How was your long weekend? Mine was very quiet as I just stayed at home painting and working. ^_^ Anyway, this week I thought I'd do Skincare Week, where I will be talking about excellent products you can use to nourish and protect your skin. We all need a few of those! Hopefully this week you can discover awesome additions to your current skincare routine.

To start off, I have a unique find for you: the Avon Skin So Soft Fast Hydration Body Gel Lotion (P330). I've tried quite a host of body lotions but it's my first time to see a legit gel one! I mean, gel face moisturizers are easy to find, but it's rare to see one for the body in the PH. That's why I was pretty excited to hear about this latest innovation from Avon!

So what's up with this gel moisturizer? It literally feels like you're applying water on your skin - it's light, quickly absorbed within seconds, and leaves no greasy residue. It smells very fresh and clean and has this cooling effect due to the alcohol content.

At first I thought that having SD Alcohol-40B in the ingredients list is counterintuitive as alcohol is known to be drying.

I felt like a bee drawn to honey when I opened the latest package from The Body Shop just the other day. The smell was so intoxicating, so sweet, so yummy - I just had to use the new Honeymania products immediately! This new collection includes the Body Butter, Lip Balm, Soap, Shower Gel, and Eau de Toilette. I suggest you get everything if you like to layer and intensify scents.

The Honeymania fragrance isn't your traditional syrupy honey; it's actually quite floral, since the bee-goop was supposed to be harvested from wildflowers in Ethiopia. The honey is just the base here and not the main note of the fragrance. It's not at all what I expected but I love it!

On to the products. The Honeymania Shower Gel is my top pick because it makes my bathroom smell like a sweet floral paradise. I also like that it lathers easily and thickly, without me having to use too much in one wash. It's also non-drying on my skin even though it's a gel.

Instant bathroom freshener

My birthday is in three weeks and I am feeling old. My skin is just not as supple as it used to be! I've also been having my legs lasered these past six months so they feel quite dry. Then, there's this freaky cold weather in Manila lately that just sucks out the moisture from my skin. Rant rant rant. Bottomline, I'm dry and I feel uncomfortable and old about it.

So I've brought out the big guns. My goal is to reclaim the smoothness of my skin, if for no other reason than to spit in the eye of my 26th birthday. Lol. I'm not yet that age conscious, okay, just very conscious of my changing skin. Anyway, here are three things that I've found most effective in battling the dryness on my arms, legs, and neck!

Whenever I get argan oil from brands, I usually give it away. Now I realize that's a huge mistake. It took me a while to open my eyes!

I love this Melchior & Balthazar Argan Oil, as it takes my legs back to their erstwhile youth! I'm not kidding! This stuff is crazy. It makes my legs super duper smooth and velvety again. I can't believe it. I never thought my legs can feel that way!

Buuut are you ready for the price tag?

You're gonna love this! Avon recently released new products under the Avon Naturals line: the Shakes Body Lotions and the Antibacterial Hand Gels. In a nutshell, these new products smell AMAZING and feel so good on skin, too. 

The Avon Naturals Shakes Body Lotion (P185/150ml) is housed in what looks like a milk bottle. I really love the design as well as the print because they look so expensive and classy. Packaging aside, the lotion itself is uber creamy, non-greasy, and smells so wonderful. It feels luxe when you spread it on, but the rich cream is surprisingly easily absorbed.

My favorite is the Pomegranate & Mango variant. It smells exactly as it says it does!

When I talked about the Vitacreme B12 Body Milk last July, I gotta admit that I gave it a so-so review. I liked it but it's something I can definitely live without. After using it consistently for eight months though, it has become an indispensable part of my skincare routine, and here's why!

First off, it's magical. Lol. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but it's kinda true! This is what I use whenever my skin is dry, dull, and lifeless.

At this point I can probably fill a small bath tub with body lotion. I'm not complaining though as long as the lotions I get to try are good ones, such as the latest Avon Skin So Soft Lotion in Signature Silk Resplenishing Body Lotion (P290).

Signature Silk is non-greasy, gets absorbed quickly, and smells good - as with most Avon Skin So Soft lotions. It has a subtle floral fruity scent (do I detect a hint of watermelon?) that's quite soft and pleasant.

It's 2 am as I'm writing this. I am starting this week with a feeling of anticipation, mixed with a healthy dose of dread - I'm going to need a lot of patience and energy to get through it! Today, Monday, is going to be dedicated to meetings so I need to finish my tasks as early as humanly possible!

So anyway, let's talk about moisturizers (again). Body moisturizers don't need to do a lot of things to impress me. I just require three things: that it moisturizes, feels comfortable, and smells good but not overwhelming. One product that I am loving right now is the Nivea Express Hydration Body Lotion because it delivers these three requirements exceptionally well. I am pleasantly surprised because it's unlike the other Nivea lotions I've tried before!

Texture and feel. The Nivea Express Hydration is, hands down, the lightest body lotion I've tried to date. It's watery and absorbs almost immediately on skin without any sticky or greasy residue. It doesn't feel "thick" even when it's super hot and I'm all sweaty. Plus plus plus points - I can't stand greasy lotion.

You'll remember that I liked the Nivea UV Protection Body Lotion because of its lightness compared to other Nivea lotions. Well, the Express Hydration is considerably lighter than UV Protection!

Fluffy, watery texture

I declare this week as impromptu Body Lotion Week! Yes, I have slowly but steadily accumulated body lotions and moisturizers these past few months. I am not complaining, but I can be stubborn when it comes to this type of product! I stick to only a couple of favorites until they run out - that's the only time I consider trying something new, and even then, I usually just stick to my good ol' best friends.

But these latest products need to be reviewed, hence the relative deluge of body moisturizers lately. The next in the series will be two products from Nivea: the UV Protection Body Lotion and Extra Whitening Inner Cell Repair Body Milk.

The Nivea UV Protection Body Lotion does not claim a specific SPF number, but it can help ward off some of the UVA and UVB rays that can cause skin stress/damage and accelerated aging. It's really more of a daily sun protection product than a heavy duty sun care thing. Nivea has a different line for that. 

I like the scent of this one - it's not too strong, and has a bit of jasmine mixed with the powdery smell.

These days, there are a ton of products old and new in the market that it can sometimes get confusing for an average consumer to find something worth buying. There's also a deluge of enticing promises that can get us off kilter once we're in a department store - it's more difficult when there are actually good products that deliver. So how should we deal with it? 

The best way to go about is to find out for yourself what you need exactly. What are your skin concerns, if any? Dry skin? Blemishes? Eyebags? Oily lids? Chapped lips or do you just need something moisturizing with SPF? Once you have your needs specified and in order, you can start choosing the products that can help you. Believe me, there is probably something for whatever beauty concern you might have! You just need to do some prioritizing and research.

Now I've put that thought bubble out there, I'd like to talk about an institution in the world of body moisturizers. The Body Shop Body Butters (P695) have been around since the 80's and has consistently been the brand's best-selling line. It's not surprising, really, since there is something that sets these Body Butters apart from all the others: the scent. 

It's a given that these body moisturizers are moisturizing, but their scent is quite unique, and not in a fake chemical way. If the cap says Cherry, it will probably smell like cherry. If it says Pink Grapefruit, you can reasonably expect grapefruit wafting from the creamy lotion. The scent can be overpowering when you start applying it, but it mellows down into something softer after a couple of hours.

Vitacreme B12 is a relatively new skincare brand here in the Philippines, but I hear that it's been making a name for itself since 2006. The Vitacreme B12 Regenerative Cream is popular in Asia and the US, with users claiming that it moisturized and evened out their faces pretty well.

Nonetheless, when the brand contacted me for a review, I requested to the Vitacreme B12 Body Milk (P2,495) instead. I have too many face moisturizers as it is! Anyway, I've been looking for info about the body milk online with little success; the product packaging doesn't help much in specifying what it actually does. I did find a useful product description on Sasa.com:

It corrects the skin suffering from fatigue, dehydration, aging or dullness.

It enhances skin’s resilience and firmness.

It prevents premature wrinkling.

It smoothes away fine lines and wrinkles.