Review: L'Oreal Professionnel Fiberceutic treatment

Botox for your hair? Indeed! ;)

Being a dedicated fan of L'Oreal Professionnel hair products, I HAD to give this a go.

Overall, this two-step process visibly improved my fine, damaged hair. After the very first application, my hair felt instantly thicker and stronger. Feels like I have a built-in heat protectant, resulting in reduced breakage and damage, despite my "harsh" hair styling habits.

FIY: I purchased this treatment online and applied it on my own, using a standard tiny plastic syringe I purchased from the drugstore, since no hair-salon in my area offers it. I'm quite experienced in using at-home treatments, but if you've never done something like this, and your local stylists offer it, then I'd definitely recommend getting this treatment done by a professional.

Pros:

• Easy to apply, although the syringe application requires a bit of patience, since you have to apply the serum gradually strand by strand (on squeaky clean towel-dried hair) concentrating from the middle to the end of your hair. This took about 10 minutes for my shoulder-length hair.
• Timewise, it only takes five minutes for the product to work, once you've applied the mask to seal this in.
• Lives up to its promise, my fine hair felt immediately thicker and much stronger, meaning I could use my flat iron without worrying too much about heat damage.
• Lasts a few washes, in my case I had to re-apply after one month.
• Available for all hair types, i.e. fine and thick.

 Cons:

• Just like botox, results are not permanent, so this works best if you have the treatments done on a regular basis.
• Didn't do much with regard to frizziness, meaning I still have to use my frizz-taming products. 
• I have to clarify that this is not a product with miraculous hair-transforming effects, just think of it as a "shield" for your hair. ;)

Final Thoughts:
 
If your hair is processed, dyed or damaged from heat styling, then I'm sure you'll love this treatment, especially since it doesn't come with the risks of the notorious Brazillian Keratin treatments (which I never even dared to try out tbh), making this a great alternative.

Although this treatment is available for thicker hair, if you have fine hair you'll definitely get more benefits out of it.

Having done six treatments within a five month period, I can confidently say that the process definitely lives up to its promises and worth having it done... after all who doesn't want strong hair?

9/10

Review: Nubar Porcelain Base Coat

I purchased this base to try out, since I was running low on my essie first base coat (best ever btw), with high expectations. My first impression of the product and packaging were positive, but its performance as a "base coat" was quite dissapointing. I'd recommend purchasing this, as a treatment, i.e. if you plan to use it on its own, considering it has a sheer, glossy, milky white finish and nourishes your nails.

Now on to a more detailed review of this product's characteristics.

Pros:

• Sheer white color is enough to cover up nail discolorations.
• Makes an amazing treatment, perfect for "resting" your nails in between using extreme colors and glitters. Matched with a glossy top coat, this polish will give you the best natural finish, and durable nails.
• A perfect shade for french manis; one coat would be enough to give your nail a credible natural shade.

Cons:

• Given the fact that this product is marketed as a base, I'd say it definitely failed in this aspect. It took forever to dry and made color application streaky (even with opaque cream finish polishes, and believe me I tried using many on top of this base coat). This meant I had to apply more than one coat of polish, despite their opacity, adding up even more drying time to this process.
• Nail polish easily chipped on the second day. I blame this on the base coat, given the fact that I used trusted and tested long-lasting nail polishes and top coat.
• Like I said, it took a long time to dry, and even when I let it dry on its own for about an hour, when I applied my nail polish on top (which would normally take 15-20 mins to dry), an hour later my nails were still "sticky".

Final thoughts:

If you're looking for a base coat, then I wouldn't recommend this product at all. Could have been a bad batch... who knows? But given its price, I definitely would not risk purchasing this again.

Nevertheless, I now have a decent nail treatment for the days I like to leave my nails alone! ^^

5/10 (bad as a base coat, works as a "natural" nail treatment)

Review: KERASTASE Oleo Relax Serum

Compared with L'oreal Professionnel, Kerastase products have always been a "hit or miss" case, especially when taking the price factor into account.

The Oleo Relax serum was a bit of a miss in this case, because when I purchase a "high end" hair treatment, I expect relatively good results, if not the best.

Although I loved how smoothly and quickly I blowdried my hair, I can't say I was excited about this product's finish, as it left my super fine hair, feeling "feathery" soft, in a bad sense, which led me to believe that this serum would probably work best on thick hair.

But I'll get into more details in the following part;

Pros:

• Economical despite the price tag; seems like I made a lifetime investment purchasing this, you only need two tiny drops of this for shoulder length hair, and trust me its more than enough!! ;)
• Dramatically reduces blowdrying time. I was surprised at how easily and quickly my ceramic brush glided through my hair, so I highly recommend this product if you style your hair on a daily basis.
• One of the best detanglers I've used. This would make a great all-in-one inclusive product if you're planning to go on holidays, considering its multiple functions as a detangler, leave-in conditioner and frizz treatment.

Cons:

•  Left my fine hair way too soft after blowdrying, probably due to silincone being one of its key ingredients. This works much better on thicker locks. I tried it when I styled my friend's dry and thick hair, and the results were amazing .
• My hair started to get oily on the second day... and I mean really oily, which comes as a surprise because my hair is definitely on the drier side. If you style your hair on a daily basis this may not be a problem, but if you style your hair twice a week like me, then I'd skip this serum.

Final Thoughts:

If you have fine hair, I'd recommend the Mythic Oil serum, much less buildup and weight, even if I use the product AFTER styling my hair. =)

If you have thick, dry and coarse hair, then this may be an HG product for you. 

I don't regret buying this serum, but I'm sure I won't be repurchasing it; the results were not good enough for a high end product, at least in my case.

On the bright side, as I said, this makes a great product for my holiday kit. It works great as a leave-in conditioner and leaves my hair in a decent condition when let it air-dry.


6.5/10

HAUL: Nail Polish

I was so happy to find my nail polish order in the mail this week and I wanted to share initial pics and a mini review of the ebay store I purchased them from, before I mess up the bottles and packaging! ;)

All six polishes came packaged in a box, within a box!

I purchased them from enchantedbeautyspot on ebay, best nail polish seller I can recommend really (fyi: I paid for everything with my own money).

US based seller, everything always comes extra safely packaged, ships extremely fast PLUS there's no hidden charges or fees incorporated in their shipping costs.

Sneak peak from the top.

A++++ on ebay terms!

Now on to the polishes.

I have a tendency to buy blue and purple tone nail polish with cooler undertones preferrably, as I find such tones are flattering to my yellowish skintone.

One thing I HAD to get was a new top coat as I can't live without my Poshe! <3

First time I give anything from NUBAR a go, I purchased the Porcelain base coat and a freakin' AMAZING purple glitter polish. Hope it performs better than my china glaze glitters, which I hate as they tend to chip within a day or two, even with the best top/base coats I've used.

Nubar Porcelain Base Coat

Nubar Violet Sparkle

And of course I had to get me some China Glaze polishes, as I have a "love and hate" relationship withi this brand, due to the numerous hit and misses I've had (we can't have it all can we?? lol).

I have to admit that nobody does interesting blue shades like China Glaze, so I got three blueish shades which I've never tried before, most interesting being Tempest, which looks like a duochrome shade from the bottle! *Hoo-rah* Pitty my camera didn't capture this color in its full glory, its far from looking like a plain blue shimmer.

Blue Island Iced Tea (my fave)

China Glaze Tempest.

China Glaze Sky High Top 

Swatches will soon appear in NOTD posts, and I'd like to take some time to review the NUBAR porcelain base coat, as the natural finish looks pretty promising. ;)

NOTD: China Glaze Harmony

Note: Please excuse my messy cuticles! ^^;

This week I've been wearing a nail polish I don't reach for very often (no idea why cause it's awesome)!

Its Harmony by China Glaze.

I love how OPAQUE this applies with just one coat, even though I usually do two to be on the safe side, but needs to be done with care as it can get streaky, especially when I do my right hand,lol!!!

Its a shimmery light (sort of lavender when it catches the sunlight) purple. My camera tends to mess up colors, but this swatch is without flash taken on a sunny day (taken on the 4th day).

If you manage to get a streak-free application, then prepare to be amazed by Harmony's flawless metallic finish.

Matched with my poshe top coat and essie's first base coat, this surprisingly lasted me for days without obvious chipping.