Review: KAZAM Natural Body Care Hand & Body Lotion (in Desire)

What They Say: "Created by Ms. Marjorie Moutari, the Kazam line of natural body care was a combination of 'travel and knowledge, experience and creative ideas for bath and body formulas to create a range of truly indulgent products to delight and soothe your body'. Only the finest ingredients nature has to offer goes into the making of our products, and specially selected for their skin nourishing qualities.

• RELAXING, NOURISHING, HYDRATING.
• RELIEVES DRYNESS TO WIND AND SUN DRIED SKIN.
• BOIS DE ROSE, YLANG, PALMAROSA, JASMINE, SANDALWOOD.
• ENCOURAGES SKIN RENEWAL AND TISSUE REGENERATION.
• A GREAT MOISTURIZER FOR MATURE SKIN

Ms. Moutari feels 'passionately about producing beautiful skin care without the use of harsh chemicals, parabensas, artificial preservatives and artificial fragrances.'”

What Lisa Says: Compared to other lotions I’ve tested, Kazam Hand and Body Lotion has to be near or at the top of my “Love it!” list. This product does everything it promises and a bit more. Whether applying just after the shower or mid-day this product sinks in almost immediately leaving an absolute trace of nothing on your skin – no waxiness, oiliness, nada! The only thing I was left with was visibly hydrated, soft, skin that lasted most of the day along with a lingering fragrance of ylang, sandalwood and jasmine. I did apply it twice daily but that’s all I needed. While the fragrance is lovely it is a bit stronger than most lotions but that’s part of the Kazam experience: nut butters, extracts and essential oils. Best of all, there was absolutely nothing on the label I couldn’t pronounce or wasn’t familiar with.

Retail Price: $10.00 (at Kazam Natural Body Care)

DeLush Rating:

Review: Gloves In a Bottle

What They Say: "Gloves in a Bottle is a shielding lotion that rapidly absorbs into, and bonds with, the outer layer of skin creating a protective layer while retaining the natural moisture from within. This makes it the perfect dry skin care product.

It does not wash off, but comes off naturally with exfoliated skin cells. Just reapply every four hours for continued protection.

It's greaseless, non-sticky, fragrance-free, hypoallergenic, completely safe and non-toxic.

Used and recommended daily for dry skin conditions by a wide range of healthcare professionals."

Melissa Says: This lotion, quite simply, does exactly what it says. I love the way it instantly makes my hands feel less dry, and then soaks in within a minute for a completely greaseless, non-sticky layer of protection. It only has a very slight scent (not unpleasant) which is barely noticeable, so I think those who are sensitive to smells should be able to wear this and not worry about lingering fragrance. Also, the bottle is generously-sized and should last for several weeks or months, depending on your use.

Retail Price: $12.95 for 8 oz. (at glovesinabottle.com or go here for store locations in the U.S. and Canada)

DeLush Rating:

Review: Nuxe Hand and Nail Cream

What They Say: "This ultra-nourishing yet non-greasy cream brings damaged hands and nails a rich complex of powerful repairing, revitalizing and fortifying ingredients.

Product Details:
Sumptuously creamy, it absorbs instantly to leave hands soft, soothed and protected with fortified nails."

Jen's Experience: I don't use a lot of hand cream, mostly because my hands aren't usually as dry as the rest of my skin, and I hate it when my hands feel greasy. But, since I recently took a really long plane ride, I threw this in my carry-on, knowing it would come in handy. And it did. It definitely fixed the dry skin I got from the stale airplane air without making my hand greasy feeling. I also really liked the subtle, nutty scent. Now that I'm back home, I still have it in my bag and I find that I use it quite a bit. Now, it's not that I need a hand cream, I just love the way it feels on my skin.

Retail Price: $19.00 (SpaLook.com)

Rating:

Review: Freeman Bare Hands Cucumber & Water Lilly Deep Hydrating Hand & Elbow Butter AND Grapefruit & Honeysuckle Skin Firming Hand Lotion

About the deep hydrating hand & elbow butter: This thick, rich cream, with botanical extracts of cucumber and water lily, provides concentrated hydration and seals in moisture, leaving skin soft and smooth.

* Deep hydrating
* Ultra rich for extra-dry skin

Lisa’s Experience: Freeman’s has a winner in this truly deep hydrating product! Whether it’s hands, elbows, knees or feet, I put this butter on any extra dry and rough spot on my body and was excited to see this product deliver. The fragrance is more green than floral and while it seems strong at first, within minutes it’s soft and mute. Some days I’d forego perfume and just enjoy the fragrance that, despite the chill, reminds me of spring. The thick, white butter sinks in quickly without leaving any greasy or waxy feeling. Within days I noticed a distinct difference in my elbows hands and, though Freeman has some excellent foot products, I did use this on my dry winter feet and they were smooth and hydrated within a week. It’s great after a nice warm bath/shower.

About bare hands skin firming hand lotion: "Enriched with extracts of grapefruit and honeysuckle, this moisturizing, non-greasy lotion absorbs quickly and
smoothes fine lines, noticeably improving skin tone
and texture. Leaves hands silky smooth.

* Moisturizes
* Evens out skin tone and firms"

Lisa’s experience: This is my favorite of the two Bare Hands products. First of all I have always loved the scent of fresh grapefruit and it was a perfect combo to go with the honeysuckle. The hand lotion turned out to be more of an every day (or several times a day) product for me and not only for the fragrance. My skin felt like silk after each application. My hands stay wet or moist much of the day at work and tend to become dry and a little scratchy. This lotion knocked that out in days! Even my husband commented on how smooth my hands were and that’s saying a lot. He rarely notices things like that. As far as the firming, I haven’t noticed as much of that as I have the evening out of skin tone. During the time that I was testing this product I was nursing a nasty burn on the top of my left hand. After using this cream there’s barely a scar. I’m definitely impressed!

A tidbit about grapefruit: According to Alan B. Hirsch of the Smell & Taste Research Foundation in Chicago, "In the presence of the smell of pink grapefruit, women appear to be six years younger than their real age," says Hirsch.

Retail Price: $3.99 for each (Freemanbeauty.com or at drugstores and superstores everywhere) – you can’t find a better beauty bargain!

Delush Ratings:
Hand and Elbow Butter
Skin Firming Hand Lotion

Review: Suki Mini Skin Care Set

What They Say: "Everything you need to try 8 of our 100% natural, holistic skin care products or give as a sensual, healthful gift! This mini kit is an antioxidant blend for those with normal to dry, fragile, or combination skin in winter months or going through a dry phase.

Inside:
Comes with exfoliating lemongrass cleanser, moisture-rich cleansing lotion, concentrated facial toner-shitake, facial moisture serum-carrot, complexion brighteining cream, delicate mositure body oil, hand & body velvet creme, & hand & body butter creme."

Jen's Experience: Let me just start by saying that I haven't been as excited about skin care since I tried Sevi cosmetics a few months back. This little mini-care set let's you try out (and fall in love with) several of Suki's products.

The exfoliating lemongrass cleanser smells fantastic in addition to being perhaps the best exfoliating cleanser I've ever used. The grains are large and seemed rough at first, but rubbed in gently do wonders. The grains are mixed in with a soap that effectively removes all the make-up on my face. I've been using this a few days a week. On other days, I use the moisture-rich cleansing lotion, which is much gentler and feels like a soothing lotion on my face. After both cleansers, I used the facial toner to remove the last traces of make-up and cleanser (although I rarely see any make-up on the cotton pad since the cleansers work so well). Sadly, I ran out of the toner quickly since you need to use quite a bit each time.

After cleansing, I have been using the carrot facial serum, which is an oil that smells (unsurprisingly) like carrots. Although the smell is a bit sweet and strong, the product itself is great for replenishing the moisture from my skin. It sinks in quickly but makes my skin look moisturized and radiant right after I use it. I follow the facial serum with the complexion brightening cream, which feels so good on my face. With all of the other products in the set, it's hard to determine if this product truly makes my complexion brighter, but between the cleansing and the moisturizing products, the result is that my skin looks the best it's looked in ages.

I've also been using the body products on occasion, but I wasn't able to get as much use out of them. The packet of hand and body cream was so tiny that in one use I was just able to get my elbows and ankles (which felt great that day as a result). The body oil was gone in just two uses, but it did a fantastic job of making my pale white legs at least look well-moisturized here in the middle of winter. I used the velvet cream mostly on my hands and got a lot more uses out of that. I liked it because it wasn't greasy and moisturized well without leaving my hands slick.

If you want to skip the mini-kit and go right for the products, I thought the lemon-grass exfoliator and the carrot facial serum are real standouts, but I think the entire spectrum of products work so well together that I hesitate to recommend buying just a few.

Overall, this is a great kit to test out the Suki products (most of them lasted about 2 weeks). It would be a fantastic travel kit, particularly for the facial products. I wish, actually, that instead of including the hand and body products that they'd made the facial toner vial a lot larger and included some daytime moisturizer with sun protection and an eye cream. I really can't complain, though. These products are totally top-notch and I am uber-impressed with this company.

Retail Price: $22.50 (SukiNaturals.com)

Rating:

Noah's Naturals Honest to Goodness Natural Starter Kit

"Noah's Naturals is family of organic beauty care brands offering luxurious formulas with indulgent fragrances that are all good! Our products are made with high quality naturally organic ingredients, such as herbs, essential oils and emollients that will make you look good and feel good inside and out! Noah's Naturals NEVER TESTS ON ANIMALS.

Each product is formulated with natural ingredients and essential oils to provide you the best quality products available to the mass market. Our products DO NOT contain - Parabens, Propylene Glycol, Artificial Colors, Petroleum, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Simply a clean, fresh and exhilarating experience that’s all good for you (and the Earth)! Available online at www.noahsnaturals.com and select Walmart stores nationwide."

Jen's Experience: The starter kit contains just a few of the products in the Honest to Goodness product line: the Peppermint Lip Balm, Grapefruit Body Lotion, Foot Cream, Hand Salve/Cream and Cuticle Cream. Some of these products I really liked, others weren't really my thing.

The Grapefruit body lotion reminds me a lot of the Kiss My Face Rosemary Grapefruit lotion that I tried last year. The scent is citrusy and light. It lingers, but it isn't unpleasant. When I put this on after my bath at night, I can still feel the coverage on my legs when I get up in the morning, and that's a good thing to me.

I had a similar experience with the foot cream. Although the scent wasn't as nice as the body lotion, the coverage was similar. After a few days of use, it actually seemed to have softened up the calluses on my feet, which is quite amazing. I am not normally a big fan of foot creams, but I really liked this particular product.

The other product in the set that I really got a lot of use of is the Peppermint Lip Balm. Although this isn't as effective as the Sevi Javabean Lip Balm I used a few weeks ago, a few swipes throughout the day were fairly effective in fighting off the chapped lips I normally get at this time of year.

I can't say I got a lot of use out of the hand salve and cuticle cream. I tried, but hard, waxy moisturizers are not my thing. If you like the hand salve and cuticle cream that Burt's Bee's makes, I think you'll find these products to be right up your alley. For me, they just weren't appealing.

The set, overall, makes me curious about the line, but I wish they'd included some facial moisturizer or the shampoo and conditioner rather than the hand and cuticle creams. I also thought the sizes for the body moisturizer and foot cream, clearly the stars of the set, were small for the price. I give a big thumbs up to Noah's Naturals for creating a line of products that's all natural, not tested on animals, and way less expensive than a lot of the competition. After using this set, I would definitely give their moisturizers some space on my bathroom shelves, and I'm inclined to try some of their other products as well.

Retail Price: $14.34 (NoahsNaturals.com or Wal-Mart)

Rating:

Fall Product Review: Jo Malone Vitamin E Nourishing Hand Treatment

What They Say: "Rich and sumptuous to the touch, Vitamin E Nourishing Hand Treatment conditions the skin while providing formidable environmental protection. A hint of pomelo and cassis leave skin deliciously scented."

Jen's Experience: I have never really gotten into hand creams. My hands aren't that dry, and I hate for them to feel all goopy. But, for this one, I will make an exception. For one, it doesn't leave my hands feeling greasy. It soaks in really quickly, which may not make for the best long-wear moisturizer, but I think it helps to be able to use it more frequently (like when you don't want to stand around and wait for the slickness to die down so that you can type or whatever). The other great part about this is that the scent is amazing. I can't stop putting it on just so I can smell my hands. Anyway, this may just make me want to start wearing hand cream, but it definitely makes me want to check out more the Jo Malone collection if ev everything smells this awesome.

Retail Price: $40.00 (JoMalone.com)

Rating:

Review: Arbonne Intelligence Hand Cream and Herbal Foot Cream

What They Say: (about the Hand Cream) "Get a grip on dry hands with this thick, rich, hand treatment formula that is blended with key anti-aging elements. It moisturizes skin while reducing the visible signs of aging on hands." (about the Herbal Foot Cream) "Walk away feeling refreshed with this stimulating and soothing, non-greasy herbal foot care formula. It’s blended with alpha hydroxy acids to help keep feet soft and supple."

Melissa's DeLush Downlow: (about the Hand Cream) With a very subtle fragrance that won't say to the world "I just put on hand lotion, can you smell it?!?", this formula provides light, non-greasy softness that soaks into the skin right away and feels like it seals in moisture. (about the Herbal Foot Cream) Also a light, quickly-absorbing formula that has a fresh scent. I love that it's non-greasy but I do think I'd like it to be a little more intensive.

Retail Prices: Hand Cream $14.00, Herbal Foot Cream $16.00 (available from you Arbonne representative...DeLush got our samples from Shelley Belin at sbelin@houston.rr.com - Thanks Shelley!)

DeLush Rating: Arbonne Intelligence Hand Cream
Arbonne Intelligence Herbal Foot Cream