Our Favorite Razor

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Processed with VSCO with c3 presetOkay so the backstory first for this post before we get all “I’m your venus, I’m your fire, your desire” on you. So Sweetness posted a pic on our IG story a few weeks ago taking an outdoor shower (nooo not a naked pic) but it was basically a pic of shampoo, a cute towel, and her razor. And that razor just so happened to be a Venus razor. So Sass replies to the story saying OMG we have the same razor, yada yada. And then we go back and forth for about 15 minutes about how great this damn razor is!

We know what you are thinking, every woman and their mom has a Venus razor so not really a coincidence. This is true butttt it was the exact same Venus razor, the pink Venus ComfortGlide White Tea Razor. And not only that, but we were literally chatting back and forth through IG about how great it is without even realizing that we were giving this razor so much friggin props. But what we’ve come to determine is that you need this razor and here’s why…

It glides. Like for real though. Venus has always had great razor blades but this one actually glides on your skin for a reallllllly close shave. It has moisture bars on the side that helps it move right along but this makes shaving so much easier and faster, you don’t even have to think! Well, we don’t recommend shaving without thinking, that could lead to injury.

Talking about gliding, you don’t even need soap! Literally just using water activates the moisture strips and it acts as a built in soap. It doesn’t suds up or anything but the moisture layer between the razor and your skin makes it silky silky smooth. Gone are the days of feeling like you have a razor blade scraping off layers of your skin and shaving in the sink just became much easier!

Probably our last favorite part is the flexibility of the razor head. Most Venus razors do this but this razor head bends and curves to your body in two different ways, which especially helps when getting into those hard to reach areas like our armpits and bikini line.

So there ya have it! We have much love for this razor and since we are besties, we just so happen to have the same exact one… because being besties would be the reason for that, right?!

What is your favorite razor? Tell us below!

Xo Sass and Sweetness

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Our Favorite Henri Bendel Travel Accessories

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Henri 3If you’ve read any of our traveling/packing posts (here and here), you know that we are both extremely organized when it comes to preparing and packing! We always have everything ready ahead of time and everything has its own spot. So what do we use when we travel to keep us organized? Henri Bendel Travel Accessories!

Seriously these are the best travel accessories of all time and we keep going back for more! Not only do they just look cute; they are practical, stackable, durable and have a compartment for everything under the sun! We are sharing some of our favorites below that we use all the time and promise that they are worth the splurge!

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Jewelry – Centennial Stripe Small Travel Jewelry Case (here)
Traveling with jewelry can sometimes be scary. You don’t want your expensive items to get lost and you definitely don’t want necklaces getting tangled or the backs of your earrings ending up at the bottom of your suitcase. This jewelry travel case has been in a lifesaver as it allows for all types of jewelry – rings, earrings, necklaces; however it is durable and tiny!

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Makeup – Henri Bendel Packable Trio (here)
This is a MUST! It comes with 3 cases in one (amazing deal!) but the packables are different sizes and can have multiple uses. We use the medium size for our makeup when traveling and the smaller one for our makeup brushes. The largest case allows us to put any bigger items like sunscreen, hairspray, perfume, etc that might not fit in our toiletries case.

Also, the material is flexible so you can shove it between shoes and clothes and can wipe off any makeup that might stain! They are also so easy to grab on the go such as the beach or gym!

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Toiletries – Large Hanging Weekender Bag (here)
We always had trouble finding the right toiletry case until we came across this one! Most of the past ones we used never had enough room for everything or took up too much space in our suitcase. Our favorite part of this bag is that it zips both sides securely closed to make it compact. There are also two compartments on each side to put all of your items in. We organize it by putting hair products on one side and all of our face creams on the other. There is even a smaller pouch for items like contact cases or your toothbrush!

Oh and did we mention that you can hang this just about anywhere?! When you get to your hotel room you can hang it on the door or towel bar to make it easily accessible but also so it’s not taking up all the counter space. Genius!

What are some of your favorite travel accessories?!

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How to Fight the Dreaded Puffy & Baggy Eye Problem

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Are you a new mom, a seasoned mom, a 30-something, a constant traveler, or just someone who had a kick ass weekend at the Beyonce and Jay-Z concert? We don’t know about you but as we age, the problem of puffy eyes and under eye baggage is getting worse and harder to fight! Other than sleep and living a stress-free life, which HA!, just isn’t always possible, we trust a few handy and reliable products to help us fight off, prevent, or simply hide this problem:

The VP Ice Roller
Ahhh the ice roller, you know we love our VP ice rollers! We roll the cold ice roller all over our faces but in particular over our eyes to help ease the puffiness. It feels AMAZING! It also aids in the occasional headache from sleep deprivation so we roll it over our foreheads for some relief! And lastly, it helps tighten our pores! Who doesn’t want tightened pores?! Go.get.one.of.these.today.

Dr. Brandt No More Baggage
This product is marketed to help ease the dark circles under your eyes and reduce puffiness. We found that you have to use the product consistently for about 2-3 weeks before we noticed a change in the dark circles but we immediately noticed the cooling effect. Similarly to the ice roller, it cools and tightens the pores above and under our eyes. We definitely notice a decrease in puffiness after applying this product. We apply it to our under and upper eyes and let it dry before applying any moisturizer or makeup. Get yours here!

It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye
This is the holy grail! Seriously this was a game changer for us! We feel human again after using this product! The coverage is amazing but it is still light and what we love most is that it doesn’t ripple or cake under our eyes. A tab of this concealer covers the under eye, a little bit over top of our lids, and sometimes we even use it to smooth over blemishes on the rest of our face. This is a must buy!

So, since the only TRUE remedy for a face free of puffy and baggy under eyes is not always possible, it is just fine to get by with a little help from Vanity Planet, Dr. Brandt, and It Cosmetics, right? Let us know in the comments how you fight off the dreaded puffy and baggy eye problem!

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How Often Should you Wash your Makeup Brushes?

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Sounds so complicated but in all reality – it needs to be done. It is so important to remove dirt, clumps of makeup and whatever else might be between those tiny bristles. Remember that these babies are going on our faces every day! And though our faces are probably clean majority of the time we are use them, there are definitely times when we do a touch up and the dirt from that day just went from our face to our makeup brush and back to our clean face the next morning…Gross!

Strive (longshot) but strive to clean them once a week. This will help keep the brushes clean and free of makeup clumps too. And it doesn’t need to be complicated either! We use our daily face wash to rinse off the brushes since our skin is already used to using this product. Lay them out on a towel to dry and voila! Clean brushes, clean skin!

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How Coconut Oil Helps Heal Our Skin & Keeps It Clear

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The low point: We have each struggled with our skin over the years for various reasons. Sass struggles with keeping her skin clear. She went to dermatologist after dermatologist, tried product after product and nothing worked. It was miserably frustrating and quite honestly, depressing. She hated looking in the mirror. Sometimes at night she would stand at the sink taking her makeup off and be in full on ugly tears.

Sweetness experienced the same level of frustration when it comes to keep her skin hydrated. Dry patches and irritated skin are not only frustrating but can also be surprisingly painful! Not knowing which products are going to help or heighten the problem brought on long periods of trial and error. We are sharing this with you to let you know that WE GET IT. Our paths on this journey may be different but we get what it feels like to have skin troubles that change you as a person.

The fix: Now we can’t say that we’ve found a miracle product to make it all better because at least for us, we’ve learned that the only true remedy for clear, healthy skin is living a stress free life. LOL, right, but truly the only time Sass gets a severe break out now is when she is experiencing extreme stress, i.e. the entire year she planned her wedding or when she first had a baby. And Sweetness has come to learn how to best treat the dry patches that would previously make it difficult to evenly apply makeup or make it difficult to be in the sun for fear of drying her skin out even more! So how you ask? We cleanse our skin with coconut oil every day.

All natural: When you have sensitive skin the last thing you want to do is throw additional toxins at it. Products are great, don’t get me wrong, we use plenty of them, but when you’re skin is easily reactive or naturally dry, products contain chemicals and chemicals can have very negative effects on your skin. Coconut oil is a completely natural product with no chemicals, just check the ingredients label, legit all it says is “organic coconut oil.”

Healing agent: For Sass, pimples are a build up of oil and dirt under your pores, right, we all know that but if you think of pimples and acne as wounds on your skin it allows you to treat them differently. The same applies to Sweetness and the dry patches. Topicals and luxury products generally want to dry out your skin but when you get a cut or a wound on your skin in any other place, what do you do? You apply a healing ointment of some kind. Take that logic and apply it to your face. In using coconut oil you are healing and moisturizing your skin rather than drying it out. When we were at the height of troubles with our skin we were so angry at it, we wanted to attack it like a problem but really we needed to heal it and show our skin some love.

Versatility: We buy a tin of coconut oil and use it as a facial cleanser, a body lotion, a hair moisturizer, and although it is a different tin, we also use it for cooking! Sass even used it on her baby bump to prevent stretch marks!

Affordability: We can buy coconut oil at just about any grocery or drug store and compared to prescription and high-end cleansers, it is SO AFFORDABLE! We spend no more than $10 on a jar of coconut oil that lasts for MONTHS! Trader Joe’s also makes coconut oil packets that are perfect for traveling or a gym bag and is only $3.99 for a box of 14 packets!

What you need to know: You want to buy organic, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil. We use Vita Coco Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, which we literally bought at the grocery store for about $9. When it comes to brands, there isn’t much difference but we like this one because of the shape of the jar! Sounds silly now but when you get to the bottom of the jar we can still easily fit our hands in to get the rest out! Anyway, we use it whenever we take our makeup off and anytime we shower we put it on our face and a little bit on the ends of our hair. We take two fingers worth and rub it on our hands and then rub it all over our skin. We then follow it up with witch hazel to remove any excess makeup. (Just be careful not to get it on your eyes if you have eyelash extensions like Sweetness!)

So, if you are in dire need or are just curious about a more natural way to remove makeup and keep your skin and hair healthy give coconut oil a try! And be sure to let us know in the comments below what are some of your favorite skin hacks! We’re always open to new ideas!

 

Sass and Sweetness3 Comments

The Best Light and Breathable Makeup for Summer

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To say that struggling with your skin is hard is a complete understatement. Has anyone else gone through periods of time where your acne was so terrible that you were borderline depressed? We have! We didn’t want to go out, we didn’t want to be seen, and we would occasionally stare at the mirror and just cry. It’s such a tough, personal struggle and the hot summer weather certainly doesn’t help! We learned to make some changes to how we take care of our skin and the products we apply to it during the warm summer months and we have thankfully not been in the dark place for a long time.

Before the dark days, we were completely loyal and obsessed with liquid foundations, Nars Sheer Glow Foundation, as an example. It is amazing because it goes on super smooth and the coverage is unreal! Unfortunately during the summer our love for it does not outweigh our hatred for the breakout we get afterwards. 

The Concern with Switching: We had heard that powder foundations are better for sensitive skin but we were always concerned with not getting enough coverage. Coming from a total coverage, thick liquid foundation to a light powder really deterred us from trying it out. Especially since even though we knew it wasn’t helping the acne, we wanted to cover it up as much as possible.

We decided one day we just couldn’t take it anymore and went to a bareMinerals counter at the mall. The makeup artist was completely sensitive and understanding of our concerns and really took time to show us how we can use lighter products but still get great coverage.

The New Routine: Thanks to her we have a summer makeup routine that works. An example routine of ours looks like this…Start with the Blemish Remedy Concealer Stick in Light and apply it to your under eye, any problem areas and pimples, scars left over from the dark days, and under the nose and chin. Then use a light layer of the Complexion Rescue Tinted Moisturizer – Hydrating Gel Cream in Buttercream 03. And lastly, lock it all in with the Blemish Remedy Foundation in Clearly Cream 03. The foundation is powder so it is super light and breathable but solidifies the creamy tinted moisturizer. And when we don’t need an entire face of makeup, for example when we’re running a quick errand or headed to the gym, just a touch of the Complexion Rescue Tinted Moisturizer – Hydrating Gel Cream goes a long way!

Since switching to bareMinerals, it doesn’t even feel like we have makeup on but we still get great coverage! The lighter makeup is especially helpful in warmer months! We have the look of makeup but our skin can breathe.

We made the switch to lighter, more breathable makeup and we notice a distinct difference in our skin! What are you favorite foundations for summer?

Sass and SweetnessLeave a comment

Rolling with the Ice Rollers

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Cue the Clueless scene of Brittany Murphy sitting on the kitchen counter at the house party singing… rolling with the homies. Cheesy we know but every time we use our ice rollers all we can think of are songs that we can incorporate rolling into! (rolling, rolling, rolling – get those ice rollers rolling…okay we’ll stop)

But what is an ice roller you ask? It is an amazing $17ish device by Vanity Planet that will make you feel like a whole new person – or at least for a few minutes. The ice roller has a metal cylinder attached to the end that you store in the freezer and roll over your face whenever you need a refresher.

Didn’t sleep well last night? Roll this puppy over those tired eyes to reduce swelling. Hung over? Roll this over your forehead and that headache will instantly feel less painless. Acne? Roll the device over your face regularly to reduce redness and shrink those pimples. There are so many benefits to ice rolling, it has become our favorite new device.

The one downfall? All of our ice rollers seem to squeak but hey if we will have smaller pores and glowing skin – a little squeaking never hurt nobody!

Sass and Sweetness3 Comments