I’ve jumped on the Glycerin bandwagon because I heard rave reviews about it as a great moisturzer for acne-prone and sensitive skin. Acne.org and Makeupally was raving about it. I remember seeing a rating of 90% for glycerin, however, as more and more people jumped on the band wagon, it is now at a low 60%.

So I’ve been using my homemade glycerin moisturizer for a couple weeks now. I use about 1 part glycerin to 3-4 parts water and place it into a travel sized spray bottle. I applied this twice a day, in the morning and evening.

Regime: Morning - mix one spray of glycerin to my Olay Daily Face Lotion. This actually makes an excellent primer for makeup, especially mineral makeup! It made my makeup stay on all day and helped with the flakies.

Evening: After applying Retin-A, I waited for about an hour and sprayed this on my hands and applied it to my face. The texture of the mixture is pretty liquidy and once applied, it took awhile for the glycerin to dry. The morning after, my face was moisturized, but nothing spectacular.

Overall: After using this for several weeks, the first week my skin looked great! Especially, in the morning, it made my mineral makeup application a lot smoother! However, I noticed that I started to break out where I usually don’t break out - ex. cheeks. Overtime, it clogged my pores. Sadly, this product did not work for me if used everday. I’m sure if I use this sparingly, I would not break out as much. This did not work for me, but it might work for those that rarely break out or have tougher skin than me.

UPDATED 4/14/08

Unlike your typical drug store makeup, NYX is a little more difficult to find. Overtime, I’ve compiled a list of stores that I’ve encountered, specifically the Los Angeles area that sells NYX Cosmetics. I’ve only listed the name of stores and their location, not their exact address. You can google map those stores if interested. Most of these stores actually sell them less than the price on the NYX website. Hopefully, some will find this useful.

Hint: You can actually find NYX products in those smaller mom and pop trendy clothing stores, think Forever21 type of stores or Claire Accesories knock-offs.

- * will denote stores with a wide selection of NYX - multiple product lines (lips, eyes, blush)

- stores without * will denote stores with limited selection - 1 or 2 type of products

Nationwide

NYX Company Website - http://nyxcosmetics.com/

Cherry Culture - http://www.cherryculture.com/

Fragrance Outlet - found in Outlet centers

Longs Drug Stores

Ulta

Southern California

Appalet - Temple City, Rowland Heights

*Bliss Accessory Stores - Montebello Town Center, Santa Anita Mall, West Covina Mall, Santa Ana Main Place

Brandie’s - Monterey Park, Chino Hills

*Ciao Accessories - West Covina Mall

*Chloe Accessories - Puente Hills Mall

Classic for Ladies - Santa Anita Mall

Fashion Q - Puente Hills Mall, Monterey Park

Fashion Gal - Monrovia

*Final Choice - Monterey Park, Santa Ana

Joyce Fashions - Temple City

*Pink Orange - Ontario Mills

Reflection - Montclair Plaza

Tokyo Japanese Outlet - Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles

Monterey Park

Xi Clothing - Pasadena

If anyone else has stores in that area that you think should be added to this list esp. nationwide, let me know! =)

I finally recieved my Buff’d Mineral Samples. It came in these little baggies, that are less than 1/2 full. Well…I guess that’s what you can expect from free samples.

Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Serecite Mica, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines. Luckily, no silk or bismuth here!

Warm and Buff: These two have more pink undertones then the other two below. It looks like Warm has more pink than Buff. The owner of Buff’d recommended Warm for my NC 35-40
skin.

Almond and Moccasin: These two definitely have more yellow undertones. This looks like this might be a better match for me. Almond might be a little too light for me. I’ll see.

I’ll give these a try over the next couple of weeks and update you guys later on…

I finally recieved my Buff’d Mineral Samples. It came in these little baggies, that are less than 1/2 full. Well…I guess that’s what you can expect from free samples.

Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Serecite Mica, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines. Luckily, no silk or bismuth here!

Warm and Buff: These two have more pink undertones then the other two below. It looks like Warm has more pink than Buff. The owner of Buff’d recommended Warm for my NC 35-40
skin.

Almond and Moccasin: These two definitely have more yellow undertones. This looks like this might be a better match for me. Almond might be a little too light for me. I’ll see.

I’ll give these a try over the next couple of weeks and update you guys later on…