The Burts Bees Volumizing Pomegranate Soy Shampoo ended up being a complete failure. A few months in, I realized that my hair strands got oily very fast and my scalp was irritated (read: unbearably itchy). However, having not used any form of shampoo for a while, I thought this was the normal reaction.

Then after I finished that bottle, I moved onto Dove’s Cool Moisture Shampoo (Cucumber and Green Tea – Awesome!)…and within a few washes, my scalp was noticeably less irritated. However, the hair still continued to get pretty oily. This was surprising given that the Dove Shampoo was not natural shampoo, unlike the Burts Bees Shampoo. This is was the sign that made me think the Burts Bees shampoo didn’t work as well as I thought. Maybe every person’s body reacts differently to different chemicals…or lack thereof.

Out of concern for my disgusting hair issues, my mom recommended a hair stylist she had been seeing. This lady specialized in helping individuals with balding issues regrow their hair. You could say it’s almost like a type of alternative treatment and it seems almost too good to be true, except that a few of her clients were actually family friends with real results. Of course, she herself has great and healthy looking hair. I should also mention that this lady is about 60 and looks like she’s 40 WITHOUT MAKEUP. I will definitely take any anti-aging, beauty, hair (ok, everything!) advice from her.

Anyway, her treatment is based on “scalp massages” and natural shampoo. After getting my hair washed and scalped massaged twice, I definitely saw the results and she gave me a few pointers to care for my scalp. The two main points she had for me were these:

1) You need to wash your hair with shampoo more than once. I used to think the instructions on the shampoo bottle (Lather. Rinse. REPEAT.) were just the beauty company’s way to get you to use more product, but now I know that’s not the case. In the beginning when I visited, she washed my hair about 4 times. Based on my oily scalp she recommended 2-4 times. At this point, my scalp is healthier and less irritated, so I’m only washing it twice.
2) Using less shampoo is more effective than a large goop. I squeeze out a dime size amount and shampoo my hair in sections, massaging the scalp as I go. It takes me a while to work shampoo through my scalp the first wash, but the second wash only takes one dime size amount to get through the entire scalp.

I should state that while I was seeing this lady, I was still using my Cool Moisture shampoo and was already seeing better results by washing my hair twice with less product. Afterwards, I switched to the product she used on my hair – Keune So Pure Relaxing Shampoo – and noticed even better results. No irritation and everything is less oily. It’s only been about a month, but so far so good. I even got complimented on my hair!

Anyway, hope this helps – I’m having a great time with the new shampoo so I thought I’d share this in case someone was looking for alternative products. Disclaimer: I haven’t been paid by anyone or any company to write about these products in any way. These are my own opinions based on my experiences.

Yes, this post is as ridiculous as it sounds. I did two looks on different sides of my face. The first, a summary look inspired by the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. The second a subtle smokey purple – good for a date. I also have a daytime purple look, but my after picture only shows the night-time look. Refer to the oddly angled picture below. Just imagine a line down the middle of my face, splitting it in half…or you can cover half my face with your hand. It looks like one side of my face is swollen. Oops.

Click the jump to read more!

Look #1(Pacific Sunset) – Close-up Photos

Sadly, by this point two years later, I can’t quite remember the colors I used exactly. I can say this however, neither looks used primer. I just came up with these looks right before I hopped into the shower. Based on what I have, here’s what I think I used:

- MAC Pigment in Mutiny
- L’Oreal HiP e/s in Roaring. The brown color is used at the crease. You can see the color when the lid is open and closed. The blue is visible when the lid is closed, but only slightly visible when the lid is open.
- Black e/l (pencil) and mascara that I can’t remember

Look #2 (Purple All Day) – Close-up Photos

Day look:

Night look:

Items used:
- Same e/l and mascara that I can’t remember
- My Wet n Wild palette in Paradise Cove. See the review here. The Ultimate Expressions palette series are definitely on my list of favorite make up items owned.

Day: I used a subtle wash over color on the lid and lined the eyes in a darker color. I purposely applied the eyeshadow to be slightly visible if my eye were open Because this was a day look, I only lined the top of my eye. As the eye shadow is heavy for a day look, lining only the top keeps the look more natural and subtle. Over doing the make up during the day just makes one look terrible.

Night: For the night look, I pulled that subtle purple and the darker color higher on the lid so the color is visible even if my eye were open. If I were actually going out, I would have also put a highlight color right under the brow. I heavily lined the lower eye area.

Lipstick close-up photo for both looks:

I absolutely remember the colors I used this. The whole reason for playing with these looks was to figure out looks to wear these colors with. I got these lipsticks during this haul here.

Left (Pacific Sunset): NYX Indian Pink
Right (Purple All Day): NYX Summer Love

That’s it for the first backlogged post! Next to come…well I haven’t quite decided yet. Maybe some of my wedding DIYs!

June 2009 – Move back to LA after studying abroad in Hong Kong for my last college semester.

July 2009 – Purchased a home and started my new job.

July 2009 through present – Worked and working extremely long hours at my job (approx 50 minimum)

June 2010 – My boyfriend proposes. I happily accept, of course.

June 2010 through May 2011 – Planning my wedding while working the same job! While passing my CPA exam. This was probably the hardest year of my life!

May 2011 – get married, move in with my husband, go on my honeymoon!!

This year, I’m trying to get promoted at work. So, it looks like life is not settling down one bit. However, hopefully having gotten my wedding and my CPA exams out of the way, I will have more time to post.

My interests have changed, understandably, as my life has gone through many changes this year. I still enjoy makeup, but I don’t wear looks that are as “creative” or “bold” as I used to. I also have gotten more into nail polish – so maybe I’ll have some posts on that. However, my newest “hobby” that takes up almost all my time is to decorate my house with my husband. …I try to track and document my progress, but I don’t always remember. Either way, expect some posts to come up about the random things I’ve been doing around my home and DIYwedding. I’ve taken LOTS of pictures over the last two years of things I did that I would LOVE to share, but just haven’t had the time. I still love blogging and sharing life with others, so I don’t plan to abandon anything I’ve done here.

Hopefully things get better!

Because it’s been so long since I actually updated, this entry is a summary of what I’ve learned and experienced after going no-poo for about half a year. Click the jump to read more!

1. No poo saved my hair. It is so cheap and absolutely amazing. I was using 1 tablespoon to one cup of water for every wash. However, I cut down to half a tablespoon and found that I could get the same clarifying, clean feeling results and my hair was less oily over the course of a week. (yes, I only washed my hair once a week – see #2 for the explanation. I know it’s gross.) With the vinegar, I was using two tablespoons to one cup of water. After I cut the baking soda in half, I cut the vinegar in half too. I let the rinse soak in my hair while I wash my body before rinsing it out as I found that it needs some time to soak in. One of the things I found, though, was that “no poo” was leaving my hair a bit dry. When I attempted to blow dry my hair, I found it difficult and somewhat painful to detangle after washing “no poo” style. Some of the research I found suggested adding some essential oils to your mix to make it more moisturizing.  I was too lazy and I still had a bunch of conditioner laying around unused, so I took to using that generously after my vinegar rinse. It did the trick.

2. No poo does not work with hard water and baking soda does not dissolve well with cold water. Somehow, I feel like I should already know the latter part. But I didn’t. Oh well. The water in Los Angeles city is VERY HARD. SUPER DISGUSTINGLY HARD. I tried boiling the hard water and dissolving the baking soda per a solution I found online. It worked, except after the water cooled, the baking soda settled at the bottom. So the next time I washed my hair, it was gross! It left my hair waxy, nasty, and full of chunks of undissolved baking soda. After that disaster, I vowed to only wash my hair in soft water. This worked out well in April and May when I was traveling for work – hotels generally always have soft water. However, when I wasn’t traveling, I had to go to my parent’s house every weekend to wash my hair. That was annoying plus by the end of seven days – my hair was feeling preeeetty disgusting. I wouldn’t recommend “No Poo” if you don’t have access to soft water.

3. “No poo” will leave your hair in its natural state. This is almost like a no-brainer, but you might find that you’ve been using some specific type of shampoo for so long that a switch to “no poo” will not keep. In my case, I have very fine soft hair – which means my hair is flat and I work very hard to achieve any sort of volume. Going back to “no poo” totally killed any volume that the shampoo had given me. Plus, I think it kinda washed out the color in my hair… still. I preferred fine soft limp colorless hair to the oily grossness I had before no poo.

Overall, because I was fed up with only being able to wash my hair once a week, I looked into some natural shampoos. I bought Burt’s Bees Soy and Pomegranate Volumizing Shampoo. It’s a bit pricey for shampoo – about $9 – especially comparing to what I was spending on hair care before (NOTHING!), but I’m not using it everyday, so it will last a while.  It gives me the same great results of “no poo” with the volume I had while washing with shampoo. My hair has never been more voluminous. I was using Tresemme’s Volumizing Shampoo before going on “no poo” and it didn’t even begin to compare. Still, the best part is unlike “no poo”, this shampoo is completely usable in hard water. That means I can wash my hair more regularly. Regularly means 2 or 3 times a week. Now, I wash my hair once or twice a week at my own place and one weekends at my parent’s place, I use “no poo.”

I’m going to experiment with different natural shampoos. Maybe I can find one at a better price. Otherwise, this ends my “no poo” exploration. Hope this helps anyone thinking about redoing their hair routine!

Idea behind No Poo

1. Hair without shampoo produces a naturally right amount of oil
2. Shampoo strips your hair of oil it naturally produces – that is what “squeaky clean” hair is. Hair cleaned of dirt and dust, but also of natural, necessary oil.
3. Your hair regulates itself in its oil production.
4. When all the oil is washed out, your hair produces a lot of oil to compensate for the missing oil
5. If you wash your hair everyday, you feel the effects of this overproduction of grease at the end of the day.

How to wash “No Poo” -  Liquid/Non-paste Method

1. Baking soda
2. Vinegar – Apple cider vinegar is the more popular than white, but I don’t think it actually matters
3. Water – soft, distilled, Brita filtered – whatever. Just not hard water.

“Shampoo with baking soda” – The general ratio is 1 tablesp baking soda to 1 cup water. You might need less if you have shorter hair, but generally, you won’t need more. Mix and put in a squirt bottle – could be an old shampoo bottle, water bottle, etc. Just make it easier on yourself by having a squirt ability. Trust me – I don’t user one now and it’s annoying. Squirt it over your hair, then massage and work the solution into your scalp and roots. Here we are washing your scalp and hair around the roots. Don’t worry about the rest of your hair because as you rinse, it will all wash away too. The solution doesn’t lather, but your hair will feel uniquely slimy/smooth. Rinse – your hair should feel somewhat “squeaky clean”

Hard water: if you have hard water, your solution will not mix and the hair will not wash properly. According to this blogger with hard water, mix the solution in advance by boiling the water dissolving the baking soda.  I did this my second time around, but I also installed a shower head with a filter – about $35-40 at Home Depot (Replace with a $10 filter every 6 months). It worked fine, but I don’t know and don’t want to try this method with hard water.

“Condition with vinegar” – Same ratio. 1 tbsp vinegar : 1 cup water. Mix and put in a different squirt bottle. Some people just like to put it on the ends of their hair. The first time I “no poo’ed”, I poured it all over and it didn’t make my hair “worse than as if I avoided conditioner on the roots of my hair. The second time I “no poo’ed” I avoided the top of my hair, but we’ll have to wait and see if the results turn out any different. Sometimes people add a few drops of essential oils so their hair will smell nice after it dries, just an optional step. Your hair will smell like vinegar, but after you dry it, it smells like…nothing.

- There you have it. How to wash “No Poo.”

Part 3 (Week 1, first attempt) will be coming up shortly

Note: As I wrote this, I realized this would become a long long article. So I just split it up into 3 shorter ones.

To begin this long story, I must first take you  back to my high school days…

High School

During my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was on the swim team. We practiced Monday through Friday, so I washed my hair everyday to get rid of the chlorine water and force of habit. I never noticed my hair get disgustingly greasy and heavy at the end of the day. Then, during senior year when I was no longer on the team, I noticed at the end of the day my hair was limp, felt weighed down, greasy – so nasty I didn’t even want to touch it. Not being very bright, I didn’t realize that this was the result of over washing. So I continued as normal, thinking I just had disgustingly oily hair.

College

During college, I tried washing my hair every other day after researching ways to make my hair less oily. IT WAS A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE TIME. Just like with the “no poo” method – going from washing your hair every day to every other day has an oil-production-adjustment period. For some, it’s a short two weeks. For me, it was 6 months of digustingness. Eventually, at the end of the first day, my hair upgraded itself to “manageable.” But then, it was really gross by the end of the second day. It was as if my hair knew I was going to wash it so it produced extra oil, sebum, etc – whatever.  I started thinking – if I can essentially train my hair to not be so oily at the end of one day, I can definitely do it for two. If I’m ambitious, a whole week. I was able to get it up to 2 days without washing. Somehow while I was studying abroad, between all the traveling, humidity in Asia, etc I was able to train my hair to last about 3 days.

Post-College

I realized that shampoo was stripping my hair to nothingness, so I started washing my hair once a week.  Approximately around day 4 or 5, my scalp  became disgustingly itchy – just super gross. It was so greasy that my cousin asked if I just washed my hair because it looked WET. At this point, I came to a dilemma. Do I wash my hair with ‘poo then or do I bear it out and hide it under headbands, hats, etc? Because I couldn’t decide, I chose the 3rd option – neither. I took rinsing my hair around day 4 or 5. This somewhat worked – it got rid of the shine brought about by the greasiness. However, in most aspects it failed – my roots still felt oily, as water itself could not thoroughly cleanse my hair, and I finally realized the consequences of hard water.

Hard water has minerals, namely calcium, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t know about. Bottom line though, it actually leaves deposits of minerals (not the good stuff) in your hair. That’s why we have shampoo – it gets rid of hard water deposits and makes our hair washable with hard water. But it also strips our hair of natural oil. The deposits left in my hair were just about as gross as a week’s worth of sebum production. My hair still felt greasy, but also sandy and dry at the same time.

At first, I didn’t realize this was the effect of hard water. I thought it was the result of a water-only rinse. Then, one day at my parents house, I took a nice shower. They have a water filtration system installed that makes the water super soft. So soft that you feel slimy as if the soap didn’t wash off completely when you wash, but after your shower, you don’t need more than a light lotion because no hard water leaves deposits on your skin. When I rinsed  my hair at my parents house, it came out feeling clean. There was a slight feeling of oiliness at the roots, but it was far better than anything I had managed to produce so far. But, after a day or two, it would get super oily again. Plus, there was just this nasty unwashed hair smell that didn’t get washed away with a soft water rinse.  

I needed to find something that wasn’t shampoo to wash my hair with…googling “washing hair without shampoo” easily returned a bazillion results of “No Poo Method.” Who knew there was this whole underground movement going on about shampooless washing?

Part two is in draft. Please be patient. Or just go google about No Poo yourself.

Update: I have a bunch of nail polish haul photos on this new computer, but I’m also fairly sure there were other pictures on my old computer related to some other posts I wanted to write in between…I need to get everything sorted out first (story of my life right there!)

Please enjoy this FOTD. It was for a friend’s wedding in October -

For this FOTD, I wore a bright turquoise look. Because my dress was black, I went with bright jewel toned makeup and accessories for the look.

Face:

EM Foundation (Intensive) – Medium Summer Beige mixed with Golden Medium
MAC Sculpt and Shape in Bone Beige Emphasis
NYX Moasic Blush – Spice, Paradise, Champagne
Palladio’s Rice Powder

Eyes:

UDPP (or TFSI – can’t remember which one i used!)
Revlon Colorstay Concealer in Medium 04
Base: ELF eyeliner and shadow stick – Smoke (shadow side)
Base and inner corner: CG Eyeslicks in Moondust (I think?)
Upper E/S: MAC Pigment in Mutiny, highlight: NYX Trio (Nude)
Lower E/S: MAC Shadestick in Sea Me
Eyeliner: Prestige Waterproof eyeliner
Masacara: Shiseido Lasting Lift, Shiseido Mascara Base, Majolica Majorica Last Extend

Lips:

NYX Lipgloss – Natural

Wow. I was pretty lazy for this look – one eyeshadwow only! Just goes to show you what you can do with good bases to help you create the look of two colors (depth)

Next, a haul I pulled in sometime in …October as well, I think.

2 polish removers (RiteAid had a BOGOF)

The main reason for my haul: L’Oreal HiP E/S Duos in Showy and Reckless.

Other items: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pursuit and Pearl Plum, Revlon Nail polishes – Dark Pleasure collection (L to R – Scarlett Letter, Steel-etto, Purple Plesure, Midnight Affair), Revlon nail polish – Midnight Affair and Steel Her Heart.

And here come the swatches!

HiP e/s:

(The blue colors were taken under a “vivid” color setting.) Next, lip glosses (Pearl Plum and Pink Pursuit respectively)

Lastly, the nail polish. Sory about the messiness of my swatches, I didn’t bother cleaning up or ensure the application was even… With commentary:

Steel-etto and Steal Her Heart, respectively. Both are metallic, but Steel-etto has this grainy feel to it. Brush strokes on the Steel Her Heart polish are bearable.

Midnight Affairs. I got both because I wanted to see if they were the same. Afteral, they had the same name. Yes, they are.

Scarlet Letter & Purple Pleasure, respectively. Scarlet Letter is definitely a color I’ve seen before. Goregeous vampy color, but not very exciting. Purple Pleasure is more purple than this picture shows – I think the lighting had some effect on why it’s showing up so blue on the photo. Also pretty.

Note: Soon after I started using these Revlon polishes regularly, I noticed that they chipped easily and didn’t last very long. With the CND Stickey base and Seche Vite top coat, usually I can get my OPI to last 5-6 days and my ChG to last 6-7. By “last” I mean the tip wear is minimal and to the unobservant eye, the manicure can still look done. With the Revlon, they started chipping around 3-4 days. I would definitely not recommend these polishes. You can purchase OPI and ChG polishes cheaply enough – I buy them from Head2ToeBeauty.com because they have a pre-determined flat rate shipping of…8.50, I think. Some other websites like 8ty8Beauty and Transdesign offer more selection or different selection, but they don’t tell you what the shipping cost is outright. So, I gave them away to a younger friend of mine, who isn’t so concerned about the formula wearability so much so as the colors.

Update: So sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Unfortunately right now it’s busy season for me at work. Between that and studying for my CPA, which I should be doing right now but decided to avoid for the time being, I have literally no time left. I’m not joking – I stayed in my house and studied all of Halloween weekend. So unfortunately for you guys, I have no creative costume with awesome makeup to showcase this year, like I did last year. Another haul and FOTD coming up after this entry in the future.

Due to the lack of time I’ve had recently, I didn’t take any swatch pictures. And although I would like to say I will go back and take them, I’m pretty sure I won’t. That’s my NYX haul – I also recently picked up a red NYX lipstick called “Snow White” For my skin tone, it is a very flattering color.

And the Tiffany necklace is from my fantastic boyfriend.

Alright, I know this was a shitty entry, but I just wanted to give you guys something so you didn’t think I just dropped off the face of the earth. Trust me, this blog is on my mind at least once a day and the fact that I don’t have time to update this is killing me.

Update: The NYX haul and swatches will be coming up after this entry. I hope I don’t forget the swatches. Also, I have another haul – an assortment of stuff also with swatches coming up. That entry will include some Revlon nail polish – the first couple of polishes I picked for my collection. I’m really drooling over Rescue Beauty Lounge and Shades by Barielle (They’re currently having a Buy 2, Get 1 free sale!)

I don’t really have a close up picture…Sorry. I’m slowly (ok, not slowly at all) gaining back all the weight I lost in Asia. My face looks chubby all over again =(

I absolutely love this look that I did and for some reason no matter how hard I try, I can’t recreate it. I don’t know why – I even used the same products!

Products Used:

Face:
EM Foundation Intensive – Summer Medium Beige
Revlon Colorstay Concealer – 04 Medium
Ben Nye Translucent Face Powder – Fair
MAC Sculpt and Shape – Bone Beige Emphasis
NARS Blush – Sin

Eyes:
TFSI
L’Oreal Hip E/S – Roaring (Brown Side)
WnW Palette – Sand Castle (White Color for Highlight)
MAC Shadestick – Sea Me
MAC Pigment – Mutiny
Prestige Waterproof e/l
Kiss Me Heroine Mascara in Volume and Curl
Majolica Majora Mascara in Lash Extend

Lips:
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss – Nude Lustre

Hope you enjoyed this look!

Update: I started my first full-time job two weeks ago! Unfortunately, I work in a more conservative field and thus, my makeup wearing days have been severly reduced. On weekends, I want to, but I do get a little lazy, especially because I hate having to remove it afterwards.  So expect fewer FOTDs/EOTDs. I might however, show my work look. It’s very simple – I don’t even try to look “flawless”…I just try to look…awake. For upcoming entries, I have a Kareoke EOTN that I wore one of my last nights in Hong Kong and a NYX haul that I purchased during their anniversary sale back in May. I’ve been getting into nail cosmetics lately and have been considering several purchases – so expect something about this in the …well several months far future.

Click to read on with the haul!

The first picture, I picked up 4 beautiful tops! The grey one you see in the middle actually got caught in something and there was  a big hole in the back after I brought it back to the States so I don’t have it anymore. I was so very sad because it was quite the beautiful shirt and the fabric was so soft and smooth.

The monochromatic dress you see on the right – that style of dress was everywhere in Hong Kong, and in that smooth cool satin material fabric. This one was the only one I saw in that style though. It’s a deep cut V-neck on both the front and the back. The boyfriend loved it.

The black dress on the bottom left isn’t really a dress…or a shirt. It’s one of those long-enough-to-be-both-dress-and-shirt shirts. V-neck opening again on both the back and the front.  (I think I just noticed a trend…) I wore it to my Kareoke night, although I don’t have much pictures from that…

Lastly, from this collection, I picked this vintage inspired collared shirt. It’s partially buttoned up. I still haven’t quite decided if I love this print yet – something definitely attracts me to it, but yet at the same time, repels me in disgust. I’m not sure how I feel about this shirt other than the fact I love that you can roll up the sleeves.

Next up, my fake Crocs. I was walking around Mong Kok downtown and I saw this store front that was selling a bunch of these “Crocs” – a lot of factories have been closing around China and they just sell their goods for super cheap to try to get some money back. So I bought a pair – I figured they were fake because I couldn’t find it on the Croc site, nor could I find any pictures of it previously. Oh well. They were comfy – I wore ‘em to Bangkok where they got all disgusting (but my feet never hurt!)…so I tossed ‘em at the end. Too bad.

I think I bought about 5 or 6 purses in Hong Kong. Enough said.

Ok, so here’s something nasty to know. My feet get really sweaty so I always have to wear socks. But how do I wear socks with flats or heels? The answer – voila! – is these socks. They’re pretty much covered by most heels and flats so you don’t have to worry about it peeking out or being displayed. I’ve had a couple pairs of shoes where it did show and for the most part, people didn’t notice it.

So, it rains a lot in Hong Kong..randomly rains. All of a sudden, the super nice sunny weather you had turns dark and it pours. I got this because I got stuck out while shopping and I forgot my umbrella. The tag said “UV Proof.” Only in Asia would UV Proof be an important selling factor. =)

These are two little Gundam models I got for my boyfriend at those…capsule stores. The ones you have to put a coin in and you turn it to get it…and you just keep putting money in so you can finally get it…and waste a lot of money getting a bunch of repeats. Luckily for me, I got the last two needed to complete the whole collection for my boyfriend on the first two tries!

Lastly, these totally awesome Lacoste shoes for my boyfriend. I couldn’t find them on the US site – I think they’re not sold there, but I could be wrong. I love these shoes – I would wear ‘em if they were for girls. But oh well.

That’s all for this post. Thanks for reading!