If you've been hanging around these parts lately, you know that most of the reason for my irregular posting schedule is that I have been busy fixing up my new apartment. It is taking longer than expected.

You see, in addition to being a beauty addict, I am a bit of a clean addict, too.

Between all the scrubbing, mopping, Goo Gone, scouring, and steaming, I think the cleaning is beginning to take its toll on my skin. I fear that my face has more dirt embedded in it than the grout in those kitchen floor tiles (before I started on the sterilize-and-disinfect mission, of course).

My weapon of choice to combat this is something that had been hiding under my sink for a while: Neutrogena Pore Refining Toner. Now, I don't usually use toners, as I find them drying and generally useless, but this was a dire situation and I was in desperate need of something to lift the grime off my poor, abused face. This toner has some scary-sounding but lovely things in it - glycolic acid and salicylic acid - that seem to whisk away all manner of debris, more efficiently than just a cleanser can.

If for some reason the cleaning mission becomes more intense and the toner no longer does the job, I may have to upgrade to the big guns: The Clarisonic Skincare Brush. This bad boy is from the makers of the Sonicare toothbrush, and those people don't mess around when it comes to clean. This thing oscillates at a sonic frequency, ya'll. It's a beauty product for the gadget geek in all of us.

No particle of grime stands a chance. Stand back!