Tigi Superstar Volumizing Spray review

I need to save my hair. I've bleached it, highlighted it, and then got so annoyed at the constant re-dying I had to do to keep up, that I dyed it back to brown. I rarely blow dry my hair, but I do like to heat style it because I love curls :-)

 

As a result, my hair is dry. No, wait, let me re-state that. My hair is weird. My roots get oily easily but my ends are extremely dry. To try to balance it out, I only shampoo the roots and I only condition the ends. I read somewhere that your hair gets washed anyway from when the shampoo gets rinsed out through the ends. I'm always, ALWAYS on the lookout for something that will restore my hair. My hair is also thick enough that when it gets long, I don't have much volume up top because it's so heavy. So, when I came about the Bed Head Volumizing Leave-In Conditioner, it was like YESSSS!!!

 



I got it at Ulta on clearance for about $6, but I think it retails for $11 - $18.

 

I read the reviews, some people raved about it and some people complained about the scent. It was on clearance, so why not?

 

I opened the bottle and sniffed it. Strawberries, ok, I can deal with that.

Then I sprayed it. Because I have so much hair, it took quite a few sprays. After the second spray, the smell was overwhelmingly horrible. Have you ever smelled rotten, fishy strawberries? This is what the conditioner smelled like. When it dried, the smell went away, but that took about 10 minutes. This smell is nauseating.

 

As for the conditioning effects, I saw none. My hair went limp, my roots went greasy, and my ends were still dry. Maybe I didn't use enough, but there was no way I was risking even more of that smell.

 

I thought it was just because my hair was too thick, so I gave it to Claudia. It didn't work for her either, and she hated the smell too.

 

Bad, bad product. My rating? 1/10.

Got2b 2sexy Voluptuous Volume Spray Mousse review

Hey guys! I'm pretty tired, just got home, so let's make this a quick one.

I got this for about $9.00 at WalMart. The back says, "This sprayable styling mousse allows precise application to pump up your hair straight from the roots for that show stopping big volume boost."

I've tried it about 5 times. I've sprayed it onto my hands and then scrunched, I've sprayed it into my brush and then brushed, I've sprayed it directly onto my roots. Every single time...nothing. I've let it air dry and used a hair dryer. Still nothing. My hair will be a bit sticky while it dries, but when it completely dries, it looks exactly the same as when I don't use product.

There is no smell and the product is more of a foam than a mousse.

My rating: 0/10. Waste of money.

Neutrogena build-a-tan, Vaseline Cocoa Radiant Vitalizing Body Gel review

Summer's coming! Warm weather, shorts, dresses, sandals.
Except. I'm so pale and ashy.
So I've been using these for the past month. One is a build-able self-tanner. The other is an extremely moisturizing body gel.

Let's start with the Neutrogena. It promises sheer color, buildable color, healthy glow, streak-free, and drying time of 5 minutes. I got it for $7.00 at Wal-Mart.

I've tried the Jergens and Ulta self-tanners in previous years, and lemme say, the drying time was what annoyed me the most. No matter how little I put on, it takes at least half an hour to dry.

The Neutrogena does only take 5 minutes drying. It seems to moisturize decently. This is the darkest I've gotten from a single application (once per week to keep it there) out of this, Jergens, and Ulta. There is no smell. It applies smoothly, just like a lotion.
BUT. It does streak. A lot. For some reason, only on my arms, even when I don't move for 10 minutes. Maybe I'll just keep this for my legs. My rating: 7/10

On to the Vaseline. I got it for $10 at CVS. I was so excited to try this. I love body lotions, souffles, whipped mixtures, body butter, whatever. This promises healthy, glowing skin. What does that mean, glowing? This is why I don't use luminizer. No idea what it does, although it wouldn't hurt to look it up :)

This one packs a punch with just a tiny bit of product. Glides on and makes my skin feel so smooth the rest of the day. I read reviews about this staining clothes. That doesn't happen if you only use a tiny bit. My skin stays oil-ed looking for an hour, which I don't mind. What I DO mind is the smell. I've smelled cocoa butter before. This kiiiinda smells like it. But, as my friend put it so accurately, it smells more like strong white chocolate. I don't want to smell like chocolate. The smell lingers for a while after application, probably because it doesn't dry so quickly. If I didn't like the results so much, I'd stop using it based on smell alone. My rating: 8/10

Ulta Automatic Eyeliner, Ulta Gel Eye Liner, Ulta Kohl Eye Liner

This post is in honor of Ellen A. :D



I'm an eyeliner junkie, in case you couldn't tell. For the longest time I used automatic eyeliner because it was nice not having to sharpen the thing. I just screwed it up and down. No dirty pun intended.

Today's review is for the Automatic Eye Liner in Chocolate (which is a medium brown), Gel Eye Liner in Envy (a deep green), and Kohl Eye Liner in Brown. They're about 2-4 dollars at Ulta if you buy two.

And here are the color swatches!! (I only have swatches for the Brown and Envy because my Chocolate ran out...sorry!)

Brown on the left, Envy on the right.

First up: the automatic liner.

It's supposed to be waterproof and long lasting. This goes on very smoothly. The color is either not very pigmented or not as dark as I'd like because I have to reapply maybe 3 times to get it to show up on my skin. It doesn't come with a sharpener so after 3 uses, the top is very dull and creates a thick line. It smudges off very easily and by the end of 2 hours, I look like a raccoon without ever having touched my eyes. I have no idea why I used it for so long except maybe because I thought all liners were the same? Innocent me. I give it a 3/10

Second: the gel liner

Basically, a gel liner in pencil form. It is sharpen-able, which is nice :D I don't mind sharpening now that I've dealt with the automatic and the dull point. It goes on very smoothly. IT DOESN'T SMUDGE!! It stays put for 8ish hours (the longest I've worn it). It's very pigmented, it only takes one stroke for the color to go on rich and dark. I give it a 9/10 :D If only it came in electric colors. It does come in purple, green, black, and brown.

Third: kohl
This goes on smoothly. Not as deeply pigmented as the gel liner but not as faint as the automatic. I find that it doesn't smudge but it does fade a bit after 3 hours. It works nicely for day time since I don't like my makeup to be so dark during the day. I give it a 7/10. It does its job.

Clinique Lash Building Primer review

Hey guys!! Claudia and I ordered some stuff off Clinique and got some free stuff :D

One of the things I ordered was this lash primer. On the website, I got it for $15.00.

Sorry about the bad quality pic, it's from my phone.

So, you put it on before your mascara and it coats your eyelashes with this white stuff that is supposed to make them look fuller and longer.

I honestly didn't see much of a difference. It glided on smoothly. But the primer actually seemed to make my eyelashes even more spider-y. 

With just Clinique's High Impact Mascara

With Clinique Lash Building Primer + Clinique High Impact Mascara

They look a bit longer, but not any fuller and definitely spider-y. Maybe I don't have enough eyelashes??

Anyway, if any of you guys wants to take this and try it out for yourself, you can have mine. Wasn't worth it and I'm not likely to use it again. Waste of a $15.

My rating: 5/10

L'oreal Power Moisture Rush Mask review

Hey :) Let me just say....it's been a bit chilly :( Is this to make up for the mild winter??

Anyway, I've been on the search for something to bring moisture back into my dried ends (from blow drying, curling, bleaching, dying). So I picked this up because it promised 10x more moisture. Every other product says 3x more moisture, so of course I'm curious.

I've been using this for about a month now. It retails for $8.00 at CVS. The product has the consistency of a light gel. You're supposed to shampoo your hair and then massage this through. Leave it in for 3 - 5 minutes, then you have soft, moisturized hair. There's no noticeable smell, for me at least.

The consistency is so liquid that I have trouble getting it to my actual hair before it slips to the shower floor -- whoops! And the packaging, with the slanted oval top, is hard to unscrew and manage in the shower.

After 5 minutes, rinsing, then air drying, my hair is....ok. It feels a bit softer than usual. No static. The bottom 2 inches of hair still feel a bit drier than usual and my hair is still tangling a bit. I'm not sure if this is what 10x more moisture feels like. It does moisturize my hair more than conditioner alone, I will admit that. There was no added shine.

After using this for a month or so, the results were always the same. Soft-ish hair the first day my hair is washed, kinda weighs my hair down. The next day (I wash my hair every other day), my hair was limp. Gross. No matter how much more or less of the product I use, it's the same.

This product moisturizes my hair, but it's nothing special. Maybe it'll work better for thinner or less damaged hair. Good enough to use the whole container but I'm less likely to buy it again. The packaging was annoying, too. My rating: 6.7/10

Nuance Tinted Moisturizer review

This is from Salma Hayek's line, I got it for $17.00 at CVS and seeing how it was pretty expensive for a 1 FL OZ tube, I expected great things. Maybe not Holy Grail material (I already found that in the Maybelline FIT line), but something awesome.

I got it in the light/medium 250 shade. I can never tell with these things. I've always thought I was pretty pale, so I would get the 2nd lightest shade I could find. Always too light. Apparently I'm a Medium skin tone. Hm.

This promises "oil-free, sheer coverage, delivers a health, radiant glow for all skin types." It is also "hypoallergenic, fragrance free, paraben free, and not tested on animals." Mega points right there.

Yes, sheer coverage. So sheer that I wouldn't suggest using this as a BB cream. It's not even moisturizing. My skin felt tight and dry after using it. It's pretty much just... a skin tint. It made me a bit darker.

For something that isn't moisturizing, though, it made my skin very oily, very fast. My face is not picky. But for some reason this made my skin get greasy and shiny.

It stayed put for about 2 hours, and then I was back to nothing.

So, I'd recommend using this on top of a light moisturizing primer for those days you want a bit more of a tan. I'm not sure what's going on with the oil/grease issue but using a bit of primer prevented that. Maybe some powder on top to set it would work too.

Anyway, my rating? 6/10. Not great, not bad, but not really worth the price.

What do you guys think?

Clinique High Impact Mascara review

I've tried this before, but it's been a while. I forgot how much I love this!!! It makes my invisible eyelashes come to life :) I got it in black. It goes on smoothly, and eventhough the brush is small-ish, it makes an impact. It lets you keep building length and volume for a while without clumping. Tell me that's not awesome. :) No smudging, which is a big factor for me. It retails for between 17 and 24 bucks.

My rating: 10/10

Organix Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo & Conditioner review

I picked these up at CVS while shopping with Claudia. Yeah, I go shopping at CVS instead of the mall. That's what I do.

We were actually there to find a hairspray for Claudia and she wanted a sample size because she wanted to try it out before she bought the full size. Smart girl. Well, right there next to the sample hair sprays were the sample shampoos and conditioners. I saw these and got excited. Organix is supposed to be a brand with no sulfates. That plus the moroccan argan oil = heaven for my hair, supposedly.

I tried this two times, getting what I could out of the sample sizes. Each time was horrible. The shampoo didn't lather up much, which was understandable due to the lack of sulfates. However, I've tried sulfate free shampoo before. It was nothing like this. The Organix shampoo left my hair feeling stringy and tangly. So I put on the matching conditioner. It was thick and smelled pretty gross. It did detangle my hair. It took about 2 minutes to rinse everything out, that's how thick the product was.

Even after all that, my hair felt so gross. It felt greasy and thick and heavy :( It smelled HORRIBLE too. After work, I rushed to wash it out with my regular CVS clarifying shampoo. Much better. But my hair still smells bad after 2 washes.

My rating? 0/10. Ugh. Don't bother.

Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo, NYC Eyeliner Duo review

First off, I'll be reviewing the Maybelline 24 hour Color Tattoo. I wanted to try the H.I.P. ones because I've heard so many good things about those. BUT they're pretty expensive. These were on a 50% off sale, so why not? I grabbed this one in Painted Purple, purple has never let me down before and this looked like a good, rich color.

This eyeshadow promises crease-free, very pigmented eye color that doesn't smudge or smear for 24 hours. It does all of the above. Very creamy, went on smoothly, no creasing in the week I've worn it. No smell, nothing. It even works pretty well as a cream eyeliner.

My only issue with this product is that the color I got when applying to my eyelids doesn't match the color in the bottle. It came out like.... a pastel cornflower blue-ish purple. After a certain point it wouldn't build either.

It's nowhere close to how beautiful the color was in the bottle. I heard that H.I.P. eyeshadow pots come out exactly the same color. *sigh* but for $7.00, this was pretty worth it to find an eyeshadow I didn't have to constantly keep re-applying. My rating: 8/10

Onto the NYC Eyeliner duo. I got this one in Through The Storm because, once again, purple.

The purple was so pale, it barely showed up on me. And while it wrote smoothly (both sides) on my hand, it tugged on my eyelid to the point where I had a series of maybe 5 dots. No lines. The pencil is also so hard, no matter how lightly I press on the pencil, it HURTS! I didn't bother putting a picture up because I couldn't even get it on my eye. This cost about $4. Not worth it.

My rating: 1/10

Vanila Milkshake Gray from Loveshoppingholics

I love loveshoppingholics.com :) They have so many cute things, but their selection of circle lenses are really cool. So these are the Vanilla Milkshake lenses (the website lists them as "Vanila" so that's what I put as the name of this review). I thought the design shown on the website was really cool. They are pretty comfortable, I can feel them sliding around sometimes. The color is really bright, but it shows up in triangles and doesn't have grey through my iris, so I kinda resemble those aliens from The Host. Which, by the way, isn't a bad thing. But the result is rather harsh and startling. The website lists them as 17-ish mm but they're no bigger than my 15mm lenses. Color: 7/10 Design: 8/10 Comfort: 8/10 Size: 9/10

Milani Ultra Fine Liquid Eyeliner review (picture heavy)

It's summer, time for colors :) I got 3 new eyeliners last night at CVS. They're from Milani, I got them in Prismatic Purple, Sparkling Turquoise, and Emerald Glisten. The colors are BEAUTIFUL. They retail for about $8 each, but I got them for BOGO 50% off. I didn't get a fourth one because the only color left was black and I have enough black eyeliner.

The colors really are prismatic. They're beautiful. The pigmentation is pretty good, the swatches are from after only one swipe. But you have to make sure you shake the bottle well.

The only color I've tried so far is Prismatic Purple. The blue in it makes the color deep and gorgeous. The brush was short so it was a bit difficult to apply. It didn't smudge or smear (dried in about a minute), but after 2 hours, the edges of my eyes felt caked up and the eye liner started flaking off. NOT GOOD. I've had to re-apply 3 times so far. The prismatic effect fades after about 2 hours, but the color is still bright and pretty.

I wish the staying power was better but the colors are amazing.

My rating: 8/10