Review: ORS Incredibly Rich Moisturizing Hair Lotion

*Disclaimer: All products have been purchased by me for my own personal use.*
 

Image from ORS website

Hair is a big part of African American culture, especially for women (for better or worse). Whether you're into extravagant weave or not, you can't show up somewhere with your hair looking a hot mess.

Not only that, but it takes a lot of time, effort, and products for African American women to take care of their hair, from moisturizers, to hair oil, to gel, to relaxers. As much of a demand as there is for hair care products, it's actually pretty hard to find products that work the way they say they do.

Most African Americans have naturally dry hair, so we have to use moisturizers and oils so our hair doesn't become too dry and brittle. Way back when, the only thing that did the trick was hair grease, which is what it sounds like, grease that you put in your hair. Nowadays, there are a ton of hair moisturizers to choose from.

I've tried a lot of hair moisturizers, but the best is ORS Olive Oil Incredibly Rich Moisturizing Hair Lotion. All of the ORS products, including the relaxer, have olive oil in them for natural moisture retention.

First off, the thing I like about the hair lotion is that it has a subtle, non-offensive smell. Some hair moisturizers, especially the ones with natural ingredients, can smell horrible. The ORS hair lotion has a subtle smell that does not have a lot of fragrance so that people think you've dumped a bottle of perfume on your head.

Secondly, the lotion itself is thick and rich, but it doesn't leave your hair weighed down, and it absorbs quickly, so there is no build up and no residue when you touch your hair. It also gives your hair a healthy shine.

The bottle says to use a small amount, but since my hair is very thick, I use about double the amount specified. Depending on how dry your hair gets, you can probably get away with only using this hair lotion every few days (I usually moisturize my hair once a week, but that's only because I'm pretty bad at moisturizing my hair frequently enough).

I would definitely recommend ORS Olive Oil Incredibly Rich Moisturizing Hair Lotion as a hair moisturizer. It's thick and creamy, but isn't heavy once you put it on. It also does a great job of moisturizing. When I use it regularly, I notice that my hair isn't as brittle, and I have less breakage (meaning not as much hair in the sink after combing)!

Audrey Hepburn Redone

 

Model Muse

This photo shoot of Nadia was inspired by this Audrey Hepburn canvas that I bought for my mom last year. The dress and necklace are from the Matinee Today outfit from the 90s, and the gloves are from one of the Millicent Roberts accessory packs.

Hope everyone has a fab long weekend!!

Looking Back: 3 Years Ago

Picture from allposters.com

May 19th this year is Commencement. I was a little surprised to realize that my commencement happened three years ago to the date! I wrote a post last year about my perspective on things since graduating, so this year I decided to do something similar.

I left the Commencement ceremony excited and full of hope: I was brimming to the top with the naive belief that finding a job would be no problem for an Ivy League graduate, and I was super excited that I would be leaving and never having to come back to Penn again. Now, it's not that I hated college, but for me it had accomplished it's goal; I had my degree, which was what I went to college for, and I was done.

Flash forward 3 years, and it took me a year and a half to get my first full-time job, which is getting really old, really fast. I'm also still stuck at Penn which is getting worse everyday because I still have to deal with student issues, student events, and student life in general, which were the things that I was so ready to get away from. I feel like I'm stunted in some way by still being surrounded by students and the same environment that I should have left behind three years ago. I feel like after graduating 3 years ago and at 25, someone has hit the pause button on my life, and I'm going nowhere, just standing still in time. (Honestly, I have no idea how people manage to work in higher education for more than 5 years, let alone 30 or 40?!)

Looking back on the past three years, I wonder was it really worth it to go to Penn in the long run. I wonder how things would have turned out if I had went to UGA instead (I would probably have been dragged into my family's drunken drama there, though), or any other school.

Review: Skintimate Moisturizing Cream Shave

*Disclaimer: All products have been purchased by me for my own personal use.*

Today I'll be giving my thoughts on Skintimate Moisturizing Cream Shave.

I never use cream when I shave, so I'm not actually sure how I came by this (I think it was something my mom bought and then passed on to me honestly). I usually just stick to old fashion shower gel or body wash.

Anyway, since I had this bottle, I thought I would at least give it a try. I've never tried any of the Skintimate products, but according to the commercials, they're supposed to be great at giving you a close shave and leaving you skin feeling smooth and soft.

This particular product has exfoliating "pearls" and is supposed to leave you feeling revitalized.

I've been using this product for about three months now, and here are my thoughts:

As you can see, the cream is very thick. You can also feel the exfoliating "pearls" but otherwise it is smooth. The cream goes on smoothly over wet skin, but, because it's so thick, it blocks up your razor and can be a pain to clean out, so you really have to make sure you use a small amount to create a thin layer over your skin. When I first started suing it, I would put a lot of it on, and after about three or four uses, my razor was pretty much useless and beyond hope as for as cleaning it out was concerned.

The exfoliating "pearls" are supposed to scrub away dead skin/excess particles to give you a closer shave, and I did notice that this cream left my skin feeling smoother than when I shaved without it.

Pros:

• Very thick and smooth
• Gives you a close shave and leaves your skin feeling smoother

Cons:

• Because it's so thick, it can clog your razor and be very difficult to wash off of your skin if you use a lot of it

On a scale of 1-5, I give this product a 4 because of the clogging factor. Other than this, it works well.

5 Tips for New (and Old) Bloggers

...Or things I wish I new when I started blogging way back when.

It took me a lot of trial and error over the course of three years to get to the happy blogging place that I am now. I was actually inspired to write this post by a post a read on how to be a happy blogger (thanks to Bloglovin's top 10 picks of the week!). These are the top 5 things that I think every blogger should now starting out (and even those who have been at it for a while):

Dolli Luv Posts

Anyone who has been following my blog for at least a year has probably pick up on several of the interests that I have that could be viewed by some as being not exactly age appropriate (Hello Kitty, computer games, all manner of cuteness). But guess what: it doesn't stop there! Every since I was 4 years old, I've had a passion for Barbie that managed to withstand the test of the pre-teen years and high school.

Lately, I've been taking a lot of pictures of my dolls and decided to create a new blog, Dolli Luv, to showcase my collection. Well..., managing one blog is work enough, but managing two is a whole other story! I created Dolli Luv a while ago, but for about 2 or three months, it just sat there blank and all sad looking with only the banner up. I've managed to make a few posts, but other than that I've completely ignored it. 

Given how difficult it is for me to make more than 4 posts on this blog each month, I thought it would be better to drop Dolli Luv as a separate blog and just turn it into a post series. Now, each month you can see pictures of my Barbie dolls *super yay*!!