Winter Has Arriived....And so has dry, itchy skin

Beauty Wonkette is a child of the Mediterranean.  Translation:  Beauty Wonkette has pretty oily skin.  But, even with a humidifier running, the dry air that heats both her home and office makes for itchy, sometimes downright ashy, (body) skin.  Beauty Wonkette cannot walk around scratching like a monkey.  Nope.  BW refuses to live with winter itchiness.

“A body conditioner works just like a hair conditioner, but on your body,” reads the label on Lush’s body conditioner, African Paradise. Translation: This is the product you need if you cannot live with skin dryness. It's heavy-duty stuff. 

BW approached African Paradise as if it were a hair conditioner and rubbed on a handful after a shower. It smelled nutty, like melted chocolate — a result of the cocoa and shea butter rounding out the ingredients list. Other oils, including almond, moringa, and baobab, make the conditioner into a moisturizing magnet. I let it sit on my skin for about a minute (the directions don’t indicate how long you should wait), and then rinsed. It left a residue on my skin that eventually disappeared to make way for softer, smoother skin.

African Paradise won’t replace a body cream (it's not as moisturizing by itself, due to the required rinse), but it's a helpful intermediary step that enhances a lotion or cream and makes it last longer. It's safe to say that this moisturizing mini-step just earned a permanent position in BW's skin-care routine.

African Paradise Body Conditioner, $39.95 at Lush.

A Bargain Shampoo That Cleanses Like a Pro

     Hello hello hello.  It's good to be back in the U.S. (mostly...hehe).  As Beauty Wonkette resumes posting, in order to keep things fresh, we occasionally use friends, family, and people we kidnap as LAB RATS.  It keeps things fresh.

     In this case, BW was assisted by her able VERY CURLY HEADED assistant to test this new shampoo.  BW could have used her own head, but BW wanted to try it on somebody who used ALOT of hair product for reasons that will soon be apparent.  She fit the bill better than BW.  So fellow Wonkettes.....

Here's the rub with curly, dry, or chemically treated hair: While moisturizers, masks, and oils keep dull and dehydrated hair at bay, they also leave a nasty coating of buildup on the scalp. This buildup, which often resembles greasy gray yogurt (fun!), inhibits hair growth, triggers flakes, and cramps any decent style. Hair Food's Root Cleansing Shampoo claims to wash away cakey buildup without drying hair. Seeing as how my Lab Rat's scalp has seen better (and clearer) days, Beauty Wonkette asked her to put the new shampoo to the test.

The root-cleansing shampoo has a gel texture and smells like a Kiwi-Strawberry Snapple. One pump and the shampoo grew into a mild lather that she used to scrape away a week's worth of products on her scalp. Considering that she says she usually needs to dump half a handful of shampoo on her head to cut through the curls, grease, and scalp scum, one small pump that lathered all over was a promising start. Where the shampoo really had an effect, however, was in the rinse. After washing the suds out , she reported that her hair felt clean, but not stripped. It takes a special kind of shampoo to remove excess residue without leaving hair feeling like it belongs on the backside of a horse. You could say that we were impressed.

In addition to removing buildup, the bottle of Hair Food's Root Cleansing Shampoo offers quite a few remarkable claims. For one, the shampoo is free of parabens, mineral oil, and silicone. The first two are believed to be linked to serious medical conditions, while the latter ingredient is said to damage hair over time. Silicone also impedes the cleansing abilities of shampoos. 

Hair Food Root Cleansing Shampoo, $9.99 at Target.