Review: Adventuress Skin Purifier

A new skin care line for me, Adventuress Vividly Restorative Skin Purifier has key ingredients like quince extract, willow bark, orange, lemon and olive leaf and sugar maple.
It is fragrance and paraben free. The pump dispenser is airless to keep out contaminants.
Skin Purifier "decongests" stressed out skin and reduces breakouts while adding micronutrients to replenish skin cells.
Apply it to clean skin, dry skin and feel the difference it makes. It not only hydrates but cleans pores, too. And we all know what blocked pores will do to your skin!
I like the way it glides on and while it is drying I can feel my pores tighten..my skin looks and feels smooth. My mineral foundation glides on and I look "fresh faced". I love this product. You can use it whenever you want during the day or night, but my favorite application is before applying make up in the morning.
Wow, makes my face beam!!
You can buy Skin Purifier or any of the other products in the Adventuress line by visiting their website at:  goadventuress.com.

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

Bartholomew Neil is a forty year old man, that has never held a job and has lived with his mom all his life. I guess that was his job, taking care of his mom. They went to church, ate, shopped, watched TV...always together. His father, according to his mother, went out one night and was abducted & killed by the KKK, because he was Catholic. It was never in the paper and killers were never found…body not found either. He is in love with the girl at the library, the girlbrarian, but of course he will never speak up and let her know.
His mom dies of cancer.
All the arrangements and expenses were paid, as were Bart's home expenses..he didn't know how ..maybe his mom paid in advance?
While going through his mother's things, he found a letter that she had received from the actor Richard Gere, thanking her for boycotting the Olympics in 2008. His mother was a great pretender and Bart figures his mom realized this was just a form letter but she had kept it for five years, pretending that R.G. had sent it to her personally. He then sits down and writes a letter to Richard Gere, letting him know his mom had kept that letter for five years…this was  the first letter of many.
Bartholomew's life unfolds in the letters he sends to R.G. and you soon realize that Bart has some mental & emotional issues. He seeks help from the church , as he and his mom always had , and lo and behold he comes home to find Father McNamee on the front porch..
I will leave the story there. This is a great book, I really enjoyed it. Full of imperfect human beings.
From first page to last, a gem.
FYI: Matthew Quick also wrote Silver Linings Playbook :)

Miss Anne in Harlem by Carla Kaplan

When I saw this book on the review list and read the little synop, I thought how interesting. This is something that I never had heard of and I am fascinated with the women of the 1920-30’s..thank you, Downtown Abbey.  Women started to come into their own during those times and it wasn’t easy. So many obstacles, and yet these white women took on even more as they made their way into the lives of black men and women. Intriguing.

First off, it is a big, thick book full of history. Also, you should know that “Miss Anne” is just a name that was given to white women who got involved in black politics, art and philanthropy during the twenties & thirties.

Kaplan gives us history behind several of these women, one of which was Nancy Cunard, heiress to the steamship company wealth.  Another Josephine Schuyler was the daughter of a Klansman and wife to journalist George Schuyler, who was black.

These women lent their money and time and in some cases notoriety to black causes. They seemed full of good intentions but were they taken seriously? Not always according to Kaplan.  Some were viewed as agitators, some as women who were sexually deviant. 

This book, a history book really, was so full of information that it took me a while to read it. If you are looking for some mind-ful stimulation this winter as we get “stuck inside” by the weather, try this one.                                                                                                                                    

authentic skin REMEDIES

I have been sampling a new skin care line called  authentic skin REMEDIES.  Seven products in all , all very easy to understand and use….all great products made from minerals, plant extracts and vitamins.

 I started the process by using one of the products at night, called ENRICH. (I told you they were easy to understand) I was told by a skin care expert that serums were where I should be spending my money at my age, so I am always interested to try a new one. Applied at night,  washed it off in the morning with REFINE, which is a natural exfoliant.. My skin was very supple and  smooth ..no dry spots. SOOTHE is a cooling masque, very nice after exfoliating. REPLENISH is a masque with moisturizers to hydrate and nourish.  Plumped my skin, fine lines disappeared.  

CLEANSE is a gel , which gently cleanses without leaving skin dry.  Leaves the skin ready to absorb moisturizer, RENEW.

I think my favorite product is BALANCE. It is a sea water mineral mist that you can refresh your skin and hair with. You can use it before you apply serum or moisturizers but I like to spritze it mid-day while I am at the office.  It refreshes and gives me a lift  at the time of day that I need one!!

All in all great new line , great new products.

Please check out their website www.authenticskin.com for more information.

Time Warped by Claudia Hammond

As I have mentioned before, I read alot of fiction, but every once in a while I like to throw in a book of science or a biography, a memoir, something to shake things up. Time Warped is just what I needed.
Throw out all your ideas about what time is..this book will clear up plenty of misconceptions.
Why does life speed up as we get older? Why does the clock in our head sometimes move at a different speed from the one on the wall? We have all heard the old adage, a watched pot never boils..and it is true. Waiting in line 'takes forever" , waiting for a train to pass..same. We all have had these feelings about time, why do we? Can we retrain our brain to improve our relationship with time.
A couple of interesting things I learned by reading Hammond's book..1) that there is no organ in our body that keeps time. 2) That there is a species of Hummingbird that can accurately time a flowers replenishment of nectar/ which is  every 20 minutes. Amazing.

Loved the chapter about why time speeds up as we get older.  i.e.: While a week with nothing planned stretches ahead of you if you are eleven and it is summer vacation...as an adult, in the hopes of redecorating your house and before you are even halfway through, the week has rushed past.
Time has an impact on memory, memory shapes our experience of time. To make sense of our memories we rely on time  to link us to events , and develop a timeline. What intrigues Hammond about the sensation of time speeding up is that it is something we often discuss, but to which we never seem to become accustomed.
If you are looking for something just plain interesting to read, this is the book!

At the Bottom of Everything by Ben Dolnick

A very well written novel, At the Bottom of Everything is the first book by this author that I have read. In the beginning it looks like a story about a junior high/high school friendship, Adam & Tom, kids that became very close. Adam comes from a broken home, has a new stepdad. Tom comes from intellectual parents, just the sort that Adam relishes. So Adam starts spending all his time at the Pells' with Tom, two peas in a pod, more like brothers. Basically two good teenage boys, learning about girls, getting into very little mischief. Adam is the more social of the two and when he gets into sports and starts hanging with different kids, the friendship starts to fade.
One night trying to recapture the friendship, the two are involved in an accident that will change their lives forever. A guilty secret that they keep, decides which way these two lives will move forward, on separate paths.
Tom Pell heads into a spiral of mental illness, Adam Sanecki's life just never gets on track. A chance meeting with Pell's parents sets Adam on a journey to India in a search for his lost  friend. 
A very intricate tale is woven by author Dolnick. Is it guilt from the secret that has directed these two lives, the lives of Pell's parents, as well? What a person will go through to keep another from revealing a devastating secret..is this the motive for Adam? The last few chapters of this book are fast paced and written so that the reader can feel the panic build...and you do. At the Bottom of Everything..good read. 

SPA SONIC SKIN CARE SYSTEM FACE & BODY POLISHER

Have you ever seen the info-mercials with a certain soap star toting her micro-dermabrasion skin care system? Her skin is lovely  and I want to try it but just couldn't get up the nerve. Something about putting those rough looking crystals on a buffer and going to town on my face just didn't appeal to me, no matter how good she looked. 
But for the last couple of weeks, I've had the chance to try the Spa Sonic  Skin Care System and let me tell you there is nothing rough about it! The brushes are as soft as a baby's..well you get the idea :)
The brush head has four attachments: a small brush for face, a larger brush for body, a pumice (this I love for my feet!) and a facial sponge for smoothing on lotions. 
I brought it right into the shower with me, used the facial brush with my regular face cleanser, loved using the soapy soft body brush on my legs before shaving, loved-loved the pumice on my feet. When I got out of the shower, I just wiped it all down and put it back in the box. 
I can honestly say that my skin looked polished and shiny clean but didn't feel dry. Being able to use my regular skin care products is a big plus. My moisturizers absorbed sooo fast, I could start my make up right away. 
The price is right  and it is convenient to find. It is retailing for $60.00 and you can buy it at Target, Walgreens or online at www.drugstore.com. It is available in white, pink, and lavender..comes with a battery pack AND two facial brushes. 
A winner!