A New Year's Eve Inspired Mani

I first just want to wish you a very Healthy & Happy New Year!  I really feel that 2012 will be a great year.  This is just a quick post with a New Year's Eve inspired look.  As a Mom who is 7 1/2 months pregnant, Champagne will not be part of my midnight toast this year.  However, it was what I had in mind while I polished my nails.

For a base coat, I used a Revlon's Coconut Crush.  This is one of their scented nail lacquers, that gives off a fragrance when it is dry.  I picked it up for under 1.00 at CVS as it was 75% off.  It is an off-white color that looks almost like a cream.  I really like the color as it is warmer than a traditional white.  I have to admit, it smells amazing when it is dry too.  My hands have smelled great all day and it isn't lotion, it is my polish.  It smells like coconut and reminds me of a pina colada.

The gold color over the cream polish is China Glaze's Tarnished Gold Crackle.  Of course I waited until Coconut Crush was fully dry before adding the crackle.  That wasn't difficult due to the polish's delicious scent.  While I don't love how the crackle looks, it certainty reminds me of a champagne.

Thanks so much for reading!  Have a fabulous New Year!  I look forward to bringing you more manicure looks, nail and skin posts, and product reviews in the 2012!

Pink Wednesday: Pink Chiffon by Revlon

Happy Pink Wednesday!  I hope that you are having a good week.  This Wednesday, I am wearing Pink Chiffon by Revlon.  I have to be honest, I don't love this polish on me.  I picked up this color last week at Rite Aid, while they were having a BOGO 1/2 off on Revlon nail enamel.  I loved the color in the bottle as it is such a pretty, pastel shade that reminds me of spring.  I could almost envision this shade on an Easter egg it is that pretty.

However, once I started to polish my nails, I fell out of love with it.  I believe that the reason for this is my skin tone, and not the color of the polish itself.  Perhaps if I had a deeper tone, it would have been more flattering on me.  The other reason why I might have been so underwhelmed with this pink is the sharp contrast to my nails from Monday.  I wore Ocean by Revlon and LOVED this color so much!  I got so many complements on it from family, friends, and random people at the mall.  Pink Chiffon just might have been too light after such a rich jewel tone.  I have pictures, so I guess this one is up to you to decide if you love it or not.

Thanks as always for reading.  Have a great day!

Thoughts on 2012

I can't believe how fast time goes by!  This year has just been so good, but it has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Now, in the last week of 2011, I think it is so important to reflect on this year, and focus on all the good that is to come in 2012. 

I am so grateful for everything in my life.  My son is amazing, and he just keeps getting better every day.  He will be two in a few weeks and he is the best thing that has happened to me.  I am so blessed to have such a miracle in my life.  I am also so excited for the birth of my daughter in February of this upcoming year.  I know that she will make our family complete and I can't wait to meet her, and see her for the first time.  I know that with her arrival so early in the year, 2012 will shape up to be one of the best!

I also feel blessed with such a fabulous career.  I love working in the spa industry and helping people to look and feel their best.  I also love the flexibility that comes with my job.  I am able to spend so much time with my family, and still make a great living on a part-time basis!  I look forward to building my clientele in the new year and continually improving to offer my clients the best massage and aesthetic services in the area.

Finally, I am happy to have started this blog.  What started out as something to do at night while my son was sleeping, has really turned into a passion of mine.  I enjoy blogging so much and am excited to post more manicures, skin information, and product reviews in the new year.  I don't think that it will be very easy for me to post so much in the months of February and March due to the birth of my daughter, but I am going to try my best.  I appreciate your support and am thankful that you have come to my blog and read its content. 

If you have any comments, suggestions, or products that you want me to test in the new year, please e-mail me at thespamom@gmail.com or send me a tweet to @thespamom

I hope that you have a very healthy and happy New Year! 

Manicure Monday: Ocean by Revlon

Happy Mani Monday!  I hope that you had a fabulous holiday weekend!  Christmas is such a wonderful time, and it just comes and goes so fast.  However, after doing so many Christmas and holiday nail looks, I was so excited to review one of my new, non-holiday polishes by Revlon...Ocean! 

I picked up this jem last week while it was on sale at CVS.  I was so drawn to the color.  It is a gorgeous jewel-toned green.  Ocean looks like a tropical pool, or a color that you might see in a Caribbean rain forest.  I think that it is such a fun color!

While I was swatching this polish, I found that one coat was sufficient, yet I did two just to be sure.  What I really love about this polish is how fast it dried.  As a mom, it is difficult for me to paint my nails during the day because once I apply the product, my son always wakes up from his nap, making it difficult for my nails to ever dry appropriately.  I usually end up with such a mess.  This Revlon polish is Top Speed/Fast Drying Nail Enamel.  By the time I was finished polishing my right hand, the left hand was already dry!  I am a huge fan of this polish and the fact that it is Top Speed makes it even better.  I highly recommend this Revlon product.

Thanks so much for reading.  I hope that you have a wonderful day! 

Merry Christmas

I just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holiday!  I thank you so much for reading my blog and I look forward to posting more manicures, writing more skin posts, and doing product reviews in the New Year!  Have a wonderful weekend and thanks again!

Pink Wednesday: My Revlon Deal!

Happy Pink Wednesday!  With Christmas on Sunday, and all the shades of red and green, I am so happy to be wearing pink today.  This week, I am wearing my very first Revlon lacquer purchase...Raspberry Rapture.  As I was Christmas shopping last week at my local CVS, I came upon this polish and it happened to be on clearance for 75% off!  Therefore, I had to buy it because it only cost me 99 cents!  I really like this color.  It is a very tropical, summery pink.  It is scented too so when it dries, it does have a bit of a fruity smell to it.  This feature was nice because I knew when my nails were dry by the scent.  That was helpful as I was swatching this color because I trying to get dinner on the table at the same time.  Another nice feature about this product is that it goes on very smoothly, and I really only needed one coat.

In short, I am a big fan of the Revlon Nail Enamels!  I purchased a few more on clearance at CVS, and this week, the drugstore had a fabulous deal on the polish.  If you purchased a bottle for $4.99, you received $3.00 in extra bucks.  Therefore, it was like getting the polish for $1.99.  I can't wait to play around with these new colors and create some very pretty looks.  Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!

The 12th Day of Christmas Polish: Festive in Red & Gold

Good Evening!  It is finally the 12th day of Christmas Polishes.  I have to admit that a nail polish blog is a lot of work and I give so much to credit to all of you who have one.  My look today is a simple, yet real holiday inspired look.  I used China Glaze's Poinsettia & Twinkle Lights. I think that the combination of red and gold is so timeless and elegant and I have used it for everything from my senior prom dress to the color scheme for my wedding.  I think it looks best at Christmas Time.

I used Poinsettia on all of my nails except my index finger.  I painted my index finger with Twinkle Lights for something different.  Poinsettia is a real classic Christmas red and Twinkle Lights is a gold glitter polish with specks of red and green in it.  To make the Twinkle Lights  pop off the nail, I did use about three coats of polish to cover the surface.  I applied two coats of the red to the rest of my nails.

Finally, on my ring finger, I applied some of China Glaze's Tarnished Gold, their crackle polish.  To tie the crackle in with the rest of the look, I applied one coat of Twinkle Lights over it.  I think that this look is funky and appropriate.  It is very easy and a great alternative to a plain red holiday manicure.

Thank you so much for reading this post and the other eleven posts that I wrote for the Christmas nails.  I hope that you have a fabulous holiday!

The 11th Day of Christmas Polishes/Gingerbread Themed

Happy Monday!  I hope that you had a great weekend.   Today is the 11th Day of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  I chose a gingerbread theme for today's look.  It didn't come out the way I wanted it to, but for the sake of time, I had to go with it.

I started this look with a polish made by the skin care company that I work for...Elizabeth Grady.  The name of the polish is Hot Latte and it is a desert colored brown.  While it may not look pretty in the bottle, it looks much nicer painted on the nail.  It is a rich shade that kind of reminded me of gingerbread.  I applied two coats just to give it a little more depth.

The next step was to apply China Glazes' Lightening Bolt, which is their white crackle.  I wanted it to look like the icing on a gingerbread house.  Again, this look was so much better in my mind than it actually turned out to be.  I think that I put the crackle on too thick and in the process, lost sight of the gingerbread color.

Finally, in an attempt to achieve the whimsical, fun look of a gingerbread house, I used a Wet n Wild glitter polish...Party of Five Glitters.  I don't love this polish.  It is a bit watery and I had to really work at it to get enough sparkle on the nail.  While it is a pretty, Christmasey polish, it just didn't look great with this look.

Thanks as always for reading.  Have a wonderful day and come back tomorrow for the final day of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.

Day 10: Frosty the Snowman Inspired Nails

Hello everyone!  Happy Friday and I hope that you had a great week.  With this being the last weekend before Christmas, I am sure that everyone will be so busy over the next two days.  I just wanted to post a quick entry about my 10th Day of Christmas Polishes before things became too chaotic.  

My 1-year old son LOVES Frosty the Snowman.  We have to listen to that song in the car everywhere we go.  So today, I wanted to create a look based on my son's favorite tune.  I used the gorgeous Blue Year's Eve by China Glaze as my polish.  I am obsessed with this polish because it is such a classy color.  It is a sapphire blue, which I always associate with royalty.  As if the color of Blue Year's Eve wasn't beautiful enough, it also has a hint of sparkle in the polish, which makes it even more appealing.  This is the perfect shade of winter blue!

To give this manicure a tribute to Frosty, I added nail art decals made by Cina.  I placed a Frosty decal on my ring finger, and some snowflakes on my index finger.  I really like using these decals because I don't have a lot of time to create a nail art look.  The decals add just the right amount of detail to the nail and it literally takes seconds to create.

I hope that you enjoy this look.  Have a fabulous weekend and I will have another Christmas look on Monday!

PRODUCT REVIEW: Cry Baby Lashes

As an Esthetician, I naturally love makeup, lashes, and trying new products.  I wear mascara daily, even if it is the only makeup that I put on that day.  I believe that when you have some mascara on, you look more awake.  As a mother of a young child, this awake look is essential!  I had eyelash extensions for a good part of this year, but as work got busier and the holiday season came fast approaching, I didn't have the time for the fills.  I loved having the extensions though as it was so easy to look decent with minimal effort.  So, I was so excited when my best friend had a Cry Baby lash party at her house last night.  I thought that the timing would be perfect since Christmas is next week and my lashes would have that dramatic look for the holidays.

I really didn't know much about this product other than it was supposed to make my lashes look fuller, darker, and longer.  The Cry Baby Website www.crybabymascara.com advertises the product as "Professionally applied semi-permanent mascara" and states that you will get two weeks of volume, length, color, and curl that is 100% waterproof.  The cost of the application was $40.00...a party special.

The esthetician started the process by taping down my bottom lashes.  I expected this as it was the protocol for lash extension application.  However, she used so much surgical tape that my under eyes are still red and a bit puffy tonight, a full 24 hours later.  Their website suggests that this product be applied the day of a wedding or special event, but 4 hours prior to the start of it.  I am so grateful that I didn't have this product on my wedding day, or other special occasion.

The entire process took about 20 minutes.  Because I wasn't exactly sure what Cry Baby was, during the application, I began asking questions.  Just as she was finishing my application, she informed me that Cry Baby wouldn't look like eyelash extensions.  While I didn't expect that, I was shocked when I got up and looked in the mirror.  I really didn't see much of a change.  While my lashes were darker, I didn't feel it was enough to make a difference  I curled my lashes per her suggestion this morning, but it wasn't enough for me.


I wear Maybelline's The Falsies Volume Express flaired mascara.  I buy this product at CVS or Rite Aid for $7.49.  This week on www.cvs.com, it is on sale for $5.62.  I wish that I just stuck with my beloved mascara and saved myself $40.00.  For me, Cry Baby was not worth the money. 


In conclusion, I really am underwhelmed by Cry Baby.  I thought it was a waste of money.  Perhaps it was just me that had a bad experience, but I wouldn't try it again.  I will just stick to what I know works...Maybelline Mascara!

Before application

After application

Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes/ Sophisticated Holiday Red

Welcome to Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  Today, I went with a very simple, yet sophisticated color.  I chose China Glaze's Ruby Pumps!  While I am confident this polish has been out for a while, it is new to me.  I absolutely LOVE this color.  It is a beautiful ruby shade of red, with just the right amount of sparkle in the polish.  Since I have been trying to create new holiday looks every day, I have used a ton of glitter polish.  Ruby Pumps is great because I have achieved that Christmas bling look, without having to use more than one bottle of nail polish.

This color has a very elegant feel to it.  It is a perfect shade of red that anyone can wear.  I find that on some women, including myself, the bright, classic, fire engine shades of red are not flattering.  Depending on the hue, red can sometimes look cheap or overdone.  Not Ruby Pumps!  It is a warmer shade, and therefore is more universally flattering.  In fact, my Mom is a fan of this color and she is not one for flashy colors or sparkle. 

Ruby Pumps is a perfect polish for all things Christmas.  It looks great for parties and just as an everyday color.  I must admit that it is my new favorite lacquer and I will be a sporting it throughout the winter.  Thanks so much for reading!  Have a great evening. 

12 Days of Christmas Polishes/Day 8 Pink Wednesday

Happy Pink Wednesday!  Today, my look was inspired by my wish for Christmas morning...SNOW!  What can I say, I live in New England and I love snow.  We haven't really had anything yet, so I am hoping that it will come soon.  Since it is Pink Wednesday, and I am still doing my 12 Days of Christmas Polishes, I wanted to try to incorporate the two.  To achieve this, I used three different polishes.

I used my favorite pink polish, China Glaze's Diva Bride as a base.  This color is beautiful, but very light.  Therefore, I applied three coats to my nails.  While I don't think the third coat was necessary, I wanted to pink hue to show through.  The most difficult part of doing this manicure was waiting for Diva Bride to completely dry.  I needed it to though because the next step in this look is applying Crackle.

I used China Glaze's Lightening Bolt (white crackle) over Diva Bride.  When I use Crackle, I make sure to apply a thinner coat to my nail.  I have found that the thicker the coat, the less likely you are to see the base color and it can start to look sloppy.  This combination looks so pretty, and could be worn for a great spring time or Easter look.  But in keeping with my winter theme, I needed to add some holiday sparkle to it.  That is where China Glaze's Snow Globe comes in. 

I applied one coat of Snow Globe over Diva Bride and Lightening Bolt.  As I have said before, I love this polish!  Layered over a lighter color, it really looks wintry and icy.  It reminds me of that iridescent look of snow in the morning sun. 

Thanks so much for reading!  Have a great day.

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Green & Gold

Good Morning!  Welcome to Day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  Today, I chose China Glaze's Holly-Day with their Twinkle Lights.  Between the Christmas green of Holly Day and the golden-glitter of Twinkle Lights, this combination reminds me of my Christmas Tree decorated with colored lights!

Holly-Day is a rich and creamy shade of green.  It looks very lush on and the shade closely resembles an evergreen tree.  It is from China Glaze's Let It Snow collection that came out this holiday season.  While the polish is gorgeous on its own, I wanted to layer it with something since yesterday's post was just a polish.  I did play around with some decals and crackled looks, but decided to layer it with the glitter polish Twinkle Lights.

Twinkle Lights is also from China Glaze's Let It Snow collection.  It is a gold sparkly polish with hints of red and green in the mix.  It looks pretty layered over a darker polish because you really notice its detail.  Over Holly-Day, it looks like lights on a tree. The only downside that I found to this glitter polish is that it has a watery consistency.  I had to apply a few coats of it to my nail so that the sparkle was evenly spread out.  I gave the bottle a good roll before application to mix it up, but it still appeared watery to me.  

 Thanks so much for reading!  I hope that you have a wonderful day.  Come back tomorrow for another Christmas-inspired look!

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Classic Christmas Red

Happy Monday Everyone!  I hope that you had a fabulous weekend.  Welcome to Day 6 of my 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  Today, I am reviewing China Glaze's Poinsettia.  I chose this polish today because I had a very busy weekend between work and Christmas Parties, and I needed a classic holiday color that would be appropriate for everything.

Poinsettia is a gorgeous shade of red that is very flattering.  I find that some reds make my skin look very pale.  This polish looked great on and I think that it would be flattering on all skin tones.  While I applied two coats of polish to my nails, I didn't need to.  The first coat went on very smooth and wasn't streaky.  I love this polish and think that it truly represents that classic Christmas red that looks so appropriate this time of year.  

Thanks so much for reading. I hope that you have a great day!  Come back tomorrow for another Christmas look.  While I went a bit conservative today, I want to do something tomorrow with some easy nail art! 

The 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Day 5/Silver & Gold

TGIF!  Welcome to Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  Today's inspiration is from my favorite Christmas movie...Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.  In that movie, the snowman sings a song titled "Silver and Gold".  Since the song has always stuck in my head, I wanted to do a silver and gold manicure for the holiday season.  This manicure was much more complicated than I thought it would be.  I had to paint my nails three times, with different polishes, to achieve this classy and timeless holiday look.

For my final, and best look, I ended up using what have turned out to be my two favorite polishes...OPI's Bring on the Bling and Essie's Loophole.  I used the silver Loophole on all of my nails except my ring finger, where I painted on the gold glitter, Bring on the Bling.  I suppose that blogging, and coming up with different looks is a game of trial and error.  And I made a few errors trying to achieve this Silver and Gold look with different bottles of polish.

On my first attempt to carry out this look, I used China Glaze's Champagne Bubbles.  While I love most products that I have tried by this company, I wasn't a fan of Champagne Bubbles.  Instead of looking classy, like actual champagne, this hue looked terrible on me.  While I am blaming this on my pale skin tone, I just was very unhappy with the look of the polish.  The color on me reminded me of the color of a McDonald's cheeseburger wrapper.  I even tried to layer OPI's Silver Shatter over it, but I still didn't love the look.

Next, I tried using Loophole as a base, and China Glaze's Tarnished Gold Crackle over it.  Although this manicure looked better than the first one that I tried, I still was underwhelmed with the overall look of it.  Therefore, I went to my final look with Loophole & Bring on the Bling.

In closing, I want to quote my favorite line from the Silver and Gold Song:
     Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold
     Everyone wishes for Silver and Gold
     How do you measure its worth?
     Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth

My first two attempts at this look gave me no pleasure.  I hope that you enjoy the manicure that I finally came up with!  Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a great day.

1st Attempt using Champagne Bubbles with Silver Shatter

2nd Attempt using Loophole w/Gold Crackle

 

The 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Day 4/Shattered Candy Cane

 Happy Thursday!  Welcome to the 4th day of Christmas Polishes.  My inspiration for this manicure was one of the most well-known Christmas symbols...the Candy Cane!  For this look, I used OPI's Alpine Snow as a white base color on four of my fingers.  I used OPI's Big Apple Red on my ring finger.  Once the white completely dried, I used OPI's Red Shatter over it.  The shattered effect reminds me of a candy cane that dropped on the floor.

To add some additional nail art, I used Nail Art Decals by Cina.  The package that I purchased is ironically called Peppermint Stripe and contains adorable Christmas decals.  I stuck a candy cane on my ring finger, but the package also includes snowmen, trees, and wrapped presents.  Decals are a really fast and easy way to add some holiday nail art to your at-home mani!

I hope that you enjoy this look.  As always, have a great day and come back tomorrow for the 5th Day of Christmas Polishes!

The 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Day 3/Pink Wednesday

Happy Pink Wednesday!  Since I am on Day 3 of my Christmas Polishes, I wanted to incorporate pink into my look.  This look is inspired by a line in Twas the Night Before Christmas..."The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their head." To interpret this look onto my nails, I chose mark. Trend Holiday Mini-Lacquers with China Glaze's Snow Globe.  The mark. polish is a very pretty pinkish berry shade, with a hint of shimmer.  While the color alone conjured up visions of sugar plums in my own head, I thought that by adding Snow Globe it would be more appropriate.  Snow Globe is a pretty, white glitter polish and therefore, reminded me of sugar. 

I think this look is charming and festive.  The mark. polish is pretty anytime of the year, but is especially appropriate in the fall and winter, since it is a warm berry shade.  Adding Snow Globe just adds that extra holiday sparkle. 

In doing some research for this post, I found out interesting facts about sugar plums.  They are not made of plums at all.  Sugar plums instead, are a sweet made of sugar-coated seeds.  It was considered a real holiday treat back in the day because sugar was extremely expensive. (http://deborah-harding.suite101.com/the-best-sugar-plum-recipes-for-christmas-a169752)  It is amazing the history behind some of our Christmas traditions.

Thanks so much for reading.  I hope you  have a great day and be sure to check back tomorrow for another Christmas inspired look.  I am thinking something with candy canes!  

  

The 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Day 2

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Day 2.  On the second day of Christmas Polishes, the spa mom swatched for me Essie's Loophole layered with China Glaze's Tinsel Town.  I had two different inspirations for this look.  I wanted something silvery in keeping with the Christmas theme (think Silver Bells), and I also got a great bracelet from New York & Company to wear to a Christmas party.  The hue of Tinsel Town looked exactly like the bracelet.

Loophole is my first Essie purchase.  I LOVE this polish!  The first coat went on so smoothly that I really didn't need a second one.  Out of habit, I applied that second coat and the finish was amazing.  The silver color is beautiful and the polish is really high quality.  I wanted something sliver and festive, and couldn't find any other color at the beauty supply store that I liked as much.  Now that I have an Essie product, I plan on purchasing many more!

I applied Tinsel Town over Loophole to achieve that holiday look.  This glitter polish looks like it is silvery-black in the bottle.  However, when I applied it to my nail, it appeared icy-blue.  While I thought the polish was very pretty, it wasn't what I expected at all.  I applied a few coats of Tinsel Town to my nails so that they would look similar to my bracelet.  I do like this color, but I must admit that I think Essie's Loophole looked better by itself.  During these 12 days of Christmas Polishes, I am going to try to incorporate the beautiful silver polish to another holiday look. 

Thanks so much for reading!  Come back tomorrow for the 3rd look.  Have a wonderful day!

The 12 Days of Christmas Polishes: Day 1

Happy Manicure Monday!  Today, I am starting my 12 Days of Christmas Polishes.  For the next 12 days, I will be creating different looks inspired by all aspects of the season.  Today, on the first day, I have chosen China Glaze's Glittering Garland.  I chose this color first because my family and I were going to our city's Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and this polish reminded me so much of a fresh spruce tree.

Glittering Garland is a very festive green that features glitter right in the polish.  I love the glitter because it gives the green some bling without that extra step of adding a sparkly polish.  The shade is literally the color of garland or a tree.  It is a great holiday alternative to red.  While I adore the color red, especially during the holidays, it is an obvious choice.  Glittering Garland, or another shade of green, achieves that perfect Christmas manicure, while being a little different.

I painted my nails while my son was napping, and he of course woke up right as I was adding a second coat of polish.  Therefore, my manicure is a bit messy.  However, when the extra polish on my skin came off in the shower, my nails looked so much better.  People noticed my nails and complimented to color.  Glittering Garland is a festive and appropriate look for anything from a tree lightening ceremony to an office Christmas party.

Thanks so much for reading.  Come back tomorrow for my 2nd Day of Christmas Polishes review.  Have a great day!

A Year Round Glow

So I will admit it...I am addicted to having a nice, healthy, summer glow.  I love it so much, that I use my self-tanner and bronzer daily, year round.  I feel gross without it on.  Yesterday, my sister noticed that my arms and legs were white and commented that she hadn't seen the true color of my skin in years.  (I ran out of my favorite self-tanner last week and between work and the Thanksgiving, didn't have time to get a new bottle).  My sister's reaction though forced me to ask this question:  Is it really that bad to use a sunless tanner year round?

As I raced to my local CVS after her comment, I started to think about the science of sunless tanners.  I have heard people comment that self-tanning products couldn't be that good for you and that your skin needs to breathe.  Yet, the main active ingredient in these products is Dihydroxyacetone or DHA.  All this is, is a skin coloring agent.  The DHA has a chemical reaction with the very first layer of your skin, which is the dead layer anyway.  During the reaction, a color change occurs and the DHA literally stains your skin.  Since the product is applied to the dead layer of skin, it is not absorbed into the body.  In my opinion, sunless tanners are completely safe to use.

The second thought that ran through my head during my all out sprint to the body lotion aisle was the many benefits of using a sunless tanner year round.  I feel more confident with a tan and look healthier with a glow.  When I feel better about my self, I am a more confident in all aspects of my life.  Using this product during my pregnancy has helped me tremendously.  The product covers my flaws and makes my growing legs still look fit and toned.  My sunless tanner is also beneficial when I take my son to swim lessons.  Because he is so young, I have to put on a bathing suit and go in the water with him.  This product makes it a little easier for me to put a swim suit on while I am 6-months pregnant.  It also helps to conceal some scaring that I have on my arm from the removal of a skin cancer.

I think that the holiday season is an excellent time for using sunless tanners because of all the parties and events that come up.  By using these products, you can wear a dress without the tights, or really embrace the strapless or one-shoulder tops.  Arms and legs will look tanned and toned. 


 My favorite sunless tanner to use, especially during the winter, is Loreal Sublime Glow.  This product is a daily moisturizer and makes my skin soft and smooth, in addition to tan!  I think that in being a self tanorexic, I am forced to moisturize daily to keep up my tan.  My soft, well-moisturized skin is just an added bonus!  Although I was out of this product for a full week, after one application, my skin is already starting to show that beautiful, healthy glow!   

I am thrilled that this product exists.  It makes this pregnant mom's body image improve and keeps me glowing throughout the year.  I am interested in your thoughts on this subject.  What are your favorite sunless tanners to use?  Do you use these products year round?  E-mail me with any comments or suggestions at thespamom@gmail.com  Thanks so much for reading!  Enjoy your day.