From The Beauty Brains Forum Member: Taiwanese Girl

I love peppermint. Christmas is great because everything from chocolate to lattes are peppermint flavored, and the world just smells nice and minty. Nothing gets me in a better mood than peppermint. With that being said, I was so ecstatic to find a box from KLEAN Bath and Body containing their Bath Syrup and Whipped Shea Butter in Peppermint Dream!!

Scentual experience

From their website, KLEAN B&B’s mission is to “share our gift of scentual discovery with others by providing luxurious and refreshing products that are high quality, competitively-priced, mostly natural, while pleasing the body, nose and spirit.” If you’ve read my previous review about natural/organic products, you’ll know that I’m not a huge fan. However, looking at the ingredient list and breakdown of each product provided on KLEAN B&B’s website, it seems that they choose to use chemicals extracted from plants, rather than synthesized chemicals. This is slightly different from Origin’s use of natural products, in that they are just using certain plant extracts, without defining exactly what chemical is in the extract. Anyhow, their main focus is on scent, and boy, one whiff of their products will completely relax you, taking your mind off things like chemistry, cosmetic ingredients, and your grocery list.

Bath time and biochemistry

Anyhow, since I don’t have access to a bath tub, I used the Bath Syrup as a shower gel, and it was one amazing and scentsual experience. The syrup foams up quickly, making lots of bubbles (micelles!! Trap oil!! Yay biochem and what little I remember of it!), so it cleans ya up properly. It’s not as moisturizing as I’d like it to be, but I have been spoiled by using Olay’s Body Wash with those moisturizing ribbons. The smell however, completely makes up for everything. That cool peppermint smell has a hint of vanilla in it, evoking memories of holiday parties with hot peppermint cocoa and candy canes.

Rich and dreamy

After the shower, I applied the Whipped Shea Butter all over, and boy, was it rich and dreamy. I love how moisturizing shea butter is, but sometimes I hate how thick it is, and how much work I have to put in just to get my skin to absorb it. This whipped version makes it much lighter, and it absorbs into my skin quickly, without leaving any grease afterwards. My skin just felt smooth, buttery, and well moisturized.

The only down side of the Peppermint Dream is that the peppermint oil used for the fragrance has a cooling effect, so if you are like me, living in an apartment without any heat sources and poor insulation, you would be a tad cold after applying the Whipped Shea Butter. Your body will eventually heat up again, but I do suggest snuggling inside a warm blanket or in front of a heater after you apply the Shea Butter.

Yummy!

Overall, KLEAN Bath and Body offers great products at a decent price (not quite drugstore, but certainly still affordable), and they totally fulfill their mission of providing us with a luxurious scentual discovery. I would love to try more of their Whipped Shea Butter in other scents, such as Fig, German Chocolate Cake (yummy), and Klean Kolada.
What do YOU think about Klean products? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread and talk to Taiwanese Girl directly in the Beauty Brains Forum. And if you’re interested in getting free goodies of your own, join the Forum now and show us you’ve got what it takes to be a Beauty Brainiac!

Nancy needs natural: I’m always looking for natural alternatives and I was wondering if Aveeno products are anything special? Is oatmeal really good for skin?

The Left Brain responds:

The answer to your question is a simple: Yes and no. No, Aveeno is not anything special and yes, oatmeal is really good for your skin. Let me explain.

All about Aveeno

I don’t mean to be too harsh about Aveeno. It’s a fine brand but there’s nothing particularly natural or special about it. If you look at the ingredients used in Aveeno products you’ll see they prominently feature a variety of “Avena Sativa (oat) Kernel” extracts. But you’ll also see typical cleansing and conditioning ingredients used in many skin care products. While Aveeno tries to distinguish itself by featuring oat protein, there’s really nothing functionally different about their formulas. They are very nice products but they’re not exceptionally natural.

Oats are ok!

But, and here’s the exciting part, researchers for the German company Symrise have recently synthesized and stabilized the active ingredient in oatmeal that really does help soothe skin. According to the Dermatology Times the active ingredient is an inhibitor of histamine called dihydroavenanthramide E. It’s chemically similar to the topical antihistamine Tranilast, which could explain its anti-itch properties. It can also be easily added to cosmetic creams and lotions. I’m not aware of any products using this new technology yet, but if the Beauty Brains become aware of any, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Rachel slyly says…Supposedly, Gwyneth Paltrow is using the Ultra Lux 9 lotion by Sonya Dakar with snake venom. This review of snake oil’s benefits and lack there of, reminded me of it. Here’s a story about Gwyneth P. using snake venom as well. I’m very curious about your reaction.

Left Brain’s biting reply..My reaction is that Gwyneth is nuts! It sounds absolutely crazy that someone would put poison on their skin in hopes of getting rid of wrinkles.

Of course, that is just my initial emotional reaction which isn’t exactly useful for making an objective judgment. Unfortunately, the Beauty Brains don’t have a bottle of the Ultra Lux 9 lotion to look at the ingredients, so this opinion isn’t definitive.

However, after scouring through the latest scientific literature what I found was alarming. According to these Brazilian researchers, exposure to snake venom from either rattlesnakes or vipers has the following effects…

“Besides hemorrhage, snake venom metalloproteinase induce local myonecrosis, skin damage, and inflammatory reaction in experimental models.”

I certainly wouldn’t suggest putting that on my face!

How much snake venom?

Granted, we don’t know what kind of snake venom they use in the product. Heck, we don’t even know if they use any! If they do, it would be used at such low levels that it wouldn’t cause a toxic reaction (or have any other effect for that matter). How much is a low level? It would be like putting a single eye drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Not even snake venom could hurt you at those low levels.

Why use snake venom in a skin product

You might wonder why they would put any snake venom in there at all. This is all about marketing. Pretty good marketing too as they got the New York Post, Style Dash, handbag.com, China Daily, Makeherup, a host of other beauty blogs, and now the Beauty Brains to talk about it. All this PR without a single dollar spent. Brilliant!

Of course, the reason people talk about it is because it’s something icky (snake venom), it’s “endorsed” by a celebrity, and it sounds plausible (people us botox right?) Well, rest assured Beauty Brainiacs this idea is just as crazy as it sounds.

Keep venom off your face and in the snake.

Valeri is vexed…Body wash can cost $4 or more. Some shampoos cost .66 to .99 cents. Is there that much of a difference between the two products to justify the price? I use the shampoo for body wash.

Left Brain’s bubbly reply…

Great question Valeri and an astute observation for even considering the possibility. The
truth is that shampoos and body washes are so similar that they can be used interchangeably. In fact, in the early days of body washes it was not uncommon for a company to take its shampoo formula, put it in a different bottle, change the label and call it a body wash.

Shampoo & Body Wash Similarities

Let’s look at some of the things that the two products have in common.

1. Water & detergent. Shampoos and body washes are designed to clean which means they’re mostly water and detergent. And for cleaning oil off of surfaces nothing beats surfactants. Body washes like Dove, Olay and Herbalessences all use Sodium Laureth Sulfate. This is the same surfactant that many shampoos use.

2. Fragrance & Color. No differences here. Body wash and shampoo use the same ingredients to make the product smell good and look pretty.

3. Conditioning ingredients. Since detergents can be a bit harsh, ingredients are added to improve the after-feel of hair and skin. Often body washes and shampoos use the same types of ingredients.

Shampoo & Body Wash Differences

While shampoos and body washes are quite similar there are some important differences.

1. Body wash uses less harsh detergents. Since skin is generally more sensitive than hair, body wash formulas are made with slightly less detergent and also less harsh detergents. The low cost shampoos use SLS or ALS which are excellent cleaners but can be drying to skin.

2. Different conditioning ingredients. Some of the ingredients that conditioner hair can also provide a nice feel on skin. However, many will not and this is often a key difference between shampoos & body washes.

A great comparison is to look at the list of ingredients of the Herbal Essences Body Wash versus their Shampoo.  See the similar ingredients?

Companies have actually picked up on the similarities.  In the Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash they show a guy washing his hair and body with the same product.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line

Shampoos clean and so do body washes. In general you’ll find it beneficial to use both a body wash and a shampoo. But there is really no reason you couldn’t use a shampoo to clean your entire body. If you use a daily moisturizer, then there is no need for a separate body wash.

Daisy`s in hot water: “I`m 18 years old and I usually spend about 25 minutes taking a long, hot shower. Can all that hot water be bad for my skin?” The Right Brain responds:

Yes, Daisy, it`s true that long, hot showers are not particularly good for your skin. In fact, according to University of Wisconsin’s Health Center, poor bathing habits may be the most common cause of dry skin! At your age your skin is less prone to dryness, but if you`re concerned here are some tips that should help:

4 Tips To Prevent Showers and Baths From Drying Out Your Skin

1. Don`t Be A Super-Soaker

Over exposure to water can remove natural oils from your skin, leaving it drier than it should be. The experts say you should only soak between 5 and 15 minutes if you want avoid drying out your skin.

2. Take Care With the Temperature

Hot water removes more oil from your skin that cool water because the heat can help dissolve oil. Also, if the water is too hot it can burn you. That sounds foolishly obvious when I put it that way, so let me say it again in science-speak: The transient heat transfer behavior in multi-layer tissues subjected to hot water can be predicted by the Pennes’ Bio-heat Equation. That sounds a little more credible, doesn`t it? (Seriously though, a water heater set over 120 degrees can be hot enough to burn you.)

3. Avoid Terrible Towel Trouble

Gently pat skin dry with a towel immediately after you get out of the tub. Don`t towel off vigorously because that can abrade your skin and increase the rate of moisture loss.

4. Lock in with Lotion

Moisturize after you bathe to lock out dryness. Use a body oil or a skin lotion containing a high oil concentration and apply it as soon as possible since the water left in your skin from the shower evaporates in about 15 minutes.