Yogurt is a great value snack food, not just in terms of money, but in terms of being quick, easy, tasty and quite healthy. Consider these yogurt facts:

• Yogurt is a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D. This can help build strong bones in children and prevent osteoporosis in adults.
• Yogurt with active cultures provides digestive benefits. For example, Dannon Activia contains a probiotic culture called Bifidus Regularis®. This active culture helps maintain good digestive health and can be beneficial to those who have occasional irregularity.
• According to WebMD, studies have indicated that consuming yogurt may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and may discourage vaginal yeast infections.
• Yogurt is a good source of lean protein: A cup of Dannon Activia provides on average around 4-5 grams of protein. If you are dieting, that protein may help you feel fuller, preventing cravings and keeping you from eating too much.  It also provides on average around 12-15 grams of carbohydrates, which makes it a pretty good exercise recovery food as well. I’ll discuss that further in a follow up post next week.
• Yogurt tastes good! I’m liking my Dannon Activia Strawberry that I was given in order to prepare this post. Hint, toss in a handful of frozen raspberries to make it extra tasty!

One of the additional things that I like about yogurt is its portability. The cups fit well in a lunch pack, so I can take a cup to work with me to add to a meal or to eat as a snack. This helps assure that I get a good amount of healthy protein, calcium, and maintain digestive health all in one shot. Another trick is to combine yogurt with a high fiber food. This adds another digestive health benefit, and works well as either a balanced light breakfast or as a more hearty snack.  For example, I like to mix a high fiber cereal into my yogurt to add some crunch and provide additional fiber. I also noticed on the Dannon website that they make a fiber version of their yogurt.

As far as healthy snacks go, yogurt is hard to beat! Dannon Activia is currently running a fourteen day challenge where you can try Activia for two weeks and, if you don’t love it, you can be reimbursed for the cost of the yogurt. For more info on that, or on Activia in general and its health benefits, click the logo below.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post and is based on products supplied to me by a representative of the company. For more, please see the disclosure page.

Related posts

• Win The 5 Minute Face from Benefit Cosmetics (2)
• Win Prizes! Announcing Splendicity, a Network of Style Blogs. (2)
• Why Hasn’t He Called? Mentions The Beauty Blog Network (0)

I’m a sucker for unique packaging, especially if it looks like it will simplify my makeup application. So, I couldn’t resist grabbing a new CoverGirl Smoky Shadow Blast and a matching CoverGirl Liquiline Blast Eyeliner to try and reveiw.

CoverGirl Smoky Shadow Blast is a thick two ended shadow pencil and, looking at other reviews, people seem to either love it or hate it. One end has a highlighting shade and the other has a darker lid shade that is tapered so that it can also be applied as a liner. The pictures below show it from two angles. Use the point to line and the flat to apply as a shadow. The consistency of the shadow is that of a cream to powder, with it being much more on the cream side, especially when it first goes on. The pigment is rather good for a drugstore eye shadow and it wears rather well, although I did not get a full day out of it. The highlighter shade has a nice luminosity to it. Overall, it is good for a nice basic smoked eye look, or wear the highlighting shade with a thicker sweep of the liner for a simple pin-up girl glam type of look.

One important tip though:  Like most cream eye shadows, this one will crease and not wear well if you don’t set it with something. So add a bit of translucent powder or a light matching powder eye shadow over it for better and longer wear. Using a primer with cream types of shadows is also highly recommended. I suspect that some of the negative reviews I have seen of this product have been in part because the product was applied without these steps,which is usually necessary for success with most cream type eye products. MAC paint pots are a huge exception to that rule though—I love those! (link is to previous review).

The Liquiline Blast is a very nice companion product. This soft eyeliner is comparable to my favorite Make Up For ever Aqua Eyes liners (link is to previous review), but is much more affordable. However, unlike aqua eyes, with their multitude of shades, Liquiline only has six choices. The liner also has a nice smudging tip. When I made my purchase, both products were displayed with how to cards that you could also grab. The card is useful, so take a look at one if you see it in the store.

Below are swatches of CoverGirl Liquiline Blast in Brown Blaze (on the left), and CoverGirl Shadow Blast in Bronze Fire, with the darker shade put on using both the tip and the flat. These were taken in indoor light.

I got my products at ULTA Beauty. You can also find them in most drugstores and big box stores. Or, you can comparison shop for CoverGirl Cosmetics.

Related posts

• MAC Trend F/W 09 (1)
• Elizabeth Arden Limited Edition For Fall (1)
• CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara (1)

Below are few links from around the Beauty Blog Network:

Phyrra shows you the new eye shadow collection from the creators of BB Couture, Gabrielle Faust by Overall Beauty.

Beauty and Fashion Tech has a new buyer’s guide to DIY Laser Hair Removal comparing home laser hair removal systems and other permanent hair removal devices.

Beauty Girl Musings reviews Halle Berry’s newest fragrance, Pure Orchid. Enter for a chance to win Dermacyte skin care products including Oxygen Concentrate and the NEW Oxygenating Eye Complex worth $150 at Beauty and Personal Grooming. Ends Sept 3, 2010.

These articles also caught my eye this week:

From The Beauty Brains: Does Beauty Depend on Where You Live?

Bionic Beauty Swatches a neat light blue polish from Sally Hansen: Sea and Be Seen.

Beautiful Makeup Search looks at Estee Lauder Pure Color Shadow.

Related posts

• Weekend Reading From the Beauty Blog Network (4)
• Weekend Reading From the Beauty Blog Network (1)
• Weekend Reading From The Beauty Blog Network (0)

Disclosure: This is an advertorial post.

Related posts

• No related posts.

After battling adult cystic acne for some time and trying multiple acne remedies, including many prescription acne medicines, such as Differin Gel, Azaelic acid, and Retin A, I bought some Arcona acne treatment products and finally pretty much found my acne cure! I am now using a mix of Arcona skincare products with one Peter Thomas Roth acne treatment product, which I also purchased, and with a few occasional other products that I will list, and I have been almost acne free ever since (It has been around four months now). When something does pop up, this acne treatment system, especially the Peter Thomas Roth product, seems to clear it up fast—within 24-48 hours much of the time, which amazes me!  The process hasn’t been perfect though, with some of the products initially causing my skin to get too dry, so read along as I describe the acne treatment process I am using and details about the products. This is the first time in years that I have found a system that works so well for me.

Peter Thomas Roth Acne Spot Treatment

Lets begin with my holy grail product of the treatment. If I could pick only one item to use this would be it.

Peter Thomas Roth Acne Spot and Area Treatment: This product has been nothing short of amazing for me.  Used as a spot treatment it has cleared up even tough cystic acne for me quickly—as in completely gone within 24 to 48 hours. I would say it is effective for me on cystic acne up to 90% of the time. Only a few spots seem to resist it. It isn’t particularly drying and has a nice ingredient mix that tosses in a bit of several quality active treatment ingredients and then adds a bunch of treatment extracts that can also lessen skin discoloration from the acne. Active ingredients are: 5% Sulfur, Salicylic Acid, and Glycolic Acid. It also adds soothing ingredients such as Aloe and Allantoin, plus has a bunch of extracts that are good for general skin care such as Willow Bark Extract, Panthenol (Pro VitaminB5), Orange Fruit Extract, Grape Seed Extract, Mulberry Leaf Extract, Blueberry Leaf Extract, Licorice Root Extract, Lavender Extract, Echinacea Angustifolia Extract, Vitamin E, and Vitamin C. I have seen some consumer reviews of this product that complained about the sulfur smell. It does have a bit of sulfur odor to it, but I don’t personally mind it. Sulfur is a great treatment ingredient and the smell of the the Peter Thomas Roth spot treatment was not as high as that of many other sulfur products that I have used.

Arcona Daily Skin Care Products

ARCONA Raspberry Acne Bar: I love this raspberry scented acne bar. However, it can be very drying, so I use it only when my skin is especially oily or if I have an unexpected breakout (which has only happened once since I started this regime).  The bar cleanses and contains bacteria killing ingredients. It dries out oil fast, but be careful not to overuse it. I did at first and ended up very dry. I have since learned to use it only once each day and to add a light moisturizer if needed.
ARCONA Tabula Rasa: Tabula Rasa is a treatment toner, and since it is a bit small, it is also a bit expensive as a toner. Because of that, although I loved it, I didn’t repurchase it and have still been OK acne wise. I did feel that it helped with curing my initial breakouts when I first began the Arcona acne treatment regime, but it likely isn’t necessary for prevention.  If you don’t mind the cost, try it, especially for initially clearing things up and then decide whether to keep refilling it.
ARCONA The Solution: This acne and anti-aging treatment serum is my other must have product. Used at night, it kills acne causing bacteria and also contains a number of other treatment agents that address not just acne but aging and general skin care as well. The directions say to use it a couple of time each week, but I use it daily with no problems. I don’t find it to be either irritating or drying. Anyone with sensitive skin who is concerned about using treatment serums might be interested in the ARCONA Gentle Solution instead.

Adjunct Products in the Acne Treatment Regime

Along with the staple items above, I also still use my Zeno and Claro acne treatment devices (link is to comparison review) and wear a high SPF sunscreen because I also have melasma. Right now, my favorite sunscreens have been ARCONA Reozone SPF 40 and Physician’s Formula Healthy Wear (link is to previous review), which is super high SPF, physically blocking, lightly moisturizing, affordable, and easy to find at your local drugstore. Wonderful stuff! both of those items do have a fair amount of titanium dioxide, which causes acne in some people. I have had no issues with them though.

When I get really dry, I also add a light moisturizer. Aside from the Healthy Wear mentioned above, I love Canyon Ranch (link is to previous review) and have been using it the most.

Below are some shopping boxes for the products (click through to the site to see the boxes if you are reading this in the feed), including a couple of other Arcona products that are part of the acne treatment line that I haven’t tried (the a.m. treatment look especially interesting to me). I usually get Arcona from SpaLook, because they tend to consistently carry the full line. Peter Thomas Roth and Canyon Ranch are also available there. Beauty.com also often has the full Arcona line. I also added a couple of links to Target for Physician’s Formula Healthy Wear, but most people can get that in just about any big box retailer or drugstore store quite easily.

Disclosure: This post uses affiliate links, which help support this site. For more, please see the disclosure page.

Related posts

• Zeno Acne Treatment, Zap Your Zits! (9)
• The New Science of Perfect Skin by Daniel Yarosh, PH.D. (3)
• Starlite In-Home Laser Skin Care (4)

If you aren’t familiar with it, BB cream,which also known as blemish balm, is pretty neat stuff.  BB creams are truly multifunctional , acting as a primer, a light concealer, and often also treating various skin conditions. Most toss in sun protection and nourish the skin, and a few act as a replacement for foundation. BB creams originated in South Korea, and most brands are still from there. The main downside to BB creams, however, is that they tend to be formulated with lighter skin in mind.  Finding one for darker skin is next to impossible at times (if anyone knows of one let me know!).

There are multiple brands of BB creams, but most are in Asia. That doesn’t mean people outside of Asia are out of luck though. Many BB creams can be purchased at my favorite shopping source for all things in Asia beauty and fashion: YesStyle. YesStyle has reliable shipping to the United States, Canada, Europe, and other areas.

Finding the best BB cream can depend on what you are looking for. Some address melasma and hyperpigmentation, others address acne. Still more seek to provide anti-again treatments—all while also acting as a sunscreen and primer. There are numerous BB cream brands available.

So far, I have used Etude House BB Cream and Skin79. One neat way to try different creams, albeit all from the same brand, is to buy the Skin 79 sample pack.

If you want to learn more about BB Cream, see products and BB cream reviews of multiple blemish balm brands, and read an extensive BB cream FAQ, visit BB Cream Beauty, a new and growing site about finding the best BB cream.

Related posts

• Etude House USA (0)
• Etude House BB Magic Cream SPF 30 and Foundation Review (24)
• Zensation Brightening Mask (0)

Prescriptives is no longer in the stores, but it is still very much alive online.  One item of theirs that I had forgotten about, and used to adore, is Prescriptives Magic Liquid Powder.  Prescriptives Magic is an illuminating powder that reflects light to blur fine lines and imperfections. It also sets makeup pretty well and does not clog pores.

I use to swear by Prescriptives Magic and would sometimes rely on it with  just a bit of tinted moisturizer even though I have hyperpigmentation. I think over the years I forgot about it though since I get so many powders to try from blogging.   Then I rediscovered it and have been using it again quite a bit. Prescriptives also makes an Magic Lotion, but that one caused acne for me. The lotion is also currently sold out, but the powder is still available.

Related posts

• Sephora Brand Pressed Mineral Foundation (1)
• Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Foundation, Concealer, and Powder (19)
• Redpoint Foundations and Powder: Sheer, Beautiful Makeup (4)