left me cold so when I discovered Pedro I was intrigued.  It looked easy to use as it has a longer handle and is quite a sturdy piece of equipment. So sturdy in fact I’m sure it could be used as a weapon if needs be!

How to use

There is a rough and smooth side so after you have gone to town scraping the soles and heels of your feet you can smooth them down to a nice buffed finish. I always use mine just before I finish in the shower as the skin on my feet has softened and is easy to remove. Unless you have the time to get regular pedicures (who does) this tool will keep your hooves in tip-top shape in between visits to your beauty therapist. This is particularly important in the summer if you regularly wear flip flops and sandals as constantly exposed feet become rough and dry. Make sure you rinse it off with warm water and store it away from the shower/bath so it can dry. I’ve seen this rounded version at Boots however other ones I’ve seen have a more tapered edge.

Rough Side

Smooth Side