April Hauls and Spring Savings Stars 🌟

[lmaster]

Spring is officially here! That means savings sales around the corner 🙌 Please share your fabulous April Hauls here, and happy happy birthday to all the April babies 🥳

 

 

[Guessgal]

Thank you ladies @itsfi @curlychiquita I was majorly tempted to pick up the Sephora Collection Miami lippie last time it went on sale for $5 last year, and I’m glad I finally pulled the trigger! 😁

[curlychiquita]

I love the Sephora Collection lippies, @Guessgal! I don't have feedback about the palette, though.

[gingerleigh]

Great haul @Guessgal  ... I can't answer your question, but I am curious too. I've been in your situation many times, as I'm sure we all have been, where an item looks new but may be missing some packaging material, mainly that plastic film. It would be great to be able to get some kind of reassurance that stock for sale online is kept separate from online returns, as well as from all the in-store merchandise that is sent back for storage to a distribution center, to make room for new items on the limited space of store shelves.

I would love for my on-line purchases to be guaranteed as never having even had a chance of being swatched in-store. We've all gotten a palette that looked like someone's finger has been swirling around in the powder, though. Is it possible to know if there can be any other explanation for "brand new" makeup that arrives looking like that? Sometimes, when I really care about the answer in-store, like when the item is very pricy, I ask the cashier to open the product so we can examine it together for swatching or damage, before I pay and walk out the door with it. I don't have that option when buying online.

[Guessgal]

Thank you for voicing your concern too @gingerleigh It is definitely a tricky situation in that my product doesn’t look swatched so it doesn’t feel like it warrants a return, but it make me wonder. On the bright side, these Too Faced shadows have a lovely scent each time I open the palette, which surprisingly gives me some delight!

[WinglessOne]

New-to-me skincare: 

Someone asked about this background (aside from my laptop) I sometimes use in these photos. It's my Banned Books scarf from Out Of Print Clothing.

Timeless HA Matrixyl 3000 w/Cucumber Spray - I almost bought their vitamin C serum but chose this spray instead. It contains no bad-for-me ingredients and seems like a good way to feed my skin some peptides, B5, hyaluronic acid, and soothing cucumber extract. (Matrixyl 3000 is also in The Ordinary Buffet, which I often use in the morning. So, this spray will be an alternative to Buffet.) Smells like cucumbers and feels very hydrating and refreshing. I might also use it as a pre-moisturizer body mist. 

MooGoo: I’ve never tried anything from this Australian brand, but I’ve looked at their vitamin C serum before. I hate the brand’s fear-mongering approach to parabens, petrolatum, silicones, phenoxyethanol, and other proven-safe ingredients, and I’m definitely not aboard the “all-natural is best” train... I'm sometimes conflicted about supporting brands that market that bs. But a couple of MooGoo products looked promising, regardless of ingredient origin or false marketing: 

Spoiler

Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate (Vitamin C) in Squalane (25% w/v) - I chose to try this instead of Timeless’s vitamin C serum (for now) because I want to see what a stable oil-soluble form of ascorbic acid can really do, and this serum contains 25% of it. Besides the 2 ingredients in its name, this serum contains tocopherol (vitamin E) and… that’s it. I kinda wish MooGoo hadn’t switched this serum from a pump bottle to a dropper, but I assume they did it so folks can better control how much of this oily serum they use. My mostly-dry combo skin likes 2-3 drops. I suspect a full pump (from the old bottle) would've been too much. I've used it twice so far and my skin hasn't thrown a tantrum. We'll see how I feel about it come May, and whether or not I've seen results by then. 

Natural Milk Wash - Contains several cleansing agents derived from coconut and glucose, and has a nice oatmeal fragrance. I wondered if this would be a good hand “soap.” It is! It's low-lathering, yet gets my hands clean and leaves them feeling moderately soft and hydrated, so they're not desert dry by the time I reach for a moisturizer. This bottle’s currently in my half bath. I might try it as a body wash, but I've already committed to using bars instead of bottled gels in the shower to further reduce waste, so this won't replace my CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser Bar. 

Free sample: Natural Skin Milk Udder Cream - Smells like oats and PlayDough, but not in a terrible way. Makes my hands soft and moisturized. Surprisingly not as greasy feeling as I feared it’d be, considering how many plant oils are in this cream. But it does give my hands the same glowy radiance a facial oil gives my face, so the oil’s definitely noticeable. Might be good for someone wanting to give their exposed body skin a healthy glow without using liquid body highlighters and additional oils. 

Also, happy birthday to all the April babies! 

[haleyvvvv]

Nicehaul, @WinglessOne!! I hope these skincare products treat you well. Enjoy your goodies!!

[tsavorite]

@WinglessOne ,

How are you liking the Moo Goo Natural Milk Wash?  The Natural Skin Milk Udder Cream sounds good too!

[WinglessOne]

@tsavorite  It's great as a hand wash. I've used it once on my face and it worked well: didn't strip my skin or leave it tight and dry. I still prefer my usual PM cleanser, but I could see alternating my usual AM cleanser (a very gentle Paula's Choice cream cleanser) with the MooGoo cleanser once in a while. I do think the MooGoo cleanser would make a very nice body wash. 

@eshoe  I'll tag you about the MooGoo vitamin C serum after I've given it 30 consistent days of use. Since its carrier is squalane (it contains no water), folks with dry to very dry skin would like this serum far more than folks with oily skin. But we'll see how effective it is in a few weeks. 🙂 

[tsavorite]

Thank you, @WinglessOne !

[eshoe]

The MooGoo Active Serum looks intriguing, @WinglessOne. I would love to know what you think of it after some use. I have a bit of hyperpigmentation that is slowly fading, so I am always looking for something to speed the process along.

[ather]

@WinglessOne  Can’t wait to hear more about moogoo never heard of it before!

[curlychiquita]

The spray sounds really great, @WinglessOne -- refreshing and good for the skin!

[WinglessOne]

@curlychiquita  I'm already planning to buy more so I'll have it on hand all summer. 

[lmaster]

@WinglessOne ohhhh the HA spray sounds lovely,, udder cream 😆 great hauls

[WinglessOne]

@lmaster Whenever I think of "udder cream," I picture Vermont's Original Bag Balm (the stuff in the green tin sold at drugstores). 😂 That petrolatum product's very different from this MooGoo cream, but it works! 

Timeless makes 3 other varieties of that HA spray: lavender, rose, and orange. I won't try those on my face, especially the lavender one. But I've considered trying the orange or rose one as a body mist... I'd just have to keep those off my face and neck. I bet they smell great! 

[lmaster]

@WinglessOne oh my gosh! The orange would be perfect for a body mist in the summer 😍

[Shosh85]

@WinglessOne  Oooh, the Timeless spray and Moo Goo milk wash sound great!
If you do get those cow ears, I'm sincerely hoping you'll share a picture with them on 😍🐄🥛

I don't understand how skincare companies can put out misinformation like that..... don't they have dermatologists or some kind of skin care expert working for them?... or is something like this just a marketing stunt to attract more customers? 🤔

[WinglessOne]

@Shosh85  Haha, maybe I'll pair the cow ears with a milk mask in the masking thread someday. 🙂 

I know some people are tired of my anti-"clean/all-natural beauty" rants, and they probably think I'm being too negative or judgmental about it. But if clean/natural marketing claims were true and science-based—beyond just reading a clinical study summary, or even reading a full study and misinterpreting the heck out of it, or basing claims off an obviously flawed study (like the parabens study often cited by clean beauty claims)—then sure, I'd just chalk it all up to personal consumer choice and that'd be that. 

But nope, these brands perpetuate lies, myths, and misunderstandings for no reason other than to make money off consumers, and that's what annoys me the most about it all. I worked with a large company's marketing and brand teams long enough to know how marketing, branding, and merchandising is created and targeted at different audiences to make the most money. I do wonder how much market research and clinical testing is done by some of these skincare brands... I mean, I know the bigs like Estee Lauder do plenty of both, but who knows what smaller indy brands do. I'm convinced clean/all-natural brands care far more about consumers' money than consumers' health. Otherwise they'd quit demonizing safe "dirty/unnatural" ingredients, drop the "clean/all-natural" fad, and just focus on making science-based products that are rigorously tested for efficacy and safety. 

[heartsmyface]

@WinglessOne   My first instinct would be to find cow ears to debut this cream.  I’ve never heard of it but love the name!  

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @heartsmyface @SportyGirly125 @missjeanie @Titian06 @itsfi ! 

I love the name "MooGoo" too! So it's too bad they say things like... 

Spoiler

"[Ingredients MooGoo doesn't use include] Paraffin and Mineral Oil which derive from petroleum, but are commonly found in commercial moisturizers like Sorbolene. We don’t think putting the stuff that goes into our cars on our skin is the healthiest thing we can do." (Copied from the FAQ on one of their moisturizer product pages.) 

Yet they do include apple cider vinegar in some leave-on products. ACV is quite acidic (pH is around 2.5) and generally not a healthy leave-on ingredient for skin, especially sensitive skin. It's not something I'd use regularly on my skin. 

But if MooGoo understands how to include ACV safely in their formulations, you'd think they'd also understand that petrolatum (of which mineral oil is a derivative) used in skincare is not the same as petrol put in gas tanks and is perfectly safe for skin. But you know, fear-mongering and whatnot. 🙄

Also too bad because I love their brand voice: their friendly casual (but not cloyingly fake & forced "we wanna be your bff") tone of voice they use throughout their site, ads, and email communications. Whoever's responsible for their brand voice has found a nice balance of casual and professional. For instance, I got this confirmation page after placing my order: 

It's little things like this that make me like a company, or at least appreciate something about them even if I'm strongly against one aspect of their brand. 

And now I kinda wanna go find some cow ears. 😂 I have cat ears, bunny ears, and somewhere around here are some dragon ears + horns + spikes. Might need to invest in some moo ears soon. 

[missjeanie]

Lol @WinglessOne  petroleum jelly straight up is one of my skin saviours in the winter or out on the water at certain times.  I hate how they (they industry in general) promotes this kind of thing and really get some people going. Like cianide is ‘natural’, and I sure don’t want that in my skincare.