My Favourite Hair Products by VERB

I have 2b curls and my hair has a tendency to knot and mat very easily. I need hair products that will keep my curls hydrated and looking great. Gels can be tricky for styling because they tend to make the hair "crunchy" and weigh it down. Once I found these products from VERB, I have been very happy with styling my hair!

• Sea Texture Cream 
• Sea Spray
• Leave-In Mist 

Not pictured, but I also need to give a quick shoutout to Ghost Oil and both the Hydrating and Sea shampoos and conditioners. I'm basically ready to give them all my money. 

After I shampoo, I like to apply the mist directly into my hands and run it through my hair. The nozzle isn't the best in the world and I can control the product a lot easier this way. It makes my hair smooth and a bit easier to comb through while wet. Then I apply some of the texture cream through the lengths of my hair and blow dry with a diffuser. When I'm done with that, I use a bit of Ghost Oil to tame all small frizzies or fly-aways that remain and then I scrunch some of the sea spray onto my curls. The cream leaves my hair very soft and the curls aren't as defined as I like, so I find using the spray and cream together leaves me with the perfect combination of softness and definition! 

These are my "day 2" curls. I spent the day before at a music festival on the lake, but it still looks really good!

What are your favourite hair products? 

chchchchch changes

This was actually a complete accident, and not mine. I went to my salon to get her to match my roots a.k.a. colour me, like, at the most two shades darker than my VERY light blonde/yellow hair. Dirty blonde, caramel, something. It turned out almost black! So now I am just going to have the opposite problem, dark hair with light roots..
Everyone else likes it, and I hate complaining at stores and stuff, so I'm living with it. Some days I like it, but mostly I feel insecure. I don't think it suits me at all.

Worst hair mistakes you've ever made/had at a salon?

Avon's version of a hair product we all love

Avon's taken a stab at their own version of the ever-popular oil products for your hair. It's less than $15 and I have to admit, I am in love with it. I have used Moroccanoil (the brand of moroccan oil) and EVA's Keravis/Argan oil before, both which I really like. I have only been using this one for a couple days, but my hair looks and feels amazing. That's saying something, considering the first time I used it I accidentally poured A LOT into my hand and didn't want to waste it. I was so afraid my hair would be weighed down and greasy, but even when I used excess, it didn't do either of those things! 

I don't know much about what ingredients are good/better or what to look out for, but here's the list if anyone is curious. 

The packaging of this product is a bit different from some of Avon's others. This is my bottle of Dry Ends Serum, which is the same amount of product (60mL), but it has a slightly shorter bottle. The DES bottle is hard plastic, whereas the new oil is glass and quite a bit heavier.

My hair is a lovely mix of pink, yellow, white, and orange right now. I call it blonde, but whatever. Some days I am like, I love blonde! I look best blonde. I will stay this way for a long time. Then I see a picture with my pink hair and I want to dump my head into a bucket of Atomic Pink and never turn back. 

Anyways, see how shiny and soft it looks! :o)

I would definitely recommend Avon's Moroccan Argan oil product to a friend. It's an affordable alteranative to more expensive salon products. 

New, you're so new

I have changed my hair.. again. ;')

I liked the copper colour, but it was getting patchy in spots. Blonde, orange, and pink.. it was weird! I'm a little sad to see it go, but not nearly as sad as when I lost all my pink. My good old salon friends managed to lift A LOT of that orange out of my hair, all in one step! I got to wear an attractive (and uncomfortable) cap on my head with bits of hair poking out in all directions all afternoon. I haven't gotten a trim or toned it yet, but I'm working on getting back to blonde! Hooray!

I'm sitting at the moment with a hot towel around my head, my new blonde locks saturated in cholesterol cream. I have looked for it for the past couple years with no luck, until the other day I stepped into a Zellers that was closing and found it no problem! It's a thick cream meant to be used like a deep conditioner, and while I'm not done rinsing it out, I can already feel how soft and smooth my hair is going to be.

If you have sad, dry hair, look for it!

Transforming

 I am the kind of gal that changes her hair very often. My dream has always been to have long, wavy, ginger tresses, but I get bored far too easily and my hair hasn't been that long for seven years. Here's a couple of things I've done this year (as I look back fondly and miss my pink hair - I'll try not to cry!)

I threw a box red over my pink (after getting a nice chop) for work. I wasn't certain if I would be able to keep the pink, so I was responsible and grown up and went for something safer. It's more ginger in natural light, but it was pretty bright orange at first. Turns out they didn't care about the pink, so it's VERY likely it will be making a comeback later in the summer, after I baby my hair a bit more.

Do you change your hair a lot? Have you ever done anything really crazy?

A Post Where I Talk About Nothing

For some reason, I thought not having classes would give me more time to blog and whatnot. I honestly haven't even thought about it! I will yammer on briefly about what I've been up to, but sadly this isn't a "real post."

I have been job searching. I'll admit, it's probably tougher than usual because I have pink hair. One place has said they would hire me on as a student intern, they just have to wait for government approval. That's how a lot of student summer jobs work here; the government funds the pay for summer students for interns and camp counsellors and things like that. Most of those jobs don't start until June, so I should be hearing back any time now. I've been applying absolutely everywhere just in case, though. It's tiring.


I have had lots of time to relax. I am watching up on some television, reading, and drawing. My last investment before I have started budgeting the crap out of my life and everything I do was an Wacam Intuos4 tablet. I have literally spent hours this week drawing and painting with it. Ideally, I would like to make some sort of income with drawing or design. I enjoy doing it, it's hardly like work. I'm designing a logo for my boyfriend's solo music/DJing at the moment, so I'm keeping busy.

I ordered new glasses (I'm sure you've all heard of Warby Parker.. if not, look into it. Quality and super inexpensive). Then I got a Pinterest and spent an evening looking at vintage style clothing and hairstyles and got inspired to cut my hair short. I am still unsure whether or not I like it. I certainly don't love it, but I wonder if it's the colour. I love pink hair and I never want to change it, but I feel like the bob-type thing I have going on would look better blonde. Maybe this is crazy and not really a thing, but some days I feel like this hairstyle just isn't photogenic. Haha.



There has also been a lot of lusting over games and wishing I could afford a new computer right now. I want Diablo III and Guild Wars 2 and I only have a Macbook Pro. I foresee an update to PC in the near future when I get some money.

So that's been my summer break thus far, and a post completely void of cosmetics. Awesome.

sarah pie

I'm supposed to work and be grown up and all this stuff, but I decided to follow my dreams and be who I wanted to be and look how I wanted to look. So after one bleach, a head full of Special Effects Atomic Pink and a couple of good, patient friends, I have my dream hair.

 

 

Best decision of life. No regrets. 

caution

I promise I'm not dead.

I haven't had much to say and I haven't been doing a whole lot new with myself beauty-wise, but I wanted to share a couple quick things! I finally got myself a black shatter/crackle polish - I ordered it from Avon ($3.99 in C7-9) with a new, bright blue (Blue Escape), but that one was backordered. I envisioned the blue under the black and was really excited for that to be the first thing I tried it with, but that didn't work out. I first tried it out over China Glaze Ahoy!, which I unfortunately didn't snap any pictures of. I personally think bright/light colours look best under the black for the contrast, because Ahoy! was a little too deep of a pink for the cracks to really be noticeable. Keeping that in mind, I decided to try this:

Avon Sunshine, Revlon Guava, and Avon Mosaic Top Coat in black. Neon love! The yellow and black reminds me of caution tape. My other hand has no Quava, just all Sunshine.

The next thing I wanted to say was I decided to whip up a hair mask in the middle of the night last night when I couldn't sleep. I spent a while Googling and seeing what others like and decided to go with this recipe:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon mayo
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey 

I slapped it on, wrapped a plastic bag around my head, and rinsed off in cold water after about 30 minutes. I went to bed with my hair wet and I didn't put any mousse in it, so it was a bit of a disaster this morning.. but so soft and shiny! I want to try some other things that have been suggested around the blogosphere.. has anyone else ever made their own hair mask? Tell me what you did! 

a successful shopping trip

Yesterday I was surprised with an invitation to go shopping with my future mother and sister in law. We went to a little boutique in Paris, ON called Suzanne's of Paris. I'll admit that when I walked in, I didn't think I would buy anything or even like the store. It's kind of.. well, old, for me. The clothing is just not really something I could imagine too many young people wearing. Some dresses and boots were nice, but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. What I think they had going for them was their selection of scarves and bags. Seriously, I should have taken a picture of this wall of scarves. I had the hardest time deciding. Anyways, I went with a red/leopard pattern one. It's sort of slinky and light. They had the same pattern in a bunch of different colours and I almost bought a black/grey one, but I've been a bit obsessed with red lately.  I apologize for the awkward photo.

The next thing I saw that I knew I couldn't leave with was this little leather purse. It was right beside a black one with grey trim and a forest green one with dark grey trim. It has a zipper section on the back and the inside has a pocket which will likely fit a cellphone. The strap is also removable, so it can be used a clutch!

My only complaint now is that the strap looks adjustable, but it only makes the whole thing go smaller. There is a bit of leather stitched around the metal slider that doesn't allow it to slide any further. I prefer long straps so I can wear bags off the side (especially small ones like this), but I'll have to make do with it being a tad short. 

Virginia bought a tan one with dark trim and I saw a red one with black trim on my way to pay.. but I didn't want to have a red meltdown (my winter coat is red)! I'll probably use this in the spring and summer, anyways.

The rest of our trip wasn't too exciting.. I hit Walmart and Winners in the mall because I wanted to buy some beauty products:

♥ E.V.A. Unbreakable Hair Oil Therapy ($15)
♥ Sally Hansen Gem Crush Nail Polish, Big Money & Razzle Dazzler ($6 each)
♥ Revlon Nail Polish, Radiant/Blue Mosaic ($5)
♥ Vitamin C (?) Anti-aging Day Cream ($9)
♥ China Glaze No-Chip Top Coat ($7)
♥ Avon Super Extend Extreme Mascara (free, gift)

I don't know anything about what is supposed to be in these popular oils that people have been using lately, because Virginia warned me against other stuff being added. She said this one looked pretty good, so I trust that. I included ingredients in case someone else sees something I don't know about. I've just used it once, so more on this as I use it more. 

Again, included ingredients because I'm not certain what's good and what isn't. It sounded good enough with the sea salt and different fruits and shea butter. I can never decided what to buy with moisturizers.


I put Big Money (the gold one) on my fingers and Radiant (blue) on my toes. Two coats for each, though Radiant could have used a third. I love both of them and I'm guessing Razzle Dazzler is going to be the same. ♥


Then when I was home, my mom gifted me the new Avon mascara. It's supposed to have some special magnetic fiber formula that I don't really know the details of or really care about because I hate this mascara. It's very rare that I don't like a mascara, but this one is just so weird. The brush is very wide and plastic and looks like a weird comb. It's so big that I found it awkward to use on my lashes. I made a mess under my eye trying to coat my lashes the first time. The comb thing is so hard and plasticy that it almost seems to catch when you're trying to pull it out of the tube, resulting in this crunchy suction noise.  I did just two coats and it was clumpy. There was no separation of my lashes at all. The photo ended up making my lashes look better than they actually did.. but don't be fooled! 

I don't know if I'll use it up anyways or toss it. I might give it another chance, but I definitely prefer the Maybelline Illegal Lengths I've been using.

a sad story

I never posted about anything I got for Christmas, really, but I did get a CHI flat iron. The only reason you're hearing about it now is because it broke. I guess it happens to a lot of CHI owners; they're just not very well made and they will stop heating up pretty much anytime they want. It was a gift, though, and I was really disappointed because I babied the darn thing. I even travelled with it in bubble wrap and the original box. Also, I hardly used it. I think I straightened all of my hair twice and then used it a couple of other odd times in the > 2 months I had it. It worked so well when it was working properly! I haven't had a nice flat iron in my entire life, and there it was .. and its life was so short. We're sending it in for replacement/repair, but the person who gave it to me didn't want me to go a long time without one, so I was given a KQC Turbo 2 instead.

I'm not 100% about the price because it was a gift, but this site has them for $180. I am not positive, but from what I've seen, the price is similar to the CHI. The difference with the KQC is that it comes with more than just a flat iron - there is a little carrying/storing pouch, a stand/holder (like the ones you see in salons!) and a bottle of KQC Shine Spray. I love it when you buy things and it comes with extra gifts! I used the Shine Spray and I really liked it. It's in an aerosol can and I sort of couldn't tell how much was coming out or if I was getting it where I wanted it on my hair, but the product itself is good. I would compare it to the Mark Salon Straight Shine Spray, except I like the bottle on that one better.

From the site linked to above:

Features

• Professional Styling Iron with Ceramic TOURMALINE technology, plate width 1''
• Produces a dark red color when it reaches the maximum temperature in less than 30 seconds
• Ultra powerful Korean Ceramic Heaters that provides precise and stable temperatures
• Tourmaline ceramic plates and multi-layer ceramic heating elements
• X-Heat generates negative ions to retain hair moisture and reduce frizz
• Far-infrared heat styles faster and softens hair
• Heats up in seconds
• Variable heat settings from 140 to 450 F
• Ergonomic design to straighten, flip or curl hair with a twist of the wrist
• For all hair types
• Creates a shiny, smooth finish
• Professional 360 degree swivel cord to prevent tangling
• AC 110V 60Hz for use in USA/Canada
• One year limited warranty

I've only used it once, but I liked the results.  I thought about doing a video (I'm turning into a real blogger now, wow) but I only would if someone seemed interested.

PS Four years and eight months today for Patrick and I! Five years is coming up fast. :)

new things

I was getting picked up this weekend instead of driving myself, so I was in a hurry packing and forgot my shampoo and conditioner. It was about time I bought something new, anyways, so I popped out to Shoppers and ended up with the L'oreal Elvive Nutri-Shimmer shampoo and conditioner. I then (of course) slid over to look at polish and came out with Essie's Miami Nice. This is my first ever Essie polish, and I am so happy with my colour choice. I never want to take it off!

I didn't bring my camera, either, so these are just quick Photobooth photos. I couldn't wait to share my excitement about Miami Nice!

P.S. I'm also pretty excited about my new hoodie - Doctor Who/Scott Pilgrim cross-over <3

This second photo is a pretty accurate representation of the colour in the bottle, I think. It's a deep, hot pink with cool shine. It almost looks blue and purple in some light. I have had Zoya's Kiki in my mind when I was picking out a colour. I love Kiki so much, but it doesn't sell in stores where I live and the site doesn't ship outside of the states. I know this is not really close to Kiki, but it still made me really happy. I'm obsessed with pink. I think the fact that the shampoo bottles are pink contributed to my purchasing them. ;)

I liked the shampoo and conditioner together today when I washed my hair. It has a nice scent and hasn't made my hair feel heavy or greasy at all, though it's only the first day I've used it. I was surprised it was so expensive ($12 per bottle!), but they were on sale for $7 each. I've used the L'oreal Elvive Re-Nutrition Hair Mask before (same range of hair products, there are different ones for different types of hair/problems) and I really liked it. I think L'oreal hair products are worth looking into if you're looking for something to try out!

Do you ever buy things strictly because you like the style or colour of the packaging?

Lip Butter - Cupcake

This is just a brief post.. I've been a little busy with Christmas stuff! Good, but busy.

I really wanted to buy another Revlon lip butter.. but every time I saw them after the first one I bought, they were either sold out of the colours I was interested in or WAY overpriced! Everywhere I saw them wanted $11-12 for one, I couldn't believe it! The first one I bought at Walmart was $7.49. The cheapest I found them with Cupcake available was $9.99, so I settled and grabbed it. I like this colour way more than I like Candy Apple, and I really like Candy Apple. I am really surprised and a little proud of myself for picking out colours that seem to suit me pretty well. I really liked Cupcake at first based on the fact that it's pink and I really wanted a bright pink (so many MAC lipsticks I want and need now that I've seen I can pull something like this off). I was a little afraid it would look bad on me, but you've probably come to undersand in this past little paragraph .. I. LIKE. IT. A LOT.

I'm just really happy with the colour and formula again. This one's a little less staining than Candy Apple and doesn't last as long, but that's my judgment for wearing it the night and kind of snacking and drinking.

I would really like more pink lipsticks, what would you recommend? MAC Snob looks similar to this (at least to me), and I've had my eye on it for a while now.

PS. I am thinking about ginger-afying my hair. I've been numerous shades of red in the past, but blonde is usually my staple, "go-to" colour. I've grabbed a box of Feria #74 Copper Shimmer and I'm on the fence about it, just because I usually spend a lot of money trying to go back blonde once I've had my fun. The problem with blonde for me is that nowhere will listen and bring me back to my natural, "strawberry blonde." I do like it lighter, and so do people in salons.. they're all about getting me as blonde as possible. It doesn't matter how light I go or if I tone or anything, the natural red in my hair comes through eventually. I figure I could throw a nice orange/red over it and when it fades, it'll look more natural.

(one time that I had a red I really liked) ^

Decisions, decisions..

brief

I'm not at school and don't currently have my camera, but I had a ton of mail when I came to visit my mum.. so I have nice, new things. :) NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Stockholm and the Kat Von D Angeles palette.

Proper pictures will be coming, but I did my hair today and felt pretty.. so, yeah!

eta: I have used Stockholm all day, and I am IN LOVE with the product and colour, but I wish I had chosen something brighter. Stockholm almost matches my natural lip colour exactly. It's my perfect nude and it looks great, but it's not really a "colour" to me. Sometimes through the day I felt like the point of lipstick and lip gloss is to have a pretty colour visible. Oh, well. I wish I could find them in a store somewhere so I don't have to pay more for shipping than I pay for the actual thing. 

I just wanted to let the world know that I am alive. I am on my fall semester reading week, so I've been a little busy doing homework, but part of it is because our internet dun goofed recently. It just got fixed today.

I might do some shopping online tonight. I still really want to buy that Kat Von D palette from Sephora.

I had a good hair day today. The end.

a better day

I was having a crummy day, so I decided to get a haircut. I found a nice salon in town so I don't have to wait to go home and go to my regular salon. It was a little expensive for a wash and cut and blow dry, but I'm happy. It instantly changed my mood and made me feel a lot more confident in myself.. funny how hair does that. When my hair looks bad, I'm so insecure and miserable. I hope I'm not the only one!

Hello! I just wanted to quickly update and share my new hair. I've been craving pink since last summer and had a brief love afair with pink tips last fall when I first left for college. Since then, I've been every colour you can imagine. Blonde is ME, but it gets boring. I'm pretty happy with the results, except the boy doesn't understand why it's only on one side..