Beauty products review & special notice

This one's for the ladies, and for the gentlemen who enjoy looking like us for whatever reasons of their own. (Oh, Eddie mon amour, can't we go out on the town for mojitos and makeovers some night? Call me! Mwah!)

I've been doing a little upgrading to the ol' face & figure lately. Nothing Joan Riversy, not going to be facelift kitty:

... just going in for facials a bit more regularly, made a dermatologist appointment, had a quick makeover at the Body Shop, and the like. Your skin and hair change as you age, and you can't expect what worked when you were 28 to still do the same thing when you're 41. (If you've never gone in for makeup advice at a Sephora or Body Shop or your nearby Clinique counter, I'd advise doing so. I go in every couple of years to see what new products are out there, get ideas, and make sure I don't get stuck in my ways. Contrary to common fears, the beauty-counter ladies don't do a ridiculously hard sell, and you won't come out of it looking garishly made-up; they take your overall style into account and make you look like you, only better.)

And, I'm wanting to buff up a bit in preparation for the book tour. Books do get judged by their covers, and so do their authors--may as well look as good as I can! (Chant with me: O-PRAH, O-PRAH!) So here's some products I've been very impressed with, and best of all, all but one are drugstore buys--Miss Conduct likes to do her spiffing up on the cheap--so you can just print this post and toddle on down to your neighborhood CVS:

Eucerin Dry Skin Therapy Plus Intensive Repair Body Creme. Yes, namewise, it is rather the moisturizer equivalent of "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad," but once you get past the excessive verbiage (Now with 10% More Meaningless Nouns!), it's quite good. I have suffered for years--and I mean suffered--from dry skin on my legs, so bad that I scratch myself bloody in my sleep. And I've tried everything, up to and including slathering A & D Ointment and Vaseline all over my lower legs and wrapping them in cling film before bed. Nothing has worked except this. Is it the alpha hydroxy? Who knows. All I know is I don't wake up in the morning looking as though I've spent the night fleeing through bramble patches, and that's enough for me.

Corn Silk Face Powder. Yes, Corn Silk, that 1990s classic! Who knew they still made that? Well, they do, and it's long-lasting and non-cakey and comes in "No Color," so you don't have to worry about matching your skin tone under drugstore lights. Take a powder!

Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain and Neutrogena Shimmer Sheer in Mystified. What's mystifying about the Neutrogena Shimmer Sheers are why all of them except Mystified are in colors so subtly pale that a Swedish albino could wear them with no fear of looking like a painted lady. Mystified, though, is a nice healthy bronze. You put the Body Shop Cheek Stain on first, then layer a bit of Shimmer Sheer over it, and you look real nice and natural and bright. Color on your face comes from two places--the blushing blood under your skin, and suntan on top. Wearing the Stain and the Shimmer (now there's a title for a romance novel) gives you both.

Revlon Brow Fantasy brow pencil & gel. All I need to say about this--you know how every mother and daughter have some kind of appearance-related "issue" that they fight about? With me and the ConductMom it's always been my eyebrows. On my last trip to visit her she said, "You finally figured out what to do with your eyebrows." And she's right. This is a great product for definition without making anything look too heavy. A hint--I have jet black brows, but I've found that dark brown pencil/gel works better. If I go with a product as dark as my brows actually are, I get this kind of Joan Crawford/Romulan thing going on. A fantasy, yes, but not one to aspire to. So if you have strong coloring, you might want to try going a shade lighter, too.

Revlon Colorstay Overtime Liquid Lipcolor. Like the sheer, light look of gloss but hate the way it lasts for, oh, 40 seconds, and reminds you of being in junior high to boot? This is a good product for you, then. I'm prone to dry lips as well as dry legs, so most "long-lasting" lipsticks give me total crack-addict lips within three hours. This one doesn't, because it really is liquid. Revlon is into two-in-one packaging these days; the brow pencil/gel has a pencil on one end, a gel with a mascara-type wand on the other; this has the color on one end with a sponge applicator, and a clear sealant or something on the other end that you brush on. It's pretty much the only lip color I wear anymore; I have a neutral Bare Maximum, a nice pink Infinite Raspberry, and Stay Currant which is actually a good true red (so hard to find a true red, am I right, Eddie darling?) A good answer to the "Is it okay to touch up your lipstick in public?" question I get occasionally: with this, you don't have to. Ethics, etiquette, and engineering!--am I right, or what?

Alba Papaya Enzyme Facial Mask and Pineapple Enzyme Facial Cleanser. My facialist recommended these products and I've been very impressed. I do the mask a couple of times a week and it does a great job getting rid of dead skin cells without burning through several layers of dermis. Gentle yet effective.

What beauty products keep you looking your best, O lovely ones?

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: After a summer's hiatus, Beauty Tips for Ministers is back! Hooray for my favorite fashion blog's return. For a little background on PeaceBang and Miss Conduct, click here. The first sermon is hers, and if you scroll down you can read mine.