Exciting times at the Wal-Mart aisle, as we perused the endcap full of lovely looking face and body care line launched exclusively for Wal-Mart by Bethenny Frankel of
BRAVO TV fame. Yes,
that Bethenny: Jill's frenemy on The Real Housewives of New York, the same Bethenny who has launched the successful line of Skinnygirl cocktails, and who has her very own reality show,
Bethenny Ever After, which just began it's 3rd season last Monday. With books, supplements, cleanses, and now skincare, she is a mega marketing machine!
Colleen: Wow, what can't she do? I think she's trying to take over the world.
Silvia: Definitely, a'la Oprah or Martha Stewart. Talk about building a brand.
Colleen: Should we try it?
Silvia: Will it make us skinny?
We bought it anyway. There lies her marketing genius: trademark the term "skinnygirl" and the world is yours.
There were so many products to choose from: lipglosses, face masks, body scrubs, lotions and oils. All of the products were reasonably priced, and it was difficult to choose, but we settled on a set of 3 mini face "solutions", which cost us less than $12. Love it already.
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| The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
The Good: Detox Face Mask with Cucumber & Sweet Almond Oil. We struggled for a minute to squeeze the product out of the tube (small hole, thick product, and we were reluctant to squeeze too hard--face mask dries like venetian plaster on the wall) but once we applied it, we were pleased. It smells pleasantly of cucumber, and it has a refreshing tingle to it upon application. We were unsure what to expect, since it contains sweet almond oil (we thought this would block our pores), but looked like a clay sort of mask, which tend to dry out to a crackly finish. It dried a bit, but not to a crackle. After removing it, our skin felt soft and refreshed, not stripped. This gets a Glambo Kiss of Approval.
The Bad: Energizing Lipshine with Caffeine and Peppermint. This had a light peppermint scent, which was nice. But, as you know, we like our energetic lipglosses to be just that. When we use this type of gloss, we want to feel a zing that will make the blood rush to our lips faster than the thought of kissing Adam Levine (ahem, let me interrupt myself before this fantasy goes long). When you say ENERGIZING, we expect the likes of Lip Venom or Buxom glosses. This lipgloss, sadly , left our lips wanting more. There was nothing energizing about it, and the feel of the gloss, was not pleasant. Even worse, there was no high gloss to it. Overall, it was disappointing. And the tube is so small, it probably yields 6 or 7 applications. So even if it was likeable, there wouldn't be much in the tube to enjoy.
The Ugly: Vitamin C Face Scrub with Shea Butter and Cranberry. Our initial thought was: who puts shea butter in a facial scrub?? Shea butter is something we use on cracking elbows and sandpaper knees. It keeps our hides from turning to leather, but it seems like it would be a major pore-clogger on the face. Needless to say, we had to suspend disbelief while we tried the product and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, our doubts were confirmed, and then some. Using this scrub was like exfoliating with a mix of rendered bacon fat and glass shards! It was too greasy and too rough to use on the face. Even worse, once we rinsed, we were left with a nasty residue on our faces, and of course broke out over the course of the next few days. This scrub may be more suitable as a body scrub, but is way too harsh for the lovely faces of our readers. This gets a sad Glambo Dissssssssssssss.
P.S. In an attempt to swatch the face mask for this post just minutes ago, I attempted to squeeze the mask out into my hand, and the bottom of the tube burst open and squirted the mask all over my counter!!!
Unbelievable! This is only the 2nd time I've used this. I had closed it tightly after using it last time, but the tube still got clogged, and the tube burst. The packaging for this product get a huge Glambo Dissssssssssssss.
We have to say that calling this gift set "Face Solutions" is laughable. It's more like "Face Problems Waiting to Happen" in a box. Too bad, because we were really looking forward to trying the Skinnygirl Margarita Body Scrub, Lotion and Shower Gel. Not anymore.
Up next in Glambo's Battle of the Dry Shampoos is Big Sexy Hair. You are likely familiar with the big, red cans associated with this line of hair products. Of course, when we saw the Volumizing Dry Shampoo, we had to give it a try. 
The Big Sexy Hair version has a bit of a powerful blast. It seems to have some hairspray elements to achieve the volumizing effect. We would recommend choosing this spray if you want to do an updo, backcomb or create volume. Surprisingly, our hair felt clean the next day too. It is the strongest of the dry shampoos we have reviewed, yet it left the least amount of white residue. Big Sexy Hair Dry Shampoo has a light perfumed fragrance that doesn’t linger too long. 
