August 2009 -

I am a sucker for neutral/nude shades, and Bobbi Brown is pretty much the best for that stuff, so I just had to order up some items from her Nude Collection. I wasn’t disappointed! The first item I picked out was the Bobbi Brown Nude Shimmer Brick .

This compact gives a nice sheer shimmering bronze for the cheeks, and the individual strips can also be worn as shimmery eye shades. The color wears well, and the overall bronzing effect was perfect for my pale skin. Below are swatches of the individual strips. The larger swatch at the end are the shades mixed together.

This is a collection, so I imagine that the Nude Shimmer Brick won’t be around forever.

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About the Author: Carleen Pruess Coulter

When I was having a particularly hard time clearing up an adult acne breakout, I gave the Murad Acne Complex Kit ($97 Value!) a try. This is a highly rated kit, but I had mixed results with it, although I have seen rave reviews from others on it. Personally, I would just buy the treatment gel and spot treatment, which I like quite a bit, and use other products in place of the cleanser and lotion.

The kit contains the following:

Clarify Cleanser: This is a basic no frills cleanser that has Salicylic Acid to help exfoliate and fight acne. I found it a bit drying, but otherwise it is a decent enough cleanser. I like using something much cheaper though, such as a Neutrogena cleanser.
Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel: With Retinol, Glycolic Acid, and Salicylic, this gel has a nice ingredient mix. It is light and non-irritating. I do really like this one for daily prevention/treatment, and would consider buying it separately.
Skin Perfecting Lotion: This is an oil free lotion with Retinol. I don’t think the Retinol amount is very high. At least my skin didn’t notice it the way it would with a high concentration. It is a good basic light lotion, but I prefer using a light drugstore brand or Exuviance Sheer Refining Fluid (read review).
Acne Spot Treatment: Murad‘s spot treatment has 10% sulfur, which is a good antibacterial agent for treating individual areas. The product has a bit of an odor, but any sulfur treatment will. I liked this one, but I also like using sulfur masks as spot treatments, especially on the more difficult to treat cystic type of acne. DDF makes a great sulfur mask (read review).

Overall, this is a decent enough kit to give a try. I ultimately only really liked two of the four products enough to consider repurchasing them, but the other two were OK. I just prefer other brands.

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