Products I'm loving

I've been meaning to do one of these posts for a while -  some of my favorite products!
Warning - male readers feel free to click away right now. This will not interest you and might gross you out. Ha).

To be honest, I don't really have much of a beauty "routine." I don't wear makeup most days. If I do wear makeup I almost always forget to wash it off before I go to bed (I have YEARS of dermatology including a quite painful round of Accutane in 2009 to thank for my good skin), but I do have a couple things that I swear by.

First up - A confession. I have ugly armpits. They are not smooth. They are dark. Even when I have JUST shaved, I have almost like a 5:00 shadow. They're ugly. I rarely raise my arms in sleeveless shirts. It's honestly one of my biggest hangups about my body (and this coming from someone who is FAR FROM a size 0 waif). I had laser hair removal done forever ago. I've gotten a gazillion creams and such from the dermatologist. None of it really seems to do anything. So when Dove came out with this deodorant that they said "visibly reduces the appearance of hair over time." I thought what the hell, I'll give it a shot.

And lo and behold... it works! At least I think it does. Maybe it's just because my armpits were SO BAD before. They're still bad. But they're not as bad.
So I'm just gonna throw this out there while I'm at it - do I have any blog readers with ugly armpits who have found a solution that makes them not so ugly? Like I said I've tried laser hair removal, seen my dermatologist, etc. This is the best I can do. I am always willing to try something new!

Wow, I don't think I've ever told anyone this before. Feels good to get it off my chest. Errr... armpits. Ha. Bad joke. Okay now onto more stuff!

So I know I said I don't wash my face very often (I know, I know... I'm terrible!), but when I do, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Clarisonic. It's freaking amazing.

It was well worth the money and makes my skin feel 100 times cleaner and smoother than just using face wash and my hands.

Speaking of face wash - I don't really have a favorite of these. 
I've been using this Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser since freshman year of high school. I keep it in the shower and love the tingly way it makes my face feel when I use it.

And I keep this on the bathroom counter for use with the Clarisonic. It's gentle and feels good.

The Kiehl's stuff is slightly pricier, but not too bad.

Speaking of my face - ugh! So I mentioned above that I took accutane last year. I started taking acne medicine when I was like 9 (no joke), and no joke I have taken every antibotic and topical medication under the sun. Finally second year of law school my skin started to get bad (well, bad for me, I wasn't exactly a pizza face), and I was getting terribly painful under the skin cysts. I had been putting off accutane forever, mainly because I hate needles and getting blood drawn monthly is required with accutane, but I could put it off no longer. Accutane has several terrible side effects. One of the ones that was the worst for me was that my lips were SO DRY. Like peeling off in chunks. Like cracking and bleeding. Terrible.

My dermatologist and my doctor friend that I blog about on occasion both recommended aquaphor, and they were right. It is a lifesaver for dry lips.

And actually I will use it on my cuticles or my feet or really anywhere else you would use lotion. It's amazing.

So in addition to painful bloody lips (isn't accutane glamorous?!), I could no longer wear lipstick for a period of about 9 months! Like I said I don't wear makeup on a regular basis, but I definitely do when I go out, and HOT HOT HOT pink lips are like my signature thing. No hot pink lips meant no fabulous and sad me. So while stocking up on Aquaphor (seriously I bought like 100 things of it. They're all over the place and in every bag I own) at Walgreen's one day, I saw this Nivea lip stuff next to it. I picked it up and gave it a try and loved it! I still use it on a day to day basis.

I have both the "glossy pink" (pictured!) and the "glossy red" and love them both. They are great moisturizers that provide just a little hint of color.

And since we're talking moisturizers - my very favorite lotion. I have tried every lotion out there on the planet, and none come close to my beloved Johnson's baby lotion.

Makes my skin feel smooth as buttah, and that's all there is to say about that!

And of course a beauty product that EVERY person of every age should have - sunscreen! I'm not always the best about putting it on my body (will usually just go with SPF for the bod) but I NEVER put less than SPF 30 on my face. Who wants premature wrinkles?! Or the C word (melanoma on BOTH sides of my family!!!!)
My personal favorite, recommended by my favorite Dallas dermatologist is Blue Lizard Australian sunscreen. And I've tried 'em all!

And the coolest thing about it? The bottle changes color when any sort of harmful rays from the sun are present! Ha.
The only place I can ever find this is behind the pharmacy counter at Target (like you have to ask the pharmacist to get it for you. No idea why).

Oh and one last product - dry shampoo!
I don't know how I lived with this stuff. I'm actually glad I didn't have it in high school. Because I never washed my hair as it is (all girls school, personal hygiene is WAYYYY down on the priority list!) ... I can't imagine how infrequent I would have been washing it if I had known about this stuff!
I actually bought this kind because I read in some magazine last year that this is what Britney Spear's hairstylist used on her hair while on the Circus tour... and you know I love me some Brit Brit.

You just spray it on, run your fingers through your hair, and Voila! Another day before you have to wash! I love it. My brother's girlfriend swears dry shampoo is the only way her hair gets any body. She has really fine hair though... I have a really thick flat mane, so the only thing that gives me any body is to tease the hell out of it. I have tried a couple other, less expensive brands, but I keep coming back to Rene Furterer. Well worth the $24 a can. (oh and I can't speak to how dry shampoo does on dark hair. but for blondes it's a godsend!)

So there you have it - all of my favorites!
Thoughts on what I use? Do you have something that you think is better?