Woot, kudos to the folks at Living Proof!

Check it out I'm famous!

Big clap for everyone at Living Proof that they're so open and honest about their product. They actually posted my ingredient analysis on their own blog. You've gotta hand it to them for not hiding anything.

BTW thanks for the plug.

Check out my beautiful miraculous GHD

Now if there is a single person on this planet that can plug GHD without the slightest hesitation or exageration that person would be me.

The GHD styler has changed my life.
Now I am high maintenance, I make no buts about it. I shut up, get up an hour early and make my best effort to look fabulous. One thing that has always left me frustrated is my hair. I have a lot of it, like you think YOU do, no, you have no idea whatsoever. Each shaft itself is ridiculously thick and on top of that there's a lot of it. It also grows like crazy so it always gets long (which I like, I've got it down to my bra strap. In August it was at my shoulders, if that's a good illustration).

So styling my hair has always been a long and arduous routine. It never used to take under 3 hours. EVER! I mean blowdrying itself, after about an hour of airdrying would be at least 45 minutes. Than PAINSTAKINGLY ironing each section would be another 1:15.


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Until my sister bought herself the original GHD styler (I took her pink babyliss with me to Europe and she was FURIOUS, but you cannot imagine the humidity in Belgrade in midsummer. I NEEDED it!). When I got home, hair ravaged, but so very well rested, I spotted it almost instantly. Now I was the one who turned her on to GHD (she is a hairstylist, but nevertheless, she's very much behind on new product launches). After all I had been trolling drooling and lemming it at Sephora since it first came out. My permanently broke state however made it hard to afford one. So I was very happy to snatch from my sister. Now I need to put in a testament here:

-GHD is a miracle.
-GHD has cut my ironing time 40% from 1.25-1.5 hours to 45 min flat.
-When I use it, no matter what other products I smear on, my hair winds up twice as soft, smooth, tangle free, shiny, bouncy and voluminous than if I would use anything else.
-And I swear, I promise you, it smoothes the look of about half my split ends (not the extra extra bad and old ones because nothing on earth can, but the newer ones oh yeah).

I cannot put into words how warm and fuzzy I feel towards it. So for about a year my sister and I fought like maniacs over her straightener. She has this horrible possessiveness where if you borrow something of hers, you're gonna PAY for it. It really is like we're both 12 and 11 again and fighting over the remote. Except no remote can ever cause as much joy as the GHD. So this year, she finally broke down. She bought me a 2" GHD as an early Christmas present (let's put it this way, with teh 2" half an hour, half an hour on MY hair, is beyond miraculous).

It just arrived the other day and I am so over the moon in love with it that I felt I just HAD to post about my love. If you have unruly just plain bad hair and you watch Pantene commercials with jealous tears in your eyes, you need to try a GHD. It will change your life.

Product Review: WEN by Chaz Dean cleansing conditioners

This is to review all the different scents/formulations of the cleansing conditioners.
The ones I've tried are fig, tea tree and lavender.
I must say there's really no difference between the three except the scents -none of which I liked by the way, I find them too cloying and artificial smelling-.
The only other thing I didn't like about these was how they weighed down my curls, but since I rarely let my hair go natural, that's a small price to pay.
Everything else well let me start:

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-Cleaned very well, it takes a while to rinse but if you do it properly hair will be squeaky clean, so don't be afraid of the no-foam
-Definitely keeps and preserves color
-When air-dried I found myself suffering very little frizz (and I didn't leave any in as a hair cream just as a test)
-My hair turned out INCREDIBLY soft and shiny compared to the level of crunchiness and strawlike-ness I otherwise suffer if I stray from Kerastase
-I really feel like it ACTUALLY moisturizes hair rather than coating it or overproteining it.
And here goes the ingredient analysis for the tea tree version:
water - obvious
aloe vera - moisture, film former on hair
glycerin - humectant, slip-creator, moisture
cetyl alcohol - emulsifier, emollient, thickener
rosemary extract - cleansing, astringent, stimulating, oil-reducing
wild cherry fruit extract - no cosmetic benefit, filler for making the ingredient label look better
chamomile extract -useless on hair except to lighten naturally blonde hair
calendula flower extract -also useless on hair, again good for the label
behentrimonium methosulfate -best and highest quality conditioning ingredient on the market, very detangling, no buildup, very very mild for sensitive people
cetearyl alcohol - same properties as cetyl alcohol
panthenol - very well known conditioning ingredient, smooths and helps remoisturize hair shaft
primethylsilylamodimethicone - conditioning additive that helps detangle wet or dry, adds softness, helps minimize damage
stearmidopropyl dimethylamine - emulsifier, hair softener
polysorbate 60 - emulsify essential oils with water products
menthol - cooling effect, and even though it's this far down the list, you still really feel it cool the scalp
essential oils - I wish it was illegal not to specify which ones, consider how many people may be allergic to a certain extract and it's not required to be specified on the ingredient label
peg60 almond glycerides - helps create mildness, conditioning, emulsifier
hydrolized wheat protein - when used with heat, helps temporarily repair some split ends (the less horrible ones) however at this concentration it would be a very small difference
methylchlorisothiazolinone - preservative
methylisothiazolinone - preservative
citric acid - preservative

Beauty Innovation That Excites Me

The No Frizz Line by Living Proof:

Everybody's been buzzing about this line violently! Up till now silicones have been the only cosmetic way to fight the frizzies and they are far from an ideal solution. It takes a lot of finesse to avoid overdoing it with silicones, never mind that constant use overtime actually dries out the hair. This stuff is a brand new technology pioneered by Dr. Robert Langer and a team of scientists. Cosmetic industry vets were at a minimum.

The premise is that this stuff leaves a light, waterproof coat on the hair, which actually REPELS water and even more miraculously oil (which is what dirt holds onto, with the need for washing obviously related). They have a straightening and a curling product for fine, medium and thick hair. And apparently the effect is cumulative, overtime hair's own frizz prevention system is strengthened!!! The molecule they have created is called PolyfluoroEster and I can tell you I haven't heard of it before (which is proof it's actually brand new instead of the beauty industry just trumpeting it as new).

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Each curly/straight duo can be bought online at QVC.com for the introductory price of 38.52 which is erring on the high side but considering that you have to use it rarely, the effect is cumulative and again you get two products.

This is akin to promising the hair lottery to folks like myself with naturally curly, overprocessed, ridiculously thick and frizz prone locks. Positive indicators: It's not actually silicone. They actually posted the ingredients up on the website. The majority of the team that formulated the products is not involved in the cosmetic industry itself. I mean, all positive indicators right? My personal quest for good hair is one that has never met a credit card limit it wasn't willing to go past. And soon enough, given positive reviews on MakeupAlley, I will most likely be trying this stuff and reviewing.

And off course, since I'm me and I care, An analysis of the ingredients in the curly formulation for medium hair:

1. Water - Obvious
2. VP/VA Copolymer - Helps hair hold it's style by repeling moisture and forming a thin layer over hair (and nails too actually). This is one of the older fashioned polymers.
3. Polyfluoro Ester - The new more advanced polymer that really does the job.
4. VP/Dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate Copolymer - binder, emulsion stabilizer, film former, hair fixative
5. Glycerin - humectant, slip former, moisturizer
6. Myristyl Alcohol - fatty alcohol, emulsifier, moisturizer
7. Polyacrylate-13 - Similar properties to the other polymers

Halfway point: Past here are all the ingredients that act as fillers and preservatives, they really have very little effect on the overall efficacy of the product itself becasue the concentrations are 1% or less.

1. PEG-8 Stearate - Help water mix with oil and dirt to help wash hair and skin ???? That one I am baffled by, these are styling products.
2. PPG-2 Myristyl Ether Propionate - non oily emollient
3. Polyisobutene - lubricant that thickens oily products, dries to for a thin coat, helps hold together other ingredients
4. Phenoxyethanol - broad spectrum preservative
5. Caprylyl Glycol - humectant and preservative
6. Fragrance - Obvious
7. Polysorbate 20 - emulsifier
8. Sorbic Acid - preservative

Image courtesy of youarelivingproof.com