Product Review Time!

Well, after spending so much time in a swimsuit, I have a certain group of products on the brain tonight. Here's my greatest discoveries, ALL ABOUT HAIR REMOVAL!!! WOOT WOOT!

1. Veet Suprem' Essence Hair Removal Gel Cream
From their website, "Try new VEET Suprem' Essence hair removal cream. The effective blend of essential oils and velvet rose leaves your skin moisturised, touchably smooth and delicately scented."

I have to say, this is one of the least-offensive depilatories that I have ever used. It works FAST (3 minutes) and smells great. I decided to try it on my upper lip too (they advise you not to use it on your face.) I left it on for longer than 3 minutes, and my upper lip burned for about 24 hours. The next time I tried it, I took it off at exactly 3 minutes. No more hair, and no burn.

2. I found a wonderful alternative to waxing- it's called an EPILATOR. These go back to the 80's, so some of you may know how they work. Basically it is an electronic tweezer, except it rips out your hairs 5-10 at a time. This one is the Braun X'elle. It had the best reviews on Amazon. I have only had a bikini wax once, and I liked the results, but I didn't want to have to keep paying $20-30 every 6 weeks, get a baby-sitter, etc. And while the Veet works great on the bikini area, the hairs grow back as fast as shaving. And shaving the bikini line ALWAYS results in tiny red bumps and ingrown hairs for me, no matter what I use. Enter: The Epilator.
This model is awesome. It has a tiny light, (think of the little light on a vacuum) that is actually really helpful to help you find every tiny hair. It also came with a gel ice pack, which you use for a few minutes before epilating. The first time is quite painful, so be warned (like, equal or worse than waxing), but every time gets less painful (seriously! I don't really use the ice pack anymore to numb things up.) And the best part is that the hair grows back thinner, finer, and takes much longer to grow back, obviously, since you are ripping it out at the root. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this thing. I decided to try it on my ankles one night though---I couldn't take the pain. It KILLLLLLED. So bikini line only for me! Anybody else every tried an epilator?

3. So for shaving my legs, my new favorite razor is the Schick Hydro 5. This 5-bladed beauty beats out any other razor I've tried, as far as smoothness and closeness. It advertises a water-activated gel to increase moisture, skin guards across the blades to reduce nicks and cuts, and a flip trimmer that lets you flip the blades so that all 5 can "trim" (I've never used this feature, but it is a man's razor, so maybe they would know how to use that.)

I normally don't like razors with skin guards, I've never gotten a good shave with one. This one though gave me the smoothest legs ever. Just a warning- I wasn't being very careful when I shaved (feeling overconfident because of the guards) and I pushed too hard and took off the top layer of my shin (only about an inch) but OUCH, you guys know how bad that hurts. So just be careful. These blades are sharp.
(*Update: There is a mail-in rebate for up to $10.99 for this razor, so you can try it free!! Click here for the form.)

4.Tweezerman Tweezerette

Have you seen these Tweezerman Tweezers before? They win all kinds of awards in magazines and such. But I normally would never consider a pair of tweezers that averages $20 each, some as high as $40!!! But at Sally's Beauty Supply, up front by the checkout, they sell these "Tweezerettes" by Tweezerman for only $5. They don't even seem that small to me- they are almost normal size I think. THEY ARE AWESOME!!!! They can seriously grab on to almost anything. And I just found out that this company offers free sharpening for all their products. You don't pay a dime, not even shipping/handling. So go to Sally's and get yourself a pair, you'll see why these are so great. (I just saw that there are some mixed reviews on Sally's website- so maybe you won't love them as much as I do. But they are the best tweezers I've ever used, hands down.)

hot hot hot

So, we are back in Arizona again, dying in this 116 degree heat. Are you kidding me? I know we bragged and bragged all winter about the paradise we were living in, but seriously, now we are living in the opposite place. Hell. (Okay...it's really not that bad, but I try not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary.)

This picture is from Utah. I mostly just want it here so that it will be in my blog book someday. I know when my girls are older and their Great Grandma Esplin is no longer around, they will want to see pictures like this.

Have I ever showed you my kitchen? Four cupboards is all I've got to store food and dishes (and two on the bottom.) There's a dishwasher and a sink, and we squeezed in a fridge, but cooking has been a challenge, but we are getting by pretty well with a microwave, toaster oven, a griddle, a crockpot, and an induction plate (for boiling water.) If I really need an oven I can go upstairs.
But anyway, things are going good here in this basement. We just might stay for two years, since our nice older friends have offered it as long as we want it. THIS, however, is the hardest part of it all: This lovely, brand new creamy carpet that covers the entire basement, including under the dining table, and in the kitchen where I have to prepare food. We really didn't want to have to re-carpet the basement when we move out, so we racked our brains of how we could best cover up this carpet.

And this is what we came up with: Cheaper than rugs, but annoying because they move around a lot, still, a good solution: We got 170 carpet squares on craigslist for $35. Kalia likes to call this "hopscotch". Sorry about the nudity, but we were just about to go out back to swim.We put these carpet squares everywhere except in our bedroom. In the kitchen, we put a tarp underneath the squares to catch liquid. They are a bit of a pain, but they've saved a few spills so far, so they're doing they're job.
Love these girls, I especially love to hear them talk to each other. Annie has this tiny high-pitched voice that is kinda adorable. I often have to play Referee to stop the fighting (usually it's Kalia experimenting with her power as oldest child...) but I guess I shouldn't expect anything different. Lots of time outs keep it under control.

Speaking of swimming, Kalia and Annie each made some major progress in the pool. Annie got brave enough to start jumping off the diving board, and also, for your entertainment, this is her version of a dive. It cracks me up every single time. Don't mind that she's fully clothed. That's another story.

And even more exciting, today Kalia learned to swim all by herself. I was wondering how kids learn to swim if they don't have swim lessons, but today I found my answer! I just took of her floaty-swimsuit thing and told her to swim to me. She was so excited that she could do it, she kept going back and forth about 20 times until she was exhausted.


So, yeah, more swim videos, but that's pretty much all we're doing around here!!
Stay tuned though...we got some professional pics taken of the girls while in Utah and I think they are going to be awesome. (First time they've ever had a real picture taken together. Long overdue!!)