My Hair Care Routine (As Of Right Now)

I have a lot of hair:

#Instawave curls day 1 from @kissproducts by #brandbacker what do you think?

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Nov 16, 2014 at 10:13am PST

I mean a LOT of hair!!

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Oct 30, 2014 at 9:29pm PDT

Plus I color treat it, and bleach the ends:

#brandbacker @kissproducts day 2 with my #Instawave hair curler. Looking forward to an event next weekend to curl my hair

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Nov 16, 2014 at 10:12am PST

So because of the face I have a lot of hair, and it is long, and it is my FAVORITE feature, I try to take good care of my hair.
This is my current Hair Care Routine:
First Off I KNOW some people are going to be all EWWW about this, but I only wash my hair (with shampoo) every 3 or 4 days. Yes I shower daily, but my hair only gets washed every 3 or 4 days. In between washes, at night, I use dry shampoo, I will spray the dry shampoo all over my roots and massage it in and then sleep with my hair in a bun (I ALWAYS do this) on top of my head, so when I wake up there is no white residue. The 2 dry shampoos I am loving right now are
Fekkai Hair Refresher


and the Herbal Essence's Naked Dry Shampoo

Both have REALLY Nice scents and work well too keep my hair from being greasy
When I do Shampoo I use The Neutrogena TGell (or the Walgreen's Brand)
This is a dandruff shampoo and works REALLY well as a deep cleansing shampoo as well.
Because I use such a harsh shampoo when I wash my hair I follow it up with a deep mask, I have been LOVING InstaNatural’s Argan Oil Mask, They sent me a free tub of it to review and it makes my hair so soft and shiny that I’ve already ordered another tub!

This one is a white mask and it smells amazing, citrusy and woodsy and just yummy! Plus it makes my hair so soft!!

After the shower I towel dry my hair and I HAVE to blow dry it, I honestly can’t take wet hair, and air drying my hair will literally take at least a day.
but before I blow dry I put in (in this order) Moroccan Oil, Style Extender, Soy Leave In Conditioner, and Heat Protectant.
Then I dry my hair and style!

That’s all of my routine, except one thing, after 3 or 4 days the night before I will coat my hair in the Insta Natural Argan Oil, or Coconut oil and then in the morning shampoo it out!

What is your hair routine?

*This is a Sponsored post on behalf of Brandbacker, and Insta Natural, but all opinions are my own and not influenced in anyway*

Harvey Prince Perfume Review and Giveaway!

 

 

I adore Harvey Prince Perfumes, I was introduced to them in one of my first birchboxes ever in a scent called Eu De Flirt, which is now called Temptress, and I was hooked, the smell is amazing and I’ve yet to smell one of their fragrances I didn’t adore!

So when I was contacted to try out and review a bottle I jumped at the chance, especially because I get to give 3 of you a bottle of your own too!!

I was sent Petaly Noir, first off how gorgeous is this bottle?? I think it is super adorable and love the little horse and carriage at the bottom!

This is a little sexier than the scents I usually go for, but I ended up loving it and Kensei did too!!

I love the light pink color and the pretty jewel top lid, the smell when first applied is a warm floral, vanilla scent that later develops into more full-bodied notes of jasmine and orchid which adds a super sexy and grown up smell to the perfume!

Do you like Harvey Prince as much as I do?? What is your favorite scent by them? What would you get if you win??

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Giveaway is sponsored by Harvey Prince, they are responsible for shipping out winning prizes I will be giving your name, address and email to them for the prizes*

 

This is a sponsored post, Petaly Noir was given to me for free in exchange for this review but all of my thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced in anyway, I already own several of Harvey Prince’s perfumes that I have bought and paid for with my own money/Birchbox points)

Angel Reads The Soup Club Cookbook

 

I was super excited when I was accepted into the Blogging For Books site. I love to read and when I saw what was available I had to try out a cook book first.

Now my family says I am great at cooking, but recently it seems that one of their favorites I make is soup. When I went home for M’s Wedding my dad had enough ingredients for me to make 18 quarts each of 3 different soups!!

This book has lovely pictures and cute stories sprinkled through out it about how to make different soups and how to start your own soup club! I had never really heard of a soup club before, and it sounds like a kick butt idea, I just need to find 3 other people willing to join in with me! This book not only has soups, but amazing side dishes and drinks too! Every recipe comes with its own story of how it got into the group, and I thought the notes were an adorable addition!

The soup recipes are for large batches because they are meant to be used within a soup club and shared with many people, but I am sure that the ones I haven’t tried yet will freeze well because the ones I did try froze beautifully. They have Asian soups, and several different styles and tastes!

I liked how the humor was tossed in the book, honestly one of my favorite chapters was “Music to cook too” where they shared playlists of their favorite cooking music, I cannot cook properly without some music in the background so this really made me smile!

I think this book would be a welcome addition to any family’s cookbook stash, but that unless you plan to cook and freeze make sure you halve or quarter each recipe!

 

* I was sent this book for free for my honest opinion and review

If you want to see any of the recipes from this book let me know and I will make a future blog post on them! 

InstaNatural

I was really lucky in that BrandBacker asked me to try out some new face products from InstaNatural, I got to try out their Hyaluronic Acid Serum, Youth Express Eye Gel, and Pore Tightening Vitamin C Toner.

I really loved all of these products, I have a daily moisturizing routine, that if I don’t moisturize my face 2 times I will end up with dry patchy flaking skin, which is NOT Pretty, with the InstaNatural products my skin was very well hydrated.

Here are my individual thoughts on each product:

The Eye gel: You get 1.7 oz or 50 ml in the bottle, that is a LOT of eye cream, it says you can use it all over your face, but I never did because to me, eye cream is eye cream not face cream. I loved the smell and that it was thick but not super thick to make my eyes look puffy.

The Toner: I have honestly never gotten used to using a face toner, but this one wasn’t bad, first of it is a spray not a pour on the cotton ball type of toner, which I LOVED! The sprayer could have had a little finer mist though, the smell was a nice burst of orange which helped wake me up in the morning. It has witch hazel and a UV blocker!

The Acid Serum : I love the trend of putting acid on your face, it makes me smile when I apply it, I will say the dispenser for this was not a well planned one, it comes in a medicine dropper style dispenser which the serum is honestly to thick for, but other than that the serum absorbs quickly and with no residue, which is a major plus to me!

You can get all of these products from Amazon or their website,  What do you use in your skin care routine?

*This product was sent to me free for my honest review and opinion, by BrandBacker, All thoughts and opinions are my own and not in anyway influenced by the company*

Prosperous Pooch Pumpkin Spice Puppy Treats!!

 

Today I wanted to share some amazing puppy treats with you guys! I recently discovered Monica and her shop through a Facebook group I am in!! She makes homemade healthy puppy treats and they are freaking amazing!!

Here are her Facebook and Etsy shop pages!

Monica asked me if I though my girls would be interested in testing out her treats and then posting a review on them, and we were all for it!!

They cam super quick, and they were freshly made! She wrapped them up in pretty purple tissue paper!

Major presentation points!

I loved the fact that the made by date was on the bag, and as you can tell from this picture Penni KNEW these were for her and was already dying to get one!

We got the Medium sized treats and they are pretty large in size which is great for all 3 of my girls! I gave Penni her treat and then took some out with me when I was training LadyBug and Sugar, (my fiancée's girls) They all adored them!

I use the What is fat? Puppy meme here because honestly I think Penni would devour the entire bag If I let her!

 

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#PenniPuppy thinks this daily

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I loved the smell just opening the envelope, as a quintessential white girl in the fall, Pumpkin Spice everything is my jam, and they smelled amazing! I love the fact that they are completely natural as well!

Monica has the ingredient list as “Oat flour, brown rice flour, pumpkin, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, flax seed, peanut butter, ascorbic powder (vitamin C, a natural preservative).”

So they are healthy for your puppy as well as super yummy! Penni literally has drooled all over the bed as soon as I pull one out of the bag for her!

If you have a puppy I highly recommend that you check out Prosperous Pooch!

If you do let me know which flavor you get! I am planning on getting the girls some more treats around Christmas time!!

Here is Penni determined to get some treats!

Perfectly Posh!

 

I was recently given a chance to try some samples from Crystal, she is a Perfectly Posh Consultant, and let me know about a skin care company I’d never heard of before! Perfectly posh is a  made in the USA company, They are Paraben, sulfate, lanolin and phthalate free , they have natural bases and are cruelty free!!

First I want to say Crystal has this sample thing down pat! She sent me a makeup bag filled with trial samples, a letter on how to use everything, a perfectly posh cataloged AND each sample was individually packaged with it’s name and directions on it’s use!! You go girl!!!

As always I am going to be completely honest though,

Here is a little about me, I used to take amazing care of my skin, sunblock and lotion every single day, face masks once a week, but I was also damaging the heck out of it but going to a tanning salon every single day, for at least 30 min a day for sensory mood treatment. I don’t do that anymore, not because of a cancer scare or anything serious (although I know I should be worried) but mainly because I am broke and have no time to tan. Unfortunately my skin has suffered because of this, my body is super dry and I get really rough scaly patches, it isn’t pretty.

The first sample I tried out was the Snarky Bar

 

According to the site, it is scented with: Bergamot, mandarin, freesia, lily, and soft sandalwood

What Does It Do?: 

Snarky beads scrub and rub off dead, dry skin in a luxurious smelling shea butter soap base. Remove stubborn and unsmooth spots.

How To Use It: 

Rub over skin in the shower or bath. A quick pass from shoulders to toes once per day, or every other day is enough to keep most skin super soft. Aggressive scrubber. Not recommended for face. Remember: She’s Snarky! Rinse thoroughly. Pat skin dry with towel and moisturize “snarked” areas.

What did I think? Pros: I liked this, like I said my skin is usually very dry and flaky, it smoothed my skin well, and the shea butter added some nice moisture which I liked.

Cons: The smell didn’t last, and neither did the sample, I used the whole sample in one shower, now I do take very warm showers so this could have been part of the issue, but in the process of scrubbing myself all over the entire sample was used. The full sized is 6 oz. so this might not happen as quickly with the full sized bar.

Next I used the Mix a Fresh Mask Kit in Honey and Annatto:

What Does It Do?: 

Nourish your face how you choose with a blend of honey and annatto seed. Soothe, moisturize, and preserve youthful skin while leaving a healthy glow. Made in your choice of a foody base mix.

How To Use It: 

Simply blend Mask Mix with your choice of fresh, chilled ingredients. Choose from 15 recipes. Mix and apply to face. Rinse with warm water. Store excess Mask in an air-tight container in your refrigerator. Share your Mask, or use within 72 hours.

What did I think? I mixed mine with honey and yogurt, I LOVED it! Very DIY but also very soothing and I liked how my face looked and felt after!

 

I then Tried the Shine Bright Like a Diamond Microderm Scrub

What Does It Do?: 

Removes dead layers on face to reveal a more youthful, elastic complexion.

How To Use It: 

Use with water on clean skin. Rinse thoroughly. Moisturize. Use once weekly.

Fragrance: Lotus water

What do I think? Honestly I didn’t like this one, I didn’t really notice to much of a difference in my face at all but I do really like the smell!

 

I also sampled the Mint For Each Other Body Scrub:

What Does It Do?: 

Exfoliates skin to remove dead, dry layers and reveal tighter, nourished, healthy skin.

How To Use It: 

Apply liberally to skin in the bath or shower. Scrub, then rinse

What did I think? The SMELL I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smell, but it ends there… this didn’t do much for me, I tried it in the shower (we don’t have a tub where we live) and it was just to dry for me to really get anything out of it, but the smell is amazing!

 

Last I tried Nutty For You

What Does It Do?: 

Fragrances your bath, scrub, shower, or steam with gentle fragrance and skin pampering sea salt.

How To Use It: 

Simply scoop a little (or a lot!) into your bath, toss onto the floor of a steamy shower, or use a small amount in hands to scrub skin. Make it YOURS: mix with other fragrances and effects.

What do I think? This is another win for me! I LOVED the smell and it worked well as a steam smell, and also as a scrub mixed with a little coconut oil! I would definitely recommend this one in a heartbeat!

 

Have you ever tried Perfectly Posh? What did you think? Do you think you would like to try any of these? Let Crystal know!

PhantomFit Resistance bands!

I have been getting ready for my GYSTS14 challenge and I figured what better way to try it then to use some Phantom Fit resistance bands. I really loved these they have amazing flexibility and are challenging and are very well made. I love the fact that they come in a travel bag, it is really easy to store them and they work well for my exercise!

If you are looking for something to augment your workout and don’t want to spend the large amount for changing hand weights I think resistance bands are a really good thing to get into!

I plan to keep using these throughout the month to help me with my challenge.

I also LOVE the fact that you get all 4 weights which will really help when my strength goes up and I need more resistance!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.