Friday, January 9, 2015

Tresemme Keratin Smooth 7 Day Smooth System


Here’s a little background on the Tresemme 7 Day Smooth System for those of you who may not know. This system is designed to give you the salon smooth results of a Keratin Treatment at home in a three part system with results lasting 7 days or up to 3 washes. The first step is to shampoo with the 7 day Keratin Smooth shampoo, then condition with the 7 day conditioner, then follow with the Heat Activated Treatment. When applying the Heat Activated Treatment you must section your hair off into a certain number of sections depending on the length and thickness of your hair as specified in the instruction sheet provided with the treatment. Then apply the treatment to each section. After applying the treatment to each section you blow dry your hair until it is completely dry. After your hair is completely dry you flat iron hair in small sections to activate the Thermal Technology in the Heat Activated Treatment.  I was a little apprehensive about trying the Tresemme 7 Day Smooth System because I thought it dry out and damage my hair. After doing some research online I learned that the formula is safe for color treated and relaxed hair and is non-damaging. So finally I decided to give the system a try. The shampoo and conditioner each cost about $6.99 And the Heat Activated Treatment costs about $7.99. The Keratin Smooth 7 Day Smooth System consists of 3 products a Shampoo, Conditioner, and a heat Activated Treatment.

7 Day Smooth System Shampoo This shampoo is designed to clarify the hair and remove impurities to prepare it for the smoothing process. It’s infused with keratin and made with lower sulfates. This shampoo is the first step in the smoothing process. I have to say this shampoo really did a great job of clarifying my hair. Prior washing my hair, my hair had quite a bit of product residue on it. This shampoo completely removed all traces of product build up without stripping my hair.

7 Day Smooth System Conditioner The conditioner is the second step in the smoothing process. It is designed to work with the heat of your flat iron for salon smooth results. This conditioner is very light and didn't weight my hair down. It also helped to detangle my hair which farther helped prep it for the third and final product.

7 Day Smooth System Heat Activated Treatment This is the final product in the smoothing system. I sectioned my hair into 4 Sections as specified on the instruction sheet for my length and thickness of hair. Then I applied the treatment to each section and blow dried my hair until completely dry. Then I flat ironed my hair in small sections with a 1” flat iron. I loved the way my hair came out. This made my hair extremely silky straight and smooth and with great body and movement. I was very pleasantly surprised with my results. This kept my hair looking great for 5 days. I didn't wash my hair during this time but this really kept my hair looking smooth for nearly a week.  This is definitely is a great alternative to salon keratin treatments. Of course this 7 treatment only lasts 7 days as opposed to about 30 days for a salon treatment. 


Final Thoughts This is a great alternative to a permanent straightener. It keeps my hair straight and frizz free until my next shampoo. If you’re looking a smooth straight look but perhaps not for the long term. Or you’re looking for something gentle without harsh chemicals, Tresemme Keratin Smooth 7 Day Smooth System if Definitely worth trying,

Friday, February 14, 2014

Products I'm Loving this Winter


We all know that winter can wreak havoc on our hair and skin. The harsh cold weather and dry air can strip skin and hair of moisture. That's why it's important to treat yourself to some extra hydration and TLC with extra rich and moisturizing products.

1. Dove Purely Pampering Shea Butter Body Wash: This body wash is super moisturizing and it has an amazing scent! The scent is comforting, warm and yummy! The scent is described as a warm vanilla, but to me it smells more like rich butter cream! This body wash contains Dove's "Nutrium Moisture" technology which nourishes deeply to lock in moisture. This body wash leaves my skin feeling soft, smooth and hydrated. This is the perfect body wash for Winter.

2. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula: I don't know about you but, during the winter months my elbows and knees become super dry and flaky. For times like these I turn to Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula. It comes in a container and it smells like delicious chocolate! It has the color and consistency of butter! Can't get any better than that! It superbly moisturizes rough dry skin transforming it into supple smoothness! This Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula is also great for fading scars and stretch marks!

3 & 4. L'Oreal Evercreme Intense Nourishing Shampoo & Conditioner: I have written about these two products several months ago and I'm still very much in love with them! Winter can really zap the moisture from your hair. L'Oreal Evercreme Intense Nourishing Shampoo & Conditioner infuses my hair with intense moisture without weighing it down or making it feel greasy. These products leave my hair feeling luxuriously soft and smooth. They also contain Omega 3&6 fatty acids and are sulfate-free, paraben-free, and 100% vegan.

These are some of the products I've been using to keep my skin and hair healthy and hydrated during the harsh winter months. Thanks for reading!

Friday, January 31, 2014

My Experience with Redken All Soft



Hey everyone I had wanted to try this shampoo along with it's matching conditioner for about two years now. I'm a person who never purchases salon hair products. In fact the only other time I purchased salon products was several years ago when I purchased the original matrix sleek and smooth and I was not impressed. But the Redken All Soft really caught my eye. I have a lot of fine textured relaxed hair that tends to be on the dry and brittle side so I thought this would be prefect for my hair type. I did lots of research and I've read lots of reviews on how great it is on smoothing the hair and making it very soft and supple. So about a week ago I finally decided that I would give it a try because I have wanted to try it for so long. So then I did a little more research as to where I could purchase these products at a good buy. I finally settled on purchasing a 33.8 oz liter shampoo and conditioner duo at a local salon for $36. The woman at the salon was raving about what a good buy the duo is and how so many of her clients absolutely love it. I thought the price was a little steep but I was convinced that I was getting a great deal. And I was very excited to finally try these products.

My Experience: So I was super excited to finally try all soft. I hadn't been that excited to try hair care products in a very long time. Unfortunately I was very disappointed in the performance of these products. Let me explain why. I was expecting the shampoo to have a soft feel to it while I was washing my hair. The shampoo just feels like any ordinary shampoo that you would find in a drug store. Plus I'm not crazy about the scent. In the many reviews I have read many people describe the shampoo as having a soft present scent, but I just didn't care for the scent. To me the shampoo has somewhat of a sharp floral prefumy fragrance that I was not expecting a softening and smoothing shampoo to have if that makes any sense? The conditioner was not any better. It smells the same as the shampoo of course and I was seriously expecting a thick rich conditioner that would slide on like butter ok! But again it just felt like ordinary conditioner nothing special. I was still holding out hope that after blow drying my hair I would achieve the soft supple hair I was looking for. I was totally wrong! My hair was a dry, fuzzy, frizzy mess! My hair looked like a haystack! This shampoo literally sucked all the moisture from my hair and left it a hot mess! I tried the shampoo and conditioner a few more times hoping for a better result, but every time I got the same result, rough, dry, frizzy hair. I was so disappointed and I will not be finishing these huge bottles. I'm going to try and return them for a refund.

Final Thoughts: I was so bummed that the shampoo and conditioner that I had been living to try for so long did nothing but ruin my hair. Definitely not worth the hefty price tag at all. What a waste of good money. I recently read that Redken reformulated their all soft line leaving many long time users very disappointed with the new formula. From what I read the original formula was 100x better. I never tried the original formula but I wish I had the chance before the switch. I will be going back to my L'Oreal Evercreme which worked superbly on my brittle thirsty locks. I don't know why I ever strayed from evercreme in the first place. I thought with Redken being a professional salon brand that it would be even better and richer than what I was using. But as the old saying goes. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" lol. So I'm sticking with my Evercreme!

Friday, January 24, 2014

A Fresh Start

Hey everyone I know I started this blog way back in Junet and then I pretty much stopped
posting reviews. I've had lots going on in the past several months and now that things have calmed down I'm ready to start my reviews again. I have lots of new products that I've been using that I will be reviewing in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Beauty of Nature


Hello Everyone,

A couple weeks ago I discovered this beautiful butterfly resting on a leaf in my garden. Of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture. I did a little research and apparently this is called a "Tiger Swallowtail" Butterfly. I just thought this was so beautiful I had to share this with everyone!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

E.L.F. Makeup Palette

Hey Everyone,

 I know I've taken a little hiatus from blogging and I apologize for this. July has been a very busy month alot technical computer issues. But now I'm back! So on to my review. I recently picked up some E.L.F. makeup palette and some other great E.L.F. makeup for an awesome price. I've been looking for a make palette of good quality for an affordable price for some time now. I was thrilled when I came across this E.L.F. Essentials Makeup Palette at my local T.J. Maxx. This palette includes 83 essentials.
  • 64 eyeshadows (32 warm shades & 32 cool shades)
  • 8 lip gloss shades
  • 4 blush shades
  • 4 bronzer shades
  • 1 eyebrush, 1 lip brush, 1 blush brush
I really love the beautiful shades of the eyeshadows especially the shimmer colors. The colors go on smooth however they are not as pigmented as I would like them to be by themselves. The colors are much more intense when I use eyeshadow primer before application. the primer really makes a huge difference in intensifying the color and resisting creasing while providing all day wear.

In my opinion the blush shades are not the best quality.All of the blushes are shimmery and I prefer a matte shade when it comes to blush One of the blush shades looks more like a bronzer. The other blush shades are too light for my darker complexion.

The lip glosses are not very pigmented either, but lip gloss tends to be pretty sheer anyway. The lip gloss are very moisturizing and non-sticky.

The browsers in this palette are rather good. They are great for contouring my face and providing a slightly shimmery glow. This palette is very good quality for the price. The eye shadows and the bronzers are the best part of this in my opinion. I'm very satisfied with this makeup palette.



Monday, July 1, 2013

Battle of the Heat Protectors


Most of us heat style our hair very often. Sometimes on a daily basis. Unfortunately heat styling can be one of our hair's worst enemies. Excessive heat can cause breakage, dryness, brittleness, and dullness. to help protect your hair from the damaging effects of heat styling it's a good idea to use a heat protecting product. Heat Protection products such as sprays, creams, and serums create a protective seal to shield against the intense heat of blow dryers, flat irons, and curling irons. I have tried a number of different heat protection products throughout the years. I have done a review on four of the most recent heat protection sprays and creams that I have tried.

Tresemme Keratine Smooth Heat Protection Shine Spray: This is one of the newer editions to the Tresemme family. Although I'm not a frequent user of this brand I was excited to try it out. On the bottle it says " Helps shield hair from the damaging effects of heat styling and seals in shine". Well... I can't say this product did that for me. I sprayed this in my hair in sections prior to blow drying. I  blow dried while pulling sections of hair taut with a round brush to straighten. This made my hair feel sticky during and after the blow drying process. This also made my hair look dull, not shiny like it claims to do. I'm not sure how well this spray actually works at protecting my hair from the damaging effects of heat since this left my hair looking very dry and dull. For some reason my hair was even difficult to dry while using this product. The blow drying process took a lot longer than usual. This didn't work well for my hair at all.

Silk Elements Megasilk Heat Protection Creme: This is a lightweight non-greasy creme that glides on very smooth. This makes my hair more manageable and makes combing and even distribution easy.This actually made my hair very silky, smooth, and soft to the touch after blow drying. I really like the way this creme works and my only complaint with this is the smell. I don't care for the scent at all. I smells sort of sweet with a bitterness to it like earwax or something. I know that sounds crazy but, I'm really picky about smells. Sometimes if I don't like the scent of a particular product I won't use it even if it works well. This is really a good product but I do not like the smell.  

Suave Keratine Infusion Heat Defensive Leave-in Conditioner: This leave-in conditioner is a little on the heavy side, When I say heavy I mean it's thick and rich, yet non- greasy in texture. On the bottle of this product is says "Infuses hair with keratine for ultimate moisturization while protecting against heat". The bottle also states that it controls frizz for up to 48 hours and smooths for manageable and easy to style hair. I can honestly say this heat protection conditioner definitely lives up to it's claims. This product really detangles my hair very well and makes combing and distribution a cinch. It really made the whole blow drying process a lot smoother. This gave my hair a smooth and shiny finish. The scent of this cream is kind of heavy and prefumy. This is a really great smoothing heat protection cream, but the scent may be a bit much for people who are sensitive to strong scents.

Suave Heat Protection Spray: This is the best heat protection spray that I've have used in a long time. It contains a light thermal dense serum that protects hair from heat while adding a glossy shine and smoothness, This doesn't leave behind any sticky residue like some other heat protecting sprays I have used. Plus I love the scent of this spray. It kind of smells like a candy apple. This is a light and simple spray that gets the job done. This leaves my hair looking and feeling healthy and moisturized after I blow dry.