Garnier Fructis Hydra Recharge BzzCampaign :)

My hair has never really been in great condition. I usually leave it pretty long and it tends to have a lot of flyaways and frizz or a statically charged appearance. I am told it is too dry, it probably does not help that I tend to wear it up a lot; I throw it up into a ponytail or bun almost every evening. And I do color it nowadays. I guess one of the main problems as told to me by the last hairdresser to cut my hair, the quality of my hair is deteriorated because I do not get it trimmed about every other month. I am sorry, but in this economy I cannot afford the now $13 (plus tip) they charge for a hair cut every 2 months when it literally takes them 10 minutes or less to cut my hair! Could it be that she as a hairdresser is just trying to get me to come spend more money there, especially since she also tried to sell me numerous expensive products to help “fix” my hair? UGH. I am sick of trying all these high priced shampoos, conditioners, and treatments that claim they will magically transform my hair into the beautiful, lush, shiny, soft hair they show in their commercials only to find these expensive hair products leave my hair in basically the same condition as the cheap few dollar per bottle stuff!

Garnier Olia haircolor BzzCampaign

I have always had fairly fine hair. I usually keep it pretty long (or at least I did when I was younger…not quite as long now that I am getting older haha). When dyeing my hair, I also usually stayed in my natural blonde color (which nowadays as I am getting older is much darker too…*sigh*). About 6 months ago I was ready for a more dramatic change and I decided to go with a light auburn, but was not very happy with the results. Then in February I was given the opportunity by BzzAgent to try new Garnier Olia oil powered permanent haircolor and I was so excited to be able to give my new look another try! A couple of days after I found out my BzzKit was with my coupon to redeem for the dye for free, I got a good 4 or so inches of my hair cut off so I was right below shoulder length and had nice fresh ends.

There are 24 colors to choose from, but only a few of them were reds. I was looking at the more violet one (sorry, I don’t remember the actual name of the color) but my husband convinced me to go with 4.60 Deep Intense Auburn. I was very pleased with the smell, they use a 60% oil blend with natural flower oils and it contains no ammonia, so it smelled much better than normal hair dye. It was also very easy to apply to my hair, which I loved. The bottle they give you to mix it up in was very cute, but not very user friendly since the shape made it somewhat hard to hold when you have some dye on your glove and it gets slippery. Then it came to rinsing my hair...and rinsing my hair…and rinsing my hair! It felt like 20 minutes went by and it looked like I had murdered someone in my tub, but the water was STILL not rinsing clear! But it was close enough for me, I had no more time. I would come to find out it would rinse out visibly like that for at least my next couple weeks worth of showers. I did like that it didn’t leave my hair feeling all dried out either like some hair dyes do.

I LOVED the color, as did everyone who saw me the first week or two, but then after is when it was very visibly washing out, at least at the bottom anyway. The top part of my hair seemed to maintain more of the color, maybe because it was newer hair, but I didn’t think it should fade like that regardless. And it wasn’t anything I did since my best friend was also given the opportunity to try this (I did mine before hers though) and she seemed to have similar experiences at least with the way it was visibly washing out in the shower and leaving her towels looking like mine did. Apparently I also did not have quite enough dye since I missed some spots towards the top of my head in the back. My husband had checked for me and thought I had it all covered, but I guess I did not.

I try to take good care of my hair so I know I shouldn’t dye my hair again since it hasn’t been quite 8 weeks, so I am left with somewhat strange looking hair unfortunately. I don’t mind, I am married already haha. And I still love a lot of Garnier products, like my Fructis sleek and shine 5-in-1 serum spray for maintaining my flyaways. And I have also been using the new Hydra Recharge shampoo, conditioner, and treatment that I received to try from BzzAgent…but that is for yet another blog *wink*.

The day after coloring:

Just over 5 weeks later:

Mmmmm Nescafe Memento!

Yes this is yet another blog dedicated to a free product that I received to try from BzzAgent. This one is for frothy deliciousness known as Nescafe Memento. I was so excited to get this one since I had just received a Keurig coffee brewer for Christmas, and although these are not K-cups, the Keurig brews perfect hot water that can be used to make these in very little time. Here was my review of them for BzzAgent:

There are many great things about Nescafe Memento. I love how the servings are individually portioned out already, which makes it so quick and easy to make. Also each one is so foamy, just like an expensive coffee house coffee. Plus they are made with real coffee, sugar, and milk. It was the perfect way to warm up on winter days, but I like to have this type of drink just about everyday after work to help unwind too. I enjoyed all 3 and will definitely be purchasing more. Each box contains 8 packets, and each packet is 100 calories. This is my thoughts on the individual flavors:

Cappuccino- The first time I tried this I didn’t like it very much; it isn’t very sweet, it’s more like regular coffee. But as I drank it more it grew on me, it just has a deeper flavor than I am used to I guess. This is my least favorite flavor of the 3, but still good overall.

Mocha- a great chocolatey flavor.

Carmel Latte- delicious, by far my favorite one! I love the flavor; such a light, creamy carmel.

So if you are like me and enjoy specialty coffees on a daily basis, do yourself the favor of saving some time and money, and buy some Nescafe Memento to make for yourself at home!