I’ve come a long way since using Bath and Body Works Sun-Ripened Raspberry products in high school. Was it just be or were all the girls walking around smelling delicious and sweet (almost too sweet!) in this popular scent? I’ve since retired Sun-Ripened Raspberry from my repertoire but now, I think I’ve found a new raspberry-scented product worthy of adding back into my day-to-day.

Jaqua Raspberry Buttercream collection is delicious, and yes it’s sweet, but it’s by far a more grown up scent for my near 30-year-old self. It really smells like fresh raspberries, as if you were eating them whole - with the seeds and everything! The Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Hand Creme that I have is a little greasy for my liking, but it absorbs well and is a great buy for $8. This is the first time I’ve used Jaqua products and I’d actually like to try some more of their delicious goodies - Pink Grapefruit anyone? That sounds so delicious and refreshing!

Raspberry Buttercream Collection has a full suite of body products, from Lip Whip, a fun lip gloss with vitamins A and E, to Shower Creme. Lather yourself up with the shower creme before applying the Body Butter and smell like a fresh raspberry garden all day long!

Nab yourself some of Jaqua’s Raspberry Buttercream collection at Ulta, Bath & Body Works Flagships, bathandbodyworks.com, and other fine beauty retailers and let me know what you think!

Love this post? Subscribe to The Daily Cookie RSS feed and email where I’ll always bring you the latest product releases from your favorite beauty brands!

Today I’m heading out of the office early to pack up the car and go camping at Clearlake — about 2.5 hours north of San Francisco. I’ve never been camping before since my idea of roughin’ it is a fully functional lakeside cabin. This weekend, we’re pitching tents, fishing and.. well, for me, I’ll be laying out basking in the sun too

The boyfriend tells me I need to pack light and leave the makeup bag at home. And while I’m giving in and leaving the Chanel back in the city, there are definitely a few basics that I’m going to take with me.

1. Pond’s Clean Sweep Wet Cleansing Towelettes - on a campsite where bathrooms and sinks might be scarce, I plan to keep my skin clean and refreshed in 90 degree heat with these easy disposable wipes. These are heavy duty cloths packed with chamomile and vitamin E. Just one wipe will suffice in taking away all the sweat and grime from the outdoors in a few swipes. And, in a 30-pack, I can share with the rest of my friends without a hassle.

(more…)

Some of you might have noticed that I’ve become extremely obsessed with Weeds over the past week or so. This Showtime hit featuring a pot-slinging suburban housewife, Nancy Botwin, is so comical and endearing, I’ve been watching the past 3 seasons for hours on end - a marathon, if you will.

Mary Louise Parker, who plays Nancy, is so adorable, I couldn’t help but be interested when I came across an article in July’s issue of Self magazine featuring her favorite things.

Among those, Parker loves Jurlique Citrus Shower Gel and Calendula-Lavender Hydrating Essence. “Jurlique products smell so fresh and soothing, you feel like you’re at the spa!” With that said, I can’t wait to visit my nearest Jurlique store on Fillmore Street in San Francisco to scope these goodies out.

Citrus Shower Gel ($22 US) has yummy ingredients like rosemary, lemon, and grapefruit that are sure to leave me feeling quite clean and refreshed after I get out of the shower. Calendula-Lavender Hydrating Essence ($38 US) is a product I’m not too familiar. The website says it’s a pre-treatment for the skin to resurface cells and relax pores. I think I can definitely use this for after the shower or exfoliating. At any rate, you can’t really go wrong with anything that smells of lavender, in my opinion.

Have you tried any of these Jurlique products? I’d love to get your take on them!

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to The Daily Cookie RSS feed and email where I will always try to bring you your favorite celebrity’s must-haves!

My fellow San Franciscans, have you noticed that our weather has been a little chilly these past couple of days? Saturday was gorgeous but Sunday and Monday have been horribly overcast and chilly. I had to pull out my winter sweaters to find an outfit for work — I hate when I have to do that in the middle of sundress season. How’s a girl supposed to get her tan on in the middle of all this overcast?

Today, like a sign, I opened up my Daily Candy and found Glow a Go-Go, a sunless spray service that comes to you! No more scrambling through city traffic to North Beach, the land of no parking, because their mobile service now comes to you!

Make an appointment and one of their state-licensed cosmetologists will come to your home, work, anywhere you want, and work their instant spray tan magic on you.  From start to finish, you’ll have a healthy and safe glow that lasts for one to two weeks in just 30 minutes!  So even if I can’t get my warm sunshine in San Francisco’s fickle micro-climates, I can certainly create my own destiny and at least pretend that I just got back from laying out all week in Cabo!

Check out Glow a Go-Go in San Francisco at 1318 Grant Avenue at Vallejo Street or call (415) 335-5716 for more information.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to The Daily Cookie RSS feed and email where I’ll bring you the best in San Francisco beauty!

The Boyfriend’s younger sister works at Refresh Day Spa and chipped in for a gift certificate for my birthday earlier this year. I finally got to take advantage of my gift and spent an amazing two hours there yesterday. I gotta say, it was completely divine - one of the most relaxing services I’ve had in a while.

Refresh has a good selection of massage and body services; I opted for an hour and a half of pampering and relaxation with the Hawaiian Salt Glow Scrub and accompanying Swedish Massage with Kukui Nut Oil.

I started off with the scrub service in the spa’s wet room. The space is completely tiled with shower heads above the bed that moves back and forth and a water hose to help rinse off the salts.

For me, Paul used a scrub made with a combination of salt and sugar in a delicious Thai Lemongrass scent. I really loved this scrub - it was nice and warm, and the particles weren’t too big or small. It was just perfect to slosh off all the dead skin. I could also tell the difference in my arms and legs afterwards that the scrub had enough oils in it to keep me silky smooth as well.

Next up was my amazing massage with Kukui Nut Oil. Kukui Nut Oil is extracted from the Kukui Nut tree, which was first brought to Hawaii by Polynesian settlers. Now, this tree is Hawaii’s official state tree and its oil contains vitamins A, C, and E with anti-oxidants that protects the skin. Kukui Nut Oil is also known for it’s rejuvenating and soothing effects on the skin and can be used for its healing properties on skin irritations, wounds, and burns and others as well. But best of all, my Kukui Nut Oil massage makes me feel amazing because it sinks int my skin to create a protective shield and locks in moisture so that I’m touchably soft all day long.

If you’re ever in San Francisco, make an appointment at Refresh Day Spa, located at 1130 Post Street right off of Van Ness Street.

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to The Daily Cookie RSS feed and email to hear more about my city jaunts, where I bring you the best in beauty in and around San Francisco.

Thank goodness I’m home, and with being away for almost a week, I was more than ready to get back into my regular routine.

After making it back to San Francisco in record time (I’m talking just under three hours baby!), I spent the entire afternoon catching up on work email in my pajamas and then a few hours just vegging out in front of the TV watching missed episodes of America’s Best Dance Crew and discovering a new show on A&E - Intervention.

Have you seen this? It’s a crazy documentary where people with drug addictions think that they are being profiled only to discover later on that their families have scheduled interventions to make them go to rehab. If you’ve got a strong stomach, I recommend it because it’s pretty interesting. But watching a 23-year-old guy shoot heroin into his ass cheek is not for the weak at heart.

Watching two back to back episodes of Intervention made me decide that I needed a good cleanse myself and hopped into the shower to get all the highway travel grit off me. I gave myself an extra dose of pampering with a full body scrub down with MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator from their Future Earth collection that was released a few weeks ago. (more…)

I know most of us are really good about taking care of our skin when it comes to our face. But how many of you (like me) remember to take care of your neck and décolletage? I’d safely bet that not all of us are giving it as much attention as some of the men in our lives do. *wink*

The skin around our neck and cleavage start to wrinkle probably around the time that we start to find those lines on our face. We spend so much time with face creams, eye creams, anti-aging regimens, etc., we completely forget about the other sensitive skin places around our face. But fear not, some of our favorite beauty lines offer solutions especially for your neck and cleavage.

I’d love to know if you’ve tried any of these and which ones your favorites are!

Bliss Thinny Thin Chin ($48 US) is quite possibly the most exciting thing to happen to your neck since you got your first hickey. With a dual-action complex that instantly tightens, while firming, hydrating and improving the appearance of neck lines, crepiness and hyper-pigmentation over time. It’s like a liquid bra for your v-zone!

Olay Total Effects Night Firming Cream for Face and Neck is a non-greasy formula that absorbs deep into your skin’s surface to continuously tighten the upper network of skin cells, giving you visibly firmer, more supple skin. The fast-absorbing cream contains skin-strengthening VitaNiacin and helps diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Clarins Jeunesse du Cou - Advanced Extra-Firming Neck Cream ($76 US) keeps the delicate skin of this highly fragile area looking younger longer with this ultimate firming neck treatment that helps firm and smooth away lines and wrinkles as it immediately ‘lifts.’ The feather-light, silky texture disappears into the skin instantly.

Philosophy’s When Hope Is Not Enough ($25 US) for face, neck and décollete is an ultra-rich, moisture cream that helps to hydrate and firm the skin on the neck and decollete area and promote resilience and lift while helping to reduce the signs of premature aging.

Fact: Every October, the blossoms from an almond tree transform into a fruit which grows the almond nut in the center of it. The delicious nut is the main ingredient in my favorite body products from L’Occitane!

When I’m in the mood, I use Almond Delicious Paste ($34 US) in the shower to gently exfoliate my skin. It contains crushed almond nuts and sugar crystals, whipped with nourishing almond oil and almond butter to stimulate cellular activity while making my skin smooth. It’s smells wonderful too and I leaves me feeling like I’ve been in the shower for hours even when I’m not.

Pair this body treatment with their ultra-silky Almond Milk Concentrate lotion ($38 US) and you’re all set! L’Occitane blends both tradition (the use of almond proteins) and science (soft silicium to help support collagen synthesis) into a concentrated milk that nourishes and smoothes the skin. I really LOVE this product and it’s a L’Occitane best seller. I only have one critique and it’s that I wish it came in a bottle with a pump for easy use.

Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!