Introducing DermaQuest

The launch: Yesterday I attended the launch of DermaQuest's Stem Cell 3D Complex. The launch was held in the Penthouse at The Ivy in Sydney. I had never been to The Ivy before and let me tell you, it is one swish venue. I spent the first 30 minutes of the launch formulating a plan on how I was going to hide in one of the personal coat lockers so that I could live in there forever. Then I started to learn more about DermaQuest and my plan was all but forgotten. I became so involved with discussing the science behind the brand that I became a little manic with excitement about the prospect of writing another scientific review.

About the company: DermaQuest was founded in 1999 by Sam Dhatt, one of the world's most successful cosmetic chemists. Sam has been responsible for the formulation of products from over 700 different companies, some of them the biggest names in the industry. In fact, one of the products he formulated for a company has now sold over one billion units. So, there is an excellent chance that you will have already tried a Sam Dhatt formulated product.

The DermaQuest difference: You are probably wondering, then, how the DermaQuest range is different from other products if Sam is formulating for what seems like every company on the market. Well, firstly, DermaQuest is Sam's baby and the formulations for the brand are proprietary - he reserves them specifically for DermaQuest. Secondly, when companies come to him to formulate a product they come with a budget. So Sam includes only the quantities of active ingredients that can fit within the budget. I suspect that this may be one of the major differences between more expensive and budget brands - the quantities of active ingredients versus fillers in their products. Yes, premium brands will have larger advertising budgets and the cost of these is recouped in the product price but it is also likely that they will have a higher concentration of the active ingredient*. DermaQuest formulations only contain pure, concentrated active ingredients. There are no fillers in their products.

DermaQuest have 3 main philosophies (from their website) –

1. to work with the highest percentage of an active ingredient;
2. to prescribe as many different active ingredients simultaneously to achieve a desired result (they call this their DQRS - the DermaQuest Result Strategy).
3. to make you fall in love! We achieve this by formulating each product to make the texture truly gorgeous and the smell – irresistible.

I especially appreciate the third philosophy. The first two I would expect from such a scientifically advanced brand, but I love that they also keep the joy in skincare. For me, skincare needs to be a pleasurable experience. I want it to feel lovely when I apply it and to smell amazing. If it doesn't, then skincare becomes a chore - like brushing my teeth, and I find myself getting lazy and skipping steps. So I love that pleasure is as an important philosophy to the brand as efficacy is. In addition, their products are paraben-free and they do not test their products on animals.

The DermaQuest range: DermaQuest has a variety of both salon and home care products to treat a range of skincare concerns. Their Masters range is the creme de la creme of their products, and the Stem Cell 3D Complex falls within this range. The also have age management, acne management and therapeutic ranges as well as a professional treatment line and a range of makeup. The therapeutic range is for people without specific skincare concerns who want to maintain the condition of their skin.

The event was held to launch the DermaQuest Stem Cell 3D Complex. I will be writing a follow up article explaining the research that has been conducted on the cream and the science behind the active ingredients. We were also provided with a jar of this cream so, in the coming months once I have had a chance to trial it sufficiently, I will review the product.

Acknowledgements: I would like to credit two people for the information in this article. Firstly, Karen Bowen. Karen is a Dermal Therapist and is Australia's leading supplier of DermaQuest. I spent over an hour talking to Karen, trying to extract as much information out of her brilliant mind as I could. The second person whom I'd like to credit is Colleen Shimamoto. Colleen is the head US educator for DermaQuest and gave us the most informative presentation. She said that she was going to go light on the science but I thought she packed a tonne of information into her 15 minute presentation. I now wish I could hear what going heavy on the science would be like. I think I would be in total nerd heaven! Unfortunately, I can't remember which pieces of information came from which brilliant lady. I have walked away from this launch with a head full of info but it is a blur where it came from. So, thank you ladies got teaching me so much at the launch.

Had you heard of DermaQuest prior to today?

All opinions stated in this blog are my own. I have no affiliation with DermaQuest and received no remuneration for my comments. I was provided with a jar of the DermaQuest Stem Cell 3D Complex at the launch.

*To find out how much active ingredient your product contains, have a look where it is listed on the product label. Ingredients ate listed in order of concentration so if the active ingredient is listed near the end, there is likely to be very little of it in the product at all.

Did you win a bottle of BIOeffect EGF Serum?

Thanks everyone for entering my BIOeffect EGF Serum competition. I really appreciate you going to the effort of reading my scientific article and commenting.

So, who won? Using random.org the first number drawn was:

21: jadegrrrl

Congratulations jadegrrrl, you have won a full sized bottle of BIOeffect EGF serum.

There were also two runners up prizes of a sample sized bottle of the serum. The winners are:

15: jasmine1485

8: ling

Congratulations everyone. I will now email the winners.

The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo

On Saturday I attended The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo at the Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. OMG was it massive. I practically hyperventilated with excitement when I first walked through the doors! The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo is Australia's largest event for the spa & beauty industries. It is mostly aimed at salon owners or beauty professionals as a way for brands to try and get their products into their salons. I went along to discover new brands to blog about and to get more information on these brands.

The expo took up three halls of the Convention Centre. It took me 5 hours to get through all of skincare, by which time I was exhausted so I just spent 30 minutes racing through makeup and nails. I now wish I spent more time in these sections as I have read elsewhere that there were some pretty awesome deals and funky new techniques (especially in nails) but I just didn't have it in me.

Most brands were giving out little show bags which had flyers and brochures on their products and the occasional sample. At the time, I didn't think that I received many samples but if you check out my haul below you can see that I did actually get a fair few. These will all be reviewed in the coming months.

I received samples from the following brands:

• Payot (Homme Regenerating Care, multi-defensive care with active bifidus extract, soothing reconstituting care, regenerating smoothing care, activating recovering cream)
• Elemis (Pro-collagen hand and nail cream, pro-collagen marine cream, Exotic cream moisturising mask)
• Doctor Babor (Derma Cellular Collagen Boosting Cream, age protecting cream,
• Fleur De Mer (Sunblock in foundation cream)
• Sundari (Sandalwood cleanser,firming body cream, healing hair treatment oil, healing balancing moisturiser)
• Bioelements (a moisturiser was individually created for me based on my skin concerns)
• Savi (Organic vanilla and spice body cream, organic face mist)
• Pelactive (Essential Clarifying toner, oil free balancing serum, cell renewal complex)
• Taut (Gold standard Collagen Infusion mask)
• ASAP (Sheer tint moisturiser, daily exfoliating facial scrub, gentle cleansing gel)
• Tasmanian Organics (lip balm, body lotion)
• Christina (Unstress Harmonising eye and neck cream)
• Caron (Hydro Oil)

As you can see I have plenty to review! In addition to samples, I got stacks of product brochures. So many that I ended up pulling a muscle in my back carrying my ginormous sack home!

The were a lot of brands there that I had never heard of. They were mostly European brands that had only recently launched in Australia, although there were also a few newly launched Australian brands plus some brands that I had heard of but other than that was completely unfamiliar. Some of my new discoveries included:

• ONE Skin System is an Australian range of skincare designed to suit any skin type. There are 5 products in the range that can be used by absolutely anyone. Their motto is purity fused with science and were one brand that particularly excited me. I will write about them in more detail shortly.
• Environ is a South African company who range is based around Vitamin A. What particularly impressed me with them is that they ease you into using Vitamin A - you start with the lowest concentration and when you finish that tube you then increase the concentration (or stay at the lower concentration if you are happy with the results).
• Sothys is a French line of skincare that is popular in salons. They have their own research laboratory and so produce some pretty exciting products.
• Sundari is a range based on the ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda (I can't remember which country they come from) 
• Dermaviduals - this a German skincare line whose motto is 'where science meets beauty' so understandably I got a bit excited by this! It is described as an individual solution to every skin condition. They start with a base cream then have a range of additives to personalise the cream to your specific skincare needs.
• Savi is an Australian brand that has been around for a little while but has just recently gotten their official certification of being organic and so are launching with their new certification in a couple of weeks
• Skin PhD is a clinically endorsed range from South Africa (I think!). This is another sciencey brand (as you may have guessed from the name!).
• Ericson Laboratoire is another French company. This one had 13 different facial lines to treat every possible concern. Your routine can be customised between the different lines depending on your needs.

There were a tonne more brands but I'll have to keep sorting through my massive stack of brochures before I can write any more about them.



The sheer size of the event made attending The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo quite an overwhelming experience. I found myself chatting to staff at the various stands who were incredibly passionate about their brands. That would then make me also quite excited by the brand but then I'd go to the next stand, hear their spiel and promptly forget everything I had just learnt at the previous stand. Thankfully, I have ample reading material to refresh me!

Did you go to the expo? If so, what did you think. Or, have you heard of or tried any of these brands? Which brands would you like to learn more about?

The Weekend Beauty Blog Hop

I recently discovered the concept of a Blog Hop and thought that it was pretty cool. The only problem was that this Blog Hop wasn't genre specific so unfortunately the majority of blogs didn't interest me. I had a search for Beauty Blog Hop but couldn't find one, so decided to create my own.

So, what is a Blog Hop? It is a cool way of discovering new blogs or hopefully getting new followers for your blog. All you have to do is enter a link below to your blog and it will then appear in a list that others can then click on the link to go directly to your blog. You can also go through the list to discover new blogs and then follow any that interest you. The really cool thing with a Blog Hop is that if you also want to post it on your blog, you just grab the code below. Then, if anyone joins the Blog Hop from your blog, not only will your list be updated with their link but also all blogs in the Blog Hop - so it doesn't matter where someone joins, we will all have the same list. From the list you can then 'hop' from one blog to another.

The rules:

I am going to make it simple and have only one rule. Your blog must have some amount of beauty content. That's it. Other blogs with Blog Hops insist that you must follow them to participate. I would love it if you did follow me; however, I would prefer followers who are genuinely interested in my blog. So, if it is not you cup of tea, no worries. You are still more than welcome to participate, and I hope you do discover some other blogs of interest.

If you have any questions post them below, otherwise add your link and welcome to my first Beauty Blog Hop!

The day my first Lust Have It box arrived and how being a domestic Goddess clashed with beauty blogging

Once upon a time there was a beauty blogger called Sarah. Sarah loved to research beauty products, then sample said products then finally blog about these beauty products (it would be silly for her to be a beauty blogger if she didn't). One day when she was researching an article she stumbled upon a service, called Lust Have It, where, for a small monthly subscription fee, a mystery box of beauty samples could be delivered straight to her door. This excited Sarah very much as Sarah LOVES presents and especially LOVES surprises.

So, Sarah rang Nicci, the founder of Lust Have It, for more information. Nicci was also very excited about her service and so proceeded to blab all about it, and even spilled what Sarah thought was all of the contents of the first box. Sarah, thinking that she had a major scoop, then blogged all about it. While Facebook and forums were a buzz with Lust Have It fans all eagerly anticipating their first boxes, Sarah was sitting back smugly, for she already knew what was going to be in that first box. Or did she? It turns out that she didn't, for Nicci had been a little bit sneaky and had kept some secrets from Sarah.

At 2.45pm on Friday 12th August the intercom in Sarah's apartment buzzed. She knew that it was her building manager ringing to say that it was parcel time. So she grabbed her son, The Crazy Kid, and her keys and started making her way to the foyer to pick up her parcel. As it was raining, the building manager kindly brought her parcel over to her. Unfortunately this created a new problem as The Crazy Kid had thought that he was getting out of his apartment prison and when he was told that he had to go back inside he had a tantrum. A BIG tantrum. As much as Sarah was busting to open her parcel, she had to deal with The Crazy Kid. So the parcel sat on the coffee table until 3.04pm.

At 3.04pm, when The Crazy Kids BIG tantrum was finally over, Sarah was finally able to open her parcel. Sarah is actually a professional present opener and holds many records in speed present opening. However, she wanted to keep everything looking pretty to take photos for her blog so this time she opened it in a calm and sensible fashion.

At 3.05pm Sarah had finally opened her parcel and had the contents of her first Lust Have It pack in front of her. The pack included a lovely welcome letter but Sarah is the type of person who always opens a present before reading the card so she threw this letter on the floor and explored the contents of her pack instead. What she found was:

•  a 3ml sample of BIOeffect EGF serum (1 months supply). Sarah has previously written about this (here) and is very much in love with this product so was excited to be getting another sample!
• 13g jar of Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant. Sarah LOVES this product as it is so effective yet so gentle as well. It really is daily. And, whilst she already has a full size bottle, this is going to be brilliant for taking travelling (especially as she is going to Hawaii in the near future)!
• a 30ml bottle of Naked Tan Goddess Bronze Self-Tanner. Sarah is unfamiliar with this brand so is excited to try it. The self-tanner smells deliciously of coconut (just like those Reef Oil tanning oils). She will probably wait a couple of months until her body is out of its winter hibernation and is not quite so hairy and scaly.
• a 1.5ml tube of Mirenesse Velvet Lip Lift Moisture Shine lip gloss. This was clear with pink glitter. At first Sarah was dubious about the glitter but then when applied realised that the glitter is barely noticeable and that this is in fact a lovely clear gloss.
• A 1.5ml sample of Armani Code (for Sarah's husband). Quick spray - smells like a nice male fragrance. Sarah can imagine hubby wearing this.
• A Burts Bees sample in a tin. Unfortunately The Crazy Kid has nicked off with this so Sarah can't go into much more detail at this moment. The Crazy Kid has a lid obsession and so must have thought the little tin was another lid for his collection. Sarah thinks that it might have been a hand and nail cream, or maybe a cuticle cream...

Once Sarah had calmed down from her excitement of opening a present she hunted for the letter she threw on the floor and found out that it was double sided - on the front was a lovely welcome note from Lust Have It and on the back was a set of instructions on how to use the products. So thoughtful.

At 3.15pm Sarah sat down to start blogging about her first Lust Have It Box. There had already been a few brilliant blogs written up on the first Lust Have It Box but as Sarah had previously written about what to expect in the first Lust Have It box and about the launch, for continuity she thought that it would be nice to also do a post on her first box. Unfortunately, after only 5 minutes of writing she smelt a smell. A BAD smell. And it was coming from The Crazy Kid. He needed changing. Sarah pondered for a while whether it would be ok to just spray him with the Armani Code sample and pretend that he didn't smell...at 3.22pm Sarah came to the conclusion that this would probably be regarded as bad parenting and so put down her laptop and changed The Crazy Kid. This resulted in tantrum mark II (though only a medium one this time around).

At 3.45 tantrum mark II was over and Sarah could recommence blogging. She blogged away happily until 4.20pm when The Crazy Kid reminded her that he liked to have his dinner at 4.30. Sarah once again pondered whether she could just run across the road to buy The Crazy Kid some KFC and once again came to the conclusion that this is bad parenting (as The Crazy Kid is only 18 months old). So she became a domestic Goddess and crumbed him some home made schnitzel.

At 4.35pm The Crazy Kid was happily feeding himself dinner so Sarah could finally finish her blog. The main thing Sarah wanted to write about was just how good value she thought the box was. It turns out that the first box is worth over $80 - excellent value when you consider that the subscription fee is only $14.95. Sarah rang Nicci from Lust Have It to tell her how happy she was with her first box when Nicci let her in on a little secret, well, it is not actually a secret as it has already been posted on Facebook, but Nicci told Sarah that they have been getting a few enquiries from people wondering whether it is too late to get the August box.  If anyone didn't sign up for a Lust Have It box and are now regretting that decision, there will be a very limited re-release of the first Lust Have It box. That's right - you can still order it! There are not going to be many boxes in the re-release as they only have a limited number of samples, so if you would still like one you should probably order it pretty soon.

Finally, Sarah was able to complete her blog post on Lust Have It whilst still being a domestic Goddess. Sarah and the Crazy Kid lived happily ever after.

The End.

Did you get a Lust Have It box? Were you happy with the samples?

This box was provided for consideration.

The Beauty Lovers Census Form

I love Census night! Don't ask me why but I was so excited to fill out my form tonight and was sad once it was all over...so I created an even better one - one designed especially for beauty lovers! If you are also sad that Census night won't come around for another 5 years then please cut and paste the form below and fill in your own answers.

How many beauty products dwell in the vicinity of your computer/laptop. Include all products that ordinarily live there as well as any that have not been put away to their correct location.

19

What are the names of these products? Please list whether they ordinarily reside in this location.

I work on my laptop on the couch so not one beauty product should reside here. There are all waiting to be put away after being reviewed or recently received in the mail. They are:

• I Love My Muff Kit (wash, wipes, lotion, spray) - just reviewed
• 4 sunsilk products - shampoo, conditioner and 2 styling products. They just arrived in the mail from a comp I won on The Plastic Diaries
• Nail polish and nail polish remover - have been waiting to be put away for over a month now
• Maybelline BabyLips lip gloss - my lips always feel dry so I tend to leave lipgosses lying all over the house
• Jurlique products to review (4 x Purely White range, 3 x Herbal Recovery Range, 1 x Purely Age Defying) - they just arrived today so I am still having fun playing with them

Are these products owned by the person filling out this form?

Yes. The other members of my household leave their products in the bathroom where they belong!


On the day of Tuesday 9th of August what beauty products did you use?

Lush Curly Wurly shampoo
L'Oreal Everpure conditioner
Palmers cleansing gel
Lush Snowcake soap
Palmers serum
Palmers moisturiser
Mitchum Deodorant
The Jojoba Company jojoba oil
Palmers cleansing gel (again)
BIOeffect serum

Is this your normal routine? If no, what is your normal routine?

No. I am trialling the Palmers range at the moment though it is causing my skin to sting a bit hence the need to apply jojoba oil. Recently I have been using the Estee Lauder Idealist Even Skintone serum and the Estee Lauder Tinted DayWear moisturiser during the day. I usually use MoroccanOil hair products but am trying to use up all my half finished bottles, though have re-fallen in love with Curly Wurly. I have been trialling the Nivea Invisible for Black and White deodorant for the last 3 months but it doesn't offer me enough protection so today I switched back to my old faithful Mitchum. I am totally in love with BIOeffect serum though so hopefully this stays part of my regular routine.

On the day of Tuesday 9th of August what fragrance did you wear?

None - though the scent of Snowcake lingered on my skin for hours.

Did you own this fragrance a year ago?

No.

On the day of Tuesday 9th of August what colour was your hair?

Dark brown (dyed but fairly close to my natural colour), with a few annoying greys poking through.

Was your hair this colour 1 year ago?

Similar - this time last year I had a 7 month old bub and hadn't been to the hair dresser in about a year so my hair was as close to its natural colour as it has been for years. There were definitely less greys last year!

Was your hair this colour 5 years ago?

Well there would have been no greys 5 years ago. Back then I had also just started working after 8 ears of being a povo student and I remember shouting myself to an expensive hair cut and colour so it was probably streaked with a few different colours (dark brown base with copper, gold and caramel highlights).

On the day of Tuesday 9th of August what colour were your nails?

Natural - no polish.

How long have they been this colour?

Probably 4 months. i think the last time I put polish on was when I was on holidays in April. Isn't that terrible!

In the week prior to Tuesday 9th of August have you actively researched any beauty products?

Yes. Heaps actually! For blogging I researched I Love My Muff, Jurlique, and heaps more I can't remember.
For buying I started research what I'd get when I go to Hawaii - mostly Philosophy shower gels at this stage...

In the week prior to Tuesday 9th of August have you actively received any beauty products? Please note whether they were purchased/won/swap/provide for consideration.

Heaps again - 4 x Palmers face products to review, 8 x Jurlique products to review, 4 x sunsilk products from competition win, 4 x I Love My Muff to review, 1 x facewipes to review...I think that's it but there could very well be more in there!

OK bloggers its your turn - complete the beauty blogger census form or risk being fined! Once complete, post a link to your Census form in the comments below. Can you think of any better questions to ask?

Nivea Invisible for Black and White Roll-on Deodorant

I was recently asked to trial Nivea's Invisible For Black & White Roll-On Deodorant for 10 weeks as part of Beauty Heaven's Trial Team. This deodorant promises that it won't stain your clothes yellow or leave white marks on black clothes. Well, I can say that it 100% delivered on both fronts. I bought a new white shirt especially for the trial and wore it at least once a week - so during the trial it was worn 10-15 times - and there is not even the faintest hint of a yellow stain. This was hugely impressive as most of my old t-shirts have yellow stains from deodorant on them.

It also didn't leave any white marks on my black tops or dresses. There's nothing more annoying than apply your deodorant, pulling a black dress on only to find white marks all over the sides. This did not do that at all.

The scent was very pleasant - a kind of perfume smell - not distinctive, but pleasant none the less, but it wasn't overly strong so it didn't clash with my perfume, which was great.

The only disappointment with this, and I guess it is a fairly big one for a deodorant, was that it didn't offer enough protection for me. I found myself getting sweaty marks under my arms and by about lunch time I was pretty stinky. If I reapplied it, it was no long a problem but it wasn't always convenient for me to do so.

I am quite a sweaty person - my hands are always clammy and I have very sweaty feet so I guess I just sweat too much for it. Unfortunately my sweatiness is something that I am quite sensitive about so that means that I probably won't use this deodorant again as it just didn't offer me enough protection.

My husband also trialled the male aerosol version of the Nivea Invisible For Black and White. Like me this left absolutely no marks on any of his business shirts, which was brilliant. Unlike me, however, this offered ample protection for him in terms of sweating and BO. Hubby rarely smells bad. He is one of those lucky (annoying) people who don't really get BO - he just smells salty when he sweats. He found that this prevented him from sweating during the workday and when he went to the gym, whilst it didn't stop him from sweating, it did prevent all traces of body odour. He was really happy with his trial and said that he would use his deodorant again. Me? I'll probably go back to my Mitchum as it has been the only thing I have found so far to prevent me from sweating.

Are you a super sweater like me or are you lucky like my husband? If you are a super sweater, which deodorant have you found to work best for you?

All opinions stated in this blog are my own. I have no affiliation with Nivea and received no remuneration for my comments. The deodorant was provided to me by Beauty Heaven to review as part of their Trial Team.

Have you entered my latest BIOeffect giveaway? Here's the link if you haven't checked it out yet.