Product Review: Pauly D's Sexy Swagg Black Bronzer

So, it seems that I have been reviewing the Jersey Shore line of tanning lotions! What better products to review than those with beautifully bronzed skin?! Other than Snooki, I think Pauly has the best tan of the Jersey Shore cast.

I totally bought this bottle of Sexy Swagg Black Bronzer because it was pink, so sue me! *wink*

Pauly D's line of tanning lotions is made and manufactured by Devoted Creations. Their website describes the Sexy Swagg Black Bronzer:

"Intoxicatingly Sexy. Bathe your skin in the silkiest, softest tanning créme, and give your body the attention its been craving. Enriched with a luxurious toning, tightening and Tattoo Fade Protecting formula, Pauly D's Sexy Swagg™ will be your guiltiest pleasure. This provocatively dark bronzer, and intoxicating fragrance will be sure to keep all of your senses heightened.

 

DHA Formula blended with natural bronzers providing anti-aging and skin firming benefits with RevitaFit and Matrixyl™. This lotion with an Exotic Kiss fragrance uses a unique Tattoo Fade Protecting complex that works during and after your tanning session to facilitate the natural tanning process.

 

Blended with multiple accelerators that work to target melanin production and achieve fast, dark tanning results.

• RevitaFit – Tones & tightens the skin.
• Matrixyl™ - targeted anti-aging complex that reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles for long-lasting results.
• MelanoBronze Technology - enhances the skin’s natural pigmentation to help build a natural and healthy looking tan. This technology continues to work long after UV exposure to protect the skin and stimulate melanin in the melanocytes for a faster, darker tan.
• Subliskin™ - provides and anti-aging and skin tightening moisture barrier.
• FreshTek – proprietary blend of deodorizing and skin freshening ingredients."

My Review, of course with the Pros and Cons!

Pros:

• When they say intoxicating fragrance, oh boy they aren't kidding! I seriously can't stop smelling myself. This is one of the few tanning products that smells delicious before AND after tanning.
• Smooth, Silky texture. It doesn't have the full silicone texture, but has a very smooth application.
• Price. For $30 you can get this lotion on Amazon. Beware of upcharging at the Salons.
• Pretty Packaging. I'm a sucker for this. A plain bottle isn't going to catch my eye as much as a bright pink blinged one will! :)
• Immediate color. The caffeine in this product brings color to the top of your skin, which is great if you need a quick tan with a little bit of color right away!
• Not a ton of DHA bronzers. DHA bronzers are known to turn you orange and wash off in the shower. This lotion has the perfect blend that doesn't turn your palms (or your body!) orange, but beware you will get the best color if you wait a few hours to shower. Natural bronzers = the ones that don't stick to your skin for too long.
• This lotion truly does work for all skin types. It's formulated to work with your natural skin tone to give you the darkest color, so don't fret for those that may be pigment-challenged! Since summer is right around the corner, this is a great product for beginners especially.

Cons:

• DHA/Natural Bronzers. While anything claiming to be a "black bronzer" is going to have DHA in it to give you immediate color, Natural bronzers is a term I personally never want to hear in a tanning lotion. I love a deep dark tan and a natural bronzer isn't going to give you that. 
• Plateau. Something every tanner dreads. I hit mine quick, but I still felt golden every time I stepped out of the tanning bad with this lotion, which is a plus!

Left: Before, Right, After

Here you can see the immediate results after using this lotion for about 3 weeks. Immediate color!

Overall, I don't have many bad things to say about Pauly D's Sexy Swagg Black Bronzer! The best part is that it works with all skin types. It doesn't target the more experienced tanners or the beginners. I still believe Snooki's Ultra Dark Black Bronzer is the best out of the three, but that is my opinion.

Let's be honest, summer is right around the corner! You don't want to be the white dolphin sticking out of the crowd at the beach because of how pale you are, not to mention get a nasty burn. So pick up Pauly D's, J-WOWW's or Snooki's line of tanning lotion!

*disclaimer- I am in no way affiliated with Jersey Shore or MTV. These products were purchased with my own money and reviewed with an un-biased opinion.

If you wish to send me products from your tanning line to review, please contact me here.

Police Week 5K & Progress

Well, it looks like I'm a runner now. 9 months ago, I would have laughed at that statement.

I had been meaning to get this post up last week, but I just wasn't motivated. As much as I hate excuses, blogging really isn't at the top of my list. Work has been crazy and when I get home I literally eat, workout, shower and go to bed. There isn't much variation there, lol.

I ran my first 5K (when I say my first, I mean the first one where I actually ran the entire time!) last Saturday May 12 in DC. Last year a group of us "ran" the Police Week 5K because it was the year that they were adding Tommy's name to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. People weren't super interested this year, so initially it was just Jason and I. Christy ended up signing up the week before the race with a friend of hers which was awesome, but the overall feeling about the race was sort of "blah" compared to last year. Not sure why people weren't interested this year, but we still had a blast!

I told myself (and my facebook fam) that my goal was to run the 5K in about 30 minutes, keeping my pace at about 10 minutes per mile. I thought that was do-able and totally better than the 5K I ran in October! Read about my last run here.

Well, guess what... I DID hit that goal! I ran the 5K in 30:02 which was a 9:40 pace! I ran across that line almost jumping up and down! Back in October, quoting the blog post I just linked "for this being the first 5K that I took seriously, boy it was ROUGH! The truth of the matter is, I will NEVER like running, EVER so these will always be a challenge for me." I find that HILARIOUS looking back 8 months ago. I took my running seriously back in February/March and have made HUGE progress in that short time. I am now a runner! What's funny is that I purposely did nothing the night before the Ride and Run to Remember race in October. I didn't drink, I didn't stay up late or anything. The only thing I slipped up on was not eating breakfast. It still wiped me out which shows how I wasn't in THAT great of shape.

Here is the progress I have made in the last year:

Police Week 5K - May 2011: 52:45, 16:30 pace

Ride and Run to Remember 5K - October 2011: 42:00, 13:54 pace

Police Week 5K - May 2012: 30:02, 9:40 pace

What I was even more surprised about was Jason's progress. He actually finished this year in about 40 minutes, which was even better than my race time in October! I was so happy to see him running across the finish line that I ran to him before he got there to finish out with him! He's made SO much progress in the last year too.

Now I just have to focus on getting my times down for my physical fitness tests. I'm shooting for an 8 minute mile and I have Haley helping me out! I have a great set of people that want to help me reach my goals, I'm pretty lucky!

Now, I may have gone race crazy! We've got The Color Run and Ride & Run in October and then our Gorilla Challenge in July and another race in September. Never would have said that last year!

Your Monthly Motivation

How long has it been since I gave y'all a comparison picture? You know how much I love them. I actually have a story about this one.

The before picture on the right, I specifically made my friend Sarah take a picture of me because I thought I looked skinny. WOOF! I can't believe how bad I looked 2 years ago. Pictures like these keep me on my grind, because I only have .5 lb to go to hit my goal. A HALF POUND. I've never struggled so hard to control my will power. I look great and feel great, but I just love food. I need that last half pound to go away so I can finally say "I hit my goal." Hitting my goal also comes with a new tattoo which I'm pumped about!



These shorts are twice the size of me now!

Here's my new bathing suit for this season!

I actually got the top from Target. I HATE how small my chest is now but at least I can wear cute tops like these and not have to worry about my top floating away in the ocean LOL The bottom I got last year from Zumiez website and can you believe THAT is an extra large? I can't say I understand who Zumiez is targeting but their bottoms are even WORSE than Victoria's Secret which says alot! Even losing so many inches and pounds, I still can't get into a VS bathing suit bottom even in their biggest size.

This picture is mostly motivation for myself. I recently have been working with my trainer Frank to focus on my lower half (remember the whole pear shaped thing? le sigh.) and can I tell you I HATE squats, in any form?!?!?! I can do burpees, mountain climbers, any cardio all day long but I will be damned if I don't hit my threshold real quick when I'm doing squats. I'm hoping to get my legs into bikini shape by June for my first wedding of the season.

If anyone is on MyFitnessPal, feel free to add me! My username is kkerr02.

Thanks for visiting, hope you all have a great weekend!
♥♥

Re-vamped Back Porch!

The soon-to-be hubby finally got his friends together this past weekend and finished "cleaning up" our back porch! I'm sooo happy!

A little story behind this:

These two little nugget heads literally busted through every single one of my screens on the enclosed back porch! My black labrador Savannah is quite the ball of energy and so she just decided one day she was tired of waiting for me to open the door to the back porch *sigh*

The porch got sooo dirty because of this and the bugs would come in and make it look horrible, so I had enough and I got rid of the two picnic tables we used as seating on the porch and decided to formulate a plan to make our porch prettier and "puppy proof." See below for a before picture!

Dog hair was piling up, MUD and DIRT were caked onto the concrete. It was just awful! Notice Nugget Head #1 getting into the trashcan. *sigh*x2

The guys worked for 2 whole days and finally Walt and Jason finished up everything and even repainted the whole porch (and said that Walt's fiance and I needed to get together and buy them a paint sprayer for Christmas - Psh!) and wa-la!

Jason and I bought a new patio set from the new Big Lots they opened in Bowie. I put the table together all by myself (which Jason didn't believe I would be able to pull it out of the garage by myself LOL) but I left the swivel chairs to be assembled by him because woo boy did that have a lot of instructions for two little chairs! Sheesh!

Anyway, that was our little home project over the weekend. We've slowly been trying to do some cosmetic updates to the house to make it look better. Being a homeowner, there's always some project or something that needs to be fixed. Am I right?!

Joint Review with MissBrittanyBoo: JWOWW Black Bronzer

Brittany from MissBrittanyBoo and I did a joint review on the 2011 tanning lotion by Jenni 'JWOWW" Farley of MTV's Jersey Shore!

What Australian Gold says:
JWOWW Black Bronzer tanning lotion will have you turning heads and breaking hearts with your dark sexy color. This extreme dark bronzing blend of Black Currant and Kukui Oil offers the hottest dark color possible, while Vitamins and Hemp Seed Extract deliver superior hydration to leave your skin feeling undeniably soft and sexy.

Ingredients:Water (Aqua), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Propylene Glycol, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Fragrance (Parfum), Cetyl Alcohol, Ribes Nigrum (Black currant) Seed Oil, Juglans Nigra (Black walnut) Leaf Extract, Aleurites Moluccana Seed Oil, Acetyl Tyrosihe, melanin, Erythrulose,  Tocopheryl Acetate, Panthenol, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Betula Alba Bark Extract, Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Adenosine Triphosphate, Riboflavin, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Retinyl Palmitate, Carbomer, Butylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Triethanolamine, Acrylates/C10 30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Isopropyl Lanolate, Cetyl Acetate, PPG-20 Methyl Glucose Ether Distearate, Acetylated Landolin Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Citral, Limonene, Linalool, Caramel, Red 40 (CI 16035), Green 5 (CI 61570)

Directions:Apply liberally prior to indoor tanning. Wash hands after applying lotion

Brittany's Review:Black Bronzer lotion is slightly tinted with a really nice silicone texture. It isn't too thick or too thin, but somewhere right in the middle. Which means, a little goes a long way. This 13.5 fl.oz. bottle should last you a long time- easily through the summer. On the back of the bottle, bolded, it says Wash hands after applying lotion. With many tanning lotions, this usually indicates that the lotion may cause some discoloration on your palms. However, I did not experience this at all with this lotion. I am not crazy about the berry scent, but it is not unbearable. Its a very artificially sweet scent. Thankfully, the scent does not change after getting out of the tanning bed, but I think it might get stronger. I've said before, I'm super sensitive to scents- so that might have something to do with it.

When I started using this lotion, I already had a nice tan but hadn't been to the salon in a week. So, my tan was starting to fade. I was of course hoping to get darker. After using this lotion for a few days, I did get darker (about the color I was before I missed a week of tanning). And my tan was a nice golden bronze. Not freakish Oompaloompa orange. So far so good. Then after a few more uses, I noticed I wasn't getting any darker. My tan had plateaued, le sigh! I did a little research to see if anyone else plateaued, or was it just me? After watching this video, I learned that Black Bronzer is formulated to help you develop a base tan. Ah ha! So, that's why my tan plateaued. I already had a base tan and clearly peaked with this lotion.

This lotion is perfect for beginner tanners, or those that need to develop their base tan for the summer. If want to get darker or you are a frequent tanner, this isn't the lotion for you. Overall, this is a really great base tan lotion. I was impressed especially for the price. And I'm interested in trying some of her other products. Maybe the 50X Black Bronzer next.

My Review:
Let me start off this review by warning the avid tanner:this product is not for you!

Now, don’t get me wrong it is definitely a good lotion, butsee my review below:

Pros1. Silicone texture. This makes forsmooth and easy application and you definitely get your money’s worth.
2. Doesn’t leave you with a greasy feeling after. Definitely a plus.
3. Doesn’t stain the hands after use. Proof that it doesn’t have a lot ofbronzers in it (Pro and Con)
4. Sleek packaging. Not too girly and can still appeal to the male population!
5. Cost. You can get this lotion on Amazon for around $25.

Cons
1. The scent. The before scent is not great and the after scent is even worse. One of my biggest qualms with tanning products is the stench and this one is terrible, almost a stale leather smell after tanning.
2. Quick plateau. Meaning you have to be very pale to get good dark color out of this.
3. The title of the product being called “Black Bronzer” when it is definitely an Accelerating lotion.

Overall, this product should not be called “JWOWW’s Black Bronzer” because it doesn’t make you black. She needs to add the word “accelerator”somewhere in the description because I was excited to buy this lotion because I love JWOWW’s tan. I guess not using “accelerating lotion” anywhere in the description or on the site is a marketing ploy because she had me fooled. I personally prefer Snooki’s Ultra Dark Bronzer (See my review here) and it’s a much better product for better color (but then again I’m an avid tanner and I’ve used a range of products.) I don’t like to waste my money on accelerators, but luckily Brittany purchased it and let me borrow half ;) It’s not too expensive anyway, which is great. I know at my salon lotions are anywhere from $60-$100 per bottle.

JWOWW’s line does have another product that she mentions in the video on Australian Gold’s website called 50X Black Bronzer. I may be purchasing it in the future! I hope JWOWW keeps the tanning products coming. Overall, a pretty good product, but could use a few minor adjustments.

{More} Engagement Pictures!

Our boot camp instructor is starting up her own photography business, so as a present to us for our engagement she offered to do a shoot with us! Here are a few of the preview shots :)

If you live in the Maryland, DC, Virginia area you should definitely check Sandra out! Here is the link to her website, In-Vision Fotography

♥ ♥