Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Are H2O+ Resort Products Any Good?


H2O+ shampoos, conditioners, and moisturizing lotions are familiar beauty products for anyone at a Disney resort. In 2022 after years of partnering with 
Pola Orbis Holdings LLC to distribute the products to its customers who stay at Disney hotels, Disney villas, and Disney Cruise shipsDisney bought the rights to the formula for the H2O+ products outright.

Freebies are nice, but it begs the question are the products any good? 

Before I answer the question, I'll share that the brand was founded in 1989 and once upon a time had a retail store on Lexington Avenue in midtown Manhattan. Back then, I discovered the brand on a lunch break when everything in Manhattan was new and exciting to a younger me. I sampled the sea-ingredient skincare on repeated jaunts during my lunch hours. The brand provides facial and body skincare and hair care with good clean ingredients.

After 33 years I understand why the company sold itself to Disney. Nowadays in addition to containing cleansers and moisturizers, retail skincare lines tend to be specialized to treat specific skin issues such as acne, rosacea, or aging. Beauty brands must invest continuously to keep up with the science of skincare. Since H2O+'s launch in 1989, the skincare industry has proliferated 1000-fold! You can now buy highly effective skincare in the aisles of your local drugstore for less.

H2O+ is primarily formulated to clean or moisturize, a perfect spa line for Disney to dole out at its resorts. You don't expect spa skincare products to contain industry-forward ingredients such as retinol, alpha-hydroxy acids, or bakuchiol as they wouldn't suit every chronological age or skin type. For a week you can make do with clean, gentle cleansers and moisturizers. 

I have 2 fluid-ounce tubes of 1) H2O+ Body Lotion; 2) H2O+ Sea Salt Hydrating Body Lotion; 3) H2O+ Marine Revitalizing Shampoo; and 4) H2O+ Salt Marine Collagen Conditioner. They all have the same clean, pleasant oceanside scent. No perfume.

The lotions offer gentle hydration without stickiness. The shampoo and condition feel clean leaving my hair soft and bouncy with no residue. If I can put my fingers or a shower comb through my hair in the shower sans tangles after applying a condition, I judge it to be good. This conditioner passes the test. 

If you stay at a Disney resort be sure to take your H2O+ skincare and haircare complimentary goodies home. They're too clean and good to leave behind! If someone else gives you their products, accept and use them. Basic yet quality ingredients!


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Thursday, December 23, 2021

It's Nearly Christmas: Come Travel With Me

One of the Christmas trees at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Queen Elizabeth IIs official residence in Scotland. A painting of King Charles II looks on. For more about him go here. His father, King Charles I is the portrait on the right.

For our Christmas blog let's travel around the world, as well as, back in time a bit. On my bucket list is a return to Great Britain at Christmas time. With the numbers of the Omicron variant of COVID rising, it won't be anytime soon, so let us rely on the blog for our Christmas visits this year ...

The Royal Family's trees at Windsor Castile

How beautiful are Queen Elizabeth II's 2021 trees in Scotland and Windsor? Her Majesty's trees arrived and were decorated in early December.

On to the Middle East ...

 Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

One day perhaps tourists will again spend Christmas where it all began in Bethlehem. Maybe this December the locals can enjoy Bethlehem even more without the usual crowds, although sadly when people stay away the commerce won't be there for the town either.

Our next stop is New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 9, 2021:

All photos at the Met: Carolyn C.

Here on the Upper East Side at the Met, my friend Carolyn invited me to see the new Walt Disney exhibit with her. She had an extra ticket for its opening. I had not visited the museum in 2+ years, and her company was the shot in the arm (no pun intended๐Ÿ˜Š) I needed to go again. As it turns out, you do need your COVID shots in the arm, as well as, to show a state ID and wear a mask to get inside. Glad to oblige to keep everybody safe! 

We very much enjoyed the magic of Walt Disney consisting of footage of its animated films, movie posters, and various artifacts from the productions. As I mentioned to Carolyn, I didn't see Disney's Snow White (1938) or The Sleeping Beauty (1959) movies, but as a child, I had the records of the fairytales which I played over and over again; and the recordings came with Disney illustrated books so you could turn the pages as you listened to actors reading the parts, classical music, and dramatic sound effects. I remember the book images vividly as if I'd seen the films in theaters. Beauty And The Beast (1991) I also missed in theaters ... but I've seen enough Disney clips over the years to know all 3 animated films well.

Photo: Carolyn C. of The 17th Century Christmas tree at the Met

Naturally, we had to visit the 17th Century Christmas tree the Met always sets up at Christmas in the Medieval-Byzantine-Early Modern chamber complete with a soft Gregorian chant in the background. Every year it's become a Christmas tradition to walk over to see it. Like many other activities, I missed doing so in 2020.

Our last blog stop is a spot in my apartmentYou get music in my home too.๐Ÿ™‚

I tried to give this Nativity Scene away as I have another one but didn't find a taker, and so I'm displaying it myself this year. Hey, maybe I do need two.:) 

"Go Tell It On the Mountain" is from my favorite Christmas album of all time recorded by the Ames Brothers (1957), which I reviewed the year I began the blog here. As a young man, my father bought the vinyl album, and it played every Christmas on my parent's {Dad's stuff always became our stuff๐Ÿ˜€} stereo during my childhood, so when I moved to Manhattan, I bought a CD of it in a record store. Thus, the tradition continues! Unfortunately, record stores are another relic of the past.

Another glance at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland with Queen Elizabeth's decorating team.

I want to thank you, my lovely readers, for stopping by ... for your continued support ... and I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday in your own faith traditions. I'm happy to include you in mine by wishing you Peace, Love andJoy. 

We may be from multi-cultures and traditions, but everyone is accepted and valued on THE SAVVY SHOPPER. Here we are united as one human global family. Free to be a little bit serious and a little bit frivolous ... and spread kindness continuously. On these restricted days apart people need it!๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ’‹

Merry Christmas Everyone!
xoxo



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