My Love Affair With Men's Razors and my loyalty to Dollar Shave Club

I began my love affair with men's razors on October 13, 2006. I remember because it was Friday the 13^th and in my attempt to avoid all responsibility, I blamed my tardiness on that rather than on the fact that I’d pressed the snooze button about 7 times before finally getting up. I’ve never been an early riser so it wasn’t a big of a deal to me, the “real” issue,  was the fact that I had less than 30 minutes to get to class and no clean pants to wear.

Living in California means we live in perpetual spring weather, so the fact that it was October didn’t mean I couldn’t wear shorts, but with that came a second problem...I hadn’t shaved in weeks. My legs were so hairy I could supply wigs for the entire Hair Club for Men. If speed shaving was an Olympic sport I’d take the gold every time so shaving quickly wasn’t a problem, the third problem was I had absolutely no razors left.  

In my desperation I decided that my dad’s manly razor would have to do. So I pulled out a new refill and shaved with the speed of an Olympic athlete, put on my shorts and peeled off to school. On the drive there I touched my leg and felt what could only be described as baby smooth skin. I didn't have any of the dry patches I sometimes get after shaving and I hadn’t even applied lotion but it was by all means the best looking shave I’d had in years.

Fast forward 10 years and guess what, I’m still using men’s razors. The only difference is that now I buy my own, and I get them delivered at home. I, like many other women fall victim of the “Pink Tax." Products marketed towards women are 48% more expensive than comparable (and often times identical) items marketed towards men, this includes razors. The pink-ness of a razor isn’t going to make it shave any better than the silver razor I get from Dollar Shave Club. So if getting a razor delivered to my door for a fraction of the prize is crazy then I don’t want to be sane.

Daiso BB Face Mask... Miracle in a pack?

Having started a new face care routine, I found myself with the realization that I've just replaced one problem with another. Perhaps i exercised poor judgment when treating my acne in the winter, because although my skin is looking amazingly clear, I've been left with a complexion full of dry flaky patches, which to be honest is still the lesser of two evils. So in the attempt to treat my patchy complexion, i picked up this BB face mask from Daiso.

Front

Back

THE BARGAIN:
For $1.50 a pack it's definitely worth a try. Especially considering each pack contains 2 face masks. Best case scenario i find a cheap moisturizing face mask or at the very least it'll be a fun pampering experience during my biweekly "Me-Time" sessions. I have extremely resilient skin, and to my knowledge, i'm not allergic to anything, so any sort of irritation or allergic reaction are highly unlikely.

MY SKIN:
I feel i should point out that my skin isn't terrible. My skin is pretty resilient considering all the crap i put it through. I don't have acne prone skin either. The acne i was attempting to get rid of is the result of  poor skin care (yes i'll admit i sometimes go to sleep with makeup on-Don't Judge Me!- we all do it) and a horrible diet including poor hydration. I don't even break out when Aunt Flow visits which is apparently very common for girls. I do however, get plenty of hyper pigmentation, which through the years I've found will fade in time, but treating it with acne fighting products seems to effectively speed up the process, while simultaneously taking care of any pesky little breakouts i might be dealing with at the time. That however, can sometimes lead to situations such as this when i'm left to deal with dry patchy skin, which is why i decided to try out this mask.

INGREDIENTS:
The mask contain Hyaluronic Acid which is found in Restylane. It also contains Glycerin, Castor Oil and Panthenol which are utilized for their hydration and miniaturization properties. This mask is not paraben free as it does also contain Methyl Paraben. So if you like to stick to paraben free products you might want to steer clear from this mask.

PREPARATION:
Before applying the mask i cleansed my face with my Clarisonic. The Clarisonic cleanses while gently exfoliating your skin. This step is essential, as exfoliation allows for better penetration and absorption of any products you apply afterwards. If you don't have a Clarisonic, a DIY honey and brown sugar scrub will do the trick.

APPLICATION: The process is pretty straight forward, just unfold the mask and place it on your face. Leave the mask on for 15 minutes, which is plenty of time to allow the product to seep into your skin and do its magic. This is a pretty large mask so it should cover your entire face. I've used this mask several times and have found it to be extremely saturated each time so getting a dry one seem unlikely.

I left the mask on for about 30 minutes. In part because i was busy studying for my upcoming Chemistry final and because i was both too lazy to get up and go to the restroom to remove it and because i figured a few more minutes weren't going to hurt. The body knows what it wants and it will absorb only as much as it needs to. Not unlike when you take vitamins, which the body absorbs but will ultimately flush out the excess making for what could be considered very expensive urine. But i digress. Leaving the mask on longer did not harm my skin.

THE VERDICT:
I give this mask a 4/5. I base my reviews on a few factors including price, accessibility, difficulty of use, packaging and overall results. Considering i bought it at my local Daiso for only $1.50 and the application was as easy as they come, it left my skin feeling pretty smooth and moisturized and each mask was individually wrapped for minimal wasted product i'd say its definitely worth a try. It's not moisturizing enough to call this a holy grail product but it works well enough to warrant spending $1.50 for 2.

Garnier Olia Hair Color Review

I recently had a chance to try out the new Garnier Olia hair color. When i saw their ads i was intrigued and extremely interested in trying it out. Luckily BzzAgent selected me for their Garnier Olia campaign and needless to say i jumped at the opportunity to try it. 

I did a lot of research before trying it out and was surprised at the number of reviews available. It is a fairly new product and so i was unable to get a clear review. For the most part the reviews are pretty mixed.  

First off i'll give you some history on my hair and it's natural and current condition. I've done my fair share of at home hair dying. I've been coloring my hair since i was 15 and I've never looked back. My hair is about mid back length and naturally thin and semi-frizzy. I do however have a lot of it and so i typically need about 2 boxes of hair dye.

Here are the available shades that Olia offers. I find that it's not many but it does cover the basic general shades. (sorry for the small picture i wasn't able to find a bigger one) It retails for about $10 ea. Like i mentioned previously i was selected for a BzzAgent campaign so i got one box for free, however i did have to pay full price for the second box. 

I had heard that one box didn't contain very much product and so i opted for 2 boxes, which i typically do anyway. Since computer screens vary in brightness and color display, choosing a shade online is difficult. I did however find a handy link that helps you chose the most flattering shades based on your natural hair color. I've colored my hair red, black and a highlights shade that looked more orange than brown (it was a sad sad day when i decided to try out the L'oreal boxed highlights kit). I was leaning towards an Ash brown and was given some nice choices. 

This is the what i started off with. Last time i colored my hair was months before these pictures were taken . I colored it a "natural" black but by the time i took these pictures it had faded and looked brownish black. 

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I opted for 6.0 Light Brown. 

  

The Dying Process: 
The dying process was simple. The instructions were pretty straight forward and easy to comprehend, If you've done it before you probably wont need them, other than for checking how long you're supposed to leave it on your hair. Olia tells you to leave it for 30 minutes which is about standard for most hair dyes. The application bottle has a bit of an odd shape to it. It looks nice, but it's not very practical. I don't have unusually small hands, yet i found myself having a hard time holding on to it while i mixed the developer & colorant, as a result i dropped it a couple of times spilling some of the mixture on my sink. I was afraid two bottles would barely be enough, and since i didn't want to waste any more product i was careful to apply it sparingly. Surprisingly one bottle did cover my entire hair, however it was barely damp and I was afraid I might have missed some spots so I decided I'd rather make sure it was fully saturated so I went ahead and used the second bottle.


THE RESULTS:
The results were average. It covered all my hair. I don't see any splotchy areas. This is not usually an issue for me though so it will vary from person to person. The only unevenness is in the roots area. As you may be aware, "virgin" hair grabs onto the dye a lot better than color treated hair. As a result my roots were a lot lighter than the rest of the hair. This is a common issue for me but i find that after a few washes the color seems to even out. The one thing i didn't like about the results (and perhaps the most important aspect of hair coloring in general) was the shade. I've yet to have a nice natural looking brown shade and so i was really looking forward to this color. Which is why i was a bit disappointed when I noticed the reddish hue. I've already had red hair before, and when i go red i fully commit. I don't prefer "hints" of red in my hair. If i wanted red i would have gone red. This was supposed to be brown but it looks more mahogany to me. I will have to wait and see if the color changes in the coming weeks.

PROS:

• Even coverage
• Available at mass retailers
• Less expensive than salon coloring 

CONS:

• "Higher end" drugstore price
• Limited shade range
• Not true to color
• Small amount of product
• Bottle design not practical