Review: Lancome DreamTone

I received a sample bottle of Lancome DreamTone which is the lines ultimate dark spot corrector for the purpose of review. I have suffered from acne and pigmentation issues due to acne and scarring for a very long time. I had not really branched out to try any lightening/dark spot correcting products as I’m in a constant battle of finding the correct line of products that will work on curing my acne. But when I was invited to take part of this campaign, I was delighted. I’ve heard amazing things about the L’Oreal Youth Code Texture Perfector and have wanted to give that a try (I only bring this up because L’Oreal is owned by Lancome).

PACKAGING & PRICE

The product is packaged in a sleek pink to burgundy colored bottle, with a silver lid that you twist to one side to reveal the products dispenser pump. I like this design because you can feel it “click” open and closed and if the top isn’t fully clicked into “open” the product will not dispense. I feel the design itself makes this a relatively safe product to travel with. The bottle itself is a hard plastic bottle, which has a decent weight to it.

Each bottle contains 1.3 fl ounces of product and can be purchased for $98.

PRODUCT

The product is sold in three skin-tone appropriate formulas (fair, medium and dark). Each customized shade targets specific skin issues, while also coming in a shade that is appropriate and unnoticeable on the skin. For fair tones it’s customized to treat dark spots, uneven skin tone and redness.  For medium skin tones it’s customized to treat dark spots, uneven skin tone and sallowness (a yellow-looking complexion). Whereas for dark skin tones it is customized to treat dark spots, uneven skin tone and acne & blemish marks.  It is formulated without the use of parabens, sulfates and phthalates.  According to the brand and its trials conducted these are the results they found:

 

“IMMEDIATELY:

• 74% saw glowing skin*

7 DAYS:
• 70% noticed a more even skin tone*

4 WEEKS:
• 69% saw the appearance of dark spots reduced*

8 WEEKS:
• 78% saw color imperfections reduced*”

The product itself pumps out of the container in precisely just the right amount of product. You’re not left with an overwhelming amount of product. I simply dab the product all over my face and neck then blend it in wit my fingertips.  The color of the product will vary depending on the type (based on your skin tone) you purchased.  The product for medium skin is a pink shade. 

The product does have a fragrance to it, which I find to be completely delightful. It smells of roses and it’s very elegant and girly. I can smell the product on my face for a few minutes after application, but the scent quickly dissipates or perhaps it becomes unnoticeable to me.

Applying the product to my face, I apply a pump to the back of my hand, then use my fingertip to dab the product all over my face for even application. I then use my fingertips and gently massage the serum into my skin. I can wear this with or without makeup. I want to point out that I have oily skin and this does not make me extra oily or shiny. After the product is applied to the skin, you can almost immediately notice a glowy look to the skin. A few minutes after its set, that glow is more apparent. It’s not a shiny glow … it just makes me look more awake, it evens out my skin tone, and truly does tone down the appearance of dark spots/pigmentation issues on my skin. It also leaves my skin feeling luxurious - very smooth and silky to the touch.

PURCHASING

The Lancome DreamTone is available for purchase at select high-end retailers such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard’s, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor and Sephora.  The product can also be purchased online at many of these retailers’ websites, as well as through HSN (Home Shopping Network) as well as though the Lancome website.

OVERALL

I am quite enjoying Lancome DreamTone and am finding it makes my face smooth and glowy. I will admit there have been days where I forgot to apply it at night or in the morning, so there have been days where I’ve only used it once.  But nonetheless I have enjoyed seeing the results. I’m not an everyday makeup wearer so I’ve been pleasantly surprised and quite thrilled with the results I see. My face can look tired, particularly when I’m feeling under the weather and DreamTone has completely given my face and skin a whole new life. Concurrent acne troubles aside, I feel my face is brighter, warmer and the focus is less on the current acne breakouts when wearing the product. I also like the fact that I can put this on my face and NOT have to follow up with a full face of makeup.

Since the DreamTone serums are broken down into color profiles to cater to specific skin concerns; I honestly feel as though I would benefit better from a combination of the medium and dark serums. My skin is medium/tan – but I have redness around my cheeks and nose, uneven skin coloring, sallowness (yellow-looking skin). My skin tone also gets darker in the spring/summer months, but regardless of that I also have blemish marks on my face from acne that I would like to give the 1-2-punch. Admittedly two bottles of DreamTone in different shades would be a pretty penny out of my wallet, but I may pay a Macy’s counter a visit while in the mall and ask for a sample and give it a try. If I like the results from the dark serum I’ll gladly purchase a bottle in that shade range.

QUESTION:

Have you tried the Lancome DreamTone?

Disclaimer: I received a sample bottle of Lancome DreamTone for the purpose of review. Even though I received this product for free, I want to note that this does not alter my opinion of the product in any way.

Avon Haul

Avon Calling!

This is an older haul and the photo has been sitting on my camera so to do some picture purging, I figured I might as well post this.  I mean, better late than never right?  I submitted this order when Avon was running a deal with Fergie perfumes and I got 2 bottles for the price of 1 or it was a buy one get one 50% off.  Since I owned one of the Fergie perfumes, I figured I might as well get the other 2 since I enjoyed the one I had.  I made sure to look up reviews and they ranged from all across the board, but for the most part the reviews were pleasantly positive.

Since I’ve also been looking into serums, when Avon launched their clinical multi-tone skin corrector serum I decided to pick it up. Since it was an introductory product, I got it for a little bit less than its future price.  I admit, I have not tried this yet, but since I’m trying a new serum at the moment, this one will be on the back burner until I’m done with that serum.

Here’s what I ordered:

• Fergie Outspoken perfume
• Fergie Outspoken Intense perfume
• Anew Clinical Absolute Even Multi-Tone skin Corrector

QUESTION:

Have you tried any new Avon products as of late?

The Body Shop Haul!

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I love The Body Shop! I love The Body Shop so much that I have a stock pile in some of their products (particularly their tea tree line) and still have a list of items I want to try/replenish. I’ve been telling myself I was on a The Body Shop “no buy” but when I stumbled upon a $10 off $20 coupon which was featured on coupons.com I couldn’t help myself. I printed 2 coupons out and stuck them in my bag as I was anticipating a trip to the mall.

It was “meant to be” because when I got to the mall and the store was offering one of their spin the wheel deals. I spun the wheel and got 40% off all merchandise in the store. I made sure to ask the girl who gave me the discount card if I could use the $10 off $20 coupon and the 40% and I was told I could. So, that meant shopping spree … haha, no, not really.

Browsing the store I was immediately drawn to their new honey line.  The body butter smelled amazing, but I don’t really need any more body butters at the moment. Needless to say I did two transactions and only paid $22 for everything … which is fabulous since the hand and foot butter is $22 on its own.

Here’s what I picked up:

• Spa Wisdom of Africa Honey & Beeswax Hand and Foot Butter
• Tea Tree Squeaky-Clean Scrub
• Honeymania Eau du Toilette
• White Musk Smokey Rose Eau du Parfum

QUESTION:

What are some of your favorite – or new favorite products from The Body Shop?

Haul: Revlon Matte Balms & Lacquer Balms

Many thanks to the couponing community on Instagram for posting this DD-deal (double dip deal) for Walgreen’s Saturday night. About 2 weeks ago I purchased my first matte balm (haven’t opened that one yet) for $6.99 but thanks to this deal and some register rewards I only paid $3.01 for ALL 8 of these!  How so you ask?

Well, Revlon at Walgreens  (primarily at early activation stores) was ringing up 40% off as well as Buy 1 Get 1 50% off. So it was essentially $5.39/ea for the 1st & 2.69/ea for the 2nd. Inside the Walgreen’s coupon booklet (found in-store) there is a $2 Walgreens Revlon coupon and once scanned it takes $2 off each and every Revlon lip product in your transaction.  So with that it made the first balm $3.39 and the second $0.69 – so truthfully it was $4.08 for both.  If you had the $1 off Revlon manufacturers coupon from the Sunday paper, you would’ve paid even less ($2.08 for 2)  Unfortunately I did not have any manufacturer coupons, but I did have register rewards so that helped me out a ton.

So after my register rewards (for many of my free Nature Made vitamins I had purchased last week) I only paid $3.01 out of pocket for all of these! Talk about an amazing deal!

Here are all the shades I picked up:

Matte Balms:

• Striking
• Elusive
• Showy
• Standout
• Complex
• Sultry

Lacquer Balms:

• Ingenue
• Coy

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the Revlon Matte or Lacquer Balms?

Haul: Practically free Vitamins & Makeup

I frequent the posts by fellow couponers on Instagram to see what deals are popping up in stores. I admit, my coupon game can be pretty snazzy, but I don’t have all the time in the world to seek out deals on my own – so that’s where the internet becomes a great tool.

Last week instagram and the couponing blogs were going bonkers because Nature Made vitamins were on sale, where if you bought two you paid less for the 2 than you would’ve if they were buy one get one 50% off.  The great thing also was that with each 2 bottles of vitamins you were awarded 3,000 register rewards ($3 equivalent) – without there being a cap on how many you could purchase.

Now if you take vitamins daily, like I, this sounds like a great deal … but to spend $10-18 to get $3 back, well, isn’t quite worth it.  But what made it worth it? Well the $5 off Nature Made coupons which were available in the Walgreen’s diabetes magazine. We were able to pair up $5 coupons on each bottle of vitamins (unless the equivalent total was $8 – then you could use a $5 and a $3 coupon).  I was able to get a number of vitamins completely free (B-12, Vitamin C, D3, etc.) the other vitamins I got I paid $2 for and got $3 back on my Rewards card.

After coupons, I only paid $7.30 for all the items pictured (the Elf Evil Queen kit was on clearance for $4.99 – but was originally $9.99). Talk about a great deal!

Haul: Wonderstruck Perfume Knockoffs

I popped into Big Lots last week and noticed they had a wide range of new knock-off perfumes available. Up until last year, I refused to purchase knock-off perfumes ... but I tried the knock-off Sarah Jessica Parker perfume and was astonished as to how much it smelled like the original. Since then I've given knock-off perfumes a sniff when I've spotted them in stores.

I've wanted the Taylor Swift perfume for a while now. Last Christmas I purchased the 0.5 fl oz gift set at CVS and have been using it as sparingly as possible.  Then when Taylor Swift released Wonderstruck Enchanted I was in love with that and wanted that.  So when I spotted these two knock-offs at Big Lots, I gave them a whirl and I was truly surprised with how much they smell like the originals. So for $3.50/ea I picked them up.  I'm on a bit of a budget right now and spending $100+ on perfumes for myself isn't in the books ... so $7 for two for the moment is doable.

QUESTION:
Have you smelled any knock-off perfumes lately that you were surprised smelled so much like the originals?

Haul: Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum

I have wanted the Jimmy Choo perfume for well over a year. For a while I was stalking websites seeing who had it for the best price. I then talked myself out of it because I bought myself something else … and then I started watching the prices for the perfume on Amazon.  I almost purchased it, but then I started Googling (which is a good and bad habit to have) and was concerned as to if Amazon would be getting the perfume from a reputable seller (meaning it would be legit and not a fake).

Needless to say I didn’t purchase it … but I did have this on my Christmas list this year. That is, it WAS on my Christmas list until I went to Walgreen’s on Saturday. I originally went into Walgreen’s to simply pick up soda and decided I’d check the clearance shelf out back – not really expecting anything since this is a fairly new Walgreen’s (they just opened less than a month ago).

Low-and-behold the clearance section was PACKED with stuff. I found so much good stuff there that I bought a boatload, but one of things I was most excited for was of course the Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum! The greatest part? The perfume was on clearance for $35.79 – which is less than half price for the same bottle on the Sephora website. Talk about the deal of the century. SCORE!

QUESTION:

Have you scored any unsuspected items at Walgreen’s as of late?