5 Body Lotions Similar To EOS

Click to enlarge.

EOS (Evolution of Smooth) lotions claim to add 24 hours of moisture to your skin. Users like its lightweight, non-greasy formula and pleasant scents. The Cashmere Vanilla scent is especially popular. Surprisingly, only Target has a bonafide dupe of it, but there are a number of drugstore moisturizes that offer very similar benefits like moisturizing and norising your skin for 24 hours. With such a claim, at least we know the body lotion will have a rich consistency. I’m going to introduce you to more than 5 choices to consider, including a link to a previous blog (#5) listing a ton of moisturizers costing less. 

Here we go!

1) Up & Up Everyday Moisturizing Body Lotion (Target’s house brand) - 20 oz. Vanilla and White Jasmine + other scents. Cost: $5.49

2) Nivea Soft: 6.8 oz. A classic moisturizing lotion with a creamy texture and a subtle floral scent.

3) Jergens Shea Fusion Vanilla Crush Lotion with Shea Butter and Vitamin E, 14 oz. Like the others on the list, it has deep moisturizing properties to nourish very dry or sensitive skin.

4)  Malibu Hemp Ultra Healing Body Moisturizer For Dry Skin, 18 oz. Aloe Vera and Hemp Seed Oil are main ingredients.

5) My previous blog on Equate dupe moisturizers (Walmart’s house brand) which of course means the original brands are also super moisturizing.

With choice galore you can watch for sales to get rich moisturizers for less per ounce. Watch for drugstores' 2 for 1 deals. No longer are you restricted to buying one brand when it isn’t on sale. Consider another brand! Dupes and some alternatives come in larger sizes of 18 oz - 20 oz to last longer saving you more money.

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Savvy Shoppers Know That Size Matters

It takes a surprising amount of commodities to maintain ourselves! Doesn’t it?! Even a minimalist has to agree. From household germicides to skincare to haircare to personal care, we certainly need to buy a slew of solutions, soaps, lotions, and potions to clean, groom, and perfume our homes and physiques until the day we die!😳 Today and everyday, I mean, stop and what’s next? Germs? Bad smells? Dishevelment? Surely people in their right minds would never just let themselves go!

A reason I love T.J Maxx is the many botanical and organic finds including liquid soaps, moisturizing lotions, shampoos and hair conditioners that are also sold in huge 1 liter or 33 oz sizes for less. My practice is to buy one, plus one to keep on deck for when the first bottle turns into an empty.

I do the exact same thing when buying household cleaners like gallon sizes of distilled white vinegar, a 4 lb box of baking soda, Pinalen (pine oil), ammonia, and bleach from Walmart, Target, Key Food, or C-Town. (I’ve decided not to replace the ammonia because the others do the same jobs. I hardly reach for it anymore. Before switching to white vinegar to clean my floors and counters, I used ammonia to keep from ruining colored rugs with splatters while cleaning.)

Neither overbuying nor underbuying saves you money. Learn which products keep and which lose potency with the passage of time. Then the trick is to figure out what you need and will continue using. We might make a few mistakes before we figure it out, but eventually we do figure it out. 

After we figure it out, buying staples in big ole sizes not only saves time and money, but simplifies our lives. You make fewer trips to the store to restock and instead can do other tasks or pleasures.

Buying huge sizes of non-perishable household and personal care products is always the Savvy Shopper way to go. It’s well worth creating space for them!

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Korean Beauty: Meditherapy

I’m a big fan of Korean Beauty. Its skincare contains good clean ingredients based on science that works, and it's great value for the money. Generous sizes for less!

Meditherapy is a skincare brand to put on your radar. It’s potent anti-aging serums and creams are formulated to be moisturizing, quick absorbing, non-greasy, non-sticky, suitable for sensitive skin and most importantly, affordable. I mean what more do we want? 

If you only try one product, the top image Retinal Skin Booster Serum is it! (Before tariffs, it sold for $11!) So what makes it so good? The serum contains non-irritating retinaldehyde, which is a nonprescription derivative of retin-A. (Retin-A is the prescription strength.) Retinal is another name for Retinaldhyde. Another non-perscription strength of retinol-A is the more familiar retinol. All 3 strengths are highly effective, but the non-presciption strengths require conversions after their application on the skin to become retinoic acid (i.e. retin-A), often called the holy grail in anti-aging serums. 

2 Conversions: Retinol --> Retinaldehyde --> Retinoic Acid 

As you can see the Meditherapy Retinal Skin Booster only needs one conversion to become retinoic acid, not retinol’s two. But remember all 3 strengths are excellent anti-aging ingredients as all 3 work. Think of it like eating carrots to get your vitamin A. Carrots contain beta carotene which you body converts to vitamin A.

If you have the budget to try more products in the Meditheraphy line, below are a few others worth considering:

Collagen Peptide Boosting Serum - Fights wrinkles and fine lines by boosting collagen production. It hydrates the skin and helps with elasticity and firming the skin.

Yuja Vitamin C 20 Glow Serum - Contains 20% pure vitamin C and yuca oil to soften and hydrate the skin. Vitamin C also brightens the skin. Vitamin B5 and E are added to calm the skin.

Cactus Mucin Hyaluronic Serum - Hyaluronic acid is the main ingredient. It's used to deeply moisturize the face. Like the excellent drugstore brand CeraVe, it has ceramides (a family of waxy lipids found in cells in high concentrations) to strengthen the skin barrier.

Wild Rose Capsule Plumping Serum - This one is a splurge because you don’t need it if using the others. The Wild Rose Serum moisturizes and softens the skin to make your face feel nice! It has oasis rose oil (a hydrator) enriched with vitamin C to promote elasticity, smooth wrinkles and restore a youthful glow. Like all the serums in the line, it’s non-greasy and non-sticky and absorbs right into the skin.

There’s no way around the tariffs imposed on South Korea by you know who.🙂 Tariffs are taxes on foreign goods paid when the goods enter the USA and then get passed onto consumers. So now we are paying $2 - $4 more on each beauty item. Amazon scrapped its plan to list the additional cost for consumers created by the tariffs. Despite this tax, Korean Beauty remains good quality and quantity for the money, and when the tariffs are removed, Korean Beauty will return to costing even less.

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The Ordinary GF 15% Solution: An Anti-ager

The Ordinary was the first company to change the game of anti-aging skincare by making it affordable for most everyone. Once upon a time it cost a mint to buy products containing anti-aging ingredients that were based on science! 

Nowadays when buying effective skincare, you are the one who cho0ses to go broke, or not. Education is a must to know which ingredients based upon science to look for in targeting your skin issues.

The Ordinary keeps evolving because skincare keeps evolving as science evolves. I try to keep up with the science of skincare and enjoy trying new products. 

Here’s a new one from The Ordinary I’m curious to try. It's called GF 15% Solution, an age support serum to help minimize and repair the visible signs of aging, including skin damage. The key ingredients are IGF, EGF, and TGE, which are growth hormones and peptites to regenerate the skin, firming it up and restoring elasticity. GF 15% Solution softens fine lines and wrinkles on the forehead, around the eyes and mouth, and smooths rough skin along with brighting dull skin. Sounds desirable to me!

You apply a few drops after washing your face in the morning and at bedtime. GF 15% Solution doesn’t play nice when used with direct acids, direct vitamin C, or salicylic acid. On the other hand, it pairs well with hyaluronic acid, retinol, and heavier moisturizers. If you use retinol (at night) or bakuchiol (day or night), apply the GF 15% Solution 1st, then retinol or bakuchiol and followed by sunscreen or moisturizers.

I’m writing about GF 15% Solution without testing it first because the Ordinary has proven to be extraordinary skincare. Trying this new product will let me know if its right for my complexion.

At such an affordable price ($15.50, alas like everything else The Ordinary has increased its prices), I’m gung-ho to see if it makes my skin more radiate. I want glowing skin! How about you?

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Kind Science By Ellen DeGeneres

Kind Science By Ellen DeGeneres is a skincare line we often see advertised on television. Two questions come to mind: (1) Are the products effective, and (2) Are they good value for the money? Here are my thoughts ...

It depends on how much you know about anti-aging skincare. If you know nothing or very little about skincare ingredients the $49 introductory kit is worth buying. The products are effective, based on science, and are paired to be used together so you won't cancel out the benefits of one elixir with another. The price isn't outlandish for the kit of 4 products. Yes, I know 6 products are offered, but I wouldn't buy a kit to get a free brush or skin oil. It's nice for the company to include them, however, consumers should focus on the 4 essential potions to determine the value of the kit. Those are the ones you'll need to keep buying as they do the anti-aging heavy lifting.

Also keep in mind that when buying the kit, you won't get full sized products, but are paying less then you will to rebuy them in bigger sizes.

So what are we getting for our $49? Reduced sizes of:

1) Gentle Cleanser - 1.5 fl oz/44 ml - Enriched with skin-brightening vitamin C from Kakadu plum, soothing chamomile and green tea (green tea is one source of antioxidants).

2) Micro Exfoliant+ - 0.75 fl oz/22 ml - A face mask that contains volcanic sand and bamboo silk to polish and soften the skin. Its alpha-hydroxy acids brighten the skin and remove dead skin cells.

3) Firming Serum - 0.34 fl oz/10 ml - The main ingredients are bakuchiol (a retinol alternative) and peptides (short chains of amino acids) to smooth the skin.

4) Hydration Cream - 0.5 fl oz014 ml - Has snow mushroom to hydrate, omega-rich sea buckthorn (a source of antioxidants; doesn't grow in the sea) and our retinol alternative bakuchiol.

5) Free Gift: FacialCleansing Brush

6) Free Gift: Radiance Oil 05 fl oz/14 ml - It's mainly sunflower, apricot and jojoba oils with bakuchiol as one of its very last ingredients.

So now I'll find you alternative full sized skincare for less which may source cheaper ingredients that still give you the same anti-aging benefits as the more expensive components. Budget friendly skincare that is based on science can be just as effective as their costly cousins with fancy rarer ingredients that do essentially the same things. 

My skincare picks are:

For Gentle Cleanser:

1) Vanicream Sensitive Skin Cleanser; or Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser; or CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser; or Equate Gentle Skin Cleanser.

To Micro Exfoliate:

3) Cetaphil Extra Gentle Daily Scrub; Alaparte Green Tangerine Vitamin C Face Scrub; Trilogy Vitamin C Microdermabrasion with AHAs (aka Alpha-hydroxy acids).

For Firming Cream:

3) IMAGINE Dermatology Beyond Retinol which is bakuchiol. Since the main ingredient in the Kind Science Firming Serum is bakuchiol, you could buy either a bakuchiol serum or cream. I recommend the IMAGINE brand’s full range of products! (See my review here.) Its Anti Wrinkle Renewal Cream is a close match for the Kind Science Firming Cream for a lot less moola! 

For Hydrating Cream:

4) Neutrogena Hydro Boost; Olay Age Defying Renewal Cream is only one formula choice of many in the Olay line of moisturizers. e.l.f. Holy Hydration Face Cream;  Vanicream Daily Facial Moisturizer; Cetaphil Deep Hydration Healthy Glow Cream. There are so many excellent hydrating/anti-aging creams at the drugstore they are too numerous to list. You can't go wrong with CereVe, L'Oreal, No7, Curology, Get-Dreamy, or ROC either! Choice galore at wayyyy under $20 a jar! The first ingredient of most if not all hydrating creams is hyaluronic acid (HA). It’s a naturally occurring substance in the body, found in the skin, eyes and joints. It’s main job is to bind with water, holding up to 1,000 times its weight in water. As we age, HA production lessens leading to dryer less elastic skin and joint issues. A good moisturizing cream will have HA as one of its 1st ingredients. Moisturize your face to look 5 years younger! Instantly, boom!

For a Cleansing Brush

5) Washcloths are never abrasive and easier to sanitize than cleansing brushes because they can be machine washed and dried after each use! Scrubbing the skin with a brush is totally unnecessary, often even damaging to the skin.

For Radiant Oil:

6) Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Rosehip Scented Therapy Oil for Face (Rosehip is a source of vitamin C which is an antioxidant). Good Molecules Niacinamide Face Serum (Niacinamide is vitamin B3. It calms the skin and increases hydration). Sky Organics Jojoba Oil to Balance and Hydrate Face and Body.

Conclusion: Kind Science is effective skincare backed by science. It's pricey if used daily, but if you need more budget-friendly skincare you'll find equally effective skincare sold in drugstores. These brands employ scientists and dermatologists to formulate their skincare and can go toe to toe with designer and celebrity higher priced skincare.

Lastly, Korean Beauty is also great quality and value for the money. Nowadays drugstores, Walmart and Target carry it. (Next week, I’ll highlight an anti-aging Korean Beauty serum to put on your radar ... for its stellar ingredients, quantity and price! Watch for it to be published!)

Great skincare need not break the bank, but can be found at every price point! I’ll leave you some links below to learn more about what ingredients to look for in effective skincare.

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Frankly Retinol 0.1%

I'm a big fan of Korean skincare which is very advanced. The brand, Frankly, offers high quality retinol anti-aging creams. The top image (o.1%) is the beginner potency. When using retinol, always start with a weaker strength and work your way up to a higher strength. Virgin skin won't be able to tolerate higher strengths, and you'll stop using it. The skin's tolerance builds up to the higher potency with regular use. Frankly has a 2-strength set, Retinol 0.1 paired with a 0.3 stronger strength. Week one of retinol use, you might use it once a week. Week 2 you might use it twice a week, and week 3 to 3 times a week, etc. You skin benefits by the consistency of retinol use over how strong the retinol is.

Frankly's retinol creams contain ceramides and ginseng extract to hydrate and nourish the skin while the retinol is working to smooth our fine lines and wrinkles. It's the perfect balance between effectiveness and gentleness. Retinol can be drying while it speeds up skin cell turnover. Ceramides and ginseng moisturize the skin.

For many people I recommend only buying one strength at a time since everybody's skin reacts differently and you don't know when your skin will tolerate a higher strength. So you may need to buy retinol 0.01 repeatedly before you can bump up the potency. Retin-A (prescription strength) and Retinol (non-prescription strength) tends not to have an eternal shelf life.

The price point ($15.90) is very reasonable for a high quality retinol. K-beauty tends to be a bargain which will surely change with tariffs slapped on all foreign goods to be passed on to customers. Let's all hope tariffs are short-lived! According to economists, tariffs on most everything will rise prices with little benefit to future production or the economy.

Originally Amazon aimed to show customers how much tariffs would add to the cost of products, but after a call to Jeff Bezos from the White House to object, this was scraped. In purchasing goods or services, I'm always on the side of transparency. What consumers don't know usually hurts their wallets. You decide whether or not you'll pay for tariffs on consumer goods. On essentials you won't have much of a choice. On extras you will!

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Faces Love Ultra Violette Sunscreen

Photo: SkinRocks

Ultra Violette Sunscreen is a cult favorite manufactured in Australia, where wearing sunscreen daily is a must due to the continent's close proximity to the sun. Not only does sunscreen shield faces from developing cancer, it shields them from premature aging.

Ultra Violette Sunscreen formulas are hailed for their dewy, hydrating, and luminous finishes. They contain some skin benefits like vitamin C and panthenol, ingredients that smooth and brighten the skin. An application leaves no white cast and works well under makeup as a primer to smooth out skin texture.

Queen Screen is lightweight and serum-like, while Supreme Screen has a creamy texture with a satin finish.

Ultra Violette Sunscreens are on the pricey side. Recently a similar product I use, L'Oreal Miracle Blurr, has been discontinued. So I'll need a replacement.

It's great knowing about popular cult sun protection like Ultra Violette Sunscreen both to stay up-to-date on skincare and to grab one should we see the product at a good price at T.J. Maxxx.

Here are 2 face primers below with SPF 30 from NYX and Neutrogena ... I'll have to try when my tube of Miracle Blur is empty.

Do you have a favorite face primer with SPF 30 or higher?

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Neutrogena Collagen Bank Face Moisturizer with SPF 30 Sunscreen

Sunscreen should be worn on exposed skin every day of the year without exception. While many drugstore brands of sunscreen are ample and cheap, I can understand paying a little more for what goes on your face. If the consistency of sunscreen is too thick, white, or greasy we're less likely to reach for it. To boot, it might cause some faces to break out!

Neutrogena, a drugstore brand, is a top-notch skincare line, bar none. Neutrogena's Collagen Bank SPF 30 Moisturizer and Sunscreen does double duty as a fantastic sunscreen and anti-aging face moisturizer. It contains peptides that reportedly penetrate "10 layers of skin" to stimulate the production of collagen. Peptides (short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds) are anti-aging ingredients that help treat fine lines and sagging by plumping up the skin.

This non-greasy formula melts into the skin, absorbs quickly, and does not leave a white cast, the reason to pay a bit more! It's also fragrance-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, dye-free, dermatologist-tested and non-comedogenic. Because it's a light agreeable formula, we're more likely to use it. 

As a drugstore brand, this Neutrogena Bank formula costs less than many luxe face sunscreens/anti-aging moisturizers yet more than sunscreens for the rest of the body. Customers can wait for a 2-for-1 or other sale to get the best value. Finding great drugstore skincare saves us money, and Neutrolgena is worth the splurge!

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Happy New Year 2025

Photo: iStock

Here we are again starting a brand new year. Truthfully, I'll live the new year much like I did the old one. No monumental changes that I can predict.

For several years now, I've been on a reduce-and-organize kick. I don't deprive myself of things that make my life better, easier, or happier, yet for sure, I've become a more mindful shopper. Call me an under buyer as opposed to an emotional buyer. Beautiful, impractical things stay on a retailer's shelf even if I fall in love while standing in front of them! I do that plenty of times! Still, if I don't have a place, budget, or need for ''it'' (whatever it is) I move on. [↑Photo of fireworks above left: Istock] 

Rockefeller Center tree taken on December 30, 2024

I also take stock of what I already own such as articles of clothing like t-shirts, leggings, or shoes; scented soaps; skincare products (retinols and moisturizers are a weakness); or makeup from eye shadows to lipsticks and have formed the habit of using up what I have at home before adding new products. Over time I've learned our lives get simpler if we're not always out and about looking for more commodities to haul home. When we do replace possessions that either run out or wear out, we can fully enjoy new purchases. It turns out that buying more than enough doesn't tend to save us money or increase our happiness. So my motto is: Always buy enough, not more than enough!

Photo: Dreamstime

There is an area of life where spawning more than enough rocks ... and increases happiness. It's showing kindness to our fellow humans. We can't shower others with more than enough kindness. If you can help someone do it. Little appropriate kindnesses can make a huge difference in the lives of other people. Judge people less. Assess your time and energy to know what you can give. Be generous with your time, acceptance, and hospitality. There are no small gestures only overthinkers who are afraid of extending themselves. In instances when your goodwill isn't received well (as there are all kinds of imperfect people in the world) remember you're only responsible for your good intentions, not someone else's reaction. Move on to the next human, chances are s/he will be on the same page as you! Surround yourself with positive, generous, kind people.

So in 2025, let's rekindle our best efforts from 2024, 2023, 2022, etc. ... and continue growing wiser and better at connecting with one another.

Happy New Year🎉, Readers! Now and then drink the champagne. Know that I love and appreciate you! Many thanks for your support!!

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Talk Show Product Deals Weariness

Photo: The Talk

Have you noticed? Product deals have become a major feature of morning and afternoon talk shows. Called "Steals and Deals [NBC], MorningSave [CBS], or "View Your Deal [ABC]," lately it seems every talk show has a daily segment devoted to so-called bargains. But, why are all the talk shows hyping products? 

Product placements provide a steady income stream by driving product sales. Retailers benefit by reaching a wider audience, and television networks rely heavily on advertising revenue to pay for the production of their shows, which is why we are subjected to TV commercials.

Photo: GMA

Nowadays television hosts including news readers, meteorologists, and medical doctors regularly join product promotors in the demonstrations of 5 or 6 products claimed to be offered at a discount during the show.

If viewers buy the featured products the talk shows get commissions (a cut of each sale) or affiliate sales revenue for driving viewers to buy the products.

Yet, I'll confess, I'm getting tired of them. It's beginning to feel like the home shopping network is taking over talk shows and we're watching infomercials disguised as program segments. The featured products are fairly random from skincare to cooking or exercise equipment and clothing. Usually, we're given 24 hours to go to a specially set up website for the network (which tracks the sales) to grab a deal.

Photo: The Today Show

Although I understand the appeal of some of the products, I've never taken the bait because I'm not an impulse buyer. I can see getting caught up in the enthusiasm of the promoters who are hawking discounts, but I wonder how many viewers have buyer's remorse after receiving their goods? The prices seem reasonable enough, but if consumers wait a beat, would they still need or want the merchandise in the 1st place? 

Let's discuss further:

Are television audiences bombarded by sales pitches coming into their living rooms spending more than they should?

And lastly, is the line between journalists and promotors on GMA, CBS Mornings, and The Today Show getting blurred? Is replacing genuine content with selling commodities ruining talk and morning news shows? Certainly, a show's attempts to make money must be balanced by offering viewers substance of value.

What are your thoughts?

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