Hair products :)

So, my hair is generally pretty ok. I don't dye it that often, maybe once a year, but I do wash and blow dry every day, or nearly every day. I'm also lucky that my boyfriend's mother is a hair-stylist and when she owned her shop, I got all kinds of free stuff all the time. Since she sold her shop, she pretty much just takes me to the "professional only" supply stores where stuff is SUPER cheap. She recently bought me Joico's K-Pak Reconstructor, Deep Penetrating Reconstructor. According to Miss Joann (my boyfriend's mother) you shampoo and condition your hair, then put this in for 3-5 minutes and rinse it out. It smells like artificial banana, which is up to you if its a good thing or not. Its lightweight, and has an odd consistency, sort of like greek yogurt.

And it's awesome. My hair feels like silk for about a week after using it. Its easy to brush, super shiny, much less frizzy (no product has yet to stand up to Baltimore humidity in my experience) and so manageable. I also noticed today that after not washing my hair for a day (thanks to being drunk and passing out at a friend's house) that it came clean a lot easier than normal. Getting the excess oil only took one shampooing rather than the two it normally takes after missing a wash. I did the treatment again today, since there's no limits in the directions about how often you're supposed to use it.

I want to sing this products praises from the rooftops! So awesome. Go buy it now! It would appear you can buy it at Trade Secret, and I know they carry some Joico products at Ulta, but I actually have no idea how much it costs, since it was a gift. And Ulta.com doesn't carry it due to "manufacturer's restrictions". But a little bit goes a long way. I've been doing it bi-monthly (or whenever I remember) but I'm going to try to do it weekly now.

Not much else to report. You'd think unemployment would make me post more... but... no.... ha ha.

I did however start an account on Beautylish.com. Its awesome, come find me! and other beauty junkies :)

Foundation Review: The Search Continues!

I just read the post before the one I just put up, and realized I promised a foundation review and never put it up.

Well... this past summer I tried mineral foundations. I tried Pur (available at Ulta) and Bare Minerals (available and Sephora, Ulta, Bare Minerals stores and probably other places too). Bare Minerals did not live up to its hype. I mean, it was good and stuff, but didn't really stay put the whole time. I bought the starter/trial size kit which gives you their mineral foundation in original and matte, the mineral veil and the bronzer/blusher thingy called warmth. I could have told them that I would never want the "original" foundation and would almost inevitably always want the matte, but whatevs. I liked the matte a lot, it was more effective for my oily skin in this humid-ass city. I liked the mineral veil too, but there wasn't enough of it in the trial kit to cover going through both the matte and original foundations. The "warmth" was good, but I'm so red naturally that I barely needed any of it, so I have tons left. In the end, I was impressed, it mostly stayed put. But the shit's so expensive that I thought I could probably do better doing my regular summer routine (primer, concealer, powder). All in all, I'll recommend it, but only if you feel like spending the money.

The other mineral foundation I tried was PurMinerals 4-in-1 pressed mineral makeup in Blush Medium. I'd read some reviews online of PurMinerals and they seemed much more positive than the stuff about BareMinerals. People were saying it worked as well, if not better and was much more economical. Yeah, stuff was still $37. The saleslady at Ulta recommended that I get the full size of just the foundation instead of spending more on the starter kit, since the foundation is 4-in-1. I had bought the PurMinerals primer already, since I was anticipating trying this, so I was all set. I liked that it was pressed, it felt like less of the product got wasted on the way from the container to my face. It comes with a sponge, that I used only rarely when I had dark circles or something like that. Sponges = bad, they spread bacteria. I had quit using it when the weather got colder, but I've recently come back (after I had a series of breakouts and wanted to put less crap on my face) and discovered I like it again. I dunno, I'm still not thrilled. I do like that it comes in a ton of shades (many more than BareMinerals) and they have different shades not just for light/dark, but for yellow/pink/olive as well. Which made my Scottish ruddiness happy. The shade I picked in the summer is a hair too dark for my untanned winter face, but I blend it down on my neck and all's well, no orange foundation lines. It stays put when I layer it over Dr. Brandt's Pores-No-More and provides pretty good coverage.

In the end though... my search for perfect foundation continues. I recently discovered that Urban Decay makes a few sprays that are highly recommended on Sephora for keeping makeup on oily skin, so I'm going to have to check them out. I also heard about Skindinavia makeup setting sprays. My youtube makeup guru xsparkage also says you should be using a translucent powder as well as a regular powder. Fantastic. More things to spend money on and layer on my skin! Ha ha. Happy New Year everyone!!