L'Oreal EverPure VoxBox

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first blog post! I'm planning on using this blog to review the boxes I get from Influenster, explain nail polishes I swatch, describe nail art I do, and release information on my personal polish brand Love Always Lacquer. So, don't be a stranger!

A little while ago I received the L'Oreal Paris EverPure Repair & Defend box from Influenster as a free gift in exchange for my testing and honest review.

First Impressions:
1- Awesome! My super long hair, with ombre coloring, needs some serious help from overdrying and split ends! Shampoo, conditioner, mask, and lotion sound like the perfect solution!
2- I will probably never buy these products in store because of their packaging. I have too much hair for these little bottles. There's no way I'm spending $5-$8 on one bottle that can't last me more than a month. Also, I can't equally ration each use without a pump.

So, since I was given them free, there's no harm in trying, right?! Off I went to my first shower. I had to make it a relaxing pampering experience - I haven't had time to relax in the shower for a while. 😂

First Shower Impressions:
1- These smell amazing! They have a very floral perfume to them. I love this type of smell the most! Floral, with a hint of citrus - smells like a clean spa. If you prefer the sweet candy vanilla cake scents, this is definitely not for you.
2- Yes, these bottles are annoying. Confirmed.
3- The shampoo is actually thicker than the conditioner. This can only last me, maybe, 4 washings!
4- The conditioner is great! Luxuriously thick, not pasty like the shampoo. It feels so refreshing on the scalp, as if it had menthol in the formula. The scent is stronger than the shampoo.
5- The mask is beautiful. It has the consistency of body lotion, or ketchup, or mayonnaise - thick, but smoother and creamier than the conditioner. I've heard eggs (or egg whites) leave hair super shiny - you can almost see the shine in the tub that will be left on your strands. Let it sit, comb it through, rinse well but not too much, then towel dry, then apply the lotion.
6- The lotion might just be my favorite product from this system. Its directions say 3-4 pumps, but I needed 10 to cover all my hair, then an extra 2 to make sure I got the ends well. I love the bottle! Easy to pump, but also easy to lock once finished (a great aspect for traveling, or if you're like me and have a few little hands that like to explore mommy's drawer contents. 😂)

I ran my fingers through my damp, cleansed, hydrated, pampered, lotioned hair to pull most of my curls a little flatter. I let it air dry overnight. I was floored by how soft and shiny my hair was. I just had to use my curling iron! I hadn't used my iron in ages because the curls always fall out, but also because my ends were so damaged I was afraid of frying off half my head! But, I'm glad I did! It accentuated the soft clean. My hair was shiny without being oily. And I didn't have to use any extra shine spray! At this point I became a believer. I decided the bottles and price were still better than the expensive salon brands from high end beauty stores.

Third Day Impressions:
My hair gets naturally oily very fast. The way to avoid that is to hydrate externally (conditioner and lotion and the like). However, I find most conditioners, or cream products, or hair oil products usually are too heavy. To avoid appearing dirty, I usually have to wah my hair the day after I use those products. Overwashing leads to drying, which leads to your scalp needing to produce more natural oils, thus making your hair appear dirty, and so the terrible cycle goes. I CANNOT express enough how surprised I was at day 3 to not have the uncontrollable urge to wash my nasty hair. Yes, I could tell it was heavier than usual and the color had become dull with dirt. But, if I had met someone for the first time, they would not have known. Incredible! I decided to wash because I just felt I should. 😊 I did the same process and loved the results again.

Two Weeks Impressions:
I have discovered that the shampoo lasts longer - you will need smaller sized portions each wash - if your hair is fully saturated when shampooing. If your hair is just damp you will not get a bubbly lather and you will need more product to cover your hair. Shampoo while wet. Conditioner while wet-damp. Mask after ringing out water, but still damp. Lotion after a quick towel damp dry. Brush hair before showering; comb in the shower with the mask on. The picture of my long fluffy curls is after 2 weeks of exclusively using these products and nothing else. Also, those are my natural curls after the 4-step system and a quick blow-dry with a diffuser. My curls have never been this bouncy and defined while being touchably soft. No crunchy parts at all! I can run my fingers through without losing curl or ripping through tangles. My fall-out in the shower hasn't decreased, but at least it hasn't increased. I don't think anything can "glue" back together split ends after they've already split, but I see very few split ends anymore. My hair is now soft, strong, shiny, cleansed, hydrated, and overall very healthy feeling. When I cut my hair to donate later this summer I will be confident that I am giving the most healthy hair I could! Thank you Influenster and L'Oreal!

PS. Unimportant product side note - the lettering of "SULFATE-FREE" on the shampoo and conditioner bottles rubbed off in the first or second shower. Whatever holographic reflective material they used underneath the lettering didn't let the lettering adhere to it.

PSS. I didn't research into L'Oreal's vegan claims. Some companies claim their products don't test on animals, except for instances where animal testing is required by law. Some vegan animal rights activists fight against this claim. But, if L'Oreal truly is 100% vegan and cruelty free, that makes this system even better! Sulfate- and paraben-free really makes a noticeable difference too.

Adorable Dinos 3D Frame

This is a DIY step-by-step of how I created a picture frame for my son's nursery.

His nursery is the collection called Adorable Dinos by Jill McDonald. This is the comforter of the set, and the picture I used as inspiration for the art-work of the frame.

First, I collected the necessary supplies:
  - 8x10 shadow box frame (this one was super easy to use because it had the "spacers" included to give the multi-layered look)
  - small pictures or stickers of the theme you want to use (I googled to find a picture of the wall decals that are part of our nursery theme. I printed out the picture on a much smaller scale so that they would fit in the frame appropriately)
  - a song lyric or poem (I used the song lyric from Disney's Tarzan "You'll Be In My Heart")
  - double-sided tape
  - double-sided thick foam tape
  - scissors
  - sharpie
  - about 3 hours of patience
  - creativity :-)

You'll notice in the picture that I have a sheet of tan-colored paper, and a sheet of blue-colored paper. These are photo copies of the receiving blankets that are part of the Adorable Dinos collection. To insure a good photo copy, I first ironed the blankets, then placed them in my scanner and saved the blanket pattern as a picture.

Then I cut the blue picture to the size of the 8x10 shadow box frame, as this is going to be the deepest layer (the sky). I truncated the lyrics, chose a font, and printed them top and center right onto the blue sky paper.

Then I took the brown picture and cut it into strips with different widths. This would become the sand dunes.

Then I cut the strips in alternating waves so that no hill would overlap, and so that when separated it would appear as multiple layers of hills. Then I took a sharpie and colored small Vs at the edges of the hills to mimic the grass shown in the comforter.

Then I put each strip of hills on a different layer (spread out by the spacers that came with the shadow box frame).

Then came the long laborious part. Cutting out all of the little dinosaurs. I had to use cuticle scissors because there were so many little corners and details. This is the part that took about 1.5-2hours itself (I'm a very meticulous scissor-er)

Once all the pieces were cut out, I then eyeballed where I wanted them to be placed. Once I was happy with their location, I used double-sided tape to mount pieces flush with the background. For some of the clouds and all the dinosaurs I used the thick foam to make them step out a touch.

NOTE: For some pieces, multiple layers of foam tape were required to get them to stay flat when in the frame. Most notably, the T-Rex required 8 layers of foam tape under his head because his body was on the third layer, but his head stuck out all the way to the background layer. The palm tree on the second layer also needed extra layers of foam tape. This will help keep the pieces more flat looking over time, instead of curling in odd directions.

Once all the pieces were secured in the correct spots, I put all the layers in the frame and made sure everything was secure and straight and viola!

NOTE: Don't forget to windex both sides of the glass before putting it together - to eliminate fingerprints and dust on the inside of the box.

Hang and enjoy the custom keep-sake art!