May Birch Box Reveal

May Birch Box: GossipGirl Theme

$10per month www.birchbox.com

What's inside

-  Arquiste perfume sample

- Caudalie hand and nail cream

- Fusion Beauty LipFusion Balm

- Ojon Damage Reverse Restorative Conditioner

-  Birch Box Extra Pink Note Card and Envelope

I LOVE My Birch Box Subscription!!!! Out of all my subscription services (5 in total) this is one of my favorites. I love beauty products as much as I love hair products and Birch Box always has great items.  I really like that each month they have a different theme.  This month was a Gossip Girl theme and while I don't watch the tv show I really like the box.  I was really excited about the Ojon damage reverse conditioner. I have been wanting to try Ojon products for a long time but they are very expensive and I just never took the plunge. So I can not wait to use it.  You know I will post a review once I do. Yay hair products!! ; D The hand cream smells great so that is going straight in my purse.   The perfume smells really good too. The lip balm.. Meh, you know I'm a lip gloss girl so we will see.  I love the note card too  hmm might have to send a special someone a little note.   All in all I really like this months box.  I still have 3 more subscription boxes I am waiting on for May so satay tuned for those. 

May My Shade Of Brown Reveal

My Shade Of Brown Pillow Box

$10 per month subscription service

available at www.myshadeofbrown.com

The contents of my May My Shade of Brown Pillow Box

-  Nourishea  Mango Body Wash

-  Nourishea  Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

-  High Quality Organics  Premium Body Oil

-  Komplexx Blends Cosmetics Eye Light in Bronze

My Shade Of Brown is a monthly beauty subscription service geared toward women of color.  For a $10 per month fee they mail you 4-6 deluxe samples of beauty products to try before you buy.  If you like an item you can go to their web site and purchase the item usually at a discounted price or with free shipping. There are many services like this one (as you know I am currently signed up for 5 subscription services.) but what drew me to this one is it is for women of color so I expected to get things more suited to my coloring and that would look good on me.  There was only one color item in this shipment which was the eye shadow and it is in bronze, which does look really good on me.  This past month they were running a special for only $5 for your first shipment so this kit only cost me half of what I will normally pay.  The problem for me is I do get other subscription kits and so I have something to compare this to. I get much bigger samples from major name brand companies from my Birch Box.  Soooo I have to say I am not really impressed so far. I think I will give them one more month and see how the next shipment is before I cancel but if the next one is not better I will be cancelling this one.  Stay tuned to see what I get in my other subscription boxes for May. I have received shipment confirmations so I should be getting them in the next few days and I will do blog posts the day after I get them. If you want to make sure you don't miss any updates please subscribe to my blog on the right hand side and you will get an email every time I update it. 

Curl Mart Order

http://www.Curlmart.com

We all know by now I am a product junkie so I won't get into that right now.  Before I left to go to the Natural Hair Show in Atlanta on April 28-29, 2012 Curl Mart sent me an email about a 20% off sale on select products.  One of those select products happened to be Curl Junkie and you guys know I LOVE LOVE LOVE Curl Junkie conditioner. So even though I knew I would be buying lots of products in Atlanta I had to jump on 20% off AND FREE SHIPPING AND TWO FREE SAMPLES!!!!!!  I placed my order on April 27, 2012 and received my order on my door step May 4, 2012.  The pic above shows how my products were packaged.  I love that one of my free "samples" is a full sized oil. I cant wait to try it, I may use if for a hot oil treatment.  At any rate Curl Mart runs sales all the time and you can get free shipping by spending $60 or more and they always include at least 2 free samples and sometimes more. One time I got 5 free samples!!!! So if you are in the market for hair products that you can't get at stores in your area check out http://www.curlmart.com. Be sure to go to their site and sign up for the mailing list so you can get sale notifications. Happy shopping :) 

April CurlKit

My April CurlKit 

 $20 Monthly Subscription Service 

available at www.curlkit.com

What was in My April CurlKit

-  Pookka Pure and Simple mango body butter

- Pooka Pure and Simple Hair butter

- Jane Carter Nourish and Shine

- Jane Carter Nutrient Replenishing Conditioner

- Jane Carter Revitalizing Leave-in Conditioner

- Jane Carter "Love Your Hair" pin

- Sofn' free Nothing But Cleansing Conditioner

- Sofn' Free Nothing but Curly Pudding

- Optimum Care Deep Conditioner

- Wide tooth Comb infused with Olive Oil

You guys know I love me some products.  I also love to try new products and getting surprises delivered to my door is one of my favorite things.  So when I heard about CurlKit I was very interested to say the least.  I also already get Birchbox, a monthly beauty subscription box ($10 per month www.birchbox.com) So I was familiar with how the subscription would work.  April was my first CurlKit delivery and it is full of things for me to try, it came in a silver box and it was all wrapped in pink tissue paper. Inside were hair items from well known companies like Jane Carter Solutions and Optimum. There were also items from companies I had not heard of like Pooka Pure and Simple.  These items were delivered just a few days before my Spring Break trip to Hawaii so I was very excited because I could take the sample sizes with me on vacation and try them all.  And that is exactly what I did.  I had tried the Jane Carter Solutions Conditioner before but not her other products.  I fell in love with both the leave-in conditioner and the nourish and shine. So much so in fact that when I went to the World Natural Hair Show in Atlanta this past weekend I made sure to buy them in the full sizes. I tried the Sofn' free Nothing But products in my daughter, KK's hair and it worked great.  So when I saw them at the World Natural Hair Show I purchased those items in full size as well. I really enjoy the whole "try before you buy" idea of the various subscription boxes.  I'll be the first to admit that being a product junkie has caused me to buy many products that I ended up not liking and either giving away at a product swap or just to friends.  With CurlKit and other services like it you can try the sample sizes of products and see if you like them before you invest in the full size.  The fees for these services are pretty good as well.  For example CurlKit is only $20 and many times there are also full sized products included in the kit so the value is usually much higher than the price you actually pay.  I was so happy with both my Birchbox subscription and my CurlKit subscription I have since added 3 new subscription services for May (see below for my new subscriptions) . As soon as I get them I will post pictures and reviews.  I am so excited to see all the goodies I get.  

So for May I will be getting 5 subscription boxes!!!

1.  Birchbox - beauty subscription $10per month  www.birchbox.com

2. CurlKit- natural hair subscription $20 per month www.curlkit.com

3.Curlbox- natural hair subscription $20 per month www.curlbox.com

4. My Shade of  Brown- beauty subscription for women of color $10 per month www.myshadeofbrown.com

5. The Look Bag- beauty subscription $10 per month www.thelookstore.com

Review: Shea Moisture Lemongrass & Ginger Dead Sea Soak

I purchased at the World Natural Hair Show 3 for $20

Regular Price $9.99 may be at select Targets and Walgreens (not on either website)

I love taking long relaxing baths after a hard workout, so when I saw this at the WNHS I thought hey this would be perfect because it says it helps to relieve sore muscles. It also claims to soften the water and skin so bonuses all around.  Yesterday my personal trainer decided to punish me extra hard for eating "bad food" while I was in Atlanta for the hair show so when I got home I could barely walk. And then it hit me, it would be a perfect time to try my new bath salt.  I drug myself up the stairs lit my candle in the bathroom and started to run the water.  When I opened the bath salt I knew we had a winner based on the smell alone.  It smells of lemons and oranges and other citrus smells but with a spa type of citrus not like a lemonade or cut lemon smell. It smelled so good both of my daughters came into the bathroom wondering what was smelling so good and then asked if they could use it too. I was tempted to say "No, You got to get your own my brother" but I agreed to let them use a little. Needless to say it was a very pleasurable bath experience. I soaked for about 30-40 minutes and let the wonderful fragrance transport me to a place where personal trainers had out cupcakes that make you skinny instead of grueling workouts :).  When all was said and done I felt very relaxed and much less sore than before my bath.  I slept like a rock and this morning I don't feel sore at all.  I have used the Shea Moisture hair products many times and liked them but this was my first time  using anything from their bath line and I am officially hooked.  I will be repurchasing this item and trying the other bath products. 

2012 World Natural Hair Show

The 2012 World Natural Hair Show in Atlanta, GA was held this past weekend. To say I had the time of my life would be an understatement. This was my second time attending the WNHS and I must say this year was far better than last year. Last year I was pretty new to natural hair and still transitioning so I was trying to learn what products to use and how to "do" my hair.   However this year I had a whole new agenda.  I wanted to meet the people behind the brands that I have discovered over the past year and get great deals on products.  I  also wanted to meet many bloggers and vloggers that I follow. I did all that and then some, I even saw a famous actress in the mix.  The show was a huge success and my natural hair product stockpile has grown by leaps and bounds.

My WNHS Haul ; D

All the things I purchased except the 3 Shea Moisture products I gave my mom and the Jane Carter products that are on their way. 

As you can see from the picture I was able to gets tons and tons of hair products. Before arriving at the show I knew I wanted to get products from BASK, CURLS, Karen's Body Beautiful, Oyin Handmade and some raw shea butter.  Once I arrive I was lured in by the loud music, flashy lights and the aroma of great smelling products that just kept jumping into my bags : D.  And let's not get started on the the prices!!! Everything and yes I do mean EVERYTHING was offered at huge discounted show prices.  For example: CURLS had their 4 step CURLS Cocktails which are usually priced between $67-$79 show priced at $20!!! and yes they did sell out of these by the end of day 1.  There were other deals such as Shea Moisture products reg price $10 each were show priced 3 products for $20.  And lots and lots of free samples!!! All of the products in the front were all free products that were handed out. Beautiful Textures even gave away a swag bag with 2 FULL SIZED products if you "liked" their Facebook page. One of my favorites of the WNHS has to be Jane Carter.  Many of the Jane Carter products sold out due to the huge discounts but instead of saying oh well tough luck Ms. Jane Cater actually let you order at the show prices and is shipping the products to the customers for FREE!! Now that is customer service right there.  I was also able to talk to her personally and she is a very down to earth sweet lady. Great Job Jane.  The WNHS is definitely a great place to  learn about the new products coming out and to stock up on many of your staples. Look for reviews on these products coming soon. 

Me with one of my favorite vloggers makeupandbeautyjunkie on YouTube

8 Month Natural Hair Update

My favorite Hairstyle lately

I call it the Corbin Blue (High School Musical)

On April 2, 2012 I officially hit 8 months post Big Chop and 14 months relaxer free. I am so excited because I can finally see a big difference in the length of my hair. I have come a lonnnng way since my big chop on August 2, 2011. I know alot of people say this but I feel like I have learned so much along the way. I have learned a ridiculous amount of information about hair in general and the many mistakes I used to make with my hair. The biggest thing is reading labels and knowing what to look for in ingredients.  When it comes to your hair you have to read labels in the same way you do when you are trying to eat healthy. I was surprised to know how many "good" and expensive products contain junk. And just because a products calls itself "natural" does not mean it really is. People do your hair a favor and do you HOMEWORK. I will admit I am a product snob. If it has parabens, sulfates, silicone, mineral oil or petroleum in in I'm not gonna use it. Another thing I have learned is to see myself differently.  My hair used to drive me crazy when I was relaxed. It took so much maintenance to keep it looking good that I planned my life around the needs of my hair. For example if I was gonna work out I had to schedule at least an hour and half after my workout just to wash and style my hair. And that was after EVERY workout.  Now after a workout my hair still looks good! I love it, I feel so carefree.  I will be honest with you I did have a hard time getting used to really short hair.  My hair had been well below my shoulders for years so to go to about 3 inches or hair was rough. But as I began to matser the wash and go (WnG) my confidence and love of my hair soon returned.  I can honestly tell you I LOVE MY CURLS, LOVE THEM. I get stopped constantly by people asking how I do my hair, or asking what products I use and giving me compliments on my hair.  And the crazy thing is most of them could have the same look if they just stopped using the creamy crack.  

Though my journey continues and I am sure I will have many more lessons in natural hair I wanted to share with you what I am currently doing to style and maintain my curls.  A few posts back I told you all about my first love, Kinky Curly Products. Nothing has changed as a matter of fact I think we renewed our vows to each other. I did stray and try lots of new products and my hair slapped me for being stupid.  So I went running back. So here is what I have learned over the last two months. My hair loves Kinky Curly! So I have promised my hair it will not be tortured by other stylers anymore.( see my review of Kinky Curly products to see how I apply)  I will continue to try different shampoos, conditioners and deep conditioners. I will also try other finishers but I will continue to use Kinky Curly Products as my styler.  With the other stylers I have used my hair feels awful and the curls are just mediocre and I can only get 1 maybe 2 day hair.  However with Kinky Curly My hair is banging every single time.  And forget about 2 day hair I get up to 6-7 day hair!! Yes yall I only have to apply Kinky Curly once a week!!!! So it may cost a little more than some products but heck fire I only use it once a week so it lasts forever. All I do to my hair on most days is get it wet in the shower by quickly putting my hair under the stream of water  and then I shake it vigorously. When I get out of the shower I rub Darcy's Plum Nectar on my ends and I'm done!! If I am pulling my hair back I will add Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade on my slicked down hair and that's it. I do that everyday until its time to reapply. And my curls stay frizz free, hydrated and defined. 

Below are some WnG styles from the past couple of  weeks

4 day Hair puff with bangs

3 day hair Corbin Blue style 

6 Day hair Puff

1st day Hair one side pinned up with KK