Review - Hairart H3000 Flat Iron

Hello again!

Normally I would make a post every day because I just love blogging so much, but I recently was faced with more depression problems which brought my mood down, which in turn prevented me from blogging. 

Anyways, with that aside I am feeling much better now and today I will be doing a review on the straightener that I have been using for the past two and a half years now! 

As you can see from this picture to the left hand side of this page, this straightener has been good to me for over two and a half years! Which is incredible, because the very first straightener that I've had completely sucked because it was a cheap Revlon baby straightener meant for short hair which was great at the time, because I was growing my hair out. Then, after that I bought the Avanti flat iron which... wasn't good... and then the CHI flat iron which I absolutely LOVED, but it broke within 6 months :( I wasn't happy especially since it costs me about $200 just for the straightener which was supposedly the best in the market.  Apparently it wasn't the best for me because it broke.

So then, from that day on I bought a new flat iron which is my current hair art one! I love it a lot! It was also $200 in Canadian Dollars too, and I honestly believe that it is well worth the price! It is part ceramic and part tourmaline which is great when it comes to the frizzies and the damage.

Now that I have told you about this straightener, I want to tell you more about ceramic and tourmaline.

For all who do not know about ceramic and tourmaline in straighteners now days is that ceramic retains its heat well and doesn't fluctuate as much compared to copper or other metal straighteners. Yes, metal used to be put in flat irons and they wreaked havoc on people with fine hair or on anyone's hair in that matter. 

While I was on Folica.com, I checked out the ceramic straighteners and on one straightener that uses ceramic plating, here are the benefits listed below!

Ceramic Heat

• Moist ceramic heat with ceramic plates and coils.
• Ceramic will maintain even temperature all the times.
• Ceramic will produce negative ions.
• Seals the cuticle.
• Locks in hair color and retards fading.
• Ceramic heat will ensure the penetration of the silk molecules to the hair.
• Traditional copper coil can cause more damage and dry the hair.

As you can see, ceramic plating is best for when it comes to straightening your hair. I you have a ceramic/tourmaline straightener like mine, then you have the best of both worlds!

Tourmaline Ceramic Hair Straightener's distributes heat across the entire surface evenly, retains heat more efficiently, and eliminates damaging hot spots. Ceramic emits a natural source of negative ions and far infrared heat that helps your hair 

1. Preserve more moisture within the hair shaft

2. Eliminates frizz and close the cuticle to create smooth and shiny hair

3. Causes less damage to the hair cuticle during styling

As you can see from above, tourmaline straighteners basically have the same properties as ceramic straighteners. Tourmaline is a crystal, while ceramic is not. Both say that they will eliminate frizz and cause less damage, and preserve more moisture but that will only be true IF you use a good heat protectant. As you all know, I use either the Nywele Argan Oil, or the Moroccanoil Oil Treatment as my heat protectant. It does a great job with keeping the moisture in my hair, and when I straighten it I don't feel like my hair is super dry because I know that using a good heat protectant and a good straightener will help protect my hair from a lot of damage. 

That said, with all the good things about this straightener said and done, you must ALWAYS get a trim! I cut my hair every 1-2 months prior to colouring my hair again because with those damaged, dry, dead ends, I want to keep my ends in a good healthy condition. Damaged ends = not pretty. 

Alrighty! Now it's time for the BAD side of this straightener!

I truly love this straightener, I really do. BUT, there are tons of cons that I have to say about this straightener. 

This straightener, is NOT dual voltage. I figured that out last year when I brought this with me to Italy and I plugged it into my voltage adapter thing, and when I had the adapter set on low, it took FOREVER to heat up. Yet, when I set the voltage adapter to high it started vibrating. I immediately thought to myself "Wtf?! This is supposed to be a straightener! Not a vibrator!" So I was extremely scared because it was vibrating! But at least it heated up and I was able to straighten my hair, so as long as I got my hair straightened without it exploding or blowing up on me I felt okay. Just by the time I got to Rome, I just gave up. i didn't want to have my hand vibrating every time I was straightening my hair so I basically just left it natural. 

ANOTHER con about this straightener is that it doesn't keep your hair straight in the Italian humidity. As you all know, Italy is a peninsula that extends out into the center of the Mediterranean Sea, and where there is a large body of water, there is a large amount of moisture. Even with my hair oils, the moisture still made my hair not stay straight for long. 

That was a hard core bust for me, but over all this product is awesome! I use it almost everyday when I don't blow dry my hair straight with a paddle brush, and definitely when I am letting my hair air dry because my hair isn't naturally pin straight. It used to be... 


If you bought this straightener in North America, don't expect it to work well for you when you travel to a different country that doesn't have 120 voltage. 







Anyways, without anymore of my rants on how bad this straightener was to me in Italy, I give this straightener a 4/5 only because it has been so good to me for over 2 years in Canada. 



 

Review: AG's Liquid Varnish smoothing polish

This product is one of my favourite products when it comes to shine and humidity. As you all may know from my previous posts that my hair does not stay straight in the humidity. Especially if I don't apply a finishing product on after! 

So before I begin telling you about the pros and cons about this product, I'd like to give a heads up notice saying that this product is basically all silicone! I know there are a lot of people who are not a big fan of silicone based shine serums because silicones aren't easy to remove, especially if you are using a sulfate free shampoo. I suggest that if you are going to buy this product, you should use a clarifying shampoo every month just to get rid of all the build up. I personally don't use clarifying shampoos anymore because I dye my hair red continuously, so using a clarifying shampoo defeats the purpose of keeping in the colour.

For those who want to know the ingredients and what the back of the bottle says, I will post it below.

Smooths split ends and calms frizz by sealing and protecting the hair cuticle and polishing hair to a brilliant shine. alcohol free and non-oily. Directions: work a few drops through damp or dry hair, paying particular attention to frizzy or split ends. 

INGREDIENTS: CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, DIMETHICONE, CYCLOPENTRASILOXANE, PHENYL TRIMETHICONE, PARFUM/FRAGRANCE.

So as you can see from above, this product is basically silicone based, but it is alcohol free which is great for a lot of people who don't like hair products with alcohol in them! 

Pros

So the pros of this product is that the shine is extreme! I love shiny hair, and having your hair dyed all the time really can decrease the shine in your hair which really is a downer. Also, it didn't mention this on the back of the bottle but this product is a UV protectant in a way because since it is a silicone based product, and the silicones work by coating your hair strands not allowing anything to come in or go out of the strands, this makes it an ideal UV protection. I really like the fact that this product is a UV protectant because as you all know, people who dye their hair a lot and spend a lot of time outside especially during the summer months have to deal with their hair colour fading or just starting to look dull, and not pretty. 

Also, another pro about this product is that it has a nice light smell to it! I don't like products that have a really strong smell because I do get headaches from some products that I use. 

Cons

So now that you have heard the Pros about this product, I'd like to tell you about the cons. 

The cons about this product is the price. Depending on the size of the bottle, I have the 12 fl oz bottle, but there is a lot smaller bottle size which is more of a travel size bottle. This bottle costs me about $50 Canadian dollars? While the smaller travel sized bottle is about $20 Canadian Dollars. Personally, I bought the larger 12 fl oz bottle because it was "cheaper" so to say than the smaller bottle. You get more for the price in my opinion. 

Either way, the price is a con for me because if I run out of this product, I will need to save up the money to buy it again. I do love this product, I just wish it wasn't super expensive. 

Also, another con about this product is that if you don't like greasy, super shiny oily looking hair, you may not like it. I personally like it because the oilier looking my hair is, the shinier it is and the more it weighs my hair down. 

OVERALL

This product is great, especially great for people who have a problem with frizz! You can use hair oils too as a frizz control kind of thing, but silicone based products like this one also keeps your hair shiny, smooth and frizz free! Plus, it doesn't really absorb into your hair as easily as hair oils do so you will always get that extreme shine lasting all day compared to oils where they just absorb into your hair making it soft, and giving some shine. 

So without further ado, I have to rate this product a 5/5 mainly because it is great for giving shine, taming frizz, and is very humidity resistant! 

If you would like to see more AG products, this website here is the main website where the company posts all of its products and information here.

Review: Moroccanoil's Oil Treatment

Hello again! So yesterday, I made a post on the Nywele's Argan Oil that I currently use, and now I will be doing a review on the Moroccanoil Oil Treatment!

 

As you can see from the picture, that's how the bottle looks! It's a cute glass bottle with a pump and I think it looks great.

So, before I tell you more about this product, I'd like to tell you a little bit of the Argan Oil. A lot of you may already know this, but Argan Oil comes from the Argan tree that is grown in southwestern Morocco! Argan Oil has also been nicknamed liquid gold!

 

This tree is vital to the Berber People who use this tree to produce the Argan oil from the fruit! The fruit is hand squeezed using rocks and/or stones there the oil is extracted. For thousands of years the Berber Women have used this oil as a hair and skin treatment. This oil is full of vitamins and nutrients that nourish both your skin and hair. It is also rich in anti-oxidants which is beneficial to your skin, and hair. This website is full of useful information on Argan Oil. Also, this lady Euchante had made a video of Argan Oil and she uses Eden Allure which is not the same as the Morccanoil brand, but both brands still have Argan Oil. 

Another fact, is that the Argan Tree can live up to 200 years! Amazing isn't it?!

A sad fact about the Argan Tree is that it is endangered which is really bad because the Berber Women depend on the trees for their source of income. As you all may know that Morocco isn't the richest country in the world in means of money, but they are very rich in means of culture and history. 

Some websites or Argan Oil company brands put on their product bottles that every time you buy their product, you are contributing to the Berber Women who are working very hard to produce this oil for exporting to places around the world. Supporting the Berber Women means that we will all have a near endless supply of Argan Oil!

Overview

A lot of people I know use it to blow dry, straighten and maybe even curl their hair. I personally don't curl my hair because I have tried before in the past, and curls don't hold... at all. According to my one hairstylist, you should never use oils to straighten or blow dry your hair. He said to think of it this way, if you have a hot pan, and you put oil on it what happens? It starts to fry! 

Nevertheless, I use it to straighten and blow dry my hair. I do find that with this oil, I get a lot more damaged ends and that may be due to the fact that this oil isn't really meant to use on straightening your hair! He was right I guess! But then again when I used the Nywele's Argan Oil to straighten my hair, I hardly get any split ends. 

So now that I gave you an overview of this product, and a little bit of history that I have had with this product, I want to tell you all about the pros and cons. 

Pros

This product smells wonderful! It really smells like the Argan Oils from Morocco! I absolutely love this smell. Unlike the Nywele's Argan Oil, this oil doesn't have that disgusting fake paraffin like smell, which kind of annoys me while I'm prepping my hair for blow drying. This oil also makes my hair very smooth and shiny especially after straightening my hair. It also helps with the frizz problem that I have from constant heat styling and colouring. I'm not a natural redhead, but I wish I was.

Cons

This product as much as I love it, it is also very expensive! I paid about $50 Canadian Dollars for this! Ridiculous! I don't really think it's really worth $50 since I bet there are much better Argan Oil products out there that are a lot less expensive, and have just as much natural Argan Oil in them. I know the one brand called Eden Allure, sells the Argan Oil that is 100% pure Argan Oil with no fillers, no fake silicones, and is also filtered to remove most of the strong natural smell that the Argan Oil has. 

Also, aside from being super expensive in my opinion it also doesn't keep my hair straight in the high humidity. It does help to repair my hair though! Sometimes even in normal humidity, my hair won't stay completely straight. When I used to go to school every day, I would straighten my hair in the morning and then put the oil on again after I have finished straightening it, and then i would go out and by the time school is over, or not even, my hair would be puffy or just not straight! 

What the natural Argan Oil itself contains!

• 44% Oleic Acid
• 30% Alpha-linolenic acid
• 12% Palmitic acid
• 6% Stearidonic acid
• 5% Linoleic acid
• 3% Myristic acid

I got the facts from Wikipedia :P Just saying.  

So after telling you all about the oil, I'd like to tell you what the back of the bottle says. 

A unique formula rich in  antioxidant argan oil that instantly absorbs into hair immediately enhance manageability, shine and deliver long term conditioning without leaving residue.

To use: apply a small amount throughout damp or dry hair. Style as usual. Warning: Use product only as directed. Avoid contact with eyes. For external use only. 

Overall, even though there is so much hype about this oil, I really like it but I prefer my Nywele's Argan Oil oil instead, but I still do use this oil from time to time when I want to switch in between this oil or the Nywele's Argan Oil oil. 

                                               Overall Rating - 4/5

 

Review: Nywéle's Argan Oil

Hello everyone! Today, I'd like to share with you all a product I have been using for about a month and a half now. Its the Nywéle's Argan Oil!

This product is one of MANY hair oil products that I have used throughout the past few years I have been using hair oils. I'm a big fan of using natural hair oils on my hair mainly because they are very moisturizing and are great for making your hair shine!

The information on the glass bottle says:

Nywéle's Argan Oil, is a revolutionary styling, finishing & conditioning product. Enriched with proteins, keratin & infused with Moroccan Argan Tree Oil. Instantly absorbing, helps eliminate frizz, easily detangles your locks and provides long term conditioning for added bounce without leaving an oily residue.

I use this product straight after towel drying my hair, and then I let it air dry a little, then I blow dry my hair. It does help calm down the frizz a bit in my hair which is wonderful! Because my hair has been through so much i.e; heat styling, colouring, etc this oil is great for bringing my hair back to life!

You can see from this picture here, it's a microscopic view of a damaged hair strand. Constant heat styling, hair dying etc can cause your hair cuticles to become rough and damaged! So be sure to always use a good heat protectant when heat styling your hair ! :)

It's infused with Keratin and of course Argan Oil, which is essential to our hair! Our hair is made mainly out of Keratin Proteins, so having a product like this that has Keratin and Argan Oil, really helps to restore dry and damaged hair!

I also use this product after I have finished flat ironing my hair to make it nice and shiny! It also helps to protect it from the humidity a bit since my hair never stays straight in the humidity without adding any finishing products in the end!

So since I have said so much good things about this product, I also want to mention the cons about this product.

This product... Smells nothing like Argan Oil in my opinion, this may be because there are other oils in with the Moroccan Oil, but in my opinion even though this oil does wonders to my hair, it also smells a bit like Paraffin, or something not "natural" so to say. Also, as you can see from the picture I took of the ingredients in this bottle, the first two ingredients are silicone based, which to a lot of people, it may seem a little bit scary since I know there are a lot of people who despise using silicone based products.

So, overall this product is great except for the smell, and I would give this product a 4/5 rating!