Adventures in Hair Styling: Sponge Rollers!

Goody 3.5" sponge roller.

Hello lovelies! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to embark on an exciting New Year.  I had two Christmases. My mom flew in from Ontario in early December for a few days so we exchanged gifts with her and then my sister, nephew, and brother-in-law did our gifts to each other on Christmas day. It was a nice and quiet Christmas.

Lately I have been experimenting with some rollers. It began with a set of Velcro rollers and progressed to some 3.5" diameter sponge rollers. I picked up two packs of 8 Goody sponge rollers at Dollarama and they didn't have anymore so I supplemented with two four packs of similar rollers. I have a lot of hair so I wasn't sure how many roller I would need.

What brought this on? I wear my hair down 98% of the time because it is wavy and frizzy and I can't be bothered to try and tame it. It also drives me nuts to have my hair in my face when I am trying to do things. I just felt like I wanted to wear my hair down more and feel more pretty and I wanted different options. wanted to work with the natural texture of my hair. Blow drying and straightening my hair is a pain. Even with good product it is still frizzy and I HATE frizz. I wanted something I could just wash my hair and put in overnight.

I have documented the whole process for you with some pictures from my phone. Beware that they will not be great quality but you will get the general idea.

I started with clean and damp hair and applied Alberto brand mousse. I combed it in to make sure all of my hair was covered with product. Then I sectioned my hair into a bottom and a top section and rolled the rollers under section by section. Following that I went to sleep and had a fitful sleep (but definitely a less fitful sleep than when I attempted to sleep in my Velcro rollers).

Me with the sponge rollers in.

Super fashion shot with sponge rollers. Work it girl!

As much of a head on shot as I could get taking pics of myself.

And here is where I take them out!Are you ready to see something scary?

Big hair!

Here is the end result:

Voila! Still crazy big hair but a little more tamed! All in all I think I am sold on these. Now I just need to learn better rolling technique as well as how to style properly. What do you think?

First Impressions: Soap & Glory Spa Body Polish

I was walking through Shopper's Drug Mart today and saw that all Soap & Glory products were $4.99 CAD! I like a good scrub so I decided to try Flake Away Spa Body Polish which is normally $18.99 CAD! I could not pass up the deal or the chance to try a product that I have been so curious about.

Soap & Glory is a UK brand that manufactures body care, skin care, cosmetics and accessories. This innovative and quirky brand with a retro feel been around since 2006.

Anyways...on with the goods!

When I first saw the product I thought that it was a really ugly bright yellow colour. I was also not too keen on the peachy-lemony smell. I used it in the shower after my body wash today and the smell grew on me but the colour still grosses me out. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not need a whole lot of the product for it to be effective. It wasn't too abrasive that I rubbed my skin raw as I have in the past with salt scrubs. I didn't use any moisturizer afterward and my skin is moisturized which, in this dry Calgary climate, is pretty amazing. I have used scrubs in the past that were actually quite drying but this one, I like. After I used it it was commented that I smelled like "soap".

Overall, my first impression of the product is a good one! I like the smell. The packaging is a nice pink screw top 300 mL jar that could be used again or recycled.

It was quite moisturizing and it felt like I was pampering myself. I do not like the regular price tag of these products and would probably not purchase for them for myself if they were not on sale unless I really fell in love with a product. I heard that they put out discounted packages this time of year that would make good gifts for the beauty enthusiast.

November Favourites

Hello beauties! I know it has been a while since I have posted and I just wanted to share some of my favourite products for November (and pretty much of all time).

I have just had a shower and used the lovely St. Ives Apricot Scrub and followed it up with the awesome smelling Winter Candy Apple Triple Moisture Body Cream from Bath & BodyWorks! My skin is so soft and I smell so good! It is an awesome combination.

I love a few other St. Ives products that seem to keep my skin clear, pores minimized, and moisturized. These are: St. Ives Green Tea Cleanser, St. Ives Timeless Skin Mineral Clay Mask, and St. Ives Timeless Skin Collagen Elastin Moisturizer.

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That was pretty much all I wanted to share with you. I have not tried a lot of the Holiday Kits, etc that are coming out as I am hoping to get some of them for Christmas. I can't wait to be able to review them! Oh to have all the money in the world to waste on makeup!

Stay beautiful on the inside and have a lovely holiday!

Millarville Christmas Market

Today I had a lovely time at the Millarville Christmas Market. I got some delicious fudge, ate an awesome grilled fluffer nutter sandwich with bacon (it was way yummier than it sounds), and found my first bottles of China Glaze! Yes, you heard right...China Glaze!

I was so excited because I have not seen this brand in any of the stores and I have been wanting to try it. I have also been looking for Christmas green and a wintry kind of glitter. The silver glitter shade is called Lorelei's Tiara and the green glitter shade is called Winter Holly. I can't wait to try them in some fancy Christmas nail art! If you have any suggestions on where to find some good nail art tutorials I am open to suggestions.

Quo Redeems Itself!

I know that I did some Quo eyeshadow bashing in my last post but in this post Quo redeems itself with another product in their holiday collection: Quo by Orly Naughty nail lacquers in a .15 fluid oz size.

It costs $20.00 at Shoppers Drug Mart and comes in a range of six shades pictured below (from left to right) from chocolate brown, frosted berry red, red, frosted orange, frosted gold, and a very light pinkish brownish neutral. The colours in this collection have no names which I find unfortunate because I love cute nail polish names. The formula is really nice and goes on easily in two or three coats. It dries really quickly. The brush reminds me of a smaller version of the Essie brush and that is the only drawback that I have noticed about this product. It did not even start to chip until two days in and usually I get chips on the first day which is more than I can say for Essie. You can extend the life of this nail polish by fixing any small chips and applying a top coat every couple of days.

I am currently wearing the frosted berry shade pictured below and I love it! I have worn the red shade as well but didn't have the foresight to take a picture. Please excuse the terrible job that I have done of cleaning up my polish mistakes. I am still learning about the world or nail polish.

Overall I was impressed with the longer wear and the pigmentation of this product. I could do without the small brush but this product is a mini so it is a little difficult to get around that. I do recommend these nail lacquers as a fun and affordable gift.

They also have a larger version that costs $40.00 and has a good range of colours. I think this is the right picture of the set but I am not sure.

What beauty-filled things are you gifting this year?

These are a few of my favourite (and not so favourite) Things

I am sitting here with a large mug of light hot cocoa thinking about some of my favoourite (and not so favourite) things: the new Quo palette that is a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked Palette versus my favourite Hard Candy Kal-eyedescope Baked Eyeshadow Duos.

I was very excited to purchase this palette at first because I wanted Urban Decay's Naked palette but did not want to pay $60.00. Honestly, I was not impressed at all with the Quo Back to Basics palette which I purchased at Shopper's Drug Mart for $15.00 plus tax. I found the pigmentation to be very much lacking. The shimmery shadows are hardly shimmery at all and the matte ones seem to disappear on my eyelids. They do go on better wet and you get better pigmentation but then the blendability suffers. I like the packaging because there are two magnets that keep the palette closed. It comes with a shadow brush that is decent for all over the lid and the crease. Overall, I would not repurchase this palette which I guess is a good thing because it is part of Quo's limited edition holiday collection. It is definitely not one of my favourite things.

I do, however, love the Hard Candy Kal-eyedescope Baked Eyeshadow Duos in Secret Rendezvous and Peace and not only because they were only $5.99 plus tax at Walmart. Peace is my absolute favourite for an everyday wearable makeup look (but you can just as easily wear Secret Rendevous in the same manner). It is a great neutral to pair with a cat eye and it is very blendable. The packaging is fairly easy to open and it is attractive and fits well in makeup storage containers. I guess the only downside to the product would be the amount of shimmer for people who would like a more matte look. I really love the amount of shimmer. Also, these eyeshadows are fairly long wearing compared to the Quo palette.

I guess I could almost say "let the buyer beware" when it comes to the Quo Back to Basics Palette. It is a good dupe for the shadows of Urban Decay's Naked palette but the product just does not deliver the goods. What are some of the middle of road products you have bought that you did not like compared to some of the more cheaper products?

Christmas Wish List

I decided to put together a beauty wish list for Christmas to help my family and friends with the guess work of buying Christmas presents. Here it is:

What beauty-filled things do you hope to see under your tree this holiday season?