In case you’ve noticed we’ve got a new look, on the blog, and at Mystical Beauty.
I still don’t have the logo up across Mystical Beauty, because it took me way to long to find a theme for the blog, and edit it.
I hope you like the new logos!
I am a hand lotion addict.
I have to put lotion on after I wash my hands or my hands start feeling dry and tight.
My husband, however, is sensitive to a lot of scents. I put on some Bath and Body Works lotion in the mall one day, and after walking around some more, we decided to share a Strawberry Julius.
The tiny amount of scent or lotion that was on the cup gave him such a bad headache that he couldn’t drink it!
I felt so bad.
So, due to my husbands allergies, I’ve been using Lubriderm hand lotion, since that’s one he can use too.
I’ve tried several different varieties, and everything was ok, until I tried the Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Moisturizing Lotion for Extra-Dry Skin.
After a week or two, I noticed that my hands were feeling dryer, and dryer, and I was getting up to run put lotion on every 15 minutes.
Even my trusty Ginger Cardamom Whipped Shea Monoi Body Butter from Maryam’s Soap Nook wasn’t alleviating the dryness.
I didn’t know what was going on. It was still pretty warm outside, so I thought that maybe my hands were getting dryer because of the air conditioner, although I’ve never had a problem with that before.
This went on for weeks, and weeks.
Until I finally ran out of lotion.
Since I’d recently read in some beauty book that one of the top beauty secrets that no one ever tells you is to put sunscreen on the back of your hands, I decided to try the Lubriderm Daily Moisture with SPF 15 Lotion.
After a week, I stopped and thought “Hey, my hands aren’t dry anymore!”
I still can’t believe that Lubriderm lotion, especially a Lubriderm lotion made for dry skin, caused that much of a difference in my skin.
I think I’ll stick with the Daily Moisture with SPF 15 for now.
But next time I notice extremely dry skin in my hands, the first thing I’m going to do is change my lotion!
I’m currently reading The Ciminelli Solution: A 7 Day Plan for Radiant Skin, by Susan Ciminelli, which I found at my local library.
A beauty book that offers a 7 day recipe plan for radiant skin?
I had to get it.
I’m only on page 43 so far, so I haven’t got to the recipes, but the book seems to be interesting.
Ciminelli asserts that diet causes most skin problems, including acne and roseaca, and that the areas on your face that break out correlate to certain areas of the body.
For example, if you have forehead breakouts, then you have something going on in your small intestine that’s causing the breakouts.
In addition to this she states that many of the beauty treatments today, such as microdermabrasion,and acid peels cause permanent, irreversible damage to the skin.
I think that the most shocking story that I’ve read so far is about a client who checked into a “famous weight-loss clinic for three weeks.” The client came back thinner, and looking 10 years older, due to a diet that severely restricted fats.
Her skin suffered permanent damage, lost it’s elasticity, and had a “dry, brittle, unattractive texture.”
It’s shocking to think that such a diet would permanently change your skin, for the worse.
You can find Susan Ciminelli’s website at http://www.susanciminelli.com.
If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear what you think about it, especially if you’ve tried the diet.
I’d also love to know if you think that your breakouts correspond to problems in your diet.
Have you noticed a difference in your skin when drinking or eating certain foods?
We woke up Saturday morning, and when we looked at our aquarium the tiny baby plecos were all over it.
Apparently they escaped from the taco.
I’ve counted at least 15, but I know there are some places in the fish tank where they can hide, and I can’t see them.
I was really surprised when I found several of them hanging on in the current from their filter, with their poor tails whipping back and forth.
They seem to like it though, because only one corner of the tank has turbulent water, and that’s the one they chose to hang out in.
We did end up taking Sparrow, the female betta, and Darren and Samantha, the African Dwarf Frogs, out of the aquarium.
So far everyone seems to be getting along well, and the fry are spread all over the tank.
They are so cute, and so small.
We can’t even get a picture with our digital camera on the close up setting, but we’ll keep trying.
Ok, I’m off to see what they are doing now.
Check out Savvy Skins Top 10 Signs You’re a Beauty Junkie, and her Viewer Submitted Beauty Junkie Signs.
Yup, you’ll see me, and I had to think really hard to come up with something.
But hey, you can mix your pigments with clear coat nail polish and make colored nail polish, and you can mix it with lip balm to make lipstick, so why not?
I dare you to try it and tell me about it - and send pictures! I’ll put them on the blog 
I think my favorite sign is 8.
“You have a panic attack when you drop your lipgloss at the movies and it rolls away, even though you have 8 more glosses in your purse.”
What’s yours?
We’ve had two bushynose plecos in our 29 gallon fish tank forever, and one of them is just starting to show bristles.
We had a pleco breeding cave, which we call a taco, because it’s white and looks like a folded, soft shell taco, in our clown pleco tank, but they clowns don’t seem to be breeding, so we decided to move it to the bushynose tank Tuesday.
Friday, I looked and saw the brown pleco, Spike, which I’m assuming is the male, in the taco, acting funny, and I looked and I saw little orange dots in the back of the cave.
We had eggs!
I was so excited, but Q-Tip, our other bushynose pleco is albino and not showing any bristles at all yet. We didn’t buy the plecos at the same store so I didn’t know if they are the same species, so I was thinking that the eggs might not be fertile.
But it looks like they were, because last night I looked in the taco and saw babies!
They are so cute, but they are pretty far back in the taco, so I can’t see much of them.
I’ve looked around online and it looks like you can feed bushynose pleco (also known as bristlenose pleco) fry french cut green beans, blanched zucchini, cooked skinned peas, and/or algae tablets - basically you can feed them what you feed the adults, so they are supposed to be pretty easy to care for.
I’ve also heard that the fry, like all plecos, produce a lot of waste, so we’ll have to increase the water changes in their tank.
The only fish in the aquarium now are 9 Harlequin Rasboras, and two African Dwarf Frogs. We had our female betta, Sparrow, in there, but we moved her out because we figured that she was the most likely to eat the fry.
Of course the frogs might eat them too, I’ve heard of them eating guppy fry, so we’ll see what happens.
I’m not sure what we’ll do with the fry, male bristlenose plecos are known to fight, and we did have one other pleco that ended up dying, probably due to injuries that were sustained while fighting with Spike, so I don’t want to keep more than one male in a tank, and all of the other tanks either have plecos, or can’t have them because we’re trying to get eggs in them.
We got our plecos when they were about an inch long, so they were too young to tell if they were male or female. I guess that was a pretty bad idea, but I haven’t seen to many full grown BN plecos for sale either.
The pleco fry are to small now to get pictures, but I’ll get some as soon as I can to share with you.
Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell you - I think Spike is the male, because the male plecos guard and fan the eggs and fry. It kind of looks like Spike is jumping up in the water, and waving his fins when he’s fanning, and if anyone other than Q-tip got too close to the taco he’d chase them off.
It was fun to watch the eggs, and now I can’t wait to see the fry grow up!
I was watching HSN last night while I was doing dishes - very glamorous, let me tell you, and I almost broke down and bought Toni’s Eye Secret Long Lasting Mascara.
According to Toni, you apply the mascara, wait 2-5 minutes for it to dry, and then it stays around until you remove it with the Eye Secret Mascara Remover that is included with the purchase.
The mascara lasts for “days and days”, and doesn’t come off on your pillows, or give you raccon eyes. You can wear it in the shower, while you’re swimming, scuba diving, or in the hot tub with no running.
Of course the Estee Lauder mascara I’ve been wearing doens’t come off in the hot tub either, so I don’t know what that says about the Eye Secret Long Lasting Mascara.
Although being able to wake up perfectly mascarad, and not having to apply mascara for “days and days” as Toni said repeatedly on the show, would be great, I’m just not sure if this mascara really would work.
You also have to apply the Eye Secret Mascara Remover, let it sit for 15-20 seconds (ok, that’s what it says on the website, I was thinking they said 2-3 minutes last night) and then apply a warm washcloth and gently rub the mascara off. ANd that seems to be a bit of a process.
Of course if you only do it every couple of days, it wouldn’t be that bad.
If you’ve tried this mascara, I’d love to hear about it, if you haven’t do you think it would work?
I am not sure if I think it would work, but if I hadn’t just ended my latest temp position I would have definitely bought it.
Shoot, writing this post is making me want to buy it more
Tell me what you think!
Should I buy it?
Yes or no?
Life, Love, Beauty…and a little bit more!
Subscribe to FeedSubscribe to Mystical Beauty's Musings Beauty Feed