Product showdown

This product showdown is slightly different, because this time I'm not trying to determine which product I already own that I will buy again. This time, I've bought two tiny sized products and will see which one I will get in full size.

L'Anza Healing moisture Moi Moi hair masque
L'Anza Healing moisture Kuikui nut conditioner

First impressions

L'Anza Healing moisture Moi Moi hair masque
The little bottle itself smells vaguely and deliciously coconutty.

L'Anza Healing moisture Kuikui nut conditioner
This bottle also smells sweet and good.

Effect

L'Anza Healing moisture Moi Moi hair masque
First, I want to extend a complaint: This conditioner is seriously slippery! It made it impossible to work the tiny little bottle and squeeze it dry. I actually had to rinse my hands and the bottle clean, then empty it carefully into my palm while avoiding getting any conditioner on the other hand. It was surprisingly awkward!

L'Anza Healing moisture Kuikui nut conditioner
Same complaint about the slipperiness of the conditioner here! Although this time I was prepared and emptied it in one go, in the same awkward fashion as I did with the Moi Moi one.

Ingredient analysis

L'Anza Healing moisture Moi Moi hair masque

Water (Aqua/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycereth-26, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycol Distearate, Silicone Quaternium-3, Polyether-1, Dimethicone PEG-8 Benzoate, Keratin Amino Acids, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil,  Aleurites Moluccana (Kukui) Seed Oil, Macadamia Ternifolia (Macadamia Nut) Seed Oil, Calophyllum Inophyllum (Tahitian Tamanu Oil), Gardenia Tahitensis Flower, Cereus Grandiflorus (Cactus) Flower Extract, Ceramide-2, Glycerin, Dimethiconol Meadowfoamate, Dimethicone PEG-8 Meadowfoamate, Sodium PCA, Magnesium PCA, Zinc PCA, Manganese PCA, Sodium Hyaluronate (Hyaluronic Acid), Tocopheryl Acetate, Glycine, Alanine, Creatine, Saccharide Hydrolysate, Magnesium Aspartate, Dimethicone, Cetrimonium Chloride, Steartrimonium Chloride,  PEG-4-Ceteth-20, Dipropylene Glycol, Propylene Glycol, Trideceth-12,  Urea, BHT, Mannitol, Cellulose, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Caprylyl Glycol, Isopentyldiol, Phenoxyethanol,  Fragrance (Parfum), Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Coumarin, Limonene, Linalool, Chromium Hydroxide Green (CI 77289), Blue 1 (CI 42090), Yellow 5 (CI 19140)

Okay, here is something interesting: This little "sample size" conditioner has a different ingredient list than what I find on the full sized products online?

For this one, it was a lot of the same ingredients, just a different order of them.

This makes this product showdown a little odd, because I intended to buy the full sized conditioner of my favourite, but since the ingredient list for those are different, then...???

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Water (Aqua/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycereth-26, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycol Distearate

Based on the first five ingredients on the list

Interesting ingredients

• 
  

22 ingredients in total

2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 9 %
1 marked as a "5" for acne-trigger. 4 %

1 marked as a "1" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

15 marked as "green" for safety. 68 %

5 marked as "yellow" for safety. 22 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

L'Anza Healing moisture Kuikui nut conditioner
Water/Eau (Aqua), Glycerin, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Trimethylsiloxyamodimethicone, Keratin Amino Acids, Aleurites Moluccana Seed Oil (Hawaiian Kukui Nut),  Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil (Hawaiian Macadamia Nut), Saccharum Officinarum (Hawaiian Sugar Cane) Extract, Hydrolyzed Algin (Sea Kelp), Sodium Hyaluronate (Hyaluronic Acid), Dimethicone PEG-8, Meadowfoamate, Sodium PCA, Magnesium PCA, Zinc PCA, Manganese PCA, Tocopheryl Acetate, Polyquaternium-71, C11-15 Pareth-7, C12-16 Pareth-9, Dimethicone, Cetrimonium Chloride, Steartrimonium Chloride, Trideceth-12, Sodium Benzotriazolyl Butylphenol Sulfonate, Buteth-3, Propylene Glycol, Tributyl Citrate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Sodium Hydroxide, Polyether-1, BHT, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Fragrance (Parfum), Butylphenyl Methylpropional (Lilial), Limonene, Linalool.

This one also has a different ingredient list than what I find on the full sized products. Odd.
Where the Moi Moi conditioner had a lot of the same ingredients just in a different order, this one was very different from the full size ingredients list I found online: The full sizes have more silicone and qauterniums, and the small size is missing featured ingredients like Tahitian Sea Water and Chlorella Vulgaris Extract. It's no loss for the defect to be missing Tahitian sea water (But... why? What benefit could this possibly have?) or sea kelp extracts, but it is a little odd to pick that out of the ingredient list.

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Water/Eau (Aqua), Glycerin, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane

Based on the first five ingredients on the list,

Interesting ingredients

• 
  

27 ingredients in total

1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 4 % 

2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 7 %

1 marked as a "5" for acne-trigger. 4 %

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

17 marked as "green" for safety. 62 %

6 marked as "yellow" for safety. 22 %

1 marked as "red" for safety. 4 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

Lady Igor says

Throwback Thursday

For a long while, while my hair was short (Well, that's subjective I guess), the double braid was the best and only way to secure my hair at night.
it's still one of the most comfortable ways to contain my hair, but at it's current length I need to put it up in some sort of bun for work and cooking.

The AKCWoodworking sticks are here

These sticks are really smooth and hair friendly!

I like the fun and quirky topper-designs and how the length of the stick is the perfect kind of pointy, yet rounded. Not the last order I will place at AKCWoodworking for sure.
Looking forward to try them!

(Thanks to PostNords totally weird, inconvenient and uneven service, the Quattro's that I ordered the day before probably won't be here for at least another week or so. Hmpf.)

That new-hairstick-love

I love the new WoodArtJewelry stick!
It's so smooth and pretty.
The curve follows my skull while still having room for the updo around the edges for it, so nothing gets pulled or pinched. So comfortable! More hairsticks should copy its shape...

Investigating that "velcro" effect...

I wanted to do a mini CO scalp wash today since I had a small amount of flakeys where my part had been yesterday. I had a bit left in the Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner and decided to use that up. 

Even though I was careful to not leave it on for too long (Spoiler: I did not like this conditioner when I used it last time!) and just needed it as a "base" for a quick scritching to get rid of the flakes, I still got that "pissy hair" effect from it.

My hair also absolutely hated the Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner from the same line, and Lovea Conditioner Shea butter conditioner.

Time to compare ingredients and see if I can find a culprit...

Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner

Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner

Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Stearalkonium Chloride, Arganisa Spinosa (argan) kernel oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Lovea Conditioner Shea Butter

Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

The Inecto's of course has a lot of repeat ingredients, but Lovea has a few as well:

Inecto super moisturising coconut conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Inecto marvelous moisture argan conditioner
Aqua (Water/Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Stearalkonium Chloride, Arganisa Spinosa (argan) kernel oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Stearyl alcohol, Isopropyl alcohol, Sodium benzoate, Citric Acid.

Lovea Conditioner Shea Butter
Aqua (Water), Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), Methyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Ceteareth-20, Bht, Magnesium Nitrate, Pantolactone, Ci 19140, Ci 15985, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Methylisothiazolinone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

• Cetearyl Alcohol and Cetyl Alcohol are both oil soluble fatty alcohols that are used as surfactants. So, in the same family, but slightly different. 

• Cetrimonium Chloride is a preservative, nonionic surfactant and antistatic according to COSDNA. It is used to prevent static and build-up in the hair. It is present high up on the list in all three products. 

• Since I have coarse hair, I'm suspicious of the oils/butters in all three products. Especcially since they are so high on the list. Coincidence? Or a trend?

Cetrimonium Chloride seems like the obvious culprit according to this: It's the only repeat ingredient in all three products, and very high up on all lists. Actual ingredient #2 and #3 in the conditioners.

But here is the problem: It's also on the ingredient lists for products I like, such as:
Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner. Pretty far down the list, but still there.
L'Oreal Elvital anti-breakage. Again, pretty far down the list.

And really high up on the list (Actual ingredient #1!) on two of my favorite leave in-conditioners: L'ANZA Keratin Bond protector and conditioner.

So now I feel like I'm back to square one. 

Maybe the problem is in an ingredient-family, and not in a single ingredient, such as the cetearyl alcohol and cetyl alcohol. There could be more examples like this on the ingredient lists, but I don't know enough to recognize it unless they have almost the same names. It could also be the oils/butters. 

I guess there is nothing to do but keep watching for products that has that weird effect, and keep comparing ingredient lists for them? 

That was fast!

The bone hair stick from WoodArtJewelry got here. That was fast!

I really love the organic forms and the pretty materials. It looks like it could hug the back of my head really well. I will have to wear it and see if my bun will "flip" the stick around like it has a tendency to do with my Quattro's which always end up turned wrong.

I asked my dad (Who has an education as professional hunter) how to care for the bone part. He says any colourless, pH neutral oil, preferably something thin and runny will do. He then suggested trying a sewing machine oil (!) for it. That was definitely something I would never have thought of...

That brings back memories...

The snailcast did a podcast on the evolution of selfcare. I actually like the topic and agree with a lot of the points they made. It seems like selfcare devolved into "whatever people decide it means" instead of a constructive thing to do to help yourself dealing with pressure. Some "selfcare" seems to be quite destructive actually.
Some selfcare is still true to the meaning of the word though: I like this month challenge here.

However, in the beginning of the episode they talk about how Chel from Holy Snails shaved her head. It brought back a lot of memories and was really fun to listen to for me.

Episode 32: The evolution of self-care

I could have listened to a whole podcast on this!
The only thing that bothered me with it, was that she/they at no point talk about experiencing bad reactions to this. But I guess it was too new at that point to have encountered any people with opinions being jerks about something that in no way affect them.

Personally, I really enjoyed having my head shaved, as short as it lasted. It was a fun, but strange and memorable experience. Sort of having tried bungee-jump or something, I guess? Something that I'm happy I have tried, but will never do again.

I did learn a lot about people though. People can be complete and total bastards about something that in no way affects them or have anything to do with them.

Story time

But first a slight detour and some explanation for the story:

I've written about this a lot on my blog before. I have super sensitive skin that takes a lot of careful planning and care to maintain. It sucks now and it sucked worse when I was younger. It has gotten a lot better since I discovered Korean skincare back in 2014, but it will probably never be pretty and flawless. Just ten years ago, it seemed like the western market only had three skintypes: "Normal", "combination" and "trouble skin". Well, I didn't have normal skin, or combination skin, so I would have to have trouble skin, right? And it was troublesome, so it's logical to assume it. So spent most of my skincare time trying to exfoliate and dry out my skin to fix it, based on what I believed was right. Of course I only made it worse.

I learned how people can be absolute and total assholes based on what your skin looks like: The immediate assumption is that you're unhygienic, lazy, possibly stupid and dirty. People will more or less insult you, and then immediately recommend their own products even if they have an opposite skin type from you. All people believe they are good, but most are really horrible, shallow and well, sometimes just plain evil.

Now on to the story itself:

When I moved away from home to go to uni, I made a really good friend. We lived in opposite dorm buildings and pretty much spent all day together every day. She was a big girl. Like, really big. We bonded over how people can be assholes based on your appearance. True story!

Instead of gaining "The freshman 15", she actually lost weight. First unintentionally, I guess because she was removed from mom and dads cooking and had less money for snacks. But as soon as she noticed the weight loss, she started working on eating better and even started exercising. 

She unloaded to me how awful it made her feel that people now treated her differently from before. Suddenly she wasn't that fun, fat one in any group. 

I felt for her. It's a horrible lesson in human shallowness and horribleness.

We bonded further on this. I have noticed the same reaction when I wear makeup or not.

Then I shaved my head.

Something that in no way affected anyone else. And yet a lot of people were awfully rude about it. I learned a lot about so-called "friends" and their true colours.

But my best friend at the time? The one I thought would be the one who would really understand that my change in appearance had nothing to do with her, and I could use someone to unload on when people reacted "funny" to it?

She was embarrassed to be seen with me.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The one friend I thought would understand what I was going through, was being the worst of them all. 

It really hurt.

People are awful.

I don't regret shaving my head. It was a fun experience and it thought me a lot about people. If I could go back, I would do it again.

Today's hair

The weather is great and I have a day off, so I felt like doing something a little more playful with my hair

Hubby and I spent the day in the park, having lunch out and just generally doing nothing out in the sun. Wonderful day!

Souvenirs...

...Or something. 

I really like bringing things like conditioners home from our travels. Not only is it fun to try something I can't find at home, it also brings back memories when I use them.

Looking forward to trying this Garnier masque some time.

I also found a volcanic mud mask. I've tried lots of those from Korea, and I always thought "M-hm, yea, sure" at their claims on containing real volcanic ash. But having been on Tenerife and seen how you could literally just scoop some volcano off the ground in certain areas, yea, I understand it now!

More Etsy purchases

Poking around at Etsy yesterday made my credit card itch, so now I have some more tools on my way...

Bone hair stick from WoodArtJewelry. I have one of their sticks already and absolutely love it!
I love how the beauty of their sticks is in the materials and the organic, flowing shapes.

From AKCWoodworking I got a whole list...

Hair Stick - Scissors in Maple Wood

Hair Stick - Wizard's Staff Hair Toy in Bloodwood Extended 6 inch Length
This one is seriously pretty with the wood and carvings! I will wear this next time we play board games of the RPG type...

Hair Stick - Starfleet Science Insignia in Ebonized Oak
Looks like I got the last one in ebonized oak. They have some in other woods, but this one should look really good with my red tones.

Hair Stick - Starfleet Command Insignia in Maple
I will wear this one next time I have to boss people around... Heheh.

Hair Stick - Pirate Cutlass with Curved 6 inch Blade in Mahogany Wood

Hair Stick - Fantasy Sword 6 in Maple Wood Extended 6" Length

Hair Stick - Sai in Cherry Wood
I'm a little curious how the sticking-down-parts will work with an updo...

Hair Stick - Fantasy Axe 1 Hair Toy in Solid Ebonized Oak wood
Looks like I got the last one of this one too. Lucky!

Hair Stick - Celtic Knot Hair Toy in Walnut wood

And last, the only fork in the pile...

Mjilnor Hair Fork in Maple Wood