IC Olive Styling Gel Quick Review

Hello everyone! Life is super busy lately. Between family life, school, and working out, my hair is what I want to spend the least time on. So I've opted for wash and goes!

I had to go shopping for some new hair products because I was completely out of conditioner and creams. Yes, chile, I am no longer a product junkie! Since I've been opting for wash and goes I needed a product for some hold. So I bought IC Olive styling gel. There were 4 kinds of Eco Styler gel available at the Base Exchange (I live overseas as a military dependent) but none with any added oils. So I decided to try IC. I saw it feature on many blogs and youtube videos, so I was excited to try.

I had great results with this product. Great hold, shine, and not flaky!

First Day Hair

Here are the results from last week! I had 4 great days with NO additional products needed after the first day to retain the style including water!

Second Day Hair!

Third Day Hair!

Today I had to wash my hair early in the morning and go! I washed, added about half a palm full of gel for three sections, shook each section, and finished my morning routine with the children. I couldn't diffuse because we were running behind. However when I came home I was able to diffuse and here are the results! I like this gel. It's slightly more costly (about a dollar) than eco styler, but I prefer the results of this gel the best. I love that there is NO flaking and my hair still feels soft but there is a slight hold that keeps my wash and go nice for a few days- even with my workout routine! It also works amazingly well for my daughter's super soft curls! 




I hope this was helpful!!!!

This Week's Favorites: Beauty

HEY! So I finished the first half of the semester last Saturday. I am so happy that it is over. It was stressful especially since my husband was gone for 3 weeks. The classes I took while very challenging was very interesting, but having so much work to do while juggling everyday task can take its toll. During that time I still did a good amount of cooking and my love for all things beauty didn't wane. Except the week of finals, my hair was bunned up and I put on minimum make-up so I can get my school work done before Sunday.

So, I decided to do favorites posts because I have so many things from beauty to food that I am just LOVING! Instead of boring my friends on Facebook, I thought I'd have more chance to interest someone in the blog world. This is the reason I blogged to find other people who can relate to my likes and I to theirs'. This blog didn't begin as a food blog it was more of a everything blog and at this point I think it's pretty much still the same way.

So let's get into it!

My first favorite is my Con Air's Hot Clips Multi-Sized Hot Rollers

These rollers are amazing if you want va-va-voom hair whether your hair is curly or straight. I used these rollers in my daughter's hair, which is curly and it helped stretch her hair and give it loads of body. For my natural hair, I like to use it to add body to twist-out as well as stretch them a bit. I will have a pictorial of how I do this. I love the results. It's quick and beautiful!!

The clips and rollers heat up in seconds. The clips are the hottest so expect little to no damage with these rollers.

Next is my NARS Sheer Glow Foundation! I LOVE this foundation. A little goes a long way and the coverage is light to medium so redness is covered but freckles are not. It's quite buildable so if you want those freckles covered, add another layer. It will not feel heavy, just like second skin. 

What I really love about NARS products is their wide range of color choices. In Germany in the winter it was so hard to find a good foundation. They were all too dark because I was so pale. Only foundation that worked was my Chanel and the others were either too light or too dark. I bought Barcelona by NARS and it was PERFECT. I was so happy. While I was at the counter recently I was surprised by how light I was in Germany. It was so dreary last winter (2013) so not that surprising! Only thing is the pump is not included but put a little on your hand a little really goes a long way.

Now on to my e.l.f shimmer palette. It's inexpensive and it's great if you love the dewy, fresh look!

The hues are amazing, and I use them ALL (not at once)!  Apply using your fingers along the bridge of your nose, above your cheekbones, and on your cupid's bow. This will be great in the winter months when your skin tone can look more drab than fab. If you have oiler skin, you should use the powder. This is a creamier version if you cannot tell.

My next favorite is L'Oreal's 8hr Infallible Lip Gloss in Undeniable Mauve

This color in my perfect is perfect for fall. It looks great on my skin tone. Does it last 8 hours? No. But the color is beautiful. It's not sticky and it goes on like silk. I am turning into a big L'oreal fan!

Next favorite is Revlon's Nail Art Expressionist!

I love this nail polish because I love to be fun with my nails. i also paint my nails like a 5 year-old so the thin brushes help me stay in the lines a little better. I love the vibrant colors, one coat is enough. But I use two because I clean a lot. So far I have not experienced any chipping. 

Any gaps in color is due to my impatient dry style. I can't sit for 20 minutes while my nails dry, I always have something to do! I bought these stateside and haven't seen them at the BX here in Kadena yet.

This is my angled brush from my Too Faced Teddy Bear Hair Professional Brush Set

I love to use this to apply shadow as a liner, my gel liners and to apply my eyebrow powder. It picks up a lot of product and is soft and flexible. 

Like the other brushes from this set, it washes easily. Which comes in handy when using gel liners. Gel liners can be hard to clean from brushes.

Now on to my FAVORITE! I can not remember which youtuber mentioned this life changing brow palette, but I want to thank them. I LOVE it. Actually I think it was a make-up blog. It's a dupe of Bobbi Brown eyebrow palette I believe. I love this so much. It's the Wet n Wild Ultimate Brow Kit.

I use the top is a clear gel that sets the brows. I use the darker brown on the bottom define my outer brow and the lighter brow to define my inner brows. When I am being lazy I use one or the other for the whole brow. If you're using two colors, use your angled brush for an eyebrow brush to help blend it all! I love this kit!

OK that was my favorites this week! These favorites will not be all about beauty. It will be everything from snacks, foods, favorite household items, clothing items, and more! 

Thank you for reading!!!!!!!!

Random Thoughts

HELLO EVERYONE!

I cut my finger pretty bad last night. I was chopping green peppers for stir fry and SLICE. It hurt more than normal and bled a lot more than normal. I put the chunk of fingernail back on and the husband bought me some band aids--he was out when it happened. He brought home about 12 different bandages. He's such a sweetheart. My kids kept their distance as they get woozy pretty quick. They usually place a band aid and neosporin on a cut for me but this was too ugly for them lol. They are too funny to me. So I am typing with my middle finger instead my index finger lol. I type with two hands so it's no big deal.

Didn't take a pic, but here's a pic of my cute little man :)


I am addicted to soundcloud. I found so much great indie music there and mainstream music i never heard. I discovered Kendrick Lamar there. I've read several status updates with people talking about him, but I never heard his music before. I am happy to have discovered him. Looking forward to buying his album now. I also discovered The Stuyvesants, Akira Shelton and a few others. Actually the last two I discovered watching natural hair videos on youtube with their music played in the background. So I did my own research which lead me to soundcloud and now I am addicted to the site. And I am definitely supporting these artists on iTunes. Check them out. Here's a great song from Akira Shelton feat Jasmine Jones:


I love love lovvvve make up lol. I don't wear it all at once but in the last few months i've learned a lot and gotten better. Thanks to youtube. I follow so many beauty gurus there it's crazy. Look out for make-up posts here soon. Not tutorials, but stuff I am loving. Was thinking about having make-up mondays.

I am homesick for Europe. Not just Germany but Europe. But I LOVE it here in Japan so far.

If you don't follow me on youtube,  instagram or facebook I froed out my hair last week. Just for a day and I loved it. I gotta find a heatless way to do it. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_L-mfPV_hYyZ6j1-wHMNaQ

I GOT MY IPAD BACK. I haven't really used it since I got it back, but I am looking forward to using it for editing vlogs etc.

Stressed Much??

We're over here in Japan trying to settle and it's kind of hard. We are still waiting on our furniture. I wish had put so much more in my unaccompanied baggage. For those who do not know what that is, it's basically what you ship ahead. I thought that we'd have our furniture by now so it's turning into a drag.  I would like to have our house nice and settled in and comfy before we (the whole fam!)start school. Having boxes all over the place/unpacking while trying to keep a clean/normalish house, happy kids, a relaxed husband, and going to school is going to be so hard. The rate things are going I think our shipment will arrive during finals!

I also have another problem..........I don't have a LICENSE! My husband is going to TDY soon and I will have no way of getting around. IE the japanese grocery stores. I could just take a taxi but that's $$$$$$$$$$.

There will be a lot of budgeting going on right about now.

Did you know it's really expensive here. Well at least the grocery is. Even on base the commissary is expensive. So we have to do a lot of budgeting.

Besides that......I LOVE IT. I am thankful every single day that I am here. Did you know that I wanted to move here since 2004? I wanted to be on a base overseas that my (late) brother and I could be stationed at together. While filling out my 'dream sheet' (military for where you'd like to go) when I was an Airman. Japan was on the top of the list. I remember envisioning blue skies, clear waters, and palm trees, and no it wasn't Hawaii. It was Okinawa. I never even heard of the place but for some reason Okinawa drew me in. My time in Germany was incredible and I thoroughly appreciated the experiences, the good, the bad, and extremely ugly that went on there, but I am so happy to be where I feel I was meant to go now, not years ago when I really wanted to be here. So. Yeah.

After a move the first 6 months are hard, so I am hoping and trying to stay very positive about it all.

Anyone else live/lived in Japan? Please share your experiences in the comments!

Sommer J's Relaxed to Natural Journey!

I wasn't sure when I cut all my hair off after having a micro braids in WAY too long whether I was going to stay natural. My impatience and watching many many "BIG CHOP" you tube videos inspired me to chop my hair off. I really wanted to go natural because my hair was thinning badly, it would stop growing after a certain length. Perhaps because I didn't put a lot of TLC into my hair. Back when I was in college, I'd keep my hair braided up under a bandanna and my hair grew so fast and very long. Then I let little girls play in it along with the stress of another transition in my life (moving out on my own -forcibly) and then joining the military feeling like I let everyone down because of my declining college grades was NOT good for my hair one bit. I don't have any pictures from that time, but I was known as the "the tall girl with long pretty hair" sometimes it was "tall girl with pretty curly hair" when I'd stretch my relaxers and wear braid outs or wash n goes (on relaxed hair!). I then joined the military, my hairdresser begged me to go natural years ago, but i thought it would be too much work, and I had to look neat and tight as a military member. Oh how uneducated I def was. From then on my hair went from bad to worse. With my multiple pregnancies, busy life, bad coloring jobs by my self, bad perms, bad weaves, my poor hair got no love. Even when I thought I was trying. I really was. Lets begin!

This is me about 2 weeks after delivering my youngest. I had lots of braid styles the months prior to his birth. It grew thicker, not much longer. However....

We moved a few weeks later and transitioning, getting settled in our new life, my hair's health definitely took a toll

I looked to weaves to help retain length. That didn't work. The hairstylist criticized my hair's health with no advice. and the weaves never looked good after a couple weeks

\

2nd weave

Hats were my friend...particularly this wool hat in all climates. 

I didn't want to go back to the same salon so i removed the sew in myself. Hoping to see some length I was sorely disappointed and cut my hair

Still very unhappy with my hair and my appearance I got a haircut. Hoping for a pixie cut, I didn't get one just a normal cut. It was cute for maybe a month

So then I went searching for hairdressers who did braids, preferably home visits as my husband was deployed. And thankfully I did! She did an amazing job! They were so tight not one braid fell out...not sure if that's good or bad, especially for a hair novice like myself

They started looking tired after 3 months, but I had no time and no help with my husband deployed so they were in my hair for 5 months!

I started removing them myself even went out for drinks with a friend. My trusty hat! LOL

BIG CHOP END OF OCTOBER 2011

Finally, I HAD IT! Watching you tube about natural hair journeys, a feat I nearly took on in'08 but chickened out. I considered be natural this time, but wasn't sure whether or not I would perm my hair in the next months. 

I didn't take many pics because i was very self conscious. That HAT again.

MONTH 1 November

Then the inevitable happened, my brother died. I didn't give a flip about my hair. When I went back to the states, my sister offered to braid my hair, a break and kind gesture i sorely needed at the time.

December

Low maintenance hair sorely needed during the holidays and grieving stages

January

Did an uneven cut on my braids. Was annoyed at its length ;-)

February

Hair is getting old

March

Debuted my hair to most of the world. Got a lot of compliments. This is a twist out btw 

April

I had these braids for a month in a half this is at the tail end lol.

June no pics from May. This is me and my Stepson and my littlest man!

 

I picked out the coils in July :-)

I straightened and colored in July. A bit of a disaster. but I deep conditioned like a champ

In August my hair started looking and feeling healthy again

Awesome wash n go!

My Curly Babies

This is a two day old twist out which I stretch using the multiple pineappling method. So much easier than twisting every single night!

September's shrinking wash n go

Going out on a date with the husband in October

Finally tried Naptural85's winter wash n go as i had some length and I loved the results! And my wash n go looked a lot more stretched than normal!

Twist out in Scotland cute styles didn't hold up while we were in the UK due to sooo much rain!

December in Switzerland I had a only the front with the twist out and the rest of my hair in twists with conditioner in a baggie under my beanie!

Same method in Austria. Only I had bantu knots! The front is a bantu knot out

FINALLY a two  day old wash n go side fro. Looks like my wash n goes are looking a bit longer!

I am not going to preach to anyone about going natural. I did this for me! Some days I dream of the a relaxer then I remember how limp and weak my hair was. My hair now fights back and will let me know if a style or product I am using is wack. This journey is perfect for ME. There are a lot of women who use relaxers and their hair is amazingly healthy. Women no matter what race, hair type you are, all your hair wants need is a little tender love and care. You will definitely see the results.

So happy to have support from my great family. Look for a video soon featuring me and my husband. Oooh boy

14 months natural and hopefully for the rest of my life :-)