I "nose" a great find when I see one...

I love pharmacies. Like I love them. And I mean love with a big fat capital L. I love them all, every kind; big or small, from here, there, and everywhere. It doesn't matter where I am in the world; Toronto, Calgary, Dublin, London, Amsterdam, even Mombasa, Kenya; it is literally impossible for me to walk past a pharmacy without stopping in. Here I can spend countless hours (ask anyone who has braved this with me before to confirm that) browsing aisle after aisle after aisle, looking, reading, testing (and inevitably buying) all the new and exciting, as well as tried and tested, products that line the shelves. It is admittedly one of my favorite ways to spend a day (or two...or three...)

So you can only begin to imagine my elation when my contacts at B.Kamins told me that I could have my pick of anything...and I mean anything...on their amazing website and they'd send it off to me to review for my blog. They obviously were unaware that in my world that is like sending a six-year-old into a candy shop and telling them it is theirs for the taking. So, I logged on the first day and began my browsing. I looked, I read, and then I looked some more but it was all so overwhelming. This wasn't my first experience testing out the wonderful products from B.Kamins (their Vegetable Skin Cleanser still ranks up their as one of my all-time favorite skin products), so I knew that quality wasn't going to be an issue but really, how can you choose? Was it greedy to ask for one of everything?

With fingers that didn't want to cooperate with what my brain was telling me was right, I closed down my browser and walked away. The next day, with a level (and less greedy) head on, I logged back on and narrowed my choices down to my top three picks, the top one being an intriguing Bamboo and Rice Facial Polisher listed on their bestsellers page.

Days later, when my package finally arrived I ripped it open and headed straight for the bathroom. First things first, I popped the top of the small white tube and took a sniff (my readers are well aware from my last post that I have a thing for pretty smelling things)....I stopped dead in my tracks. How do you describe a products that smells so organically natural, and yet still somehow manages to smell like some form of industrial strength chemical cleaner. Ugh. I am admittedly a little disappointed. I guess with a name that included bamboo and rice, I expected something a little fresher and clean smelling. However, I do have to pause at this point to reminded myself that some of the most reliable products on my shelves at home are actually some of my worst smelling (ever gotten a good whiff of Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Skin Protectant??? One word: Ew...but it works like a charm). And so, with an internal note to keep inhaling to a minimum I splash some water on my face and get down to business.

Being that I was blessed enough to have been given this product free of charge I have to admit I wasn't exactly being as stingy on my portions as someone who actually purchased one of the $45 bottles might have been. I quickly learned my lesson. As I gently rubbed the nickel-sized dollop into my skin it erupted into beautifully light bubbles that danced over my skin (called "tensio-active sudsing agents" I would later discover) while the tiny granules of milled bamboo and rice beads felt like they were literally scrubbing the badness right from my skin. But then it just kept bubbling....and bubbling. All right, first lesson learned: a nickel-sized dollop is definitely too much. The remainder of the week (I like to give myself at least that long with a facial cleanser in order to judge the full effect) involved dime-size drops that did the job just right and would totally agree with my budget when this bottle runs out and the next one finds its way onto my shelf.

So you get value for money, but do you get results? Designed for all skin types, the Bamboo and Rice Facial Polisher is meant for a deep cleanse and to rid your skin of impurities "while helping to clarify and refine the complexion". Did I notice a huge difference in my complexion? Admittedly no, but I am also lucky enough to have a very clear complexion. Where I did notice the joys was how healthy my skin looked (and yes, there is a big difference between a good complexion and that glow of truly healthy skin) and how fresh I felt after each wash. It was like dipping my face into a rainforest, every time I walked away from that cleanser my skin felt like a layer of dirt and grime had been lifted from my skin. So maybe that industrial-strength cleaner joke wasn't meant for nothing.

And no, It might not smell the best but my theory proves true once more: when it works this good, it doesn't have to smell the same.

B.Kamins products can be founds in leading spas nationwide and on their website www.bkamins.com