Bath & Body and Beauty Tools: Even More Favorites 2016

Here’s the last installment of my 2016 Favorites: Bath & Body and Beauty Tools, two categories where it was hard to narrow down the leading contenders, but I did!

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Bath & Body

I am a big fan of bath and body products and I use a lot of them all the time. Here are my 2016 favorites:

Good Earth Beauty Lavender Vanilla Body Scrub and Warm Vanilla Candy Body Butter: As I said in my post a couple of days ago, I was surprised at how fantastic these products are from natural and organic retailer, Good Earth Beauty. I actually forgot to mention in my Skincare Faves how much I love their Strawberry Lip Scrub: delicious and it really works! Both the Lavender Vanilla Body Scrub and the Warm Vanilla Candy Body Butter are rich, creamy and hydrating and they smell fabulous! Try out this terrific natural, cruelty-free brand!

The Body Shop Body Butter: I know The Body Shop’s Body Butter is a fan favorite and for good reason: it’s the best! Affordable (often on sale), hydrating with a host of great ingredients and terrific scents, you can’t lose with whichever one you go with. This year, I’ve tried Strawberry in the cute Holiday Bauble, Aloe, Japanese Cherry Blossom, and Wild Argan Oil. I love them all for different purposes. If you haven’t yet tried TBS Body Butter, you must.

Molton Brown Body Wash, Ylang Ylang scent: Jeff gave me this wonderful fragranced shower gel treat for Valentine’s Day, and I’ve been enjoying it all year. I had tried a couple of samples previously, and Ylang Ylang was my favorite. It reminds me of a scented fan that I bought in Chinatown in New York many years ago to bring with me on the subway before the trains were air conditioned (yes, I’m that old that I remembered subways cars with no air-conditioning!). This shower gel makes a fantastic, affordable luxury treat!

Rituals Sakura Body and Linen Spray: Last year I discovered Rituals wonderful Japanese Cherry Blossom scented shower foam, and I became an addict. Shopping at Barney’s during their beauty bag event this fall, I needed another item to reach the total and I noticed the Rituals cherry blossom fragrance. An absolutely lovely, light scent, Rituals Sakura is the perfect daytime scent for work or for anything. At night, it’s great to spray on your pillow to help relax you to sleep!

New Zealand Manuka Honey Hand Cream from Pacific Resources International: Hand cream, one of my favorites of the year? Why yes it is! I was so lucky to be sent three flat tubes of this efficacious but lightweight and greaseless hand cream made from New Zealand Manuka Honey known for its healing properties. I’ve just finished the second tube, and fortunately, I have one more to go. It’s sold on the PRI website, and it’s on sale now for $2.99 a tube – I hope they’re not discontinuing it! It’s a must try.

Farmhouse Fresh Body Oil Cilantro Citrus: I always want to love body oils, but much of the time the hydration they provide disappears quickly. Not so with Farmhouse Fresh’s Cilantro Citrus Body Oil. I get lasting softness plus it’s not greasy so it’s quick to use. I’m not usually a fan of “green” scents, but I do like the fresh scent of Cilantro Citrus (it also comes in a few other scents: Clementine, Wild Agave etc.).

La Vanila Natural Deodorant, Vanilla scent: I finally found a natural deodorant that works for me. I don’t perspire a lot like I did when I was younger, so this natural deodorant works well for me on all but the most hot and humid or seriously stressful days. I started off with the travel size, and I bought a full size in November. The full size stick, for some reason, is less stiff and much easier to apply than the travel size. That said, I suggest you buy this at a store like Sephora so you can return/exchange it if need be. My friend Kim recently asked me if the La Vanila Deo that she just bought should be so stiff and hard to apply, and I told her no and that she should send it back. I guess they vary – which is not a good thing, but I like this deodorant enough to put up with that. Buy it in the store, open it up and try it and if it’s stiff ask for another one instead.

Beauty Tools

This was the year I was introduced to Beauty Junkees. Wow, it changed my beauty tools collection for the better! Beauty Junkees Makeup Brushes: I have several Beauty Junkees Makeup Brush sets: Travel set, Kabuki brush set, Contour & Highlighting set, Eye Makeup set, and I love them all. The brushes are so soft and densely packed. I never get any shedding either. I honestly don’t know how they can provide the quality that they do for the affordable price that they sell their brushes for. I also have a complete set of Beauty Junkees Pro Makeup Blending Sponges, and truth be told, I prefer these to the much, much pricier Beauty Blender. They are softer, I like the different shapes and angles, and they are so much easier to clean. As you can see I am loving the blue one to death, lol.

I have a 25% off discount code for Beauty Junkees that’s good till early January 7, 2017: NEVERSAY that makes their already affordable prices even better. Don’t resist. You won’t be sorry.

Japonesque Heated Lash Curler: I think this little tool was my beauty tool discovery of the year! I can’t tell you what a difference it makes in curling my long straight lashes. It’s the only heated lash curler that I’ve ever tried so I can’t compare it to any other brand, but compared with my trusty manual Shiseido Lash Curler, there’s no contest: Japonesque Heated Lash Curler wins hands down. It doesn’t get nearly hot enough to burn me (in fact, I wish it got just a bit hotter!), so you don’t have to worry about that. Heck, you can buy the Japonesque Heated Lash Curler here for $7.99. Just get one.

Foreo Luna Electronic Cleansing Device: A blogger friend was so generous to give me one of her extra Foreo Luna electronic cleansing devices last February. Wow, do I love this cleansing device! It is much softer on my sensitive skin than an electronic cleansing brush with a regular brush head. One side has plastic cleansing “bristles”, and the other side has massaging ridges. I really enjoy using it. If you don’t have a Foreo, it’s worth buying. They’re on sale a few times a year (plus the Sephora sale events) so keep your eyes peeled for sales.

ViaBuff Exfoliators: I got to try out a face and a body size exfoliator from ViaBuff. I ended up liking them a lot. Sometimes it’s much easier to reach for the ViaBuff Exfoliator than to use an exfoliating mask or a body scrub. From a marketing perspective, the company needs to figure out how to add their name to the exfoliators once you remove the tag. I could not remember what the brand was and it took me about 20 minutes to search my blog for the brand name. Anyway, they are both handy little beauty tools.

Erase e60 Epilator Dual Opposed Head Epilator from Emjoi: For a year and a half, I’ve been using Emjoi’s EpiSlim travel size epilator, and I really like it. But a few weeks ago, I got the “grown-up” version with two epilator heads, the Erase e60. I haven’t had a chance to do a full review yet. This more powerful version makes a big difference: faster and less pinching. Yay! Stay tuned for my review coming soon.

So that’s it for my 2016 faves! Do you have a favorite bath & body product or beauty tool that you loved in 2016?

Allison Cohen

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