My choices in products for skincare, haircare, and beauty in general have probably increased in price over the years, but if there’s one thing that I’m unable to resist it’s a well-stocked beauty section at a drugstore.  January is the best time for this (I know, I’ve been raving about this month for so many reasons!) because this is when every company rolls out all of their new products!  You’ll find a trickle of new items throughout the rest of the year, but it’s nothing compared to what you’ll find at the turn of the new year.

So if you’re feeling like your beauty routine needs a few new goodies for 2015, head over to Target or Walgreen’s next time you’re out for groceries or prescriptions, and make that trip a little more fun.

The Simple Micellar Cleansing Water is likely the brand’s answer to the ever-popular European staple of beauty bloggers everywhere, Bioderma Sensibio H20 Micelle Solution.  I’ve been reading acclaimed beauty blog IntoTheGloss for four or five years now, and probably their most popular and unique feature is the “Top Shelf”, which takes the reader inside the bathrooms, wash chambers, and medicine cabinets of the fashionably elite (as well as Lindsay Lohan, who’s reached a new kind of ironic cult status in all her broken glory).  I would say that at least every other Top Shelf article showcases a bottle of Bioderma’s Sensibio on some cool-girl’s bathroom vanity.  It’s of similar status to Elizabeth Arden’s 8-Hour Cream and Homeoplasmine.  I’ve never been able to find the stuff (and I hate buying online because that’s just too easy), but this holy grail of French pharmacies has apparently come stateside thanks to Simple.  All you need is a cotton pad, and it both cleanses and removes makeup so you don’t need to wash or rinse afterward.  The Simple Micellar, out of all the new products I saw lining the shelves at Target today, will probably be the one product that I will go back to purchase for its unique qualities.

Two rich, luxurious face creams have made their way to drugstores in the form of Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Water Gel and Garnier’s Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream.  I love the idea of a thick and sumptuous face cream in a beautiful jar, but I don’t have much of a need for either of these as I already have a night cream that I LOVE (Acure Organics Night Cream) and I prefer my day creams to A) contain some degree of SPF and B) be more purse-friendly than a large, heavy jar in case I need to take it with me to work in a dash.  It’s not that I wouldn’t ever consider one of these products; it’s just that I have little use for them in my routine at the moment.  I’ve also been more into serums these days, substituting a daycream for Shiseido’s Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate.  But please- if you do try either of the aforementioned, share your review with me!

And now for the one hair product I’m mentioning.  Like I’ve said before, most drugstore products are an answer to luxury ones that have been previously released.  It’s not typical for a drugstore beauty product to be the first of its kind, especially since most drugstore brands are owned by luxury brands, or vice versa.  So know that L’Oreal’s Advanced Hairstyle Blow Dry It Blowout Longwear Spray is simply a riff on many predecessors.  This is a dry shampoo/texturizer that will both extend time between shampoos and provide an artfully disheveled consistency, along the same vein as Oribe’s Dry Texturizing Spray, Garnier Fructis’ Style De-Constructed Texture Tease Dry Touch Finish Spray (seriously, who came up with that mouth full?), and probably Bumble and Bumble’s Dryspun Thickening Finish.  I have a hard time resisting anything that claims it will give my hair that just-ran-around-a-windy-city, Blake Lively-ish, zero-shine-but-somehow-irresistibly-touchable feel.  I am so jazzed that for about the past two to three years, it has been all about messy hair (unless you’re Princess Kate, which is fine.  You do you, Kate).  I have really poor appreciation for perfect curls, and any time I see a few perfectly-set tendrils on some sweet, type-A girl’s head, I just want to bury my hands in them and rat them up and make the hair move.  And maybe dump a bucket of salt water on them for a tiny bit of texture.  So anyways, while the new L’Oreal spray is right up my ally (oh and it smells amazing, BTW), I really should get through the bottle of Oribe first.  And the Bumble Dryspun.  And the Klorane dry shampoo that I use regularly, too.  Sheesh.

And then lastly, there’s the Burt’s Bees Renewal Refining Cleanser.  Haven’t tried it, but it features apple and hibiscus which means it probably smells pretty amazing.  I’ve loved Burt’s Bees’ other cream cleansers (and their sensitive one is my favorite for winter when my Desert Essence oil cleanser just leave me too dry), so I’d trust this.  Oh, and the word ‘refining’ tends to be universal for ‘anti-aging’, so if you’re looking for a gentle way to improve your skin’s texture and smoothness naturally, this may be a good find.  One of those fun products that makes your shower more of an escape, you know?  So is someone else up for trying it out and getting back to me?  Okay thanks.

So, I know I already said “lastly”, but there was one other little surprise I found three days ago while wandering through Rite-Aid.

Does anyone remember this stuff?  Oh man, the John Frieda Blonde lines.  Behold the Beach Blonde line in all its returned-from-the-archives glory.  I mean, this was thee stuff back in the day, and now it’s back.  And an awkward twelve-year-old brunette never forgets feeling harshly marginalized by the beauty industry in a world that was already teeming with copycat blonde Britneys, Jessicas, and Christinas at the time.  Seriously, I think having yellow hair in middle school gave you some weird fast pass to “hot” that has been forever inexplicable.  Racism, maybe?  Mankind’s ancient fascination with gold?  Just for fun, we’ll go with racism.  But anyways, the John Frieda Beach Blonde line came out after the John Frieda Sheer Blonde line had already taken over drugstores and distressed brunettes and redheads everywhere (and yes, JF quickly rolled out the Brilliant Brunette and Radiant Red lines, but you still felt second-rate).  I remember buying Sheer Blonde and using it.  I mean, seriously, that’s desperation for you.  Here I was, a never-color-treated brunette kid with her own share of zits, using Sheer Blonde shampoo.  I think the fact that it was really meant for blonde color-treated hair sort of escaped me at the time (that and the fact that it doesn’t actually turn non-blonde hair into blonde) but somehow I felt that using the Blonde line would give me that … certain something?  I really don’t know now.

But the Beach Blonde line now would have a great deal of use in my hands, especially during the days when I put a little light back into my hair.  You know me and texture, so the salt spray would sure come in as handy, and the whole line could be used in the stead of Bumble and Bumble’s rather … ahem … drying Surf line.  The Beach Blonde products are also big on the menthol, so they make your scalp feel tingly and they smell fantastic and unique compared the fruity explosions of Garnier and Herbal Essences.  I was tempted to purchase all three products, but again, I’ve got shampoos and conditioners that I love and need to use up, and I’ve got a salt spray I need to use up as well (again with the Oribe).  So, someone else, buy these please.  And make your inner twelve-year-old feel happy and included.  xo, MR