Garnier Skin Renew Clinical Dark Spot Corrector

A few years back I become completely obsessed with Garnier Skincare. Imagine the smell of their hair products dialed down for the skin. It's amazing. I absolutely love the slight fruity scent of everything in the line. It's light so it won't irritate even sensitive skin like mine. I had absolutely no stinging from the scent whatsoever, pretty rare in the winter months for a girl like me.

Now that summer is over (I know, wahhhhh) it's time to repair any damage you might have done to your skin. I know for me it's all about rehydrating before the dip in temperature leaves me a dry mess. When I was younger I didn't have this problem, now that my skin is dry year round I'm kinda wishing my biggest issue was a severe case of the greasies in the summer.

If you didn't fully protect yourself this summer you may be paying the price with dark spots that seemed to crop up from nowhere. Garnier Skincare definitely has you covered with their Clinical Dark Spot Correcter. I'm happy to report that I don't need this one this year, my skin is actually pretty even toned although I have a few freckles year round that I happen to love.

If you want to lighten the dark spots without stripping your skin this is the product for you. Using the power of antioxidant Vitamin C it breaks up bigger spots until they've faded completely. As usual make sure to wear SPF coverage during the day to keep those spots from returning.

I've had such great success with some of the products in the line that I'm mourning them now that they've been discontinued. Hopefully you'll see a post on that fairly soon.

What do you think, freckles hot or not? Opinions always welcome.

Peter Thomas Roth Bronze Instant Mineral SPF 30

It's the weekend again thankfully! The weather has been pretty hit or miss around here lately but I'm really hoping for a nice cool weekend for me. Don't get me wrong I love the sunny weather but I'm not a fan of the beaches and parks on the weekend when they are crammed with a lot of the sketchy folks who seem to congregate there. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good day to hit my favorite beach/park/boat launch for a little final editing of my novel, Scrambled Greg! I'm so excited to be done with it and share a little bit with you!

If you are out and about today I know you wanna look your best and what better way to do that in the summer months than with a little bronzer? Bronzer and I didn't really get along in the past but now that the market has picked up for them there are a lot of choices out there for people of every skintone.

I love multitasking products and I have to say there's nothing better than SPF in makeup items, except maybe SPF products that double as beauty products. With these you know that you're going to be wearing enough to get adequate coverage unlike many added SPFs in foundation and powder products. Did you know that you'd have to use significantly more foundation just to get HALF of the UV coverage the SPF on the bottle claims. I use these products as an extra layer of protection, not my only means!

Peter Thomas Roth Bronze Instant Mineral SPF 30 is a great product to actually get your SPF requirement with. Though I haven't tried the bronzed formula I did quite enjoy Instant Mineral. It's a little pricey for me at $35 but it would be great for people who don't enjoy the feel of sunscreen on the skin or who want a little bronze with their protection.

This one comes in brush-topped container so it makes it really easy to just swipe on. In the past I've had issues with these kinds of brush applicators but I know there has been a lot of improvement in the area as more products have started using this type of topper. Just be warned! The adjustable dial means that you can up the color of the bronzer if you've faked baked recently or dial it down when you want a more subtle look.

I feel I must also mention that many people reviewing the product on Sephora.com had issues with the cover falling off. This probably isn't the best product to travel with and I know from plenty of bad experiences that I don't want to travel with loose powder period. I think that's just a matter of my personal preference since I'm a klutz but I thought you should know.

Mary Kay Tinted Lip Balm

It's the weekend!!! That means it's time to talk about suncare products. I hope you're out enjoying this wonderful weather and having a good time. As much as I know you're having fun I bet a few of you aren't protecting yourselves in the way you should. How about that SPF, applying every 2 hours? I hope so. I also hope you're protecting your lips.

If you're anything like me and like to wear lipgloss on a daily basis you're probably doing more harm than good to your poor lips this time of year. The gloss attracts the sun to your lips and actually causes them to burn faster than they would if they were naked. Fact! You know when you're on a boat or chillaxin' in a lake and you end up 10x more sunburned than you would if you were on dry land? It's the same deal. The water reflects the sunlight back onto you and gloss does the same thing for your lips. Who knew?

Now if you want to protect them I highly suggest getting a lipbalm or lipstick with SPF. Make sure you're going to use enough to actually protect yourself and reapply when your lips no longer feel hydrated. Not only does the sun burn and age your lips but it can seriously dry them out. But how can we go without color on our lips all weekend, Jaime? I can hear it now! I've got your solution, Mary Kay Tinted Lip Balm SPF 15.

Wait, I can read your mind again, Mary Kay, Jaime? Really? Really! Mary Kay might be your mother's overpriced favorite but us Generation Y-ers are more apt to spend our hard earned money on Urban Decay and Tarte at Sephora! I've actually tried these lip balms and they are great. They're available in 5 colors, all which are more pigmented than you'd expect in a lip balm. They retail for $13 and come in a MAC Slimshine-like package(mine was a sample), thin tall tubes instead of short chubby ones we're used to for balms, so make sure you keep this one cool or it's going to melt all over you and possibly scald your lips when you apply. Bonus, this one smells a lot like MAC lipglass, the cupcake-esque vanilla smell.

I tried Blush and Poppy, two totally different shades. Blush is a brownish rose shade. It's not the color I make when I blush nor the color of any blushes I own but still, I can see why they named it that, it's not that much of a stretch. Poppy is a bright pink, exactly what you'd expect from the name. Take a look (Blush on top, Poppy on bottom)

This is a lighter swatch, equivalent to one coat.

This is a couple coats.

The best part about these is the way they fade. Since they're so pigmented I figured I'd be left with a big ring of color around my lips and a faded center but that wasn't the case with these. They faded into a stain which looked awesome on. Once they were no longer moist to the touch you could conceivably add another layer of your regular balm on top, hopefully another one with SPF.

StriVectin SH Age Protect SPF 30

Surely, you've ignored StriVectin ads in the past, they're pretty nondescript and the packaging is nothing to write home about but the products... well, those are amazing. I recently had the luck to try out a StriVectin product and I loved it so I'm really looking out for you with the company's new release, SH Age Protect SPF 30.

This one is a light formula sunscreen that protects against UVB rays with SPF 30, those are the ones that cause you to burn (just remember B=burn) and UVA rays that cause aging (A=aging) with PA+++. It's oil-free and lightweight so you won't feel it on your skin in a slimy layer come the middle of the day, I HATE that. It's so light in fact that they actually recommend layering it over other skincare products.

While SPF 30 is great I think for my fair skin I'd want to use another product with sunscreen for added protection like foundation (mineral or otherwise) or my regular sunblock spray. I know new regulations mean SPF 30 is the highest that bottles are allowed to say (starting next year), I'm not sure how I feel about that. Personally SPF 30 hasn't been enough for me in the past, I hope the backlash doesn't leave companies using less SPF leaving me a sunburned mess next summer. For those of you with darker skin, and for winter months, this is a great every day product to put on for incidental exposure. I know I'm just as guilty as the next girl of forgetting SPF year round though I am pretty good about using it on cloudy summer days.

StriVectin-SH Age Protect also includes NIA-114 "molecule that was discovered in skin cancer research to help rebuild skin’s natural protective barrier and reverse signs of aging." That sounds like a great added bonus to me.

If you purchase through the StiVectin site you get a bonus pink travel bag and a sample of StriVectin-SD, the product I tried and loved. While the $49 price tag might scare you, these products really deliver great results and looking 10 years younger than your friend is PRICELESS.

Aveeno Sun Protection

What a heatwave! I hope you get to be outside enjoying this beautiful weather with the ones you love or, like me, are at least cooped up in the AC while your other half works his butt off 6 days a week. God bless the air conditioner, I don't know how I would survive without it.

If you are outside enjoying the sunshine you're gonna need a great SPF and one of my personal favorites, along with the Coppertone I already told you about, is Aveeno. It happened by accident, I grabbed the cheapest bottle on the shelf and actually quite enjoyed it. That happy little accident was Aveeno Continuous Protection, and now I can't live without it. This stuff is the real deal, it even smells good. I'm partial to sprays but I must be careful to get every last inch of my body. It's light and the cool mist directly from the can is quite refreshing on a day like today when it's over 100 degrees.

Another huge hit this summer is Aveeno Hydrosport. Honestly, I haven't tried this one out yet but many of my favorite beauty bloggers are loving it. Check out Julia's Review on All About the Pretty and Christine at 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic. This is one you can apply to wet skin so don't worry about being completely dry before applying. I imagine it would be wonderful for those squirmy little kids and for boyfriends/husbands who can't stop throwing around a football long enough to get SPF'ed up.

Both of these are a fantastic value at under $10 anywhere beauty products are sold. They are available in both lotion and spray versions in varying levels of protection. You can't go wrong with that. I'm not willing to shell out big bucks when brands like Aveeno, Neutrogena and Coppertone make such affordable and high quality SPF products. What about you?

MD Solar Sciences Ultra Sport Stick SPF 40

By now you know sun exposure is bad, very bad. In fact, I was trying to write this post on my deck but the sun beating down on my chest was not conducive to writing and I couldn't in good conscience write a post about sunscreen when I wasn't fully protected myself. I started off the day with SPF on my face. I applied to my arms and legs while sitting in my car burning like a crisp but my chest and neck are still exposed to the elements and being the idiot that I am, my sunscreen is in the car that my husband took to work. That's why something like MD Solar Sciences Ultra Sport Stick would be so handy. I'd keep it in my purse, all packed up neatly, no risk of oozing from a tube or accidental spraying from an aerosol can. It's $16 and so portable that I couldn't imagine ever being without it.

If you're more prepared than I am at any given moment (and it's not very hard to be) than you might be thinking that you don't need this product but you could be wrong. Stick formulas are perfect for application on delicate eye areas, on your nose and ears and places like the backs of hands and tops of feet that you wouldn't want to be sticky or greasy.

Although we're supposed to do away with the use of very water resistant it's still okay for now and this product claims to be very water resistant, okay for light sweating or getting splashed by the pool. As I've said before just make sure to reapply after you sweat like a beast/ towel off from swimming or every two hours, whichever comes first.

Keep yourself safe this weekend and don't suffer another day with a horrible sunburn that allows you to do nothing but lie in bed and curse the day you ever went outside without adequate sun protection.

Avon Skin So Soft Plus Bug Guard

As you may or may not know I'm in Maine, decidedly the un-fashion capital of the world and also home of the blackfly, seriously this insect should be our state bird and often it is joked about as such. What is a beauty girl to do when she wants to enjoy some time outside? Seriously, if I could (and by could I mean if I felt like getting dressed and lugging my stuff to the deck) I'd be outside each and every time I write a post for DOC, the benefits of wireless internet.

We all know that sun protection is a big part of summer life and what more could we ask for than SPF with bug spray built right in, not just any bug spray but Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus. I've used this brand since I was a child and I love that it doesn't smell like straight up chemicals, it usually has a fairly nice scent that I don't mind wearing out of the house. It's DEET-free, hypoallergenic and dermatologist tested.

The bottle claims that this product is very water resistant and although the term has been outlawed lately I happen to think it's important to know for all sun protection. No product is truly waterproof and therefore you will need to reapply after intense sweating or swimming.

This spray makes it convenient to squirt all over your body before heading out and makes for easy application on the go. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys being outside in the evening without being chewed alive by the insects.