Hair

Briogeo Now at Ulta!

January 22nd, 2021 by Karen 7 Comments

briogeo at ulta — Now you have another reason to visit Ulta!

Wait — hold up! Now I’ve got yet another excuse to fill my Ulta cart, because now they carry Briogeo hair products at Ulta.

YESSSS! 🤗

A couple of their products are pretty well known, like their Be Gentle, Be Kind Avocado + Kiwi Mega Moisture Superfood Masks and Don’t Despair, Repair! Deep Conditioning Masks. Both won Allure Best of Beauty and Reader’s Choice Awards in 2020.

But the brand is probably BEST known for their haircare products for curly, wavy and textured hair; mind you, they do have products for all different types of hair.

They’re considered a “clean line” (air quotes, because there really isn’t a standardized definition for what “clean” means in the beauty industry), because everything’s vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free, and they omit sulfates, silicones, parabens, artificial dyes, DEA, and phthalates. That’s good. Instead, they incorporate what they call the NOVA complex, which is a proprietary blend of natural oils, vitamins and antioxidants.

The founder, Nancy Twine, used to work in finance, and she started the company after tragically losing her mom in a car accident.

“That profound loss changed my world, and also inspired me to begin a soul-searching journey to find new meaning and purpose in my own life and create a meaningful career rooted in inspiration. This journey led me to reconnect with memories which brought me the most joy and happiness: the times I spent with my mom when I was young, concoting our own beauty treatments from scratch in our home kitchen (something she learned from her mom growing up in rural West Virginia).”

— Nancy Twine, Founder and CEO of Briogeo (from official Briogeo PR)

They have a great reputation for their products for wavy and curly gals, and I’ve used their Don’t Despair Repair Deep Conditioning Mask before and loved it. It’s rich yet lightweight, and it moisturizes my very dry ends without weighing everything down.

I’m also stoked to give these few things a try…

Be Gentle, Be Kind Avocado + Kiwi Mega Moisture Superfood Mask ($36): Inspired by green smoothies, this deep conditioning mask contains antioxidant kiwi (known for its high levels of vitamin C), spinach extracts and rich avocado oil, and is made for all hair types.
Curl Charisma Rice Amino + Avocado Shampoo ($24): A hydrating shampoo that cleanses curly hair without stripping. Contains shea butter and avocado oil to enhance softness without weighing hair down.
Curl Charisma Rice Amino + She Curl Defining Conditioner ($24): A moisturizing conditioner loaded with rice amino acids to seal the hair cuticle and lock out frizz-causing humidity and fermented tomato to encourage the formation of uniform curls.
Curl Charimsa Rice Amino Leave-In Defining Creme ($20): A moisturizing and de-frizzing leave-in with light, flexible hold.

Are you familiar with Briogeo? If you are, you’ll have to let me know how you feel about their products!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF! 😁

Q & A: Have You Ever Done Your Highlights Successfully at Home?

October 21st, 2020 by Karen 14 Comments

Girl…HELL, NO, and the funny thing is, I’ve tried quite a few times, but it turned out terrible EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. You might’ve thought I would’ve learned my lesson after the first attempt, but nope! I just kept coming back for more.

I vividly remember using one of those boxed chunky highlight kits in the mid-’90s with my cousin…who wasn’t really my cousin. If you’re Filipino, you probably already assumed this because when someone is referred to as your “cousin,” you don’t even have to be marginally related to them. As long as your moms or dads knew each other even tangentially, then they were immediately dubbed “cousins.”

But I digress!

This girl (my cousin who wasn’t really my cousin) and I both had jet black hair, and we decided it was a good idea to use a highlighting boxed kit made for blondes (yes, you read that correctly). One of us had heard from a friend of a friend that if you wanted black hair to lighten, you had to use what the blonde gals used.

The kit came with a plastic cap, which you placed on top of your hair. It had dots on it, and you’d pull chunks of hair through the dots using something that looked like a crochet needle… All veeeeeeeery scientific, as you can tell. LOL!

I just remember sitting there in her bathroom with that crackly cap on my head and the pieces of hair jutting through it and thinking that my mane was going to look bomb. 😄

I’m pretty sure we end up with Oomopa Loompa orange strands and it looked 100% terrible, but at the time I thought it was the sh*t.

So teenage me would’ve answered this question, “Yeah, I’ve done my highlights, and they were totally successful!”

But me now is like, “Um, no. Because, girl, your hair was straight-up orange! But I forgive you because you didn’t know any better.” HAHAHA!

How about you. Have you ever successfully done your own hair highlights at home?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Q & A: Have You Ever Dated Anyone With a Perm?

October 7th, 2020 by Karen 13 Comments

ramen noodles perm curly hair — Asking for a friend.

I feel like if we were in the thick of ’80s, the chances of most of us answering “yes” to this question would be extremely high! HAHAHAHA!

By the time I was of dating age, most dudes I knew didn’t have perms (mullets are another story, though), so no, I’ve never dated anyone with a perm.

Hmm… Well, now that I think about it, I can’t say that with 100% certainty because I did go out on a date with a dude with ramen noodle-esque curly hair that looked like Justin Timberlake during the N’Sync era! His hair was coated in very hard-looking gel, and the curls were shiny and ultra sculpted. His entire mane was one solid unit; not one lick of it moved. I spent the entire date wondering if his hair was naturally curly or if it was permed.

Anyway, now I’m thinking about how El Hub with a perm, and it’s cracking me up! Knowing him, though, he’d still find a way to pull it off. LOL!

So how about you? Have you ever dated anyone with a perm? AND, OH MY GOSH…I cannot wait to find out if anyone actually answers “yes” to this!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Product Spotlight: Pantene Miracle Moisture Boost Shampoo and Conditioner With Rosewater

October 6th, 2020 by Karen 8 Comments

pantene miracle moisture boost rose water — A couple of my drugstore hair loves

I absolutely love this stuff! If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, moisturizing shampoo and conditioner for smoothing frizzy hair, this drugstore duo is a star. The most tragic thing about Pantene Rosewater Shampoo and Conditioner is that they aren’t sold in wine barrel-sized vats!

Yes, they’re both that good. I went to Target yesterday and picked up my fourth bottle of each!

This sulfate-free drugstore shampoo and conditioner is made to moisturize dry strands and tame frizzy hair, and it’s been a minor miracle for my grays, which I’ve been growing out for over a year now. My grays, especially the ones around my bangs and hairline, are totally and completely unruly, and this set helps to smooth down the noodle strands that stick up at all kinds of weird angles.

Here’s the kicker: both the shampoo and conditioner tame the crazies without weighing my strands down.

I don’t like most hair products designed to defrizz and smooth because they usually leave a noticeable residue, and I don’t like it when my hair looks and feels like it’s covered in “stuff.” Not a fan of flat helmet head, ya know?

Even though these work well, they don’t leave a thick residue behind. Just smooth strands with lots of volume, lift and movement.

And they smell good too! They have a fabulous faint rose fragrance.

FYI, if you’d like to get just the shampoo or the conditioner separately, they’re about $8-9 each at Target (8-oz. bottle). Pantene also sells a boxed set with both for $12.99.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Checking In: The Hask Mask in a Tub, New (Old) MAC Eyeliners, and Baking a Sprinkle Cake

September 22nd, 2020 by Karen 25 Comments

baked sprinkle cake final — I baked a cake!

Hey, guys. Happy Tuesday! Has the universe ever sent you a gentle reminder that perhaps you should probably get back to doing what you love? I got one of those nudges to start baking again (it’s been months) because I made this kick-butt cake a few days ago… Granted it was from a mix, but still!

Of course I had to share it with you… 😁

It’s the Sprinkle Party Snack Cake Mix With Frosting by a brand called Baked. I picked it up randomly at Cost Plus World Market a few weeks ago because it was on sale and…I liked how the box looked!

baked sprinkle cake — The box comes with the frosting and the dry ingredients for the cake.

connor stirring the batter — My sous chef

I could whip up a cake from scratch, but eh, baking requires attention, precision and, well…heart. I haven’t had much leftover soul to invest in baking sweets lately, but then I found this cake mix. Not only did it make things easy, but the cake actually tastes homemade. Highly recommended!

The mix includes a packet of dry ingredients for a butter-based vanilla cake with rainbow sprinkles, and another packet for plain with vanilla frosting. The instructions are pretty detailed, too, which makes it easy to not mess up.

THIS CAKE IS SO GOOD. It’s light-as-air and melts in your mouth, and it doesn’t have that obvious taste of your typical boxed cake. Hard to explain, but to me boxed cakes all taste the same — kinda oily and heavy, without much flavor. Anyway, this one’s really, really good, and so is the frosting.

If you happen to live near a World Market, I suggest grabbing a box!

Anywho, that lovely cake opened up a metaphorical baking door, so I’ve made even more goodies since then, including brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and marbled cookies, which are half chocolate chip and half dark chocolate.

Chocolate chip cookies and brownies, YUM!

chocolate chip cookies september 2020 — The most beautiful thing I ever did see…

I’m thinking of making a pie next, because rumor has it that Trader Joe’s has a pre-made gluten-free pie crust. Or, maybe I’ll make some savory scones, or perhaps I’ll finally try my hand at croissants?!

Sorry, I’m getting distracted. Before I lose my train of thought, I have one more World Market thing to show you — this box of dark chocolate sprinkles!

It’s from Holland and from a brand called DeRuijter (“masters of bread toppings”), and the picture on the front looks like a loaf of French bread cut in half with the dark chocolate sprinkles on top.

chocolate bread sprinkles — OK, so how does this work, exactly?

Can somebody please explain what’s going on here? Do you eat the bread with just the sprinkles on top, or do you toast the bread in an oven to melt the sprinkles? Or, are the sprinkles attached to the bread with Nutella or peanut butter or something? Or, do you just eat it plain like a dark chocolate sprinkle sandwich?

If someone from Holland could please explain just exactly how this works, please fill me in, because I don’t know what’s going on here, and I would love to, LOL!

Now, to ensure that this post is marginally related to beauty, I finished the packets of Hask Hair Masks I got a while back, so I popped into Ulta to grab some more and found out that they sell the Argan Oil version in a jar for six bucks!
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