Fresh Powder

I thought it would be fun to wait for a snowy day to write a post about the new powder I’ve been using, but we really didn’t get a good snow day this winter. For some reason, the best snow day was in October, which was just weird. Instead of waiting until next year, I figured I should go ahead and tell you about Kett.

April Birchbox

The theme of this month’s Birchbox is Natural Wonders, so everything is pretty fruity and/or natural or, in some cases, neutral.

Beauty Balm Is The Bomb

I was recently invited by bzzagent.com* to try Garnier’s new BB Cream. I was really excited, because you know how much I love my BB Cream!

Guacamasqué

Generally, I would never waste a perfectly good avocado by doing anything other than eating it. But, I happened to have three ripe avocados on hand that were getting riper aaaand rrrriiiiperrrr and I figured I could spare one to try out a hair treatment I read about… ugh…somewhere on the internet. (I attempted to find it again, but it’s like finding a needle in 5 million haystacks.)

It’s funny that during the week I’m trying to write about things that are free or really cheap, I am using a notoriously expensive fruit, but still. It's pretty cheap as far as beauty products go.

So, what you do is take an avocado, an egg yolk, and a teaspoon of olive oil, and you mash it all up for approximately 100 years. You have to mash it really well, because otherwise you’re going to have chunks of avocado falling off your head while you’re wearing it. It would probably be a good idea to use a food processor or something to get it really smooth, but I didn’t feel like washing anything extra so I just mashed forever.

The thing I read advised you to section your hair into quarters, which I didn’t do at first, but I quickly realized it’s a good idea to do that because you really have to work this into your hair, and you might miss some spots if you’re not careful.

Also, even if you ARE careful, you shouldn't wear a good shirt while you’re doing this. I put on a robe that I didn’t really care about, and I’m glad, because it took a few hits.

After you work the avocado glop through your hair, you’re supposed to put your hair into a bun. I ended up with two buns, one in front, and one in back. For me, it was just easier to get some of the hair out of the way before I started coating the back section. Four buns would actually make a lot of sense too.

I have a lot of hair, even though it’s significantly shorter now, but this recipe made a lot of goop and I had a few tablespoons left. If your hair is short or thin, you could probably just make half a recipe and then eat than other half of the avocado on whole wheat toast with some kosher salt. (Or giant crystals of Maldon sea salt, if you’re fancy.)

In fact, you could eat it while you’re waiting, because you have to let the mask soak in for half an hour. If you had one of those disposable shower caps you stole from a hotel, it would probably be great to put that on. But if it’s buried somewhere in the cabinet under your sink, you’ll be fine without it as long as your buns are well secured. Always make sure your buns are well secured.

The mask gets a little bit hard/dried out in parts, but otherwise doesn’t change much. When it’s time to rinse, wait until you get into the shower to take out the bun or buns, it’s less risky. Plus, you can just wash the ponytail holders while you’re in there.

After you rinse out all the guacamasqué, shampoo and condition as usual. I let my hair air dry, which I tend to do these days.

Hours pass. Hair dries. Laundry gets did.

So, this definitely didn’t do anything for my frizz, but I guess it didn’t promise that. It’s only meant to be hydrating, which… ehhh. A little? My hair is softer maybe? It certainly didn’t work any miracles.
Next time, I’m making guacamole.

Free! For Food & Fitness "Fun"

After that whole Tracy Anderson thing I did last year, I swore I would never go on another diet. At the same time, having free reign doesn’t exactly help one slim down for summer, even if you’re being good about exercising.

In Bloom: Your Face

Aline, a friend and contributor, moved to NYC from Switzerland for a few months for an internship. Upon arrival, there were a few things she needed to pick up for her stay, and the two things she asked me to help her locate were Orange Blossom Water, to use as a toner, and Evian Mineral Water Spray, presumably because the city tap water is a little different than what she gets back home among the Alps.

Glossed And Found

Lip Gloss in undependable. Sure it’s all fun and pretty and and sparkly at first. “Let’s go out and have fun!” Lip Gloss says. “You look GREAT!” Then you're one drink in, and Lip Gloss is nowhere to be found, leaving your lips stark naked and alone in public.

Of course, if you make it a priority to keep up with Lip Gloss, you’ll be okay. But go too long without giving Lip Gloss your attention, and it will totally bail on you. Lip Gloss is the high maintenance frenemy of the lip color world.

Tangerine Tango: A Chip Off The Old Chip

As a graphic designer, I was super excited when I heard about the Pantone collaboration with Sephora. I almost wrote about it right away, as a “coming soon” sort of thing, but that was approximately when the shit hit the fan with work right before I went on vacation, so I waited. And I’m so glad I did. Now I’ve had the chance not only to try it, but to thoroughly geek out over the packaging.

O.K. Coral

Every time Fresh comes out with a new Sugar Lip Treatment, I have to try it to see if it’s as good as my favorite, Sugar Rosé. Neither Original nor Honey won me over; they just didn’t have the same awesome texture as Rosé. Passion and Plum didn’t make it past the color test, in the store, on the back of my hand, so the texture didn’t even matter. Now there is a new member of the Sugar family: Coral.

I Want A Gross Body Glow!

I recently found out my favorite Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Glow Pads are now available for the whole body!These are larger pads, textured towels, they say, which contain a formula that is (somehow) an exfoliating, anti-aging, nourishing, irritation-and-blemish-combating self tanner that firms and smooths skin, while minimizing the need for shaving. SERIOUSLY?!?!!?

Stuck on Me

I was fascinated by the new face stickers/decals/tattoos as soon as I heard about them, but at the same time, they really didn’t seem like a good idea. Too unnatural, too uncomfortable, just too weird. I decided it wasn’t worth it to spend money on them, even when they went on sale around the holidays.

But one magical day, a golden set of Violent Lips arrived in the mail, tucked inside my February Birch Box. On the punkahontas Facebook page, reader (and cousin) Jennifer commented that she really wanted to try the lip decals, but had received eye decals. We arranged to share our stickers via good old US Mail, since there were multiple decals in each packet.

March Birchbox

Wow, March really flew by. My Birchbox arrived while I was on vacation and then last week I was writing about travel, so now here we go with the March Birchbox post in April.

The theme for this one is Spring Training. The products are meant to “tackle all our lingering beauty annoyances” which, okaaaay. But I agree with their point about “shaking off everything that’s weighing us down.” I do love me some spring!