All Eyes On Her

I’ve been using John Masters’ Honey and Hibiscus Hair Reconstructor in and off for about a year, but I never did splurge for the matching (and equally pricy) shampoo until recently. Turns out the duo is pretty awesome! Neither component of the set is particularly “reconstructing”, in my experience, but they certainly are lovely to use.

The main thing I’ve noticed since trying this duo as a complete set is that my horrible, itchy, annoying dandruff is finally at bay. (I always get a crazy scalp when the seasons start to change, and my standard Redken AllSoft only makes it worse.) For the scalp relief alone, this pair was worth it. I do wish the price tag were cheaper, though.

The Honey & Hibiscus Shampoo is surprisingly sudsy, considering the lack of SLS (and comparing it to other JMO shampoos, like their Zinc & Sage Shampoo + Conditioner or their Evening Primrose Shampoo for Dry Hair).  It felt like it cleaned my hair pretty deeply, and got rid of the silicones that tend to build up on my hair what with all the smoothing products I use.  Yet it didn’t feel like it had dried out my scalp at all, which is something of a miracle given how picky my poor head has been lately.

The one drawback is that the shampoo seems to lack its sister’s amazing honey-hibiscus scent.  (Or maybe it’s just me, and the shampoo’s scent is just lighter than the conditioner’s so it’s harder to notice.)  And neither one has a scent that lingers, which is a shame since they’re so yummy in the shower.

All in all, I’ll probably keep purchasing this duo, but only use them when my scalp acts up.  (My coarse hair begs for silicone-rich smoothing products, but my scalp always complains.)  They don’t make my hair look fabulous, by any means — they’re just nicer than the average non-smoothing duo.

Ever since Aveda discontinued their much-adored Curessence deep conditioner, they’ve been on my hit list. (That stuff was fabulous, and a cult classic — you don’t go changing/pulling something so beloved by so many! Bad form, Aveda!) But then, they’ve pretty much lost all my respect since selling out to Estée Lauder anyway.

Okay, staying on track. Despite said loss of respect, I’m still on their mailing list, and I still get occasional freebie vouchers for whatever new product they’ve come up with. A couple years ago they came out with an “alternative” to Curessence, i.e. their Damage Remedy shampoo and conditioner.  But that stuff sucked — it wasn’t nearly as moisturizing or penetrating as Curessence was.*

AAAAANYWAY, you probably didn’t come here for a history lesson!  Nope, you came for my review.  So now that I’ve taken you through all that, I’ll try and be brief: the newest stuff sucks.

Yep, they realized that the Damage Remedy duo wasn’t really cutting it compared to days of yore, so came out with a new set called Dry Remedy which included the Dry Remedy Moisturizing Treatment Masque, another new attempt at a deep conditioner (instead of just bringing back Curessence like they friggin’ SHOULD HAVE).  And the new stuff is just as non-deep as Damage Remedy was, but in a crappier way.

It’s a dimethicone-heavy formulation, and it feels fabulous when it first goes on and when you first rinse it out.  But after the hair is dried?  Frizz city.  Let me be more precise: dry, coarse, brittle frizz city, without a pleasant Aveda fragrance.  That’s right, it doesn’t even soften, at least not for me — it only felt nice while my hair was still wet.  And the smell is just nothing to get excited over — toned down compared to their old signature Aveda scents, and much more generic.  (Again, probably a new marketing thing, i.e. alienating the original customer base in an attempt to gain mainstream popularity.  Sayonara, I say.)

Anyway, can you tell I’m bitter?  Aveda was once the kind of company that I’d be willing to move to friggin’ Minnesota to work for.  (And I don’t like the extreme cold, extreme heat, or extreme lack of ocean.)  Now it’s just another faceless corporate BS front, and it really does sadden me.  But in a nutshell: don’t bother with this new product, either!

*You know the worst part of this whole discontinuation of a rockstar product?  I was complaining about this with an Aveda employee who was also a big Curessence fan, and she told me privately that they only pulled the stuff because some dumb Aveda customers were ignoring the directions and using the protein-heavy Curessence weekly treatment as a daily conditioner, and — guess what — they got weighed down by buildup and then complained.  So a handful of idiots ruined it for the rest of us!  And Aveda, King Idiot, took their opinion more seriously than that of all its hardcore Curessence fans! SIGH…

I’ve been dabbling with the idea of getting a high-end hair straightener, because I keep hearing how gosh darned amazing they are.  But the combination of a high price tag and mixed reviews with reports of shoddy wiring has always made me shy away at the last minute.  And boy, am I glad I trusted my cheapskate instinct!

I just got a mini Conair straightener for $18.99, and it’s AWESOME.  To be precise, it’s not one of the newish travel straighteners, which I’ve seen ranging from $30 to $130.  It’s just a standard sized 3/4″ flat iron, which is tiny compared to my old 2″ one.

The smaller barrel makes it much, MUCH easier to style my bangs and the shorter framing layers around my face.  Now I just use the tiny one on days I’m touching up, and I use both on days I’m doing a full-out straightening — the 2″ for the bulk of my hair, and the 3/4″ for the shorter bits.  Totally worth it, and I wound up spending MUCH less than I would have for a high-end iron.

Plus, my old Conair 2″ is two years old and still going strong, and still gets to plenty hot temperatures.  Compare that with the many CHI reviews on Folica, claiming that the fuses burn out right *after* the warranty runs out, and… I call this a wise decision, indeed.  And even if this lil’ slugger does burn a fuse, I’m out less than $20.

Ages ago, I received a swap on Makeup Alley for an Ojon conditioner. I remember using the conditioner, adoring its rich sweet/spicy scent, and being absolutely amazed at how it left my hair. However, since I was a) reluctant to pay Ojon’s high prices and b) already committed to my Redken AllSoft duo, I never really pursued the Ojon thing further. (I left it as a wishlist item on Makeup Alley, but no dice.)

I finally caved and decided to order the trial-sized versions of their Ultra Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner with my last Sephora order. I could’ve sworn that the sample I tried ages ago was a brown-tan color, but this time around the conditioner was bright yellow. And I swear, it just doesn’t feel like the same product.

The same fabulous smell is there, but my locks are left kind of dry and unhappy with this stuff. And the shampoo is frustrating — it feels fairly drying and not all that moisturizing/frizz reducing, yet it has a really weak lather and I have to use it twice to even get my scalp clean after a mere two days of unwash. I even tried doubling this duo with Ojon serum and my standard L’Oréal leave-in conditioner (that’s meant for African-American hair, it’s so rich!) but it STILL left me feeling parched.

The verdict? No way am I spending Ojon-high dollars on haircare. Many a hairstylist has pooh-pooed my addiction to Redken AllSoft, but nothing has EVER made my hair look, feel or behave as well as that stuff. At some point, I hope I learn to just quit experimenting with other options… but until then, at least I’ve gotten smart enough to stick to the travel size options when I deviate, so I don’t go TOTALLY broke!

I was chatting with my hairstylist during my last cut, and she mentioned that she saw CHI hair straighteners on sale at Costco for around $70. Considering that they normally retail for about $200, my interest was piqued! So I got inspired and started poking around the Costco website, to see what sorts of beauty deals could be found.

In the past few years, it seems like Costco has tried to branch out into the high-end beauty market — they stock names like Kinerase, Lancôme, Shisedo , Stri-Vectin, Freeze 24*7, DDF, and Prevage, as well as some Costco-brand Kirkland exclusives by Borghese. I always knew they carried higher-end dental care, like Sonicare and some whitening systems, but I didn’t realize they’d also expanded into high-end skin and hair products.

I didn’t see any CHIs on Costco’s website, but I did see T3 and GHD straightening irons, which both look cheaper than retail (though still more expensive than I’d hoped). And I saw some other hair goodies I liked the look of, like an affordable 6-pack of microfiber hair towels, and giant bulk-priced vats of the much-praised Terax Crema conditioner.

I may have to take the plunge here — I’ve always wanted to try microfiber towels for their alleged faster drying time, but I figured I’d want several and I never wanted to splurge for a bunch of them at $30 a pop. But $15 for six — now THAT I can get behind! And while I’m not about to try Terax Crema for the first time by grabbing a Costco-sized pump bottle, I’ll definitely keep it in mind once I try out a sample someday.

I guess I always breeze through the beauty section of Costco after I grab my obligatory 24-pack of razor blade refills. I always assumed they only carried cheaper drugstore lines, but now I see that they’ve upped the ante a bit. I may have to extend my Costco shopping time in order to take in some of the affordable beauty treats! Now if only they had Clarisonics…

Makeup Alley is a skincare and makeup discussion board similar to the Essential Day Spa Forum, but because I discovered MUA second, I’ve never really participated in their forums.

However, they have a couple of fabulous features that EDS does not — namely, a wishlist function, and a swap function. These two work in conjunction with each other — you place items you’re yearning to try (or just stock up on) on your wishlist, and you also post items you’re happy to get rid of on your swap list. People take a look at your swap list, and offer to trade you for stuff they want and you don’t. And you can search other people’s swap lists for items on your wish list, and try and get them to trade.

Sure, the system has some flaws — many members have complained of “swap-lifters” who receive but never send, and you never know if the item you receive will be in the condition described. But there’s a pretty good system in place for rating users and giving feedback, kind of like eBay. And so far I’ve only had experiences ranging from medium to great — never overtly bad.

A couple times now, I’ve gotten ahold of items I was dying to try, but didn’t want to shell out money for. And my main goal was to pare down my excess surplus of beauty goods, which I’ve definitely been able to do. I’m still getting rid of things all the time, and the shipping cost is usually pretty nominal.

Swaps have been great for me, and I just wish I weren’t so insanely picky — but since certain ingredients always send my skin haywire, I’m fairly conservative about what I’ll swap for. A couple times I’ve just sent users items of mine without asking for anything in exchange, just to put some good swap vibes out there and to see products I never use go to a good home. When you’re as invested in products as I am, it’s nice to see them appreciated!

You do have to create an account to use Makeup Alley for these purposes, but accounts are free and totally private. Nothing but pluses in my book!