Product Review: Sebastian Laminates Concentrate Gel

Hi Everyone!
So once again I've been MIA for a while - sorry about that. It's been a tough couple of weeks at work plus a gorgeous long weekend...not a good combination to motivate me to blog. But I'm back now and I've got a slew of things to talk to you about.

So let's get to it. I haven't blogged about it, but I've been having major hair drama pretty much all summer long. Partly because of the weird and incessantly rainy weather, and partly because of the nature of my hair. See I have really curly type 4A hair that just does not want to be straight. But I'm not really the big curly hair type so I try to force it. And for a long while there I was winning the battle, but lately my curls have been kicking my ass and my hair has been a big puffy, frizzy, mass that I constantly have to wear up in a ponytail or a twist, but even that doesn't help because my hair has so many layers that something somewhere is always falling out.

Anyway. So my hair routine in a nutshell goes pretty much something like this: I wash my hair only once a week, usually on a Friday or Saturday. I pre-poo first with coconut oil, olive oil, beaten eggs, deep conditioner, or some combination of those. Then I wash, blowdry (which is my own personal version of hell), and flatiron it. Somewhere throughout that process I put some serum in (usually before blowdrying and after flatironing) and that should be all the product I put in my hair for the whole week.

Problem is, my hair is still a frizzy mess all the time, especially my ends. So I keep putting more and more serum in and it keeps not helping and my hair just gets more and more limp as each day goes by. So finally I said, enough is enough. I'm going to shell out the extra money and buy a professional brand of serum and hopefully that will help with the frizz.

Enter Sebastian Laminates Concentrate Gel.

I marched into Trade Secrets a few weeks ago and spoke to one of the sales associates.
I told her that I had very curly, very thirsty hair that I don't chemically straighten (did I forget to mention that I stopped relaxing my hair about three years ago?) and basically gave her the rundown of my routine. I told her I needed a good serum that I could put in my hair once a week that would actually make my hair shiny and not frizzy. She marched so purposefully over to this product that I thought she knew something I didn't. I was a little skeptical because it looks like a gel and has the word "gel" written clearly on the package, but when I questioned her about it, she assured me that it was indeed a serum. Okay then.

After I finished choking to death over the $24.95CAD price tag, I went to the cash to pay for it. The girl working the register was black (she's the one who gave me the sample of Redken Extreme the last time I was there. I asked her if she'd ever used this stuff or agreed with the recommendation and she was like "oh this gel?" I cut her off. "Is it a gel or a serum?" I demanded. "Let me see it please?". At this point her manager stepped in. This guy literally would not let me hold the tube of gel/serum that I was about to shell out $24.95 for. He was like, "what is it you want to know?" and I told him that I just wanted to read the ingredients. After a whole long rigamarole (during which I never did get to actually hold the tube), he explained to me that it was a serum "in gel form" and that while it did contain alcohol in it, it was basically a serum that just had a little hold. Okay fine. I paid for it and left.

I washed my hair the next day and went through the whole process. I couldn't wait to see the finished product. Sadly, my hair was no less frizzy and no more straight than it ever was. And it was sticky to boot. Not excessively, crazily sticky, but should your hair ever be sticky? I would prefer not, thanks. Luckily my sister showed up the next day bearing a gift: Avon Advance Techniques Dry Ends Serum. Now this shit is a serum! Way better than the Sebastians stuff and about 1/5 of the price. It smells great and actually moisturizes my hair and gives it some shine.

Sebastians Gel has been relegated to pomade status. And even for that purpose it's not the greatest. But I have to find some use for it after all that money I spent on it.

Anyway, needless to say, the wiwfm verdict on this one is no.

Product Review: NARS Deep Throat

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Sunless Tanner Series Pt.I: L'Oreal Sublime Bronze

Hi Ladies!
I've been marinating - or should I say baking - on this post for a while now and since I'm about to drop asleep at my desk I figure now is as good a time as any to write it. Summer has finally hit the dot, MMVA's and AWWA are coming up and I needs my bronze with a quickness.

Heckle if you must, but I honestly believe that everyone looks better with a tan. Except my mum. For some reason when she tans her skin just looks dirty. So, okay then. Everyone but my mum looks better with a tan.

I personally am still a fan of good old fashioned sunbathing to give me the lovely reddish-bronze glow I crave, but that's not cute for most people out there. (Hey remember when I promised not to do long-ass intros anymore? Oops) In the absence of the sun, here are a few products that have stolen my money helped me out along the way.

I originally wanted to do this all in one post but it's going to be waaay too long. So it's going to have to be a series. First item on the agenda is the L'Oreal Sublime Bronze suite of products. There are a tonne! And I've tried most of them.

First up on the agenda is the Sublime Bronze Lotion.

This is a great one if you're skilled enough to handle a non-tinted lotion without streaks (or if you don't care about streaking). The deep version delivers good colour in a couple of days and dries relatively quickly. It stinks far less than other tanners I've used. It's also a nice thick lotion that contains Vitamin E, AHAs, and SPF 15 so you can just apply it and go about your merry non-ashy business.

I use this one when I know in advance I want to be tanned for a particular day.

Verdict is yes on this one.

Next up is the Self-Tanning Gelee in Deep.

Although L'Oreal's website claims this one is a lightweight formula that dries quickly, I actually find it takes longer to dry than the lotion. And ooh Lordy this stinks to high heaven! I'm not a fan of this in general.
I like the fact that it's tinted and shimmery, but the tint is too light and the shimmer too pervasive to get top ratings in my book. And the colour payoff is negligible at best.
I actually don't even think it works to be honest. I basically use this one when I'm getting ready to go out as a tinted shimmer lotion and try to forget the fact that it's supposed to be a sunless tanner.

I give this a verdict of yes as a tinted lotion, but no as a sunless tanner.

The disappointment of the gelee pales in comparison to the fiasco that is the next product.

The Dual Action Bronzer + Self-Tanning Lotion for Face.

Although this is supposed to provide "...an immediate bronze glow while a long-lasting, natural tan develops over time", it did absolutely jack-sh*t for me but make my face stink.

The tinted part is too pale and runny and the lotion part is too greasy.

This gets a big fat hell's no from me.

And that's all there is to say about that.

I have to make a brief mention here of the Sublime Bronze Mit. I don't even think they make this anymore because I couldn't find it on their site. I've never used this personally but once my good friend Heidi came to visit me for the weekend and we did one of our traditional Shopper's runs and she picked this up. She used it and oh boy was it a hot mess! She was streaked to high heaven and the worse part is that she forgot to wash her hands afterward. I felt so bad for her. My Heidi is a PPP from way back so it was mad noticeable that her legs were streaked and her palms and cuticles were orange. From what I observed the colour wasn't too natural looking but since I didn't use it myself I'm not going to render a verdict. I will say though that it should probably be reserved for self-tanning experts lol.

Moving on now to the Sublime Glow Daily Moisturizer and Natural Skin Tone Enhancer

According to L'Oreal this is "scientifically designed to work with your body's unique chemistry" and will "gradually deepen your skin's natural complexion for the perfect does of healthy summer every time you moisturize."

Yeah, not so much. There was no deepening of complexion for me at all. It was a nice moisturizer though and it smells like honey, which is a plus.

My main issue with this is kinda dumb though. Even though it didn't work for me at all, I still used it as a lotion. Problem was that I was paranoid that it would tan my palms so I had to frantically wash my hands every time I used it or touched the tube (I'm a bit nuts sometimes) and then I would have to re-moisturize them with a safe lotion. Kind of a pain, right? I was never so glad to see a tube of lotion run out in my life. This one is a verdict no as well.

One last one:

The Sunless Scrub also deserves a mention, but just a brief one. It's a great little exfoliator, but nothing earth-shattering. It does have a pleasant beachy smell that fits right in with the bronzing motif. I don't even know if they make this anymore but if you see it in a discount bin somewhere it's worth a little 99 cents still.

I keep my promises...sometimes

Since I made reference to Benefit's Realness of Concealness kit the other day (and gave it a verdict of no) and promised to expand, here is the full-blown review of this kit:

So the idea behind this kit is that you have everything you need to create your face on the go in one handy kit. And it is handy. I've seen ladies pulling it out on the subway and fixing their whole face in about 5 minutes. But needless to say, these were not DDD's as this is not for them.

Sidebar: I don't think the ladies of Benefit realize that there are many many many skin tones in this world. They seem to really enjoy making products that only come in 3 colours, (beige, light beige, and dark beige) or even worse just one colour and then claiming they suit all skin tones. This is exactly what I was referring to in my chat with Toya at Life of a Ladybug. It just drives me apesh*t and I actually think it's racist, but that's another story.


Anyway, back to Realness of Concealness. The cute little kit (One thing about Benefit is that they make kickass packaging) contains the following:

Lemon Aid primer (top right)

Boi-ing concealer (bottom right)

Lip Plump (left)

High Beam highlighter (middle)

Ooh La Lift (right)

Most of these products I guess are race-neutral but my real complaint with this is the concealer which is literally the colour of band aids. And I have always been of the belief that band aids come in that stupid colour so that no one would ever possibly think that they were supposed to match anyone's skin tone in order to avoid being accused of racism, but again that's another story. Also I don't think that anyone can make the argument that their product will give you a "flawless" or "polished" look if it doesn't contain a concealer, and this mess just doesn't cut it.

The Lemon Aid primer is pretty good; it's what I used before I discovered the fabulousness that is UDPP (if you don't know you better ask someBODY!). It helps eyeshadow go on smoothly but isn't as great at controlling oil as other primers. It also leaves a definite white cast over the eye if you have dark skin.

The Lip Plump isn't worth spending more than a sentence on. It doesn't plump and it turns your lips a weird beige-ish colour that shows through your lip colour. I have no idea what this mess is about.

High beam is a great highlighter though, it's a pinky liquid with silvery shimmer and it gives you a great glow. I very much prefer it to Moon Beam which is more of a lavendar with gold shimmer. And Ooh La Lift we've already talked about. Great if you need some tightening under the eyes.

All in all, you can skip this. The wiwfm verdict is....no