Friday, May 20, 2016

Kylie Lipkit- Metal Matte 'Heir'

After weeks of crying because I kept missing the restock, I finally got my hands on several lip kits (Candy K, Koko K, So Cute lip gloss), but this post I'll be sharing my review on Heir!



After years of not wearing anything on my lips, because I hate overly frosted or glossy lip products, I discovered my love of anything and everything matte colored. I couldn't really picture how a 'metal matte' would turn out, but It couldn't have turned out better!

Here are my lips before, no product.


AFTER

When I was doing a bit of research on this product before buying it, I saw a review that suggested wearing a lip liner all over the lips to fully get the color payoff, which makes sense, but I used it without any liner, and I thought the color came through. I used 2 coats of the product, 1 may actually be enough. 2 THUMBS UP!

If you are trying to get Kylie lip products, but are having trouble knowing when they are available, there are users on Instagram who post exact times the product will be released in your time zone. This is how I was able to get mine!


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Dermatitis

How's your April been? Mine's been a blur of sickness. A little over 2 weeks ago my coworker got me sick, just a regular cold, but it lead me to develop a throat infection. I was prescribed amoxicillin for it, which my Mom was psyched about because she said its a strong antibiotic and I should get better in no time. WHICH WAS PRETTY TRUE! Fast forward a few days later and the horrible pain in my throat (which lead to pain in my ear) was gone! Hallelujah! There is a 10 day cycle for amoxicillin and yesterday was day 9, which is when I woke up covered in 'hives'.


I first noticed them on my hands and spreading up my arms, itching like you wouldn't believe. Throughout the day I would notice more of them, but notice that they were getting worse. When I first noticed them I remember thinking, "Thank god they aren't on my face!" but by the end of the day my face was covered in them! One trip to the ER later and I found out that I was having a reaction to the antibiotics, even though I had been on day 9 of 10. The practitioner was a little perplexed by the blotches, saying that he has never seen them exactly like mine before (which is comforting). He said they aren't hives, but it is dermatitis, which is swelling of the skin.


Look how happy I am to have this! So I was prescribed a daily steroid to take with Benadryl, and to take cold showers. Hooray. 

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

My Hair Progression: From BLACK to BRIGHT BLONDE

If I've learned anything over the past year, it is to stop thinking I can do everything myself, and to seek out a professional when I need to. My journey to have bright blonde beautiful hair started February 2015 and has just completed now April 2016, but it was a long and necessary journey.

I am very much an 'instant gratification' person, which is why growing up I would dye my own hair, even when half of the time it would leave my hair brittle and orange. I didn't want to spend the money and I didn't want a stylist to tell me that I couldn't be as blonde as I wanted to right away. I wanted it now!! It was probably November 2014 when I had two days off of work and I decided to bleach my hair to obtain the blonde I wanted. I ended up using boxed bleach 3 times in 2 days, and my scalp had never been so raw in my life, it was a miracle I still had hair left after I did this! My hair was incredibly orange and brittle doesn't even begin to describe how totaled my hair was. I knew I had to fix the color by dying it back to dark, but I waited about a week and suffered through work with the ugliest hair you could imagine (I think I actually have pictures from early on in this blog).

Between November and February I had dyed it black, then used Color Oops to remove the black, then  tried dying my hair red (which only made my roots red and my hair stayed black), it was a nightmare. by this time I was tired of wasting money on boxed dyes, and I was tired of having severe breakage. So this is when I wisely spent my money to go to a salon!

I wanted to go through this long story before showing my pictures because if there are any of you out there that refuse to go to salons because you want to do it yourself, but you are destroying your hair, you need to suck it up and go to a salon. It is basically impossible to get the results you want from a box and to have healthy hair at the same time.

I went to the salon today and my wonderful stylist Jenny made my the blonde I've been wanting to be! My hair hasn't been this healthy since before I started dying my hair at 13 (12 years ago, YIKES!).

So here is my progression: The photos on the top are from my former stylist, who didn't use Olaplex (or have it) like my current stylist does, and it has become a necessity for me to use it. Olaplex will protect your hair and make it amazingly soft. Jenny would also force me to get at least a trim every time I was there, which was the best thing she could've done for me, as she gave me the best blunt haircut of my life!


It is important to find a stylist you love, and not to settle, which isn't an easy task. The photo on the top right was the last time I had my hair done by my previous stylist. It was taken the day I got my hair done and looked to be a light blonde, but by 3 days later was completely yellow and terrible looking. The double photo on the bottom left is when I went to Jenny and you can see the difference in the color. My hair has never looked better!

Photo my stylist took: 

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Pravana Hair Brightening Shampoo & Conditioner

Ever since I made my hair blonde, I'm always on the lookout for products to help keep my hair bright and not looking dull. I love purple shampoos because they brighten my hair and slightly get rid of yellow/orange tones.

I discovered the website sleekhair.com  recently and I bought these two products from them:

Pravana sulfate-free brightening shampoo and conditioner! The reviews for this stuff didn't leave a doubt in my mind that it would work. These are purple shampoo/conditioner and the directions state to leave the product on for 3-5 minutes before washing out.

Now, since I like to read both positive and negative reviews, there was a negative review that stated that this product actually caused their hair to be purple and after seeing the deep purple color of the shampoo, I was nervous. The shampoo is an inky dark color and after lathering it through my hair, did appear to color my hands purple. After scrubbing them with soap it did come off though.

I followed the directions on both products and here are the results:

Before:

After:

Do I even need to say anything? LOOK AT THAT DIFFERENCE!! This is after 1 use! The blonde is lighter and brighter, the brown is less dull, I have nothing but great things to say about this brand! I will update this post when I straighten my hair next so you can see the difference.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Eqoba Hair Straightening Brush

Ever since seeing ads on Facebook for those magical straighteners that are in the shape of a hairbrush, I knew I needed one! But which one? Look them up on Amazon and there are dozens with varying reviews. I settled on this Eqoba brand one:

It comes in white and pink, and is reasonably priced between $33-$38 (depending on the color). It comes with a little user booklet, 2 clips, and a tiny bristled brush to clean out hair in the device. The red tips on the brush protect you from burning yourself, and unlike competitor devices are securely in place and won't fall out.

I blew dry my hair 'straight', made sure it was brushed, and used it on half my head so you could see the difference it made:

LOOK AT THAT DIFFERENCE! My favorite thing about this brush is that is seems to control my frizz, straighten my hair, and still manage to give my hair body! I highly recommend this hot tool!

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Bleaching Eyebrows using Jolen



Ever since I've started lightening my hair [with plans to still go lighter] my medium brown eyebrows have made it more apparent that I'm not a natural blonde. I've never bleached my eyebrows before, but I've been looking up lots of tutorials on Youtube to get advice and tips. The best tutorial I watched used Jolen bleach, and let it sit on her eyebrows for 7 minutes to lighten them. Here is a picture of me before with my natural brown brows:


So the directions on the box suggest leaving the product on for 10 minutes, then scrape it off with the provided applicator, then rinsing with cold water. If you are using this product to lighten your eyebrows DON'T LEAVE ON FOR THE FULL 10 MINUTES!! Play it safe! I cut the time in half and left the bleach on for 5 minutes, checked it, and was able to go from there if I wanted to make them lighter or not.

After removing the product, the color was exactly what I wanted, and I achieved it in half the time, if I would've left the product on for the full 10 minutes, my eyebrows would've been white.

Here is after:


And here is how they now look with filler & powder on:



I recommend this product! A little of the mixtures goes a long way, and with resealable containers you can get many uses out of it.




Monday, January 18, 2016

DIY Blackhead Removal Based on Pinterest Recipe - Fail

I found a website on Pinterest that had a 2 ingredient recipe for a peel off face mask that'll remove your blackheads, sounds perfect doesn't it? (--> Find original text here <--) So I decided to try it for myself!

I've never really had a problem with acne, but I nearly constantly have blackheads/whiteheads on my nose, forehead, and chin. I do love those nose strips, but they are ridiculously pricy for the amount you get.


The recipe is simple: 1 tsp of gelatin & 3 tsp of milk. I mixed it together in a small cup and microwaved it for 15 seconds. The picture on the site makes it appear that it isn't runny at all, but based on the comments I was expecting it to be and it only is at first. Let it sit in the cup for like 15 minutes and it won't be bad at all.

What it looks like:


 I exfoliated my skin first and washed it, then applied the mask. It smells how you would expect it too.. like curdled old, hot milk, so it's fun to put right by your nose. I did put it all over my face, because if it works I want it to take everything. It goes on and stays clear, so I'm not sure how it appears thick and white on the original website.

After:

 Yeah, I don't recommend doing this how I did it. DON'T apply it all over your face. I can compare peeling this off your face to slowly ripping off a stuck bandaid. It will rip off your eyebrows, it will irritate your skin, it will make your skin bleed while taking it off. The only positive is that your skin will be very very soft. My whiteheads remained, as did the deep blackheads on my forehead, it did take out the ones on my nose. If you have a near panic attack while trying to take this stuff off (like I did) use hot water to get it off (like I did after freaking out for 20 minutes).

I don't have sensitive skin at all, and this irritated my skin so much, my skin is all red. Yes that is blood on the tip of my nose and on my upper lip from trying to get this stuff off. 

Have I convinced you to try it?

Saturday, January 16, 2016

OGX Organix Coconut Curls: Shampoo, Conditioner, & Leave in Conditioner

My hair is healthy for the most part, but it won't be that way for long if I continue to use as much heat on my hair as I do. I have naturally curly hair, but not the kind of curls where I can do nothing and have frizz-free ringlets (which is what it was like when I was a kid). I have a TON of various products for volume, frizz control, keratin, protein, curl enhancing, straightening, blah blah blah.. but I have yet to find great products for enhancing my natural curls.

A coworker of mine has similar hair to mine, but manages to make her hair look perfect, so I asked for her secret and she said she swears by Organix brand products. They can be found at grocery stores, Ulta, and Target, so I went out today and bought these 3:

I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of coconut scented products because they are usually too overwhelming, these however give off a hint of coconut, but you don't feel like you're swimming in it. So here we have a shampoo, conditioner, and 'hair butter' leave in/rinse out conditioner (I left it in). I got these at target for roughly $5 each, and when you buy 3 you get a $5 gift card.

My hair before using all three: 
Despite how greasy my hair looks it was clean, I had just used a stupid amount of sea salt scrunch spray, which ultimately sucked out moisture, weighed my hair down, and made it look clumpy and dirty. This is pretty much how my hair turns out when I wash it, wavy. I usually end up blow drying it straight, then straighten it, then it turns into waves. 

Here is after using all the Organix products:

I couldn't be happier with how it made my hair!! When I got out of the shower, before putting in the hair butter, I new the product had actually improved my curls, they were significantly more defined than they normally are after other shampoos and conditioners! I put in the hair butter and gently used a diffuser (medium heat, hot setting) and this is the result!

My hair doesn't smell like overwhelmingly like a coconut, but has a pleasant, fresh smell and my hair is super soft! Highly recommend!