I picked this up at Duane Reed while travelling, after I realized that I really can’t travel without bringing a leave-in product with me! It was cheap enough ($6) where I wouldn’t regret at least trying it out with only two seconds of prior research.
And… man I’m glad this only cost $6. This is a terrible product — at least for me. This is a 5 in 1 leave in spray — none of those five things actually seemed to come to fruition with my hair. Let’s take a look:
Claim 1: “Conditions and hydrates.” Absolutely not. Hair was drier after application. I would say my hair felt brittle, in fact, and I hadn’t even used any heat that day! In a weird way, this leave-in was almost tacky — not only was it drying out my hair, but I felt like the strands were sticking together, as well. Which, in turn, made my hair feel heavy and weighed-down.
Claim 2: “Detangles.” Although my hair is straight, it is extremely knotty post-shower. This did nothing to alleviate my situation.
Claim 3: “Resists humidity and reduces frizz.” It was a balmy 65 and sunny in NYC while I was using this. Now, I don’t think I noticed extra frizz, so that’s a good thing, at least, but as I mentioned before my hair was plain ol’ brittle-feeling. If humidity was a factor in this, then this leave-in did nothing to stop it.
Claim 4: “Repairs dry hair and breakage.” Nope! Split ends seemed more split-endy than ever. My hair was super dry, itchy to my skin, and rough to the touch.
Claim 5: “Adds shine”. Nah, this didn’t happen either. Maybe after the first three minutes of spraying it on, but not so much after that.
I will say that this smells AMAZING, and the smell persists after even several hours, which is nice. There’s nothing that’s necessarily “bad” in the ingredient listing either, although I noticed dimethicone and panthenol are both present. Leave-ins that I use and like don’t generally contain these, and I can’t help but wonder if the dimethicone is what’s causing my hair to feel sticky. I’ve also read some anecdotes about how panthenol, despite being an emolliating agent to make hair seem “slippery”, is not necessarily effective for all hair types. All that said, I still wouldn’t recommend it. ~A
I used to go into my hair appointments and flat out not pay attention to what they were doing. I hardly asked any questions: they were the experts, after all, (well, most of them were, anyway…) they knew what they were doing! But that’s just it: they are the experts, why was I holding back? Why wasn’t I asking them why my hair was constantly breaking off at the end?
I’ve gotten a myriad of different answers from different stylists, but they all seem to ask the same thing: “Are you using box dye?” All through high school and college my answer was always yes. I’d insist that the leave-in conditioner that Nice n Easy provided was enough to wipe out the damage the dyes were creating, but they always shook their heads and carried on silently, letting me live in my delusion.
Now, full disclosure, my hair still isn’t perfect. I have fly-aways like crazy, due to years of damage from heat and hair dye, abrupt weather changes and unfavorable indoor climate controls. My hair still falls out, a lot, and now that I have highlights, the breakage is at an all time high (thanks, bleach!). But I saw a picture of myself from seven years ago and I realized just how much my overall hair condition has changed. I attribute it to this “one secret trick that hair dressers don’t want you to know about! (Just kidding, they probably do want you to know about it so that they don’t have to tell you 50 times to stop using box dye): Switch to mixing your own hair dye.
The chemicals that are used in box dyes are just too strong for most hair types. Most of them have at least a 30 developer strength. The darker your hair, the less developing strength you need. Personally, I only use 10. On the occasion that I’ve used 20, my hair quality has suffered. I’m not even going to talk about how most box dyes usually slip a drying alcohol into the 2nd or 3rd ingredient, whereas I couldn’t find any even listed on my separately purchased developer and hair dye.
Now, because my hair is so dark, I can’t really speak to the process for lighter colored hair. It probably still stands that you will need a 30 or 40 developer, or bleach and toner as it applies. But I’d hazard a guess and say that you’re probably still better off not buying a box kit, solely due to the unneeded and questionably stronger ingredients that get put into it. I will say that ammonia is another not-so-great feature that pops up in the hair dye that I use today — but there are ammonia free options on the market, in both box dyes and separately purchased hair dyes.
The first time mixing on your own can be a little intimidating, but fear not, as the ratio of developer to color should be 50:50. Most mixing bowls have measurements marked on them, and you don’t necessarily have to even be super precise for the color to develop and ultimately process on your hair. Sally’s Beauty has always been my go-to supplier for hair dye and accessories, but I’ll link what I can back to Amazon even if it’s just for reference.
1- Put on an old shirt that you don’t mind getting dye on. Cover your “work station” with newspaper or towels. Put on some gloves. Any non-powder latex or vinyl glove will do. Buy them online and/or in bulk: they sell ’em at Sally’s, but they’re too expensive. Here are some cool purple gloves: https://amzn.to/2I6owxY
2- Find an occlusive to put onto your skin around the hair line. This makes the dye a lot easier to “wipe off” if you accidentally get it on your skin. Elta MD’s Intense Moisture does the trick: https://amzn.to/2UClPtV
4- Put the developer into the bowl first. The amount you put in the bowl will depend on the length of your hair, but just keep in mind that the ratio of the developer to the color should be about 1:1. If there are measurements on the bowl that you purchased, you could put enough developer to reach the “1” line. I use this 10 volume developer, but again the number could increase depending on the lightness of your hair: https://amzn.to/2I6p1bk
5- Put the hair dye in the bowl over top of the developer. If you have measurement markers, squeeze enough color out of the tube to reach the “2” line, or whatever will accomplish a 1:1 ratio with the developer. Throw the excess hair dye away, since breaking the seal exposes it to air and will degrade the product before you can use it for your next color. I use this hair dye by Zotos: https://amzn.to/2WWhoI3
6- Now all the same rules apply as regular hair dye! Alternate between mixing the product, and sitting and waiting until the color has started to develop. Once the color is showing, you can go ahead and use your brush to apply. Wait 25-60 minutes, and then wash off. ~A
This snail gel has a pretty huge following, for good reason: It’s inexpensive, mimics the redness-reducing properties of aloe vera, and it works well as an occlusive or moisturizer. Unfortunately, my acne-prone skin does not love this product.
This comes in a cute, pink plastic bottle — small, but, a little squeeze of this colorless, odorless gel-cream goes a long way. From personal experience, this product is great to travel with — it’s small enough to chuck in your bag without taking too much room, and could also, hypothetically, replace a larger-sized occlusive or moisturizer product in your routine while you’re out of the house.
I used this, typically, as the last step in my routine — primarily when my heavier oils or occlusives weren’t in reach. I’ve used it as just a moisturizer as well, and put other products over it. However, this product is NOT heavy. You should absolutely stack other products with it because it’s not super moisturizing on it’s own. My word of caution is that it does still have a slightly longer dry time and it’s a bit tacky even after drying, so try to leave some time in between adding the other layer.
As for overall effect… I stand by what I wrote in the first paragraph, it works “well”, but it’s not GREAT. It’s definitely better to use it than to not use anything at all. My skin felt some relief immediately after use, and it might have retained a bit of moisture overnight. But I wasn’t wowed by the effects over a long period of time.
While I feel like this made my overall skin condition, at minimum, “ok”, I think it was also causing break outs. Nothing major, but after using the product for 3 days in a row, I noticed an increase in whiteheads and pore congestion. Like anything else, there could have been a myriad of other factors influencing this, but all other products remaining the same in my routine and the snail gel being the addition, I would suspect the snail gel. I had a similar reaction to CosRX’s snail gel. Is there such thing as being sensitive to snail secretion filtrate? Or perhaps it’s the olive oil. At any rate, there’s no drying alcohol in this product, so I know it’s not that.
For sensitive skin users, I ultimately wouldn’t recommend this, but only due to my own reaction. It may be worth a shot regardless, because it is a decent, portable “extra layer” you can add in. It’s also pretty cheap ($6, although it looks like Mizon’s either raised the price or price gouging is in play. I see it for $10 or $11 today!). I might be doomed to never experiencing the skin benefits of… a snail. Although if I’m being honest, I never envisioned putting anything related to a snail on my face until last year, so I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing… ~A
Now that I have medium length hair and bayalage highlights, what better thing to do then to copy every girl on Pinterest by putting small waves into my hair? I figured maybe instead of subjecting my hair to the straightener-turned-curler every day, this product would just, ya know, do all the work for me.
This was really cheap, about $4 for a good amount of product. It comes in a spray bottle, and has a fresh baby-powder smell when you spray it. It does smell and taste (oops, hair in my mouth!) salty, more noticeably after a few hours have passed with the product on. Here are a few of my observations, based on the condition of my hair when spraying:
Wet hair: the “tease” factor didn’t really stick around once my wet hair had dried with this product on it, although it did make my hair strands separate and looking stringier. Not really the desired effect without any texture, though.
Dry, straight hair: made my hair stick together, even after spreading the product throughout and texturizing with my fingers. This didn’t really produce much of a “stringy” effect as it did with the wet hair, so the end result was just giant clumps of hair sticking together unfashionably.
Dry hair with waves already in it via straightener: now THIS is what the product was meant for, I think. If you’ve already got a few waves going on and then spritz this stuff in, it will 100% legitimatize the Pinterest “wave” look you’re trying to go for. You have to be careful because too much of the product will weigh the initial waves down, but if you aim it toward the ends of the hair follicle, your hair strands will start to split out from one another, creating the jagged, stylishly messy texture.
I was really impressed by the hold-time of this spray. Even though I would probably term it as a light-medium hold, I was impressed by how long it seemed to hold the texture up, at least 10 hours at my longest stretch.
This is a neat little buy for such a cheap price. No, it’s not an instant hairstyle in a bottle as I would have hoped, but it’s an awesome additive if you already have waves in your hair. ~A
Neutrogena must have had a pretty good run with the original hydro boost moisturizer, as they’ve rather substantially increased their product offerings under this namesake. As they should! This is an easily accessible (ie: found in most grocers or drug stores), good-smelling alcohol-free option for close to every single skin type there is.
For a lotion, this is a tad bit expensive ($9) and the amount of product for that price point won’t overwhelm you — that’s probably my only gripe with this product. The lotion comes out of the pump white, and very quickly sinks into your skin with no residue. The lotion thins out quickly and becomes easily spreadable, so you won’t feel like you’re wasting product as you’re using it.
What I consider to be a good lotion is one that doesn’t make you feel like you need to re-apply every 5 minutes, or make you feel like your skin is extremely tacky. This is neither of them. I never have the feeling that I need to reapply this.
The smell is the same as the others in the Hydroboost line — light, fresh, almost like a … bubble bath? I personally love it, but there is a fragrance free option available as well.
Overall, this is definitely worth a bit of a splurge. You wouldn’t think it would be so tough to find a lotion that actually, you know, puts moisture into your skin and retains it, but it is. Fortunately, this is that lotion!
If I’ve learned any lessons in life, it is to tread very carefully with acids.
Full disclosure, I used this product when it was called AHA Souffle, and actually found that, with only semi-weekly use, it was great. I actually think it kept a lot of acne at bay, and kept my skin looking fresh. I think I used the 8% glycolic acid formulation, which seems to no longer be a percentage that they use. Then, the company Alpha Hydrox rebranded into Alpha Skincare, and re-released all their packaging.
I’m guessing during the timeframe that it took them re-brand and change up their product lines, they also reformulated as well. That was when this product stopped working for me. My skin started to break out a TON. Now, the thing to keep in mind with acids is that there is a natural purging period where you start to break out like crazy. Then, with consistent use of the acid, that won’t occur as often. So I thought that was the case with me, and I pushed through — for twomonths!!! — and it ended up absolutely destroying my skin.
I wasn’t really into looking at the ingredients back then so much as I am now, and looking at the listing online it doesn’t seem like there’s anything too damning that would cause it to do this. Even the alcohols in it are fatty alcohols only, and not drying. Perhaps even a 2% shift in glycolic acid was enough to destroy my skin. In any case, my opinion of this product is that it is very harsh.
Amazon cleanly states that the packaging may vary, due to the rebranding (and also an extremely confusing product listing — there’s a lot of seemingly overlapping products with totally different images). The AHA Souffle was a white cream in a tube. The tube lasted for quite awhile, since you don’t need to apply too much. Now it looks like it’s in a small bottle. Given the amount of product in this, the pricetag of $12-18 (depending on where you buy from) doesn’t seem too crazy.
I don’t know. I used to really like this. If you are suffering very mild acne or scarring, glycolic acid is good to keep some of that at bay. But I’m not convinced that this product is the method to do that anymore, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for cystic acne sufferers either. If you want to try it out, I’d recommend starting at the lowest level possible, but even 10% seems a little steep to me. ~A
I picked up Hide the Blemish to get away from my usual Maybelline concealer stick. This product is pretty much exactly the same as Maybelline’s, but Rimmel is usually cheaper if you pick it up in drugstores (Rimmel’s is $4-5, Maybelline will run you between $6-8 depending on where you go).
I usually apply this by dotting it under my eyes, and then quickly tapping it in. I use it on my eyelid as well, in hopes of stamping out the all-too-common eyeliner transfer. This does a pretty good job of covering up any blemishes also, even the more serious ones. Side note, I have separate contour sticks for blemishes vs. contouring purposes because… I don’t know, cross-contamination, or something.
I like the color on this — the ivory is very light, without skewing toward beige. This doesn’t oxidize one way or the other, and sets nicely into the skin, albeit with a bit heavier tapping than usual, since the concealer itself is quite tacky. I also weirdly like that the product is more prone to wearing down into a round shape, as opposed to a melting tip — this makes the “dotting” procedure a lot easier.
With some stick concealers I’ve noticed that the product tends to chalk up in between skin creases or wrinkles. Hide the Blemish doesn’t seem to do that too often, which I appreciate. Unfortunately, it seems like the coloration can wear off past the 6 hour mark, and sometimes even quicker if you’ve used it to cover a blemish. Sometimes I want that intentional a little too extreme contrast between cheek contour and undereye effect (which I know is heresy) but this concealer only makes that possible for the first hour or two of application.
Overall, though, I like this, and it’s a staple in my makeup bag right now. It’s pretty cheap, too, which is never an issue for me! ~A
Myself and my pasty pale skin have been through many a self-tanner. Sublime Bronze was definitely not my favorite, despite it’s otherwise high reviews for a drug store tanner.
First of all, I noticed L’oreal, moreso than most beauty brands, LOVES benzyl alcohol and alcohol denat, particularly as the second or third ingredient… Sublime Bronze is no exception, so if you’re looking to avoid it, you might want to pass on this one.
The color comes out of the squeeze bottle in a dark brown gel lotion, and has a tinge of sparkle to it. I don’t mind a bit of shimmer in my self-tanners, and the glitter in this isn’t too overbearing, so that works for me personally. Don’t forget to put a mit or gloves on before applying this — it will absolutely stain your hands. This smells… a little banana-y. To me, the DHA smell isn’t too overpowering, even after a day or so.
There is a guide with this lotion (gets dark where you need to blend it in, so that there aren’t streaks!), but it’s relatively useless. I truly hate how this tanner dries. Not only does it take awhile to dry, but it dries patchy and streaky regardless of how much attention you pay to blending and being cognizant of the guide. The color will last you maybe a day or two, even if you’re being careful not to scrub your skin in the shower and not sweating particularly much. Since it’s an “instant” product I can’t say that longevity is necessarily the goal here, although it would be nice if it stayed on for a little longer. Although… the blotchiness and the streakiness of this lotion makes you want to remove it anyway!
Weirdly, this product works AWESOME for the face. It darkens immediately, won’t look blotchy if you mix it in with moisturizer, and for some reason the color sticks around for 4-5 days. But alcohol denat as the second ingredient makes that venture totally not worth it for the health of your skin.
Too bad, L’oreal. I liked the shimmer, the not-too-overpowering smell, and the $7 price tag, but the other aspects of this product just don’t stack up. ~A
The holy grail cleanser for anyone with any acne issues, ever. It won’t cure your acne, but it will never make it worse, and does it’s job well to give your skin a clean slate for the day.
For $10-13, this pump bottle comes with enough product to last you at least 4-5 months, depending on how often you use it. One pump should be enough if you add a little water in to lather it. Apply it to your face, and wash it off. Simple. It’s incredibly basic — the cleanser comes out faintly white and it’s easy to lather up. It has no distinct smell.
In terms of removing makeup, this isn’t the best in the world and you might need go through the motions a few times to remove any extra product. But if you’re just looking to remove excess oil or grime from your face from the day or night (without stripping 100% of the natural oils from your face), then this is definitely your product.
I have tried the regular version of this (not labeled gentle skin cleanser), and it seemed about the same — maybe a tiny bit more drying, but nothing that prevented me from using up the whole bottle.
There really isn’t too much to say about this cleanser — it is, again, basic, but does the job starting your skin back at zero pretty well without being too drying, and a lot of people love it for that reason. I HIGHLY recommend this product if you have any type of acne. ~A
This chemical sunblock by Its Skin is thus far my holy grail of sunblocks. This is a Korean sunscreen but is, for the most part, relatively accessible on Amazon. For such a small product, you may be concerned that the $15 price tag on this isn’t quite worth it, but the sunscreen itself is pretty liquid-y, and a little goes a long way. And the typical conditions from shipping anything halfway across the world still apply: you’ll probably have to wait a few weeks to get it.
But for me, it’s absolutely worth the wait. Right off the bat, the tube is flashy gold and cool looking. Rip off the silver foil on the top keeping the product fresh under the cap, and the white liquid sunscreen tips out relatively easily without much need to squeeze the bottle. Like I said before, a little goes a long way.
The rest of this story is 100% awesome. The sunscreen sinks in with no whitecast! It smells amazing — very sweet, not overwhelming, and really not like sunscreen at all. After a couple of minutes of allowing to set in, makeup goes over this flawlessly with no issues of pilling (although it will cause some foundations to create a “cake” texture if you apply it too early). Even better — there’s no white-cast pilling atrocities on your face after hour 4. Heck, it doesn’t even happen after hour 8 or 12 or 16, although, technically, the efficacy of the sunblock is probably null and void long before then. But still! No whitecast! Wahoo!
In terms of actually doing it’s job as a sunscreen, this does it’s job as a 50 SPF (probably to better or lesser degrees depending on the timing between me putting it on, and me being exposed to sun). I’ve done a few laps outside of my work office in 85 degree weather with this on, and didn’t burn or tan (or if I did tan, very little).
Now, all of this said. I will say that, for me personally, it can cause a tiny bit of congestion in my skin. Not full on break outs, but minor clogged pores. It’s not pervasive, necessarily, but it does happen from time to time when I’m using it. My skin hated this even more pre-spironolactone, and it caused me to break out a ton (but I loved the concept of this so much that I just had to shelf it until I was a few months into my treatment… no regrets). However, history shows that I break out from most chemical sunscreens anyway, and quite frankly, I’m not sure what the trigger ingredient is. Not very helpful, I know. But while we’re talking about ingredients, I thought I’d mention that this is also alcohol-free! 🙂
Anyways, to wrap up, I obviously love this sunblock. I have yet to find another chemical sunscreen, in the US or otherwise, that ticks off all the boxes like this one does. If your skin tolerates most sunscreens, I highly recommend trying this out. ~A
The Altruistic Face 