Product Review: OPI Moon over Mumbai

Hi there,

Today we're talking nails and I'm going to try to skip all the preamble and just get right into it. I know I tend to ramble on and on before I get to the point. Sorry about that.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I got my nails done at Novo Spa in Yorkville with some girls from work. (Sidebar: Novo is a great spa, if you're in the Toronto area you should check it out). It took me all of two seconds to choose Moon Over Mumbai as my nail colour; I've been wanting to try this shade ever since I bought Elephantastic Pink way back in April.




O.P.I. describes this colour as “[a] romantic shade of soft, moonlit grey”. That's certainly true of the colour in the bottle, but on my nails it's not necessarily the case. Even after three coats, the colour just doesn't look grey. My roommate described the colour as "oyster", which I thought was pretty fit. Either way I'm not complaining. It's a beautiful sheer shade that's neither pink nor beige, making it a great escape from the classic nude colours we're so used to seeing.

The thing about it is though that it's a bitch to apply. Holy crap. Now I'm not a novice at polishing my nails by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really struggling to get this stuff on streak-free. I can do it in three coats, but I want to try to do it in two. The only thing that I've found that helps is to let each coat dry fully before you apply the next one. Which basically means it takes about three hours to polish my nails. Who has time for that?

I think I've found my fall HG colour. I've been wearing it non-stop for three weeks now and haven't stopped staring at it. The only thing is though that the tips of the nails on my left hand are starting to turn yellow because of smoking; but none of my faithful readers are idiotic enough to actually smoke, are you pretties?

'Til the next time!

Oh yeah right, the wiwfm verdict on this is yes!

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.

I'm on Alltop!

Hi everyone!
I'm so excited to announce to you ladies that my little blog has been included in the Beauty Channel of Alltop.com!

If you don't know about alltop, it's a very cool site that aggregates tonnes of blog by content. So if you go to the Fashion Channel, you see stories from a bunch of different fashion blogs/sites, if you go to the Beauty Channel, you'll see stories from a bunch of sites including mine!

And the best part is, I get to put badges like these on my site:

Could this site be any cooler?

These are a few of my favourite looks

Hi ladies,

Hope my Toronto ladies are enjoying the gorgeous weather while it lasts....cuz you know it's not going to last long.

So I have good news! Will it Work for Me has been accepted into the Essence Network! This is exciting as I'm now in the company of many great bloggers. Check it out and find some interesting blogs to add to your list of reads.

Which reminds me: thanks so much to all of you who read my blog regularly. I look at my site traffic daily and I'm astounded that my little blog that two months ago had only my sister and McKinley as readers is now building up its own following. I feel a little like Sally Field "you like me! you really like me!"

Please keep coming back and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see.

Also a shout-out to Kim over at A Life of Style who dropped by recently. Love your blog too girl!

Anyway, on to today's post....a few of my favourite looks. I thought I'd post a few of what I consider to be my best looks ever and see what you guys think. Seems a little egotistical of me though, doesn't it? Well looking at pictures is always fun - tha'ts why Facebook is so popular, right?

So without further ado, I give you the best of max fabulous!

The first picture is at my friend Mansa's birthday party...that's her in the pink. I did a Rihanna-inspired look - black eyeliner all around and hot pink lips. Pretty hot for a Wednesday night lol.

The next one is from my pre-32nd birthday party. I had a goldish-burgundy theme with both my nails and my eyeshadow. The polish is Revlon but I can't remember the name of the colour, and the shadow is Color du Jour by Lancome and that gold Shiseido Hydropowder.

As you may have guessed, the first picture is my favourite picture of me ever. I use it as my profile picture for everything! This look was copied from Christina Milian - hair and makeup. The shadow is actually this crappy silver Rimmel colour mixed with black Smashbox cream liner to look grey and the lipcolour is MAC Sweetie topped with a L'Oreal lip gloss called Pink Panther - it was LE when the movie came out and I loved it so much I bought like 3 of them.

The next one is my second favourite picture of myself. I got my makeup done by this fabulous lady named Ninia Nation - obviously she's very talented and also super nice. But I never saw her again. I heard she has/had a shop in College Park here in Toronto but I'm not sure...I have to find her because honestly this is the best I've ever looked in my life!

First one was my actual 32nd birthday. Makeup is nothing special but I love my hair here. As you can see, I used to be a weaveaholic - and boy do I miss those days. Don't get me wrong having a weave is a PITA but I think I looked so much prettier in those days...these days my hair stays in a ponytail all the time - see the next picture.

Oh I love these two pictures...the first one is with my friend Jemeni - and boy do I wish I could remember what the HELL I did to my hair that day because it looks amazing (if I do say so myself)! The eyeshadow is again that crappy Rimmel silver and Lancome The New Black.

On the right is my first Mansa-pic - we were at this hip hop party called The B-Boy Document (it was great). Shadow colour is again the gold Shiseido Hydropowder and Lancome The New Black.

So what do you ladies think? Any recos for me??

Product Review: Maybelline Colossal Volum'Express Mascara in Glam Black

Hi girls!
Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Chick Advisor's Product Review Club, I received this bad boy in the mail yesterday. I was anxiously awaiting this and couldn't wait to review it. Although I doubt anything can compare to the wonderfulness that is Lancôme Hypnôse, I wanted a mascara that was a little more low-key for my Monday to Friday look. This one definitely fits the bill.


Here's the rundown, Clumps of Mascara-style:

Price: 5 out of 5 (because it was free. I think it retails for around $7 which is very reasonable)

Packaging/Brush Wand: 4 out of 5




the package it came in - isn't it cute?










the wand






Overall: 3.5 out of 5 (It would have been 4 out of 5 but I took half a point off for not delivering on the 9x volume claim)

What it claims: "Creates 9X the volume, instantly."

The truth: It’s a good overall mascara - delivers solid lengthening and adds an acceptable amount of volume, but isn't outstanding in either.

What I loved about it: The definition and length are definitely there. It is rich and black and even after several coasts it doesn't weigh down the lashes. Volume-wise it was acceptable - but I don't think it lives up to the 9x claim. Although the brush was huge, it was surprisingly un-messy and did a good job on the little tiny lashes at the inside corners of my eyes.

What I didn't like: The wand is pretty dry coming out of the tube. I felt like I couldn't get enough product. I really wanted to pump it but we all know that's a big no-no.

Overall: I’m impressed but I’m not overwhelmed. It's a good mascara but there isn't anything so spectacular about it. the best thing about it is the price I think. It gives big results for the price point.

Would I recommend it: Definitley. One of the better drugstore mascaras I've tried. The wiwfm verdict is yes on this.

Here's some pics of the transition....please don't mind how disastrous I look in some of them lol

my naked, un-primed lashes curled with my crap-tastic lash curler.

with one coat of primer









One coat of mascara









two coats






The finished look:




don't mind my grandma hair. I was trying something that clearly did not work.