Hit or Miss?: Leggings as Pants

Along with the resurgence of 80's fashion last year came the re-birth of leggings. Leggings look cute under shirts or dresses that would look whore-ish without them, so thank goodness for that. However, is it a fashion offense to wear those leggings without a shirt to cover your booty?

The answer is yes! Wearing this trend is officially a fashion felony. At first, I was debating this because I figured that skinny people might be able to get away with wearing this look. However, after seeing people on the street wearing tights as pants I realized that nobody needs to be that exposed. Also, the look just isn't flattering - thick, skinny, medium... just no. Especially not $60 pant-leggings (peggings?). Extra especially not velvet, pleather and sequined ones.

The Verdict?

[Healthy Hair]: Redken Extreme Anti-Snap

Have you finished washing, drying and ironing - basically full-on abusing- your hair to find that the bathroom floor is covered with broken ends? Yeah, it really sucks. It turns out that this kind of breakage is what keeps your hair from growing longer! However, there is hope yet!

Redken Extreme Anti-Snap is the solution to help stave off breakage. This product was recommended to me by a hair consultant at JCPenney salon, so I decided to give it a try. She said it was perfect for dry hair that has split or brittle ends.

Why It Works:

• Helps fortify hair that's prone to breaking, splitting or snapping off
• Gently smoothes the cuticle
• Reduces friction from brushing and helps prevent further damage
• Leaves hair healthy, shiny and resilient

Source

In my experience, I found that this was the perfect leave-in conditioner. I really liked that it was lightweight and didn't make my hair sticky. I hate when a product leaves my hair with residue, making it feel heavy. Anti-Snap was just the opposite. Also, I noticed significantly less breakage. My barometer was my bathroom floor and hairbrush.

I applied Anti-Snap after my normal shampoo and deep conditioner, then proceeded with the "abuse" of blow drying and ironing my hair. I noticed that my hair was softer and my ends were still intact! Also, I really like how Redken products smell. It leaves your hair with that clean, yet not overly fragranced smell.

When I finish my travel bottle, I will definitely be purchasing the full-size bottle. The verdict is... Get It!

The full size, 8.5 oz bottle is available at basically any salon that you go to. It ranges in price from $13.99 to $17.69 or so. It is kinda pricey, but it is worth your hair's health to purchase this product. A way to beat the system is to buy the travel size bottle, available at Ulta for $3.95. It is a non-committal way to see if you really like Anti-Snap before buying the big size. The travel size will last you a while if you use it once a week as a fortifying treatment.

Check out some more reviews at Epinions.

[The Verdict]: Milani Brow Kit

With the economy as bad as it is nowadays, sometimes it's hard to splurge on luxury makeup products that we really don't technically need. Yet, sometimes drugstore makeup just isn't the same no matter how hard you try to squint in the mirror.

I've made it one of the missions of TB to help you out by testing and narrowing down the best products of the drugstore bunch, and also by finding the products that you should splurge on. This way you save both time and money.

The first review is for Milani "Brow Fix" Brow Kit.

As you know from my previous post, I'm an eyebrow maniac! I love to keep my brows looking as fresh as possible at all times. I've always been curious about those "miracle" eyebrow kits, which can supposedly give you spectacular looking eyebrows, like the ones by the guru Anastasia, which can be up to $65! One day, as I was perusing the aisles of my local CVS, I spotted this kit by Milani. Now, I know Milani isn't the best drugstore brand, but this product seemed different. It has the same contents as the more expensive kits but in a tiny pocket-sized version. At only $6.95, it's perfect, right? Maybe not....

The small compact contains 6 items:
A straight edged, steel tweezer, slanted brow brush, brow bone sponge applicator, 1 brow bone highlighter and 2 brow powders (light & dark) to fill & shape brows.

The company describes the product as a "brow grooming-shaping kit that will help you create a perfect set of arches."

With these kinds of claims, I decided to give it a go and try this product. I tried using the tweezer that it comes with, only to find that it was of horrible quality! I had to try to pluck the same eyebrow hair several times - a tell-tale sign that you need a new tweezer. I tried the brow powder and highlighter and my eyebrows looked like Frida Kahlo's, which defeats the whole purpose of even buying such a product!

The powder did not blend well at all. It made me look like I needed a wax! Also, the highlighter didn't do it's job. I had to sigh in annoyance after using this product, because I have to take it right back from whence it came... CVS, here I come... again.

The only pro about the Milani Brow "Fix(?)" Kit is the small packaging. It fits in the palm of my hand and would be PERFECT for a beauty 911 kit, if only the product itself worked.

I will be trying out department store brow kits to see if those are worth the money. I'm willing to bet that they probably are because of the better quality ingredients and formulation.

The verdict for this product?

Skip it.