Influenster Product Review – Loreal Paris Ultimate Straight Haircare Collection

First of all, I love Influenster. They have sent a lot of great voxboxes this year.

This one took me  a while to get to due to the wedding activities, but I finally have. And it’s great!

The only not-so-great part? The shampoo bottle completely exploded during shipping – I’m sure that letting it sit in the mail box for a week in 100+ temperatures didn’t help. But hey, that’s how it goes.

See the lower right corner of the box? Yep, shampoo

So let’s get to the review, shall we?

This picture was taken using the products. I know it’s a car-selfie, and not the best at that – but you get the idea.

So a little background on the product –

This haircare system is comprised of 4 products.

First step is the Shampoo – Great smelling, felt good while applying, foamy and rinsed out easily – I’m not sure how else to review a shampoo, most shampoo’s are fairly similar while applying LOL

Second step is the pre-conditioner – I have NEVER used a pre-conditioner. I didn’t really understand this concept when I got the box, like, really? Another step I have to take while doing my hair? – I’m a simple girl. Again, the smell was great and I didn’t mind an extra head massage during the process, but if there was anything I could change about the bundle it would be to remove this step and somehow add it into the conditioner. Don’t know if that’s possible, I’m not a chemist, but it seems like it could be done…

Next came the conditioner – good smelling, smooth, thick… pretty standard stuff as far as conditioner goes. It did rinse out pretty well, which sometimes is the hardest part with conditioner. It didn’t leave residue or anything which was a plus.

Lastly, the straightening balm – This was applied right after towel-drying my hair, before styling. Again, great smelling (see a trend?) and applied well. It didn’t feel greasy or oily which was nice. I don’t like to have to deal with grease-ball hair, which can show easily with my short locks.

I did my standard blow drying process (large round brush for the front, small round brush in the back) and also did a little straightening with the straightening iron with the longer portions in the front.

After all was said and done I feel like this haircare bundle is definitely something I’ll continue to use and test out over the coming months (product lasts long when your hair is short – bonus!). I love that it didn’t leave me greasy, but just with shiny and straight hair.

The claim is that this product allows you to have straight hair for 48 hours; I’m not 100% sure about that since I workout and do have to rinse daily (full wash every other day), but for the 24 hour span it definitely works well. I think it even helps after sleeping a full night on it. That definitely says something!

I’m interested to see how it works with my hair color. I’m a natural blonde and this color fades fairly quickly (I require touchups every 6 weeks). I’ve been using a color lasting shampoo and conditioner so I really hope the color isn’t affected while using this bundle. Updates to follow!

I May Just Be Cray Cray…

So that 10k my friend and I signed up for 3 weekends from now? We decided to just go for it and make it a half marathon. Not only that, but we’ll be pushing about 70lbs of child in a double stroller.  We decided we’d switch off every mile pushing and we can walk when we need to. We’ll see how it goes… We’re doing an 8-mile test run this weekend.

I’m improving quite a bit with my running and very happy. I don’t have to walk much anymore, although I do take my walking breaks since I’m following an actual program. I’m up to 7min running 1 minute walking… quite a change from my 30s running / 2min walking that I started out at just a couple months ago!

I’m pretty proud of the changes I’ve made mentally throughout this process also. It’s funny, I used to believe that if I wasn’t getting weight lifting in I’d just become flabby, uncomfortable and not be “cool”. Well, I haven’t picked up more than a 15lb Dumbbell in MONTHS and to top that off, it’s been almost two months since I’ve done ANY real weight lifting. I’ve been doing daily (or close to it) yoga, 3-4x per week running and about 15min bodyweight workouts here and there… averaging about 1x per week. I feel better than EVER! I think it’s just all about finding what we want to do, what we enjoy doing, and what makes us happy. I didn’t realize how miserable I was with weightlifting until I allowed myself to just do what feels good and stop listening to the social media guru’s of the world who say YOU MUST LIFT IF YOU DON’T YOU’RE WASTING YOUR TIME!  –  Well, screw you.

Ok- end rant. 🙂

And… onto my last review for this Frosty VoxBox from Influenster.

This post is sponsored by Influenster (www.influenster.com) … the products reviewed in this post were provided to me compliments of the Influenster team for my review. All opinions are my own.

EcoTools Hair Brush: $10.99

This was definitely one of the better items in the voxbox. I have used it daily since it’s arrival and have found it works great for my short ‘do. Although I think I remember reading somewhere that it’s best suited for long hair, I actually find it to be very well suited for my short hair also. It’s a flat brush, so if I want more body I’ll use it ALONG with my round brush, but for most days this brush alone works well. What I love most about it is that it’s designed to allow more airflow while drying, that means less time under the blow-dryer and less time for your hair to get damaged! Since I dye my hair about every 7 weeks my hair tends to get frazzled towards the end of its dye cycle so the less time under the heat the better!

Another bonus is the way the bristles feel on my scalp – I absolutely love it! It’s almost like a massage!!

If I didn’t already have this brush I would go out and buy it for sure!! I rated this brush 5/5 on influesnter.com.

Product Review – Boots No7 Protect & Perfect Intense ADVANCED Sachet

This post is sponsored by Influenster (www.influenster.com) … the products reviewed in this post were provided to me compliments of the Influenster team for my review. All opinions are my own.

I was on the fence as to whether or not I’d actually use this product. My skin has been really wonky lately and I didn’t want to add anything new to my regimen… BUT, It was only a sample so I figured I’d give it a go! LOL

So, let’s get to it.

I’ll be honest, how can you REALLY tell if your fine lines and wrinkles are clearning up based on a few-day sample of product? You cant. So I won’t be commenting on the effectiveness of the product, there is no way for me to tell if this works or not. But, I CAN comment on the over-all feel of the product on my skin, and that was great! It really went on smooth and wasn’t greasy or oily like a lot of products.

That said, I am not going to rush out and buy an entire bottle for $30, mainly because I don’t feel I really NEED this product as part of my skin care routine.

I rated this product as a 4 out of 5 stars on Influenster, ONLY because I couldn’t really tell if the product actually does what it says it does.