Shakeup Your Makeup

Every year my company has two Holiday sales meetings back to back - the first one is themed for Halloween and the second is themed for Christmas.  Last week was meeting #1, so I decided to go as a flapper.  After watching tutorials on YouTube of pin waves, I spent the morning getting my hair ready so I could do my makeup while it set.  

Most flapper or Roaring 20's type makeup I could find online looked to be smokey eyes and red lips, so I decided to take it up a notch with some glitter.  I used the same eyeshadow as earlier last week (here), but topped it off with Fyrinae's Pixie Epoxy and some glitter I had by Mary Kate and Ashley (remember when Walmart used to carry that?!).  The picture below doesn't do it justice!  This was a lot of fun to wear!

Looking to add a pop of color to your hair, but don't want to commit to a permanent shade?  Enter Scrunci U Dazzle hair colors.  With four shades to choose from: magenta, pink, blue and turquoise, you can color your locks to your hearts content, and it will wash out with your shower!  Retails for $4.99 at Walgreens, although I'm sure you can find it in other drugstores.  

Closeup of the colors below - have you tried these yet?

I love WEN.  I use it every day.  I got on the "No Poo" or "Low Poo" bandwagon about 2-3 years ago by trying WEN out.  Over the past 6 months, I've started to see several entries into the WEN or cleansing conditioner category in some of the drugstores around me.  Most recently would be the Salon Grafix Healthy Hair Nutrition Cleansing Conditioner and Intensive Hair Repair Masque.  Both were tagged at $8.99 at my CVS.  The Cleansing Conditioner had a necker on it which called out WEN - the reason I noticed and purchased it. 

Have you seen these yet?  Have you tried them?  I will review the cleansing conditioner after I've had some time to try it out. 

I have been given the amazing opportunity to be a part of Aveeno's and Recyclebank's new focus on their Active Naturals campagin.   Talk about a company that is giving back to the environment!  (Click on the picture above to see how you can get involved too!)

One of the newer items on the Aveeno block is the Living Color, Color Preserving Shampoo and Conditioner.  Now, as some of you know, I am a Wen girl through and through, but I did want to try out these products and see what I thought.  The Color Preserving collection comes in two varieties: Fine Hair and Medium/Thick hair.  I have the shampoo for fine and the conditioner for medium/thick. 

First and foremost, let's discuss what the whole "Active Naturals" is about.  Below, is a snippit from the Aveeno website:

By now you have probably seen the new, updated, and improved Suave Professionals line at your local drug store or super center.  I actually didn't realize they had redone the line until I (literally) fell over a display in the middle of my Meijer store about a week or so ago.  Once I got up and collected myself, I decided to pick up the Touchable Finish Hairspray and the Vibrant Shine Spray.  I'm always intrigued by shine sprays because I used to absolutely adore the Nick Chavez Cello Gloss, but not only was it a bit pricey for me, but I don't think it's actually available any more.  I will say, the fragrance and results were amazing, though! 

Suave's Vibrant Shine Spray is not an aerosol, but instead a pump spray that is said to restore shine as well as Sebastian Trilliant.  I haven't used Sebastian, but what I will do is compare this to the Nick Chavez Cello Gloss I spoke about earlier.  The Cello gloss was in a small, aerosol can that you sprayed on top of your hair once your style was complete.  It had a very good fragrance, almost like honeydew and made your hair shine like it was faceted.  Like I said, Suave is in a little pump bottle.  The fragrance is similar to the Nick Chavez Gloss, having a somewhat warm, melon scent.  It's not overwhelming, but just enough to make you go..."mmm...".  The product actually says to "shake to activate the mineral bursts and spray".  You'll see why in the closeup below...



See all those little sparkles in the bottle...no? 

Well let's take a closer look...

Once you shake the bottle, all these little silver shimmers incorporate into the liquid, giving your hair all sorts of sparkle and shine.  They actually do settle to the bottom if you don't shake it in between uses.  Now, don't get me wrong, these are not chunks - you won't look like a junior high cheerleader at a competition with this spray in your hair.  Instead, these add facets and shine to your hair.  Not only that, but the product istelf adds all sorts of shimmer and shine to your hair.  It's not greasy, heavy, or slick.  It won't weigh your hair down, ruin your style, or make your hair look wet.  It truely looks like you took a can of shellac to your hair and added all sorts of shine. I tried to capture this in the pictures below, but seeing as my hair is "blonde" (I use that term loosely), it's hard to see, but I think you get the picture.  Really, all I can say is go spend the $2.97 or whatever it is at your local store and give it a try!   A few spritzes and your hair looks shiney and it lasts all day!

As for the hairspray, I'm always on the lookout for an affordable hairspray that works!  I don't like *wet* sprays, and honestly one of the best hair sprays I've ever found is the Kenra Volume Spray 25, but it runs around $25 for a bottle (and the large bottle size has been discontinued), so buying that every couple of months just isn't in the budget anymore.  I ended up grabbing a bottle of the Suave Professionals Touchable Finish in Extra Hold Aerosol Spray.   I tend to only buy the aeorsols - probably because of the "wet" vs. "dry" touch of a spritz vs. aerosol. 

How many of you lovely ladies have curly hair?  Or, maybe it's not even that curly, but just needs help depending on how the weather is.  Personally, I have wavy hair, and lots of it, which I tend to keep short because it becomes a lot more managable at this length.  Recently I had the opportunity to review a flat iron and I couldn't be more excited to post my review.

Included with the iron was a silicon heat-resistant mat to place on the table during use to prevent damange to any type of surface, a travel case, the tin and case that the iron fits into, and a bottle of the Hana Shine Shield, which is a heat protectant serum for the hair (below).

The first thing I noticed, outside the gorgeous pink color of the iron, was the easy-to-read "on" and "off" switch, along with temperature setting and indicator light which blinks once the iron has reached the desired setting.  There is a closeup of this below.  Also, these are ceramic plates, so you know your hair is receiving the best treatment.

Although I do have wavy hair, I decided a more difficult and trying test subject would be a great way to review this iron, so I picked my little sister as the guinea pig.  My sister has tons of rich, tight, curly brown hair.  Although her hair isn't coarse at all, she has enough hair to make anyone with hair envy jealous.  Personally, I would love to have her hair - color and all - which is ironic conisidering I dye my hair blonde!  Look at all the shine and curls in the "before" pictures below - it's just gorgeous. 

Well, with curly hair at hand, I decided to tackle the task of straightening her hair.  I had set aside about 30-45 minutes to do this, as I have tried previous brands in the past with some success, but the time to accomplish the desired look was substantial.   After dividing her hair into four sections, I went about the task at hand.  Let me tell you, the performance of this flat iron is UNBELIEVABLE!  In one pass of the iron (set at ~375 degrees), I was able to have a straight section of hair immediately, with no need to come back.  Section by section, this was no exception.  Even the tight curls underneath were simple to straighten.  I was sceptical that the 1" width of this iron would be sufficient to staighten this much hair, but sure enough it worked like a dream.  I managed to straighten my sister's entire head of hair in under 15 minutes.

The other nice thing is the roundness of this iron, which I think you can see in the first few pictures, is it has the flexibility to "curl" your longer hair - it doesn't have to just be a flat iron!  There is a very handy "how to" guide that comes with the iron, and will teach you everything you need to know about achieving curls, flipping your hair under or out, and other techniques that are very helpful when using an iron such as this.

Look at these before and after shots!  Isn't it amazing!  One thing I forgot to take a picture of was the shine serum by Hana which also came with this.  This is truely a serum, and has the consistency of mineral oil.  As my art teacher used to say, "A dot does a lot!", and this is no exception.  About a pea sized drop of this serum and I was able to apply to my sister's hair and protect it from the heat.  Look at how shiny her hair is, and even better, it smells tropical and wonderful!

Another key points to take away: 1) the iron comes with an extremely long cord, and where the cord connects with the iron itself, it swivles/twists, which allows you to keep working and not worry about any tangles in the wire.  2) the iron is easy to use because it's light weight and easy to grip.  3) As mentioned earlier, you can adjust the temperature of the iron.  Depending on who is using the iron will determine what type of heat is needed.  Seeing as my hair is wavy, I don't need a setting of 375-400 like my sister did.  This helps us protect our hair!  The guide (above), also has some suggested settings based on your hair type, which is a great starting point when working with one of these types of irons. 

All in all, I have to say this is the best flat iron I've used to date, and I've tried numerous varieties from the basic you can find at your drug store to those at a beauty supply store.  I would definitely suggest you pick one up if you have been struggling with your iron. 

Keep your eyes peeled here, as well, since I will be posting a contest to win your own flat iron, courtesy of Misikko.com.