hair

evo end doctor smoothing treatment

Hi everyone. 🙂

Phew this week has been a busy and tiring one so far. Have had a really bad bug (cold but possibly flu) which hasn’t helped! I hope that you are all having a much better week than me!

I also hope that you enjoy this review. 🙂

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Discovered this product by chance – at my Mum’s house of all places! 🙂 (A lil secret of mine – the brown part of my hair I dye at home – my mum helps! Thanks Mum. ;))

Last weekend, after colouring my hair, Mum encouraged me to give evo‘s end doctor smoothing treatment a try. She’s been using it for a while and stated that she thinks it’s pretty good.

I just had to laugh (in a good way!) when reading the packaging for this product; you’ll see what I mean!

(the comb is not part of the product; it was just sitting there as I'd used it!)

Price: $25.95 AUD

Where can I get it? exclusive to salons which stock evo or online at their site: evohair.com .

As you can read on the packaging shots above, this product is designed to do a few things – smooth unruly ends, provide heat protection, and also provide SPF protection (which would reduce rate of fading of colours due to sun exposure). On the latest version of the product packaging on evo‘s site, it makes specific reference to making curly wavy hair look good. This is ok as my hair type is wavy, however I do straighten my hair due to the cut I have!

I used the amount of product that my Mum stated she’d been advised to use – pea size (her hair’s about the same length as mine). It has a nice and mild fragrance and was easily absorbed by my damp hair.

This product didn’t leave my hair greasy, which is great, but it didn’t leave it looking any better than it usually does! I still had flyaways and the bits that tend to kick out really kicked out despite me using proper blowdrying techniques. So much for “taming” the hair! (In case anyone is wondering if the colouring of my hair before hand was a factor, I find that the colour I use tends to leave my hair shiny, smooth and healthy looking.)

As I’ve only tried this product once, do take my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I give it ~

Beautiful rating: quality 3/5, value 3/5. I love the packaging but it seems to be pretty average, given the price. (Sorry Mum – we’ll have to agree to disagree! ;-))

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Does anyone else also like the use of quirky blurbs on products that they buy? Bed Head’s blurbs are my favourite! 🙂

Empties (January… a tad late!)

Howdy! 🙂

Well, it’s been a busy week! I would’ve like to have blog more than I did but I guess that couldn’t be helped. 😦 At the moment I am also in the process of moving my blog from wordpress.com (wordpress hosted) to wordpress.org (hosted on a non-wordpress server) which has taken a lot of time to research. When I do make the move I will be sure to let you all know; in any case the blog will always be accessible via http://abeautifulstory.net 🙂 (Advantages to having the site hosted elsewhere include that I can have a lot more freedom with how I run it and I have free reign with design, customisation, etc.)

When the new site is up and running I will be hosting another giveaway! 🙂

Do any of you run a wordpress.org site? If so I’m keen to hear any tips/tricks; I’m not the best at IT to something that may take some people 10 minutes could take me 30 LOL (technically challenged huh?!)!

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As promised, *mini drumroll*, this post is all about my January empties! There’s another product that I should’ve included in the photos, my usual perfume which is Estee Lauder’s “Beauty”. Lovely fresh fragrance but can’t seem to get it anywhere locally these days… and I used to be able to get it for a good price!

So as you can see it’s a pretty small Empties collection! 🙂 My thoughts on these products, from L – R, top to bottom:

Dove Heat Defence Therapy Heat Activated Protect & Shine Mist

Price: I got it for $4 AUD on sale but the usual retail price is around $8-9 AUD.

Where can I get it? Supermarkets and some chemists.

This one is a beauty. Smells good, leaves my hair feeling good, and it has a medium spraying range, meaning that you don’t drench your hair or get it on your face when only aiming it at a small section of hair! (Which has been an issue with the ones I’m currently using, reviews to come!) I didn’t realise how good this one was till I tried some others.

These days it’s in a white coloured bottle but otherwise seems to be the same product.

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5

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Johnson’s face care daily essentials fragrance free facial cleansing wipes

Price: approx. $6 AUD for a pack of 25.

Where can I get it? most supermarkets and some chemists.

I find these to be very handy in removing my makeup, before cleansing at night time. Decent sized sheets, moist enough to remove your  makeup, and the skin is not left irritated or dry.

Remember that such wipes are not sufficient on their own as cleansers; you really should follow it up with a cleanser and toner. I made this mistake once and I paid for it – broke out! 😦

The only gripe I have with these is that they are quite expensive. I’m wondering if unscented baby wipes would do just as good a job!?

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 3/5

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Neutrogena Alcohol-Free Toner

Price: approx $10 AUD

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets and some chemists.

Since switching to an alcohol free toner my skin has felt much happier and less dry on my non t-zone areas. This toner does its job well and leaves my skin feeling refreshed. I’m now onto my 2nd bottle of this product and don’t see a need to switch brands in the future (no not even to a Thalgo toner! 😉 Now that is saying something! :)).

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5.

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post. 🙂 For those of you in Adelaide, enjoy the awesome Adelaide Fringe festival which is now ON! – I was lucky to receive a free pass to a cabaret show last night which was excellent and the Garden of Unearthly Delights was packed and buzzing. I will be posting a review of the show on the blog soon. 🙂

For those of you who are thinking “what?” the Adelaide Fringe is an international arts, comedy, and performance type festival. Like the Edinburgh Fringe. It is the best time of year to visit Adelaide as for approximately a month the city comes alive with a, hmm, I would say “classy carnival” atmosphere. (It only used to be held once every 2 years, but it became so popular it is now a yearly event, yaaaaay! :)) Events are held all around the CBD but also in some of Adelaide’s park lands which are converted to what they call the “Garden of Unearthly Delights” (or just the “Garden” if you’re a local ;)). There you can eat and drink to your hearts’ content, check out impromptu acts as well as buy tickets to cabaret, comedy, magic and other shows being held in tents (but classy tents! :)) within the Garden. There are also carnival rides… OK the more I try and describe this the stranger it sounds, check out the official site if you are interested to hear more 🙂 over here: http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/

Pampering @ home Sarah style!

Good evening all! 🙂

I meant to post about this on Tuesday, when I actually took some time out to do a little pampering session for myself at home, but time has flown like crazy this week! (Probably because I have been on holidays, ha! 😉 I return to work and the world of reality on Monday.)

I thought that people may be interested in some DIY pedicure and hair treatment tips, so I took photos to document parts of my pampering session (just the essentials – otherwise this post would really be overloaded with pics!) to help me explain it to you.

Before we get started, I would like to remind people that I am not a trained beauty therapist. Also, the way in which I have done these things is pretty much “my way”! This means that you may agree or disagree with the steps I did or didn’t include in the process. So if you read this and think to yourself “hmm I would’ve done that differently” – that’s fine! However I hope that you may learn some new things from this post. 🙂

Part One – Hair Treatment

I typically start with the hair treatment as I will leave it in for a few hours, and won’t wash it out till I’ve done my other pampering bits n pieces. I like to go natural with hair treatments and have read a lot of good stuff about the use of virgin coconut oil as a hair treatment. I started doing this weekly early last year, when I was desperately wanting my hair to grow, but now I tend to do it monthly as my hair is pretty close to my goal length. (Also because I am a bit lazy! ;)). There is a lot of information online about coconut oil and using it as a hair treatment – I found YouTube tutorials particularly helpful (there are TONS to choose from there). Coconut oil can also be used as a moisturiser on your skin (you’ll see it as an ingredient in many body lotions), in cooking, and also as a dietary supplement.

Here are some pics of the coconut oil that I use. It cost me <$20 AUD on eBay (including postage) and I have only used 1/4 of the jar in approximately a year – great value!!!

So how do you do the “coconut oil treatment” for your hair? Easy peasy! 🙂

1. Grab the jar of oil, some cotton wool balls, and a wrap for your hair (scarf, bandanna, old towel, old cloth headband, etc). Set it up in your bathroom in front of the mirror because you’ll need to see what you are doing!

2. If the weather is warm (say, around 30 degrees Celsius or higher!) you won’t need to do this step as the oil will already be in liquid form. If it is cooler, however, the oil will appear solid in the jar. Use a teaspoon to scoop a heaped teaspoonful of oil into a small glass or ceramic bowl. (My hair is approx. 20 centimetres long; if your hair is longer you may need more oil.) Run some hot water in your bathroom sink and sit the bowl in it, and stir the oil for a minute or two until it is completely melted. ***Safety alert*** make sure you test the temperature of the oil before applying to your hair – you do not want to burn yourself!

3. Grab a cotton ball and dab it into the oil.

4. Gently apply the oil around your hairline. You can also then section your hair and dab directly onto the scalp all over. This takes a long time so if you’re like me and would like a “cheat’s version” 😉 ~
I simply use a teaspoon to pour a small amount of oil into the palm of my hand, slap it onto my fingertips, tip my head upside down and massage the oil into my scalp for a few minutes.

5. Then apply a small amount of oil to the ends of your hair.

6. Using a wide tooth comb, comb your hair.This distributes the oil through the hair.

7. Wrap your hair up on top of your head using the scarf, bandana, etc. Here’s a shot of my hair!

8. After a couple of hours (some leave it on overnight but I would not recommend that as if you leave it on for that long there is a risk it’ll make your hair quite greasy. Also it is likely to make a big mess on your pillow unless you take precautions!), wash your hair thoroughly with shampoo, but remember to skip the conditioner. Dry/style as per usual.

Tada! You should now be left with shiny hair and a happy scalp! (My scalp can be quite dry and improved significantly when I did the treatment weekly.)

Part 2 – The Pedicure

I’d read about the use of green tea as a good DIY foot soak and thought I’d give it a try! As it was a very hot day over here, I knew that I wanted it to be cold, not hot, when my feet were in it. So I prepared this part first thing that morning. Grabbed a big bowl that was OK to put my feet into, added a few green tea bags (they also had mint in them – I thought this would be a bonus and help my feet smell nice! ;)) and some hot water. You could recycle the tea bags after that and use them (when cold) on your eyes to reduce puffiness, but I only thought about that later when they were in the garbage bin (too late! :-0).

mmm green tea + mint goodness! 🙂

I also gathered a few other things that I would need. As you can see in the picture I included a nail file, nail scissors, nail polish remover, moisturiser, and so on.

I didn’t bother to get my orange stick as my cuticles were looking fine and didn’t need to be pushed back. I did however plan to use my imitation “Ped Egg” (anyone remember those? ;)), here it is if you haven’t heard of these before….

I also grabbed a towel and the big bowl of tea (with teabags removed… eww how weird would they feel to step on?! LOL!) and sat on the lounge chair in front of the TV. 🙂

Here’s what I did next:

1. Remove any old nail polish with nail polish remover and then soak feet in the tea solution for approximately 15 minutes. (I did not need to scrub my feet as I’d already given them a good wash in the shower earlier that day.)

2. Gently dry feet with a towel. Trim and file your nails.

3. Use pumice stone part of “Ped Egg” to buff away dead skin on rough patches of soles of feet. I did not need to use the cheese-grater-look-a-like part but if I did, I would use it very very VERY gently. Don’t want to do any damage!

4. Moisturise feet with a good quality moisturiser. I used my yummy smelling Nutrimetics one (previously reviewed here).

5. If cuticles are looking daggy/in need of a tidy up, I would gently push them back with an orange stick between steps 2 and 3, when the cuticles are still soft.

6. Apply some cuticle oil to cuticles and rub in well. Leave for a few minutes (I used Nutrimetics’ Ultra Care+ Vitamin Oil. A good multipurpose oil – you can use that on your hair too but given the cost/size ratio I prefer to use the coconut oil for that!).

7. Apply 2 coats of your preferred nail polish; let dry between coats. (If I’m wanting my pedicure to really last well I also apply a base and top coat. I was in a very casual mode on Tuesday so didn’t bother!) I used Sally Hansen’s Extreme Wear in “Crushed”.

8. Enjoy having pretty feet! Here’s how my tootsies looked (and still look – pedicure has lasted well so far):

it was hard for me to pick a photo of my feet that I at least sort of liked! feet are a bit weird if you ask me! 🙂

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Let me know what you think of this post… I guess this could be considered my first tutorial post! Never thought I would do tutorials but there you go! 🙂 I think it could also be my longest post of all time – if you are still reading, well done!

Have any of you tried coconut oil on your hair before? My biggest tip with it is “less is more” – so the first time you try it, it is better to not use enough than to overdo it and be left with limp locks!

What are your tips for DIY hair treatments and/or pedicures? 🙂