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kerMax hair review
Hair

KerMax Hair Experience and Meeting Grego Minot [BEAUTY]

 

My hair has literally gone from thick to thin and thick again in the last 4 years.  I am loving my hair right now! It’s been through so much but its finally at a place where I love it. Pregnancy and post pregnancy can really take a toll on the health of your hair. This month I was invited to Medulla & Co, a hair salon in Yorkville, to discuss KerMax hair products.

KerMax Hair Event

kerMax hair review

I had a chance to sit with Dr. Michael Carozza, a naturopathic doctor and the beautiful Grego Minot. She’s a Canadian TV personality, and many of you will recognize her from the show The Real Housewives of Toronto. She is even more sweeter and beautiful in person. For those of you who missed my instagram story for that day, she spoke about her hair experience after pregnancy. She also talked about how KerMax hair products are working for her. Giving her healthy and fuller hair. Especially after losing so much after having her baby.

READ MORE: ALL ABOUT HAIR

After our talk about the product I was treated to an amazing blow out with the KerMax products. I love how light my hair felt with the product in it. Most of the time when I use hair products to do blow outs or to style my hair, I’m left with either sticky or heavy feeling hair. Happy to say, not with KerMax products.

One of the questions I asked Dr. Michael was about the sodium laureth sulfate in some of the products. Over the years I’ve been doing research on best practices to keep hair healthy and what kind of ingredients to stay away from. Some articles and research say that sulfates is something to avoid in your hair and parabens. However, some also say that it’s just a lathering agent and it has no harsh effects on the health of your hair. Dr. Michael made a good point that if I were to use this product and it had no lathering agent, would I have thought it was still cleaning my hair or would I be skeptical of it? So true! I definitely need my shampoo and conditioner to lather up.

kermax hair

 

I love that the KerMax products have no parabens and they have products you can use while styling your hair. The Volumizing Shampoo ($24.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart) has a combination of peptide amino acids and concentrated organic pea sprouts to help fine, thinning hair appear fuller and thicker. The Volumizing Conditioner won’t clog scalp or weigh hair down. It also improves detangling to prevent hair thinning caused by brushing.

kermax hair products
The Styling Mousse ($24.99) adds body and strengthens damaged hair, while giving your hair an ultimate volume boost.

canadian fashion blogger

There are two treatment products in the KerMax hair line. The Essential Day Foam and the Thickening Hair Serum ($49.99 each). These products are formulated with KerGro 3X-a™.  A biocomplex of fruit stem cells, peptide amino acids and botanical extracts. I’m going to start using these products and will report back on the results. Follow along on Instagram for updates!

 

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Hair

Panasonic Nanoe Hair Dryer – Goodbye Frizz, Hello Shine [REVIEW]

Ever since we moved into our new house my husband and I have had our own washrooms. This has been the best thing ever! Maybe every couples dream come true. We have our own washroom space, I get lots of counter space and don’t need to worry about finding all those tiny little shaved hairs in my our sink. One thing we happily did share, was a blow dryer. Although his blow dryer sucks, I worked with it and never did any styling with it. Now I have my very own blow dryer and it’s amazing! It’s the new Panasonic Nanoe Hair Dryer.

panasonic hair dryer

This blow dryer uses nanoe technology to dry your hair without actually drying it out. For as long as I can remember whenever I’d blow dry my hair, the end result would be dry, frizzy hair. Then, if I put like a smoothing product in my hair to fight back the frizz, I’d lose the volume and my hair would fall flat.

Panasonic Nanoe Hair Dryer – Goodbye Frizz, Hello Shine

The new Panansonic nanoe hair dryer takes moisture from the air (so cool) and creates tiny, moisture-rich particles that are small enough to penetrate your hair with moisture. 
The results with this nanoe technology are incredible. So I put it to the ultimate test. I dared to wash my hair and not use conditioner. Dried my hair with the new Panasonic nanoe hair dryer and success! My hair had zero frizz, was super shiny and actually had a healthy bounce to it. This is my first time using a non-ion based hair dryer. Switching to nanoe has been the best thing to happen to my hair in a very long time!

I take this with me to all of my sleep overs, at the in-laws or to my moms house. And I’m definitely taking it on all of our trips moving forward. It’s travel friendly with the folding feature it has, and it’s super light. I also love how when in use, it’s not loud compared to my old hair dryers. I take a lot of late night showers, after my children have fallen asleep. So the noise factor is really important to me. In the past I would actually avoid styling my hair, just so they wouldn’t wake up from the sound of me using the blow dryer.

READ MORE ABOUT HAIR PRODUCTS

There are 3 settings. High, low and cool. Some of my own tips: The high setting is great to be used on thicker, coarser hair for maximum drying power. Low is better to be used on thinner, fragile hair. The cool setting, which I know for a fact many people don’t use is actually best to use to seal the hair cuticle. Once your hair is approx. 80% dry, switch to the cool setting. At this point in the drying process you just need the cool setting to complete drying and it’ll protect your hair from being over dried.

 

[Tweet “Your hair should be 65 percent dry before you start to blowdry w/ a brush. @PanasonicCanada #beautytips”]

It’s less damaging to your hair if you towel dry your hair first and then blow dry it. I also use my fingers to dry the roots before I use a brush. Also if you’re looking for a smoother finish then don’t forget to use the attachment nozzle this blow dryer comes with. It ensures you get targeted heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IGK Hair [REVIEW]

IGK Hair
Natural hairstyles seemed to be the trend in 2016. Designers and brands like Brandon Maxwell, Lacoste, Prabal Gurung and Sophie Theallet all rocked natural or beachy wavy looks on the runway at NYFW. Not to mention that’s the go to look for Victoria Secret models as well. Ironically, achieving that sexy, natural, wavy hair is sometimes harder then it looks. If you have the right products then more then half the battle is taken care of.

#igkhair

IGK Beach Club Texture Spray

I normally don’t use hairspray or any hair products on a daily basis, unless I know I have meetings or have to go somewhere. However, this product is a game changer for me. It’s super easy to use and I love using it every other day when I have that extra 3 minutes to spare in the morning before work. I actually wore it in my hair today and got some compliments about the volume and wavy-ness of my hair. I use to have very wavy hair, it was beautiful. Thick, wavy and long. *sigh* But all the hair dying damage I’ve done to my hair has made it fall flat and the natural waves that were once bouncy and sexy have disappeared. *womp womp* So in conclusion, I’m loving this product as it has brought back all those wonderful hair memories haha, and I’m totally going to use it as much as I can.

igk beach hairspray

Now more about the product, it’s light weight, non-sticky compared to your traditional hair spray and even has some glycerin in it that gives you a soft finishing touch. TIP: Work the product into your roots as you would with a dry shampoo for awesome volume results.

 

IGK Smoke & Mirrors Conditioning Cleansing Oil

igk smoke and mirror

I was hesitant about this product because my roots have been getting oily pretty quick these days. Not sure if it’s the humidity levels in my office/home or  the odd weather. I thought this product was going to make my hair oil central, “bring on the rigs folks”. Jokes aside, it was not oily at all! I’m currently using a very nice natural shampoo that I’ll share with you all soon. I used that first, then I followed instructions and worked the cleansing oil into my scalp and even used a bit on my ends as I would with any other conditioner. Once my hair air dried, I’m happy to say there was no after residue or oiliness from that product. My hair was soft, manageable and shiny. The only thing I didn’t like was the smell. As the name of the product is smoke and mirrors. It was smokey. It has a very masculine scent. So guys would love this cleansing oil. I love it for the results, but there is no way I could only use this product and call it a day. That’s when I used the coconut oil gel to mask the scent.

 

IGK Coconut Oil Gel

IGK coconut oil gel

I used this product in damp hair after I had cleansed my hair with the cleansing oil. So I’m not sure if I would’ve had the same results for the cleansing oil if I didn’t pair it with this product. I’ll have to try that one day and see, but I can’t risk my hair smelling smokey either. I love this rich kid coconut oil gel because it doesn’t feel so much like styling gel, it feels more like a leave in hair treatment with that bonus styling factor. I love products like that!

Any hair gels I’ve used in the past, I’ve had to wash my hair immediately in the evening before bed because of the sticky uncomfortable feeling of the product. But this product melts into your hair and feels as if it’s not even there! I kept it in my hair for two days before I washed it out. I think that’s important if you’re someone like me who dyes her hair often and needs to minimize washes to maintain the dye. Overall my favourite of the three IGK products has to be the Beach texture spray, then the coconut gel and last the cleansing oil.

IGK HAIR PRODUCTS

*I received these products complimentary to test/review. 

 

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Beauty

Garnier Nutrisse #WearUltraColor

garnier nutrisse

What do you get with two boxes of Garnier Nutrisse hair dye?

garnier nutrisse blue black

Ultra vibrant colour and soft hair! I’m really impressed with this hair dye. I’ve dyed my hair for years, black, brown then black again. Every time I dyed my hair, results were dry, crunchy and the colour barely lasted through the month.

This time with Garnier Nutrisse, during the application process I noticed there was absolutely no ‘chemical like’ smell coming from the dye. Other brands have really strong ammonia-like smells.So strong that I can’t even leave the washroom without having to hear my husband complain about the stench. The ultimate test of course was to walk by him with it in my hair. No reaction from him what so ever.

garnier nutrisse blue black

The colour lasts a lot longer than other brands. No sign of whites. Also, during the application process I dropped the dye bottle on the floor. No product fell out!

  • Vibrant colour
  • Soft hair
  • No mess process
  • No ammonia smell
  • Long lasting colour

Definitely my new go to brand for hair colour!

garnier hair dye

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Beauty

Reverse Wash with TRESemmé [Review]

Have you heard about the new reverse wash collection by TRESemmé?

tresemme reverse wash

Story time…

In about two months I dyed my hair three times so far and unfortunately the hair dye I used wasn’t so gentle on my hair. Going from brunette to black at home isn’t so easy, especially when you have long hair. I thought I could do it with one not realizing how long my hair had really gotten. It’s usually in a bun so baby D doesn’t pull it. So anyways, I tried one box and yeah.. huge fail. I had so many brown strands of hair left. I went back and did another box and got it all covered. Within a week it looked really dull, no shine..so I did it again with a different brand and still not I’m not at the shade of black I’d like to have. To be continued…

After using the TRESemmé reverse wash system for 2 weeks I can confidently say that it has transformed my hair to be as close to the healthy locks they were before I ever started dying my hair. It’s not the thickest mane I’ve had, but dang has it come close. When they say volume, they don’t lie. See for yourself… here’s a picture of my freshly washed hair, just blow dried it with no product in it:

beauty-full volume tresemme

[Tweet “Reverse wash your #hair. Condition, then Shampoo with @TRESemme”]

So much beauty-full volume! I love it! I can’t stand flat hair unless I part it down the middle, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was with these results. If you’re wondering what the before hair looked like you can refer to basically any of my instagram or blog posts before this one. 😉

How it works

It’s a reverse wash. So traditionally you would use your Shampoo first and then your conditioner. But with this system you use the Conditioner first. You must be thinking “whaaatt?! No thanks.”. But hold on, this TRESemmé reverse wash system is the only reverse wash out there. At least as far as I know. I wouldn’t try the reverse thing with other brands. It would probably be a waste.

STEP ONE

step 1 reverse wash

As all conditioners do, this one softens your hair and preps it for the volume it’s about to gain before you shampoo. It’s formulated with a combination of Fleximax™ volumizers and fibre polishing actives. It also binds to the cuticle to protect your hair during the washing process. Some of us wash our hair a little too.. agressively than others. Be gentle and think massage or better yet, think about the last time you had your hair washed at the salon and how they massaged your hair, scalp and mimic that.

STEP TWO

step 2 tresemme reverse wash

After conditioning your hair, naturally there’s some weight added on. Second step is to wash away the weight with the shampoo. This is also formulated with Fleximax™ volumizers. It helps to control static by infusing your hair with volume and leaving it perfectly prepped for styling.

I haven’t tried the maximizer yet because alone with the shampoo/conditioner I already had amazing volume. I can’t imagine if I use the maximizer what kind of results I’ll get! So what do you think, will you try this new system?

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Beauty

Miracle 10 Bloggers Event

miracle 10

 

On November 13th, Toronto bloggers were invited to the Miracle 10 Skincare Boutique in Yorkville for an evening of networking, learning about beauty trends for 2015, drinks, sushi and other yummy appetizers.

So let’s talk about fashion; most of the bloggers that evening played it safe and wore black. Either I didn’t get the memo or everyone hit a creativity block and went with black. When I go to blogger events that’s one of the things I really look forward too. Checking out what everyone’s wearing and how they wore it. Why not? It’s like a live magazine spread. Outfits you’ve seen in stores on the racks come to life. I usually have more pictures to share but this was an event where I took less pictures and did more absorbing of the event.The guest speaker for the evening was Michelle Villett from BeautyEditor.ca, who spoke about beauty trends for the season and had lots of blogger tips to share.

miracle10 boutique

Bloggers had the option to get mini facials, mini makeovers by Dior or mini manicures. I was a bit late to the event, so 15 mins to arrival, Michelle was ready to speak on beauty trends. 

 

Twitter0fdbcf8
 
So what are some beauty trends we’re seeing this season? Heavy, bushy but not bushy, dark eyebrows. Like Cara Delevingne’s. If you know me very well, you know my eyes lit up when Michelle mentioned her. I love her and her signature eyebrows. You might remember my blog post about brows and my mention of her wonderful brows.
 
Some other beauty trends that were mentioned by Michelle were: 

Graphic eye-liner/eye-shadow

Playing with your eye liner lines, doubling them up or create angles you’ve never created before are all trending for 2015. Geometric shapes in eye shadow application is also big. Creating squares, triangle applications and getting really funky around the eyes is the it thing.

graphic eyeliner

Bare nails

I love this trend because I’m not big on wearing nail polish. I have a huge collection of colours but rarely get an opportunity where I can sit down and give myself a manicure. Bare nails, filed down to a neat, clean cut size with a either top coat or a bare colour is in for Spring 2015. I love nudes, beige and light brown nail colours. If you want to skip the colours and shine then go for a matte top coat.

Messy/Natural hairstyles

As much as you’ll want to just roll out of bed and call it your “messy look” it isn’t that simple. For instance a messy braid still requires you to braid your hair and then strategically choose pieces to gently pull apart for a looser less crisp look. Or how about the messy bun. For this I literally just pull my hair together, tie it into a bun and loosen it up. Everyone has a different variation of what a “messy look” looks like, so play around with different styles till you get to one that suits your face shape and style.

Matte lips

Huffington Post mentioned a matte red-orange lip at Ann Yee’s Spring 2015 show here:

Ann Yee 2015
Ann Yee Spring 2015

Milani cosmetics also posted on Instagram that they’ll be coming out with a matte lipstick collection in 2015:

milani matte lipsticks
Image source: Milani Cosmetics Instagram

Natural make-up

Natural make-up look Marc Jacob Spring 2015 runway
Natural make-up look Marc Jacob Spring 2015 runway
[Tweet “”The best thing is to look natural, but it takes #makeup to look natural.” – Calvin Klein #beauty #bblogger”]
Miracle 10 has a 10 day challenge. They challenge you to try their skincare routine and see the results in 10 days. Took a look at their products and I’m intrigued. I’m taking the challenge and will share the results in a post coming soon. 
miracle 10
Have you tried Miracle 10 products before? What are your thoughts on the brand?
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Pantene Pro-V Product Launch- Hair is what happened..

pantene beautiful hair bar

Let’s face it, we all love our hair and have tried Pantene Pro-V products at least once before.

I’ve tried many brands of hair products, from the high end to the low end and honestly, I believe in changing up your hair products anywhere from 3-6 months. Whether it is a whole new brand or within the brand.

Pantene

Just like our face and every other part of our body and lives, everything changes over time. I remember about 8 years ago I had really curly wavy hair. I would wash my hair, air dry and POOF! curls and waves galore! Now it’s different. Air drying gets me minimal volume and waves. Just the natural evolution of hair.

Feb 13th, a day before Valentine’s Day, I was invited to the Pantene Pro-V product launch on King street, downtown Toronto to be pampered. If you’re familiar with Toronto you’ll know this venue. Right across from Shoppers Drug Mart at King & Peter and was used for marketing TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival.

Upon entering, I was approached to have my coat taken and my information. Everyone invited, had registered ahead for an allotted time to be treated to their ‘Pantene Beautiful Hair Bar’ services. The venue had a pristine ambiance. Furniture, tables, counters, make-up station and the waiting lounge were all white, to fit the salon look and feel.

Here’s a vine I made on the day of:

While you wait in the lounge, you’re welcomed to do your nails at the nail bar, help yourself to treats and Starbucks hot drinks; all complimentary.

Covergirl Nails Pantene

The lounge:
pantene hair lounge

pantene hair bar

The blow dry bar was set up with 6 stations and had a featured chalkboard wall, where guests left positive, uplifting notes of their beautiful hair experience.

pantene blow dry bar

My hairstylist, talented Matthew Lill from Shagg salon in Yorkville styled my hair.
First, he went through a questionnaire to find out what hair solutions I was looking for and then matched my needs to Pantene products. We both agreed that the Ultimate 10 all in one Pantene line was perfect.

My finished look thanks to Matthew was wavy, bouncy curls, all done with a straightener. I loved the result!

The products I went home with:

I’ve been using these products for about a month now to write an honest review and love them!
Here’s a list of the Ultimate 10‘s solutions:

• Repair for Rough Hair
• Strength Against Damage
• Silky Softness
• Brilliant Shine
• Smoothing
• Moisture
• Frizz Control
• Gentle Cleaning
• Manageability
• Detangling

The only solution I’m unsure about is Frizz Control. However, because of our unforgiving cold weather this winter, I suspect nothing would be able to battle the frizz I had to deal with.

Overall, great event and excellent products.

TOP 7 FRAGRANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN

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