Loving It / Using It Vol. 7 - Madara Colour and Shine Shampoo for Colored / Treated Hair

I had been looking around for quite sometime for a SLS-free shampoo other than organic surge when I came across this brand on flipkart. I have been using the product on and off since then and its almost on the verge of finishing so I thought I might as well share my thoughts on this with you.

Loving It / Using It : Using It

• Price. Rs 900 for 200ml. Definitely expensive!

• Availability. Not available in stores. Guess flipkart is the only website which carries the brand for now!

• Smells of Rosemary. Love it.
• Packaging is not really great. Sort of a seesaw opening and then you have to press the product out. 
• Usage. One dollop of shampoo is enough for two uses. Lathers pretty well. 
• Removes oil completely. Does not require lot of water to wash off. 

• Adds shine to the hair. 

• Makes hair soft and rough at the same time. I do not know how to explain this. When I am washing my hair, I can feel it is rough. And, even when hair is drying, I do not find it soft. But, as the day progresses, my hair becomes soft. In fact, this is one phenomena I have noticed with the recent shampoo I am gonna review soon. I guess it is a SLS-free shampoo trend!
• Makes my hair frizzy. Unfortunately, I think lack of care for my hair and the dryness due to this product both dry out my hair and frizzes it. 

Overall Verdict

I would say this product is not really worth the money I ended up paying for it. And, my search for another SLS-free shampoo carries on. Sometime back, I noticed that flipkart was out of Organic Surge shampoos which made me start hunting for other options. I checked again and the OS is back and available! So, get your stock before they run out of it.  

Have you used the product? Or, are you searching for any SLS-free shampoo?

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The Body Shop Rainforest Coconut Hair Oil {Product Review}

I have never been a fan of coconut oil but I have been using it for sometime to remove the sunscreen and that is all there to it! I did never really try coconut oil for hair seriously because I did not see it doing much for my hair. So, lets see how this product worked on me!

Price: Rs 625 for 200ml

Pros

can be used as a leave-in treatment!

gets washed out easily

leaves subtle shine on the hair

Cons

very expensive!

its a clear oil

My Experience
It always looked to me that doing the reviews are the easiest thing on Earth because you just have to use the product and write about it! No thinking and no brainstorming. Easy-peasy.

And, then the reality crashes saying "What do you know? It is the most difficult part of blogging!" The blogger has to test a product in thousand possible ways and then list them down as to what passes the test and what doesn't!

And, when it is a hair care product, it is even worse! So, forgive me if the review is too much or too less and please read on :)

I have been testing the product since a month and I can safely say I hate the smell. The oil is clear and colorless with a cocoa-buttery smell. Its not like I am a fan of the coconut oil smell but cocoa butter smell is even worse. And, the ingredient list states fragrance as well. They might have done better with few hair nourishing essential oils instead!

Anyways, barring that issue, I do not see any problem in the product. Incidentally, it is so different from coconut oil in texture probably because of the mix of all other oils. It is very less sticky and thick as compared to the regular coconut oil and does not weight down the hair if you apply as a leave-in serum. That is something I totally loved about the product.

it has all sorts of oils other than coconut and pracaxi (Pentaclethra Macroloba Seed Oil)!

Now, it says about some Pracaxi oil which comes from South America. The oil comes from the Pracaxi seeds and has high concentration of behenic acid which apparently is good for hair! Behenic acid is a saturated fatty acid which has smoothing properties. (Source: Wikipedia)

Now, lets talk about how the product functions. Honestly, the product is so expensive that it will break your heart to use it as a hair oil. And, fortunately, I do not think I saw any difference in my hair when I used this oil as a pre-wash treatment. It did not contain the frizz or show any extraordinary difference compared to any other oil.

oil does not come drop by drop from the fliptop cap!

But, it was a hero when it came to post-wash treatment. You can easily skip the conditioner and use this product on a daily basis. Just two drops would be enough for mid-waist length hair and the leftover oil on the palms can be rubbed on the scalp. That prevents dryness of the scalp. And, even if you apply it everyday, your hair would not get weighed down.

Oh I forgot to mention - whether the product is used as pre-wash treatment or a post-wash, it leaves the hair really soft and provides subtle shine to it which makes the hair look really healthy! Hair looks full of life and bouncy. Since I wash my hair on alternate days on weekdays, my hair behaves relatively well.

Also, it brings out the color of your hair (if your hair is colored or naturally possesses some very interesting shade) which I totally loved. So, yes, it is a product which can be tried as a leave-in treatment. And, it will last you ages that way so you can spend on it in one shot as well :)

PS: Product provided by brand.

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Femina Salon and Spa Magazine Review

Price: Rs 100

 

Femina presents its latest addition to the slew of magazines in her kitty, Femina Salon and Spa. The goal of this magazine is to promote the beauty basics customized to the Indian skin tone and hair type. And, it does that with a bang in this issue of its!!

So, let me start with the cover girl feature of Aditi Rao Hydari. I totally love this lady and the magazine covers a snapshot-cum-tutorial session detailing gorgeous hairstyles ranging from refined fish-tail braids to carefree waves and an interview with this lady discussing her beauty secrets (click on the below picture to enlarge it and read the tutorial)!

its so chic!

She is one of the very few woman I actually admire looks-wise and reading her interview was fun. The flawless skin is thanks to the female genes in her family and she loves her eyebrows the most. I do too (her eyebrows, I mean)! The shape is just awesome. And, she loves natural remedies and relies very less on makeup.

i love this!

Princess Jasmine knots from Walt Disney cartoon Aladin

my favorite current trend - the OMBRE effect I would love to get dark mahogany with blue highlights!

Moving on, the hair care section is HUGE! It includes all the latest trends in the hair styles right from braided twists to ombre hair effects. The section has a talk with Chelsey Lloyd, global expert, TIGI about hair coloring basics and which colors best suit the Indian skin tones and the Do's and Dont's for the hair colorists. And, she also emphasizes that the colorist should make sure that the hair should be healthy initially so that the color would show up nicely.

these are my two favorite looks of all!!

Next is a section on makeup, the higlight of which in this issue is the dramatic use of eyeliners. Followed by a tete-a-tete with Bobbi Brown. And, a few Q&A sessions with Ojas Rajani and Colleen Khan.

And, the final section is the spa and salon section which talks about some of the professional spas, a little about salons across the metros, features hair stylist Deepak Jalhan and a lots on hair color which is very useful if you are one for it!!

My Verdict

Overall, the magazine is a treat for beauty addicts with the bonus of being customized to Indian audience which makes most of the tips practically usable. A few things do bother me like some of the color combinations in the magazine are little difficult to read. They have used red at some places which glares in the eyes instead of being readable.

And, the glue for the magazine did not hold well. I, for one, handle the books and magazine delicately but still it did not stand well which is sad :( I do not know if that should be mentioned in a review but then here it is!!

Have you read the first issue of the magazine which features Yamini Gautam?