Conditioner -Suave - Moroccan Infusion
elph 3/3/2013 12:36:00 AM
I have noticed some new hair growth at the temples since using Suave's Moroccan oil conditioner in the Color Care version. Honestly I think it might be the coconut oil, which is listed higher than the Moroccan oil, that is really causing it. I have used coconut oil products in the past with similar results. The fragrance is a love it or hate it. I love it. It's a soft scent with high sillage that reminds me of burning incense while doing laundry. I don't know why that smells good to me, but it does. The conditioner does weight hair down a bit, but it also leaves hair very, very shiny. Mileage seems to vary greatly with this one.
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Shampoo -Unlisted Brand - Clear Scalp & Hair Therapy
elph 2/19/2013 11:11:00 PM
I have mixed feelings about this product line. I tried a full size sample of the Total Care shampoo and conditioner and liked it a lot. It smelled fantastic and left my hair soft. I didn't experience any hair loss from it. However, it didn't protect my color very well, so I decided to try the Damage and Color Repair one. Well, that one does make my hair fall out. Some hair fallout is natural, but this is too much. Its a pity since it also smells very good and it actually leaves my natural S waves intact without straightening them out like most conditioning shampoos do. I want to like this product, but I won't be using the one for color treated hair again. I would use the Total Care again though. 3/23/13 Edit: I just used a scalp treatment on my hair and realized that part of the issue with Clear is probably the manual exfoliation going on. Because I lost a little hair this time too, though not as much as with using the Damage and Color Repair stuff. Exfoliation can remove hair, and the instructions on the Clear bottles specifically state to rub both the shampoo and the conditioner vigorously into your scalp. I'm not sure why the Total Care shampoo didn't exfoliate as much as the Damage and Color Repair, except that there must be an ingredient in the latter that encourages more exfoliation. I've heard some shampoos for color treated hair have an abrasive in them that polishes the hair, so maybe that is the case here. But I do believe the degree of exfoliation encouraged by the instructions on the packaging is also a factor.
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Shampoo -Alberto Vo5 - Kiwi Lime Squeeze Clarifying Shampoo
elph 10/17/2012 3:20:00 PM
If you want a clarifying shampoo that is creamier and more gentle than most of what's out there, give V05 a try. On my dirt magnet hair it takes using it a couple to a few days in a row for full clarification, but it does do it gently. The kiwi lime scent is definitely different from what else is out there, but it will grow on you. Best of all, it's really inexpensive. This is a low risk proposition folks.
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Hair Color -Wella - Color Charm Demi-Permanent Hair Color
elph 8/26/2012 8:21:00 PM
I've been buying Wella Color Charm demi permanent creme in Sandy Gold to add some warmth to my brown hair and make my grey look like highlights. I use it together 1:2 with Ion Sensitive Scalp volume 10 and it works very well. It adds a lot of shine without damaging the hair and it has good staying power. This one's a keeper.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Loose Powders -Cover Girl - TruBlend Minerals
elph 8/22/2012 12:54:00 AM
Not a HG for me, but wearable enough that I'll finish the package. I, too, got the translucent fair and found it to be neither translucent nor fair. However I've eschewed the puff in favor of a kabuki brush and that blends it out well enough that I can wear it. It leaves a nice soft look and it lasts a long time. Not a rebuy though, since I have to put in extra work to avoid the dreaded tan face/white neck look.
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Shampoo -Garnier - Fall Fight Shampoo
elph 8/11/2012 2:40:00 AM
I tried a sample of this with the conditioner. Usually when I try a set together I wind up more impressed by one part of it than the other and Fall Fight was no different. In this case it's the conditioner I'll be adding to my list, the shampoo is a no go for me. I did notice less hair fallout after using this set, but I also noticed that every cowlick on my hand suddenly wanted to stand at attention. The real dealbreaker is the scent though. I have never been able to abide that green apple scent, and it's mixed with another note in the shampoo that I found extra unappealing. The conditioner, on the other hand, had a very muted version of the scent that I can tolerate. So I won't be using these together and it's the shampoo that's gotta go.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Elizabeth Arden - Taylor Swift Wonderstruck
elph 6/30/2012 12:12:00 AM
When I was coming of age, the top 40 singer designed perfume of choice was Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth. Like Wonderstruck, it was a fruity floral. All comparisons end there. Electric Youth was made by Revlon and sold in drugstores. It was a musky strawberry melange that was sweet, simple fun; a daytime scent with an opening sillage strong enough to knock you down. Wonderstruck is made by Elizabeth Arden for department stores. There is something about this scent that I can only describe as baroque. Its fruit is compote, its florals balanced by woods and spice. The sillage is intimate but not quiet. I'd happily wear both scents again, but for very different occasions.
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Hair -Unlisted Brand - Developlus No gray
elph 6/10/2012 3:24:00 PM
I decided to switch to demi permanent because permanent colors are just too damaging to my hair, but I have some stubborn grays at the temple that demi perms sometimes don't cover very well. I decided to try out an additive and the first one I've tried is Developlus No Gray. I found a box of two applications on sale at the grocery store and I had a coupon besides. So I guess I can't complain about wasting money on it. The packaging is kind of like when amazon sends you a tiny jar packed inside of a giant cardboard box. The No Gray box is about the same size as a box of Loving Care, but inside it are two little pouches of product and a sheet of instructions. It's kind of ridiculous. The product in the pouches looks like a medium warm brown in color. When I squirted a pouch into a prepared demi perm of Wella 7W, it blended out with only the faintest noticeable darkening. So far so good. Then I let the color develop on my head. I didn't notice any itching, so that was good. But when I rinsed out the color I might as well have stuck to permanent hair color, because the No Gray reintroduces a damaging element back into the demi perm hair color. It did cover my gray really well, I'll give it that. But it completely defeated the reason I was turning to a demi perm in the first place. So this is going to be a non-starter for me, since there doesn't seem to be any good reason for this product when permanent hair color does what it does just as well with the same drawbacks.
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Fragrances -Christian Dior - Dune EDT
elph 5/27/2012 12:56:00 AM
This was one of my favorites in my twenties, when I was just discovering fragrances outside of the drugstore. It's a warm, woody floriental with a bracing oceanic note behind it. There is something haunting about it, but that might be just my own memories of my misspent youth talking. This is one of those fragrances where the EDT and the EDP are none too subtly different from one another, and where I once was content to use both equally, I now definitely favor the softer EDT. Even though Dune is no longer my favorite fragrance, it still has a place in my heart.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Jessica McClintock - Jessica McClintock
elph 5/27/2012 12:15:00 AM
Got a sample of this one and since I once coveted this label for my prom dress I couldn't resist. This one is much nicer on the drydown then on first application, at least on me. The first whiff brought a strong pastiche of old lady floral. But then it quickly developed a strong ylang ylang and jasmine ripeness that I actually liked. It made me feel very nostalgic for days gone by when I really liked night blooming florals. Finally it dried down to a lovely, understated musky rose that I think fits the label's ultrafemme image very well. I don't think this one is a keeper for me though, not that it doesn't smell nice. It just doesn't feel like me.
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Conditioner -Wella - Color Preserve
elph 5/7/2012 11:43:00 PM
I picked this up along with a shampoo from the same line at Big Lots on deep discount. I'm glad I didn't spend too much money on this because I'm less impressed with the conditioner than I am with the shampoo. The conditioner was the Volumizing version. Like the Repairing shampoo, it smelled absolutely fantastic - warm, ambery, perfumey, YUM. But it didn't do a very good job of conditioning my hair. I suppose as a volumizing formula it's meant to be a light conditioner. But my ends just looked frazzled. I'll finish out the bottle, it smells too good for me to resist, but I'm not too sorry that this one is probably discontinued.
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Shampoo -Wella - Color Preserve
elph 5/7/2012 11:38:00 PM
Found this line at Big Lots for a steal recently. Back in the 90's Wella and Goldwell used to have a number of lines featuring a warm, perfumey scent that you just don't find all that often in hair care products anymore. I got a bottle of the Repairing shampoo. It smelled just as lovely as I remembered. Didn't steal any moisture from my hair during cleansing. Time will tell if it really makes color last 78 percent longer, but I'm pleased with it so far, especially at the price I paid for it. Although I think it might be DC'd and that's why I was able to find it for so cheap. (edit) Just popping back in to report that since starting this shampoo, my color looks much better than it usually would at this juncture after coloring. I don't know which ingredient to pin the difference on, but there is definitely a difference. So I guess that '78 percent longer' thing was on the money. Shame this shampoo is not still being made, but I'm going to stock up before it's only available for a ridiculous price on ebay.
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Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - Cherry Vanilla by CCA Inc.
elph 5/2/2012 10:26:00 AM
So, it's almost summer and the weather is heating up. Time for perfume in a can! It feels like a blast of cold air going on and it's both cheap enough and light enough to wear all over. I've been curious about the cherry red can with the cute logo for a while. As far as middle school goes, this one is a little after my time, so I didn't have any memories jolted by trying this on. The scent is light and pleasant, not too cloying at all, and makes me really, really want a cherry vanilla coke. It ain't haute couture but it'll do on chore day.
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Hair Color -Clairol - Second Nature
elph 3/11/2012 10:06:00 PM
My mother has been trying to get me to put in blonde highlights for years. My complexion is too warm to look good with the kind of frosted effect she has in mind, so I have resisted. Finally she decided to gift me with a visit to her hairdresser, in the apparent hopes that this would get me to see the platinum light. Luckily for me, her hairdresser thought I would look better with strawberry blonde highlights. Luckier still, she was right, and luckiest of all, my mother liked them too. But all good things must come to an end. My roots started showing, and this look was too high maintenance for me to be able to afford to keep up with. I needed to cover the obvious gray but I didn't want to cover over my highlights completely. I read that the Second Nature was no lift, creating a subtle change. This sounded ideal for my purposes, as I was hoping to mute the break between my roots and the highlights without totally obliterating the highlights. I picked the light red brown for that reason. The packaging is pretty easy to use. It's premeasured 2 ounces so all you need to do is mix with developer. The packaging indicates that volume 10 will give you long lasting results but 20 will give you near permanent results. I decided to err on the side of 10. The one thing it doesn't even hint at is how long to leave the product on your hair. I usually leave semi permanents on for 20 minutes so I went with that. The results were exactly as I'd hoped! My roots are no longer so obvious, but the hint of highlights still showing gives the overall color a lot of depth. This was perfect for what I wanted it for and if I find myself in a similar situation in the future I will definitely use it again.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Almay - Smart Shade Blush
elph 3/8/2012 11:22:00 PM
I bought this in pink/rose because the shade reminded me of Nars Orgasm, which is an awesome shade on fair skin of any persuasion. However, there is something about the Almay that makes it show up differently in different light. I put it on in a room lit with a full spectrum light bulb, and it looks very subtle, not unnatural. It ain't Nars Orgasm but it's pretty enough. Then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror in a public restroom - and okay, I'll grant you that is not the most flattering light around, but whoah, clown pink cheeks! How could it look so completely different just from different lighting? And it wasn't like I was under disco lights or anything, just fluorescent lights. So I'm probably not going to experiment with this product again, since I can hardly stay away from cheap indoor lighting in my day to day routine. Sometimes you do get what you paid for.
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