Beauty Prep For Events

This is a post I have been meaning to do for a little while– beauty prepping for big events. Whether it’s the red carpet, your wedding day, or just a party you know is going to have lots of hotties in attendance, you want to look your best for an event. There are a few things I always do before a big event and I wanted to share those with you!
Skin Prep

  • Exfoliation – I make sure my skin is well-exfoliated for a good week beforehand, whatever that means for my skin. (Mr. Boyfriend and I are both using Simple Smoothing Facial Scrub. I like it! Exfoliates w/o drying me out!)
  • Breathing Room – I wear makeup as little as possible for a few days before the event to give my skin a chance to breathe and lessen the possibility of last minute breakouts.
  • Cleanse, Cleanse, Cleanse – Sometimes we’re lazy. I know that. We ALL are. But if you’re in “event prep mode”, be diligent about your regular skin care routine and for goodness’ sake WASH OFF YOUR MAKEUP.
  • Soothe – I use as many skin-soothing things as I can get my paws on before an event. Redness and breakouts are much harder to cover and make look good with makeup than clear skin, so I use gentle moisturizers, 100% pure aloe vera, and the occasional honey mask. (Product-wise I’ve been really liking Yes To Cucumbers cleanser.)
  • Spot Healing – If you have any open acne sores (…you pickers know who you are!), try neosporin or a similar product to help them heal faster and be less inflamed. 
Hair Prep

  • Clarify – Clarifying shampoos aren’t that great for colored hair but are still good to use every once and a while to really deep clean and get rid of any build-up from products & the environment. I always clarify my hair before an event to “detox” a bit. (I use Suave Daily Clarifying for this because it’s cheap and works fine for this purpose.)
  • Condition – This one is pretty obvious. I use deep conditioning treatments (especially on my ends if it’s been a while since my last trim!). (I really like Alterna’s Overnight Hair Rescue and Shu Uemura’s hair oil lately).
Okay so those are the things I do. Here are the things you should avoid– 

  • Don’t get a facial the day before your event. Often, the intense treatments of facials, and things like extractions etc. will make my face a little blotchy and red. Plan a facial for a few days ahead of time just in case. Same goes for any facial waxing you’re going to get. God forbid you get a burn or some other unfortunate incident.
  • Don’t blow dry and flat iron the shit out of your hair for a few days (I try for a week but it doesn’t always happen) before your event. Give your hair a break. You know heat isn’t good for it. ;)
  • Don’t panic-treat any issues that come up. If you break out before an event, resist the urge to throw everything in your acne-fighting arsenal on it and fry your face, and don’t pick at it! It’s easier to cover up a little red spot than it is to cover up an inflamed, pissed off dried out scab where your little pimple used to be!
  • Don’t try a brand new product the day of or a few days before an event. If you have an allergic reaction, find out it oxidizes like crazy/melts off your face/looks orange/is otherwise terrible the DAY OF an event, you’re kinda screwed! Save the testing for down time, not your big day (or night).
…and remember to get plenty of sleep and stay hydrated! ;)

Once upon a time I received samples of the Alterna & Shu Uemura products for editorial consideration.

Suave Keratin Infusion Dry Shampoo

It’s not very often that I write negative reviews. Most often, I try a product and either like it (positive review) or just feel “meh” about it. Who wants to take the time to read my review of simply “meh”? I don’t like writing them (*snooze*) and they aren’t very interesting to read. 
However. Once and a while I use a product that I really don’t like. This is one of those products. Now, I’m kind of surprised and/or disappointed at not liking this, because some of my other fellow bloggers really like it! I feel left out of the Suave party. Oh well…
Why don’t I like this product. Well, I can explain it best by letting you know those photos above are the AFTER pictures. AFTER using the ‘refreshing dry shampoo’. EWW. My hair became greasier than it was before! This was sprayed the morning of the third day (I wash my hair on the evening of the third day). I do not have oily scalp/roots by any stretch of the imagination, and had not overloaded my hair with product. And this is the result? EWWWW. I was trying this out on a whim before work and hadn’t planned on taking pictures for my review, but it just was so bad I had to snap a few with my camera phone to document the experience. I still have the can, and I might give it another shot sometime, but wow. 
FYI my hair:
– fine, but lots of it
– color treated
– normal-to-dry
– is shampooed with Alterna
– is conditioned with Alterna and Sojourn 
Just. Ick. Ew ew. Maybe I got a dud, I don’t know. But this did NOT work for me at all. :( That makes me a sad panda.
Sample provided for editorial purposes.

Kids Get The Coolest Stuff

When I was a little kid and I went trick-or-treating, I’d always come home with my besties and we’d dump out all our candy, swap favorites, and sort out things (like anything opened had to be tossed!). I eventually learned to make a pile of “Parent Favorites” because those would end up mysteriously disappearing anyway even if I didn’t. ;) I learned pretty quickly that tootsie rolls and milk duds didn’t exist in my trick-or-treat world anymore. They belonged to mom. I suppose it’s the least I could do after she followed me around all night going door to door.

When I have kids, I look forward to continuing this tradition of raiding their trick-or-treat haul. I also look forward to another perk of parental thievery- stealing their hair products. Wait, what? Yes. I’m using three products right now that, although marketed towards kids, are completely awesome and I am not ashamed to say I love them. Kids’ hair products typically smell the best and also come in cute packaging, and these are no exception!

The new shampoo and conditioner I’m loving right now are from Monkey Brains. They have the cute monkeys on the bottles, and the bottles are shaped like bananas! How delightful. I was thinking they might smell like banana too, but they just kind of smell like generic fruit? I love the smell though. It’s refreshing and yummy. But most importantly, they leave my hair super clean without being stripped at all, and very soft. When testing a new shampoo I like to wait til I have seriously dirty hair. Monkey Brains Goop Out Shampoo ought to be great for very dirty hair because it says it’s a deep cleansing shampoo – and it’s designed to get the hair gel and other wonderful styling products from Monkey Brains out of your hair. It lathers up really well and it cleaned my hair completely in one wash. No need to rinse & repeat with this guy. For the conditioner, they recommend leaving it in your hair for a couple minutes before rinsing, which I did. Result? Super soft, gorgeous hair. I love it! These products together can be purchased for less than a lot of other hair products I have used in the past. I could get 2 sets of them for the price of one bottle of my beloved Alterna shampoo. Does that mean I will stop using Alterna? No, probably not…but at least I have something awesome to use in between bottles while I’m poor and jobless haha. Monkey Brains is available at CVS, and probably other drugstores too (that’s just the only one I have actually seen it in so far). It’s also on amazon for $4.95 a bottle.
Suave Kids’ Detangling Spray is a product I’ve heard mentioned on other blogs/YouTube videos before, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. It’s about $2 at the drugstore (my bottle came from Rite Aid) so why not? What really sold me is the scent. It comes in several scents but Double Dutch Apple is all I need. It smells so good. I love apple scented things. Well you know what? This is a great detangler! It’s basically a lightweight leave-in conditioner. The bottle says it will tame bed head and flyaways while enhancing hair’s natural softness and shine. Does it do all of those things? Yes, yes, and yes! All while smelling delicious and being really cheap.
Overall I’m pretty happy I don’t have to fight any children for use of these products so far. When I’m a mom I will want to share. Or maybe I’ll just get my own. ;)
Have you ever pilfered products from your kids (or siblings)?
Sample of Monkey Brains provided for editorial purposes.