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R+Co

R+Co Control Flexible Paste for Styles That Hold Tight But Never Feel Stiff

September 22nd, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

r and co control review
R+Co CONTROL Flexible Paste, taming unruly baby hairs one strand at a time

Why are those tiny little hairs along the edge of your hairline called baby hairs? Is it because they’re cute and cuddly and adorable? Naaaaaw, girl. I think they’re called baby hairs because they’re unruly. OK? You can’t control them, they’re unpredictable, and, at any given moment, riiight when you think you have the situation under control, BAM! — they go bananas. HAHA! At least my baby hairs (and my baby) do.

I have a mega crop of baby hairs where my bangs part in the front, and I don’t know about yours, but mine are all uneven and at weird lengths, and — yay, lucky me! — they stick up and out at jarring angles, so I walk around lookin’ like I’ve just been electrocuted.

Girl, if there’s no product in them, I look CRAY, but this new hair styling product by R+Co called Control ($27) really helps. I’ve been using it for a week, and now I’m like ROUGE BABY NO LONGER RUN SH*T HERE.

Control is a soft, waxy styling paste with a semi-matte finish, and it grabs, holds and keeps flyaway hairs in place. It’s strong, but it’s not ’80s-style hairbear stiff, so my bangs can still move and don’t look heavy and greasy.

These days, my numero uno #hairgoal is for my mop to look casual, like IDGAF. Sure, I might’ve fussed over this hair, but nobody needs to know, LOL! In other words, I want the antithesis of prom/beauty pageant hair. Nothing overly lacquered or styled.

r and control before
Baby hairs say WASSSSSUP
r and control after
What baby hairs? Um, please excuse the rand-o white hairs… I’m between coloring appointments and apparently couldn’t be bothered to use Rita Hazan Root Concealer.

[Continue reading…]

Categories: Hair, Product Reviews, R+Co

Bumble and Bumble Prêt-à-Powder Très Invisible Dry Shampoo: Another Great Dry Shampoo to Add to Your List

September 21st, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

bumble and bumble pret a powder tres invisible dry shampoo
I may or may not have just sprayed half a pound of this new dry shampoo on my roots…

Man, this stuff smells good! It’s all powdery and musky…and naughty, with just a hint of sweet jasmine.

Can a fragrance smell like you’re purposefully trying to get in trouble? Because that’s how this dry shampoo smells to me. 🙂

There are actually two versions, both of them new from Bumble and Bumble, and both of them with darned-near impossible-to-pronounce (for me) French names, seeing as how I butcher everything en français.

I think I’ll just call them “the new Bumble dry shampoos.” They’re available now in pretty blush pink packaging for $29 each, which gets you a 3.1-oz. bottle.

One of them, Très Invisible, is for normal-to-oily hair, and the other one, Très Invisible Nourishing, is the more moisturizing version for dry, damaged or coarse hair.

They’re called “invisible” because that’s how they’re supposed to look in your hair, even if your hair is dark.

The directions say to spray them from 10-12 inches away from your hair, and to concentrate on your roots, which is pretty is standard for dry shampoo. I can’t see the product at all unless I get carried away and use a ridiculous amount, and even then, I can’t see it anymore after I brush the powder through my hair, which is a step you’re supposed to follow with these.

[Continue reading…]

Categories: Hair, Product Reviews, R+Co

Empties

September 14th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

recent empties september 13
It’s crazy how this always happens at the same time!

I stepped into my bathroom to take a shower the other day — because, apparently, I shower three times a day now because I’m so freaking sweaty — and discovered that a bunch of products I used all summer long have all gone empty at the same time.

Thing is, I use things items practically every day, so you’d think I would have noticed sooner that my industrial-sized bottle of honey mango shower gel was running low, but nooOOOOooo. As if out of nowhere, it’s empty.

I’m curious — what are some of your recent empties/things you’ve run out of lately? I’m kind of a voyeur who loves hearing about things people have finished to the last drop.

Here are mine…

1. Alba Botanica Very Emollient Bath & Shower Gel in Honey Mango Replenishing Moisture for Extra Dry Skin ($12.99)

When I got this 32-oz. bottle for $12.99 at Target, it was for both me AND El Hub. So it wasn’t just for me! It doesn’t contain parabens or pthalates, and the light mango scent smells divine when I’m lathering up, but it doesn’t linger on the skin, which my husband likes (I guess he doesn’t want to smell like mangoes at work). I always feel squeaky clean after using it.

Now it’s empty.

2. Caudalie Nourishing Body Lotion ($30)

An old fave from years ago that I rediscovered earlier this summer. It’s so good that I seriously considered cutting open the bottle with a knife to extract the last drops, but I decided that that was probably a bad idea… I didn’t want to accidentally cut off my pinky.

3. Burt’s Bees Baby Shampoo and Wash ($14.59)

OK, this one isn’t technically one of my empties. It’s one of Connor’s.

It creates LOTS of bubbles, which she loves to play with in the bath, and it doesn’t sting her eyes.

P.S. She loves it when we use it as a shampoo, and I style her hair into a baby mohawk.

P.P.S. Someone needs to invent a baby emoji 👶 with a mohawk.

[Continue reading…]

Categories: Burt's Bees, Caudalie, Just For Fun, Kate Somerville, Pixi, R+Co

R+Co Analog Conditioning Cleansing Foam Is Airy and Epic

August 31st, 2017 by Karen 15 Comments

r+co cleansing foam conditioner

My shower is a veritable convener belt of hair products. I’m always rotating different ones in and out, and rarely will the same thing stay in there for weeks or months, but it does happen occasionally when I love something A LOT, which is happening right now — this very second! — with $29 R+Co Analog Cleansing Foam Conditioner.

UGH, it’s so good, babe! Like change-your-life good.

Analog cleansing conditioner is unlike anything I’ve ever used. It’s a foam, man! A foam! And it’s airy and light like the top layer of a pumpkin spice latte.

It has moisturizing argan oil and antioxidant-rich green tea, and it doesn’t have harsh mineral oil, parabens or sulfates.

Metaphorically, the fragrance is fresh, fancy, young and expensive to me, with notes of orange, fig, guava, musk and some other things that I can’t put my finger on… I’ll call it “new money minimalist.” It reminds me of something Pinrose would do.

You use it like a regular cleansing conditioner. You wet your hair, massage the foam from roots to ends, then rinse. Unlike most cleansing conditioners, however, many of which leave a film behind and make your hair feel heavy with product, Analog’s frothy foam rinses out completely and makes my hair feel full, light and bouncy, even when I conditioner-wash multiple days in a row.

The end result is clean, hydrated hair with volume.

rco cleansing foam conditioner
I washed with R+Co Analog, applied R+Co High Dive leave-in conditioner, then let it air dry overnight. The next morning, I curled it with a ghd Curling Iron, then sprayed R+Co Sail Soft Wave Spray on my waves.

Oh, and most importantly, when I use it, my hair actually feels clean! You know how some cleansing conditioners leave your scalp feeling like you’re the human version of Pigpen from Peanuts? Like they left behind a layer of sweat and grime in your roots, even though you massaged the living crap outta your hair and thoroughly rinsed, leaving you to feel like a filthy beast?

Yeah, Analog doesn’t do that. The foam breaks down all the oil, grease and dirt on my roots, my scalp and my strands. When I step out of the shower, my scalp feels legit clean.

r+co cleansing foam conditioner

[Continue reading…]

Categories: Hair, Product Reviews, R+Co

R+Co Death Valley Dry Shampoo Hits Holy Grail Hair Status

August 3rd, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

r co death valley
They’re alive! ALIVE!!! It brings my roots back to life!

R+Co Death Valley Dry Shampoo may have a morbid-sounding name (“The place where oily roots go to die.”), but, ironically, it makes me feel so alive! — like, in a “Damn, this is so good!” kinda way.

A $29 can of Death Valley is right up there with the gold standard in dry shampoo/texturizing sprays for me, Oribe’s Dry Texturizing Spray, WHICH IS HELLA BOMB, but it’s $42…

Like the Oribe spray, Death Valley feels like nothing in my hair. I can’t feel it sitting on my scalp or anywhere (other than a bit of a gritty feeling) and the mist shoots out super fine, so it’s virtually invisible, even on dark hair.

My hair feels a bit gritty when I use it (just a bit), but by no means would I call it crispy. So, your hair will not feel like uncooked Ramen noodles.

Like all R+Co products, it smells like fancy perfume, which I love. The scent is R+Co’s “Rosy Eyed” fragrance, which is a blend of bergamot, fig, tonka beans, cedar wood and lotus flower.

And you know what I heard through the grapevine? Oribe and R+Co are owned by the same company, Luxury Brand Partners, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the lines share some recipes.

I mean, you can find similar formulas across the Estée Lauder brands (MAC, Bobbi Brown, etc.), so I’m just saying… I wouldn’t be surprised.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Categories: Hair, Product Reviews, R+Co

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About Makeup and Beauty Blog

Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog
Hi there! I’m Karen, your friendly neighborhood beauty addict, and I’m a Bay Area girl who hoards brown eyeshadow and covets coral lipstick. Every morning, I wake up and say, “I’m going to do something other than a smoky eye today.” Then…I end up doing a smoky eye anyway (most days). When I’m not putting on makeup, taking pictures of makeup or writing about makeup, you’ll find me hanging out with my hubby (“El Hub”), my two-year-old daughter (Connor Claire) and my cat (Tabs).

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