Friday, March 29, 2013

Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo

Colour treated blonde hair may sound easy, but it really can be a pain in the behind. I personally prefer cool ash blonde tones over warm golden tones but I sometimes find my ash tones, turning golden. That is a huge no-no in my books. I did my research and looked all over the place for something that would help solve this problem. This was the result and here is the review!


Shimmer Lights claims to tone down your hairs brassiness, maintain ash-toned colour, and leave hair shiny with no residue. Some pretty big claims for this giant purple bottle. First off, you do get a decent amount of product for what you pay. I believe mine cost 12$ and some change at Sally Beauty Supply. The instructions are easy and as follows:
Apply to wet hair. Lather, rinse and repeat. For additional brightening and colour, leave second lather on for 3 to 5 minutes. No patch test required. 
Simple and easy enough! I had read and watched some reviews where the people were leaving the product on their hair for over 30 minutes. I tried that, and it really started to burn. It also turned my hair purple, more on that below.


The product itself is this thick, gooey purple stuff. The smell is something that is hard to describe. I really think it smells like old dish soap - that gum that you used to chew, Thrills! It's really pungent and is one of the reasons I'm so hesitant to leave this stuff on my hair for extended periods of time. 

As for the extreme purple, when you put it on your hair, your hair will be purple. This stuff leaves my shower a mess! Purple suds every which way! The longest that I've left the product on my head for was around 15 minutes. In that time, I found that it did turn some strands a light purple colour. In return however, the brassiness was gone. I find that this works best on super light blonde hair. Some of my darker blonde strands didn't really look much different after a few uses. 

I haven't really noticed much of the brassiness being toned down. Eventually my hair still turns this weird golden colour and I'm forced to dye over it with some ash blonde colour. I think the only real solution for this is a toner, something I'm nowhere near experienced with.


So would I buy this product again? Probably not. I think the cons outweigh the pros. The smell is something that is just so off-putting to me. I also don't think it works the wonders that it claims it does. Does it leave my hair clean? Yes. 

Recently, I've switched to Lush's Daddy-O. Opting for something that is 100% natural and smells amazing sounds much better to me, even though I need to pay a few dollars more. I think when Clairol says this product is for blonde and silver, they mean really light blonde hair. If you fall into the white blonde/silver category, perhaps this product will work for you! In the meantime, I'm going to continue to find ways to prevent my hair from going brassy, one product at a time!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

I've Returned with Seven Drugstore Products I Love!

First off, this is my first post in a long time! For a while, I was seriously considering abandoning this blog but I've caught the Spring personal blogging fever and decided to bring this little blog back to life! There are quite a few things that I'd love to blog about and share with my readers. I miss providing you guys with reviews and stuff and I'm going to try my best to bring that stuff back. So without further ado, a blog post! 



Sephora is one store that is absolutely dangerous for me. As soon as I walk in there, I have like a million things in my shopping bag. It's bad news when you're trying to save money. Recently, I've been trying to buy and try more drugstore products. These are seven drugstore products that I truly love and use almost everyday. They are also all under 15$CAD and will not break your bank and make you tear up a little at the checkout! 

  1. Eyes Lips Face Blush/Bronzer Duo in St. Lucia: I just purchased this on my last trip to the States for 3$ at Target. I love love love the blush and think it's almost a dupe for NARS Orgasm. It's a sheer pinky colour with some shimmer but nothing like Super Orgasm. It's perfect in every way. Pigmented, easily applied and a pretty colour. The bronzer is a bit too dark for my skin and kind of applies a bit splotchy so I just avoid it. But if you weren't as fair as myself, you'd probably have much better luck than me. 
  2. Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream: So many people were writing to me on my blog a while back asking me if I had tried this BB cream stuff. Each time I would scratch my head and think, #*@&( is a BB cream? I finally caved and purchased this one by Maybelline. It has actually replaced a lot of things in my everyday makeup routine. Some important ones being my primer and moisturiser. I find that this has the ability to quench my skins thirst and keep my makeup looking pretty fancy all day. 
  3. Rimmel Scandal-Eyes Mascara: This reminds me of Givenchy's Phenomen-Eyes mascara with the ball that is used to lift your lashes to out of this world length. The great thing about this mascara is it's probably a quarter of the price of the Givenchy one and it does the same thing. It has the ball end with the normal wand on the lower part. Great application and I find that it doesn't have much fall out during the day. My lashes have never looked longer!
  4. Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder: My holy grail. I use this every single day as either solely my foundation or the powder I use to set my liquid foundation. It is amazing. I think I own at least ten and keep one in every bag I have. It's great for touch ups during the day and prevents my face from oiling up. I wear the shade Sandstorm. 
  5. Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro Topcoat: This polish reminds me of my Seche Vite top-coat without the quick thickening and 'going bad'. It makes your nails super shiny and adds days onto the life of your polish. It actually dries pretty quickly and is always a part of my manicure routine.
  6. Wet 'N Wild Lipstick in Stoplight Red: Dupe alert! I originally bought this because I read somewhere that it was a dupe for MACs Russian Red? I think this one is a little bit more warm red than MACs but still, very similar. They also have a dupe for Creme Cups! It's a matte lipstick and the wear is great. 
  7. Essence I <3 Stage Eyeshadow Primer: Love this one! Essence is a great little European brand that I discovered when I visited Germany a few years ago. I was so sad when I got back to Canada and couldn't find it anywhere but at last, they've decided to expand! I believe this primer was only something like 2$ and it's honestly up to par with Urban Decay's. It's great under the eyes too and I find that it really brightens everything up before shadow/liner!


I really hope you get the opportunity to try some of these products! I can totally guarantee that you won't be disappointed. A lot of these have found their way into my makeup bag as some permanent products! What are some of your drugstore holy grail items?