Today I bring you a guest post from my friend The Underachiever. She’s awesome and funny and interesting and you should go add her to your feed reader RIGHT NOW! Wait, not right now. After you read her review here. THEN GO! –ProductWhore

I tried this moisturizer/sunscreen combo while attending a late afternoon baseball game. I applied it to my arms, face and neck. It did not feel greasy or sticky going on, which was great. It absorbed quickly and didn’t leave my skin tacky. I actually forgot I had it on, a great bonus for any skincare product.

Unfortunately, it still smelled like sunscreen. The odor wasn’t overpowering, but it was present. I think this product could benefit from more fragrance. Nothing heavy, just something to offset the typical sunscreen smell.

As for its moisturizing benefits, it definitely helped soften my scratchy elbows. As a light, everyday moisturizer, I think it would work well.

I didn’t get any sunburn or tan during the game, which was the point. I came out just as pasty white as when I went in. But since I do burn easily, I would need a lot more protection than SPF 15 in the midday sun. For non-peak sun times of the day, this suited me perfectly.

Though the lotion didn’t feel greasy on my skin, I am still leery of using it on my face. I have oily skin and am picky about what I put on it. I’d prefer to use a face-specific product for that area.

Verdict: If you use a moisturizer every day, switch to this. You’ll get the same nourishing benefits with some added protection. I wouldn’t use this as a replacement for traditional sunscreen for a day at the beach, but for everyday sun exposure on skin that doesn’t burn at the first ray of sun, it can do the job.

Would I buy this? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being I’m racing to the store to buy this product, I would give it a 6. Since I’d use this cream primarily for the sun protection, not its softening properties, SPF 15 isn’t strong enough for my fragile skin. But if the company offered a version with the SPF bumped up to 30, I’d bump up my rating to an 8.

I just had some delicious pancakes. Surprisingly, they were made using a just-add-water mix from the discount store. I am all for saving money where I can. They come out thick, fluffy and wonderful. That is what a pancake should be. Sometimes I make them and don’t even measure and they still come out perfect! If you have a Sav-a-lot near you, I highly recommend finding some Ginger Evans Buttermilk Pancake mix. Good stuff! I’ve had success with other things from there too. Most of what I consider staples are cheaper there and just as good as name brands. We don’t have one very near here though so I only go once in a while.

I love brownies. I think they are the bees knees, the cat’s pajamas and all sorts of awesome.

I like my brownies to be moist, dense, chewy - what they call fudge like (or is it fudgey) even though they don’t resemble fudge really at all. I’m not so into cake like brownies. I don’t even think they should be allowed to be brownies. They should just be cake.

My favorite part of the brownie is the edge. Don’t get me wrong, I will happily munch down plenty of the non-edge parts. Brownies are moist chewy bits of happiness, after all. But I will fight someone for the edges. Not just fight them. I will WIN! This is the passion I have for brownie edges.

Sometimes in the midst of my foodgasm, I will sigh and say “I wish I could have a pan of nothing but edges…” in that wistful sort of way that you say things that you know are ridiculous but you wish anyway.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I was reading through assorted food articles and found out that it is possible! There is a thing that makes this wonderful idea a reality! (at least in theory)

Bakers Edge makes an all edge pan. It has a winding channel that snakes it’s way across the pan providing you with edge, edge, and more edge. Wee! I clapped my hands, bounced, squee’d! It is now on my list of things that I must have. And when I have it I will never leave the house again. I will stay home and bake brownies all day.

Brownie edges + me = <3 4EVA

I love mail. I love mail that isn’t a bill or a credit card offer. It’s just a total day brightener. It’s really one of the best parts of online shopping. It feels like getting a Christmas present from myself. Even though there’s no surprise. It’s still just as thrilling tearing off the wrapper! I do have a shopping package coming to me this week but this post is about something better.

Recently, I won something! And not just any old something. I won some Bunny Slippers! I now have totally adorable, totally soft and cozy Bunny Slippers(!) thanks to Aly at A Little Aly-tude. She rocks my socks. I’m a regular reader of her blog and you should be too! The lovely bunny filled package came from Barefoot Parties. Their catalog is definitely worth a look. There are all sorts of gift ideas and, of course, the slippers.

Note: This post brought to you no thanks to my very bad cats.

I’ve been meaning to try mineral powder for a while. I keep seeing advertisements for it and it sounds like a good thing. (I’m a sucker for advertisements. I didn’t get to be a product whore without them!) Every time I’d go to the store for my regular old non-mineral powder I’d see more and more options as more companies jumped on the bandwagon.

Last week I went to the store for things completely unrelated to make-up. I needed powder, though, so I finally decided to bite the bullet and go for it, though they all seem to cost about three times what I pay for my usual. Don’t let that scare you though, I just like cheap make-up. So I grabbed a compact of Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Face Powder. As a backup, I got my tried and true Cover Girl as well.

So far, so good with this stuff. Today someone even told me that I had beautiful skin! Can I attribute this in part to the new powder? I don’t know. But I don’t usually get out-of-the-blue skin compliments so it’s possible! I’ve been wearing it every day since Thursday. I like the soft matte texture. It leaves me non-shiny and that non-shininess lasts at least as long, if not longer, than the non-shininess I get from Cover Girl. I also use less of it to get the same amount of coverage. This pleased me, given it’s slightly fatter price tag. It even comes with it’s own mirror and brush. This would be good for on the go, though I prefer to use my large, fluffy e.l.f. brush.

As a side note, the big fluffy e.l.f. brush also can double as a fine cat toy, a fact of which I was unaware until I got jumped by a furry hoodlum while trying to take the photos for this post. So grab a few! At only $1 each you can afford to!

I always loved Blistex Lip Tone but I haven’t been able to find it in forever! I thought they stopped making it. But now, since I googled it, and it’s still on the blistex site, I’m not so sure! So, then, why is it not available here?? Dammit!

I love it so because it’s not sticky like a gloss; it’s definitely a lip balm. But it’s not waxy like Chapstick (bleah). It’s soft and satiny smooth. It has a light, subtle flavor that’s sweet but not overpowering. And it has a hint of color that looks natural. So it feels like lip balm and looks like a natural lip, but better. Rosy and soft and kissable.

Are there other products that are similar? If I can’t buy the real thing, I need to find a good substitute…

One of the things I hate about winter (and I assure you, there are *many*) is trying to get my car cleaned off in the morning. I get up way too early and I have to be out driving way too early. So this means I’m out cleaning my car - you guessed it - way too early! Some days I’m lucky and there will be a fine dusting of snow, or, better yet, nothing on my windshield. Some days I’m a little less lucky and there will be a thick layer of snow and ick covering the whole car. While that’s not fun to clear, it’s not as lame as that thin layer of frost just covering the glass enough so I wouldn’t be able to see where I’m going, were I to try. Not that I’ve done that. No, I’m a safe driver. A safe driver who thinks it’s a good thing there aren’t too many other people out there who could potentially be in the way as I’m *ahem* not driving down the street with inadequately cleaned windows.

So anyway, back to the frost. I find that it’s very hard to scrape this frost. I see a good amount of winter so I have a nifty scraper. It even has a snow brush on one end. But when I try to scrape that thin layer of frost I manage to get tiny little lines cleared. They’re about the width of spaghetti. No they’re not even that wide. They’re like angel-hair width. Certainly not good enough for adequate sight when driving. Not that I’ve tried. *ahem*

Eventually, with the car running and the vents on full blast, the frost will start to clear. But this takes time! Time that I don’t have since usually I’m leaving late for work. Wait. No, I , uh, don’t do that either. It’s also cold sitting out there waiting for it. I’ve found myself wishing for an ice scraper that would actually scrape it off with ease, perhaps something heated. I wished that someone out there would make such a thing so I could buy it and make my morning easier.

Someone did!

I was paging through a catalogue, looking for some Christmas ideas and there it was. I Gasped. I squealed. And then I ordered one. An early Christmas present for myself. I’ve used it several times now and I really have been pleased. I’ve been meaning to test it against the regular scraper and see how it compares but so far I’ve been using it when I’m out in the cold, uh, not leaving late for work. It has been getting the frost off, though, and that’s what matters. I’ll post an update when I get around to the real scientific testing.

I am very much against declawing. I don’t think my kitties should have to be disfigured just because we don’t always agree on when they should use their claws. But, there is that occasional claw-use disagreement. Like when I’m standing at the counter making breakfast, and suddenly I find my self climbed like a tree by a kitten, curious to see what kind of yummy thing I’m making. Or when I see grandma’s Christmas present being used as a scratching post. Or when, for absolutely no good reason, Jack will reach up and grab my hand, claws out, hooking me like I’m a tasty morsel of meat. At these times, I threaten to declaw them myself. By hand. Right on the spot. Of course I don’t mean that so it’s fortunate that I have a suitable alternative.

Enter Softpaws to save the day!

“Soft Paws® are vinyl nail caps that are glued on to your cat’s existing nails. They look like a cat’s nail, only hollow.”

They claim it’s as easy as sliding the adhesive filled caps over the cat’s nails. This is true in theory but giving a cat a manicure isn’t quite as easy as they make it sound. Usually I have to sneak up on them and do it little by little so they don’t catch on. This is mostly successful. By the end of it I’m usually sitting on them to get them to cooperate. But cooperate they do. Oh sweet victory! They last for a long time and are pretty affordable.

And after the fighting, the wrestling and the capping are done? It’s like having new cats! Grandma’s Christmas present remains in one piece. I can stand facing the counter without fear. If Biscuit tries his little tree-climbing maneuver on me, I’ll feel his little soft paws hit the back of my leg before he slides back to the floor with a thump. My hands are bandage free.

Pretty much any scratchy kind of thing the cats might want to do is now softer and safer. They still try, it just doesn’t make me threaten them any more. For a while anyway.

Yay for Softpaws!