VB's Beauty Picks and Tips of the Week: Keeping it Real – How to Make Your Haircolor Last

I’ve been dying my hair for 18 years now, and have had experience with all sorts of different types of hair dying processes; hennas, cellophanes, vegetable dyes, bleach, permanent, semi-permanent, at home and in salon. These days, I’m a highlighted, lowlighted, then toned girl atlernating between locks of caramel and sable blonde. So this week’s Tips and Picks are how to maintain your haircolor in between visits to the salon.



1. Wash every other day or every two days depending on hair texture and activities.

*(Even though I hate them, I use showers caps, A LOT.)
If you can’t stand to not wash your hair everyday, then alternate between shampoo/conditioning, then only rinsing with conditioner the next day.



2. Between Washings, use a dry shampoo (like Ojon’s - $24 at Sephora) or dry shampoo technique (see my D.I.Y. Tip from 4.22.07.)

3. Wash and Condition hair with a gentle, shampoo and deep conditioner.

*(My favorite is Kerastase’s Bain Miroir line - See beauty blog picks from 11.12.07)

4. Maintain color by using a color enhancing shampoo (dilute with an equal parts ratio with your regular shampoo with it to avoid over-drying) and follow with a glosser, then deep conditioner, 1-2 times per week.


*My favorite is ARTec Loreal Professionnel Color Shampoo. If you’re blonde and want to reduce brassiness use a shade with a violet/blue base. To enhance reds and browns, match your shade to their product descriptions listed here.

REVIEW:
Price: $14.99
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: HaircareUSA.com or Your Local Beauty Supply Store



Glosser of choice is John Frieda Luminous Color Glaze in Clear.

*This will bring your hair back to how it was straight out of the salon; silky, light, and super shiny with incredible vitality. The glossers come in formulas for brunettes, redheads, and blondes, but I prefer to use the clear glosser and the ARTec Color Enhancing shampoos, since these offer a wider variety of color options and solutions.

REVIEW:
Price: $9.99
Value: Good
Accessibility: Great!
Where to buy: Drugstores
**LOOK at your local Newspaper ads for SALES on this item!!

5. Maintaining Roots - I don’t recommend touching up roots at home if you are highlighted or blonde.

*I stretch my cut and color to every 8-12 weeks, so when the roots start getting too long I wear my hair back, like this:


Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Picks and Tip of the Week: Get More-a at Sephora - My Sephora Picks of the Week

I could spend an entire week at Sephora checking out testers, asking questions, comparing products, and cease to get bored. So this week, it was a very tough call on my part narrowing down my favorites to three special products, but after careful consideration and evaluation, here they are.


1. Nars Limited Edition Night Series Mini Palette

This Nars palette is like a dream come true for any girl who likes to spend her beauty dollars wisely. At $50, it includes a nice sampling of six very versatile shades of eyeshadow. A sheer, sparkly lavender is perfect for this springs's "Ballerina" look, or create a variation on the traditional smokey eye with the deep plum, and black emerald shades. Wear the sheer gold and crisp white shimmer alone or use as an accent color. This palette gets me really excited cause there are so many possibilities here! Love it!!
REVIEW:
Price: $55
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Sephora.com



2. Brush Cleanser by Make Up Forever
I watched a TV program on household bacteria a while back which made me totally paranoid about the cleanliness of my makeup brushes. Make Up Forever's brush cleaner is great because makes it quick and easy to maintain the cleanliness of my makeup brushes in between washings (still a good idea to wash these with shampoo and warm water every 4-6 weeks), and you may have noticed most department store makeup counters use these on their tester brushes. I spray my brushes off every week, dab on a tissue until clear, give it a hard shake to shape, then finish by smoothing the bristles back into shape by hand. You'll be amazed as you watch the excess makeup and germs go bye bye.

REVIEW:
Price: $17 for 7.10 oz. bottle
Value: Good
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Sephora.com



3. Imju Fiberwig Mascara
This mascara rocks!! And I sample mascaras like retirees eat Costco samples at lunch on a weekday. It seems the Japanese cosmetics company, Imju, has perfected the high mascara fiber formula. I've tried other brands incorporating "loose" fibers into mascara – too messy and too dangerous for most folks, and require A LOT of concentration and patience, so altogether too high maintenance to use. The cool thing about this mascara is that it's smudge resistant and completely comes off with warm water too!

TIP: This mascara dries very fast, so for best results, curl lashes before applying, apply 2-3 coats of mascara letting each coat dry a couple minutes in between, then lastly curl lashes with a clean mascara wand heated under a blow dyer. (Hold mascara wand under the blow dryer for 10 seconds, hold from root to tip pushing up in a curling motion, as if you were applying mascara).

REVIEW:
Price: $22
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Sephora.com

Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Picks of the Week: Color Me Good - My Beauty Picks of the Week: Color Me Good - My Top French Finds for Color Treated Hair

I’ve been dying my hair since I was 12, and I just did the math…..So in my 17 years of hair color experience, I’ve come to realize the importance of using hair care products that help preserve and optimize your color, especially if a lot of time, money, and energy go into the process. So this week’s picks are products from my own personal hair care routine that will make your hair, well, fabulously French.


1. Kerastase Bain Miroir

I’m very picky when it comes to the way a shampoo feels before, during, and after a wash. The first time I used Kerastase’s Bain Miroir, I noticed it had a very low lather, so I was feeling a bit skeptical about its cleaning powers, which only fueled the fear the $32 I spent on shampoo was not going to live up to its monetary value, that this “colour-treated hair" shampoo would be too gentle, leaving me with supposedly clean hair, and down 32 bucks. My worries were soon dispelled, for after it was rinsed, I was left with very soft, lightweight, clean feeling hair that had seemed to take on a life of its own. I don’t know what they do there in their labs in Paris, but they’ve somehow managed to put that je ne sais quoi into a bottle of shampoo, casting a magical spell on one’s hair. Enchantée.

REVIEW:
Price: $32 for 8.5 oz.
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Select Kerastase Salons, Fred Segal Beauty, kerastase-usa.com


2. Kerastase Chroma Reflect Masque

The stylist from the Kerastase salon I purchased this product from recommended I use the Chroma Reflect Masque in place of Kerastase’s Chroma Reflect Milk, (the conditioner marketed to be sold with the Bain Miroir). All I have to say is that this conditioner is amazing; where other conditioners leave my hair in desperate need of a detangler, I experience no such thing with the Chroma Reflect Masque. My hair comes out perfectly conditioned, I’m able to easily run my fingers through it, and it dries much faster, and looks its absolute best; shiny, bouncy, vibrant, and healthy as compared to when I use other shampoo/conditioner combos. And the shine, the shine from this product is absolutely incredible – with it my highlights pick up and reflect the light in such unique way it’s like having a million tiny prisms in your hair, and the beauty of it is that it does all this in a natural sort of way. Gotta love science!

REVIEW:
Price: $58 for 6.8 oz.
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Select Kerastase Salons, Fred Segal Beauty, kerastase-usa.com



3. Phyto Huile D’ales – Pre-shampoo Intense Hydrating Oil Treatment

When I use Phyto’s Huile D’Ales I feel like I’m treating my hair to a day at the spa. It’s like giving your hair and scalp an aromatherapy session, since the treatment contains essential oils of sage, rosemary, juniper berries and lemon, which rinse out clean, leaving no oily residue as one might think. Using this product also gives me the opportunity for the occasional nerd out I like to have, as the junior scientist in me enjoys the preparation process of this treatment, since you have to break off the ends of the glass vial containing the formula in order to empty its contents into the enclosed spray bottle, which is then used to apply the oil to the hair. I use the treatment about every 3 weeks to revive my hair’s texture and color, and either the day of or before my color, as it helps the dye adhere to the hair shaft. *I soak the spray bottle in hot water before it’s application, so it’s like a traditional hot oil treatment.

REVIEW:
Price: $28 for (5) 0.33 oz. ampoules
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Sephora, sephora.com, drugstore.com

Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Tip of the Week: Brazaar Bazaar Part I – Get Fitted

October isn’t over yet, so neither is my latest obsession with things breast related. The focus of this and next week’s postings are bras, which we all know at times can be a woman’s best friend, and own worst enemy, as I’m sure every lady out there has had one of those days when for some reason or another you’ve worn that bra from hell; the kind that pinches, pulls, or sorta digs into your skin, and is basically so uncomfortable it ruins your day. So this week’s tip will help you to avoid such misery by showing you how to fit oneself in the correct size bra.

How to Fit a Bra - Only Takes 2 Minutes and Can be Life Altering!!

1. Band Measurement: Measure under your bust, without a bra, using a cloth tape measure. Gently pull the tape measure around your rib cage. Add 3 to the number to get the band measurement.

Example: If your measurement is 31″, add 3″ for a band size of 34”.

2. Bust Measurement: Measure around the fullest part of your bust. Do not pull the tape measure too tight.

Example: Your bust at the fullest part is 36″.

3. Cup Size = Bust Measurement - Band Measurement:
Cup Size Conversion: 0” = AA, 1” = A, 2″ = B, 3″ = C, 4″ = D, 5″ = DD,
6″ = DDD

Example: 36″ – 34″ = 2″. Your cup size is B and your bra size is 34B.


*If the band size comes out to an uneven number, try the next size up. Or if you are having difficulty finding a comfortable fit, then if you go up in cup size come down in band size or if you go up in band size come down in cup size. For example, if you are wearing a 34B, but it is a little too snug around the band, then you would move up to a 36A.

And if you find you do not fit the commonly sold bra sizes in most retail stores, Playtex now has their Thank Goodness It Fits and Half Sizes Too lines to accommodate. These can be found at Mervyn’s, Sears, Kohl’s, Macy’s or at walmart.com.

Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Picks of the Week: Bosom Buddies. Love Them.

I have a soft spot for things neglected, things that might not quite get the attention they deserve; and as we near the end of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I’ve come to realize there has been a significant shift in my own consciousness, and that October has really just become breast awareness month, and that is why this week’s picks are products that will keep your bosom buddies pampered.


1. Lancôme’s Exfoliance Clarte - Clarifying Exfoliating Gel

Last week’s tips included exfoliation as one of the breast care methods. One of my favorite exfoliating masks is Lancôme’s Exfoliance Clarte, a gel mask composed of pineapple and papaya extracts and very fine granules to remove dead skin cells. What I like most about this mask is that it clarifies without stripping the skin’s natural oils, a quality that many exfoliating products lack. It’s very gentle and hydrating, and works especially well on the face, neck, and bust.

REVIEW:
Price: $23 for 3.4 oz. tube
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Good
Where to buy: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sephora



2. Palmer’s Massage Cream for Stretch Marks

Palmer’s Massage Cream for Stretch Marks is great for anyone who is trying to prevent them, or would like existing ones to fade a bit (expecting mothers, people that diet, pubescent girls, women whose bodies are adjusting after childbirth). The cream contains vitamin E and cocoa butter; moisturizers that reduce stretch mark scarring; lanolin to firm, and collagen and elastin to aid in retaining the skin’s elasticity. It’s clinically and dermatologist tested, so safe for expecting and nursing mothers. Its initial fragrance is a bit potent; however this fades after a few minutes, but most importantly, it works and leaves you with firmer softer skin.

REVIEW:
Price: $5.79 4.4oz. tube
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Drugstores



3. Urban Decay Flavored Body Powder in Marshmallow

I’ve been a fan of Urban Decay’s edible shimmer powders for years now. They are incredibly fun and whimsical, perfect for enhancing décolleté, legs, shoulders, etc. and can essentially be used anywhere on the body. Hell, I’ve even seen people dust cakes with it. My recent favorite is Marshmallow, since it has a light creamy shimmer, and tastes decadently like, well like marshmallows. Delish.

REVIEW:
Price: $26 for .63 oz.
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: Sephora, urbandecay.com

Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Tips of the Week: I Must, I Must, I Must Get to Know My Bust. How to Become Breast Friends Forever.

It’s extremely important for all women to be educated, and informed about the risks of breast cancer, a hereditary and socio-economic disease, so serious that 1 in 8 women will develop it during their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. So with this alarming statistic, this week’s tips are to help women take preventative measures in caring for their breasts, so that they indeed may become B.F.F.

1. Get to know your breasts. Meaning, give yourself monthly breast examinations so you can become familiar with your breast tissue. As you become educated about this part of your body, it will be easier to detect any abnormal feeling lumps. ALWAYS consult a doctor as soon as possible if you think you may have found a questionable lump or questionable changes in skin texture. The following link has illustrated step by step instructions on how to perform this kind of monthly breast self-exam.

2. Get a professional’s opinion. Get a breast exam from your doctor every two years if you are under 40, women over 40 once a year. Get your first mammogram after 35, annual mammograms after 40.

3. Eat a balanced diet, exercise, and if you smoke, quit!

4. The skin on your chest is just as important and as sensitive as the skin on your face. So please, moisturize, exfoliate, and protect outdoors. Use sunscreen and cover your chest!!

Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!

VB's Beauty Picks of the Week: Hell Yeah. Pink Ladies Rule! Picks to Get You Thinking Pink.

Why do Pink Ladies rule you ask? They look cool, yes, but not quite the right answer. They act cool, yes, getting warmer. The answer: They think cool, and thinking cool in October involves recognizing the month as being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So this week’s picks are from a few of my favorite cosmetic brands that are supporting the cause.


1. Jo Malone Red Roses Cologne

I love Jo Malone Fragrances. So you can only imagine my excitement when I found out Jo Malone is participating in National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Red Roses is perfect for anyone who loves the smell of fresh cut roses, and is great worn alone or layered with a multitude of Jo Malone Scents. My personal favorite combination, which I call, Guns N’ Roses, is Red Roses worn with Black Vetyver Café. Sweet and sensual, dark, and a bit wild; so Rock ‘n’ Roll.

REVIEW:
Cost: $50.00/ 1oz.
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: BCRF Promo jomalone.com
Donation Type: $14,000 Breast Cancer Research Foundation



2. DuWop Purse Your Lips

The Purse your Lips Promo is cool cause you get a mini tube of pink shimmer Lip Venom in a cute pink metallic wristlet, and a portion of the proceeds are donated to the Cosmetic Executive Women’s Cancer and Career Foundation, which is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women in the workforce with Cancer.

I’ve been a fan of DuWop’s Lip Venom for years now, as it was one of the first lip plumper type products to hit the market. When I take it out with me, I tell people, “Yeah, it makes your lips bigger and kinda hurts, but like a good pain.” And every time, like clockwork, they ask to try it, and we all stand around pursing our shiny pink, and tingling lips.

REVIEW:
Cost: $24
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: CEW Promo sephora.com
Donation Type: Undisclosed amount - Cosmetic Executive Women’s Cancer and Career Foundation



3. Bumble and Bumble Classic Hairspray

I’m actually very quite impressed with Bumble and Bumble’s $1 contribution from every 10 oz. can sold during their Breast Cancer Awareness Month promotion. Moveable hold is the best way to describe Bumble and Bumble’s Classic Hairspray, which is definitely worth the investment, and a must have for classic curls, and holiday updos.

REVIEW:
Cost: $19.99
Value: Moderate
Accessibility: Moderate
Where to buy: BCRF Promo 1.888.7BUMBLE or participating salons in your area
Enjoy and stay posted for more beauty tips and picks to come next week!