Beauty Hits & Misses

Fake Bake has a very deep chocolate color. It’s a little scary at first, but upon application, even just the color guide looked really good; a nice burnt brown just a tad darker than how my skin looks naturally tanned. The application is a breeze. I much prefer lotions, gels, or even mousses over sprays; it gives me much more control over where I apply it.

I don’t know if I didn’t exfoliate as well as I should have, or if the lotion I applied to my knees and ankles had some weird reaction with the Fake Bake, but there was some odd streaking/glopping when I was massaging the ST onto my legs. I’m leaning more towards a lotion/ST reaction because I always use an exfoliating washcloth much like this everyday:

I’ll have to wait til tomorrow morning to see how it looks without the color guide, but I’m really hoping this one works out. If the color guide is any indication of what the end result will look like, this might be a runner up to SB.

ETA June 30th: It’s true what they’ve mentioned on MUA.com about most of the color washing off in the shower. I’ve never seen a ST come off that much in the shower. Unfortunately, most of the pretty tan brown color came away, too. I’m left with a color that is slightly more golden/orange than my natural tan. (I compare the quality of a ST to my tanned arms). The coloring is much better than the SUN Labs and Sephora, however.

It’s the last Sunday of the month so I pulled out my suave clarifying shampoo and went to town. I used my Sally’s generic value Aussie 3 MM as a rinseout. I’m not sure how I feel about it. My hair is soft, yes, and the grape kool-aid scent isn’t too bad but there is frizz.

Ingredients: water, cetrimonium chloride, cetyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate, peg 12 distearate, foenculum vulgare fruit extract (fennel), humulus lupulus extract (hops), melissa officinalis leaf extract (balm mint extract), achillea millefolium extract (yarrow extract), hydrolyzed casein, avena sativa kernel flour (oat), simmondsia chinensis seed oil (jojoba), chamomilla recuita flower extract (matricaria), yeast extract, helianthus annuus seed oil (sunflower), aloe barbadensis flower extract, carthamus tinctorius seed oil (safflower), simethicone, stearyl alcohol, lechitin, sorbitol, glycerin, glycol stearate, acetamide mea, cetrimonium bromide, sodium lauriminodipropionate, fragrance, dicetyldimonium chloride, stearalkonium chloride, phosphoric acid, propylene glycol, methylparaben, propylparaben, tetrasodium edta, dmdm hydantoin, yellow 6.

I’m not sure if the casein and the oat flour are the ones causing the frizz. If so, then dang my hair is sensitive to proteins! I figured that since the two proteins are further down the list and they’re surrounded by humectants, oils, and such that it wouldn’t affect my hait so much, but I’m not entirely sure. Granted, it could be caused by the sulfate shampoo, but I guess I’ll have to wait til the end of July to find out the culprit.

I read Jillipoo’s blog entry on AVG so I decided to give it a shot since it was a stay at home day. My hair does feel softer and waves seemed to materialize out of the woodwork. Maybe it was buildup or a lack of moisture, I don’t know. I will definitely try AVG tomorrow.

Zigazaga’s method is growing on me. I don’t have the patience to try sectioning off the hair and combing the undercanopy then the canopy, however. Maybe I’ll try it out on the day I work from home. The only lingering complaint is that my waves seemed pulled out. I’m still getting used to all the layers again and the shorter hair, so the next couple of months (especially it being my first CG summer) will be just trial and error.