ipso facto

Still haven't 100% decided  what to do about my hair. I'm currently out of my LUSH henna, so I'm going to have to decide sometime in the next month. My 35th high school reunion - the first one I'm actually going to, for various reasons - is at the end of July, so by then, I'll have to have it figured out since my hair will be staring to show the roots.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd write about something else. Most people know that I've been selling Avon for the past several years...since 2011, actually. When I first started, I was really trying to sell the stuff, and even grow a sales team, both of which are pretty hard for me because I'm an introvert. Since being back in the DMV, I have pretty much stopped making any effort to sell or recruit, and just enjoy the discount I get from being a rep. Avon is pretty much the only MLM that I'm aware of that actually allows you to do that, and if they ever stop (i.e., require you to stay active in recruiting or sale volume, like Mary Kay for instance does) I'm not sure what I'm going to do because I really do love many of the products. There have been times when every single item I'm wearing, including my underwear, has been from Avon. And since 2011, I have worn almost exclusively Avon makeup and perfume, with occasional exceptions (because I do have a Sephora membership).

However, last month I decided to branch out a bit and join Ipsy, and I recently got my first bag. For $10 a month, Ipsy will send you a cute makeup bag with five more or less full size products in it. I say "more or less", but to clarify: the products are what I would consider full size, but they are sometimes packaged as samples or one-offs. That said, I have no complaints (so far) about the size or the packaging; the bag itself is a little smaller than I expected but it's WAY cute. What I got this month was a blush, an eye shadow, an eyeliner, a double-ended eyeshadow crease/smudge brush, and a face mask. So far I've used everything but the mask (which I will probably use this evening), and I'm very, very happy with all of it. I don't think a single item, with the possible exception of the mask, would retail for less than $10, so I'm amazed and happy at the quality.

What I was sent in the June bag was:

- Urban Decay eyeshadow in "Lounge", which billed itself as a "road test" on the packaging
- Elizabeth Mott Show Me Your Cheeks blush in "Peach Pink"
- Vasanti Cosmetics Kajal eyeliner (black)
- BioRepublic SkinCare Fiber Mask Set (relaxing type)
- Royal & Langnickel MODA Crease/Smudge Brush (in a fetching teal color)

The blush, eyeliner, and brush are all great quality and are now part of my everyday routine, but I just have to gush about the eye shadow. I've often been tempted by Urban Decay when I'm at Sephora (which I go to at least once a year to pick up my birthday present in person, and more often if I can), but because I sell eye makeup myself, and because I've always been a little afraid to use their very bold shades, I've never bought it. However, recently, I read an article about the type of eyes I have and how best to style them; I have large, wide, but slightly protruding eyes, and apparently the best way to both accentuate their size and make them look deeper set is to use a darker or bolder shade on the lid, instead of a light or medium shade as I'd been doing. I don't have a lot of darker shades currently, so Urban Decay's Lounge, which changes depending on the light between deep emerald and deep ruby, was utterly perfect. I don't think my eyes have ever looked more amazing, and I have really pretty eyes, so that's saying something. The eye shadow was (like all the other items) a full size product, but of all the eye shadows I currently own, I'm going to be the saddest when I'm out of it, so I'm hoping it's something that's going to be part of Urban Decay's regular lineup so I can get it at Sephora.

At any rate, I have to say that the Ipsy Glam Bag is a definite win, and it's a subscription I'm going to keep. If you'd like to try it yourself, click my link above to get a referral. And if you have any questions, just ask.

a hairy situation

Since I'm sitting here "cooking" my hair (activating some LUSH henna), I thought I would update on the hair situation. I still prefer no-poo to anything else I've done with my hair in the past couple of decades, so yay! But I do have to say that I am less than happy about my latest experiment, which was to wash it with honey only. Now, I will preface this by saying that I don't use "raw" materials to wash/rinse my hair. The whole point for me, along with more healthy hair/scalp, is to save money and time, and running around looking for, and paying for, raw/organic materials, i.e. NOT something I can just easily grab in the supermarket, violates that idea. I was never hugely into specialty products in the first place, perhaps because I'm allergic to so much anyway, so I'm not going to start now. So I just use "regular" honey and ACV, and frankly, I don't think that should be a problem.

All this is to say, I don't think I'm allergic to "additives" in the honey, but I found that after using honey only, my scalp reacted negatively, by flaking up quite a lot. So this week, I've eschewed honey entirely, using only BS/ACV, and it seems a little better, but it's probably going to take a while. Like I said, I sincerely doubt that it's "additives" that were the issue; my feeling, based on experience and seeing other people post about honey being drying sometimes, is that it's just not something that's right for me. Pity, because I love how my hair itself felt. But it's not like my hair hates baking soda (as long as I only use it once a week), so I'll be sticking with that for now. Once my scalp calms down - probably in the next couple of weeks - I'll go back to putting a squirt of honey in my ACV.

Today is henna day. I sometimes consider, instead of using henna in my hair (which is a pain in the ass and which I need to use shampoo to wash out, since I use stuff that's mixed with hard-to-get-out ingredients), just letting my hair go gray and then dyeing it with (say) subtle pastel colors. I'd probably have to cut it a bit short (temporarily) to do that, because my hair, rather than being the bright red of pure henna, also has a lot of indigo in it and so is very dark in some parts. I did, back in 2009, go completely gray for a while, but I ended up going back to coloring my hair because I was tired of people treating me as if I was in my 60s, when at the time, I was only in my 40s. It's a little different now that I actually have an AARP card and therefore am eligible for "senior" discounts in some places. But that said, I don't think I like how I look with gray hair. It's not like the hot young thangs these days who dye their hair silver. Hell...even when I was a young thang, I don't think I looked good with the (natural) gray hair I've had since (literally) my 20s.

And the henna DOES look good. It's not like using most commercial dyes that leave your hair all one color uniformly so that it's obvious you've dyed your hair. It's sort of reminiscent of when I used to get my hair done with highlights, back in the days when I lived in LA and had a hairdresser friend who would do it for only the cost of the dyes. And when it's growing out, there isn't an obvious line of demarcation like there tends to be with most commercial dyes - again, it does it in streaks, so that it's not as obvious that I color my hair (until I recolor it, that is, and the gray all goes away for a while). Soooo I'm really ambivalent about the whole thing. Continuing to use the henna goes against my whole "convenience and low expense" deal I've got going on by going no-poo, but at the same time, I don't know if I'm ready to try again to take the plunge back into gray.

And actually, as I said, even if I did stop using the henna, I'd probably do SOMETHING to tint my hair anyway. So really, it's not about going gray...it's about ceasing to use something that requires me to shampoo my hair every once in a while, and that is messy, inconvenient, and expensive. And aside from the "expensive", I am not sure that I really have too many options.