FOLLICLES

The Hair Meets Elnett Styling Spray; Happiness Ensues

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Three new products from Elnett are available for your follicular pleasure: Heat Protect Styling Sprays for three-day Volume, Curl or Straight coiffures.

I went for Volume on the roots and Curl on the ends:

L’Oréal Paris spokewoman/model/boldface name Cheryl Cole and I are like *that*.

This very impressive blow dry was done by Sinead from Foundation Hair Salon. No tongs were used in the creation of this hairdo. The sprays protect the hair from heating tools up to 230°, so no more fried tresses of a Saturday night.

This morning, with very little intervention. Combed out and spritzed the Volume on the roots!

Due to the fineness of my hair, I am not entirely convinced that I’ll get another day out of this, but we shall see.

Pictures of the very fancy spray bottles can be found here, as well as more pretty pictures of my pal Cheryl. Price point is in the area of €8, and I asked how many hairdos you might expect to get in a bottle, and I’ve forgotten the answer. Four months worth, I think? I bet that’s reasonable. {Updates to come on all that — couldn’t wait to post!}

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Elnett Heat Protecting Styling Sprays are available everywhere, basically.

Oh! And the lippy in the last photo is one of the new Clinique Chubbies in Mightiest Maraschino. It is a lightweight in texture only — I already adore it.

Q: Why is This Woman Grinning Like an Eeeejit? A: HD Brows.

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HD Brows are the best thing ever, ever, ever.

Ever. Seriously, it’s like the rest of the face can just chill out, because the brows are doing all the work.

I just got them seen ta yesterday at Carter Beauty in Blackrock, and the world of difference it makes!

If you haven’t seen the before-and-after gallery on their site, go have a look.

Evidence: compelling.

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What else have I got going on?

> The Hair: Dermalogica Shine Therapy Shampoo & Silk Finish Conditioner {€22.20/28.65} with a few squirts of L’Oréal Mythic Oil Milk {€19.99}

> Foundation Le Teint Touche Éclat from Lancôme {€38}. I think I got too light a shade, maybe? Can’t tell from the seriously warm photo. I’m not sure this is right for me. I have to give this another go, and see.

> 10 Bronzer {€34} from Benefit because of the above.

> Clinique High Impact Extreme Volume Mascara {€21}

> NYC HD Color Quattro Eye Shadow in Queens Boulevard {€3.49}. I didn’t use the full quattro, only a duo; the palette is nicely purple-y.

> Dr Hauschka Lipstick Novum in Slow Mood {16.50}, because I was going for a neutral lip. I’m thinking it is only okay, and was sorry that I hadn’t remembered this new Lacura Beauty lippy I’m liking at the moment, from Aldi, in 419. It’s a smoky purple-y grey, and the other day? I ate an apple, and it didn’t wear off. !

Hey, that’s one pricey face…

Four out of Five Senses: Lush Shine So Bright

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How weird is this?!? I got some samples of the Lush’s new hair care line in the post today {that’s not the weird bit} and it occured to me, Hey, I haven’t done one of those Snap! Judgement columns in a while, and I thought I might do one, just on the two bits I got today. Then I opened the wee tin of Shine So Bright, and thought — we are almost there, hang on — This smells amazing! I should do that thing with the four out of five senses!

Which was a million years ago, and I had forgotten what I called it, so I searched the site and whoa! The first and only time I’d done it, it was for a Lush product!

It is totally weird!

Or not, as scent is the sense that Lush leads with. Insert comment about walking by one of their shops here: ______________. So, maybe not as weird as I think, and not so weird when you consider that it was my own thinking down my own neural pathways. If you had come up with this idea, that would have been completely weird!

Right, so.

Looks like a little lip balm, or one of the solid fragrances they do. I always find these hard going, at least until you get the first dig into it.

Yeah, definitely looks like a balm. Okay! This will be a balm for the ends of my hair!

I gave it a sniff, which unfortch: no pictures. It smells lovvvvvely, and reminiscent {<ha, ha} of a product from a different brand that I love, love, love, and I should probs not say? This smells fresh, and clean, and floral, but not so flowery that you reek of meadow. The ingredient list is big on oils, of the coconut and of the olive, but I think it is the orange flower absolute that is making me sigh and go all wistful.

It feels grand. It actually scrapes up easily, and once you warm it between your fingers, any suspicion that this is not going to spread easily is assuaged.

I scraped up too much, but it didn’t really matter as I don’t need perfect hair today {horses.} If you have fine hair as I do, go easy on this. You won’t need much, and it really should live on the ends of the hair only.

The shine, it blinds. It feels soft and silky, and the scent, ah, I love it.

I can hear you saying, This convention is not working, and you’d be correct, because there is nothing aural about this product, and generally, about any product in the world. Yeah, well, whatever. Three out of five isn’t as good as four out of five — oh, okay, probably won’t do this again.

Until I forget that I said that, and think, Hey, I should do that thing with the four out of five senses!

***

Lush Shine So Bright (10g) : €5.75/£4.50/$9.95

Loving the Lovingly Light Foam from Percy & Reed

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Yes! It has been ages since we’ve had an update from the back of the 46A bus.

I got a lovely haircut in Hair Creations in Blackrock Shopping Centre. Ask for Anna, espesh if you have long hair and are sick of arguing with stylists about how they want to cut it all off. Okay, bit of an exadge, but you know what? I take good care of The Hair, and sure, the ends get raggedy, but the heart of it is perfectly healthy, so no, you don’t have to go chop-chop-chop. Anna didn’t even suggest it, and I kept my length — just new, improved, and tidy.

Also: I got Percy & Reed Lovingly Light Foaming Treatment Mask, and it is … does ‘miraculous’ sound implausible? Hyperbolic? There’s only so much I can do, in the back of the 46A bus, to demonstrate this, but I stand behind the following statements. When I use this:

>My hair is really, really — really soft.
>Is so shiny.
>I get astonishingly excellent second day hair.
>My highlights? Higlighty-er! Seriously: massive boost to reflective quality.

What is it like to use? Well, here’s the thing. The directions say to get a wide-toothed comb, dispense some product into your palm, and then draw the comb through the product and onto your hair.

I stand behind these statements as well:
>Working the canister is fiddly. The dispenser is somewhere in between being too sensitive and not sensitive enough, so you’ll have a bit of a learning curve figuring out how much pressure to exert.
>It’s mousse, basically, and fizzles out faster than you’d like, when you’re trying to get it onto the comb.
>I don’t know about your hair, but my hair is like a tangle of vicious weeds after I wash it. Combing in the product is not a goer. I lost a lot down the drain…

…Until I devised my foolproof method: I combed out my hair, and then put this foam in, directly, not via any auld wide-toothed comb.

Leave it in, 3 to 5 minutes, whatever that means, or until washing it out is the last thing you do before you turn the water off.

I stand by ‘miraculous’, even though I had to adapt the application process. Maybe even because I had to, since it worked terrifically anyway. I am being miserly with this, as it’s a guranteed good hair day in a pressurised container.

***

£20 via johnlewis.com; anyone with euro information, please advise.

To Be Snatched Up On the Way Out of a Burning Building: Finishing Touch Lumina

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The Finishing Touch Lumina Personal Hair Remover, to give it its full, glorious appellation.

Here’s the thing. I have inured myself to using the epilator on my chin, and below my chin. I get my eyebrows waxed, but can pull egregious hairs out one at a time. But the upper lip area? As sensitive and tender as the day I was born.

The only stuff that worked was some cream stuff I got at Boots — but that sadly let me down, and I have been wary ever since. The only thing worked was the Beauty Trimmer via jmldirect.com, and as reported via that link, it doesn’t bounce, and eventually just fell all into bits and pieces.

Enter the FT Lumina, as I like to call it for short. Also available from JML, it is even better.

Look how fancy!

A faceted jewel concealing a mighty blade!

It doesn’t look all that mighty, but it is! Two swipes at the upper lip with this bad gal and buh-bye, annoying and unsightly hairs! No pain, no tears, no smelly cream!

The thing about facial hair is that it is sneaky. One day, there you are, bopping down the road, happily hairless, and then the next second — the next second — you are maybe sitting having a cup of coffee with someone, and you go to touch up your illuminating powder, and there they are, those feckin’ hairs, sticking out in all directions. Gah!

This is one of my most necessary beauty tools, and seriously, if you haven’t gotten the message — GET THIS.

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For the record, other things on the list are: loved ones, iPhone, laptops, my stereo thingie, which isn’t exactly portable but is manageable, and my stuffed dog that I have had since I was 8 years old and has been everywhere with me.

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€18 [approx], £14.99; jmldirect.com

Clever, Pantene — Very Clever!

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Here’s a pet peeve: packaging fails in the shower.

Oh, how I loathe tubs! They are so fiddly! And once you get them open, they can fill up with water and dilute your product, or! because you are trying to avoid the deluge, you set it on the edge of the tub, and then knock it over, and there’s your product all over the floor rather than all over your hair. Hate tha’.

When I got this tub of Pantene 2 minutes Deep Smoothening Mask, first of all I was like, Smoothening?!?!and then got all huffy about the tubbiness of it.

Then I looked at the top of the lid.

Now, that — that is pretty smart. The simplest of drawing conveying the cleverest of solutions.

Just peel back the foil…

And then twist the top back on! Then all you have to do is flip it open {okay, you may have to pry a tiny bit} and there’s your smoothening mask, ready to go!

I found it to be a total success in practice.

I don’t know if I felt that my hair was all that smoothened, but I must say that my highlights looked significantly highlighty-er.

A keeper, and an inspiration to package designers everywhere, I should imagine.

How To Make the Perfect Katie PonyTaylor

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I hated having short hair, the three times in my life that I made that mistake — a mistake for me, it simply doesn’t suit. I hated it because I had to tend it allll the time; it seemed like way much more work that long, especially when all I wanted to do was pull it back into a ponytail.

Except, I have always been a bit crap at making ponytails? Unlike our Gold Medal Boxer Katie Taylor!

I don’t know how she does it, but me, I need product. What a surprise.

I googled around a bit, but wowee, some of the ponytail-making suggestions are way too much like work. All I want is sleek, and I don’t want flyaway ends.

So:
> Brush the stuffing out of your hair. Make it as flat as possible.

> Spray a little something on the top of your head, at the crown. I used Batiste Dry Shampoo. This is mainly to flatten it and make it stay.

> Brush it some more.

> Okay, gross: hold the elastic between your teeth. Come on! This is real life! You do it too! Yeah, yeah, yeah, unsanitary, but me, that third arm I usually use for hair styling is in the shop.

> Now, this next step depends on how well you gather up the hair. This is where I always go wrong. Either  the hair on the top of your head is going to stay perfectly flat, or you’re going to have to brush it down again. When I have to re-brush it, I start all over, because there will always be that rogue lock sticking up. Elastic goes back in the mouth, I let the hair go loose, and do over.

> Then, gently, gently, put some sort of styling aid on the tail itself. Any one of the oil-y yokes on the market will work, mousse is good — I used what has clearly become my Olympic hair product, Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream.

And the brother of yer dad is Bob.

***

Still buzzing from that victory!

When All Else Fails, Talk About The Hair

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…which should have its own Twitter persona at this stage.

This past bank holiday was a blissful, glorious indulgence of Olympics, and olympian Game of Thrones S2 watching {entire season in one day}.

I also cleaned the bath, which doesn’t get any messier than a normal bath, but down to the excessive amount of product, well, it’s a pain in the arse to do. It was worth it, though, because I realised I hadn’t used up all my H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush, which you can go back and read about here. There is also a picture, and the results were exactly the same this time: shockin’ shine, pumped up highlights, but a terrible pong.

It still looks good, these several days later. I’ve also womanned up and have started using the Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream like I mean it, meaning I put it on hair that I’ve dried and ironed. It absolutely does not weigh it down — it makes it look shiny and smooth. Sweartagod. I knew that already? But when you use as much stuff as I do, you tend to forget. Here’s the original post to remind us all.

Along those lines, that five sense thing is a good idea, must remember to to do that again. And a haiku never goes amiss.

Sorry, have to go back to being a top Tweeter in the #equestrian thread.

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H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush: €11.50/£8.50/$19.95

Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream: €28.45/£22.85/$31

Covered in Oil, Crazy: Reporting Back

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I put all this stuff on myself the other day.

I also used the Hairwonder Anti-hairloss Lotion, which didn’t make it into the family portrait due to low reziness.

The lotion went on first, massaged into the roots of me follicles and rubbed around the scalp. This is the sort of thing that the efficacy of which will only tell with time. Howevs, if you are worried about having greasy roots, don’t be. It didn’t feel like much either way, which is grand if you’re worried about your hair getting weighed down, perhaps not so great if you’re looking for some kind of tingle on your scalp. Me, I do like a bit of tingle, makes me think that something is working.

Then… ah. Bio-Retinoid Anti-Ageing Concentrate from REN. I do love a good serum, and this is one of the best I’ve tried yet. It smells organic without smelling too organic, if ya know what I mean, and even though it is a serum and therefore oily-ish, it doesn’t feel slippery or slimy. If your are a morning-rush person, you’ll want to give this plenty of time to sink in, or maybe just use it at night: it does take a longer than most to sink in. I didn’t feel the absolute need to follow this up with a moisturiser, which I think may be good news for people who have oily skin and don’t want to add to it.

The thing with using oil on oily skin: The face needs a protective barrier of oil to fend for itself against the environment. I reckon, then, if your skin is oily, it is fighting the good fight, but way too hard. A helpful, judicious amount of applied oil helps the skin in its daily battle, and because it doesn’t have to work so hard, it doesn’t break out as a reaction. ??? That sounds plausible to me.

My favourite kind of oil is oil for the bod, and it was with great delight that I popped the top of Lanolips Herbal Treatment Body Oil. It smells lovely… but the bottle is made of hard plastic, making it increasingly difficult to dispense, as one’s hands get quite slippery. I also found that it absorbed too quickly, meaning the coverage wasn’t great, meaning I had to try to squeeze out some more… I might save this for exposed limbs only, and the ever-popular décolletage — it seems too much trouble otherwise.

Last but not least: Mythic Oil from L’Oréal Professionel: Colour Glow For Colour Treated Hair. I will have to back to you on this, because I used it and then forgot about it. Which is, I think, probably in its favour? I wasn’t like, Oh my God, what is wrong with The Hair today?!?! But I can’t remember if is was exceptionally special, either. I’ve also got a sample of Mythic Oil Milk, which can be used at any stage, either as a detangler, a blow drying product, or a finishing spray. As it is milk, it didn’t make it into this category.

Hmmm, any other milk-ish products I can cobble together? Call me crazy and cover me in milk???

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See here for prices.