Holy Grail Haircare Products

It has taken me a long time to get my hair the way that I really want it. My hair is dyed strawberry blonde, and is fairly long, and very curly. My hair isn’t very coarse, but is kind of fine, and wispy. It can look very nice and curly, or it just looks quite frizzy. So I have a few products that help me tame the beast.

1. MoroccanOil Curl Defining Cream. This product was an amazing find for me that I found in a salon and decided to try. This has changed my hair so much for the better. It really defines curls, and reduces the frizz in my hair. I love this stuff. It is a very creamy product, and you don’t need to use a lot of it (and it lasts such a long time). I use it after I have washed my hair and slightly towel-dried hair. I pump some into my hand (about a nickel sized amount), rub it between my hands, and scrunch it through my hair. I part my hair off the centre part, to the left, and then I leave it. I don’t blow-dry my hair very often, and I certainly don’t after this product because I find that it does make my hair a little bit more frizzy, so I just let it air dry. I love this product.

2. kms California Moist Repair Therapy Treatment. This product is for damaged hair, but I find that it just adds to much more moisture to my hair and makes it super silky. My hair was going through a bit of a dry period in the winter, so I bought this at the recommendation from my hairdresser, and I love it. I don’t wash my hair a whole lot, so when I do I like a very heavy conditioner (to last me 3 to 4 days). No, I don’t need to wash my hair that often at all. Being kind of a drier person, my hair takes a lot to get very greasy. Anyways, if your hair is super dry, or you just need a very moisturizing hair mask/conditioner, than you need this product (plus, they are all safe for colour-treated hair).

3. Pantene Pro-V Hairspray Classic-All Hair Types. This is such a nice hairspray that doesn’t give a lot of hold, but gives just enough to control frizz, and tame your hair. I hate hairspray that makes your hair feel like helmet, and makes it very hard and stiff. I like how this product really makes it very touchable and soft, while still keeping it mostly in place. It is great for curls.

4. MoroccanOil Treatment for fine or light-coloured hair. I use this when I am going for my natural hair. I have been using this product for a few years, and it makes my hair very soft and silky. I use it when I am have straightened my hair and need to tame some fly-aways, or just after I have washed my hair and I comb this through and let my hair do whatever. Or I put it in and then put my hair in a bun and let it dry. It makes my hair stay somewhat curly, and easy looking. I don’t know what I would do without it.

5. Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Tri-Wheat Leave In Conditioner. I got this in an Ipsy Bag a little while ago, and I love this stuff. I still haven’t gone out to buy the full-sized bottle because I haven’t gone through this one just yet. This product is great for when I straighten my hair for sure. It makes it so soft and silky, and I don’t know how I have lived so long and never used it. You use it on wet/towel-dried hair, and comb it through. If you have never used this product. You need to!

6. Lastly, the Healthy Sexy Hair Spray Clay. I also got this product in an Ipsy Bag, and I take this with me to revitalize my curly hair. For second day hair, this product is amazing. It really gives your hair more volume, and makes it look fresh. Plus, it makes your hair smell amazing! I will definitely be buying the larger version of this product because I have realized that I have just run out.

So, there are just a few of my most loved haircare products. I realize that I have a few more than I really thought that I did, but I love all of these. If you have any other recommendations for me that would be appreciated for sure. Thanks for reading!

L.

January Ipsy Bag

Where have I been for the past month? Seriously, I don’t even know. I feel like I am still getting off of the craziness that has been Christmas and New Years. It is hard to get back into the swing of everyday life after that whole hoopla. Anyways, New Years Resolution #1: Become more organized. Always a big one for me. And to start that off (albeit a little late I will admit), I am going to begin uploading more blog posts in the new year. I have been meaning to write this one for a while, but life has really been hectic.

Enough about me, lets talk Ipsy bag products! I got a good one this month. Last month, didn’t even talk about it because it was so bad and not worth mentioning.

(Also, will you check out this adorable little pouch? I love these colours!)

1. By far my favourite product from this bag, the Sexy Hair Leave in Conditioner. I tried this stuff the other day, and really I had never actually used a leave in conditioner, but I certainly will now. This product smelt really good, and made my hair so soft. It completely detangled my hair and made my hair much less frizzy. I don’t wash my hair that often, so this works very well with my life. I will totally be buying this product as soon as this sample is done. (Because then I can keep the bottle and take it with me when I go on trips). A full sized bottle of this cost $17.95 at Ulta. Keeping this in mind for sure.

2. Next, the Elizabeth Mott Smooth Shadow in the colour Penny, which is a really nice copper colour. It is apparently a waterproof product, but I don’t really knowhow waterproof it actually is. This staying power, however, is great. This is a very tiny product, but I kind of like that. Also, you are supposed to sharpen it with a sharpener, which might be kind of interesting when the time comes. I used this as an eyeliner combined with a brown eyeliner and it looked really pretty. It applied very smoothly, like its name. I really like using this. The colour also compliments my red hair.

3. The A! Absolute! Make-up Cleansing Tissues were also a great product. They smell really sweet, like juice, and are made with pomegranate extract. They took my make-up off really well, and made my skin feel really cleansed. However, they did make my skin feel a little sticky so I still felt like I had to wash my face after using them, but they were not harsh on my skin at all. I don’t know whether I would really buy them. I have heard really good things about the Simple brand wipes that I would probably buy first to try them.

Now for the products that I didn’t really care for:

4. The Nourish Organic Lightweight Moisturizing Face Lotion with Argan and Rosewater smelt absolutely amazing! Like roses and peaches. I loved the smell of this out of everything! However, I didn’t feel as though this product was hydrating enough for my skin. It did make my skin feel very dry and tight after using it. But it is winter, and my skin is always so much more dry in the winter than in the summer. I will definitely try this product more in the summer I think. I don’t have oily enough skin for it for sure, but it is a nice product otherwise. In my October Ipsy Bag I also got a nice hand cream from the same line. It had a coconut smell, but I felt that both had a similar texture. Not quite moisturizing enough for my skin, but still nice products.

5. Lastly, the Mica Beauty Cosmetics Tinted Lip Balm in the colour #5 Natural was probably my least favourite product of them all. I didn’t care for the colour at all, and it was really drying on my lips. I may try to use this over top of a lip balm, or maybe I should just give this other shot in a few days. Sometimes I find that if I don’t like a product right away, I give it a little while and then I try it again to see if I still like it.

Ipsy kind of out did themselves a little more this month. Hooray! I have also been buying a few new products, so I will upload the reviews in the coming days!

November Ipsy Bag

Seems like not that long ago that I got my very first October Ipsy bag, and now I have my November one! I felt very excited to see what was in there! I just received it the other day, and I have tried most of the products so that I can give good impression and review. Sometimes I don’t really know what they are thinking when they send you some of these products. I mean, you basically fill out a survey, and then you get a mishmash of different products that they are sponsering, or being sponsered buy, and they send you products that they think that you would like. With this bag I just feel like they threw stuff in there without much thought, and a lot of these are products that I wouldn’t necessarily buy for myself.

That being said, I am definitely into trying all of these products that will maybe break me out of my comfort zone. There is nothing wrong with trying something new right? I am not totally beauty experienced, so there is always something good that will come out of this bag. Like how cute it is! Adorable! Like a gold snake skin, with a touch of pink: adorable.

Let’s start off with the first item in the bag shall we? I received a Pixi Subtly Suntouched Bronzer. I have actually never used a bronzer before, and I have always been meaning to try one. I have a good idea of how to really put on a bronzer, but just in case I read a blog post* of how to contour round faces, because, yeah, I have that. Also, I was always a little weary that it would make me look too orange. I looked it up online, and it actually retails for $18, but when you buy this in store it comes with a kabuki brush. I really wish that this one would have come with that too, since I don’t have a proper brush to use it with. I only really have a small blush brush that I can use, which seemed to work fine. I think that I will have to get a little more practice with it, but the colour doesn’t seem to be too dark, and it doesn’t apply very heavily. You really have to get a lot of the brush in order for it to really show up. I am really happy that I got this product because it will definitely force me to try it and work with it a little more.

The next product that I got was a Be a Bombshell Cosmetics Lip Crayon in the colour Shameless. This is a nice burgundy colour that actually really suits my complexion, but I am not a fan of the glitter in the product. I typically only use lip products that are glossy or matte, so I don’t care for the glitter feature, but it isn’t too noticeable. Also, I am very particular with taste, and this product really doesn’t taste very good to me. It just tastes like lipstick, which I don’t care for. However, I do really like the crayon aspect of this product because it makes it very easy to apply so that I don’t get it all around my lips, and I use it more like a lip liner that I fill in. Since it is coming into the Christmas season, I think that I will be wearing this a lot because it is a nice dark berry colour that works very well for this time of year.

What I actually used on top of the lip crayon was the em Cosmetics Pillow Plush Cushiony Lip Balm in the colour Lollipop. I like the colour of this product a lot and it feels really nice on the lips. I find it very moisturizing and soft. The only thing that I don’t like about it is the taste! I told you, I am hung up on taste for sure. The really important reason why I don’t like wearing lipstick is because I just don’t like the taste of it. It is gross. If it tastes nice, then I will probably wear it a lot, but I have a hard time getting passed the taste of things on my mouth. If you want to try something that is very tasty, I am a fan of the really like Fresh lip products.

Next, I got the Cailyn Mineral Eyeshadow in Champagne. When I first looked at this product I had no idea what this was. The packaging makes it look like a nail polish, but cheaper because it is plastic. It is a very powdery and soft eyeshadow, but I actually didn’t find that I had any fall out when I wore it. I wore it under another eyeshadow, and although I am not a big fan of glittery products, I still actually really like the colouring of this product. However, I did find that trying to get more of product to apply was difficult. There is a tube in the product that the spongey applicator goes into, and when you first pull it out it is covered in the product, but when you stick it back in the bottle to get more product, it comes out with barely any. Therefore, it looks neat, but isn’t really user friendly.

Then, I got Starlooks Gem Eyeliner in Topaz, which turned out to be a glittery grey colour (which isn’t topaz at all). It is a nice colour, although kind of more glittery than I would like. I found that it doesn’t really have very good staying power, and easily rubbed it off when I tried to blend it. I don’t know if I am going to wear it per se, but maybe I will find something good to do with it. (Christmas is coming right?) It is definitely very festive and fun, but not all my taste.

Lastly, I got another nail polish (hooray!) by a company called Nailtini, in the colour Caviar Cocktail. This is a shiny, gunmetal grey colour that is easy to apply and looks decent. I noticed on the website that this brand promotes using their products with other colours to create the perfect blend of nailpolishes, which I think is a great idea since so many people are doing nail art these days. I think that this colour would work really well with another similarly shiny nail polish. It was a very easy product to apply and dried really easily. Plus, I think that the colour is a lot of fun and I have already worn it on my toes!

So this month’s bag was a bit of a miss, and definitely wasn’t as good as last month’s, but I am still excited to get some use out of the products that I got. I am hoping that next months is a little bit better. Considering how much products that you get to try, the ipsy bag* is an awesome deal, even if there are only a few items that you might really like. I totally recommend this subscription to anyone that likes to try new things and get a little surprise at the end of the day.

October Ipsy Bag

I signed up for Ipsy a few months ago and I finally got my very first bag in the mail this week! I wasn’t sure what to expect really, since I had never gotten anything like this is the mail before. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. For the $10, or so, that you pay, you get a lot of really great stuff. I have used all of the products once or twice to try everything out, and here is a list and a review of all of the product that I received.

1. First off, the bag is actually very cute and a really nice fabric. It feels like it is waterproof because it is very thick. However, it is white, so it will probably get dirty pretty fast. But it is a great size, and I will totally use it in the future in my purse or just to keep other products in.

2. Next, I received the Nourish Organic Deeply Nourishing Coconut & Argan Body Lotion. Since I am very picky about my moisturizers, I have to say that I was quite skeptical of this product. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It is a little greasy at first, but gets absorbed into the skin really well and doesn’t leave your hands feeling very oily at all. I really like that. The smell is a interesting, but quite nice. Maybe a little too strong for my liking, but that won’t stop me from using it. I will definitely be using this in the future. I am not sure yet whether I will purchase this, but the sample is nice (although a little small). You can buy a full size (236mL) bottle of this product from their website for $11.99, and I know that they also sell this stuff at Target. I definitely recommend checking this product out.

3. I got a very reddish lipgloss in the bag that I was very skeptical of for sure at first. However, when I put it on I was really happy with it. I got the Ofra Sultry Lipgloss with Plumper. This product is very thick, but not too sticky. It actually gave me a really nice colour to my lips that I wasn’t expecting. I am not very big into heavy lipglosses, mainly because I don’t like the taste of them, and I always feel like I want to wipe them off, or they don’t last very long in the first place. This lipgloss actually didn’t have a very strong taste of anything, but whatever it was it was pleasant. Now I have a new lipgloss that I like! What a rare find. I literally mostly wear Maybelline Baby Lips, or Blistex, so this is definitely a nice step up for me. This product retails for $12.95, and it only comes in one colour which is very interesting. I have to say that this colour did work very nice for me, and I do think that it would look good on a lot of girls, but I don’t know about everybody. It seems very interesting that it only comes in the one colour. I liked it a lot though.

4. I got this beautiful black box that I really wasn’t sure what it was at first, but when I opened it I was really happy. I got a Zoya Nail Polish in the colour Mason, which is a dark pink with a bit of purple colour, that is fairly sparkly. It wasn’t a small sample size either, but one that you would buy at the store. Nice. I looked into how much these nail polishes retail for and it is about $8 per polish. They are an organic nail polish as well, which I had never used before but was happy to try. I have heard that some organic nail polishes sometimes don’t last as long on the nails as regular polishes do, but I put it on my toes on Monday, and it still looks good today! It has chipped a bit from my baby toes, but that is it. I didn’t even put on a top coat. It isn’t really a colour that I would normally go for, but I like it a lot.

5. Then I found something that I was really hoping to get, and it was a sample of a hairspray. I received the Sexy Hair Spray Clay. I always like trying new hair products for sure. I have very unruly hair that can get very frizzy and is very curly and long, so I like to try anything that will improve this for me. I used this after my hair had been curly, in the morning after I woke up. My hair just needed a little reviving and it was pretty frizzy from being slept on. I just sprayed a little bit all over my hair (the hairspray came out very fast and sort of like a dry shampoo, but clear). But it was almost instant that my frizz was less, and I even wore my hair down again because it looked so good. Plus, the smell was really nice, kinda strong but not really. I will definitely purchase this once my sample is done. It retails for about $18 at Ulta (which we don’t have in Canada), but when I go back down to the states I may consider picking up some just because it is so good.

6. Lastly, I got the H2O Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment. This product was very interesting to apply. You apply it to your face after you have washed it, but before you dry it, so it is still damp. It took quite a while for it to be absorbed into the skin, and the packaging was really awful. It started leaking out the sides even before I started using it. I have only used it once, but I didn’t really find it particularly hydrating. I didn’t find that it really did anything but add an extra step to washing my face. I will try it again just to see, but I don’t know…What I do know is that a bottle of the product retails for $36 on the their website. Not as expensive as what I would have thought, but still.

And that is it for my first Ipsy bag! I have to say that I am really happy with it. I will definitely keep getting more. I think that the value of what you get is really great. With the nail polish and the bag alone basically covers what you would pay, but you get 4 more products. I like trying new things but I really don’t like spending a lot of money to get them if I am unsure, so this is a great way to try new products. I definitely recommend getting them if you can. Thanks for reading!

L.