Round Up October

What books and/or magazines did I read this month? 

The proper care and feeding of marriage by Dr Laura Schlessinger. I think Dr Laura is one of those people you either love or hate. Upon reading this book I found myself on the fence. I liked some of the things she said and hated others. She seems VERY anti-feminist, or perhaps a better analysis would be that she is very set in her own views of what feminism is? And honestly they differ to mine. I believe that feminism is a woman deciding what she wants, and striving to reach it. For each woman that will be different, for some a career, for other that could be a stay at home Mom. Each of those is feminism IF it is what the woman wants. Being a housewife is feminism if the housewife WANTS to be a housewife. Dr Laura seems to blame a lot of the problems she sees in marriage on her view of feminism when in fact it's just people in a bad time in their relationship for one reason or another. Mostly it seemed to be one partner either being neglected or acting selfishly. I know many people like her though, and I DO believe in SOME of the 'help' she gives in the examples but overall it just left me with a bad feeling about her as a woman and author. I do plan on reading more of her work though to give her another go... verdict is out on this one.

 

Fitness magazines: fitness, Fitness RX for women, Oxygen. Usual health and fitness stuff that I read every month. I did a lot of research too this month on fitness. I am working on a plan to relaunch my fitness website with more content, more research, weekly workouts and indepth articles. So lots of website programming research too!

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

Toy Story 3 - finally caught this last showing at our local cheap cinema, yep I know it's almost released on DVD/Blu-Ray (early November I think?), but when the cheap cinema is just $3 each you don't argue! That's why we wait! Anyway, after seeing so much hype surrounding this movie and how good it was I was hesitant to go see it but it was every bit as good as I'd been told! Loved it!

We also watched "The Other Guys", which I'd heard nothing about but it was pretty good. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it but that moment 5 minutes in on the rooftop, well I was like "WTF?" then realized it was supposed to be a comedy ;) That was the best bit of the movie for me though!

What special days did I celebrate and how?

No special days this month :( We were supposed to go out for a race day out at Willow Springs but the organizers canceled the event due to low attendance. Pretty pissed about it as it was supposed to be Bobs birthday gift :(

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I came down with a weird 24 hour stomach flu. I was at the computer after one lunch thinking "wow my tummy feels terrible, I should go lie down". I was just lying down and decided to text Bob so he wouldn't call and interupt me if I fell asleep...

In the space of 30 minutes I went from "yay lunch" to "oh look there is lunch again!". I HATE puking! I can handle all sickness symptoms except puking :( Anyway I slept a LOT that day, ate some toast around 3 then repeated that till stomach settled. Bob came home early to look after me too :) Spent the 24hours either in bed, or on the sofa, then almost exactly 24hrs later I started to feel better. By the evening the next day I was pretty much normal!

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

We helped our friend greg install his projector screen for his projector TV. We had ulterior motives for helping really as we are considering getting one ourselves so it was a good thing to have a proper play with his before we committed to it. After seeing Greg's though we REALLY want one! Just got to figure out the logistics of where to put the projector & Screen. Greg had a 130" screen but we're thinking a tad smaller at 120" lol! This photo doesn't do it justice, trust me... it's awesome!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

As we were up in Camarillo picking up my 1/2 marathon race packet, we decided to hit up The Curry Leaf Indian restaurant.Our first time here and only found out about it because I Googled vegetarian restaurants in the area.

It's a small bistro style restaurant, very nicely done. We started with  Garlic Indian Fries, which were quite garlicky (love!) and spicy ketchup. Usually we go for pakora or samosa so this was a nice change.

For main course we had Paneer Tikka Masala and  Mushroom Pepper Fry. We loved the Paneer dish but the Mushroom dish neither of us was keen on really. We left 1/2 of that one. Lesson learned though!

Another new restaurant we heard of recently and finally tried is Swagat Indian restaurant in Moorpark. Unfortunately the first time we went it was VERY busy, and VERY understaffed. We sat for 25 minutes before we even got a menu, and only got one then because I asked. 10 minutes later we still had no service so we left. Now I'm not one to call the race card, but an Indian family walked in 15 minutes after us, got seated, menu's and served immediately. Clearly this is NOT acceptable! You should take orders in the order people come into the restaurant!!! However we decided to give them another try and went one lunchtime for the buffet. The food was nice, the waiter (owner?) recognized us from the previous visit and apologised for the wait previously.

Another new place we tried was Hummus King, after Bob and Greg reading about it on Quarry Girl, Greg had been and said it was great, so we were eager to try it too! Bob and I shared a Schwarama plate, with sides of fireballs and fries. Delish! Definitely go again if we are in the neighborhood! Also if you like veggie food, check out Quarry Girl for vegan/veggie restaurant/food reviews!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Make Up! I posted before about some make up I got by ELF and NYC but this month I bought a couple more nail polish colors and more base products, including a compact with a mirror. Didn't notice but the one I picked up last month from ELF didn't have a mirror! Pretty useless if you ask me! So I got one from NYC for just $4, bargain!

It was Clinique bonus time at Macy's so I made a purchase for something I've been wanting to buy for a while. Eye cream. I'm getting some lines around the eyes, guessing due to combined aging, sun damage and Bob being incredibly funny and making me laugh constantly! Anyway I want to try some eye creams out, and hope to do reviews on a few soon! I love Clinique products so this was a treat for me, plus I got these bonus items to try.

• High Impact Mascara in Black
• Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion
• Eyes 1, 2, 3, Color Compact in Berries or Nudes: Three shadows, three applicators, and a how-to card ( I chose nudes)
• Different Lipstick in A Different Grape or Long Last Lipstick in All Heart (I chose All Heart)
• All About Eyes Serum De-Puffing Eye Massage (can't wait to try this!)
• Cosmetic Bag Set

What were this month’s disappointments?

In August I mentioned about booking Bob a birthday 'event' for his 40th birthday. I booked him a spot on a Racing Adventure day in Los Angeles, racing a Corvette race care around a track. Well it got canceled due to poor attendance. I'm quite pissed off about this for numerous reasons, mainly because this was his gift for a special birthday, it was a huge event we'd looked forward to, I managed to keep it a secret from Bob and now it's canceled. Bad move on their part ruining my baby's day!

What were my accomplishments this month?

I ran a 1/2 marathon! I posted about it already, it was a bit of a disaster, very poorly organized. I learned some valuable lessons from it though so that's a good thing I guess? Plus I ran a 1/2 marathon! 13.1 miles!

I got my first pay check from Gold's gym! That made two paychecks this month! Whooohooo! I also taught a couple more classes at Gold's this month too. Also landed another couple of classes at Moorpark Athletic Club so happy about that too!

Anything else noteworthy to record?       

Not much really, other than this morning I'll be out at Moorpark gym instructing the charity 90 minute Spin session.  

So Happy Halloween!

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Sponsor Post: Ella Publishing - Your Journaling Matters

Journaling is hard. Even for professional writers, deciding what to say on a layout can be truly challenging, let alone figuring out how to make it authentic, creative, and meaningful. But struggle no more, because help is on the way from Ella Publishing with a brand new e-book called "Journaling that Matters" simple strategies for finding the right words.

Angie Lucas (Ella founder and former magazine editor) and Kelly Jeppson (college writing instructor and freelance writer) join together to co-author this e-book. Journaling that Matters is packed with 51 easy tips to help you write from the heart without breaking a sweat. You'll love the expert advice, inspirational layouts, practical tips, and timeless suggestions that are suitable for writers of all levels—from the most experienced journalers to the most insecure. Kelly, Angie, and their eight talented contributors will help you unlock important stories and tell them with confidence. Also featuring the work of: Linda Barber, Moon Ko, Donna Jannuzzi, Layle Koncar, Audrey Neal, Keshet Shenkar, Wendy Smedley, and Stephanie Wheeler.

What I LOVE about Ella Publishing (other than they have a lot of great staff, including lots of the Simple Scrapbooks Magazine crew, like Angie Lucus and Cathy Zielske) is they give you a little sneak peek online so you get to see what you're buying before you purchase!

This e-book reminded me of the Quizzes & Questions book Simple Scrapbooks published a few years ago, but updated and at around 1/3 the price! Bargain if you ask me! Check it out at Ella Publishing!

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Fashion Friday

Last week I mentioned about dressing for your own personal body shape and thought that this week I'd share my own story. As I mentioned I suffered from "style-shape disorder" for 36 years until I discovered dressing to my shape, below is my personal experience.

For 36 years I was a slave to the habit of dressing for the wrong body shape, not by choice particularly but because of what was available. I was under the impression that as soon as you hit a certain age you had to dress in a particular age group. You go from

Childrens -> Juniors -> Misses -> Womens

It seems rather than dressing for the shape most of us go up a group depending on AGE, clearly wrong! Plus I felt like when I moved into my 30's I couldn't or shouldn't dress like I did in my 20's. There is definitely an age barrier going on all around!

After spending years in ill fitting clothes, in 2008 I accidentally found that junior t-shirt fitted me better than womens t-shirt. They were longer in the body, not so gaping around the armpit, usually snugger in the waist and not to large in the bust. Perfect for my shape! The difference isn't slight either, you can see the difference in the photo below

In 2001 I have on womens shirt and shorts. In 2010 I have on Juniors clothing. In both photo's I am roughly the same weight, give or take 2-3lbs. I think you'll agree that in 2010 I not only look slimmer, but I think I look younger too? Maybe I'm deluding myself on that one ;)

I don't have the average shape of a 38 year old woman (who does?), and a woman's small t-shirt hangs off me in all the wrong places, a juniors large though hugs in the right places and flatters my figure! Since then I've discovered the joys of shopping in the Junior department in stores and having clothing that suits MY shape, rather than thinking I had to dress to my age demographic "supposed" shape.

Don't get me wrong, I lucked out with the occasional outfit but the majority of what I was wearing was wrong on so many levels!

Things I've learned:

• T-shirts that cut of around the belly button make me look fat
• longer t-shirts look better
• Shorts that are more fitted look good on me, flowy shorts look bad
• long skirts make me look 2 feet tall
• Long flowy skirts make me look like a teepee with a head.
• Mid thigh fitted skirts look great
• cap sleeves suit me
• long sleeves suit me
• 3/4 length sleeves are my enemy!
• I look wrong in dresses, still haven't found the right style yet
• I look good in 2 piece suits

and lastly

• Just because something 'fits' doesn't mean I should wear it!

There is a huge difference between things fitting and things fitting and looking good/flattering!

What about you? Have you learned through fashion disasters?

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Dalmatian Doggy Overdose!

Warning: Cute doggy pics ahead!

So as many of you know Sky has had a few health problems this year, after being diagnose with congestive heart failure she then cam down with pancreatitis and has been on a special diet for a while. I get a few emails and facebook messages asking how the dogs are doing and thought I should post an update. Well I am happy to say it's been over a month now and she's recovered very well. Another year older too but still my little pup-muffin!

Sleepy Dalmatian

This is the view I see from my computer chair! She sleeps by my side on an old comforter that we mistakenly put on the floor one day and she now thinks is her dog bed (even though she has other dog beds!). I'd say it smells of us humans but honestly now it just smells of dog! Of course if I move, or make a noise, speak etc she wakes up and you get this sleepy little face...

I think all dogs dream right? Anyone with dogs knows they must! With all the little twitches and their legs running in their sleep. Too funny, Bob and I love it :) They sure do sleep heavy sometimes though! Does anyone elses dog stick their tongues out in their sleep? Both of ours do this!

It's funny right? Ours do it ALL THE TIME! Just the end slips through the teeth as they sleep, super dry it is too! So when she finally wakes up and realizes her tongue is dry she licks her lips to get some moisture on it.

And of course we DO have TWO Dalmatians, though most days you wouldn't know it. Sky is totally Mommy obsessed and attached to me like velcro, River only follows you around when you have food! Otherwise forget it, not coming to see where you are, I know you're in your office on your computer or doing your scrappy stuff... I'm gonna sit in Daddys seat on the sofa :) Keeping it warm for when he comes home! Cos she LOVES her Daddy!

Yep and if he's late home, she'll get up around 7.30 and wait at the front door for him. It's funny cos we as owners never picked favorites, the dogs chose for us! lol!

Anyway hope you enjoyed the doggy love today, I know a lot of you have kids that LOVE the doggy pics ;)

Di, Sky & River

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Workout Wednesday: Social Media Health & Fitness

Ive been thinking a LOT lately about Health & Fitness, yeah it's my job and my passion, but mostly thinking about my own personal fitness journey and where do I go from here. I'm not the type of person to feel comfortable for long I like to push myself, try new things and education has always been a huge factor for me in all aspects of my life not just my career. It's with all this in mind that I have decided to take down my fitness blog for a while whilst I redesign it.

I initially started my fitness blog with a view to documenting my running, but as always with me my plans got bigger than that! Why not make it educational? Why not share the stuff *I* have learned via personal experience and studying about health, fitness, nutrition, diet, exercise and more? There are SO MANY health & fitness blogs out there that are full of misinformation or simply aren't catering to the everyday person. People who are on a budget, people with a family and commitments, people struggling to make better choices and simply wanting inspiration and motivation.

What started as a twitter thing has launched into a facebook page and now I've decided is that for the next few weeks I am going to redesign the whole fitness blog (maybe with a new url if I can think of something catchy, lol) but I want something that promotes ME as a brand, as a leader in the industry and something my personal training clients can go to. Ideally using this as a jump start into online personal training. All whilst helping others find that same passion I have for leading a healthier lifestyle. Naturally a great time to launch this would be Dec/Jan when the New Year resolution madness begins... So I better get busy!

If anyone has any comments, ideas or suggestions for website names I'd love to hear them!

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Review: Desert Essence Cleansing Pads

Desert Essence Cleansing Pads 

Product Claims

Reduces oil that can lead to break-outs. Soothes and calms skin. Convenient pads are great for travel or your gym bag. Used regularly, these convenient pads help improve skin texture, clarity and radiance. Won Better Nutrition Best of Beauty Awards, 2010

 

Why I chose this product

I initially bought these because I'd been using the Desert Essence Face Wash (previously reviewed here) and been impressed with the results I was getting with the face wash and thought these would be a great addition to my skincare routine. I was looking for an exfoliator to add to my routine and that's what these essentially are. Inside the container are 50 liquid soaked pads. As you can see from the photo above, the pads are about 2" in diameter, and have a textured surface which is where the exfoliation comes into effect.

My Opinion

As I said in my last review I am trying to do these reviews honestly and so with that said I used all 50 of these and probably won't be buying them again. Not that they didn't do their job, they did! It's just they didn't work well for MY needs. I bought these in the hopes of using them daily, or every other day and they are too harsh for me personally to use daily. Also they are flimsy to hold and use, especially in the shower. Again this could just be a personal thing, I know many women LOVE these types of pads. The main reason I won't be using them though... the smell! The face wash smells natural and although smells strong it's contained in the pumper then washes down the drain. These suckers stick around in the waste basket and stink up the whole bathroom. Not a fan of my bathroom smelling of tea tree oil. Again these are just my personal opinions, I tried them, I decided they weren't for me, and hence the review.

As I wasn't a fan of the cleansing pads I have been searching for other exfoliant products and have decided to try St Ives facial scrubs. I have a trial size of the apricot and the green tea scrub. So look for a review on those products coming soon!

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Monday Mavens of inspiration!

Another round of Monday inspiration from around the web!

For those sewing inclined I thought this Make-up pouch tutorial by Noodehead was awesome! Full step-by-step instructions that make it perfect for beginners. PLUS, it uses scraps so appeals to the recycler in me :) LOVE!

Kelli at Pretty Lil Posies has a tutorial on her blog showing you how to make this applique baby onesie! I don't have kids but will be using the same technique to make some t-shirts for myself. Great technique for those tees with logo's on you want to cover!

Saw this on Craftzine recently and LOVED the concept! Shared on Flikr by sprintthrift115. No information on how it was made, looks like it's knitted, rather the crocheted, but I guess a similar thing could be sew with fabric? 

Birgit Kerr shared a tutorial on her blog recently on making these inexpensive favorbags, perfect for thanksgiving! I love that they are made with products we pretty much all have on hand, brown sandwich bags plus some printed out labels which she provides the template for! Easy peasy!
Finally today, this...

LOVE IT! I so need something like this in our house. This was a random internet find whilst searching on Google for organization inspiration. The inspiration is Pottery Barn and I LOVE IT! Definitely going to be doing SOMETHING like this in my office, and kitchen!

More inspiration every Monday!

Di

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Digital Scrapbooking Sunday: Double Page Template

New in my digital stores this week is this 12x12 double page template. The double pager has room for LOTS of photo's but could easily be adapted for fewer photo's! The download contains two 12x12" PSD files that can be used together or separately which gives a lot of diversity! Also in the download are the PNG files for each 12x12" page. S4H/S4O OK! Available for just $1.95 at my Di Hickman Designs digital store and my Scrapwow Digital Store.

Remember I have lots more digital products in my stores, please check by frequently for sales and new products.

Di

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Scrappy Saturday: Cards

On Facebook this week I mentioned that I was making cards!!! Huge news!!! I haven't had much time to get creative lately, and yep took me a while to get into the flow, and I have many "in progress" cos they need embellishments I know I have my Sizzix converter somewhere! lol. Anyway here are a few that didn't make the submission pile.

Paper: Creative Imaginations, DCWV; Sticker: DCWV;

Paper: Creative Imaginations, Flair; Sticker: DCWV; Rub-On: JoAnns

Paper: DCWV; Sticker: Doodlebug; Rub-Ons: JoAnns

Hoping to share more holiday cards next week as I hope to get more creative and get ALL my cards done to send to family/friends in England! Got to get those suckers done EARLY!

Di

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Fashion Friday: Find your fashion "shape"

I've been thinking long and hard how to word this post without offending anyone or coming across as "yay look at me I'm so skinny" but feel I have to address the topic of dressing to suit your shape, so please bear in mind this post isn't meant as a putdown to anyone or a self gratifying post. I want to address this mainly because for the first 36 years of my life I didn't dress to suit my shape and it led to many a fashion disaster!

We've all seen them right? The people who should get pulled over by the fashion police as soon as they left the house! But I think there is a HUGE difference between dressing with personal style (no matter how bright or flamboyant) and looking like you wore your three year olds cast offs, or like you are drowning in a sea of fabric. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out people of walmart, or the example from their site below

There is a HUGE difference to me between the above, which is dressing inappropriately (based on age, size of garment, location etc), and there is dressing with your own flair. I always think of Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds when I think of the fashion with flair! I know, it's a character from a show ,but you get the idea! She loves color, loves quirky styles, and always looks good! Whoever does the wardrobe for this character nails it!

Example #1

Wearing clothes that are too small. As you know I love thrift shopping, and on one occasion I saw a red t-shirt with the slogan "brunettes do it better". Loved it, tried it on, nope too small. Sure it was 'skinny' style but there is skinny style, and there is "makes you look 10lbs heaver skinny style". Imagine my surprise next time I was in the store, to see a woman probably 10 years younger than me but 50lbs heavier wearing that exact t-shirt! I wanted to take this lady aside and tell her she looked like 50lbs of cotton stuffing shoved inside a 5lb bag! I know you know what I'm talking about!


Example #2
This affliction isn't just for the larger ladies though! No!  No way, no how! For the smaller ladies it tends to be the flipside, they tend to be dressing in clothes that are 6+ sizes to big, opting for clothes to disguise any shape whatsoever, maybe it's a disguise? This tends to happen a lot in younger women, late teens early 20's. Or sometimes those that have lost a lot of weight or simply just aren't comfortable in their own body shape. They tend to 'hide' in the clothes. I admit I was guilty of this for MANY MANY years, and had shirts that I could fit two people in and they billowed out in ways that if a strong gust of wind came by I could have taken off like a kite!

Conclusion

Over the next few weeks I'm going to touch on ways we can dress to suit our shapes. I think we can all agree that one size does NOT fit all, don't pigeon hole me! But we CAN dress to flatter our shape, to hide things we don't like and accentuate things we do. 

Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll share some things I personally have learned in the last two years, and how dressing more flattering to MY shape has increased my confidence in leaps and bounds!

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Thrifty Thursday: shoes

So I was absent with a Thrifty Thursday post last week, mostly because I was sick last Tuesday with some weird 24hr stomach bug that just knocked me off my feet. I can handle most illnesses my body throws at me but vomiting is not one of them, I need my food! Anyway making up for it as on the Thursday last week I took a trip to both thrift stores here in town and got a nice haul of goodies to share over the upcoming weeks! Today though, I want to share these shoes I bought for $3.98 at our local thrift store.

I've always loved "clunky" shoes. From Dr Martin boots, to platforms, wedge heels and anything with a good solid heel/sole. Another thing I love is a more rounded toe rather than pointy toe, I don't like my toes getting squidged. So when I saw these shoes at the local thrift store I figured I'd check if they were my size, and man made materials (I don't wear leather). And SCORE they checked out on both counts, so I tried them on and quickly added them to my cart!

Brown leather look clunky style shoe, with a faux strap and little zip on the inside for a snugger fit. These will work well for when I want the look of a boot under trousers/jeans but not the bulk. Honestly at under $4 how could I NOT buy them? They are in such good shape with LOTS of life left in them still! I guess they'd work well with skirts too?

After I got them home and rubbed off the sale price from the heel I noticed that these are Sketchers shoes! For those not in the know, Sketches shoes usually retail around $45 a pair! Double SCORE!

The only downside is that they are quite heavy, not something I am used to, and they irritated my plantar fasciitis when I wore them at the weekend :( Guessing a combination of the weight of the shoe and the heel height, so I am going to get some cushioned inserts and break them in gently. Either way, worth the $4 investment and a good reminder that you can pick up high street brands for a fraction of the cost at thrift stores! 

Coming up soon: t-shirts galore! My t-shirt haul at Goodwill!

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Workout Wednesday: Social Media Health & Fitness

Just putting a shout our here on my blog that I have a new Facebook page for all things health & fitness, you can join in and 'like' my page here on Facebook. Each day I share tips, tricks, inspiration and encouragement on  things related to health and fitness.

Alternatively if twitter is more your thing then find me on twitter for similar updates :)

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Review: Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash

I've thought for some time now about extending my reviews from crafty stuff to regular everyday stuff. As I've mentioned my quest to become more 'girly' and feminine I figured I cannot be the only one in this position so I thought I'd offer reviews on products I am trying. My plan is to buy a product, use it, note results, and then do a review, so the 'girly' reviews may be sparse but I'll try to update monthly with what I'm currently using and reviewing. So onto today's review

Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash

Why I chose this product

I admit to being rather a lazy shopper and if I can get everything from one store I am a happy girl, so my skincare selection was basically anything available at Trader Joes or stuff I can get delivered via Amazon (love Amazon and there smiley boxes) and so I came upon Desert Essence brand at Trader Joes and figured I'd try it. The 8fl oz which cost me around $7-8 at Trader Joes. I chose this product because it's 100% natural, 100% vegan (contains no animal products) and is not tested on animals. All great selling points for me.

Product Claims

The extract of Hawaii's fragrant awapuhi plant brings additional softening properties to this gentle, but effective cleanser already rich in soothing extract of goldenseal and essential oil of chamomile. Eco-Harvest Tea Tree Oil leaves a clean that feels oil-free, and with regular use, helps improve your skin's texture and radiance.

My Opinion

I love this product! If I didn't love it I would honestly say so, but I loved this so much that I bought the larger 32fl oz refill size from Amazon as its MUCH cheaper. I use this daily with a gentle flannel and my breakouts are kept to a minimum (no small feat considering how much I sweat!). Now it does smell a little of antiseptic, but it's a natural smell and not overpowering. Plus you only need a LITTLE each time as it goes a LONG way! The 32oz bottle I bought below has lasted around 8 months so far, and I have just under half the bottle left. Lasts ages!

I really wish I'd known about this face wash in my teens (if it was around then?) as it really seems to suit my skin type leaving my face smooth and refreshed without drying it out. Plus I tend to be a little reactive to some skincare products (another reason I want to do the reviews) so if you have acne prone teens I'd suggest trying this for sure!

Anyway just my opinion on this product :) Next Review: Desert Essence Cleansing pads coming soon!

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