Products That Changed My Life: Dry Shampoo

When I was a little girl, my mom taught me the precious trick of dusting baby powder to the roots of your hair when you didn't have time to wash it. The powder absorbs the oil, you can pull the hair into a nice ponytail and you're set for the day. Sounds great in theory but whenever I put baby powder in my hair, I always felt like I looked like this:

Baby powder never disappears completely into the hair, or at least, not mine.

Fast forward to the 2000's and we're granted with the gift of dry shampoos. These days there are several brands to choose from - Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo being the most popular - but basically they come in two varieties: powder and spray.

I've tried both and I didn't have a great experience with the spray form. It still dries as a powder on your hair, but you have to wait a few seconds after application. Biggest issue with the aerosol can is that the nozzle gets clogged up with the powder very often. They recommend you clean the nozzle with a cotton swab or run it under warm water, but if you don't have time to wash your hair in the first place, you probably don't have time to waste cleaning the stupid nozzle. Purpose defeated.

The powder form, on the other hand, is very easy to use. Unlike the classic baby powder, it disappears into your hair with little effort. I stick to the Oscar Blandi version - I buy the 1 oz (28g) travel size bottle and it lasts me at least 6 months. The same size spray bottle only lasted me a couple of weeks. I don't wash my hair every day anymore, not even in the summer. I noticed that with age (which doesn't mean I'm old, just older), my scalp is less oily than in my teens; add to that all the damage I do with blow drying, flat ironing, hair dyes, styling products... I don't have to nor should I wash it daily.

Dry shampooing helps me skip at least one day - two or more in the winter - of regular shampooing (without looking like this) and saves me a lot of time in the morning.

Application:

I usually dust the powder on my hand first (although Oscar Blandi powder comes with a nice precision application tip), then apply it with my fingertips to my roots, behind my ears, along the hairline on my face, where oil concentrates the most. I massage a little bit into my scalp, letting the excess powder blend along the strands of my hair. I finish with the blow dryer for just a few seconds to discipate any remaining residue of powder. Pronto.

Alternatives to Dry Shampoo:

If you don't have any dry shampoo available, you can always do the baby powder trick but hairspray also helps an awful lot. Hairspray dries out some of the oil in the scalp and can help lift roots up combined with a blow dryer and a large round brush. But make sure you use an aerosol spray, not a spray-gel or mist, since it's the alcohol (I know, oh well) in the aerosol that dries the oil out of your scalp.

Spray first and then blow dry and comb through so your hair is not sticky. I like to focus on the front sections of my hair (or bangs if you have them) and sometimes the roots in the crown of my head for extra lift.

Craveables:

Oscar Blandi now has a new product called Pronto Invisible Volumizing Shampoo Spray which I'm dying to try. They say this one is the best so far because it acts as a volumizer AND a dry shampoo without any powder residue, nozzle doesn't get clogged... Sounds perfect. I'm being cheap and I refuse to spend $23 on something like that, so I've been doing the poor man's version of it: I combine my Oscar Blandi original powder and a Pantene Pro-V hairspray for fine hair, but any volumizing spray will do. So far it works alright, but the amazing reviews on Oscar Blandi's product are seriously tempting me to just click the "add to basket" button on the website.

Also want to give Beyond The Zone Rock On Dry Shampoo a go and see if it's any good. It's only 7 bucks. You can get this at Sally Beauty, which is a kind of like Office Depot for salon professionals (not my case, but I don't work in an office either yet I love me some stationery!).

At Hot Beauty Health you can find a little break down of the "Top 6 best dry shampoos".

The Boyfriend Razor

Hey, you should steal your boyfriend's razor. Because Mach 3 is waaaay better than any Venus out there.

There's something about the grip in women's razors that I'm just not entirely happy about. Crazy as it may sound, they make the handles much bigger than any guy's razor. I mean, really! Google search "women's razors". That's right. WTF! It's not like guys' hands are smaller! That just always bothered me.

Schick Intuition. You're too big to fit in here.

Then one fine day I was in the shower and who knows where my Venus Vibrance was but I had to shave my legs anyway and there I saw it... Nice and silver and black and all manly looking: my then-boyfriend's Mach 3. Now that thing looks like a serious razor for some serious shaving. None of that plastic, anatomically weird and pink BS that honestly, just looks cheap imho. I don't care how many blades you put on that thing - I've seen razors with 5 blades, FIVE FREAKING BLADES! - but once you try a man's razor, you will know what I'm talking about.

Call me irrational, perhaps I'm just loving it because there's some sort of "sneaky" freudian fetish about me using a man's razor (like wearing a guy's t-shirt, perhaps? Wearing men's cologne?), but maybe I'm right and there really is scientific explanation to why Mach 3 kicks the Barbie version's ass.

The handle is heavier - and I like that! -, the grip is oh so nice and the blades... They glide so smoothly! I love how they adapt to your curves so well, sliding easily, with more precision and even the blue little lubricating strip thingy feels nicer! I also notice less irritation after shaving with Mach 3. It really is better quality overall. My favorite so far is the Mach 3 Turbo. I have felt no need to upgrade it to the newer versions.

If you think about it, men's facial hair is pretty thick, correct? So those NASA engineers or whoever designs those things must know what they're doing. They also must know nothing about women because they keep on designing crap that looks more like a sex toy than anything else and it doesn't work that great. Not even as a sex toy. Not that I have ever tried. We don't need one gazillion aloe strips or a freaking coating of solidified shaving gel. Just give us a very effing sharp set of blades (and 3 is more than enough, by the way) and a nice heavy grip and we're good! Make it pink, I don't care! But until then, I'm sticking to the Boyfriend Razor.

Boyfriend jeans may be in style (are they still? Who knows), but here's one thing you should definitely, ahem, borrow from your significant other and it's guaranteed to look good on you: his razor.

Best. Screwvenir. Ever.

Products That Changed My Life: Garnier Skin Renew The Brusher Gel-Cleanser

I've been trying different facial cleansers for as long as I can remember, constantly switching and having multiple ones at one time for different uses. In the morning, I like to use a milder kind (like Philosophy's Purity Made Simple) , just to prepare my skin for the day. At night when I come home from work, I need the heavy duty stuff (currently using this Boots Botanics one), to remove all my makeup and excess oil. In the shower, I like to use a mild scrub (Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Scrub), but nothing too harsh for daily cleansing.

Anyway... That's a lot of product clutter if you ask me, not that I ever had a problem with that. But I think I finally found a cleanser that combines all my needs in one cute little 5 Fl.Oz bottle: Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew "The Brusher Gel-Cleanser". Long name. Amaaazing product!

First of all, whoever designed this bottle is a genius. The rubber scrubber brush is super soft and easy to clean, making this cleanser versatile and hygienic - for those of you bacteria-phobic freaks. The gel per se smells really good and fruity and so far my sensitive skin is loving it.

It's easy to use - believe me: I'm very lazy. I first tried it out to remove my makeup at night (except for eye makeup, of course, but I'm assuming we have common sense here) and it worked wonders. I simply moisten my face with lukewarm water, twist the cap where brusher is located, squeeze out some of the gel, twist cap back in and start-a-scrubbin'. It's so simple (dare I say... fun?!), mess-free, and the bristles give you a nice little facial massage... I'm in love!

I noticed how clean my skin looked and felt after rinsing. It's really more powerful than cleansing your face with your bare hands and as effective as scrubbing but less harsh on skin. I wear mostly waterproof makeup and it literally removed everything.

The best part of this godsend: it's only $.599 at Tarjhay!

Conclusion: this product does exactly what it claims: deep cleans and exfoliates, smoothes skin after 1 use. All true. It also claims to have Vitamin B5, Vitamin E and Green Leaf Extract. Now, I'm no expert, but I don't take all these vitamin things into high consideration when it comes to cleanser because after a few seconds, you're literally washing all those properties down the drain. But sure, thanks for the extra boost of vitamins, Garnier. The detergent properties are mild and have not caused my skin to dry. I'm super acne-prone and so far, no new breakouts. I also noticed some pimples vanishing faster after each use.

I read a few reviews on this product, saying they recommend a makeup remover first because it doesn't provide a super deep clean. I beg to differ since I always wear moisturizer with SPF, makeup primer, waterproof makeup, endure hours of kitchen sweating and grease and this thing worked like magic. But each skin is different and I urge you to try for yourself.

I just wanna buy this product to all my girlfriends, mom, relatives and spread the love around. Thank you, to the genius team (I'm gonna assume it was a bunch of experts) who created this!