My Garnier Olia Experience

Recently I was lucky enough to be chosen for a sought-after BzzAgent campaign: Garnier Olia hair color. If you haven't read my other BzzAgent posts, this is a PR website that helps companies gets buzz for new products by having average Janes like me try the products and blog about them. I don't get paid but I do get a coupon that lets me get the product for free or at a discount.

I'm sure most of you have seen the recent Garnier Olia ad campaign. The big difference with this product versus other home hair-coloring kits is that 60% of the blend is oil, including natural flower oils. The first place that this is evident is the smell. The chemical scent of the beauty salon is still there, but it is much more faint than in other products I've used.

The design of the product is clearly meant to be chic. Even the gloves are the trendy black that I've seen in more modern salons on TV. However, the gloves also seem to be meant for skinny French women because the only person in the house who could fit them was my model-thin daughter C1. Luckily we keep latex gloves around the house for such instances.

The application process was simple. Squeeze the colorant and the activator into the lovely tear-shaped bottle, shake until your bingo wings smack you in the face, and then apply to your dry hair. The cream is advertised as no-drip and it really is. I didn't even need a towel around my shoulders. Also, don't be alarmed when you don't see any color in the colorant; it starts to reveal itself as it sits in the bottle. I got the violet shade. It started out cream-colored, then it looked like a strawberry smoothie, and then ended up looking like a blackberry smoothie.

After letting the cream sit in my hair for 30 minutes, I massaged it in a little more and then rinsed until the water ran clear. The last step is to use the included conditioner, let it sit in your hair for two minutes, and rinse it out. The conditioner has a similar floral scent without the chemical undertone.

So how do I like the results? Well, it isn't a very vibrant color, but I wasn't really expecting it to be since my hair was dark brown to start with. Garnier Olia did a good job of coloring my grey hair. I'm not the type who is embarrassed by my grey hair; in fact, I'd be happy if I could keep my grey and color the mousy brown hair around it. However, for women who want to cover their grey strands, Garnier Olia does a good job. 

This is my "before" photo. As you can see there are several strands of grey in the front.

This is my "after" photo. The grey strands are practically gone, except for one stubborn hair right in the middle. The violet color doesn't really stand out, although judging from my past experiences I imagine that the violet will catch the light when I am outside in the sun. What is noticeable indoors is the sheen that Garnier Olia has given my hair. I don't know if you can pick it up in my "before" photo, but my brown hair has a dusty look even when it is clean. It is as if someone has dusted my head with baby powder. After the Garnier Olia treatment, my hair is softer and shinier. In a way I'm not surprised because my hair has always responded well to Garnier products, even thought they aren't necessarily designed for natural black hair.

My wrap-up: I would say give Garnier Olia a try. It is easy to use and it seems to less harsh than other home hair dyes I've used in the past.

Glade Expressions Collection

As you guys know, I am a member of BzzAgent (short explanation: I get free stuff and talk about it). The most recent campaign that I have participated in is for the new Glade Expressions Collection. I was looking forward to getting started on this campaign because my husband ABM doesn't like boring old air. He wants to have scents wafting through the house at all times.

BzzAgent gave me coupons to get one of each model for free. The Glade Expressions Oil Diffuser (the rectangular one with the cutouts) consists of a small fragrance bottle hidden in the base with a wide flat wick stuck into the top. The Glade Expressions Fragrance Mist is basically an air freshener spray. The difference is that the decorative outer shell can be refilled with a new can of freshener. This line is meant to be more upscale than your average air freshener by offering unusual scents and containers that are pretty enough to sit out on the counter.

There are four scents available: Lavender & Juniper Berry, Pineappple & Mangosteen, Cotton & Italian Mandarin, and Fuji Apple & Cardamom Spice. ABM grabbed the first two. I probably would have gone for the apple, but this collection keeps selling out at our local stores so we were probably lucky to get anything.

Part of Glade's marketing for this collection is that it has "true-to-life scents". I had a chance to put this to the test because, purely by coincidence, we cut open a fresh pineapple a few days ago. The smell is still fresh in my mind and the Glade Expressions Fragrance Mist in Pineapple and Mangosteen comes really close. I'm not sure about the Lavender & Juniper Berry, though. I can't smell any of the lavender; to me it smells like trees. I don't know if I want my house to smell like a walk through the woods.

Although I didn't like the smell of the scent ABM picked for the oil diffuser, I do like the form factor of both items. I consider them a non-electric replacement for all those plug-ins that have become popular over the past few years. With a husband who loves to have a continuous aroma throughout the house, those plug-ins have taken over way too many of my outlets and I don't think they are particularly attractive. The oil diffuser looks totally at home in the living room among our knick-knacks, and the fragrance mist is a sleeker alternative to having a regular aerosol can on the counter in the guest bathroom.

Thoughts on the Smooth 'N Shine Keratin Power Kit (PICTURE HEAVY)

DISCLOSURE:  I am a participant in the BzzAgent marketing program. They provided me with a full-sized kit on behalf of Smooth 'N Shine in exchange for sharing my honest opinion of the product with others.

It has been a week since I applied the Smooth 'N Shine Polishing Keratin Power Semi-Permanent Hair Tamer kit. I purposely waited that long to write this post because I wanted to try a few different things with my hair before I shared my opinion of the product. Let's start with how my hair looked before the treatment. Fair warning -- the first few pics are of my hair in its freshly washed, unstyled, and scary glory:

Yes, my hair stands up even when it is wet!

My natural hair is a combination of three textures. Starting at the nape of my neck and going up for about 1.5 inches, my hair is soft and loosely curled. The kids and I call it my "white girl hair" because it feels rather similar to that of my Caucasian friends who have curly hair. The rest of my head is covered in hair that resembles unspun wool with a few curly bits stuck in.  I wasn't expecting my curls to look like those of the model on the box, but I was hoping that I could get my hair closer to all being the same texture.


I enlisted the help of my 15-year-old daughter C1 in applying the treatment. Unlike with a traditional relaxer, there is no danger of burning your skin or your scalp so the process was much less stressful.

--Wash your hair thoroughly to remove any hair products.

--Part your hair into four sections.

--Apply the keratin gel to your hair. No mixing like with traditional relaxers. Yay!

--Let the gel sit in your hair for 25 minutes, then rinse.

--Apply the neutralizing milk, let it sit in your hair for 10 minutes, then rinse it out.

The process is so simple that I wish I was more pleased with the results. I took a picture right before I rinsed the keratin solution out that gave me hope:





See the curl pattern here? It is more uniform than the random patches of tight curls I had before the treatment and it was hanging down instead sticking straight out. This made me happy, but it was not to last. Once I completed the neutralizer step, my hair looked like this:

 

If you look closely at the bottom of the last photo, you can see the small section of almost silky curls that I have at the nape of my neck. That section became a little more silky with the keratin treatment but the rest of my hair didn't react quite as well. The last step of this process is to blow dry and flat iron the hair. Although I don't plan on wearing my hair straight, the instructions say that you need to do this to seal in the keratin. Two years ago, in an attempt to get a straight style for a special event, I applied heat in a variety of ways no less than five times in the space of a week to no avail. Because of this, I know that my natural hair doesn't straighten well and I didn't expect this Smooth 'N Shine kit to change that. While it was easier to comb and blow dry, the results of the flat ironing were not pretty. After I flat ironed it, I curled it with a curling iron, put sponge rollers in it, and slept on it overnight. This method works well when my hair is relaxed, but this time all I got was this:



The ends were a bit more curled than that when I left the house but by the time I got to work the curls were gone. It looked and felt like a giant cotton ball, so I went into the ladies's room with a handful of hairpins and did this:

 

This is my go-to "bad hair day" style, by the way. I get lots of compliments on it, but I use it sparingly because my husband hates it. Anyway, I wore it this way for a couple days because you aren't supposed to wash your hair or use headbands or hair stretchies for three days after a keratin treatment, whether done by the salon or at home. I was SO looking forward to washing and conditioning it so I could see how much curl I was left with. After washing it I did about eight large two-strand twists all over my head to see how a twist-out would look. Here are the results:




This looks better than my previous attempts at a twist-out on my natural hair, but the hair still felt stiff and dry despite a liberal application of hair pudding. I did a Bantu knot-out with a different moisturizing hair pudding and got similar results, so today I went back to this:

 

BOTTOM LINE:  The Smooth 'N Shine Keratin Power Hair Tamer solved one problem for me but caused another. It loosened my hair just enough that it hangs down in a more feminine way, but only when it is wet. As soon as it dries, my hair feels more coarse than before and the hair products that worked prior to the treatment are not doing any good now. I'm thinking that I need to find a hair cream or pudding that has the same consistency of the keratin gel that came in the kit because my hair looked the best during that 25-minute waiting period between steps.  This treatment is supposed to last through five shampoos, so I will most likely be writing another post later on to report whether my hair completely bounces back to normal.

Despite my experience, I'm still thinking about trying this product on my daughter C2's hair. Unlike mine, her head is covered in tightly-coiled, wiry hair all over -- no crazy combination of textures. I've also seen her natural hair flat ironed and it looks great. The Smooth 'N Shine Keratin Power Hair Tamer may be just the thing for her.

Me And My Hair Are Ready For A Change

Remember the post where I talked about being dissatisfied with my hair? Well, the other day when I had some downtime I checked in to my BzzAgent account, and there was an open campaign for the Smooth 'N' Shine Keratin Power Hair Tamer kit. I haven't been active on BzzAgent since 2008, so it is an odd coincidence  that the first campaign I am offered has to do with taming my natural hair.

In case you aren't familiar with BzzAgent, it is a social marketing company. You create a free account on their website, answer a few surveys, and BzzAgent matches you up with companies that are looking to get have some "buzz" created about their products. It is not a paid position, but you do get free products to try out with the expectation that you will give your honest opinion about them.

The full name of the product is Smooth 'N' Shine Polishing Keratin Power Semi-Permanent Hair Tamer. It is a two-step keratin treatment that is supposed to be less damaging than a relaxer. For my Caucasian friends, a relaxer would straighten my hair permanently while a keratin treatment would give me the choice of blow drying it straight or washing it and wearing it curly. Although there is a lot of info about salon keratin treatments online, I couldn't find much about at-home kits. The lack of reviews makes me a little nervous, but it is just hair.

I've been typing this post when I should be washing my hair in preparation for the keratin treatment. Stay tuned to the space for further updates on how it works out!

Bzz: Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber

A few months' ago, I became a Bzz Agent. This is a company that conducts word-of-mouth campaigns for companies. I don't get paid, but I do get coupons and free samples for the products that Bzz Agent wants me to talk about.

My first Bzz campaign was for the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber by SC Johnson. This is a cleaning tool comprised of a foam handle and disposable cleaning pads that are soaked with cleanser. You just attach the pad to the Velcro on the handle, wet it, and scrub away!

To be honest, I wasn't the first one to try the Action Scrubber. I handed it off to C2. She cleaned our stand-alone shower and her tub. She said it was much easier than using Pine-Sol and a rag and she like the lemon-lime scent. I finally gave the Action Scrubber a whirl myself last week. I used it to clean my tub and the base of my toilet. I found that I needed to rinse when I was done scrubbing because the cleanser does soap up a bit, but I guess you could deduce that from the name :-). With all the germs in the bathroom, I really like being able to throw away the pad when I'm done. I also agree with C2; it didn't take nearly as much as elbow grease to get the job done.

If you want to try the Action Scrubber for yourself, now would be a good time. SC Johnson will have an insert in this Sunday's (21 Sep) papers across the country. There will be coupons for various Scrubbing Bubbles products and a mail-in rebate for the Action Scrubber starter kit, which has the handle and four cleansing pads. If you try it out, let me know what you think.