I saw the ad for the Neutrogena Skin Id kit and decided to give it a try. I was drawn in by the claims that it would be a customized kit. I thought that was a good idea, so I wanted to check it out. I went to the website and answered a series of questions. At the end it offered me Foaming Face Cleanser, a Benzoyl Peroxide treatment, and “The Hydrator.”

The products seemed to make sense. I have sensitive skin and I live in the high desert. I was especially interested in “The Hydrator,” which I assumed was a water-based moisturizer. So, I ordered the kit and waited about a week for it to come.

My first disappointment was when I took a look at “The Hydrator.” It wasn’t a moisturizer at all. In fact, it was a 2% salicylic acid treatment with a “may cause excessive dryness” warning. I was also disappointed to see that the foaming cleanser only used .5% salicylic acid. That’s a pretty weak acne treatment. But I still wanted to give it a fair chance.

I used the Neutrogena Skin id kit twice a day for a month. After about a week I also started using my Clarisonic Skin Care Brush with it. When I began using it I had four large cysts on my neck, and a couple of smaller blemishes on my face. After a couple of weeks I still had the cysts on my neck, and a couple of smaller blemishes on my face. I didn’t seem to be getting new blemishes, but the old ones were not going anywhere. A couple of weeks after that the cysts on my neck seemed to finally be clearing up, and the blemishes on my face were mostly gone.

I wasn’t particularly impressed at this point. I appreciated that I wasn’t getting new blemishes, but the products were not helping with the old ones at all. Then I had to send my Clarisonic back for a recall. That’s when I became REALLY disappointed with the Neutrogena. Two days after I stopped using the Clarisonic with the Neutrogena I broke out all over my face quite painfully. I realized then that the Neutrogena Skin iD kit had not been doing anything at all for me. The minimal progress I had seen was because I had started using the Clarisonic.

So, I am done with the Neutrogena Skin iD. I gave it a fair shot and it did not help at all. Yesteray I started with Murad, so we will see how that goes. I can tell you that after just one day it already seems to be doing more than the Neutrogena.

A great big wad of hair pulled off by the FURminator

So, I wasn’t really planning on doing a Furminator review, but then I used it and had to share. This thing is simply amazing. I’ve used a couple of different grooming tools on my cat, George, including the Shed Ender, and have never found anything to have any real “wow” factor. Then I ordered the FURminator deShedding Tool for Cats from Amazon and… wow!

George has medium length hair, is a compulsive groomer, and has a lot of problems with hairballs. The FURminator
pulled off so much hair I think I can make another cat out of it. The best thing is that George seemed to really like it. George likes to sit on my lap, but he does not like being held. When I was using the FURminator on him he kept trying to turn around to play with it. So I held him close to me while I did it and he didn’t fight at all. The is really amazing. He was just purring away with his tongue hanging out. He even left me lift him up and comb his belly.

Time will tell if this helps his hairball problem. I’m really hopeful. I’m going to use the FURminator on him for a couple of days in a row to get as much undercoat off as possible. Then I will try to get into a regular routine, combing him out every other week or so.

http://twitter.com/ThatPoshGirl

DecalGirl offers a wide range of “skins” for electronics devices. Their selection includes everything from iPhone to XBox skins and more, including skins for the Acer Aspire One. Rather than wait for the pink netbook to come in stock, I decided to try out a decalgirl skin, and I’m glad I did. The selection available for the Acer Aspire One is fantastic, including several options in, you guessed it, pink. I finally went with the “Her Absraction” skin for both my Acer Aspire One and my Kindle (mine is version 1, but decalgirl also offers skins for version 2).

I’m very happy with the DecalGirl skin. It is made of high quality vinyl, and has “channels” to allow for application without air bubbles. These channels really work, too. My skin went on with ease without any air bubbles, and I’m definitely the kind of person who always ends up with air bubbles. It looks great. The high gloss makes it easy to clean, and it looks like it was always there. Best of all, if I get tired of the design I can just remove the skin and apply another one.

If you are planning on applying one of these awesome skins, here are a couple of tips:

1. Clean off your device with a little rubbing alcohol before you start. This will get rid of any dirt or oils that may keep the skin from adhering correctly.
2. Keep some toothpicks or something similar at your side. Some of the skins have a lot of little laser cutouts that don’t always pop right out. A toothpick will make short work of those little bits of vinyl that may otherwise be difficult to remove.
3. Have fun! The skins are removable, so don’t stress about the design. If you change your mind you can always remove the skin and apply a new one.

DecalGirl isn’t the only game in town, so you may see a design you like somewhere else. If you decide to go with a different skin make sure to check that it is vinyl. Many of the skins on the market are just stickers. The problem with these is that they will be difficult to remove and over time will fade out. If you want something that is going to last, continue to look good, and come off easy, you must invest in a good quality vinyl skin.

Life isn’t always about gadgets, sometimes it’s about chocolate. Along with my Intuos4, Amazon sent me some Werther’s Original Caramel Chocolates. Boy, these things are delicious. They are smooth, creamy, and sweet. The Amazon price is $36 for a pack of twelve bags. Each bag has 24 foil wrapped pieces.

The Vista drivers for this version are much more stable than the ones for the Intuos3. With my Intuos3 I am constantly getting error messages and having to restart the computer. Even though I love the device, I don’t use it as much as I would like because the driver situation gets so frustrating. I’ve been using the Intuos4 all day and have not had one single problem with the driver. It was easy to install and has worked pretty much flawlessly. The only issue I had was with the eraser not working in Photoshop. After doing some searches on the internet I found out that this is related to a conflict when more than one tablet is installed. The solution was to unplug the tablet, use the “Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility” to delete all of my preference files, and then plug the tablet back and and restart Photoshop. Now it works like a charm.

One of my favorite new features of this version is the pen base. Whoever designed it was a genius. When you turn the base the bottom comes out and all the pen nibs are stored in there. It’s really brilliant. Another neat thing about it is that there is a small metal ring with a notch in it with the nibs. You use the ring to grip the nib when you want to remove it from the pen. It works really well on most of the nibs and makes it much, much easier to change the nibs. The only nib it doesn’t really work with is the black and white “flex” nib. Because the tip of that nib is hollow it is really difficult to grip it with the ring, or anything else for that matter.

In this model the shortcut buttons are all on one side and the drivers allow you to set the orientation for right or left handed use. There are a lot of buttons, eight to be exact. Next to the buttons is an LED display showing what the buttons do. I’m always forgetting what the buttons do on my old tablet, so I can definitely appreciate this. You can customize the display, too. When you set it to a keystroke you can name it and the name will then be displayed next to the button. It’s pretty cool. When you switch between applications the buttons change instantly to show you the custom settings for the specific application.

There is also a “touch ring” that allows you to scroll or cycle through options. It can hold four settings. You click the button in the center of the ring to toggle through your settings. I haven’t used this feature much, but I’m sure it will be useful.

The tablet is very sensitive. I’m not a professional graphics designer, so I can’t give a lot of details on this aspect, but it is definitely more sensitive than my old tablet.

At the time I am writing this the Intuos4 website hasn’t been setup. As a result I am unable to download the bundled software, so I can’t review that yet.

I’ve never really used the mouse that came with my old tablet because I don’t like the feel of it. The mouse with this one has the same feeling, so I won’t be using it either. It is very nicely made, though.

Overall I am very happy with the Intuos4. It is definitely worth upgrading to the new tablet. You won’t be disappointed.

The first thing I noticed was that the new tablet is thinner and lighter than my old tablet. It also has LED displays next to the buttons that tell you what each button does, these can be customized. I couldn’t get a good picture of the LED displays, but it looks very cool. I love that feature because with my old tablet I am always forgetting what the buttons do. I also like the design of the pen base. The bottom comes off and it holds the extra nibs (pictured above). It comes with 11 nibs total (one on the pen and ten in the base). There are color coded washer like things that you can put on the pen. I’m guessing the idea is that you use different colors with different nibs so you don’t forget which nib you are using.