I am not a person who uses shaving gels or creams when I shave my legs in the shower. I use good old fashioned water. I am usually in hurry, and most of the stuff out there makes me break out in hives (the joys of being allergic to life itself).  I recently tried the All Natural Shaving Oil.  Yes, that little bottle will last you close to 100 shaves.  You only use 5 – 7 drops, so you do not need a lot.  It makes a little lather.  There is a couple things I noticed after using this to shave my legs.  First, it didn’t make me break out into hives.  Second, I didn’t need to moisturize my legs after shaving.  I also think it gave me a closer shave.  I also loved that there was no mess to clean up — no extra shaving cream to wipe away.  The other awesome thing is that this is a 1/2 oz bottle, so you can make it through airport security! 

I would definitely check out Pacific Shaving Company for all your shaving needs.  If it works this good on my legs, I can only imagine how great it would work on your face or elsewhere.

Something that my daughter likes is anything that can be customized. Shains is one of items that she really likes. Shains is recycled fashion accessories. There is a little something for everyone; there are keychains, ponytail holders, necklaces, pins, bracelets, and dog collars. Madison easily made herself a bracelet and a ponytail holder. There are 50 letter and symbols that can be used, so you can easily make any message you want. Madison enjoyed being able to spell her name and then put a ton of symbols like a ice cream cones and a strawberry next to her name. She really enjoyed being able to be as creative as she wanted to be. She also loved being able to do this all by herself. She didn’t need us to make the bracelet at all!

Shains stands for “state how action is a necessary solution”. They realized right away that wasn’t going to be catchy enough, so they shortened it to Shains. Shains are made of 100% recyclable scrap materials. I personally think it is brilliant that the owner of this company took something that others were throwing away and came up with a great product for kids! I also love that 10% of the net profits are also donated to environmental organizations.

If you have a fashionable environmentally conscious kid who has everything, Shains is the way to go!

A great gift to give any women in your life is Giella custom blend cosmetics. There is no more guessing on what shade will work best for you (or her). They make cosmetic pencils for lips, eyes, and brows. They also have concealer. For your lips, they have custom blend pencils that range from sheer to cream to full bodied. You can even add soy butter and conditioners if you like. For your eyes, you can create the perfect eye liner. You can keep it matte or add some shimmer in gold, silver, copper, or bronze. For brows, you can create a color that matches your hair, softens your brows, and is smudge proof. Madison and I tried the nail polish they also have this afternoon. It dried pretty quick with a great shine. The lipstick and lip gloss also has a great look to it. I love that you can customize everything, so it looks best with your hair color and skin tone. We watched While You Were Out Today, and this is a great show to see how much a little of the right kind of makeup can make a difference!  I’m not sure if they used this kind of makeup.  However, they had a lady that had 80’s makeup and was using all the wrong colors.  When they updated her look and showed her the right colors for her skintone, the difference was amazing.

The best part is that this can all be made while you are waiting. It takes about 5 minutes to make. You can find this at Henri Bendel’s in New York City, selec t salons in Baltimore, Louisiana, and Philadelphia, and online at www.giella.com.  To do this for Christmas, here’s what you need to do:

Purchase an empty lipstick case, lip gloss wand, cheek tint or concealer compact or nail polish bottle, and we will fill it according to what your gift recipient wants.  They will send the empty component(s) (for lips, cheeks or nails) with instructions of how to pick the perfect color and texture online at www.giella.com. Then they will mail the personalized custom colors and keep the formulas on file for future reorders.  How easy is that shopping, and you (or the woman you are shopping for) gets exactly what they want!

Ever wonder what to get for the person who has everything? Jones Soda has the answer for you! How about a customized label on a few bottles of their soda (well, actually you order a 12 pack)?  This works not only for the person who you don’t know what to buy for but also for grandparents and other family members.  This also works great for other holidays and even bridal showers.  How awesome would it be to pick up a bottle of this soda at the rehearsal dinner at a wedding and see the bride and groom’s picture on there.

The process is really quite simple.  All you need to do is log into www.myjones.com.  You then submit the photo you want to use.  If you need some ideas, they have a photo gallery of other pictures people have submitted.  Then you pick which flavor of soda you’d like the picture to be one.  There have several flavors including Fufu Berry, Orange & Cream, Blue Bubblehum, and Ameri-cola.  Once ordered, your bottles will show up on your doorstep within 3 – 4 weeks.  A 12 pack sells for $29.99 plus shipping.