where did product reviews go!?

so i know i haven't done a product review in forever! i haven't been using a lot of new products, so i don't have much to chime in on. but i do have a few products i would like to review (with a much larger list of what i want to try).


so my goal this week is to review hairveda's hair spritz and the VS so sexy conditioner, two items i love. maybe also the oyin juices&berries and the shine&define. if i can think of anything else to review, i'll be sure to put it in the queue. :)


as for an update on izzy, my hair is sooo deliciously soft now! i haven't been doing anything too differently. gave up my gel for moisturizer in the morning, and added hairveda's tea spritzer to my routine. the tea spritzer may be working miracles on izzy! i am loving it! this might be able to get me through the winter months (until i get my steamer that is!)


how is your hair doing? :)

dear izzy, i still want to marry my denman.

a post dedicated to my dearest izzy. :)


this is the reaffirmation i have been looking for in the past few weeks.


i decided to go home and do laundry (for free) this weekend, and while handling my clothes, why not take this time to treat izzy to the deep conditioning i cheated her out of last week? i shampooed off a week of styling with gel, excited to see the suds bubble up through my curlies. i haven't had a good shampoo in what seems like forever, and i've always loved shampooing my hair.


speaking of shampoo, right now my current staple is ORS creamy aloe, simply because i don't have anything else to use. i'm not sure why i haven't reviewed it yet, because i think it's a great shampoo. i've been using it since day 1 of my natural journey. so i think it's safe to say it'll be a lifetime staple out of simplicity and effectiveness. :) i do still want to buy a full size of the shampoo i got from lush earlier this year.


anyway!


i slathered on a generous glob of jessicurl weekly deep treatment and worked it through. i am still working with this for my review; i feel this may be more of a protein conditioner than moisturizing one, which is fairly new for me. and proceeded to brush it through with my denman. a week of playing in and pulling at my coils had me convinced that i was in dire need of a good detangling.


i fell in love with my denman all over again.


it glided through my hair, clumping them sooo beautifully that my first thought was: "there's no way i can cut izzy again." nope, i just can't do it. it was love - seeing everything coiled, clumped, and juicy. i am ready to finally grow izzy out and see her in her full glory - i am so impatient for an afro. 


i really wish i could've taken pictures - it was such a unique, gorgeous site. natural hair is one of those amazing things where the more you see it, the more you grow to love it. there's just something so profoundly gorgeous about seeing the twists and turns that spring from your scalp, in knowing that you are perfectly beautiful without even trying... that your beauty is natural, and no one can take that from you. :)


sigh. i was feeling it just now, lol.


even more of a unique site is seeing my blonde grow out... my hair has grown over an inch, two in some spots. i don't really know how much you're meant to get in a month, but seeing my blonde ends just suddenly shift into my dark brown is such a cool sight. i've been thinking of coloring again soon, but i'm going to wait until i order my steamer. i don't feel like committing to color again unless i know i'm armed to take care of it. i also plan to order some moisturizers from jasmine's beauty and bath and qhemet, just to see what's out there.


speaking of buying more things... Mozeke is having a sale this wednesday! 30% off! i'd been meaning to order more of the moisturizing masque, so this is especially delicious! :) this would also be the perfect time to try out a few of their samples, if you were interested!


loving this natural life!

here's the plan.

i've decided to just go ahead and let izzy do her thing. i am always surprised at how big she's gotten when i wash my hair. i've been meaning to go in for a shape-up for about three weeks now, so i need to get on that, but i will be growing her out from now on.


while i absolutely adored my short hair (and despite people telling me to fade it again), i am ready for more comb coils, braids, twists, and fro-hawks. i enjoyed my short hair for the summer and i don't have any hats yet, so i need something atop my head in the meantime, lol. ;)


i do plan to color again, this time a deep, warm chocolatey brown. maybe a little reddish. i have a good idea of what i want to do, but my hair has been feeling dry lately so i'm sitting with a deep conditioner in my hair now. i'll probably do two treatments a week while i look for new moisturizers to try.


what i really really really want, without a doubt in my mind is a steamer! the whole idea just seems so deliriously luscious - all that warmth and heat penetrating my strands. imagine kicking your favorite deep conditioner up a few notches.  hell yeah! i've had my eye on the behuetiful steamer, ever since Mae from naturalchica did a review on youtube. her hair looked delicious when she came out. and with my dryness, it looked like just the treatment i was looking for! unfortunately it's sold out now. ;/ go figure. hopefully around christmas i can snatch one up. i'm so excited! it's going on my list to santa!


i've also come to the realization that i just can't leave my hair alone. i just have to cut it or color it. i'm not happy with it just being. which is why i'm ready for longer hair. i can do a lot more, style-wise, so i can leave izzy alone for a while. i'm sure she doesn't enjoy color nearly as much as i do. i have to take better care of her. i've been really lazy and neglectful lately which isn't cool for her or me. so i plan to leave this conditioner on for the rest of the night, then actually style my hair (a shingle), so i can leave my hear alone for the rest of the week.


there's my "extended" update for now!

IWHIPMYHAIR

BACK&FORTH.


hee hee. ;)


it's been soooo long. i have so much to talk about about my hair. first off, apologies. i haven't had any reviews in quite a while. :( partially because i haven't been trying any new products, but there are still a few that i have YET to review. unfortunately, with school back in session, i can't see any coming anytime soon, especially as i'll be sticking with my staples.


as for izzy... things are going okay. i haven't DC'ed in at least a month and poor izzy is so dry. i've just been rewetting and styling every day, so i don't really deal with the issue of actual care. but i plan to do a dc either tonight or tomorrow. i've been picking her out daily just because it's much easier to wear an afro than to re-wet. but i'm learning that this is a big nono. all that rough combing and manipulation is breakage city. but it's so much easier to pick and go. i'll probably shingle once a week and just spritz in the morning instead of saturating.


i plan to order more of my mozeke dc soon. i also want to try the jessicurl weekly deep treatment, which has gotten a lot of great reviews. i also plan on working my way through some moisturizers to see what i like. my avocado butter is still great, but i feel as though my hair does need a little bit more, especially in the winter months.


i'm easing back into that awkward in-between stage with izzy, so i've been torn in-between getting another fade or growing it out. the fade is really calling to me, but i've been dreaming about twisting, and cornrolling, and making puffs, and making flat twists... i think i'm ready to see how long izzy can grow! i didn't realize how much growth i had until i cut around my birthday earlier this year. i wish i had taken pictures.


just a quick update!

[pics] when izzy starts to dry...

she begins to frizz, which is normal, but this is a lot of frizz. the bleach loosened my texture, which wasn't uniform to begin with. now i have even more stick straight pieces than before. oh well, it's nothing i can't handle and i really like picking out tiny izzy - she looks so fly!


she's still looking and feeling a little on the dry side, though, so i plan to have izzy dc with heat tonight (which is something i almost never do).

[pics] fresh out the shower, naked, co-washed hair

click on the pics to enlarge them!

yet anothaaa body buttaa. +NEWS!

so ignore my cheesy title; i needed something to call this post, LOL. anyways! i had today off so i decided to whip up another body butter, this time for myself. i wanted something moisturizing and unscented... i hate showering at night because i often don't know what i want to smell like! and if the scent does linger, i don't want it clashing with my perfume in the morning. so the perfect fix seemed simple - just make my own!

my skin has been looking a little weathered lately, so i made sure to choose skin-loving ingredients. coconut, olive, and avocado oil are the only oils with molecules small enough to penetrate the skin's layers, so those were my top choices. i added some jamaican black castor oil because a fellow blogger recommended it and she has fabulous skin. (shout out to littlegoldenlamb!) my base was shea butter (as always), with a generous dollop of hemp seed butter. it was very similar to my previous batch, except i skipped the avocado butter and fragrance this time.

but wait, two posts on body butter in a row? something must be up! hmm... whatever could it be?!

I GOT A NEW CAMERA! YAAAY!

this is serious business, people! i haven't "had" a camera of my own for maybe, ohhh, five years now? most pictures i've posted here have come from my webcam (which isn't at all bad, but let's face it, isn't winning any awards for quality) or my mom's piece of crap digital camera. my mom isn't an electronic buff by any means, so her camera was pretty much "old" when it was new. (i love you, mommy.)

my new cam packs a walloping 12 megapixels - it takes great texture shots. ;) the colors are vivid and the clarity crystal! i'll be uploading some pics of my hair later this evening - FINALLY. but without further ado, here's my body butter:

my arsenal...

the hemp seed butter looks like a dollop of real... well, butter!

after being whipped...

yummy!

perfectly packaged and ready to use!