No Heat Curls: Curlformers

If you are a heat-styling addict, you know that heat damage can take a toll on your hair's health.

When browsing through my local beauty supply store, I found a product that promises to help shape curls, while allowing for little to no heat on your hair.

This product is called Curlformers.

This hair curling revolution, involves spiral shaped tubes or netted plastic, and a long plastic hook. Though this might sound a little intimidating, these curlers are actually super easy to apply! In fact, there are even multiple videos on YouTube on how to apply them. 

The curlers come in multiple different sizes for short, medium and longer hair. Each hair type has  3 different style options: narrow, wide, and extra wide, depending on the style you'd like. 

It is recommended that these curlers be applied to damp hair and them slept in over night. The twisted shape of the curlers form your hair into sleek curls and promise to hold them there for hours as you sleep. In the morning, simply pinch the top, and slide each curler out. The results are beautiful!

(Model is using Wide & Long curlers)

You can find these curlers as well as more information on them at their website: www.curlformers.com, as well as at www.sallybeauty.com.

Give them a try!

Beauty Made Simple: Birchbox

"Discover Beauty Better" This is the slogan used by a company called Birchbox.
 Birchbox is a $10 a month subscription service where 10-15 deluxe sample sizes of high-end products are shipped to your door.

The products in these boxes range from skincare and makeup, to fragrance and beauty tools.

Every month, you can rack up "beauty points" which are then used to shop for the full-size products you love in Birchbox's online store at discounted prices. 

Each box not only comes carefully packaged, but also comes with a description card that tells you exactly what each product is. 

With the weather getting colder, it's always nice to treat yourself. Discover Beauty Better.

For more information visit www.birchbox.com

Quick Fix: Red-Out Your Blemishes.

We all hate those stubborn pimples that won't go away.

Here is a quick fix on how to get rid of the redness, while you let it heal.

The secret is Visine Red Eye. Yes, Visine eye drops.

Just soak the end of a Q-tip in any Visine red removing eye drops, and apply it to your red pimple. The red should disappear immediately!

Reapply as often as you'd like :)

TIP: Stick your eyedrops in the fridge for 30 mins before you apply them to your face. It will cool the area if it's a little sore.

For more information on Visine eye drops visit www.visine.com. Or, visit your local drugstore for other red removing eye drops.

Keep Your Blonde Longer (Without A Salon)

Whether you have natural or non-natural blonde hair, you understand the importance of maintaining your blonde. John Frieda has recently released a line of hair lightening products for blondes.

This line includes Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Controlled Lightening Spray, Lightening Shampoo and Conditioner. 

While the shampoo and conditioner are used daily as you would with any shampoo and conditioner, the controlled lightening spray is sprayed directly on towel dried hair. Gradually these products lighten your hair with the use of hydrogen peroxide. 

These products, especially the controlled lightening spray have received rave reviews. Try them out, blondes!

For more information visit www.johnfrieda.com

Healthier Nail Polish: Butter London Brand

Butter London is a nail polish brand that started in 2005 by a British entrepreneur named Sasha Muir. She wanted to fill the gap of nail polishes that offered luxury while still being affordable. She set the idea in motion by enlisting Nonie Creme as her creative director, who had the visual of bringing runway fashion trends to nail colors.

This brand comes with a promise: "3 Free". Button London offers nail polishes that are free of three harmful chemicals that most polishes contain including formaldehyde, toluene, and DBP or parabens.
Through this promise, Butter London became the first nail polish brand to sell non-toxic polish in the United States.

Today this brand has more than 100 nail polish colors, with more coming out every season, as well as a loyal following in the UK has well as in the US.

A bottle of this polish will run you $14, but it is worth every penny!

For more information visit www.butterlondon.com

Skin Purging: What is it?

Do you ever wonder why when you start a new skin care routine your skin suddenly looks 10x worse than it did before?

If this happens to you, don't freak out and try something else instead. When it happens, it could actually mean that the skin care you are now using is doing way more for your skin than the last one.
The cause of all this? Skin Purging.

When you change up your skin routine with new products or a new facial care tool, the impurities beneath your skin are brought up to the surface. It may make your skin look worse then ever, but relax, it will go away soon.

The usual time frame for this to happen is somewhere between a few days to a week. Once this week is up, your skin will look better than ever!

NOTE: There is a fine line between purging and harming. If your breakouts have gotten worse from a face wash or new routine and stay that way for weeks after, you may be having an allergic reaction. Keep a close eye on it.

For more information on skin purging visit www.acne.org

Your Skin, But Better: Philosophy Brand

Try clear skin for the colder weather with the Philosophy Brand. Here's a gift set of some Philosophy's skin products in their "Makeup Optional Skin: basic care for congested skin"

"Philosophy: Does your skin need to be decongested? Cover up is not a solution for clogged pores, mild blemishes, irregular texture of lack of skin radiance. The key is 24/7 exfoliation of your skin and the continuous shedding of your pore walls. Our makeup optional system incorporates a weekly 2-phase microdelivery peel with a daily 4-step skin care regimen. Our program will help decongest clogged pores, smooth irregular texture, even out skin tone and minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, while restoring your radiance so that makeup is truly an option."

This kit comes with 5 different Philosophy products including:

- Purity Made Simple one step facial cleanser 8 fl. oz.

-When Hope Is Not Enough facial firming serum 1 fl oz.

-Hope In a Bottle oil-free moisturizer and acne treatment 2 fl. oz

-Hope In a Tube eye and lip firming cream 0.5 fl. oz.

-The Microdelivery Peel Step 1 & 2. (3 sets)

Each of these products promises to do wonders for your skin:

• Purity Made Simple (Step 1):
• Cleanses, melts away makeup, tones and lightly hydrates. 
• Essential oils and mild cleansing agents make this cleanser ideal for all skin skypes, even those with sensitive skin.
• When Hope Is Not Enough (Step 2):
• Lightweight serum that helps firm, protect, and hydrate while minimizing the appearance of find lines and wrinkles.
•  Synergisitc antioxidants help protect against environmental attack. 
• Pentapeptide-3 helps improve skin's firmness and elasticity.
• Hyaluronic acid helps soften and hydrate.
• Hope In A Bottle (Step 3):
• Salicylic acid helps to shed the pore wall which aids in helping keep skin clear and minimize congestion and breakouts.
• Tocopheryl acetate (vitamin e) soothes and protects the skin against environmental attack.
• Hope In A Tube (Step 4):
• A world-class eye cream that helps moisturize, firm and diminish the appearance of lines around the eye and lip area.
• Dipalmitoyl hydroxyproline helps support natural collagen and skin's elasticity.
• The Microdelivery Peels (Weekly)
• Rapidly exfoliates while replenishing with skin brightening vitamin c and skin firming peptides.
• Use weekly in the p.m. for remarkable results that can be seen and felt immediately. 

Give this product, or some of Philosophy's other skin care products a try.

This kit, other kits like it, and single products can be found at

www.sephora.com

or

www.philosophy.com

DIY: Halloween Nail Tutorial

What's better than festive nail polish? This tutorial features classic polish with a little halloween flare. Try it out :)

What you'll need:
-Black nail polish of your choice.
-Top coat/base coat of your choice.
-Clear based glitter polish (optional)
-Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail polish strips in Ghoulie Girl

Step 1:

Apply your base coat polish to all of your finger nails, aside from your ringer finger. Then open & lay out all of your Salley Hansen nail polish strips.

Step 2: Find the best nail polish strip fit for your ring fingernail. 

Step 3: Follow the instructions inside the page on how to apply these strips. Once applied, it strip should fit on your nail snugly. 

Step 4: Apply black nail polish to all of your other nails, aside from the ring finger on this hand. Once you have applied the polish, you can apply your top coat as well as a layer of glitter polish to your ring finger (p.s. don't forget to clean up any access nail polish around your nail like I did ;) )

Step 5: ENJOY! Now you have a cute halloween themed look. Plus, you can go back and use the rest of the strips a different day, just leave the ring finger a different color as your accent nail.

Hope you like it!

The Benefits of Dry Shampoo

Dry shampoo is an aerosol can of oil-absorbent power (starch or talc based) that you can spray on your roots in between washing.

You might be an avid hair-washer, but washing your hair too often is actually bad for it, and can lead to breakage or damage.

When you wash your hair, you are stripping out its natural oils. If you heat style your hair, whether you are blow-drying, curling, or straightening, you are damaging the condition of your hair. While a heat protectant might be one fix to thing, dry shampoo is even better!

Not only does dry shampoo reduce the damage to your hair, conserve your natural hair oils, and save you time, but it also lengthens the time between hair-colorings. The more you wash your hair, the more the color from hair dye fades out. Using dry shampoo every other day instead of washing can help prevent that.

There are hundreds of brands of dry shampoo that range in price.

For easy brands of dry shampoo to get your hands on, try the ones you can find at your local drugstore for just a few dollars: Suave and Treseme.

For more information you can visit www.suave.com or www.treseme.com. Also, for a visual tutorial, visit www.youtube.com

DIY: Removing Glitter Nail Polish

Tired of struggling to remove glitter nail polish from your nails? Here's an easy way to get rid of it!

What you'll need:
- 10 small squares of tinfoil
- 10 nail polish pads
- Nail polish remover







Step 1: Organize your supplies.

Step 2: Make 10 small-medium sized squares of tinfoil.

Step 3: Wet the center of the cotton pad with nail polish remover, and place it over your first nail.

Step 4: Cover the nail polish pad and your nail with tinfoil.

Step 5: Repeat with all ten nails. (NOTE: If you are just beginning, you may want to stick with one hand at a time)

Step 6: Leave the tinfoil covers on for 5-10 minutes, and then twist them off one at a time.

Step 7: Most of the glitter should come off. However, if you had a base color under the glitter, you may need to touch up the rest with another nail polish remover pad.

There are tons of other ways to remove glitter nail polish, as well as YouTube videos that can be found on www.YouTube.com.

I hope this helps!

Beauty Tool: Water Bobble

Bobble water bottle is a self-filtering water bottle created in 2008 by Richard and Stephanie Smiedt. Their inspiration came from a trip to Asia where they came across numerous fields filled with tons of factory waste. They knew that consumers were more than willing to switch their use of plastic bags in grocery stores to more eco-friendly options, so they decided to set the same idea in motion with plastic water bottles.  Today, the bottle is featured in all 50 states in the US, and is represented in more than 15,000 stores worldwide, in more than 20 countries across 5 continents.

This bottle includes a unique filter inside that adds up to more than 300 single-use water bottles.  To see how it works, watch the YouTube video on the products website (www.waterbobble.com)

Since the product premiered, tons of other companies are coming out with the same type of product including brands like Camelbak and Lifesaver, but the main idea remains the same: water drinking made simple.

The human body needs water in order to stay healthy and Bobble as well as the other brands like them have done their share to make that easier for us, now do yours!

Healthy Habit: Green Smoothies

Do you want a quick and healthy smoothie you can make at home in under 5 minutes? I do too! I stumbled across another blogger's website at www.nomeatathlete.com & thought I'd share his delicious spin on my favorite green smoothie. This one is a little different and MUCH more convenient. 

Here’s how: Green Cubes.

PART 1:

What you’ll need:

3 kiwis (peeled)

1 mango (peeled

½ cup pineapple chunks

½ cup sliced peaches

1 teaspoon minced ginger

½ cup spinach

1 or 2 tablespoons of spirulina

Mix all of the ingredients listed into a blender, or food processor. Puree to your liking, and then pour the mixture into any ice cube trays you have in the kitchen. Pop them into the freezer and give them plenty of time to freeze. Once they are frozen, empty the green cubes into a freezer bag.

NOTE: Use them within three months.

PART 2 (The delicious part!)

What you’ll need:
3 Green Cubes
1 cup apple juice
1 ripe banana

Pop the Green Cubes, apple juice and banana into the blender and puree.


PART 3

Drink up!

There are tons of other reciepes for "Green Smoothies", including a few you have probably seen in your local grocery store (Naked Juice "Green Machine"; Bolthouse Farms "Green Goodness". Feel free to make the smoothie your own, but the greener the better!



Other Green Smoothies:

http://www.marthastewart.com/335223/green-machine-smoothie

http://www.nomeatathlete.com/homemade-naked-green-machine/

http://greensmoothierecipes.org/