Product Review: Smooth N Shine

Katie July 15, 2012 0 Comments

Recently, BzzAgent sent me some Smooth N Shine Keratin Power Semi-Permanent Hair Tamer.  It leads to smoother, straighter hair with 5x less damage than traditional relaxers.  I had never used a relaxer before, but my hair is very wavy and frizzy and could definitely be “tamed”.  At first I was afraid to use the product, but I read all the instructions a couple times over and started with the strand test.

The strand test took about an hour.  I had to take a small area of hair and try the product on it.  There is first the incredibly smelly relaxer. You have to put it on for 8 minutes, smooth your hair and then leave it on for another 25. It smelled nasty.  I couldn’t imagine what it would smell like with my whole head covered in this stuff.  After that you wash it out and then add the milk product for 10 minutes and then wash that out.  Once the product has been washed out, stretch your hair to see if it breaks. If it doesn’t you can use the product on all your hair. If it does, step away from the product!

I choose to wait overnight to see what the true results of my strand test would be. I have sensitive skin so I wanted to make sure that even after the product was washed out that I wouldn’t have any problems.

The actual steps to use the product on your whole head take a really long time as well.  First you need to shampoo your hair twice, then add product #1 and wait 25 minutes.  Rinse it out and add product number 2, wait and rinse.  Make sure you have an evening to devote to doing this, it is not something that you can do quickly!  Also keep in mind that it is suggested you do not pull your hair back with elastics for 48 hours and that you do not wash your hair for 3 days after using the product.  This may require a bit of scheduling!

Make sure you are also in a well ventilated area. As I mentioned before – it STINKS!  A bathroom with a window and/or fan is probably ideal.

After I used the product, the next morning I could tell that my hair was a lot tamer than usual because my bed head was not as crazy as it has been lately.  But the real test would be heading out to see Kris Allen at the Outlets – an OUTDOOR concert.  I might be crazy attempting to do this – especially since I won’t be able to pull my thick hair back…

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At first I wasn’t sure I was happy with the results. It was straighter, but that is because the directions said to use a straighter on it.  However, after walking around outside at the Outlets where Kris Allen was performing, I was sweating like crazy.  When I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror – I was shocked.  By that point in the day the top of my head should have been a ridiculous frizz ball and it wasn’t.  Even my mom commented that my hair looked a lot less frizzy than it would have had I not used the tamer.

It’s only been a day that Ive had the product in, so if anything drastic happens I’ll post again – but the fact that it reduced my frizz gives it two thumbs up.

Dr. Scholl’s Massaging Gel Insoles

Katie July 13, 2012 0 Comments

Recently, since I am a bzzagent, I had the chance to try out some of Dr. Scholl’s massaging gel insoles.  This was actually something I had been thinking about buying for myself but wasn’t sure which kind to get.

I wear a leg brace because of my cerebral palsy so I have 2 different sizes shoes to accommodate the brace. My left foot is a size 10 and right is a size 8.  The insoles came in a general size 6-10 and you cut them down so that they fit comfortably in your shoe.  I had no problem with both fitting. The left one I stuck in my brace so I would feel it instead of the plastic of the brace that has been bothering me for ages.  We’ve been using all sorts of moleskin and other things to try and make that more comfortable, but after a day or two of walking my toe pushes it off the brace.  Since the insole was the entire length of my foot, it didn’t shift and kept me feeling comfortable!

I have yet to try them out at a concert, but I am sure that the added support will keep my feet comfortable even if I am standing through a 90 minute set!

Some information about the product:

Whether you’re on your feet all day for work, or your feet are simply the innocent victims of a busy lifestyle, you have plenty of reasons o try Dr. Scholl’s Massaging Gel Insoles.  For starters, these ingenious insoles:

– Double the comfort in your shoes (for people with foot discomfort)

– Feature a Dual Wave Design – soft blue gel cushions and provides a superior shock absorption, while firmer purple gel offers added support

– Can be used in a variety of shoes

– Belong to a full line of Massaging Gel foot care solutions

– Come in men’s size 8-13 and women’s sizes 6-10

– Sell for a suggested retail price of $12.99

– Can be found in the foot care aisle of most drugstores, grocery stores, and discount mass retailers

– Offer a money-back guarantee, so there is no risk in trying them!

Check out the Product Consultation tool at drscholls.com to see which product works best for your specific foot needs!

Product Review: CollageIt

Katie June 16, 2012 0 Comments

CollageIt is a great program from PearlMountain.  If you are looking for a quick and easy way to display all your vacation photos, pictures of your kids ball games or anything else you can think of – CollageIt can help you make a collage of your photographs in seconds!

CollageIt is a most easy-to-use collage maker which allows individuals to make photo collages on Mac and Windows automatically in minutes with just a few clicks! Whether a casual user or a professional photographer, one can easily and quickly master it. With CollageIt, people can share photos with friends and family in a unique way.

CollageIt assists users in recording beautiful moments in the easiest way. It has the following key features:

-Automatic, Easy to Use and Powerful

– Various collage templates to choose from

– Customize Photo Collages Freely

– Share the Collage Anywhere

CollageIt certainly is very easy to use.  In seconds I had all my photos from a recent baseball game loaded in the program. I chose the layout I wanted to create and picked where I wanted each photo to go.  It was easy to crop or rotate images so that the part that I wanted to be seen was shown in the spot for that photograph.

When you are done, you can save the image to your computer to order a print, set it as your computer wallpaper (a great alternative if you don’t like staring at just one photo as your background!), send it via email to friends and family or post it to Flickr and Facebook.

Unfortunately the time I tried to export my image to Facebook there were some errors (not sure if that was on CollageIt’s end or Facebooks) and all the images in my collage did not transfer over as they should have. This happened twice and then I gave up.  I just exported it as a jpg and uploaded it to Facebook myself, and then I had no problems.

My second attempt at a collage was with my One Direction photos after I was a bit more familiar with the program.

Check out the Website: http://www.collageitfree.com/

I have several product codes to give away if you’d like to try it. Just leave a comment with your email address and I will contact winners on or after June 30th with the code.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Product Review: Kisspat Feathers Neon Extensions

Katie June 7, 2012 0 Comments

Feathers are one of the hottest new accesories out there.  Last summer I had a feather “permanently” added to my hair but I was looking for something that would be a bit more flexible that I could wear only sometimes (like to concerts) and not have to wear them to work too, or ones that I could coordinate with certain outfits so I wouldn’t have to have the same colored one in my hair for months.

I then found Kisspat Feather who have a line of neon extension Hair Feathers that easily clip in to your hair like a barette and can be added anywhere in your hair and removed and moved around as often as you would like.  Kisspat Feather is a family based company that specializes in high quality feather beauty accessories.  Their products include hair feathers, feather earrings, feather headbands, feather necklaces, peacock feather jewelry, peacock accessories and may other items!  Every piece in their store is 100% handmade with love and care!  They are based out of Hong Kong and have 3 different shipping methods available which take anywhere from 3 – 20 days to arrive to customers in the USA and Canada.

I was sent several different neon (my favorite!) hair feather extensions to try out.  Each of them attached to a hair clip.  At first I was worried tha

t the clip would open and fall out during the day, but once I found the place in my hair I wanted to attach the clip to, it was in for good. (In fact, I even had a bit of trouble unclipping it at the end of the day, but I think that was b

ecause I had it in a spot that was hard to reach.)  The feathers are great quality and bright and vibrant colors and added that extra accesory that I was looking for to complete my outfits.

The extensions can also be washed and styled as you wish, so you can easily create a neon braid and keep the extensions clean in case you had worn them out on a particularly sweaty night. I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Tombow Adhesive

Katie May 27, 2012 0 Comments

Lately it has seemed that my “to do” list for scrapbooking keeps getting longer and longer and I keep putting off creating any pages.  It turns out that the boost I needed to get back to working on layouts was Tombow Adhesive!  A new toy!  These glues have a number of uses, but I used mine exclusively for scrapbooking.

The glue is acid-free, photo-safe and non-toxic, which are definitely things that you want to hear when you are creating scrapbooks that you want to last a lifetime (or two or three.)  The adhesive bonds instantly, cleanly and wrinkle-free which is definitely a plus.  I’ve had other glues that bubble up under the photo and it ends up looking silly once the page is all put together because the picture is all bumpy.  With the tombow adhesive, I didn’t have that problem at all! All my photos laid nice and flat and didn’t fall off either when I picked them up to move them once I finished a layout!

When it says bonds instantly, they aren’t joking.  I had one picture go down not quite where I wanted it to, and it tore the paper when I peeled it back up.  Fortunately I just had to move it over a smidge so there were no blemishes on the page, but in the future I might want to try going for the removable bond, just so I have that wiggle room if I’m not 100% sold on my layout after sticking things down.

The tape is 1/3″ by 472″, I’ve done 3  12×12 layouts and it is still going strong.  I expect it to last me through the rest of my scrapping to do list  (5 more events) and then some.

A 2012 scrapbook layout post should be coming sometime in the next few months, so be sure to pay extra attention to the SK6ers, Matt Nathanson, Concert for Kids, Hanson in NJ and Big Time Rush layouts because those are the ones that I used the Tombow adhesives for!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine

Katie May 17, 2012 0 Comments

I have frizzy hair. I hate it, but there isn’t much I can do about it. Until now!  Garnier Fructis has come out with a new line of shampoos and conditioners.  I’ve been using “Sleek and Shine” which contains some “fruit science” – apricot oil and ultra-smoothing Argan Oil from Morocco.  Sleek and Shine will keep your hair sleek for a full 3 days, even in 97% humidity!

Usually, shampoos that promote “anti frizz” or anything of that sort end up weighing down your hair with a nasty residue in order to make your hair too heavy to frizz up.  I don’t like using this products because they don’t leave my hair feeling clean when I am out of the shower.  My natural wavy and curlyness to my hair also gets weighed down. Garnier Fructis’ Sleek and Shine does not do this at all.  In fact, the first time I used the shampoo and conditioner I went to bed right after. I woke up with some ridiculous bed head (I really wish I took a photo) and the whole right side of my head was one GIANT curl.  I obviously brushed it out because it was a bit extreme of a hairdo to try and wear out in public, but the fact that my hair curled to that extreme just shows you that the shampoo didn’t leave my hair weighed down – AND there was noticably less frizz. (I’d say 90% of my usual daily frizz was gone – which is amazing.)

Another great thing about these new Garnier products is that they come in  Eco-Fructis Bottles. It is a new lighter bottle design made of PET and 30% recycled products.  You really can’t go wrong there – shampoo and conditioner that is great for your hair and great for the environment too!

The complete line of Garnier products can be found on their website: http://www.garnierusa.com/_en/_us/fructis/index.aspx#/products

Garnier is also on Facebook, so be sure to give them a ‘like’ to be kept up to date on everything that is happening with their products!  facebook.com/GarnierUSA

I received a free Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Shampoo and Conditioner in order to write this review through BzzAgent.  All opinions are 100% honest and 100% mine and I was not otherwise compensated.

21% off at Piczzle

Katie April 30, 2012 0 Comments

Our giveaway of a piczzle puzzle has now ended, but the great folks over at piczzle have given me a 21% off discount code for any of you who may want to purchase a picture puzzle.  Mothers Day is right around the corner – this would be a great idea if you are not sure what to get Mom!

Coupon Code: ConcertKatie21

21% discount on all prices valid until Wednesday May 2nd 23:59