Shout OUT for Beauty Products

Occasionally I come across some outstanding combinations and I wanted to share.

HAIR:
My hair is fine and my natural color (finally!) so I needed something that would give it grip, volume and hold. Bumble and Bumble Prep first, then Thickening Spray has been miraculous. I am on my second day and I usually have to wash it every day, but I just sprayed more thickening spray and voila, same hairstyle as yesterday! I don't need hairspray or anything else. This is an expensive combination, but I think you will find B&B salons generous with their return policy if you don't like it. Also, they have smaller travel sizes for about 1/2 to 1/3 the price.

Since I have been on strike against highlighting, finding a product to make my natural hair manageable is worth every penny to me. It's also a considerable cost savings. How much do you spend on hair maintenance a year? Which brings me to another question, what gave everyone the impression that their natural hair color needed to be changed?

www.bumbleandbumble.com

SKIN:
I ordered samples of Jane Iredale's mineral foundation from http://www.skin-etc.com/janeiredale.html. I tried the loose powder and the pressed powder. The loose powder turned an awful shade of orange on me. I may not have used it right because I didn't have the special brush to apply it. However the pressed powder is wonderful. It is nothing like Bare Escentuals, not shiny and cakey. I just used a powder puff from Sephora and smoothed it on. As a base/moisturizer/primer, I use Clarins Beauty Flash Balm. The results are perfect skin! It covers up all the redness in my face. I think the makeup is supposed to have spf, but I still like to use a sunscreen every day. I haven't figured that part out. It seems that the more I goop on my face, the worse it looks.

NAILS:
I am not normally a painted nail kind of girl, but I've been keeping shorter nails and wanted a little bit of polish. After testing many colors at the store, I found a great natural and polished look. It's Essie "Vanity Fairest". Most of the light colors I used were different in the bottle, but exactly the same on my nails. This one is more milky when applied. It is also very shiny. If you take the time to file and push cuticles back when you are taking a bath (Thank you, my Grandmother taught me that!), you will have beautifully manicured nails for the cost of a bottle of polish.

www.essie.com