Treatments -Unlisted Brand - Lavender Essential Oil
av315 12/11/2010 2:48:00 PM
I went on an essential oil rampage and, unlike many people, I don't LOVE the smell of lavender in itself. I like it for its calming properties, I blend it in my apricot kernel oil and put that on my face at night and I do feel that it relaxes me. There are a million other scents that I love. The fact remains, however, that I made myself different blends to mix with my carrier oils or to use with my toners and I wondered why my skin wasn't glowing as normal. I stopped using certain blends one at a time and it wasn't until I went back to just lavender that my skin calmed down and got its radiance back. I tend to turn into a chemist and I tried to get the perfect combination of EOs for every potential skin problem but in the end, you're still putting a bunch of stuff on your face and if you are like me and have sensitive skin at all, lavender cleans, moisturizes, calms and tones all at once. As much as I prefer the scents of many other EOs, lavender really is the best for my skin. Now I use my citrus EOs and my woodsy EOs sporadically depending on my mood but lavender is my only everyday essential oil. It's not that expensive compared to the rest and most people love the smell and it is the most comprehensive and suited to different skin types. Try it!
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Conditioner -Alfaparf - Semi di Lino Illuminating Shine Mask
av315 10/29/2010 3:52:00 PM
Definitely hydrates, softens and makes hair shiny. I use it once a week (not more - and that goes for any mask - or my hair actually becomes drier). I love the smell, sharp and luxurious.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Victoria's Secret - Sexy Little Things Noir Tease
av315 10/21/2010 5:57:00 AM
I absolutely love this perfume. I think it is the sexiest scent I have smelled in a long time. I was looking for a new scent for weeks, kept going around, smelling, leaving, coming back, trying again. This I smelled the first time and I bought it right away. I do personally hate paying $45 for a VS scent. The staying power could be better. I fell in love with the old-school looking atomizer (reminds me of the sexy women of black and white classics). I can't remember the last time I had one, but it really is kind of a pain to use and I don't think the perfume comes out of it like it should. Summary: sexy scent! and if you can get the moisturizer for free or if you can get the perfume online for cheaper, then I think it would be a really good buy.
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Moisturizers -Avalon Organics Botanicals - Lavender Utimate Moisture Cream
av315 10/21/2010 4:36:00 AM
I was in search of a natural product that would be my HG moisturizer. This is definitely not it. It did nothing to make my skin softer or to improve my complexion. I have sensitive/combination skin/slightly oily T-zone. I woke up with splotchy discoloration on my skin. I tried for weeks and I was never happy. Plus, Avalon definitely tends to stick every ingredient known to man into its products, giving me the idea that they just hope one will "stick". I switched to plain apricot kernel oil and my skin changed overnight. My skin is clearer than it's ever been, I start breaking out if I go a few days without the oil (who would've thought), my skin is softer and more plump than it has been in 10 years and my skin just has a glow. I'm getting compliments on my skin for the first time in a decade after using 1 ingredient I got at the grocery store for $6 for 8oz. I tried the Lavender line and the Lift line and both just irritated my skin as many natural product lines do to me. I definitely have sensitive skin and personally cannot handle this entire list of ingredients on my face: Organic lavandula angustifolia (lavender), chamomilla recutita (chamomile) and camellia sinensis (white tea) extracts (aqueous)(1), organic arnica montana extract(2), organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) oil(1), vegetable glycerin, glyceryl stearate, octyl palmitate, organic aloe barbadensis(1), lipo-filling complex (saccharomyces/xylinum, black tea ferment and hydroxyethylcellulose), dipotassium glycyrrhizinate (licorice root), tromethamine stearate, cetyl alcohol, glyceryl monolaurate, tocopherol and tocopherol acetate (vitamin E), organic prunus amygdalus (sweet almond) oil(3), cucumis sativus (cucumber), camellia sinensis (green tea), salix alba (willow bark) and calendula officinalis extracts, organic curcuma longa (turmeric) extract(1), hyaluronic acid, allantoin, panthenol (pro-vitamin B5), organic borago officinalis (borage) and simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) oils(1), dimethicone, oenothera biennis (evening primrose) oil, xanthan gum, ethylhexylglycerin, benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, organic lavandula angustifolia (lavender) oil(4) and other essential oils.
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Fragrances -Marc Jacobs - Daisy
av315 10/19/2010 6:16:00 AM
This is a great everyday, light Floral Woody Musk fragrance. I tend to prefer rich Floriental scents but the musk in this definitely adds a bit of intensity. I wouldn't say that it is one of my HG fragrances (I prefer Burberry Weekend as a light everyday scent) but I bought other perfumes and my ex always preferred this one.
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Fragrances -Prada - Prada EDT
av315 10/19/2010 6:13:00 AM
My GOD does this perfume reek! I generally don't appreciate people writing reviews on perfumes that they have no reason to like. I mean, if you only wear citrus or woodsy perfumes, and hate the smell of jasmine, your review of Bvlgari Jasmine probably will be neither useful nor appreciated. So I confess that I generally like floral oriental, floral woody and floral oriental scents while this might just be plain oriental. That being said.....I HAVE liked similar fragrances in the past. My ex-boyfriend got me this and it was a harbinger of things to come as many more horrible presents were in my future. I smelled it and POW! Rarely has a scent repulsed me as much. I couldn't even wear it around him as a gesture. It is an attack on my olfactory senses.
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Styling Products -Farouk CHI - Chi Silk Infusion
av315 10/18/2010 11:27:00 AM
Plain and simple, I would never buy this as long as Biosilk serum is available online or on sale in places like TJ Maxx or Steinmart. It just doesn't have the same softening effect AT ALL in my experience and it smells horrid.
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Treatments -Biosilk - Silk Therapy
av315 10/18/2010 11:20:00 AM
A product rarely makes my hair feel so silky soft without feeling like there is a single product in my hair. I get out of the shower, towel-dry my hair, put this on (lots of people warn against using too much but I have thick, curly, coarse hair and a lot of it so I definitely pour a few quarter-size dollops and my hair does not get greasy or weighed down). People touch my hair and they comment on how soft it is, which is amazing for my hair type - frizzy out of control Latina hair. I just love that it somehow seems to disintegrate while still having the desired effect. It feels like you got out of the shower and put nothing on but still somehow have the softest hair imaginable. I definitely think it's too expensive but I find it at Steinmart all the time for about $25 which is still a lot IMO but there aren't many products that do what this one does...so I splurge. I still would NOT, however, pay $50 for this like some other reviewers have. I'm a bit surprised by the strong aversion many seem to have to the smell but every nose is definitely different and I can be quite particular as well. I agree with a previous comment that it smells INFINITELY better than the Chi serum and I think this stuff works a million times better too. To my nose, the Biosilk smell isn't perfumey and it isn't heavy. Nonetheless, sometimes I add a few drops of an essential oil that smells good and that is also good for my hair. There are a lot of them that even go well with the scents that are already in your perfume in case you're afraid of it clashing. I have dry hair so I tend to put peppermint or myrrh in certain products or, if I am using a mask or something that I'm going to sleep in, I use lavender because it is calming. I wouldn't do this with many products if they are very perfumed but IMO you could definitely do it with the Biosilk serum. Lavender: Normal hair. Itchiness, dandruff. Myrrh: Dry hair. Dry scalp. Patchouli: Oily hair. Dandruff Peppermint: Dry hair. Hair growth Rose: Fine hair. Soothing to scalp. Tea tree: Oily hair. Dry scalp. Ylang-ylang: Oily hair. Dandruff.
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Primer/ Corrector -DDF - Wrinkle Resist plus Pore Minimizer Moisturizing Serum
av315 10/18/2010 6:45:00 AM
The only positive things I have to say about the product are the smell (pleasant albeit slightly artificial), it goes on smoothly and feels pleasant on the skin and the packaging is eye-catching (but that is outweighed by how wasteful it is in my opinion). Those are the reasons I gave it an overall rating of 2 instead of 1. This did absolutely NOTHING for my skin. I am so disappointed that I didn't know about MUA before I bought it. It BLOWS MY MIND that a product THIS expensive gets away with doing absolutely nothing. A pity because other DDF products may be great but this purchase left a serious bad taste in my mouth and a small hole in my wallet. I would seriously discourage anyone from buying this. There are products a tenth of the price that do 10 times more or, I should say, do anything which this product does not.
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Conditioner -Joico - K-Pak Reconstruct Daily Conditioner
av315 10/16/2010 8:52:00 PM
I was definitely underwhelmed with this product. I wish I had tried the K-Pak intense hydrator as that seems to get good reviews but either way I have no need for the daily shampoo or conditioner. My hair was not responding to conditioners and this was no different. I'm sure it's not a horrible conditioner but for the price I really think it should be a LOT better. I guess I had been putting all the wrong stuff in my hair because it was lifeless, dull, frizzy, dry, coarse, you name it. I had actually been using a mask as a daily conditioner as a mistake and sometimes leaving it in too long that I guess the proteins built up and made nothing work. I decided to change from my usual backup (Biolage Conditioning Balm) and try something new and hoped that this would help...it didn't. I didn't want to write a bad review since my experience isn't necessarily representative of what this product should address. That's what I thought until I used John-Frieda Root Awakening Strength Restoring Conditioner ONLY because I had run out of conditioner and had 5 minutes to choose something in a supermarket in Holland and it was 8 Euros. Despite my horrible experiences with John Frieda in the past and my low expectations, I was so impressed that it seemed to bring my hair back to life and did what the much more expensive Joico products did not. I will probably try the Joico Intense Hydrator, however, given all the positive MUA reviews.
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Treatments -L'Oreal - Professionnel Serie Expert Absolut repair
av315 10/16/2010 8:38:00 PM
This stuff is one of the few things that really works for my hair, this and Biolage conditioning balm although I've been using the latter much longer. But in both cases I find I prefer trying new products in hopes of stumbling upon a diamond in the rough because the price really makes me do more than hesitate. If this stuff were $10 cheaper I would definitely use it once a week or so since it definitely softens my hair.
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Conditioner -Matrix - Biolage - Conditioning Balm
av315 10/16/2010 8:32:00 PM
This is my go-to product. I always like to try different haircare products and my best friend's mother is Brasilian and owns a salon so she is always giving me great products for my type of hair (curly, frizzy, dry, thick) that I can't get in the US. Nonetheless, whenever I need conditioner and am not in the mood to experiment, I know that Biolage Conditioning Balm will always fix my hair. It is probably my HG conditioner just because other products somehow manage to work only sometimes whereas Biolage works every time I buy a new jar. The jar I guess can be annoying but it's not a huge deal to me. I think that you can get the big tub with a pump now which would be great. I would probably use it more if 1) I weren't given products to try for free by my friend's generous mom, and 2) it were cheaper (I do cringe at spending $20+ on conditioner.
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Conditioner -John Frieda - Root Awakening Strength Restoring Conditioner
av315 10/14/2010 8:53:00 PM
I love this product. I have extremely dry curly hair. I usually pay a lot more for conditioners but I am traveling and I was in the supermarket and just picked it up. I bought it assuming that I would be unhappy with it and have to return it a few days later. I am all about natural products for my face but for my hair, I've always had better results from 'high tech' products (Biolage really works for me and I recently returned Joico which is supposed to work great...it just did not soften my hair (this stuff worked better!)). I am soooo pleasantly surprised! I think that part of it is that my hair is seriously damaged from, ironically, over conditioning. I bought what I thought was a daily conditioner but was apparently an intensive mask and I used it every day. When my hair was somehow getting drier and duller, someone told me to always leave a bit of conditioner in my hair to soften it...do not do this! Ugh, a close friend who owns a salon told me that that's what messed up my hair...overconditioning and leaving conitioner in...that there's a reason we have conditioners and leave-in conditioners and that my hair had essentially OD'd on proteins. I just used this for the first time and my hair is soft again for the first time in MONTHS! I was planning on taking special vitamins because it was getting out of control and now it feels silky soft something I never thought I would get out of a John Frieda conditioner (I have spent my adolescence trying de-frizzing products and was always VERY underwhelmed by JF products). I also don't equate mint with softness or conditionening (or I didn't, at least) but it's really nice smelling, not overwhelmingly minty. This isn't the best conditioner I've ever used but I am shocked at how much I love it nonetheless. I also am not sure if it will keep working this well in a month or if my hair was just dying for something new. I will definitely update in a few weeks. Highly recommend to rejuvenate over-worked hair or for people with easy hair (I hate you by the way ;) who want something that smells good and also does the job without breaking the bank.
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Masks -Korres - Wild Rose Mask
av315 10/12/2010 6:14:00 PM
I really like this mask for the following reasons: the smell is light and lovely, it goes on easy (goes on thin and dry - not some goop that drips - so you can put it on while you're doing pretty much anything), it has a lot of natural ingredients and somehow still manages to not sting or irritate my very fickle and sensitive skin, every time I use it I notice that my skin really does look brighter and more even toned, somehow it was even more noticeable how much smaller my pores looked, I think it's a reasonable price for how it works and how little you need. I'm phasing out a lot of my skincare products in favor of things thare are more simple and natural (carrier + essential oils) but only if they work as well or better (I'm all for a chemical-laden peel if it will make me look better). Anyway, this is one of the few brand name products that I would actually purchase again (which is saying a lot for me at the moment). UPDATE: everything I wrote above is still true except I join the others in saying that the effects are short-lived. I don't feel like putting a mask on 4 times a week that is only for brightening when I've got other products that I need to use once or twice a week too. I don't want my life to be one enormous skincare schedule.
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Treatments (Eye) -Desert Essence - Pomegranate Eye Serum
av315 10/12/2010 11:49:00 AM
This product is just blah in my opinion. It's the first eye serum I've ever bought so maybe it's working WONDERS without me knowing it but I doubt it. It did not irritate at all and the price was relatively reasonable. If anyone knows of an unbelievable eye serum or eye cream that feels great going on and that has natural ingredients or if anyone can recommend a carrier oil that works well for eyes, would love suggestions!
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