Category Archives: Product Review

Product Review: Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10

Posted in Product Review by

I’ll say it straight up: I get a lot of compliments on my hair. It’s smooth, stick-straight, and shiny. My hair dresser has even commented on how some women would kill to have natural dark brown hair like mine. (It even has hints of red. Yay Irish roots?)

Anyway, it’s not naturally perfect. I do have to manage my hair on a daily basis to keep it looking so swell. Every morning I shampoo and condition my hair, because if I don’t it looks oily AND my scalp flakes. Gross, gross, gross. And unless I toss it up into a pony tail, I have to blow dry and flat iron it to keep it looking normal. I know a lot of women go a day or two without washing their hair, but that’s just not possible for me. Gotta wash it to protect it from heat damage!

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Enter the Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10 line. With just three bottles of product my hair gets clean, is repaired and strengthened from heat damage, and smoothed (even more, like I thought that was possible). I figured that since there’s SO much going on between the shampoo, conditioner, and BB crème that my hair would feel heavy, but it doesn’t! It’s still light and silky smooth. A bonus is that the BB crème rinses off my hands easily when I’m done running it through my hair.

The only thing that I would change is the smell. I like product where I could just clutch the bottle all day and smell it, and the Ultimate 10 just doesn’t do that for me. It’s weird though – when I opened my BzzAgent box the smell was great, but when I opened the bottles up in the shower it wasn’t. Odd. (Although Kyle says it smells like cotton candy and he wants to eat my head … so I suppose it’s not that bad?)

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Overall, I’m fairly happy with the results I’m seeing. It’s hard to notice a change in shine since my hair is naturally pretty shiny, but I have noticed less split ends and fried strands of hair from running it through the flat iron. And this past weekend I went a day without showering and my hair wasn’t overly oily looking on the surface.

Do I think I’ll switch from my regular brand of shampoo and conditioner? I’m not sure. The price tag is comparable to other popular brands out there, so I might switch for a little bit and see how it goes. For now, I’ll just keep lather, rinse, and repeating ;)

Want to try Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10 yourself? Click here for a printable $2 off coupon! You can purchase the Ultimate 10 line at Target or any other major retailer.

What products do you usually use in your hair? Is there anything in specific that you battle against when it comes to hair care?

Disclaimer: I received Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10 shampoo, conditioner and BB Crème for free from BzzAgent in exchange for my honest opinion and to help create buzz about the product.

Stick it with Broadway Nails imPRESS Press-on Manicure (+ a Giveaway!)

Posted in Beauty/Fashion, Giveaway, Product Review, Products by

I like having nice nails, but I struggle with painting them on a regular basis and I’m too cheap to cough up the dough to pay to have them professionally done. The result? I either have no polish, or I’m left with one hand having perfect polish and the other looking not so hot. OR I mangle the polish within 30 minutes because it takes so long to dry.

So, enter imPress Press-on Manicures by Broadway Nails. I must admit, I’m not 100% sold on stick-on nails, whether they’re store bought on professionally done. I’m not sure why, but it could have something to do with finding them on the floor of pool changerooms and nearly stepping on them … I digress.

I got my Influenster VoxBox in the mail yesterday and was excited to open it up to see what colour or design I’d received. Low and behold, I got not one, but two different “bottles” of nails to try out! One was “Over the Moon,” a funky, swirly design, and the other was “Stiletto,” a pretty reddish-burgundy shade.

I decided that I’d give Over the Moon a try. After reading the instructions, I figured it wouldn’t take me long to get them on. All I had to do was clean my nails with the enclosed towelette, figure out what sizes I needed (there’s 12 sizes and 24 nail covers, which is great because my nails are weird, wonky sizes), peel off the sticker and press them on. Pretty easy, if you ask me!

The result? Pretty looking nails … from afar. Here’s where I get a little critical.

I really liked how smooth and glossy the actual nail cover was, but up close, you could kind of tell that they were not and I think that had to do with they way I applied them. I definitely should have trimmed my actual nail to below the end of my fingers so that you couldn’t see the real nail. I also probably done a bit better job of tidying up my cuticles before applying as well. Personally, I wasn’t crazy about the shade – I lean more towards nudes and “fun” colours rather than reds – but that’s what’s great about the imPress nails – you can take them right off with ease, but they definitely could last up to a week like the box says. If I were to see them at the store, I may just have to pick them up in a different colour!

You can find the imPress Press-on Manicures at a bunch of different stores – Walmart, Target, London Drugs, and more, and they’re pretty inexpensive – about $9 for the colours and $11 for the designs. (Considering a bottle of good polish can cost $9 and you may only use it once, that’s not bad!)

Just for my awesome readers, I’m going to give away the other tester shade I received so you can try it out for yourself! The shade is “Stiletto” and would look great on a night out on the town! To enter, just comment below and tell me,

How often do you get your nails done, or do you DIY?

You can gain extra entries by: 

1. Following me on Twitter. (Leave a comment that you are and with your Twitter handle).

2. Tweet about the giveaway. (Leave a comment with the link to your tweet) You can even just copy & paste the following:

“I entered to win an #imPressManicure kit from @KaraEvs, courtesy of @InfluensterVox and @BwayNails! Enter here: http://wp.me/pM0Sy-1em”

 

3. Following me on Bloglovin. (Leave a comment when you do and leave your username!)

I’ll pick one lucky winner by Noon, Pacific Time, May 30, 2014, so you have one whole week to enter!

Win me!

Win me!

Good luck!!

voxbox-blogimage-popup2Disclosure: I received the Influenster imPress Manicure Canada Vox Box for free in exchange for my honest opinion of the product. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not compensated financially for this post. The giveaway is my own idea and was not mandatory by Influenster or imPress Manicure.

Baby Essentials

Posted in Babies, Isla, Product Review by

Yeah, I know Isla is over a year old already and I’m just getting to this now. Horrible, I know.

I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite baby items that I’ve either been gifted or bought personally since Isla came around.

My Spooner Sisters Designs Diaper Tote

Image courtesy of Spooner Sisters Design!

Image courtesy of Spooner Sisters Design!

When Isla stopped pooping/spitting up/needing 100 things on trips to the store or wherever, I desperately needed something more compact and lightweight for outings with Isla. (Because surprise poops and heavy tinkles still happen!) I wanted something that I could toss a couple diapers, baby wipes and bum cream into that could act as a portable change station as well. I came across Spooner Sister Designs (who are based right out of Kamloops) and asked if this was something they could design as it wasn’t on their site at the time. Lucky for me, they were just in the process of making a couple prototypes and would be making them to sell soon! I waited, and as soon as they were available, I bought one. I love my diaper tote – It fits a “to-go” wipes container, two diapers and a little tube of bum cream perfectly, and I just leave it in the car for when I need it. So much easier than my big, bulky diaper bag!

The Pacifier “leash”

From Jake Tally’s Etsy Shop

Isla was really good at spitting out her soothers all over the floor, so I needed something that would clip onto whatever she was wearing so it wouldn’t get dirty. I was given a pair of leashes during Isla’s shower, but they were big and bulky. I found Jake Tally’s Etsy shop and was impressed by the patterns and the style of leash Jenn makes, so I ordered one! It’s small but the soother was super secure in place with the snap, and the clip attached easier and securely to everything – Sleepers, onesies, the car seat – Whatever! And, Isla knows that her soother is at the end of it, so if she spits it out and wakes up looking for it, she grabs the fabric of the leash and find her soother all on her own. No more lost or dirty soothers!

The Medela Calma

From Medela.com

Back in March I had an MRI and couldn’t nurse Isla for 24 hours afterwards, so I had to get her “trained” to take a bottle. I tried various nipples with various flows and none of them compared to nursing straight from the twins. After asking a mom support/swap group I belong to on Facebook, many of them recommended the Medela Calma. It’s not cheap, but it worked! Isla took to the bottle after one try and just like that, my boobs were free and the stress of the upcoming MRI had disappeared. I was really skeptical of the design of the nipple, but there’s something about the shape, along with the vacuum system that the Calma uses that works wonders. I was also able to, after my 24 hours of post-MRI no nursing was over, go back and forth between nursing and bottle feeding with no issues.

Really, that’s about it. I didn’t do video baby monitors, breath/motion detectors, wraps or slings. I actually have a wrap, but didn’t like it. Everything else I have baby gear-wise is pretty standard.

What are/were your must-have items?