Best Acne Treatment EVER.

Mario Badescu Buffering Lotion, $17, Ulta (not available online)
You can buy it online through Nordstrom.

The past few months my breakouts have been horrible. I'm used to the occasional hormonal pimple (or three) which usually last a day or two and disappear. Not so much anymore. I've been getting these deep, horrible cystic pimples that hurt, are huge, and never go away. I've tried a variety of acne treatments and nothing was working. While on one of my bi-monthy trips to Ulta I was sporting one of these monsters right under my eye. I couldn't conceal this thing to save my life so I was actually trying to find a new concealer to try to hide it. I came across the Mario Badescu section in Ulta and saw that the Buffering Lotion was meant for cystic acne. So I put a few drops on my pimple and went home. This pimple which had not responded to anything had dropped probably 80% in redness and size. I literally dropped everything, drove the hour back to the Ulta in South Charleston, and picked up a bottle. I'm still having pimples but with this lotion they're gone in two-three days and aren't getting anywhere near as big and red as they were. If you're having troubles with your acne not responding to anything, give this stuff a try.

The One That (Almost) Got Away, Part II

Almost two years ago, I wrote about my frustrations trying to get my hands on a bottle of Chanel Jade polish.  It's currently going for $300 on Ebay right now, just so you know. Sigh.  To make a long story short, I spent $50 trying to find a dupe of Jade instead of trying to just buy the original Jade. Jade is what helped start my Chanel polish addiction and probably my polish obsession in general.

While there have been a ton of polishes I've crazy over, they weren't quite Jade obsessions. I think the two closest ones that came close to a Jade obsession were Chanel's Peridot, which I did spend a lot of time trying to find dupes and Chanel's Skyline which I just went ahead and bought because I had already heard there were no dupes available.



Peridot is probably my most worn polish of this year. I'm giving serious thought to buying a back up bottle because I know once my bottle is gone I'll be heartbroken. Skyline combines my love of Chanel polish and flying (it was from an air travel themed collection) so it was an absolute must-have for me. I'm wearing Skyline right now and it's amazing:



There's more to this story. Most of my Jade-Level obsessions begin with just a brief mention or small picture of a polish on a blog that I just can't get out of my head.  Sometime at the end of October, I came across an ever so small picture and mention of the Dior Le Grand Bal holiday collection. What first caught my eye were the insanely beautiful bottles:

How cute would these look on your vanity? While I loved the bottles, I wasn't sure about the actual polish and even though I'm a total sucker for limited edition pretty packaging I was very iffy on spending the money on the collection. However, three weeks ago while at the Sephora in the Charleston Town Center, I came across Lady, a frosty pearl white. It was pretty enough in the bottle so I swatched it there in the store. I put on two coats, took one look at the nail I swatched, grabbed a bottle and checked out. Then I started seeing the swatches online of the other colors and every single one of them said to pick up Diva, described as a red-based black with gold and purple shimmer. I've been eyeing similar colors for a while, so to me adorable bottle + polish I was already going to buy = Get out my AMEX.

What I didn't realize was Diva is sold out. Everywhere. Makeup counters AND online. Sephora is only carrying the Lady shade, and the usual places such as Nordstrom or Bloomingdales are sold out most of the colors. It's hard to find on Ebay and is going for $50+ and going pretty quickly even at that price.  It's like people are actually hoarding this polish. With the exception of Jade, I have never seen such a hard to find nail polish. It took me two hours last night to try to find Diva in stock. I finally did, at Saks Fifth Avenue.  I'm also going to be honest, I'm not sure if it's actually still in stock. I can get to the page I used last night to make my purchase, but when you try to search for the polish on the Saks website it doesn't come up.  I tried to google the page I found last night, but all it does is bring up the reviews page which says the product is unavailable.  If you're wanting to buy Diva you can give it a try but I won't make any guarantees that it's still in stock.

If you're interested in buying several of the colors, Bergdorf Goodman is selling a collection that includes Diva, Lady, and Marilyn for $70.  If I hadn't already bought Lady I probably would have purchased this set.

I know all this work seems silly for just nail polish, but I don't want to still be thinking about it and wishing I had gotten it years later, like Chanel's Jade.

WeAreMarshall

WeAreMarshall by wvfashionologist on Polyvore

BGP: Cover Girl Lash Blash Fusion Mascara

BGP: Cover Girl Lash Blash Fusion Mascara by wvfashionologist featuring covergirl mascara

During week two in Charlotte, I discovered I had forgotten to bring mascara.  There was a Food Lion a quick walk from my hotel so I headed out to grab some.  Obviously the mascara selection was rather small but they did have some Cover Girl products.  Cover Girl's Lash Blast Fusion is yet another mascara I've heard nothing but good things about so I didn't think twice about purchasing it.  Bad idea.  This stuff is the worst mascara I've ever used.  It's easier to point out what went right with the mascara than what went wrong.  It had a nice color.  Everything else was bad: it didn't lengthen, it clumped, and it's most serious crime was that it flaked off my lashes and all over my cheeks by lunchtime.  If I were working out on an airport tarmac in the middle of August, I would understand the underperformance.  But sitting in an office working with a computer for eight hours?  It shouldn't have happened.

Sephora Skincare

Sephora Skincare by wvfashionologist featuring sephora collection

I just spent the past five weeks in Charlotte, NC, for corporate training.  Before I left, I picked up a travel set containing some of the Sephora brand skincare.  About three weeks in, I ran into Sephora and purchased full sizes of everything and then some. My skin has been super dry this fall and I've been needing moisturization and Sephora's skincare doesn't skimp on it.  Most of the line contains an ingredient called HydroSenn+, which is derived from plants to help aid moisture.  I'm not sure which plant Sephora gets HydroSenn+ from and any additional information I've found is very vague.  To me, it's not worrisome but for those are really like to know the products in their skincare may be wary of trying this line.

The standout products in this line are the now-discontinued exfolient (bottom lefthand corner), the Instant Moisturizer, and the Super Nourishing Lip Balm.  While buying the rest of the line, I found the exfolient in the clearance section and decided to give it a try.  There are two exfolient in this jar, a white gentle exfolient with a texture similar to cream cheese meant for cheeks and a green exfolient meant the T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin).  I wasn't impressed with either exfolient the first time I used it, thinking it too gentle.  I then tried it in combination with my Olay Pro-X cleaning brush and third time was the charm. The Instant Moisturizer is wonderful because it sinks in super quick which is important to me.  It also has "light boosting particles" in it which actually is just super finely milled glitter.  I started noticed that when I kept wondering why my fingers were so sparkly.  Lastly, the Super Nourishing Lip Balm is a must.  It's the most moisturizing balm I have found for under $10.

The price on this line is pretty decent. The most expensive thing I bought was a kit that had full sizes of both the serum and moisturizer and that was at the great price of $34.  They also have more products if you need something else for your skin type.

LOOKBOOK: Nov. 5

BodyShopCherryBlossom by wvfashionologist featuring a body shop

I've been perfume shopping for a while now, looking for something that wasn't too intense, too citrus-y, or too whatever.  The Charlotte airport has The Body Shop in it, one of my new favorite beauty shops. Since I had a lot of 5-6 hour layovers, I spent a lot of time in there, talking to the staff and trying products.  This is one of the perfumes I ended up buying.  This smells fresh and floral without being overpowering.  If you can get to The Body Shop in person, it's well worth the visit.