karmicdreaming.

I haven’t used conventional shampoo in quite a long time- a few years- but I got my hands on a number of Japanese hair products and wanted to give them a try.  My favorite of the bunch is Kao Asience Inner Rich Shampoo.  It’s also the one I expected to like the least, since it’s formulated for thick, coarse Asian hair and contains sulfates (ALS rather than SLS).  I was sure this shampoo would cause breakage while leaving my hair limp and greasy.  To my surprise, not only did it leave my hair shiny and full of body, I finished the bottle and am contemplating ordering more.

My hair is baby fine, and has lots of follicles (thick) but since each individual hair is fine, it typically looks thin and flat.  My scalp is oily and my ends tend to dry out quickly.  SLS causes my hair to break and split, and also irritates my scalp and causes flakes.  Switching to sulfate-free shampoo bars solved these issues.  I approached this shampoo carefully, as ALS is also a sulfate and I was unsure how my hair and scalp would react to it.

The first thing I noticed was the fragrance.  It’s a rather generic fruity floral, reminiscent of Aussie products.  I don’t hate it, but it’s not a stand out for me either.  The texture of the shampoo is a bit more liquidy than most American shampoos.  It’s not runny by any means, but it’s not so thick.  I like this texture better, since I was able to easily pour only what I needed without squeezing and having a huge glop come out.  The shampoo itself is a pearlescent color, so nothing out of the ordinary there.  It created lots of suds and washed away cleanly.

Asience Inner Rich contains lots of ingredients that are great for hair.  The press reads:

• Contains natural essences of soy and pearl protein, which revitalize hair that has lost protein
• Camellia oil and ginseng extract help the hair retain moisture, and restore suppleness within the hair follicle. Camellia oil in particular has long been used in Asia to nourish the hair and skin, as it is an extremely well absorbed and natural oil extract from the camellia flower.
• Eucalyptus extract protects hair and restores lost shine, while rice germ oil strengthens and moisturizes

It also contains Royal Jelly extract from bees, so vegans would want to give this a pass.

After drying, my hair does feel healthy and looks shiny.  It doesn’t feel dry or brittle, and my scalp doesn’t feel overly stripped or oily, as some moisturizing shampoos  leave it.  My hair has body and bounce, and my bangs- the first place to start looking oily- are fantastic until my next shower.  It doesn’t cause any issues with my scalp either.

I am surprised at how well this shampoo works for my non-Asian, non-coarse hair.  Kao Asience makes two other lines besides Inner Rich, Shine Therapy and Nature Smooth.  Nature Smooth is designed specifically to work with an oily scalp, so I might try that one before purchasing another bottle of Inner Rich.  I love how this shampoo works for me and will repurchase if Nature Smooth does not work well.  I purchased my bottle from Sasa.com, but it’s also easily found on EBay and Amazon.  Information about the Kao Asience line in English can be found at Kao Malaysia here.

I’ve ordered from The All Natural Face twice now.  The first time was during the Great Foundation Search.  TANF was recommended on a few forums as having a huge assortment of colors.  I was impressed with the number of items offered from TANF, which includes both a makeup line and personal care products.  TANF has a consultant program- think Avon, Pampered Chef, or Tupperware back in the day- which allows interested people to host virtual or home parties or become a TANF representative.  The consultant kits seem to focus on the makeup line, which I think is rather short-sighted since in my opinion, the makeup is the weaker of the product lines.

In my first order, I purchased a sample pack of mineral foundation in pale-to-medium and received 28 different shades for a steal at $4.  I even found a color match in Dark Tan Warm (which frankly confuses the hell out of me, as my skin is neither dark, tan, or warm) but was unimpressed with the mineral foundation formula.  It was the dusty old standby that can be found at any number of companies with nothing to distinguish or recommend itself.  TANF just recently released liquid foundations, which I would be interested in trying, but I can not recommend their mineral foundations as anything special.  Be sure to try the very inexpensive sample sets because the foundation names do not in any way reflect the color.

With that order, I received samples of two eye shadows, Green Ice Storm and Tiger Lilly.  Again, nothing special.  The only thing at all remarkable about the product is the price, at $3 for a 5 gram jar.  Based on the mediocrity of the foundation and shadows, I gave the rest of their makeup line a pass.

My second order contained some of the personal care products I was interested in.  I purchased during a 40% off sale so I wouldn’t be disappointed if I didn’t like the items, but was pleasantly surprised by what I received.

Fix-It is a priming/setting spray, similar to MAC’s Fix+.  I really like this product since I tend to powder the heck out of my skin.  A quick spritz of this and the powder blends seamlessly, leaving me with a fresh, non-oily face.  I’ve also used this to foil eyeshadow colors, although I prefer Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxy.  I’d definitely repurchase Fix-It.

The Tangerine and Peppermint Vegan Tooth Powder and Polish is a product that I was very interested in.  I tend to get canker sores at the drop of a hat if I use conventional toothpaste, due to the presence of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)- yes, it’s in toothpaste, too!  I also wanted something fluoride-free, since my water is fluoridated already.  (Sorry, my hippie is showing.)  The tooth powder works wonderfully to clean my teeth and leaves me with sweet breath.  The texture takes a bit of getting used to, and I can imagine it would be worse for people transitioning from foaming toothpaste, but my mouth actually feels cleaner now than it did using toothpaste.  I must say I’m not crazy about the taste of xylitol, but it’s in a lot of toothpastes now and it serves a purpose so it’s something I’m resigned to.  I sprinkle a bit of the tooth polish into my hand, dip my brush in, and refresh as necessary.  I’ll absolutely purchase the tooth polish again.

Argan oil is great for the skin and hair.  It’s one of the main ingredients of (the insanely expensive) Moroccan Oil.  I’ve long been a fan of using oils on my skin and hair and having been using the argan oil alternately with camellia oil on my hair to protect from split ends.

I’ll definitely continue purchasing care products from The All Natural Face.  I really enjoy the items I’ve tried and look forward to trying more.  I will give the makeup line a pass, however, with the exception of trying the liquid foundation.

Fix-it, Argan Oil, Tooth Powder and Polish

Green Ice Storm, Tiger Lily

>

>The lovely purple dye was already fading badly, so I refreshed it today with an all-over application of Manic Panic in Ultra Violet.  It did exactly what I had hoped by coloring the bleached and dyed portions and leaving the brown with just a faint sheen.

 

 

>I went to the hair salon last week determined to get purple highlights.  It didn’t quite work out that way.  I went back today and consulted with the stylist again to show her how my lovely highlights became red.  She was wonderful and fixed it for me for free, although she did have to re-bleach (and omg you’d better believe that I’m going to be doing some serious shea conditioning treatments because two bleaches in one week is making me very anxious).  So my purple highlights are now a little more full coverage than I had originally intended, but I LOVE IT.

Pardon the whole no-makeup thing.  Since the memory card for the camera is still missing, I didn’t expect to take a picture, but then my husband mentioned we could use the camcorder, and… yeah.  Helloooo bad skin (which brings us to the next subject altogether, because I’ve been trying out a plethora of drugstore products to review for you and it’s made my skin into an absolute mess).

I went stark raving mad shopping at CVS recently, when they had their 50-75% off sale.  I picked up a ton of great stuff (like the Revlon Matte lipsticks, which are fabulous and were a steal at $1.99) and some not so great stuff (L’Oreal HIP Paints, which I scored for $0.99 each after coupon and still returned because I found them completely unusable- MAC Paint Pots have spoiled me).  I wanted to quickly highlight a few of my favorites.

The biggest surprise was L’Oreal Go 360˚ Clean Cleanser with Scrublet.  I got the blue one, for sensitive skin.  Let me tell you, I am loving my little scrublet.  I don’t think it actually does anything, but it just feels nifty, and for a drugstore brand loaded with SLS, the cleanser isn’t too bad either.  It didn’t give me that horribly tight dry feeling that every other drugstore cleanser has, nor did it cause me to break out.  It didn’t stop the other products I was testing from breaking me out, but that would be a very tall order.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy Natural Powder Blush in Ethereal.  What a mouthful!  This is the lightest blush they have, a pale, pretty pink that’s neutral enough for any undertones.  This is, by far, the most natural looking blush I’ve ever tried, from any line.  The fact that I got this gem for free (Carmindy’s website was giving away coupons a while back plus I paired it with some CVS Extra Care Bucks) makes me incredibly happy.  At $10.99, the retail price for this product is a bit on the high side considering other drugstore blushes are about half that, but I’m telling you, it’s worth every penny and then some.

I don’t know why it took me so long to try Milani Lip Mixer Color Shine and Shimmer Lip Gloss.  Maybe because I have a bajillion glosses already (yes, that is the official count) and I keep trying to deny my addiction to them?  Anyway, even though I’m like a year late to the party, I just wanted to give a little love to this adorable gloss.  I got Lip Party which is a bright, vivid pink, and even thought it was only a few dollars, when I swatched it next to some of my MAC and Urban Decay glosses, I was unable to tell it was the inexpensive one by looking at the color quality and feel.  Yes, it’s sticky, but not nearly as much as UD’s Pocket Rocket lip gloss.  I want more all of them. 

So what’s not good?  Practically everything else I got.  I tried a few of the foundations (L’Oreal True Match and Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse) and within hours I was breaking out.  Some of the L’oreal HIP shadow duos weren’t awful, but for the price I could get a superior Aromaleigh or Meow eyeshadow.  As much as I like the Revlon Matte lipsticks, I had to return the two lightest colors because I don’t fancy walking around looking like a corpse.  I think I gave CVS due cause to regret their generous return policy.

I have a few things on their way (a second order from Silk Naturals- I still haven’t blogged about the first yet!- and an order from Sassy Minerals, plus the Alice palette) but apart from that, it’ll be a bit dry around here for a while.  I donated this month’s portion of my beauty budget to help relief efforts in Haiti so I’ll just be covering things I already have.

>Service?

On October 7th, I ordered from Archetype Cosmetics.  I’d seen amazing swatches of their pigments, and samples were a whopping $0.25, so I went a little crazy.  My total came to $43.50.  I knew when I placed my order that the shipping time was between 3-6 weeks, as stated on the website, and I was fine with that.  As I always do with a new vendor if it’s an option, I paid though Paypal.

Shortly after ordering, I began to hear reports of extremely slow shipping or packages never being received.  I began to get a little worried, but decided to trust the time frame information found on the website.  I sent the first email to Archetype on 11/01, asking for a copy of my receipt, which I never received, so I could compare it to the pigments when they finally arrived; many companies are discontinuing invoices in the packages and I was unsure if Archetype was one.  I received no answer.  I emailed again on 11/05, 11/13, 11/18, 11/22, 11/27, 12/01, and 12/06.  The 11/05 and 11/13 emails bounced back to me, which greatly concerned me because her provider is Gmail, which shouldn’t bounce.  The other emails were never answered and as far as I can tell, never even read.

Phyrra recommended contacting Holly, the owner of Archetype, through Archetype’s Myspace page.  I did so on 11/26 and 12/06.  Again, no answer.  On 12/09 I opened a dispute with Paypal.  Paypal instantly closed the dispute because it was outside of their 45 day time frame, so I called them to see what my options were.  The rep who assisted me as very helpful and recommended I call the credit card company from which I funded my payment and they would investigate through Paypal.  I called Chase and they refunded my payment instantly, right there over the phone.  I am SO GLAD I funded that payment through my credit card, since I usually use my bank account.  From now on, any vendor I am ordering from for the first time will be paid with a credit card.

After reading multiple accounts of others experiencing the same lack of service, I strongly feel that Archetype Cosmetics is committing fraud.  I suspect her shipping time is purposely outside of Paypal’s 45 day dispute window, perhaps to lessen her accountability.  She is continuing to take orders, which she may or may not ship out, and she’s ignoring communication from her customers.  She could make the greatest makeup ever created, but I will never, ever again purchase from Archetype Cosmetics, and I will strongly caution anyone looking to do so.

Service!

I ordered some hair toys from JessieBeans Etsy shop on 11/16.  I received a shipping notice with a USPS tracking number on 11/18.  The tracking number was never updated, and after waiting to receive the package, I wrote Jessie on 12/06 at the email address listed on the Paypal account.  I didn’t receive a reply, so I started an etsy conversation instead on 12/08, thinking the email address could have been an older one, or one not checked often.  She got back to me the same day, apologizing for the missing package, which she speculated might have been taken from her mailbox.  She re-sent the package from the post office, posted it priority, and I received it on 12/12.  She even included an additional hair toy for the trouble.

I would not hesitate to order from JessieBeans again, and I recommend her highly.  She was friendly, helpful, and prompt, even when there was a difficulty, and including an extra product was a very unexpected but much appreciated gesture. 

Service.

Business owners and vendors, this is what makes all the difference.  The service I receive directly impacts how much money I will spend with a company, or if I will continue to patronize a company.  There are companies with fantastic products that I will no longer recommend because of treatment I’ve received and how situations were handled.  I will sometimes pay more for the exact same product elsewhere if it means I receive better service.  I’m not alone in this.  In this day and age, with everything one could want a few clicks away on the internet, how a customer is treated is a direct correlation to the success or failure of a business.  Knowing this, I am always amazed to receive service like I did from Archetype.  Why bother to run a  business at all  if the most important component is going to be neglected?