Today’s combo is giovanni TTT cowash, ytc rinseout, a dime’s worth of sheam, and a puddleof biotera mixed with a pinky’s worth of sallys spike it on each side. I’ve already scrunched out the crunch with GF shine wax and it’s looking…decent. Nothing spectacular. The waves are wavier than usual, but it’s stringier than usual, too.
I attribute the stringy waves to biotera gel. Yesterday, I was in a rush to head ou with my SO to one of his proposed school sites, so I sprayed in a ton ofOyin’s Greg juice leave-in and topped it off with biotera mixed with spike it. I was pleasantly surprised by the soft waves, lack of much frizz, and faster drying time. I wasn’t impressed by the stringy waves, though.
I’m not experimenting much with new products per se; rather, I’m trying to find ways to use up some of the duplicate products I have: biotera gel, mop top gel, sheam, and sally’s spike it (I have the real biolage rock hard gel)
I recently finished GoW’s skin-friendly cleanser so I grabbed the lemony-mint creamy cleanser sample to try. It was a pretty warm day in Rancho and I just got back from a workout so the cooling tingle from the peppermint was welcome. In terms of consistency, it’s not really thick; it’s more like a runny lotion. Scent-wise it combines my two favorite cleaning scents: lemon and peppermint (duh!). I looked up the properties of lemon and peppermint essential oil to discover the benefits of each and found the following promising information:
Lemon: This clean smelling citrus essential oil is not only good for helping you make decisions and to improve your concentration, but cuts down on acidity in the body – thereby assisting the digestion, as well as with rheumatism, arthritis and gout, while also sorting out cellulite, abscesses, boils, carbuncles and acne. The therapeutic properties of lemon oil are anti-anemic, antimicrobial, anti-rheumatic, anti-sclerotic, antiseptic, bactericidal, carminative, cicatrisant, depurative, diaphoretic, diuretic, febrifuge, haemostatic, hypotensive, insecticidal, rubefacient, tonic and vermifuge. It is also used for clearing acne, cleaning greasy skin and hair, as well as removing dead skin cells, easing painful cold sores, mouth ulcers, herpes and insect bites.
Peppermint: This cooling and refreshing essential oil is used in aromatherapy to stimulate the mind, increase mental agility and to increase focus, while cooling the skin, reducing redness and calming irritation and itchiness. It furthermore helps to ease spastic colon, migraine, headaches, sinus and chest congestion and boosts the digestive system. The therapeutic properties of peppermint oil are analgesic, anesthetic, antiseptic, antigalactagogue, antiphlogistic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, cephalic, cholagogue, cordial, decongestant, emmenagogue, expectorant, febrifuge, hepatic, nervine, stimulant, stomachic, sudorific, vasoconstrictor and vermifuge. On the skin, peppermint oil is used to relieve skin irritation and itchiness and also helps to reduce skin redness, where inflammation is present. It is used for dermatitis, acne, ringworm, scabies and pruritus and also relieves itching, sunburn and inflammation of the skin, while at the same time having a cooling action.
I’ll be using this sample until it runs out, but I already have a feeling that once again, Markey’s created another winner in my book!
GDLI and I seem to have a semi-like (not love!!)/hate relationship. It’s nice that the consistency is thinner than my beloved sheam, but I also don’t like that it’s not as viscous as the zerran equalizer leave in. I rub leave in between my hands and then smooth it over my hair; with GDLI, it tends to accumulate near the end of my palm or in between my fingers rather than spreading itself out across my palms. The last couple of times I’ve used GDLI, it was a crapshoot trying to figure out how much to use. Either I didn’t use enough and my hair was frizzy and puffy as a result or I used too much and my hair looked stringy, limp, and oily. Today, however, I may have found the correct application method and amount. My hair felt a bit sticky and producty so I cowashed with Freeman sea kelp, rinsed out ytc, squeezed out excess water, and the smoothed in a nickel’s worth of GDLI. I smoothed in my beloved generic KY jelly, combed and finger combed, then biolage creme gel had its turn; I applied 3 pumps mixed with a pea’s worth of sally’s spike it on both sides, flipped over and scrunched the remaining water-hands first then flour sack.
In the shower, I wasn’t too impressed with the lack of clumping. My waves looked stringy and actually felt a bit rough. After plopping, however, the waves looked a bit better and after diffusing pixiecurl style, my hair looked promising. A good thing because I’ve got my first public meeting for one of my LAUSD school sites! I know, not the greatest time to experiment.
It’s now five hours after styling my hair and I scrunched the crunch with the GF wax. I do think that squeezing out the excess speeds up the drying process. My hair is nice and wavy with hardly any frizz, but it doesn’t look as voluminous and boosted as yesterday’s hair. I’ll give an update later on if I get the chance.
ETA: Nine hours later and my waves are falling with an increase in frizz. Poo on you GDLI!
I’ve come to the the conclusion that using the Freeman sea kelp conditioner daily exacerbated the seborrheic dermatitis on the back of my scalp. I’ve been alternating with my SO’s conditioning dud, Giovanni TTT conditioner. Since he prefers the amazing conditioning capability of the ever-so expensive VO5, I’ve taken it upon myself to help him use up the Giovanni. Yes, my SO is simple guy who prefers the no-frills stuff. I love him.
This morning I cowashed with the Giovanni, rinsed out YTC, and (as an experiment) squeezed out water and applied a dime sized blob of Sheam mixed with a quarter’s worth of generic KY jelly. I combed it in, ran my finger through and scrunched in three pumps of biolage creme gel mixed with another dime’s worth of sally’s spike it. I was a bit wary with the whole scrunching out the water deal, but since some curlies on NC.com have been getting pretty good results using this method for KCKT & KCCC, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. I must admit that I really wasn’t feeling it when scrunching in the gel. My hair felt a little dry and looked stringy. I guess I’m just used to all the water coming out of my hair after scrunching my dripping wet hair. I will say that it took much less time to diffuse. I don’t know if it’s the knock-off BRHG or the fact that my hair had less water, so I’ll have to test using the scientific method. In any case, my hair dried faster and seemed to look wavier.
It’s now 4 hours later and I just scrunched the crunch with the GF water-based shine wax. I am pleased to report that the stringy, crunchy waves turned into soft, frizz-free, bouncy waves with a good amount of volume, shine, and clumpiness. I did experience good clumping with the biolage creme gel and sheam combo before so I definitely need to make a note of that.
ETA: I am thoroughly impressed! Even my SO said that my hair looked curlier than normal. Take a gander. Note, photos were taken around 630ish pm…about 14 hours after my hair was styled. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Loose, chunky waves that almost look slightly Farah Fawcett-ish.
I don’t know how I feel about this gel. On the NC.com board, there is a quite a thread about it. I’ve used it about 5 times already; a couple times on its own and others mixed with a harder holding gel, and I’m still rather ambivalent about it. It’s a runny gel with a nice, floral biolage-ish scent. However, for it being runny, it doesn’t have much hold on it’s own and it seems to flatten my waves…but it does make my hair feel soft. I have a bottle of biolage gelee and find that it is comparable. I’ll be trying this gel out a bit more, but I’m not really feeling the love with this one.
On another note, I freaking love Target brand KY jelly. I used it yesterday along with SheaM and sallys spike it as a humidity proof combo; I was in San Diego for my first Comic-Con (very fun by the way) and needed to make sure my hair wasn’t going to freak out on me. Not only was my hair frizz free, but my waves held up the entire day! Even my SO noticed that I was having a good hair day.
The past few weeks we’ve had some pretty weird humidity. Actually, just humidity itself in general. For it being the Inland Empire in the summer, it’s really quite odd. Not only did I experience humidity out in Rancho Cucamonga, but also in LA. I was at my parents’ house this weekend for my older sister’s baby shower and even in Eagle Rock (between Pasadena and Glendale), it was ridiculously humid!!! (Ok, not Hawaii or tropical style humidity, but enough to warrant a “WTH is up with the weather?!?!?” response). My other sister and a friend and I were setting up for the shower at 10 am and it was muggy and overcast. Thirty minutes later the sun was out but there was still that muggy feeling. I hung a couple of decorations underneath the canopy and I was already sweating! It was unfortunate that I was already dressed and had my hair ready for the party. By the time people showed up, I was at the point where I was constantly tossing my hair off my back because it was sticking.
I’m having a tough time finding the right products to use with this odd weather. I’ve been experimenting with a couple gels and experiencing mediocre hair. This past weekend I brought along my LUSH big tease gel which hasn’t gotten me down yet; unfortunately, the humidity made my hair all damp and reactivated it so touching my hair in any way resulted in slightly sticky hands.
Yesterday I tried out Biolage bodifying creme gel. Unfortunately I can’t find the ingredients list online but I’m pretty sure it’s CG. I read the ingredients list on all products I purchase and stay away from as many ‘cones as I can. I don’t shy away from dimethicone or cyclomethicone since I’m modified CG, but I do stay away from cyclopentasiloxane and try to limit my ‘cone use. The consistency is more gel-like than a creme. It’s a little bit like a thicker runny gel. Imagine LOOB but a runny version. I used about three pumps on each side over a quarter’s worth of KY jelly. I scrunched in 2 nickel’s worth of MopTop over it and plopped. First off, let me say that the zigazaga method has been failing me a bit. Rather than getting the clumps I’ve gotten used to, the clumps are stringier than usual. I don’t know if my hair is crying out for a DT (I haven’t done one in a while) or if it’s just rebelling because of the weird weather. Either way, I wasn’t anticipating any Wow! when my hair dried so I was quite surprised to see voluminous, soft, clumpy, albeit somewhat frizzy, waves.
To determine whether or not it was some freakish half blessing from the hair gods, I used the biolage again 
today. I used SheaM underneath and squeezed out some water, applied 3 pumps of biolage in addition to a pea’s worth of spike it on each side, plopped, and diffused. I still had the wet stringy waves, but now, after scrunching out the crunch with GF brilliantine shine water-based shine wax (a thanks to Shellynot for that one!) my hair is voluminous, clumpy, and wavy with some ringlets! The frizz factor is higher today and I’m thinking it’s because the SheaM wasn’t distributed well enough. Then again, the dewpoint is 61 and humidity is 78%. I will update later on in the day to report on how it held up.
Yes, it’s a bit pricey at $22 for 4.5 oz but the color match is perfect! Application is a breeze since it’s a lotion and I didn’t experience the streaking/patchiness I had with the other three lotion STs when applying it. The scent is reminiscent of the Jergen’s cherry almond lotion and the color guide isn’t horrendously muddy like the Fake Bake and St Tropez. I was actually a bit apprehensive because the color guide wasn’t so dark; I was afraid that I wasn’t applying enough. Because my skin with the color guide wasn’t the color of the box above, it was a bit tough to tell where I had applied it. It blended well into my natural skin color but with just the slightest greenish tinge. I was ready to just write it off and deal with St. Tropez, my second choice.
When I woke up today, there was a noticeable difference. My skin looked golden and wonderfully evenly tanned. I chalked it up to the color guide ( a la my Fake Bake experience) and hopped into the shower. Compared to St. Tropez and Fake Bake, rivers of color guide did not wash off. There were some light brownish/greenish rivulets running towards the drain, but that was it. I even smoothed my hands over my legs to ensure that all the guide was rinsed off.
When I compared my arms to my legs, the color is almost spot on. There is a bit of a ST glow to my legs, but not to the point where you’d think I was a mannequin with snap-on legs.
Finally, finally, I get to return the ST misses to Ulta and get my money back….and pick up another bottle of Faux Tan!
On another note, I think the scent of the Oyin Burnt Sugar pomade is getting to me. I use it to scrunch out the crunch but the heady vanilla scent is attacking my olfactory senses. I don’t think it’s even that it’s summer and scents are more noticeable, it’s just…..a bit funky.
