Living Proof Full Root Lifting Spray: Get Back to the Lab, And See What's on the Slab

Dixie

Countless ladies with hair on their head, be it curly or straight, want to achieve the perfect balance of healthy, full hair. Some of us may not wish to or even have the time to spend doing our hair, so it remains a wish released into the mirror. Others, like me, try in vain every miracle product they come across in the hopes that it will provide enough volume to avoid sad limp hair, but not so much volume that Kelly LeBrock travels forward in time to hand us a brush and tell us to tone down the mane already. So it was with the Living Proof Full Root Lifting Spray, all I wanted was some volume at my roots.

Ardell Brow Defining Palette

Dixie

Until I started getting my eyebrows threaded, I never saw the importance of eyebrow products. Brow pencils and powders and gels mystified me. Why do I need those products? I have dark eyebrows already, so I don't need to enhance them!

Not true, ladies and gentlemen. My eyebrow artist impressed upon me the importance of the eyebrows to the overall look of the face. With just a touch of powder or pencil you can bring your face into focus, whether you're rocking an otherwise bare face or in full evening makeup. The eyebrow adds the finishing touch to the face.

Here's the Guv'ner, Mrs. Bagnet: Lush Guv'ner Powder Deodorant

Dixie

So, it appears that I am still on my quest for a deodorant that suits my natural scent and works through the day. As I wrote in my review on the Lush Aromaco and Coconut deodorant, I felt the Coconut wasn't quite right for me, that it matched my natural scent too closely and therefore didn't really deodorize. I think that I still stand by that. (Who knows if that will be a permanent stance though. The body is weird.)

Oi! To The World: Dixie's Christmas Playlist (Part 1)

Dixie

I love Christmas songs. As soon as Advent starts, I start playing Christmas music non-stop on my car radio, iPod, Pandora, WHATEVER. I love it. Except for the stupid boy band Christmas songs, humbug to them. This Christmas, I give you my boy band-free playlist. No matter what your taste, I have a song for you.

Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth) - David Bowie and Bing Crosby

The David Bowie song appears at the top of my list because of course it does. But besides my bias towards anything Bowie, this is a beautiful song. In light of recent events in America, wanting peace for this generation and the next is something we can all ask the Three Wisemen to bring us for Christmas. 

O Holy Night - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir with soloist JoAnn Ottley
O Holy Night is hands-down my favorite Christmas song and this version tops all other versions. It's not even possible to talk or do anything else when you hear this song. You will find yourself stopping whatever it is you're doing and just listening. Ottley's solo is amazing. A-friggin-mazing. AMAZING. Her voice soars up into the highest registers and threatens to shake your speakers apart. It's a little tough to find online so here is the link to listen. 

Christmas in Killearny - Bing Crosby

This song is so cheery and peppy and Christmasy, I want to put on my kilt and dance an Irish jig while drinking egg nog. If you don't like Bing Crosby Christmas songs, then I just can't with you. I'm sorry, but I am unable to can.

Blue Christmas - Elvis

Oh, Elvis. I'm glad you never enunciated your songs. No one mumbles and jives their way through as Christmas song as well as you did. 

Silent Night  - The Dickies

The whole concept of this version amuses me. Silent Night...sung by a loud punk band. Glorious! (Also, how would you like to have this in your neighborhood? I'd be amused for, like, three nights.)

Oi! To The World - No Doubt

What I love most about this song is the surprisingly heartfelt and, I think, true sentiment in the middle of a ska beat - "If God came down on Christmas day, I know exactly what He'd say. He'd say "Oi!" to the punks and "Oi!" to the skins but "Oi!" to the world and everybody wins." Amen to that.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Ojon Damage Reverse Restorative Hair Treatment: Hair You Go!

Dixie

Florida gets a winter. Know how I know? It was cold as hell earlier this month, with freeze warnings in parts of my area. And with the cold weather comes dry air. The kind of dry air that sucks the moisture out of my hair and causes it to tangle into a dreadlock at the nape of my neck.

To avoid my little dreadlock, I have to put a ton of moisture back into my hair. As Live Curly Live Free says, well-moisturized hair should be free of tangles. My hair never seems to reach that level of moisturization but the closest it comes is when I use the Ojon damage reverse Restorative Hair Treatment. Think of it as the super-fancy version of the Alberto VO5 treatment.

Alba Botanica Natural Very Emollient Cream Shave: Demulcent!

Dixie

My last foray into shave cream was not a huge success, but when I saw the tube of Alba Botanica Natural Very Emollient Cream Shave sitting on the shelf in my local health food store, all reservations flew out of my brain. I thought, "Ooohh! Shiny!" So I grabbed the Coconut Lime scent and excitedly gave my card to the cashier.

Before using the shave cream the first time, I flipped over the bottle to read the instructions, because I read the back of everything I buy. Every. Thing. It's a good thing I did since the instructions on how to get the best result are pretty specific. Spread a thin layer over the area to be shaved, the thinner the better. The last shave cream I used required exactly the opposite - I couldn't get a thick enough layer on to avoid irritation - so I was skeptical. After a few passes with the razor, my skepticism dissolved. I got a great shave with zero irritation. In fact, I actually put the cream on too thick on my first leg and had to rinse my razor every two passes, so I put less on my other leg and got an even better result.

Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer: Never Creases To Amaze Me

Dixie

There are few cosmetic mishaps that I despise more than creased eye shadow. When you look in the mirror and see that the eye shadow you carefully applied that morning has migrated entirely into the crease of your lid, it's disheartening. It's like, I know I'm tired and ready to go home, Face. You don't need to produce enough oil on my eyelids to make sure everyone else knows it too.  Unfortunately, my Face never listened to me scolding it. So, I defeated it with the magic of MOAR COSMETICS.

Er, well, not at first. I've been through many an eye primer. Most of the brands I have used in the past simply didn't work. They just added another layer of oil to make my eye shadow slide into my crease, but with the added paradoxical benefit of not blending out due to the primer. Once again, Sephora samples to the rescue. I first discovered the Benefit Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer in a 500-point sample kit. After using the entire tiny bottle, I happily shelled out $26 for a full-size bottle.

Out of Africa Pure Shea Butter Lip Balm with Vitamin E

Dixie

When I see a new brand of natural lip balm in the health food store, it's hard to resist buying it. If it's on sale? Forgot about it. That lip balm is coming home with me. So it was with Out of Africa Pure Shea Butter Lip Balm with Vitamin E. Orange cream flavor, no less.

I've talked about my awesome all-natural cocoa and shea butter based promotional lip balms before, right? Right. I'm on my last tube *single tear*, so I'm on the hunt for a suitable replacement. I want a balm that will coat my lips nicely while actually moisturizing and that lasts a while. Oh, and I want one with both shea butter and cocoa butter. Not that I'm picky. A quick look at the ingredients tells me that this fits the bill. Now, will the proportions of shea butter to cocoa butter be equal to my favorite?

G.T. Dave's Enlightened Raw Kombucha: Out-Hippy Your Friends!

Dixie

"Just try it, you'll like it." Famous last words of the person at the other end of the spoon before a young child clamps their mouth shut, refusing to try a new food. Well, I can't really promise that if you try kombucha that you will like it, but at least you will have an interesting new food experience under your belt. Plus, if you enjoy being smug and out-hippieing your friends, then kombucha will probably give you some bragging rights. At least until someone bops in holding a bottle full of wheat-grass and aloe chunks. Ahem. Not that I have done either of those things.

Kombucha is a polarizing taste experience. It seems cliche to say you will either love it or hate it, but it's really the truth. There just isn't a whole lot of middle ground. My good friend Wikipedia tells us that kombucha is an "effervescent fermentation of sweetened tea that is used as a functional food." What that means in normal people speak is that it is bubbly fermented sweet tea. A batch of kombucha starts with a culture that contains bacteria and yeast, similar to sourdough bread, and ends up as a tart brew that can be mixed with various juices and good-tasting substances to create a delightful drink (or a puzzling concoction, depending on your taste preferences). Besides the end result of the taste, a properly brewed batch of kombucha contains probiotics and amino acids.

Sonia Kashuk Matte Oil Blotting Papers: Dewy Just Means Greasy

Dixie

Remember in the early 2000s when dewy, youthful skin was all the rage? Yeah, I hated it too. Since my t-zone tends to be a little oily, everything I tried ended up looking more like Oil Slick rather than Dewy and Youthful. So I finally gave up and went back to matte, and I discovered blotting papers along the way.

Ladies (and applicable gentlemen), blotting papers are your friend. Sonia Kashuk Matte Oil Blotting Papers are magical squares of delicate tissue that remove the oil from your face without trashing your makeup. A couple of times a day I can whip out a single white square of magic, disappear all the oil from my t-zone, and touch up my makeup good as new. So instead of going through my afternoon looking like an tired, oily hag I breeze on through looking a normal person.

Dixie's Guide to Fall and Winter Perfumes

Dixie

Despite popular belief, Florida actually has seasons. True, the Sunshine State may have long, humid summers but we do eventually get around to fall and winter. We just don't get all that snow and shit that the rest of y'all do. Basically, we can all bring our winter fashions out of storage without having to worry about snow tires and road salt. All of the cuteness, none of the back-breaking labor. And, with fall and winter fashions comes fall and winter perfumes. 

During the summer, I tend to wear perfumes with citrus notes - scents that are fresh and energizing because Lord knows perfumes are the only fresh scents after a day spent in and out of the heat and humidity. But in fall and winter, I like a heavier, more earthy perfume to warm my senses. These are a few of my stand-by favorites:

Ciaté Velvet Manicure: When Doves Cry

Dixie

The next time I see an unusual beauty product and think to myself, "That's so cool! I definitely need to try that," I'm goring to step back and count to ten. Sometimes, novelty beauty items lean more towards the novelty and less towards the beauty. Just as the LashBlast Luxe suckered me, so has the Ciaté Velvet Manicure.

At first glance, velvet nails sound pretty cool, right? A bit of soft furriness on your nails to keep in theme with your fall sweaters and scarves...until you remember that with use velvet becomes threadbare, like the antique sitting couch in your great-aunts parlor. That's what I should have considered before sinking $19 into this total bust of a product. I picked up a kit of the Berry Poncho, a nice purplish color that would get a silent nod of approval from Prince.

Dixie's Halloween Playlist: Sweet Dreams, Kids (Part 2)

Dixie

Did I mention that I have a lot of music that is perfect for Halloween? I really do. So, here is part 2 of my list. Hold onto your skin so it doesn't crawl off and prepare to rock out.

Dixie's Halloween Playlist: Sweet Dreams, Kids (Part 1)

Dixie

I love Halloween. It's a holiday where you get to dress up and eat yummy treats without all the stress of wrapping family presents and wrangling family members for dinner. Plus, it satisfies my inner morbid 8-year-old that used to quake under the covers at night while reading Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark with a flashlight. I love being scared and therefore have all kinds of fun with a holiday that is all about the scary and the ghoulish. Combine that with my love of music and it's no surprise that I have a large amount of music that I compile into a playlist for the days leading up to Halloween, handing out treats or adding to rotation of songs at the infrequent Halloween party I attend.

Hot Minute Review: Quilted Northern Ultra-Plush Toilet Tissue

Dixie

Toilet tissue is increasingly resembling the Saturday Night Live razor sketch - many ridiculous options that don't really mean a thing. Do I need the ultra roll or the mega? How about the big roll? Is that better for my butt? Well, now you have more options. When contemplating the best tissue for your tushie, now you have to choose between one-, two-, and three-ply.

Until my husband came home with a package of the Quilted Northern Ultra-Plush Toilet Tissue, I had only even seen one-ply and two-ply paper. Three-ply is just so ridiculous that I had to share here on Hot Ink.

And, you know, it's a good tissue. It doesn't fall apart, leave little rolled up bits on your bits, and it's soft and cushy. Other than the sheer craziness of an extra, and let's face it useless ply, I can find no reason not to recommend it. 6/8 tentacles, docking two tentacles for the crazy. You can find Quilted Northern Ultra-Plush Toilet Tissue for between $7 and $20, depending on package size, at most stores that sell home goods, such as Target, Wal-mart, and your local grocer.

Rating: 6/8 tentacles

White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms: I Wouldn't Touch These With a Ten-and-a-Half Foot Pole

Dixie

When Mars made the first batch of an edible food-like substance that tastes like another edible food-like substance, the universe in the immediate vicinity of the factory ate itself, then sent an apology note to Michael Pollan for allowing food production to reach this point. Unfortunately for my taste buds, a few bags of the new White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms escaped the clutches of the Elder Gods in the screaming void of nothingness and landed in my shopping cart. 

Essie Nail Lacquer

Dixie

My husband, daughter, and I were shopping in Target when we walked past the new display of Essie Nail Lacquers. I stopped the cart and said, "Hold on. Pinky said she wanted us to review some items from the Shape Beauty Awards 2012 list. I have to buy this nail polish." Sounds like a convenient excuse to buy something pretty, BUT IT'S TOTALLY TRUE. (Editor's note: BWAHAHAHAHAH!) That's how I ended up trying Essie Nail Lacquer in Boxer Shorts, a lovely opaque lilac color (though it's classified under Blues on the Essie website, go figure). I know. Cool story, bro.

Hot Minute Review: CoverGirl LashBlast Luxe

Dixie

I just can't with this product, you guys. What's even the point? Before I bought it, I should have stopped to think about how a shimmery mascara would turn out on my lashes, but luckily for the content of this site I didn't.

There just aren't a whole lot of words I can muster about the new CoverGirl LashBlast Luxe Mascara. In general, I really like the Lash Blast line. I've used the Fusion, the 24 Hour, and the Volume, all with great success. But the Luxe? Not so much. It applies very much like the Fusion - no clumping, no flaking, no smudging. But the shimmer. Why? It doesn't sparkle or shimmer at all. The only thing the shimmer accomplishes is reflecting light away from your lashes, making your lashes disappear. And that's the opposite of what mascara is supposed to do!

In short, don't buy this product. Just don't. With the other great options available from the Last Blast line, there just is no reason to waste your hard-earned cash. 0/8 tentacles. Boo.

Rating: 0/8 tentacles

Dixie Tries It: Make Your Own Toner

Dixie

Toner can be a contentious subject in the beauty world. Some aestheticians and dermatologists swear by it; others assert that it is unnecessary. However, despite what the latest studies claim, you know your skin best and only you know what works for it. Knowing what works for your skin is a great thing. It's one less worry while getting ready for work, school, or play. What's not so cool is that sometimes, a good toner can be expensive. Fortunately for those of us watching our pennies, which in this economic climate is roughly everyone, toner is easy to make.

Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Mascara: Green Good?

Dixie

I will never learn. I mean, I try but I don't. One day I'll learn to stick with the mascara that works, but until that day I will continue to peruse the mascara sections of the drugstore, looking for a new and possibly exciting formula to share with you Hot Inkers. Now, I'm kind of a secret hippie; we all know this. So when I saw the Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Mascara on sale, I might have squealed in the middle of CVS. Just a little. Not loud enough for the lady browsing in the vitamins and supplements aisle to hear me. Ahem. After my squeal, I was skeptical, but decided to buy it anyway. Hot Ink gives me an excuse to experiment.