Test Drive

MAMA MIO TUMMY TONER

New moms are bundles of neuroses, but other than the biggie -- Is the baby still breathing? -- two main questions haunt those early weeks: When will the baby sleep through the night? And when will I lose all this weight?

Unfortunately, the answers to both are complicated. Even when Junior sleeps for a long stretch, he may wake up at 4 a.m. And when those 20 or 30 extra pounds disappear, they're likely to leave behind stretch marks, sagginess and crepey skin. That's where Mama Mio's ER Tummy Toner comes in, promising to "exfoliate, intensively moisturize, and tighten and tone" postpartum bellies.

Slimy rather than creamy, the toner feels oddly like the gel used during ultrasound exams. After a month of twice-daily use, my belly looked about the same as when I started: squishy. The toner did have one unadvertised effect: The dark line that ran the length of my abdomen during and after pregnancy virtually disappeared. But that would have happened eventually anyway, and the money saved could have gone towardsome books on getting a newborn to rise after the sun does. Or at least a good under-eye concealer.

-- Hannah Schardt

$65 at Cradle and Crayon (11913 Freedom Dr., Reston, 703-437-0900), Dawn Price Baby (3112 M St. NW, 202-333-3939) and http://www.mamamio.com.

BORBA CASHMERE FIBER LIP BALM

I suspect I'd adjust pretty easily to a life of luxury -- you know, caviar snacks, lounging by my Olympic-size pool. My real life involves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a blow-up baby pool, but I can still buy a bit of The Good Life with Borba's cashmere-infused lip moisturizer. How much the posh cashmere fibers factor into the Lip Kix balm's silkening powers is unclear, because the company also throws in well-known softeners such as coconut oil, vitamin E and shea butter.

At first, the almond-scented balm goes on a little gritty, as if you could almost feel the cashmere fibers. But the treatment quickly becomes soft and moisturizing -- nothing like rubbing a pricey sweater on your pout. Now if only the caviar and pool were this attainable. . .

$10.50 at http://www.borba.net.

-- Michelle Thomas