Tag Archives: hair

beauty, the.B.Law

Formulate

I got the opportunity to try Formulate, a company that makes shampoos and conditioners unique for your personal hair needs and goals, and to be honest I was a little hesitant at first. My sister does my hair, so for the past I don’t even know how many years, I have been using the products from her salon to help keep my color, hydration, all of that. Trying something new was scary to me, but I decided to give it a shot (check out my Formulate highlight on my Instagram here!)

You start this journey off with a quiz. All simple questions pertaining to your hair and your goals. These answers will determine your specific formula. My hair goals I expressed were color protection (obviously), mend split ends because I style my hair a lot, lengthen, and strengthen. The quiz didn’t take long at all, I was even surprised I got to pick my preferred fragrance and even the strength of it! I loved that because I am picky with scents so obviously I went with the more floral smell, called Verdant which smells like grass, lilies, and eucalyptus, and OBVIOUSLY I wanted it strong. 

That was it! I filled out my quiz and information and the next step was to wait for my personal shampoo and conditoner to be shipped. They didn’t take very long and I was surprised at the size of the bottles for the fact that they were full size AND came with pumps! I loved that. The first thing I did was open them and smell them, OH MY GOSH they smelled amazing! 

After the first time I gave them a try my hair felt different, which I was warned of. I was advised due to the fact that they were sulfate free (also paraben free, cruelty-free, and made in the USA, just an FYI) my hair might seem greasy super fast. My hair did feel softer for sure, but a tad oily. After the first day I was already dry shampooing for work. The other thing I noticed was my scalp looked a little dry. 

I assumed I would need some getting used to so a couple days later I used it again. Before my hair was even dry I could see the dryness of my scalp. It was getting so bad and flakey I immediately emailed my contact at Formulate. I remembered them saying that sometimes formulas need to be adjusted a few times to fine tune them and get them right. They were so nice, I told them my issues of the dryness and they immediately put in for a new formal. 

About a week or so after I received my new batch and tried it again. My formal now had the goal “Deep Conditioning” added. Even after the first use of the new formula things seemed better. I was worried if they added ingredients to moisturize my scalp that is was going to make the rest of my hair oily. I was still a little oily after the first new wash, but with each coming wash my hair felt better and better. Not to mention you can smell the amazing scent even the day after washing it! 

I am loving how my hair is feeling and looking after using Formulate. It is shinier, less frizzy, I can actually brush it wet without it being super tangly, and let me tell you, I can usually NEVER do that! It also did not strip my color at all, which I (and my sister) were very happy about. I can safely say all my reserves about trying this new shampoo and conditioner are gone. I felt very taken care of when Formulate immediately helped me to get the right formula when the one I had wasn’t working. They didn’t make any excuses like try it again and see what happens, I could tell they wanted to get it right. They were also SO NICE! I loved working with them. I took before and after photos of my hair. I know the difference may not look huge in the photo but you can still see it. The difference is totally in person and to the touch, it is just sooo soft all the time! The below or during a two month period which includes both my formulas:

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Before! (my 6 year old niece totally took this for me, she is the cutest!)

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After!

Now for something fun! I get the chance to give away one free custom set from Formulate! Click on the link below to enter, I promise you won’t be sorry. How cool is it to know that a haircare system is being formulated just for your hair?! We are all unique so sometimes we need unique products just for us! Enter below 🙂

https://www.formulate.co/u/theblaw

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beauty, Style Panel, the.B.Law

Introducing the.B.Law Style Panel: Nicole!

Next up on the.B.Law Style Panel I would like to introduce Nicole! Her job on the panel is unique from the others because she is my beauty expert! Nicole is the best hair and makeup doer I know, and I am not just biased because she is my older sister! She truly does great work, I ALWAYS get compliments on my hair color. What is also so great about her work is that you can tell how passionate she is. It is so easy to see that she loves what she does and wants you to love the outcome of her work. A little background, I have known Nicole my entire life, that is all. HA! Just kidding, she is my big sissy and I love her. We are only a year and a half apart so you can bet we used to fight and bicker like no other, but she is one of my best friends and I would be lost without her.


I am so excited for her to be a part of the panel, not just for you readers but for myself! I know only the basics of hair and makeup so I will be learning just as much as you will be! I totally want to get her into doing tutorials and all of that stuff. AWW! Sorry I am just so excited about this. Check her out!

  • Describe your personal style in 3-5 words: Basic, dark, boho
  • Your go to outfit/piece of clothing: Black leggings, flowy black top, and booties
  • Favorite place to shop: Target, G-Stage, and small boutiques
  • Favorite shoe brand: Steve Madden, New Balance, and Free People
  • Favorite current trend: Half up hair with a top knot
  • Style preference: Dressy
  • Where do you get most of your style inspiration: Instagram, Pinterest, and my sister
  • One piece of makeup you cannot live without: Anatasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow
  • Connect:

 

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beauty, Favorite Things

Jump For Joy With PLUMP FOR JOY

Okay, so hair is like my thing. It wasn’t always but it is now and has been for awhile. My mom would have never thought this could happened since my hair wouldn’t even hold a curl for an hour when I was little. In high school I discovered that I could actually curl my hair well, and it would stay for more than a day! In college I won’t the “Best Hair Award” in my sorority (I am pretty sure I have mentioned that before so clearly I am a tad proud). I always used an inch and a quarter curling iron, that was until I went to Italy the semester before I graduated and fried my curling iron in a European plug. I was completely lost. Finally, in 2013 I got my secret weapon that I still use today, a pink HerStyler straightener that curls my hair so amazingly that sometimes I can’t even believe it is a straightener.

I have a new favorite thing. Recently I have been really into big hair. The only thing I am good at is curling it, I am not so creative with other things (but I want to learn!). At Target while buying more Not Your Mother’s dry shampoo, because come on, every girl needs a good dry shampoo for those days you just can’t, I saw another Not Your Mother’s product, Plump for Joy – Thickening Hair Lifter. It says for fine, thin hair. Well I have neither so I figured it would probably REALLY work on my hair. It is almost a gel that sprays out. You spray it into your palm, rub your hands together then scrunch into your hair. I prefer to scrunch it in with my hair flipped over forward, then I flip it over when I am done and BOOM! Big hair! It is amazing and looks great! I love that I don’t get that crunchy texture with it. One last awesome thing about this product… the bottle has an open and a close tab so you can throw it in a bag and not worry about leaks! Best. Thing. Ever.

I seriously suggest trying this if you like big volume. Have some fun with it after all, the bigger the hair, the close you are to heaven right?!



I couldn’t find this one online at Target so I linked the actual Not your Mother’s site, you can also buy this at Ulta and I have even bought the dry shampoo at Vons!              Not Your Mother’s Plump for Joy Thickening Hair Lifter 

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Favorite Things

My Favorite Things #3

Today I wanted to share two of my favorite hair products! So I have a lot of hair. It’s pretty long and it’s thick and there is just a lot of it and it’s always everywhere. My sister is a hairstylist so of course I’m always getting my hair done and different. I’ve been dark brown, blonde, red, brown again, blonde again, now red again, it’s an endless cycle of change but I love it. Bleach though, seriously dries out your hair. When I was blonde and even awhile after I was no longer blonde, I couldn’t brush my hair when it was wet. It would just break off in my brush and was SUPER tangly. One day my stepmom came home from the salon my sister works out and handed me a brush she got me. It’s called the Wet Brush. It looked like a pretty standard brush but she said its supposed to work really well with wet hair. Well that night after washing my hair I tried it. It was like MAGIC. It went through my hair like nothing! No hair broke off and no tangles! I was so amazed. How does this thing work?! Well it has special flexible bristles that just go through your hair without pulling it. I’ve been using it for three years and can’t even use a regular brush now. I tried and it hurt. There really is a difference. I finally just bought a new one and it’s PINK! If you have trouble with detangling your hair I HIGHLY recommend this brush! I refuse to use any other brush now. It’s also great for kids! My sister uses it on my niece and there are no tears! I got my new one at Target and it was only $8.99!

  
My second hair favorite is Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak Refreshing Dry Shampoo. Come on girls, who doesn’t love dry shampoo? There is usually one day a week that I just dry shampoo my entire head. Sometimes you just don’t want to wash your hair and mine takes forever to dry so if it’s late and I haven’t washed it yet, then I’ll just dry shampoo the next day. The last dry shampoo I tried started off good but within a couple hours my hair just looked greasy again, and by the end of the day it looked really bad. The next time I tried this one and it worked great and it smelled so good! It totally lasted all day, even when I had to use it on my entire head. You can get the Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak Refreshing Dry Shampoo at most stores. I got mine at Target this last time but before that I even bought it at Vons! The best part is that it’s only $4.79!

  
Shop both of these products at Target here!

 

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the.B.Law

New Year, New Blog, New Resolutions

Happy New Year! 

Welcome to 2016! I hope you all had a fun and safe end to 2015 and are ready to start the new year off right. I know I am. I have recently been really looking forward to this new year, and what got me excited was when I was thinking about what I wanted my new year’s resolutions to be, and yes plural because I have a few!

First off, if you didn’t notice, this is the first post on my revamped blog, this is the first post on the.B.Law!

I have been impatiently waiting for this change and I am so excited. Which brings me to my first resolution: writing. I want to be more motivated and proactive with my writing, and not just on my blog. In November I participated in National Novel Writing Month, where you are supposed to write 50,000 words in a month, well I didn’t hit the goal but it was something I didn’t expect to hit, however it got me writing everyday. Now I have a good start to a novel and I am going to finish it. So my writing resolution is to finish my novel and start editing it, and to have a schedule for all of my blog posts to hold me accountable for posting. I have a cute new agenda ready to take on this task. I also want to put more time into it, no rushing on posts or pictures, I am getting down to business this year!

My second resolution is reading. I have been slacking at reading lately. I picked up a book I had been meaning to finish and was pulled right back into the words and the story. Getting sucked into a book is so different than getting sucked into the TV, it is like being in another world, and just for a little bit you get to escape into someone else’s story. I love it! My goal for the year, don’t judge if this seems small to you, is to read a minimum of six books for the year. Yes, I know six is not that many, but I figured that is one every two months because seriously, you can set your goal high with high hopes and then life gets in the way and you can’t reach it. Six books is a goal I know I can reach and it is a minimum. Reading also helps me write, it gives inspiration, new ideas, and new words. My dance coach in high school always told us that reading increases your vocabulary and she was right!

Another resolution that goes along with reading is reading the Bible. I want to read the entire thing but let’s face it, it’s not easy to read, it’s long, and the temptation to read other books is strong. This resolution is not just mine though. My two sisters and I all got journaling Bibles and there is a one year plan in the back. We are going to do the one year plan together and we get to do the journaling in the wide margins to make it unique and fun. I’m really excited for this.

This resolution may seem silly but I like it, my hair. I ALWAYS curl it and leave it down. It looks good but it is always the same. This year I want to practice and learn how to do new things to my hair, to be more creative and to not give up when I can’t figure out something as simple as a french braid (still trying that one)!

Lastly I have the usual, every person, every year resolution: eating healthy and working out. I have already been easing into this. My biggest problem is giving into myself when I want something sweet. I have a HUGE sweet tooth. My other big problem is soda. I know it is so bad for you but I just love a nice cold coke. Cutting it out completely seems to never last so I will definitely be cutting down. I am also going back to no gluten. I did an experiment where I didn’t eat gluten for two months and I didn’t get one migraine! For those of you who know me know that is a miracle. I usually get AT LEAST one migraine a week. Not eating gluten is no easy task, I just love bread, but if I did it then I can do it again, so from now on NO BREAD! Excuse me while I cry in the corner. As for working out, I feel like I have a motivation I haven’t had in past years. I think because now that I work a desk job and am not managing a retail store I am getting a tad squishy in places that have never been squishy. So this girl will be getting a new pair of Nikes and getting her butt in gear!

Anyways, sorry for the long post but I am so excited for everything to come! Have a great New Year’s weekend and welcome to the.B.Law! 

  

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Style

Baya is for Balayage

I have never been able to keep a hair color for very long. This may be because my sister is an amazing hair dresser and not only does my hair, but all of my family and literally all of my friends’ hair. I have been a brunette, a blonde, then brunette again, then several different shades of red, to a copper red ombré, and now to the new… a balayage, or what my girls and I call it, a baya. The balayage style is getting pretty popular and I was the first one my sister had tried it on. It was such a success that now all of my friends are getting it. The difference between a balayage and an ombré is more the technique. The way it is done creates a softer look with more blended lines. 



What I love about this style is that it is helping me slowly go lighter towards the summer. It is a subtle change and she adds more blonde to it every other time I come in, so about every three months. A toner is applied each time to blend it all, but even when that starts to fade after quite a few washes the color still looks amazing. The fading toner reveals more lightened pieces which helps with the gradual process of going lighter. This way I don’t come out of the salon and it’s like whoa your hair is light! 



I have gotten so many compliments on my hair with a balayage. My hair has so much definition now that it looks amazing when it is down and curled. The curls reveal every different shade in my hair. Today was a bleach day and we went a little lighter. Perfect to welcome in Spring next week!



Check out this amazing artist and see her work here: Beauty by Nicole Breanne or @BeautyByNicoleBreanne on Instagram 



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Tragic events, tragic girls

BaBangs

How often do girls decide that they need a change after something happens in their lives and they go straight for their hair? I am guilty of this on more than one occasion. Us girls have such a connection with our hair, it’s part of our identity and a way to express ourselves. That’s why when we need a change we go straight for the hair because it changes our whole appearance. It makes us feel better when we drastically change our hair as if we are a completely different person and we feel beautiful again.
A perfect example of a hard time when we feel the need for change is after a breakup. We want to feel new again like we were never with the guy or that we are better off without him and that he doesn’t deserve us. This is where I am guilty. After my first big breakup I dyed my hair dark brown. It completely changed how I looked and I felt good. After my next breakup I wanted to completely forget about the guy so bad that I thought looking different would help, yet again, so I decided to dye my hair more red and get bangs and not just any bangs, I got straight across bangs. Ten months later and I am still suffering from that decision.
Let me just tell you, bangs are never a good idea. But no, noo my sister who is my hairdresser didn’t try to talk me out of it. I said, “I want bangs,” and she said, “Bang is something you do, you want fringe,” and sat me down and cut my hair. Of course I loved them at first, but then I decided I was going to grow them out and that’s where it starts. The struggle of having hair in your face all the time. When they first start to grow out they go straight into your eyes and you feel like you’re being stabbed by tiny needles. You can’t look cute anywhere there is wind and pinning them up makes you look like a child. One of the worst parts though is trying to wash your face. You always have to make sure that you have a headband and of course you can never find one.
Now that it has been ten months they have grown quite a bit. But now I ask the question, how long do bangs have to be to not be considered bangs anymore? Mine are at the awkward chin length so you can still see them. When you do nothing with them they just follow the line of your jaw in a weird curve. Then When you want them out of your face the only way they fit in your ponytail is to have a high, cheerleader ponytail and then they stick out the top of your rubber band like a cockatoo. While sporting the cockatoo you can feel people staring at it while you talk to them.
Again I stress that bangs are never a good idea. My roomie was feeling a change the other day and told me she was thinking about bangs. I practically shouted no at her. Friends don’t let friends get bangs, or to be more correct, friends don’t let friends get fringe. Friends letting friends get “bangs” is a whole other story.

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