This Week In Review

Philosophy 3-in-1 Bath, Shower Gel, Shampoo: these were part of a TSV from QVC and are not yet available from Philosophy. There are twelve bottles in total, of which about half will be exclusive to this single QVC offering which will ship three bottles every three months for one year. The first shipment contained "Lemon Custard," "Sugar Cookie," and "Berries and Cream." I ordered this because I have the "sugar cookie" lipgloss and it smells divine. The bath stuff, for once, does not measure up. The sugar cookie scent is more like a lemony cookie than a sweet sugar. Not what I had expected, and I am not into lemon or verbena type fragrances of any kind. The berries and cream smells like a strawberry smoothie, which is fine, but bathing in it...well, not my favorite. I gave the lemon custard to a neighbor so that she could try it out, and she really likes it. In the future I will stick with the cinnamon buns, coconut milk, pumpkin pie and eggnog scents. Let's face it, I'm an autumn baby.

Origins "Modern Friction": this is a fairly new microderm abrasion scrub from Origins. It is supposed to be gentle yet effective. When I open the container, it has the appearance of marshmallow creme with ground up rice in it, which struck me as odd. I have used this twice now, and it is fabulous. Although I do not care for the scent (it's not bad, I'm just really weird about scents), the results were outstanding. It is quite gentle, and I wondered if it was really going to work. You rub the "goo" in circular motions over your face, then add a bit of water to lather, then more to lather and rinse completely. My face was glowing and smooth afterward. I will be switching out between this and my Philosophy Microdelivery Peel (which smells like citrus, which I do love)...although I believe the Origins scrub could be used with greater frequency than the other.

Origins "No Puffery" Eye Gel: I have not been terribly puffy since receiving this, so I cannot give actual testimony as to effectiveness. It has a pleasant fragrance and seems easy enough to use...either a heavy application that you wipe off after a few minutes OR a light application that is worn all day under makeup. The smell is not off-putting (even for me) and it feels great if you refrigerate before using.

Too-Faced "Lip Injection in a Tube": disappointed! This is a lip gloss similar to DuWop's "Lip Venom" that is applied to the lips with a brush and contains an irritant to make the lips puff up a bit; i.e., look bigger. While the DuWop formula has a cinnamon scent, this one was more fruity which I did not care for, and the result: godawful. It looked like someone punched me in the mouth. Apparently I am allergic to the Too-Faced formula, because the entire area around my mouth got red and streaky and I could not get this off fast enough! Also, the super-gloss effect of this is something I don't care for. As for making my lips seem larger, I can only say it made them seem really shiny and that detracted from any enhancement that might have been there, but which I did not particularly notice. In the future I will stick with MAC glosses and a light lip pencil. These work much better for me. I am curious, however, as to whether all of these lip enhancers/puffers/irritants have undergone long term study to determine whether the swelling increases future lip wrinkles. If anyone knows, please let me know. Thanks!

UGG Bella: fall moccasin/slipper (uggaustralia.com) in raisin. First of all let me say how totally, utterly, and completely unhappy I am with UGG customer service. I need to borrow someone's thumbs, because two thumbs down is just not enough to cover this transaction. Where to begin? I cannot even open their website using AOL...I have to open up a separate Internet Explorer window to even see their products. I do not know why this is. I have not had problems with any other site (cable modem), nor have they responded to inquiries as to why this happens. Nevertheless, they sent me an e-mail showing the new Bella for fall, which I then ordered in the coffee color (dark brown outer, natural fleece lining, pink leather tie). I had to pay $10.95 for shipping AND wait (unlike at Zappos, where my items ship next day for free) about a week to receive...yes...THE WRONG COLOR SHOES! Not only did they send me the raisin (purple) color through some glitch, but they say their records show that I ordered raisin and, therefore, I have to pay for return shipping to them on top of the outrageous shipping price I already paid. How nice. The shoes are NOT worth the $85 (before shipping) that I paid, the heels are loose while the toes are tight (I ordered a size up from my normal size, and two sizes up from my UGG Classic Boot size), the sides stick out making my feet look fat, and the fleece interior is sub-par (it seems to be hit or miss with UGG these days on fleece quality). UGG's customer service has flat refused to reimburse my shipping expense, despite the fact that I put the COFFEE color in my cart because "their records show raisin." I will NOT be ordering any items from their website again. In the future, everything will go through Zappos.com, and if Zappos doesn't have it, I don't need it. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THIS ITEM AND THE SERVICE I DIDN'T RECEIVE!