Creative Storage Solutions

Sometimes you just come up with a creative solution to an ongoing problem and you are just so tickled with yourself that you have to share. I know this isn’t rocket science and I can’t be the first to think of it, but I am just simply so ticked with my solution that I just have to let you know.

While we do have more than one bathroom in the house, the bathroom that I use to get ready is a small powder room. It has the commode to the right, a pedestal sink under a mirror and a small shelf where my skincare resides. On the pedestal sink there is space for my toothbrush and toothpaste on one side and soap to wash my hands with on the other.

I find it best if the soap and toothbrush never meet.

Thats it, that is the space.

Which leaves me in a bit of a pickle. Namely that I need a place to store my hair tools and accoutrements as well as a place to put my Makeup Erasers post use.

And then i saw it.

The metal shower rack. This one is rose gold and comes from TJ Maxx. You can pick them up pretty much anywhere bathroom accessories are sold. It is now one of my favorite things in the house. I got an over the door hook to support the weight of everything and prevent it from falling. The small facial brush that I use to loosen dried down mud masks has a stick on hook. I was not trusting a stick on hook with this rack.

The bottom hooks are perfect for holding my straightener (Complex Culture currently, still trying to decide if i like it.)My hair dryer (Conair, I like it but there are some things I might change) and my blow out brush (also Conair and utterly fabulous. I will be doing a post on it soon). The bottom hooks also give me a great place to store my Makeup Erasers. I can hang them up wet and they will dry before I toss them in the laundry. I like to make sure they are dry before putting them in the hamper. Plus it stores the unused ones so I know when I need to get a move on with my laundry.

The next row up is great for storing the items I need for cleaning my makeup brushes actually. The blue box is a solid brush cleanser and the watermelon slice is the riged pad I use in the cleaning process. I also have my headbands for pulling my hair back when washing my face here. My current favorite is the striped one from vintage cosmetics.

Top row stores my Dry Shampoo (Klorane), my heat protectant spray (The Mane Club’s One Hit Wonder) my current sunscreen (Coola Sun Silk Drops – so light weight and fabulous), the heat mat I use to put my hot hair tools on so I don’t scorch anything. I put it down on the closed toilet lid. This one I picked up from Shop Miss A and it is fabulous. I love that it can roll up and store so easily. I also have my Comper LED light device up on this shelf, mostly because it was just easier to put it there. I really am loving that device.

I know, the shower rack on the back of the door isn’t a shattering piece of innovation, but for me it is the best storage solution I have found to keep my hair tools in check in a small bathroom. It is a simple fix to a problem that has plagued me for years because there has never been a really good place to put my hair tools. Now I have one. So I thought I’d share in case any of you are struggling with space and take the opportunity to talk about a few of my in use products. Personally, it makes me giggle anytime I think about it.

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Trying out the Styledry Coconut anf Fig Hair Mask

You know I love my weekend hair masks and I have to say after this past week I did feel like a little bit of pampering. While I had my allergies and a really bad bout of insomnia, my babydoll spend most of the week dealing with a sinus infection. It proved worse than first thought so it was a bit of a marathon. So when I reached the weekend, I first, slept in on Saturday morning. That’s right, no alarm whatsoever. It was glorious.

Then I treated myself to a bit of pampering. I thought about reaching for one of my tried and true hair makes but I am still working on clearing out all of my samples so I can either put them on my list to repurchase in the full size so they become standards or cross them off the list. So I reached for one I had not tried before The Styledry Coconut and Fig Hair Mask.

I had high hopes for this mask actually and my hopes all stem from one word… Murumuru.

I know a strange word to make one hopeful. However Last year I received several hair care product samples from Natura’s Murumuru line and I adored them. My hair was soft with fabulous body and that scent. Oh I love that scent. It was a rich warm scent that was slightly nutty and slightly floral. At the moment I have several more samples of those products hoarded because I loved them so much. (Basically they came in and I wanted to use product samples I hadn’t tried before I looped back to ones I knew well. I will use them before I purchase the full size. )

So I was excited to see Murumuru listed on this hair mask. I didn’t expect the same scent because of the fig and coconut, but I liked the results as well as the scent so I was very hopeful. According to the Styledry website…

This super hair mask with Coconut Oil & Murumuru Butter is perfect for fabulous-looking hair. It’s the must have hair mask for the ultimate treatment at home. Your hair will look silky and shiny as never before.

The rich scent I love is a little less rich. The coconut lightens it and the fig adds a bit of a green element to the scent of it. It is a lovely scent and I did like it. I wasn’t as in love with it as I was with just the murumuru scent, but that scent was still there and I enjoyed it.

The hair mask is a thick cream. I took it into the shower and used it as my conditioner. I used the Suave Mint and Rosemary shampoo as my base line tester. It is a good shampoo. It makes my hair clean and soft but it doesn’t really do anything extra. In general it is a good reliable shampoo. It is really great for testing new hair masks.

Since it needs to sit ten minutes I applied it then turned the water off, shaved my legs and took care of all of my other shower activities, including turning the water back on and washing myself. After ten minutes I rinsed it out and towel dried my hair. Because I use heat protecting spray (Mane Club’s One Hit Wonder – BEST hair product EVER and only $8) when I dry my hair with tools, I let it air dry and just brushed it through when dry.

I was able to run a comb through my hair fairly easily and my hair was soft. It was the soft of clean hair though, there was no extra softness that I could see. There was no additional body or shine. My hair looked nice and healthy but there was no extra. No sign that I didn’t just wash and condition my hair as normal. And a little extra is what I expect from a hair mask. I expect that my hair after a hair mask will look a little better and feel a little softer or cleaner or have more body after using a hair mask than it does with just shampoo and conditioner otherwise what is the point?

This Styledry Coconut and Fig Hair mask was a good conditioner, but as a hair mask it did leave a little something to be desired. I do have several shampoo samples without matching conditioners and i may just pair it with those to both provide them with a conditioner and to use up this mask. There is nothing wrong with this Styledry mask, it just doesn’t provide me the extra I expect from a hair mask.

Trying out the Kenra Volume Dry Shampoo

Kenra is one of those brands that I am always on the fence with. I have friends and family who absolutely adore the brand and I have tried a range of products from the brand before. For a while I think IPSY went crazy with the brand and I got to try several items that way, (which I don’t mind actually, I think it is a very good way to get to know a brand.) with the products there were some I simply didn’t care for and some that I liked. The thing is that the ones I liked were just, okay I don’t mind using this, instead of Wow this is fabulous. And since I know so many people who are in the Wow camp, I always think I am missing something with these products.

Dry Shampoo is something that I really lean on, especially in the summer months. I have naturally oily hair and the summer sun and humidity where I live are just going to make my bangs especially look greasy ten minutes after I step outside, even if I just came from the shower. It just is what it is, and so dry shampoo does a great deal of good for just little touch ups. Even in the winter my bangs can look a little on the greasy side, especially if I am working. I can’t really blame my hair for that. I will run my hands through my bangs when I am thinking and that is usually the main cause of not so fab bangs.

As we are in March I am getting ready to do my spring and summer restock so I figured it was a good time to try out any sample or travel sizes of dry shampoos lying around before I place my order. (There might a couple more try outs in the next few weeks. I am not sure how many samples I have but I do know I need to order my dry shampoo summer stash by Easter.

So the Kenra Volume Dry Shampoo… Instantly revives & refreshes hair, no water required, Saves time & extends blowouts, Utilizes rice starch for maximum oil absorption, Keeps styles looking full

Pretty standard job description for a dry shampoo. And so I sprayed it on my hair. As you can see there is a little white, but not much. And honestly my hair is dark so I know that with 99% of dry shampoos there will be some white. It is more important as to how easily it brushes out. The slight white of this shampoo brushed out easily.

When I sprayed it on my hair, the product felt wet. My hair didn’t feel terribly wet, just lightly damp. It might be because the product is so cold that it felt wet when it was applied. While I found that interesting, of more importance is the fact that I felt the product in my hair. I am used to dry shampoos going in and absorbing the oil and then brushing out. With my favorite Klorane Dry shampoos I am left with hair that feels as though no product went into my hair, which I liked. With a recent us of the Authentic Beauty Concept Dry Shampoo, my hair was softer and had great body, but I still couldn’t feel any product in my hair.

With this Kenra Dry shampoo the directions say to wait until it dries and then brush it out, so the wet was sort of expected. I waited three minutes. My hair was dry and slightly stiff in places where there was more product. I then brushed my hair and the stiffness did go away. Also so did the body that my hair had, It is straighter and has less wave to it. The product is designed to extend blow outs, so I could see it working to keep the hair straight. that doesn’t bother me. I didn’t detect any increase in volume either, which is also supposed to be one of it’s fuctions.

The problem I have with this is that I can still feel the product in my hair. It isn’t crunchy or anything but can feel that there is product in my hair and I am not a fan. It sort of feels like I had hair spray in my hair and then brushed it out. The hair spray is no longer holding anything in place but the strands of my hair remember that it was there. I know there are others who think this is a fabulous Dry Shampoo. When I told my cousin I was going to use it she told ,me it was her favorite. Which I suppose goes to show you that not every product is for every person. This Kenra Volume Dry Shampoo is simply not for me.

Trying out the Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector

This Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector came in my Dermstore Beauty Fix box this month and I have to admit, seeing it there was one of the reasons that i decided that now was a good time to try out the subscription. I love hair masks. I do. And I think one of the reasons that I love trying out different hair products is because my hair has always been the one thing I liked about myself. I can be irritated about my weight or how clothes fit or upset about a break out, but I always liked my hair.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been bad cuts, disastrously bad dye jobs and a host of ill advised treatments over the years, but in general, I love my hair. And I love using products to take care of it and to pamper it and myself a bit. It is one of those instant (or at least short term) gratification things. Hair feels greasy, oh look shampoo. Hair is tangled, Wow, there is a detangler. looking for manageability, softness or a host of pother things? Try a hair mask. It doesn’t require months of exercise and menu planning to achieve very good results.

I am committed to working hard for long term results on things like my weight loss, but it is nice some days to just have a quick win. And so on Saturdays,. I tend to treat myself to something nice for my hair. I have heard both fabulous and horrible things about Olaplex. In truth I think that those who were saying bad things realized they misread the instructions. Somehow it seemed very complicated. I have made mistakes with hair products before so I know it is possible. The first time i tried the Christophe Robin Scalp scrub I used it in place of conditioner instead of shampoo like I was supposed to so i wasn’t too pleased. Now that I have figured it out it is one or the products I always keep around.

So I read the instructions very carefully before I opened this Olaplex No. 3. In truth the directions were very simple, which led me to think I wasn’t seeing all that was there so I sort of freaked myself out a bit. but in the end I decided I was overthinking it and followed the very simple directions.

This is a pre-shampoo mask. You need to wet your hair and sort of towel it dry, then apply the mask, let it sit for at least ten minutes and then rinse it out and shampoo and condition as normal. It sounded pretty straightforward.

I’m sure the simple way would be to jump in the shower, wet my hair and then get out and apply the mask and wait for the ten minutes to return to the shower, but that seemed like a bit of a mess. And so we roll in my secret weapon…

The spray bottle and it’s side kick, the hair clip.

Yes, this tag team dup has been called in for many a hair masking adventure. I used the spray bottle to wet my hair and made sure that it was wet but not dripping. I did pat off some excess with a towel. I then applied the mask, curled the hair into a clip=able twist on top of my head (I don’t like the feel of the mask covered hair on my neck). And then set the timer.

Afterwards I went to the shower, rinsed off my hair and shampooed and conditioned like normal. At the moment my go to shampoo is the Klorane Nettle Infused Shampoo for oily hair. I’ll be posting a review soon enough but if you have oily hair, this is definitely a product to look into. For conditioner i used my control conditioner, Suave Mint and Rosemary. It is a good solid conditioner. I was using the shampoo as well but I ran out and then had a couple of shampoos without conditioners to try out so I am using up the last of the Suave. In general I wash my hair every other day and do touchups with dry shampoo (mostly for my bangs) on the day between. With the Suave duo I can skip that day but I need the dry shampoo on my bangs between washes every time. So it is always my control product for testing. I have used the Klorane long enough now that I now how it performs so I kept it for this.

just before wash on the left and after masking and allowed to air dry on the right. (I hate taking pics of my greasy hair so ignore the face I seem to be making in the before picture please,)

In the hair the Olaplex stayed where it was put and didn’t drip while I waited. It also has a pleasant, salon product scent to it. Not sure what else to call it. It is light and rinses out with the product. The fact that I used other products after made the scent a non factor for me. As I waited, it didn’t dry and make the hair crispy as some pre-shampoo masks can do. It rinsed out of the hair quickly and easily. In the shower my hair felt soft and very clean. Not overly clean, but clean. I then shampooed and conditioned and let my hair dry naturally. I use other products when i heat dry and I wanted to see how this performed without them.

It was interesting. My hair felt soft and had no tangles at all. I was able to get a fine toothed comb through it pretty well, which as my hair has been known to sometimes eat fine toothed combs this was nice. What I did notice is that my hair was a lot straighter than it is naturally. Normally when I let my hair air dry it has some wave to it and the ends almost always curl a little. This time, the ends were straight and there was significantly less volume to it. The hair wasn’t weighted down it just lost the slight curl and body it normally has. It looks and feels really good, but it was very straight at the ends.

I found that a little strange. I actually ended up using the Olaplex No. 3 on Friday night instead of Saturday So I washed my hair as normal on Sunday and the curl and body came back, but my hair felt healthy and still post mask soft. I don;t mind that my hair went suddenly straight even if I found it odd, but it is something to be aware of. The softness and health from the hair mask did remain through a second wash, but that odd lack of body left. I think this is a good hair mask that I wouldn’t mind trying again, but I don’t think this is going to be my favorite. For me I think this would be a once a month kind of hair mask rather than a weekly one. But I am very glad that I tried it.

A little Truff Luv for my locks

Hair masks are my once a week treat for my hair. I find using them more than once a week is overkill and not really good for my hair, but once a week it is a power boost that my hair loves. This week’s mask was the TruffLuv Indulgent Truffle Mask.

I have to say I was very excited to give this mask a try. I am a big fan of the scent of truffle. It can be done in overkill but the earthy truffle-y mushroom-y scent of truffles I really enjoy. Because this is billed as a black truffle extract infused mask, I was expecting some of that scent to be present, possibly blended with other scents, but still present.

For me however that scent was sadly lacking. It is called a truffle mask but I didn’t get the scent of truffles. It had a very heavy perfume-y scent to it actually. Very floral and very heavy. It was not a pleasant surprise.

However the mask did perform well. Only a little mask is needed as it is very hydrating, so use it sparingly. I actually used this for four weeks to get a real feel for the mask. The amount that seemed to work best for my hair was about a quarter sized amount dispensed on the center of my hand. Then I combed through my hair and let it sit a few minutes to do it’s thing before I rinsed it out.

If I only used this amount of product for my hair then my hair was soft and manageable, with no added detangles of leave in conditioners or anything needed. If I used more than that, the next day my hair would feel very greasy. So it is a product to use in moderation. But when used in moderation it works really well. What I found is that it pairs really well with a hair detox shampoo. While I like those sorts of shampoos to really clean the product out of my hair every now and again, I do find that when I use them I really need some sort of detangling spray after. With this mask, I just rotated it in to pair with the shampoo and it was perfectly fine.

No detangler needed. I think that is it’s strong suit. It makes the hair soft and cuts down all the tangles to make it more manageable. It can giet a little greasy if over used but if you use it in moderation once a week it is fine. For me however it is the scent. This is a very heavy on the perfume hair mask. It is a sort of salon type of perfume scent, but for me it was a little too heavy to be pleasant. I will use this hair mask until the tube is empty, but it is not going to go on the repeat purchase list for me. I have other products that detangle just as well and aren’t so heavily perfumed. If you have a massive issue with dry and tangled hair, and are less scent oriented than i am, this is a fantastic mask. The scent does dissipate with only a lighter scent staying in the hair, but for me, the scent kills it. This TruffLuv Indulgent Truffle Mask is not for me.

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Sinfully Soft Hair with Saints and Sinners Velvet

I have been using this Saints and Sinner Velvet Divine leave in conditioner for a while now. It is a spray leave in conditioner and it has a fairly fine mist. Occasionally the nozzle of the spray will get clogged and I will fine it shooting out one squirt instead of a spray. When it does that a wet cotton swab over the nozzle quickly clears up the problem and it is back to spraying a fine mist.

The scent is a high end salon scent that leans more towards slightly fruity rather than slightly floral. when smelling it, I don’t think ‘oh fruity’. I think, ‘Oh high end hair salon’. But it does lean more fruit than floral. The scent does fade though. I don’t notice it in my hair after the product dries.

For some reason I could not get the Saints and Sinners website to load, So the information was taken from the Salon Only Sales website. This Leave in conditioner is also sold at both Amazon and Walmart sites so it is readily available. I don’t know if there is some internal blocking on my system or if there is some issue on their end and will investigate that later, but I did use the info for the Salon Only Sales site for this (not an affiliate, it just had the most information.)

So according to the description…

Saints & Sinners VELVET DIVINE LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER is the best leave-in conditioner you will ever use! Ideal for all hair types. Instantly detangles, eliminates frizz, adds shine, protects color, adds moisture, increases combability, strength & manageability while protecting hair against heat and environmental damage.

it does have a fine spray as mentioned and when I sprayed it in my hair it didn’t get stiff or feel heavy. For me, I tend to spray a light coating on the top of my hair for shine and then flip my hair over and spray the bottom layer and then run my fingers though to ensure it is evenly distributed.

The top spray gives great shine and by spraying it underneath I have noticed an increased volume to my hair as well as good body. At the moment I am using an oil control shampoo. It is actually a very good shampoo, but it is a shampoo that wither needs a hair mask following it or a dose of detangler. With that shampoo I have noticed that when I use a hair mask, this leave in conditioner is nice, but mostly just adds volume. If I use a simple conditioner with the oily hair shampoo, this is amazing. It makes the hair soft and reduces the need for a detangling product. I really enjoy this leave in conditioner and because of it I find myself wanting to try out the shampoo from the line. I haven’t gotten to that yet, but it is definitely on my list of products to pick up for trial. But that is a trial for another day. For now, I am well pleased with this leave in conditioner. I am about halfway through the bottle, but looking forward to using it up and adding it to the list of items to be purchased again.

A Christophe Robin Tag Team Duo

If you have read my posts for any length of time then you know I adore the Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt. Actually it is kind of funny. when I first had a sample in a subscription box I tried it and didn’t like it. The reason was that I used it incorrectly. I thought it was supposd to be used as a conditioning hair mask in place of conditioner. And that is really not how it works. The Scalp scrub is used in place of shampoo.

It has the salt crystals that give the scrub for which the scalp scrub is named. They really slip through the hair to the scalp and leave you with a fresh feeling that also makes your hair feel extra clean. And as the scrubby bits are salt, they dissolve as you rinse so you aren’t left with hard bits on the floor of the shower.

Part of the fantastic clean if this scrub is the luxuriant lather that it produces. there is something about a thick lather in a shampoo like product that I absolutely adore. And this lather is thick enough to walk on. While I have this scalp scrub in the full size, I also have several smaller sizes as it is always a popular choice in subscription boxes. I will never complain about this repeat product as I will use it in whatever size I can get it. But I am making an effort to use up the smaller sample sizes.

Hair products in the sample sizes tend to accumulate faster than a lot of other products. I think it is because for many of them I will use them once a week or even once a month or just a spray at a time. So they tend to hang around longer. Also since so many of the hair care products ae just okay, when i find ones I really enjoy using, I tend to purchase them in the full size. And the full sizes last a lot longer than the samples so the samples get ignored. So just a I am clearing out the sheet masks and skincare samples, I am trying to clear out the hair care products.

This Christophe Robin Scalp scrub doesn’t need more than a regular conditioner after use, but if paired with the right hair mask it does become extra fabulous. Since I had a Christophe Robin Hair mask to ty, specifically the Hydrating Melting Mask, I decided it would be the perfect time to try it. And so after my favorite scalp scrub I went of the the hair mask. The Christoph Robin Hydrating Melting Mask is…

A silky conditioning mask formulated to deeply hydrate and soften dehydrated and dull hair. The Hydrating Melting Mask with Aloe Vera benefits from an ultra-light texture, which melts beautifully into hair, helping to enhance shine and reduce frizz so it feels soft, supple and manageable. Key Ingredients: Aloe Vera Helps To Provide A Feeling Of Hydration. Combined With An Oligosaccharide To Create An Intense Moisturising Complex, It Reveals Plumper-Looking Hair. Flaxseed Oil Nourishes And Instantly Restores The Appearance Of Dry Hair So It Looks Luminous And Revitalised.
Christophe Robin

The scent of the mask is a bit like Aloe Vera mixed with a little bit of sandalwood. I found it a rather luxurious scent. The scent faded as the mask rinsed out so it isn’t overwhelming. It was interesting with the hair mask because the smell felt thick and rich but the mask itself is a thinner cream. I don’t know why that stuck me but the scent made me think it was going to be thick and heavy even though the description is of a light hair mask. It is kind of the best of both worlds, a rich scent in the shower but a lightweight product.

There was enough product in this container for thee uses. The first use I paired it with my regular shampoo, the second two I paired it with the Scalp scrub (mostly because of how it worked with the scalp scrub on the second use). It worked really well with just a regular shampoo. For the test i went with a drug store one specifically. I didn’t want the shampoo to do too much in the way of affecting my opinion of the mask. For all of my tests I use Suave Rosemary and Mint Shampoo. It is a really good drug store shampoo. Both it and the conditioner from the same line work well for hair care tests as my base line products.

with the Suave Shampoo, this Christophe Robin Hydrating Melting mask was fantastic. It detangled and left my hair soft and manageable. It wasn’t heavy or greasy and my hair looked and felt lovely. It is also a split and repair dream. If you don’t use this anywhere else on your hair, use it on the ends of your hair, especially if they are dried out from styling with heated tools. It is amazing.

However paired with the Scalp scrub, it was fantastic. My hair got the double punch of having any excess products removed and being extra clean before the hair mask went in and did it’s thing. There was a noticeable improvement. The improvement was in texture predominantly, however there was an additional benefit. I tend to wash my hair every other day. If I need it, I will use dry shampoo on the day I don’t wash my hair. With drugstore shampoo and conditioners, I really need that dry shampoo in the day between. With some of my favorite high end shampoo and conditioners, I don’t need the dry shampoo in between (unless it is summer time and then all bets are off).

when I used the regular shampoo and this Hydrating Hair Mask, I did need the dry shampoo on the no wash days. With the dup in use, I didn’t need the hit of dry shampoo between. It isn’t good to use the scalp scrub with every wash. I know that and restrict myself ti once a week with it. I just found that in between difference interesting. It is one of those thing I suspect might end up being of more use to me during travel than anything else. But it is good to know that in addition to feeling and looking fabulous, I get a little extension of the time of the fabulous. As for me, I am very glad that I paired these two Christophe Robin Products together and I will have to look at doing so again in the future.

Trying out the Amika Dream Routine Overnight Hydration treatment

while I adore hair masks and hair treatments, I am not especially fond of overnight hair masks. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the effects of a good overnight hair treatment product. I just can’t sleep in them. Growing up I was always told that you had to put on clean socks or clean underwear or whatever before bed incase there was an emergency in the night. while I remember arguing the point that any emergency that cause me to run out of the house in the middle of the night would be drastic enough that no one would care what condition my socks were in and would hopefully not involve me showing my underwear to the world at large, it was still a favorite saying of my grandmother’s and one my mother repeated.

In case you are wondering this is also part of the ‘make your bed with fresh sheets before you leave the house for a trip so that if there is an accident while you are gone everyone will know it isn’t your fault’ type of sayings. Apparently if you are the sort of person who puts fresh sheets on the bed before leaving then you can’t be blamed for any sort of calamity that happens in your absence. You are essentially blameless. Not that I think the police or firemen or other emergency service checks the state of your sheets if they have to enter while you are out of town.

Just so you know.

Anyway I don’t think my linens are inspected while I am gone and I can’t actually sleep with socks on my feet, clean or otherwise, somehow when i put a hair mask on my head to sleep in overnight my brain insists on sending thoughts of middle of the night calamities into my brain and I just don’t sleep. I also can’t stand the feel of a the slimy hair on my neck or pressed into my pillow. And I can’t sleep with a cap on any more than I can sleep with socks on.

My remedy is to pick a day where I am going to be home alone working at my desk with no interruptions. I apply the hair treatment to my hair in the morning post skincare and let it sit for eight hours while I work. I use a giant hair clip to keep it off my neck and a band to pin my bangs back and generally forget that I have the mask on.

Yesterday I decided it was the perfect day to go ahead with the over night mask. The one I chose was the Amika Dream Routine Overnight Hydrating Treatment. Mostly because I haven’t actually tired it before and I had a sample in my hair care drawer. According to the Amika Website…

it’s time to put dry hair to bed with our ultra-hydrating, silicone-free overnight hair treatment mask. infused with hyaluronic acid, dream routine boosts moisture for 72 hours* and results in hair that is 3x more hydrated by morning*.

who it’s for: made especially for all hair experiencing dryness, why it’s special: it’s called beauty sleep for a reason. infused with the ingredients of your dreams like hyaluronic acid, coconut water, blue algae, and sea buckthorn, this no-rinse, silicone-free overnight hair treatment mask intensely moisturizes strands.

FULL INGREDIENTS: water/eau/aqua, behentrimonium methosulfate, cetyl alcohol, c13-15 alkane, hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn/argousier) fruit/seed oil, hyaluronic acid, polyglutamic acid, spirulina platensis (blue green algae) extract, cocos nucifera (coconut) water, selaginella lepidophylla (rose of jericho) extract, inonotus obliquus (mushroom) extract, rhodiola rosea (arctic root) extract, eleutherococcus senticosus (siberian ginseng) root extract, rhaponticum carthamoides (maral) root extract, glycerin, caprylic/capric triglyceride, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, sodium phytate, propanediol, glycereth-2 cocoate, ethylhexylglycerin, potassium sorbate, butylene glycol, benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, phenoxyethanol, fragrance/parfum
Amika

This sample tube had just enough product for one use. Partially because I have long and rather thick hair. While dryness isn’t usually a big deal with me, in the winter when I am not only using hot styling tools more, but the central heating is running more, my hair does tend to get a bit dry. It is more dry on the ends than anything else so while I did coat the bulk of my hair, I concentrated the product on the ends where I think a hydration treatment will do the most good.

The scent of this hair mask is delightful. It is a powdery slightly floral, slightly coconutty scent. Most of the products I have tried from Amika seem to have a similar scent so I tend to think of it as the Amika scent. It is certainly the same scent as their dry shampoo.

I applied the mask to my hair and bundled it up. As the day passed it seemed to absorb into the hair as well as dry on top. Actually it reminded e a bit of the 1980s hair gel feeling. it became a little stiff. it wasn’t sticky at all and the dampness from the cream faded pretty quickly. Oddly enough after about hour four of the hair mask, the stiffness of the strands faded as well. While I could tell that there was still something on my hair, the hair felt soft to the touch.

After eight hours of masking time, I jumped into the shower and rinsed the Amika overnight treatment out of my hair. It rinsed out easily. I had some hair come out and for me that was because I didn’t comb out my hair before applying the mask and because I had my hair tied up all day. I tend to shed hair throughout the day and this time I didn’t because it was all tied up. I would suggest running a fine toothed comb through your hair before applying and tying your hair up with this mask. It will gt all of the loose hairs out and cause less issue in the shower.

Typically I shampoo my hair and then use a hair mask as a sort of turbo boosted conditioner. This time, there was no shampoo so I worried that my hair would be overly conditioned. It wasn’t. My hair was soft and silky. The ends that felt a bit dry going in were no longer dry, but the parts of my hair that didn’t need extra moisture weren’t greasy or overly conditioned. While I probably still wouldn’t wear this mask over night, for a day time of self care, I really enjoyed the Amika Dream Routine and would certainly use it again. It smelled nice and made my hair feel moisturized, well conditioned and silky soft. what more could I ask for?

Trying out the Epilator Painless Hair Removal Exfoliation Tool

Occasionally I will be stalked by ads on line. Sometimes I have no idea what sort of thing I looked up to cause the algorithm to choose a product to stalk me. Other times I can sort of see the logic. I think that because I tried out a bunch of shaving subscriptions in the past year as I tried to find the reusable razor that was right for me. (Incidentally I think I am going to be sticking with Athena Shave Club for a while.)

Regardless this washable Crystal Epilator found me. Repeatedly. And through repetition wore me down so that I had to try it out. I picked this one up on Amazon. According to the Amazon listing the high points of this product are…

Crystal Hair Eraser: When you are tired of cutting with the razor, painful hair removal. It uses microtechnology to gently remove hair from the surfaces it touches, simply by gliding the epilator’s magical surface over the skin.
Painless Hair Removal：Now irritated skin, ingrown hairs and razor bumps are a thing of the past. Hair removal with the hair eraser is more comfortable, healthier for your skin and completely painless.
Eco-Friendly & Reusable: With Nano Crystal Technology, the Crystal Hair Eraser causes hair to clump together and fall off the surface when rubbed gently on the skin.Rubby Nano Hair Remover reusable for up to 5 years. This saves you money, protects our environment and you can enjoy your smooth skin without stubble.
Safe and chemical-free：Your Rubby works 100% chemical-free and can be used completely without additives. No allergic reactions, no shaving, no pain.

Now I have to admit I like the thought of a completely reusable product. I like the complete chemical free aspect of it and so in theory this is a good fit for me. I don’t know if you hae seen the commercials for this Crystal hair remover but they are often shown going over a very hairy arm or leg and the hair more or less disappearing. While I assumed that this was a bit of an exaggeration, unless there were very sharp hidden blades somewhere, I was hopeful that it would be a decent hair removal product.

Because I wanted to try it on both longer hair and short hair I skipped shaving my underarms for a month so that I could try this out. As a warning, images of hairy underarms are imminent.

I just couldn’t leave my legs unshaven for long enough to make it worth trying. I went a few days and then caved and shaved my legs. The under arms were easier to ignore because it is the winter, but they still sort of drove me crazy.

So lets look at the device. The shape I like. It fits in the hand well and is easy to grip, even in the shower. Which is good because both you and it are supposed to be damp in order for it to work well. The other side, the side that is supposed to remover the hair is like a metal fine grit sandpaper. Which should have been my first clue as to how this was going to work.

Yes I see several of you are already prepared for what happened.

I went into the shower. I made sure to wash well so there was not a trace pof deodorant under my arms. Once I was clean and ready, i went to town on my underarm. this is not an item that is designed to be used under your arms. It needs a flat stretch where it will only rub against the skin with hair. With my under arms it took forever to get the hair off. I not only ran out of hot water before one underarm was clear of hair (not that it was ever full cleared of hair) but the edge of the exfoliating surface rubbed against skin that did not have hair. It essentially gave me a rug burn under my arm and for the next two days it really hurt any time I moved my arm.

I did have better luck with the much shorter hair on my legs, but to be honest it wasn’t that effective. While this was an interesting product to try and I like the thought of having a completely reusable product to remove hair, this is only partially effective on shorter hair. It also comes with the danger of giving you skin abrasions on areas that don’t have hair. As far as reusable products, this Crystal exfoliator is not one I will be adding to my routine.

Let’s talk about the Authentic Beauty Concept Dry Shampoo

Authentic Beauty Concept is one of those brands I have seen around but never really been drawn to. Perhaps it is the quiet unassuming packaging. Or perhaps I have just not heard too much about it. i have heard it mentioned but if asked I probably couldn’t name anything from the brand that I heard a friend or family member liked.

I was mildly curious when this dry shampoo came into my possession. I believe it was from the Glossy Box Advent Calendar. The description of it on the site is very simple…

Authentic Beauty Concept’s lightweight Dry Shampoo texturizes & refreshes styles. Performance driven vegan formulas free from micro plastics, mineral oil, parabens & silicones.
Authentic Beauty Concept

Pretty much what you would expect for a dry shampoo. I like that it is free from micro plastics and mineral oil especially. I am no stranger to dry shampoo. While I do tend to use it more in the summer time to refresh during the day when summer heat has caused my hair to look a little limp and greasy, in the winter I tend to use it for my bangs more than anything else. I have this bad habit of playing with my bangs while I work at the computer. Usually this just involves a quick run through with my hands while I am searching for a word or trying to figure out exactly how to answer an e-mail. But the touching adds up and my bangs often show the between washings wear because of it.

This Authentic Beauty Concept dry shampoo has a nice fine mist. The scent is like a powdery floral that some how reminds me of a hair salon. It is not a scent that occurs in nature, it is a salon scent. Personally, i enjoy the scent.

As I have dark hair it did make my hair a little on the white side as I sprayed it. The white wasn’t bad though and it brushed right out after I let the spray sit for a moment to absorb the oils. After spraying i waited two minutes and then brushed my hair. They white came out and my hair was left looking clean and much less oily. In addition,. my hair had a nice body to it and felt really soft and well nourished. I really enjoyed the feeling. It lasted all through the day and of course that night i washed my hair.

I was very impressed with this dry shampoo. It is not only a product that I will be picking up again in the near future but it encourages me to look into the other products that Authentic Beauty Concept produces. For me this dry shampoo was a clear winner of a product.