Hair

Bridal Hair Regimen!

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Hi everyone! Wow long time no see… completely my fault I know! 🙁 How is everyone doing??

I have a huge confession- I’ve never really learned how to take care of my hair! I simply never had any interest in taking care of it. Is that bad? I spend 95% of my morning routine on makeup and 5% on my hair. 5% seems a little generous. Let’s make that 98% makeup, 2% hair. My current hair routine consists of washing my hair with shampoo & conditioner (usually Herbal Essences), adding a couple drops of diamond oil to the bottom ends of my hair, and then letting it air dry overnight (don’t tell my grandma this, she’s told me over and over again never to go to bed with my hair wet).

This hair care routine is better than what it was a few years ago, when I would dye and bleach my hair using box hair dye, and then blow dry & straighten my hair every single day sans heat protectant spray. It was an understatement that my hair was hopelessly damaged. Now that I discovered diamond and argon oil, I’ve stopped blow drying & straightening my hair for a couple years now, since I found it dries naturally much smoother than it did without the oil.

And now, it’s time to get a little serious about my hair care routine! The wedding count down has begun and I have a little less than 6 months to repair my hair! Ahhh scary!

This is the hair regimen prescribed by my hairdresser, Debbie! Fun fact, Debbie has been cutting my fiancee’s family’s hair since he was 3 years old!! And now I’m lucky enough to have her to my hair too!

Here are the products she recommended me to start with:

  1. Redken Color Extend Shampoo (to be used with the conditioner every 2-3 days)
  2. Redken Color Extend Conditioner
  3. Redken Color Extend Magnetics Mega Mask (to be used as a deep conditioner once a week)

I’ll be checking back every month or so to let you know if I see any differences in my hair! I’m excited to see the results! Currently, I spend about $15-$20 every 2 or 3 months or so on hair products (shampoo, conditioner, heat protectant spray which lasts me a few months, and diamond oil which lasts a few months as well).  For these 3 Redken Products alone, I spent about $75.

If you are like me and have no idea where to start with a hair care routine, especially if you dye your hair, join me on this journey and let me know your thoughts!

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New Makeup, Product Review, Swatch Comparison, Swatches

e.l.f. Aqua Beauty Blush & Bronzer!

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e.l.f. Cosmetics Aqua Beauty Blush & Bronzer! $6

I’ve said it before and I will say it again…e.l.f. Cosmetics is hands down one of my all-time fave drugstore makeup brands! This new product caught my eye the other day and I just had to have it (I know ya’ll know the feeling). I get excited whenever I see any new e.l.f.products come out and because of the affordable price point, I usually don’t have to second guess purchasing it even it’s just for curiosity’s sake.

The blush and bronzer duo that I’m featuring today is part of e.l.f.’s Aqua Beauty line, which includes a new mist primer, liquid eyeshadows and lipstains that you can check out here!

This blush & bronzer duo comes in 3 different shade combos. The one I bought was Bronzed Violet. The new teal packaging of these products mixed in with the black and white packaging of the other e.l.f. products caught my attention right away, but what really kept my attention was the super bright hot pink shade of the blush! I mean look at it! That is one heck of a pink! Check out the rest of the shades here.

Quick facts about the product:
-Super creamy formula. The texture and feel of the product is similar to how Colour Pop products feel.

-The packaging says that this “cushiony color” is “infused with purified water and vitamin E.”  Fancy!

-The directions recommend applying this product with your fingertips or a small stipple brush. I found that using my fingers to swatch this product worked well, but I would recommend a small stipple brush when applying to your cheeks to blend.

-Definitely has a dewy, hydrating finish when swatched.

-A very important thing to note… after this product dries on your skin, it stays put. I tried smearing the product after swatching it on my wrists once it dried and it didn’t smudge away at all. Impressive staying power! However, this also means that you have to blend it right away to the amount of sheerness you want before it dries, or it will be difficult to fix after the fact.

Swatches!

Overall, I thought this product swatched very nicely! The product is easy to apply and is blendable. The pigmentation applies on lightly at first but is buildable, as promised on the packaging. There is a light shimmer in the shades as well which gives the product a dewy & hydrated look.

Here are some swatches on 2 different skintones. Overall, the brightness of the pink definitely toned down once applied to both skintones. This shade looked like a bubblegum pink on a lighter skin tone and rosey pink with hints of coral on the tanner skintone. The bronzer, which looked like a dark chocolate shade in the pan, applied on as lighter tan shade on both skintones. The color is buildable and you can add more layers of both for a more intense or bright look.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this purchase and will definitely be checking out more of Elf’s Aqua Beauty products! Even though this shade of blush is a little darker and brighter than I typically use for my tanner skintone, the product blends out nicely and gives a sheer, flushed look when I apply just a little bit of product to the apples of my cheeks. The bronzer works well to use as a cream contour shade for my skin tone.

Have you tried this product?? What are your thoughts??

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