First up is a 1 ounce (30ML) jar of Vitamin C Potent Topical Cream. Packaged sleekly, you wouldn’t know that this product isn’t a luxury cream. I’d really love to use it myself but half four containers of moisturizer that I have to use up yet. That probably won’t happen for two years. LOL

Natural Skin Care Shop describes this moisturizer as:

High Potency Vitamin C Complex in a luxurious facial moisturizing cream. Formulated with concentrated anti-oxidant nourishment for a youthful and radiant glow. Enriched with unusually high levels of Hyaluronic Acid, Squalane and Jojoba oil for unsurpassed moisturization and skin nourishment.

Along with this, I’ll be shipping to the winner a 4 ounce jar of Micro Derm RX, an Alpha Beta microdermabrasion cleanser. I’m not quite sure where this one came from or who makes it as I can only find information about it on Overstock.com. The product description there describes this product as:

• Exfoliating facial scrub deeply cleanses and purifies skin
• Formula refines skin surface and stimulates collagen
• Microderm treatment combines Alpha and Beta hydroxy acids with microdermabrasion crystals for smooth, radiant skin

Either of these products would be great to keep your skin healthy, smooth and young looking and feeling. The estimated retail value of these product is around $100 and one lucky winner will receive both of these items, in their unopened packages. I only hope hat you can love them more than I do.

To enter, complete the following by May 9th. Post a separate comment for each entry:

• Tell me why you’d like to win these products – Mandatory
• A comment letting me know if you follow me on Twitter – @anaesthetic
• A link to a blog post about this giveaway (must include a link to the direct post)
• Add my blog to your Delicious favorites (leave a link to your profile)
• Add this post to StumbleUpon or Digg
• A link to a Twitter post about this giveaway (once per day) such as: Win $100 of skincare products from @anaesthetic. Visit Reviews by Cole to enter the #giveaway: http://reviewsbycole.com/2011/05/put-your-best-face-forward-giveaway/ Ends 5/9

Good luck!

SkinFree‘s Extra Moisturizing Soap & Shampoo Bar is a simple white bar soap which comes in a white box detailed with the colourful Skin Free logo. It’s a dual purpose soap which can also be used as a shampoo; although their is a warning on their site that hard water users may need to rinse with vinegar after. This soap is described as such:

We “superfat” our soap with extra virgin olive oil, which contains natural anti-inflammatory agents, anti-oxidants, and natural vitamins that aid in healing and soothing your skin. Naturally moisturizing shea and cocoa butters are added to reduce the tight, dry feeling normally experienced when using typical commercial soaps. The lack of chemical preservatives, fragrance, or colorants in this soap makes it ideal for individuals of any age, especially the very old and the very young, those with allergies, dermatitis, sensitive, or very dry skin… Need a really great fragrance-free shampoo? Just use our Soap & Shampoo Bar as you would any other shampoo. It will give you beautiful, silky, shiny hair with great body and you won’t have to use conditioner.If you have very “hard water”, you may need to use a vinegar rinse after shampooing.

I did give the Extra Moisturizing Soap a chance as a shampoo; it was my first – and last – time using a bar soap as shampoo. It left my hair feeling heavy with waxy, soap reside. It was quite lifeless and saggy and, by the end of the day, became oily. Most products which try to do more than one thing, wind up not being so awesome and I think this product is better suited as a skincare product.

I’ve been pretty happy with the bar soap as a daily facial soap, however. It lathers well and does feel creamy on the skin. After rinsing, my skin doesn’t feel tight like other products I’ve used and this seems like a positive from Skin Free’s description. I had just assumed this meant a product was working but perhaps it was simply hurting my skin more than helping. I consider my skin combination/normal; although sometimes products make me produce a lot more oil. This is not the case with Extra Moisturizing Soap and my skin stays comfortable all day. Like any bar soap, this will last longer if not stored on the shower. I do keep mine on a shelf on my shower wall which is out of the direct shot of the water flow and it seems no worse for the wear.

Extra Moisturizing Soap & Shampoo Bar as a facial wash and it seems like it will last me a while and I will continued to use it with the other Skin Free products I have because the overall results have been positive. Stay tuned for the final Skin Free products reviews.

This review is sponsored by Skin Free.

There isn’t much to say except that, immediately after I started using Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Cream Cleanser, I had perhaps the worst break out of my life. After it cleared a bit, I was still experiencing blemishes – luckily not quite so many but the overall effect of this cleanser was minimal, if there was any at all. Quite honestly, I was so distracted by the state of my face that I never noticed if it helped with redness and, even if it did, does it matter if it doesn’t reduce acne? Not really. I mean, can chamomile and aloe even compete with a poor product?

If you’re still interested in the basics, Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Cream Cleanser comes in a 4.2 ounce tube, decorated in green hues. It’s a thick cream, tinted ever so lightly green and smells slightly sweet. The active ingredient is salicylic acid.

I’ve been using a different product for about two weeks now and am confident that I will not be trying any other Neutrogena product with Microclear. Ever.

All you need is 4 weeks, 3 steps, 2 times a day for results than can be seen in 1 day!

It’s a little trite and we all know that good commercials do not a good product make (as Yoda would say) but I decided to give the Advantage 3-in-1 Exfoliating Cleanser a shot as I’d tried and liked the Acne Cleanser. Actually, I debated between the two as they are the same price and size but opted to go with the Exfoliating Cleanser because it smells a little less atrocious. They both smell bad, however. this one just smells a little.. less bad.

Actually, this one smells almost exactly like Clean and Clear’s Deep Action Cream Cleanser which I have used on and off. It’s exactly the same texture and colour, too, except for one thing. It’s a thick white gel with some exfoliating beads thrown in. My experience with most exfoliating products is that they tend to be based aruond those scrubbing beads with a thinner cream wash “in between”. The overall texture tends to be runny and gritty but, if you’ve used exfoliating products, you know this isn’t a bad thing. So I was a little surprised. I’m pretty sure the exfoliating cleanser has the same tingling properties as the Deep Action Cream Cleanser.

They are slightly different products, however. The cream cleanser’s active ingredient is Salicylic Acid and the exfoliating cleanser’s active ingredient is Benzoyl Peroxide. It worked pretty well for the first three weeks or so. I felt clear and oil-free after washing and experienced no irritation. I had perfectly clear skin but now I’ve got a blemish or three (and what bad timing, right?) so I will probably finish up my tube of Ambi and then head back to this. I think my skin quickly becomes used to products so constant rotation is much.

Nevertheless, CLEAN&CLEAR Advantage 3-in-1 Exfoliating Cleanser worked very well initially and is a strong product like others in this line.

Stayclear Daily Face wash is wonderfully creamy. I like the feel of it on my face but my skin does not feel as clean and taught with this face wash as with others. It has an interesting scent which smells slightly herbal. At other times it almost smells like chocolate mint. I just can’t seem to peg what this smells like.

My skin feels awfully oily after using this face wash. However, I don’t think it is because it isn’t controlling the oil. Rather, it seems like this is drying my skin so badly that it is producing more oil.

I started using Stayclear Daily Face Wash and went back to my old cleanser after about a week. Eventually, I went back to Stayclear to see if there would be any change. Both times, my skin was initially fine and without break outs. However, after a week or two, my skin felt extremely greasy and I was breaking out in those tiny, painful pimples. After this stage, my skin felt consistently greasy.

I’m not sure why this product does not have consistent results. In the beginning, it appears to be a good product but then it goes downhill from there. It is really disappointing because, as I mentioned, Clearasil used to make a cleanser which I preferred over all other cleansers.

After I finish with this tube, I will not be using Stayclear Daily Face Wash again.

From the get-go, this product worked almost flawlessly and my skin saw very few blemishes for nearly a month. Even after that, when I could tell the product was not working as well as it had, I only had a pimple or 2 to show for it.

This creamy formula, with its non-offensive scent, works well when it comes to my occasional acne and also keeps my skin feeling clean and non-greasy. Although I would probably switch to another product after about a month of using Clean & Clear’s Advantage Acne Cleanser in the future, I am definitely impressed with how fast and well this product has worked for me.