Review: Suave Cocoa Butter with Shea

I recently ran out of my standard St. Ives Mineral Therapy lotion, and decided to try a new and less expensive brand, Suave.

It's consistency is a little thinner than I normally like, but it goes on smoothly and doesn't get greasy or sticky throughout the day. It doesn't smell like much (a slight hint of cocoa, but not overpowering), but I like neutral lotion so it doesn't compete with my perfume. It stays on throughout the day, and my skin doesn't feel dry.

For $4.99 at Walgreens (purchased myself), I'd totally buy again. It can also be found at any other drugstore or grocery store.


Photo courtesy of www.suave.com

Lemming alert...Essie Turks and Caicos

Sometimes, I am a beauty product lemming. If I read or hear enough about one thing, even if I know it is probably just a fad, I have to seek it out. This is one of those products. You may have seen this in Allure, or online on different blogs as I have been for a few months now.... It's in the new spring 2010 collection from Essie and is called Turks and Caicos. Yes, it's mid-July I'm late joining the party. Truth be told, I wasn't sure where to buy Essie. Found out I can get it at Trade Secret, Paris Parker Aveda, ULTA (sometimes), and essie.com. It's $8 a bottle, so same price range as OPI.

Anyway, I'm glad I was a lemming, cause I really love this color on my toes for summer. I'm going to the beach this weekend (HOORAY), so I needed something bright. It reminds me of Tiffany blue.

As far as application goes, I think I like OPI or Sally Hansen a little better, but this is still a good product. I definitely needed a base coat, two coats of color, and a top coat though. I probably could have even done with THREE coats of color, but oh well. Overall, I'm pleased with this purchase.

Excuse the lovely foot shot...I really wasn't sure how to take a decent pic but show off the color. Hope it's ok!

Review: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Smooth Start Repairing Shampoo and Conditioner

I got a full size bottle of John Frieda Frizz-Ease Smooth Start Repairing shampoo and conditioner in my Allure beauty bag (paid for myself). I am now starting to see it and the hydrating version in the drugstores, so I thought I would review it for you.

Overall, I liked this shampoo and conditioner. I've been using it during my weeks in Nashville, because the water up there is a bit harder than the uber-soft swamp water in Baton Rouge. It made my hair very soft and easy to blow dry. I didn't try to style it super straight or super curly. I don't think the style would hold well due to my hair being so soft, so I just let it be semi-straight/semi-wavy. I haven't tried it when it was raining, but I have when it's HOT (900 degrees HOT) outside AND I walked to work. My hair was still in good shape by work and remained so throughout the day. I put the conditioner mostly on the ends and avoided my scalp, and it made the ends feel very smooth. The one thing I noticed the first day was that the shampoo made my bangs difficult to style and VERY flat. I had to texturize them a bit with dry shampoo to keep them from matting to my forehead. Day two I tried to keep it out of my bangs, but this is difficult since most of the time my bangs are the ONLY part of my hair that get greasy and thus need washing. Alternative would be to use a small amt of different shampoo on bangs, but that's kinda a pain. The best part of this shampoo came the next day. When I woke up to go to the gym, it was STILL smooth and fairly decent looking. This is so not the norm for me...usually when I wake up my hair is all over the place. I don't know if I could have made it the whole day without washing it, but I definitely could have made it at least half the day. If my hair was super long I bet I could have gone all day without washing.

I would recommend this product if you have slightly longer hair that is medium to thick. I think it would just cause fine, short hair to flatten into nothing (like it did with my bangs). Overall, it does what it claims: Keeps hair smooth, blocks frizz, and helps repair split ends. If you are going to try some major style following use be warned that it may not hold. If you are just wearing it down, straight, etc though you should be fine. In Baton Rouge (soft water) I am very careful to keep it out of my bangs and avoid conditioner on the roots.

It ranges in price from $5-$7 at drugstores.


Photo taken from John Frieda website, www.JohnFrieda.com

Link: How to find flattering sunglasses

I found this good slideshow on InStyle.com about how to find flattering sunglasses for your face. Pretty useful, just wanted to share the link!
How to find flattering sunglasses from InStyle

p.s. the rest of their Summer Accessories 2010 is pretty good too!