Rusk Thick Review

Hello all! It's review time! Today I'm reviewing Rusk Thick - Body and Texture Amplifier from their Designer Collection. I have to admit this is one of those products that, had it not been included in a gift set (see here), I probably wouldn't have tried it. But it was, and I'm glad I did. You can definitely feel a difference in your hair when you use it, and I'd definitely suggest it to anyone with fine, limp hair looking for a little more oomph!

Taking out all the fluff, we're left with: Water, SD Alcohol 40-B, Polyquaternium-11, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Panthenol, Dimethicone PEG-8 Meadowfoamate, PPG-20 Methyl Glucose Ether, Quaternium-26, Olealkonium Chloride, Polysorbate 20, Benzophenone-4, Propylene Glycol.

I like that Thick doesn't have a lot of fluff in it, but I don't like that it contains alcohol. I'm praying cosmetic chemists will find a reasonable substitute for it soon, cos even though it's not the worst ingredient ever, it's not the best either. Oh well, if you're reallllly against alcohol in hair products, move on. If it's worth anything, I really have not found this product to be drying at all, but to each their own...

Moving on, Polyquaternium-11 is a fixative used in hair products to add shine with a slight hold. Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein (wheat turned partially to water by means of hydrolysis) replicates the strength and elasticity found in healthy hair. Panthenol aka vitamin B5 moisturizes hair and plumps it up, making it feel thicker and look healthier.

Dimethicone + meadowfoam seed oil = Dimethicone PEG-8 Meadowfoamate. Meadowfoam seed oil comes from the seeds of the Alba plant; it is a very rich emollient, popular because it absorbs into skin very quickly. It conditions very well and adds a lot of moisture to hair. PPG-20 Methyl Glucose Ether + Quaternium-26 are other good, conditioning emollients. Olealkonium Chloride is used to up the viscosity of a product, and can also be used as a mild cationic surfactant. Polysorbate 20 is an emulsifier, which if you're new here means it basically makes all the ingredients work together and not separate. Propylene Glycol is a humectant. Humectants draw in and seal moisture in your hair + skin.

Even though Thick contains alcohol, it more than makes up for it by including all these conditioning ingredients. I personally like it, because it can be layered with other products without weighing down your hair, and you honestly just need a few spritzes all over to feel the effect. As for the scent, I can best describe it as smelling... fresh. It just has that nice, fresh hair product smell. I can't really describe it any better lol. I like it, and I think you will too, so go on - give it a shot!

Rusk Thick comes in a 6 fl oz. / 150 ml bottle, and retails for around $13. There are lots and lots of reviews coming soon! So sit tight, have a good weekend, and take care of your hair! ;] ...read more ⇒

HAUL!

Hey everybody! It's HAUL time! You guys don't even know how bad I needed to do some retail therapy. After ping-ponging back and forth with my dumb school about getting my license CONSTANTLY and being stuck at home all the time, I've been going stir crazy!!! But it's almost over, and this bit of shopping helped a bit. What I'm actually BEYOND excited about is America's Beauty Show in March! Are any of you going?! I think I'm just going the last day (when all the best sales are), it runs from the 27th - 29th of March. Those of you who follow me on twitter, I will DEFINITELY be tweeting/taking pics live from the show, so you can get a glimpse of all the action! I'll for sure post any + all the pics I take when I post my ABS HAUL. Those who are going, are you going for any specific reason? Shears? Product? Education? Because it's awesome? Hahaha, I'm going for ALL those reasons!

Anyway, moving on before I hyperventilate - here's all the stuff I got (btw there are some last minute pics thrown in because I forgot to include some stuff when I first took the pics after I got home... oops!).

Starting from the top left: Pearatin Fortifying Reparative Serum, Marrakesh Oil, Schwartzkopf OSiS Sherbet Wax Spray, Box of 12 S-Factor Color Savvy EMT, Bed Head Dumb Blonde Smoothing Stuff , Bed Head Headbanger Spray Wax x 2, Goldwell Dualsenses Rich Repair Leave-In Hairtip Serum, S-Factor Dream Drops. Bottom row from left to right: Short Sexy Hair Blow It Up Gel Foam, Silky Sexy Hair Gift Set (details/pics below), S-Factor Diamond Dreams Duo, Sebastian Texture Tandem 1, Joico K-PAK Reconstruct, Matrix Vavoom Design Pulse Kit (details/pic below).

The products in italics are repurchases, in case you wanna know what products I always like to have. I've had my eye on the Pearatin Serum for a while now, because not only is it a serum for hair, it's also a catalyst to mix in with hair color! I've tried using it that way once already and I like the results, but more testing is needed for me to write a review on it. Sit tight!

The Marrakesh oil is nice... except the scent. It's not bad, but it kinda smells like smoke + cookies. Is that Marrakesh I'm smelling? Idk.. but it works. The Schwartzkopf spray wax is nice, and smells really good! Like... a boy! I'm not used to using such masculine smelling products haha, it's a nice change. The whole OSiS line from Schwartzkopf is full of interesting products, check them out.

Headbanger! This is one of the best spray waxes ever! I couldn't believe I was able to get ahold of two of these, because they've been discontinued. And since it has been discontinued, I won't be reviewing it, I just feel like it wouldn't be fair to say "Yeah, this product is awesome! But you can't get it anywhere. Sorry!" Yeah, don't you think? BUT I will say, if you like spray wax and you see a bottle of this somewhere (like a cosmetic outlet store or something), GRAB IT!! If you don't love it I'll be shocked.

Sigh. It's so unfortunate when any company discontinues a great product, ya know? I feel like maybe TIGI stopped making it because of their "Rockaholic" line. I wish they'd just repackage it into Rockaholic or something, because it really is awesome. And it smells just like Superstar Blowdry Lotion, which I love!

The Goldwell serum is pretty new, and even though my last Goldwell experience wasn't too great, I wanted to try this. You know I gotta try and debunk anything that says it'll "repair" hair. And the Short Sexy Hair gel foam just sounded interesting, so I got it on a whim. Gel foam? Hmm...

I love Diamond Dreams! I love it so much I even turned my mom onto it, that's why she bought these tweens for herself! Included is the shampoo, conditioner in tween size. They call it a "tween" because it's inbetween a normal size and a liter. The tweens are 25.36 oz, and came with a free Balance Booster!

I've never actually used Vavoom products before, but their Design Pulse line looked so cool, I had to try it! The kit included Vavoom Shape Maker Extra Hold Shaping Spray, Design Pulse Glow to Pieces Shine Wax, Messy Couture Molding Paste, and a pretty nice feather razor. I'm really excited to test these products out! Reviews for these coming soon. ;]

As for the box of S-Factor EMT's, yeah.. I'm in love. These are the BEST protein shots everrrr. I always use them after I color someone's hair and omg they work so well. The one's I got are Color Savvy... I tried the Health Factor ones and didn't really like them - I think they're more for hair that's super damaged.As for the box of S-Factor EMT's, yeah.. I'm in love. These are the BEST protein shots everrrr. I always use them after I color someone's hair and omg they work so well. The one's I got are Color Savvy... I tried the Health Factor ones and didn't really like them - I think they're more for hair that's super damaged.

The two products in the left pic are from the Silky Sexy Hair set. They are: Silky Sexy Hair Frizz Elminator LITE and Silky Sexy Hair Conditioning Styler LITE. I'm not too familiar with Silky Sexy Hair, so I assume there are normal versions of these two products since they're named "LITE" but I didn't see them. These two products are for fine/normal hair - and since I know how hard and frustrating it is for people with fine hair to find products they like, I wanted to try these out + review them! Oh, and I forgot to include I also got the Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Tri-Wheat Leave-In Conditioner. I'm not gonna lie... I totally got this because it has a spray bottle, cos I LOVE when hair products come in a spray bottle instead of the usual little spritzer. No annoying little caps to lose for this product!

So I'm pretty sure I covered everything. Thoughts? Questions? Comment! I love them you know. Stay tuned for more reviews, and for my post on ABS. I also MIGHT be having a giveaway soon too... so look out for that. ;] Take care of your hair everyone! MUAH!

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Sebastian Microweb Fiber Review

Hey all! Gosh, things have been so crazy lately - so sorry I haven't been posting more! To get back in the swing of things, I'm reviewing one of the most interesting (and fun to use) hair products e v e r ! Sebastian Microweb Fiber - a "flexible, elastic texturizer" that gives you some craaaazy texture. I actually got this for free thanks to CosmoProf's 12 Days of X-Mas promotion! Which was so funny, because every time I saw this product in the store I'd be back and forth with myself, and in the end I always talked myself out of buying it. Thank you CosmoProf! But yeah, seriously, if you're at your wits end + can't find a good texture product, give this a shot.

You also might be asking yourself, "Um, what's so fun about using a hair product?" Good question! I have the answer - in video form! It will be posted at the end of this review. And don't worry, it's not even a minute long.

So, what does this do? It gives really funky texture, that's totally re-workable, and you can use it to make a lot of different looks! Whether you want your hair to look crazy and wild, or piecey and defined, you can even scrunch this into your hair and rock some waves. Versatility! You all know how much I love that in a hair product. =]

What's in it? Let's see: Water, Propylene Glycol, Ceteareth-25, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Cetearyl Alcohol, Petrolatum, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Ozokerite, a lot of other emulsifiers, humectants, a few uber-silicones, fragrance, preservatives, etc...

Propylene Glycol is a humectant (A humectant carries moisture to hair + skin). Ceteareth-25 is a "penetration enhancer" which means it helps the product adhere to your hair and not slide around all over the place. Glyceryl Stearate SE is an emulsifier - this product is chock full of them, which is probably why it has such an interesting texture... it's like... well you'll see it in the video. Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifying wax made from a bunch of different fatty alcohols. Fatty alcohols btw, are NOT the same as isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) which is extremely drying. Fatty alcohols condition and protect hair, your conditioner probably contains them. Petrolatum is a petroleum byproduct that prevents moisture loss, which is good because it keeps moisture from getting in too - take that humidity! Also, I have a feeling petrolatum, along withthe next ingredient, is why this product has kind of a tacky feel to it. It's not bad, you just may wanna wash your hands when you're done using this. To me - it's worth it. Anyway, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2 is an emollient that's used as a substitute for lanolin. It has high water-binding properties, and adheres very well to skin and hair. Ozokerite (which I think sounds kinda cool) is a naturally occuring mineral wax that has a good consistency and hardness - perfect for a product like this.

Who would like this product? I truly believe this is an extremely versatile product that both men + women can use and enjoy! It's perfect for short-medium length hair, the scent is nice but isn't feminine (it just has that typical Sebastian scent) and neither is the packaging. Ladies keep an eye on your man, cos he might steal this from you! LOL!

Sebastian Microweb Fiber comes in a 45 ml / 1.5 fl oz. container, and retails for around $15. And as promised, here is the video!

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You may have noticed...

So, you may have noticed that I put this little widget for my formspring.me account in the sidebar of my blog. It's neat, right? You really can ask me anything you want. Whether it's a hair question, or you just wanna know something about me! A lot of you have asked me some great questions already, and I thank you for them! I think something like this a great way for bloggers to get in touch with their fans, aside from just answering comments and such. However, I do want to clear a few things up for those who don't know how formspring works:

• I answer pretty much every question, there's only been a couple that I've had to delete. I'm pretty open, so as long as your question isn't like, horribly offensive or rude, I'll answer it.
• The answers don't get posted here - they're all on my formspring profile, so if you wanna see if I answered your question, you have to go there! Here's the link: http://www.formspring.me/HEARTSTARBOLT
  
• If you're going to ask me a hair question, BE SPECIFIC! Help me to help you, k? I'm pretty much answering blindly, because I can't actually see your hair, or see what the problem is - but I try my absolute best!
  
• If you wanna ask me about a certain product, please search my blog first to see if I've reviewed it. If I haven't, I'll look it up if I don't own it already + I'll try and answer you.
• In addition, please be specific about the product you want to know about, and try to ask a bit nicely. When I see things like "cost of tigi hairspray" it really makes me NOT want to answer. First because you're asking me like I'm a machine, and second because you're not being at all specific about what you want. There's a LOTTT of hair products out there, so I need some details! LOL!
  
• And also, I don't wanna sound rude, but please don't ask me where to buy something, or how much something costs - that's what Google is for!
  
• Tip: Try not to ask me what the "best" product is, because everyone's opinion of what the "best" is will be different. You could hate the products I love, so me telling you what the "best" is would be like... lying. And I'd rather not lie to my followers.

That's all! I know I've been kinda quiet lately, but I'm planning some good stuff, so sit tight, take care of your hair, and ask away! =)

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