Nail of the Week
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Straight Hair and Length Check~ (Picture Heavy)
So I’ve been curly for a while now and decided it was time to straighten my hair. I prefer to wear my hair straight because it takes less time in the mornings and is much easier to handle. I made my long awaited appointment for a couple of days before Christmas. I go to a natural hair salon in Beverly Hills called The Lounge On Wilshire and my stylist is named Rosalind. Since this salon is focused on promoting healthy hair, they do not use hand blow dryers or perms/relaxers. I must admit it takes longer to do my hair, but it has grown significantly in length since I first began coming here. Beyond the length, I also find that my hair doesn’t have nearly as many split ends as before. My hair only needs to be trimmed about twice a year compared to every six weeks that was necessary at my old salon. My hair is naturally shiny and completely healthy. I have been coming to this salon for nearly six years and cannot find anyone that does as great of a job.
Here’s the process in detail for those who aren’t close to the Los Angeles area. After washing, conditioner is added to the hair and you sit for 15-20 minutes under a hood dryer to encourage the moisturizer’s uptake into the hair. (They offer special conditioners and scalp treatments for those with flaky scalps, thinning hair, and severely abused hair follicles.) After conditioning, the hair is set in large rollers and the client sits under a hood dryer which dries the hair completely.
I find that the large rollers keep my ends from being frayed and when my hair is dry its left in big waves. Since my hair has grown in length I now sit under the dryer for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I realize this may seem like a lot of time but since my natural curl patterned has been removed by using the rollers, styling is a breeze. I have my roots pressed to remove any extra kinks. Here’s my hair with only the roots pressed and no additional styling:
As you can see I could stop here, but I prefer straight, straight hair so a flat iron is used to style the ends of my hair. After roughly three hours (with styling), my hair looks like this:
Here is a reference picture of me before I started going to this salon. You can see the difference in length.
I have on the same necklace (6 years later lol) but notice the hair in reference to the position of the charm.
Please keep in mind that the length and thickness of my hair add to my time in the salon.
Mixed Chicks- Second Day Curls
I was so impressed with this last rendezvous with Mixed Chicks that I decided to keep it going and attempted to get second day curls. Well, I didn’t get the exact same style (due to my lazy before bed routine) but I did get pretty impressive results. I decided to go with a half up- half down style. First, I sprayed the front of my hair with water (just to moisten, not enough to drench) and used some Mixed Chicks to smooth out any fly always. Next, I finger parted the back with slightly more hair going into the hair tie and then went over all the frizzy sections with a light water mist and a small amount of Mixed Chicks to give definition to the curls I had smashed in my sleep the night before. I know a lot of people prefer that their second day curls require no maintenance, but that’s not the case in my life. Extra product is ALWAYS necessary, however the amount of cream/gel that I use determines if the style was a success.
My hair got ruined at work, so I have no idea what it would have looked like at the end of the day if it was untouched. However, I can say it stayed nice for about 2 hours. =)
Mixed Chick's Leave-In Conditioner
Mixed Chick’s Leave-In Conditioner doubles as a styling product as well. It’s marketed as a “curl defining formula designed for ‘us’”. Well, I’m not a part of that ‘us’ group, but I decided to give this product a try. Mixed Chick’s Leave-In Conditioner is a creamy yellow conditioner that is alcohol free. It doesn’t have the most appealing scent, yet after applying to my hair I noticed it completely disappeared.
As you can tell I’ve had this bottle for a while as I’m almost done with it. This was the first curly hair styling product that I’d ever bought and to be honest I was consistently underwhelmed—that was until I did this review. This is proof that technique and application is everything. I’m glad I have this blog that lead me to revisit this product.
I’ve always been impressed with the moisturizing components of this product. It truly is a great leave-in conditioner. It doesn’t weigh my hair down and leaves it pillow soft. However, these same qualities that enjoy usually lead to fluffy curly and big hair. Before when I used this product my hair resembled a birds nest made out of cotton (just a soft, undefined mess). Well, this time I used my small section method and literally saturated the hair with product, but I did not use SO much product that my neck and shoulders were sticky.
Here's my wet hair:
My hair initially dried with some hard/crunchy sections, yet about an hour after drying all my hair was soft with easy movement.My hair was left with volume (more than I would prefer but not enough to make me hate this product). I would recommend Mixed Chick’s Leave-In Conditioner as a product used on uneventful days (i.e regular work days). It gives enough definition for daily use and great moisturizing qualities that will keep hair soft and managable. I would have liked less volume, so when I go out I would probably use a product that has a better volume taming qualities.
Here's my hair at the end of the day:
Mixed Chick's Leave-In Conditioner is available at most beauty supplies. I paid $20 for 10oz of product but at mixedchicks.net its only $16.99
Nail Color of the Week- Yule Be Merry
New week, new nail color! I love pink, so this week I went back to my roots and decided hot pink was for me. Its a limited edition, Christmas collection Fingerpaint polish called Yule Be Merry. Its a fuchsia pink with reddish shimmers. Its a perfect Christmas color that could easily transfer to a summer nail polish.
One qualm about this polish is its staying power, I notice I get about three days worth of wear before I have to redo my manicure. I compared this color to OPI's Pompeii Purple and while its not a complete dupe it could definitely work. I noticed Pompeii Purple has blue undertones so only in bright light could I see the difference.
Fingerpaint's Yule Be Merry is available at Sally Beauty supply stores for 4.99
Fingerpaint's Yule Be Merry is available at Sally Beauty supply stores for 4.99
Home for the Holidays
So like most college students, I've moved my stuff back to my parents house for the holidays. I had a car load of clothes, shoes, and everything else to necessary to be fabulous for the Christmas vacation. I am still trying to adjust to living with my parents again and starting back working. I expect my post to slow slightly, but I still have a list of things I want to talk about in the coming weeks. I have Johnson's Naturals Baby Shampoo, Mixed Chicks, and Ecostyle Gel reviews to come along with a few makeup and skin care products. Thanks a bunch for viewing. Im so excited for the upcoming holidays, what are your plans?
Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment and Curly Pudding
After doing the Twist and Curl and applying the heat, I decided it was best to use the Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment. The treatment is meant to be “a decadent softening treatment which ensures that your curls reach long luxurious length. This rich treatment full of Shea butter and centella extract is a growth stimulant that promotes long healthy curls.” The Sweetback treatment was a thick balm with a banana scent. The packaging recommends adding heat to get the most out of the product. With this in mind, I washed my hair and towel dried until I had damp curls. I then sectioned my hair (larger than usual) and added the balm and detangled my hair. I rolled it in a bun and clipped it at the top of my head. I wrapped my hair in plastic wrap (not a cap). This prevents the natural body heat from my head from escaping. With all my hair covered in the wrap, I then warmed a wet towel in the microwave (the highest temperature I could stand) placed the towel over the plastic creating a steam effect. I covered the towel with a plastic cap to prevent water dripping and I left the treatment on my hair for ~30 minutes. Afterward, I rinsed the treatment and was pleasantly surprised by the soft and smoothness of my hair.
I had such high hopes for the Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding. On the website it is marketed for maximum definition of the curls. I applied like always in one inch sections. The product has a lasting fruit like scent. It definitely stays on your hands after touching your dried hair and you do get a nice whiff of it when moving your head. I’m not sure how it would interact with perfumes, but alone it was nice. When I first applied this product I was happy. Here’s my freshly styled hair:
It seemed to be doing its job in reducing my curls frizz. So I left the house, BIG MISTAKE. My hair air dried into this:
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| Notice the frizzy, undefined ends |
I have no words for what this is. It’s a big, fluffy mess. My ends look like pieces of cotton. I guess as a benefit my hair didn't have lots of shrinkage.
So I found a small clip (poor clip) and attempted to make it better with a half up half down style:
Now, I live in Southern California so it really isn’t a lot of humidity here, so this is just unexplainable. If I had been somewhere that I couldn’t fix my hair I would have been livid. This is NOT for me, so hurt that this didn’t work for me. It even dried out my hair a bit ruining the results from the Super Sweetback Treatment. After this I have no desire to even use the Baby Butter Creme for reviving second day curls. Because if this is the first day, I cant imagine second day hair. **Stomps off and pouts**
Attempt at Twist and Curl
Ok so this was a trial hair style that was either going to be a great success or an epic fail. I wanted curls that were looser than my natural hair, almost like waves. Well I didn’t get the loose curls I wanted but I am pleased with this outcome. I think that after some time the curls will fall and loose waves will appear.
I washed all of the old product out of my hair with Johnsons Natural Baby Shampoo and towel dried my hair. I used Shea Moisture Curl and Style Milk as a leave in conditioner (I added it in dollop form). I then took small sections of hair and twisted it tightly from root to tip. I added extra “milk” to each section just to keep the twisty from unraveling. It took me a while (what’s new?) but when I finished it looked like this:
If Rick James and Shirley Temple had a child I think she would have hair like this lol. Some people can rock the twist look well, I'm not one of those people. My boyfriend never makes negative comments about my hair and he said "why did you do that 0_o", yeah that's how I felt too. But I knew there was an end to my mean, so I ignored him.
I let my hair air dry COMPLETELY and as you can tell some twist unraveled but that’s ok. Things happen, right? I did realize the bigger sections seemed to unravel easier than the smaller ones.
I split each twist in half and then wrapped each section around a 1 inch curling iron. I did not use the clamp since I wanted a loose curl. I set the curling iron to a medium temperature to minimize the damage. The curls didn’t fall loosely like they normally would’ve if my hair was straight. Not sure what happened but hey, it works.
After finishing, I realized I used too much “milk” and it left my hair a little oily. While my hair was still in the twist, it was soft and did not have the greasy feeling. So if you choose to just stay with the twist, use all the leave in you want.
Nail Color of the Week- Lonesome Dove
This week I wanted to go gray. Not silver and not charcoal but concrete gray. The color needed to have the perfect mix of blue undertones to keep it from looking to dark, yet the right amount of muted gray to prevent my nails from taking on the color of the sky. My quest for the perfect gray lead me to Confetti nail colors after realizing Sinful Colors didn’t carry it and OPI collections would take forever to rummage through. Confetti’s Lonesome Dove (002) is wonderful and great for those caramel complexion girls who want to remain neutral but not bland.
For a little extra pizzazz add glitter to one finger. I used Wet n Wild Wild Shine Kaleidoscope (460D), which has small and medium glitters in a clear base.
L'Oreal Paris Infallible Never Fail Lip Color
This product has been on the market for a while now; I just had no pressing desire to buy it. However CVS is having their semi-annual beauty sale and the lip colors were 50% off, so I decided to pick up a couple. I bought Beyonce’s Red (a bright creamy red that dried matte) and Diane Kruger’s Beige (a mocha brown with pink undertones). The red is a little bold for my taste but the beige is a perfect nude lip for my skintone. Infallible Never Fail Lipcolor is packaged in a small (~2.75 inch long) plastic silver mirror case with two tubes that contain a lip color and a moisturizing lip balm. The tubes cannot be removed from the mirror container; rather they pop up and click into place when in use.
L’Oreal recommends applying a thin layer of lip color and allowing it to try for two minutes before adding the lip balm. I enjoyed the softness and smell of the lip balm. I liked the sponge wand of the lip color, as it allowed for precision application.
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| The pointed tip was perfect for application |
Unfortunately, this is where my fascination with this lip product ends. The lip color dries very sticky. In fact when pursed together, my lips got stuck (like super glue stuck) and required me to slowly pry them apart. It was painful and definitely not my most favorite lipstick moment. The color sinks into the small cracks and crevices of my lips which I believe may be avoided with the use of a primer. However, I don’t need a primer with other lipsticks and glosses and I don’t feel this product is worth me going out to buy one. During the drying phase, it felt like the color was shrink wrapping on my lips, again not the most pleasurable experience. L’Oreal claims 16-hour wear without flaking. The first hour was great. There was no smudging or fading even while drinking Starbucks. Nevertheless, I found that I needed to reapply the balm about every 90 minutes to prevent excessive peeling, but even with the balm I could still feel the lip color creating small balls on my lip edges. I noticed the color faded from the inside of my lips while the outside held its color, creating an unattractive gradient. Since the color is only removable with oil (oil based makeup remover, body oil, etc), to correct the gradient one would need to remove all the lip color or difficultly attempt to reapply to the inner portions of the lips. Also how annoying to need oil to remove lip color, no one wants to add an additional step to makeup removal at the end of the night?
Color swatches:
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| Just the Lip Color |
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| With the Balm Top layer |
This product retails for $11.99 at most drugstores.
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