My trip to Nirvana

Yesterday, my sister, niece, daughter and I decided to make a girl's day of it and head north to Woodfield Mall. If you've never heard of Woodfield, it is a ridiculously large mall located in Schaumburg and every store you could possibly imagine has an outpost here. It is also a total tourist destination, so we locals tend to avoid it like the plague.

Typically I would only make the trek to Woodfield if I was under a situation of extreme duress. Such as swimsuit shopping (seriously, if you can't find a swimsuit at Woodfield, then it doesn't exist!). What dragged me there in the dead of winter? Nirvana:



I discovered Kiehl's products right after Christmas, during a shopping date with a girlfriend at Oakbrook Mall (another mecca of shopping, but much closer to home). We spent the afternoon at Nordstrom's hopping between beauty counters, testing products, getting our makeup done, and snagging as many samples as we could. Our last stop was the Kiehl's counter, where I brought home samples of their Ultra Facial line of products.



According to the packaging, the Ultra Facial Cream was recently used by explorers during an artic expedition of Greenland's ice peaks, so I figure if it worked for them, it should work in a Chicago winter. And low and behold, it has! Bye bye dry skin... this stuff is a miracle in a bottle! Combined with the gel cleanser, toner and the avocado eye cream, I feel like my skin has never looked better. Sadly (because I love nothing more than a nice smelling facial product), everything in this line is fragrance free, but on the flipside, I'm wondering if part of my redness issue was caused by the perfumes. Maybe?

If you have the luxury of a Kiehl's store near you, I highly recommend a visit. Their staff is so helpful and they are happy to give you samples of just about everything in the store. I walked out yesterday with six different samples for Clean Fresh Hubby to try (shaving cream, toner and a moisturizer) as well as samples for me of their various hair products. My sister purchased several products for oily skin (we're opposite in so many ways!), and called this morning to report extreme happiness with her new skincare regime.

You can also shop online at Kiehls.com, which is what I was doing until I discovered they had a location at Woodfield (there is also a shop downtown in Lincoln Park, but I hardly ever make the trek to the big city). You also get free samples with your online order, so if you're a product junkie like me who gets excited about trying new things, rejoice!

And, if I haven't convinced you to check out Kiehl's yet, I'll close by saying everything is made with all natural ingredients and the packaging is recyclable. Great skin and eco-friendly to boot... how great is that?