A Guide To The Beauty Aisle Of Trader Joe's

Here is a guide for those of you who are as intrigued by the beauty section of Trader Joe's as the food. Maybe not as intrigued, because...food. But there are some real gems to be found and almost everything is under ten dollars. It's also Trader Joe's so you can count on being sucked in to their clever marketing efforts. Case in point: bag of potatoes that introduces itself. So kind, so thoughtful.

Mango Body Butter ($4.99)

The smell of this is perfect. Maybe not the creamiest body butter in the world, but it is very hydrating. The main goal when using this is to smell like a tropical smoothie. On that front it delivers.

Tea Tree Tingle Shampoo ($3.99)

There is nothing as refreshing as peppermint in the shower. There is also something refreshing about a shampoo that just washes your hair and doesn't make seemingly impossible claims (mending split ends is farfetched, no?) It's sulfate-free, mildly clarifying, and have I mentioned it smells like peppermint? They also have a body wash in this scent. Just as tingly and refreshing.

Vitamin E Oil ($3.99)

This is a newfound love. The name is a little deceiving as this isn't pure vitamin E oil, it's mixed in with soybean oil. Vitamin E oil is thick and gloopy, so having a base oil makes it easier to spread. Good for winter or before bed. Also a good mixer. Add to jojoba for a thinner oil, coconut oil for a hair mask, or hand cream to boost the hydration. This oil means business so unless you want to look like a greased turkey I'd avoid during the day.

Ultra Moisturizing Hand Cream ($4.99)

This is a hand cream that smells like laundry. Not as luxurious as L'Occitane, but it does perform the exact same. 20% Shea Butter and thick but not greasy. This might not suffice in the dead of winter when my hands truly betray me and become not only ice cold but also as dry and cracked as a desert. As an everyday hand cream I love it.

Blueberry & Açaí Facial Scrub ($5.99)

The standout of everything here, and also the product I was most nervous to put on my face. I generally wouldn't trust a cheap chemical exfoliant (and I never trust a physical exfoliant). This claims to be a scrub, so I was worried it'd be both. However, this really is just an AHA exfoliant; it contains citric acid, malic acid, and lactic acid, as well as colloidal oatmeal and shea butter. It smells very strongly of blueberries.

I would compare this scrub to the Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Enzyme mask or the Kate Somerville Exfolikate. This happens to be a fraction of the price and delivers amazing results. It makes my skin buttery smooth and isn't irritating or harsh. It's a quick treatment, I leave it on for about a minute at night and my face glows the following morning.

I am fully on board with a budget-friendly AHA scrub that smells like blueberry jam and can be purchased alongside cauliflower rice and mini peanut butter cups.

Review: Demeter Fragrance Library

I'm not sure how I came across this company, but if you've never heard of it check it out here, and prepare to be lost in a vortex of interesting sounding colognes ranging from Vanilla Ice Cream to Myrrh.

Demeter has an interesting take on fragrance in that most of their colognes are one note, or as they describe it in their mission statement, "the smallest combination of ingredients that expresses an olfactory idea." Their first 3 colognes when they started in 1996 were Dirt, Grass, and Tomato. All of which sound strangely enticing to me, but then again I also love the smell of skunk.

Not only do I love and am fascinated by scent, I am also incredibly indecisive, so it took me a solid month before deciding what to order.

The colognes are relatively cheap, $20 for a 1 oz. spray, and come in a variety of sizes for trial.

I ordered Fig Leaf in a 1 oz. spray, and two 1/2 oz. splash bottles (no spray, unfortunately) of Firefly and Wet Garden. I also received a gift with purchase which was a 1 oz. spray of Honey. That's a pretty generous gift, and it ended up being my favorite of the bunch.

Fig Leaf - This supposedly smells similar to Diptyque's Philosykos, which is a fig based perfume that costs a mere $130 more than this one. I really like this. It's earthy, fruity, and fresh. If you like fig, you'll probably like this. Don't expect a very complex Tom Ford-esque fragrance. It's summery and I enjoy it, especially paired with Honey.

Honey - I love this. It's a warm, comforting scent that smells exactly like Honey but somehow made wearable. What I love most about it is it's ability to be mixed. I've been mixing it with fig leaf most days and it adds a sweetness that I love. Not sugary-vanilla sweet, but a natural take on a sweet note. I can't imagine a perfume that this wouldn't pair well with.

Firefly - This perfume is described as the "essence of an early northeastern spring evening at dusk, the smells associated with that magical night when the first fireflies of the year appear." I mean first of all, this company kills it with the marketing. I wanted to love this. Smelled in the bottle it does have that grassy nighttime smell. But as soon as I put it on my body it transformed quite devastatingly into a gross body odor smell that made me gag every time I smelled my forearm. This, along with Wet Garden, might work better as a candle.

Wet Garden - It smells exactly like you'd expect: wet, earthy, grassy and floral. Like a wet garden in spring. It's a really nice smell; but it turns out I don't actually want to smell like wet grass. Still intrigued by Tomato though, will have to get back to you on that one.