Ficcare Head Band

July 21, 2010 – 10:06 am

As a follow-up to my last post about Ficcare hair clips, here’s my review on the Ficcare head bands (the super wavy one in particular). The reason why it took so long to do this post is because I wanted to wear the heck out of it to make sure it is really that comfortable. It’s been through quite a few weeks of testing and I’ve worn it quite a bit: from periods of a few hours all the way to 12+ hours. Seriously, no problem at all! It’s wonderful. I don’t even get a hint of discomfort when I wear it: no itchy head, no headaches, nada. It did take a while to get used to having something in my head that feels like sunglasses on top. After I got used to that feeling, everything’s been going great!

I even took a nap in it! Amazing! Here are a few pictures so you can see the more specifics:

It measures under 6″ across on the widest point.

Here’s an in-head picture. I actually wear it more with a clip to hold my hair back. Either way it works great!

$30+ for a headband is pretty steep but it’s worth it. I don’t think I will ever buy another brand of headband again. Thanks for looking!

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They are here!!!!!!!

June 4, 2010 – 3:09 pm

I know, I know. I’ve been missing in action. New job. New computer. Lots of porting I have to do and I just haven’t gotten to it yet. And almost scared to as the new laptop screen is showing colors way differently than the old one. Which means a) the old laptop was inaccurate or b) the new laptop will be inaccurate. Neither thought gives me warm fuzzies!

But!!!!!!! I had to pop in with the fabulous news! Etude House has the Bling Bling Collection available on their US site for $5.99 a bottle! Joy!!! Happiness!!! Pure Elation!!! Have no idea what I’m talking about? Look here for 3 of the 10 colors offered in this collection. And then run here to place your order! I just did! =)

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Ficcare Hair Clips

May 14, 2010 – 1:44 pm

Honestly, I wasn’t really on a hunt for the perfect hair clip until my friend Lisa told me about Ficcare Maximas hair clips. She said that these do not slip out of your hair. I find that slightly hard to believe since every type of claw clip I’ve tried slip or the plastic reinforcement breaks off after a while. They either slip or my hair or they break. Basically, I’ve given up on the search because I know that most of the plastic ones will be duds. Starting at $36 a pop, it’s really a hard investment to swallow if it will not work. I had to take Lisa’s word for it: she’s pretty savvy when it comes to hair.

So I took the plunge and made a couple orders (one of which is for Mother’s day). I ended up with mostly silvers of different varieties because I just wanted to see how each one works.

Left to right: Maximas medium Pink Lotus (Classic Collection), Ficcarissimo medium Silver, Maximas small Primavera Silver, Mini-Maximas Silver (pair)

The sizing guide on their website is pretty accurate. For a Full Peacock I usually use the medium size but could also get away with using the small (though I think that will change when my hair gets longer). Below are the pictures of lengths of the Mini-Maximas, small and medium Maximas, and the medium Ficcarissimo:

Mini-Maximas at just under 2″

Small Maximas at about 3.5″

One thing to note between the Ficcarissimo and the Maximas is that the Ficcarissimo has another set of teeth on them:

Top: Medium Maximas, Bottom: medium Ficcarissimo (both at abour 4″). Notice that the Ficcarissimo has an extra set of teeth

Styles: The Ficcarissimo seems to work better on my hair because it’s so straight, but not to the point where I don’t want to own any Maximas because they come in a variety of styles and they’re also very good at holding hair up. The Mini-Maximas is good when I want to just pull up my bangs for those days where I’m not washing my hair. Here are some “action” shots of the styles:

Mini Maximas: I don’t have that much bangs to put up, but this seems to hold the style better than the “flat” snap clips that I use to use

The small Maximas with the pony tail look

Small Maximas: Half peacock

Medium Ficcarissimo Silver: Peacock Style

Medium Maximas Pink Lotus Classic: Peacock Style

Wow… this was a lot of information, so I’ll save quick review on the headband for another day!

Thanks for looking!

By sassepiano | Posted in Fashion, Hair Care | Tagged | Comments (6)
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Jolly Ranchers on the Nails?

May 7, 2010 – 10:30 am


I was so blinded by the pretty colors, I never even noticed the little sticker on these Revlon bottles that said “scented”. I’ve tried the Anna Sui polishes and came to the conclusion that scented lacquers are just not my thing. It seems that my fingers are near my nose more often than I’d like to admit to. And it generally results in my face being squished up in distaste for most of the time.

So the bad news (for me) was that these fab colors were all scented. I’m sure they all were meant to have individual smells, but they just struck me as a metallic version of Jolly Ranchers. Grasshopper concurs. The good news is that the scent actually settles down after about 4 hours to a mild, non-squishy-face-creating scent.
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Welcome to America!

May 5, 2010 – 8:00 am


It took you long enough to get here!

I’ve been drooling for a long time over all the Essence swatches I see on the Euro blogs. And finally, the this elusive brand showed up at Ulta for a mere $.99 each. Now, these are small, weighing in at .1oz. However, comparatively, they’re still cheaper than a good majority of polishes out there. And unlike most economical polishes, the brush and the consistancy is fairly good.


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Hard Candies Good Enough to Lick!

May 3, 2010 – 8:00 am


But don’t. It’ll still taste like polish.

I stumbled across these beauties the other day at the local Sally’s. I was stopping by to pick up a few polishes for a friend, but once there I ended up getting *cough* a few for myself. When I got to the counter, the clerk looked at me and said, “That’s alot of polishes.” I just nodded with a smile. Then I asked if by chance any of them were on sale. She looked at me like I had just gone from slightly obssessed to criminally insane, “Yes, they’re buy two get one free. You didn’t know that?” Errr…. nope. *whistles dixie* But amongst my pile of goodies were the Nina Ultra Pro Hard Candies collection. Can you blame me for grabbing all these glass flecked gems?


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Sometimes Good Things Come in Small Packages

April 29, 2010 – 8:00 am


And sometimes not. Such is the case with Le Metier. Now, I knew that this was going to be a small bottle. But I just didn’t realize how little “little” truly was until it was in my hand.

I was actually considering getting a couple of these and mentioned it to a friend. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for her) she took the plunge before I did because I would have been pissed spending $15 on a bottle this size. She passed it onto me so that I could write about it.

Now how much polish is in there exactly? I’m not really quite sure. They don’t list it in the Needless Markup site and the bottle says 1.4oz. However, after one mani, it weighed in at 1.1oz, so the marked weight has to mean the entire bottle and not just the content (am I the only one that thought listed weight meant the polish and not the bottle? Even a regular sized OPI is listed at .5oz). Look at it, there’s more glass than there is lacquer. Compared to an .125oz OPI mini, Le Metier it looks like 5 drops of color.

According to the site, this polish supposedly lasts for 14 days. I have a hard time believing that of any polish. But even half of that time would be pretty darn good. Unfortunately, Sasse reports that it lasted one full day before it started chipping. I’ll take her word about it as I’m not about to test that.

I love high end polishes. But this one just pisses me off more than anything – from the price to the miniscule, mis-represented content weight to the mis-advertised staying power. This is one polish I’ll be staying away from.

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*Waves*

April 14, 2010 – 3:10 pm

I am alive! My nails are not!

I know that I’ve been absent lately, but I’ll be back in full force in a week or two. My nails have been suffering calamity after calamity and are incredibly short right now. And I hate polishing my nails when they are this length. I’ve actually been going around the last week with just a base coat on (the horror!).

I have a ton of new polishes I can’t wait to show off. Some well know, some not. Some new, some old. Some are dazzlers and some are duds. =D So bear with me while my nails recover from winter!

Gabrielle

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A LA Splash of Color!

March 30, 2010 – 8:00 am

I have been nursing a broken-to-the-quick nail and each time it starts growing out, it breaks again. The nail gods have not been smiling on me. In the meantime, I’ve had a boatload of polishes arrive with no tips to put it on. One of the boxes that travelled to my doorstep contained quite a little collection of LA Splash polishes. My goodness, they have a ton of glitters! It is unlikely I am going to get to these any time soon. So when all else fails, use a nail wheel! Left is with flash, right is without.
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Seven Days of Misa – Day 7

March 28, 2010 – 8:00 am


Last day of Misas and this group contains a good portion of my Misa favorites. Saving the best for last was totally unintentional, it’s just the way the bottles fell (or were swatched, in this case).

Choclate Icing, Wine Burgundy and Girl Friday, my favorites, have beautiful shimmer, depth and glow. Maybe it’s because gold shimmer was used. I also like Serene Rosewood and Ruby Organdy.

I was not, however, wild about Strawberry Wine. I originally swatched this solo thinking there would be enough color for it to carry itself. However, the colored iridiscence that’s in the bottle didn’t translate at all to the nail. So I scrapped that thinking it would be better over black. I know that you can see sparkle in the swatch and if you could see it in every day light, it would be fantastic. But it really only shows up with a macro lens with just right lighting. For all intents and purposes, it’s a non-existant color.

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