ZZZZ-Beauty Masking While You Sleep

The first sleeping mask I tried was from Korres-I love the smell of roses anyway, and their very wonderful sleeping mask had the whitening power of roses plus extra vitamin C.

Like many things, I go through one jar then look for something else-cuz-I’m fickle.

I was in the Korean cosmetic store called “The Face Shop” and came upon Raspberry Roots Sleeping Mask.  I squirted a bit out, and decided to try it.

Now mind you, all the salespeople in the store are under 30 years old, and have great skin, plus they have access to all of the product. So, I take their recommendations with a grain of salt.

I’ve tried the sleeping mask a few times and the verdict for me is-it leaves my skin dry in the morning. A bad sign for me. If the product were working, I’d keep going but it’s not to be.

As a side note, the packaging is odd–if you have every tried Bedhead’s After Party hair smoothing product, you know what I mean.  Raspberry Roots is in a dainty container, but take off the cap and the dispenser is a little, er…graphic. It’s about that sized too.

Another product I had-Flebote moisturizing serum, did not have the special graphic design, but an odd almost triangular top. However, the sides are not even, so you have to put the cap on with some effort toward matching the correct edges.

Geez-I’ll get a couple of lines just getting the product closed!

k

 

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The Sunscreen Graveyard-Mustela SPF50

I’m always in search of the ideal sunscreen. Something with high SPF, goes on under make up and doesn’t sting my eyes.

The high spf and makeup goals are pretty easy to satisfy-but the not stinging my eyes thing-well ain’t been happening yet.

There have been a couple of contenders, but there’s usually something else I don’t like about the product. Like Lancome’s eye sunscreen-I just didn’t like the smell and the consistency was odd. Plus I had to wait a long time to let it dry.

Bobbi Brown’s SPF is pretty good-but for the price and the size of the tube-left me looking elsewhere.

Right around V-day I got an email from Sephora saying the VIP Beauty Gift was a collection of Fresh products-soy cleaners, lotus cream and their new oil. So, yeah you know it, I made up a reason to go shopping.

Not needing anything-I dug down deep and looked for a new sunscreen, finding Mustela.

I like the idea of using  products made for babies as they have to be gentle without a lot of chemicals and other additives like fragrance.

Mustela claims to be natural based and hypoallergenic.  The SPF 50 I bought is mineral based and it goes on really thick. I figured the first run out, it must take some time to soak in and disappear.  It never really did after a 15 minute break in the makeup routine, so I applied my tinted moisturizer over it. I kind of liked the look-using the whiteness of the sunscreen as a brightener-but when I did it again the next day, my face got itchy.

Also, since the formula is so thick, it would scrape off when I scratched.

So, I’ve decided this will go to the sunscreen graveyard-or give it to the bf for days he goes golfing and needs extra protection.

Onward!

k

Make Me New-Winam Studio

Every month or so, I head back to the salon to have my grays/whites covered.

I tried doing my hair at home, but made a giant-sized mess of the bathroom, my old t-shirt I had on to do the color job, and everything I touched.

Yeah, I know there are tips for doing it yourself, like wear real rubber gloves to protect your hands, the ones in the package are bogus and flimsy, etc. But, because my hair is thick AND long, it’s just a major pain in the rump.

So, there’s a couple of new things happening at Winam Studio. One is not so new, one is new. Kristie/Christie (sp) joined Winam Studio last year as Hillary J’s apprentice. As you may know, apprentice stylists are fully trained, but they need to accumulate hours, working along side an experienced stylist.  (In my years over at Marsha Nadalin, the apprentices were usually sweeping-sometimes shampooing).

Anyway, K/Christie likes to do the color work at Winam, doing glosses, color and highlights.

XG, is Paul Mitchell’s new demi-permanent, no ammonia color.  More than a gloss, but not as harmful as old-school ammonia based full on color.  I guess this is similar to Affinage’s demi-color which also has no-ammonia.

When I first started covering my grays, ammonia-based product was used on my entire head, and then used for root touch-ups. I noticed my hair getting drier and drier, and frizzy crackly.  My old stylist would color, then use a gloss to cover everything and add shine, but it just seemed like too much.

When I met Hillary J over in the original space, she introduced me to glosses and PM Shine, which has worked for me for the 2 years I’ve gone to her.  My hair found its way back to shiny and soft, with no frizz unless it’s rainy.

XG, is similar but different. The new Paul Mitchell product was formulated to cover stubborn grays with more opacity, or cover grays translucently so grays can be “highlights”. I’m not sure if this is true of everyone, but my color or gloss doesn’t fade in -between appointments, rather, I have new grow out each time, while the hair that had been treated, just continues to be black.

I don’t know if that is the organic shampoo I use, or that I go once a month or so, but the only time I had trouble with fading was when I used permanent ammonia based color.

Why would anyone use something other than non-ammonia? I’ll leave that up to the professionals to advise.

k