Product Review: Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Hot Rollers

Shown above are the Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Hot Rollers.  I purchased these for around $34 at Target.  I haven't owned a set of these for YEARS. The last ones I ever used were, I believe, for my 5th grade school photo and they were my grandmothers! haha I have tons of curling irons, wands, etc..but I wanted to try to achieve a more voluminous loose look for those days where I am time restricted (and I will tell you why this is great for those on a time constraint in a second).  I seem to have been getting really lucky with the hair tools that I am purchasing lately because I think they are all winners! I have yet to be disappointed, thank goodness :)

What this comes with: 

1. 20 Hot Rollers in 3 different sizes, large, medium and small. 
2. Around 23 Clips
3. The case, obviously! haha

 What I loved about this product: 

• These rollers heat up SUPER fast. I would say about 45 seconds and you are good to go.  There is an indicator on the top of one of the hot rollers that turns clear when they are ready :)
• The fact that there are different sizes. This is great because sometimes you want only the large waves and sometimes you want a tighter look. What I do is I use ALL of them in my whole head but concentrate the different sizes in different areas for the perfect look. 
• I love that there is a tiny spot on the right where 3 clips can be held.  The clips are actually clamped over a hot piece of metal that allows them to heat a little too, this helps generate more heat into your roller as you clamp it into place.
• These clips, unlike the old fashioned metal wire like ones that I used to use, don't hurt your head at all :)
• In just 20 minutes, the time it takes me to shower pretty much, my hair is ready to be let down.  That's pretty amazing considering the beautiful results I achieve. 
• These store nicely in their case. I have seen the ones that come in a bag and whatnot and I definitely prefer this case, it protects all of the equipment and stores nicely underneath my vanity :) Oh and I love that they are pink, are you seeing a trend with the last two hair products I have reviewed ? ;) haha

*Always use a heat protectant on your hair before any type of heat exposure.  I use the It's A 10 Miracle Leave in Product when I have just washed my hair, and on those days where I am using hot rollers on my "day old" hair (which is when I generally use this because it gives your hair SERIOUS va-va voom where it would look pretty dull otherwise), use a regular spray in protectant like Tresemme etc. 

*Another key in achieving the look I am going to show you below is to GENTLY run your hair through the curls after they are let down and cooled etc.  This will soften them :)

*Last but not least, be sure to apply a flexible hairspray LIGHTLY.  Remember you want to achieve natural flowy glamorous hair not stiff overworked locks.

Of course the only picture I had readily available was one I took on my iPhone! The quality isn't that great but hopefully you can catch the gist of how flowy and soft this hair looks.  This is on my next day hair too! Who would have "thunk" it?! :) xox

To remembering to take pics on my digital camera instead of my phone next time,

xox

Drinking To Your Health: My Favorite Tea's and What They're Good For!

 

It's Tea Time! haha Ok, just kidding--but it is time to take a look at how something so readily available to many, such as tea, can make a pretty substantial difference in maintaining your everyday health.  I sometimes think that one has to either be a tea lover OR a coffee lover, perhaps because I have yet to find many people who absolutely love both, but I am sure they are out there.  I, myself, abhor coffee and adore tea :) When I was younger and I was trying to be a "grown up", while my mother enjoyed her morning coffee, I would have her make me some decaffeinated tea, which I would then drown in milk and sweetener because I didn't REALLY like the taste of tea then, but cmon I had to pretend! haha Nowadays, I drink tea for a completely different reason, not only is it a great thing to keep your body warm during the colder months, but with age, I have come to learn that there are many health benefits to drinking certain teas--hot or cold :) Here is what I have found: 

**I do NOT claim to be a "tea-ologist" guys, this is just some basic information about what I personally researched and things that I personally drink :) 

 

Above you are seeing what I use to make my tea. The Kettle is called Kettle Express and by the brand Melita.  I absolutely love this thing! It heats up so quick at the flip of a switch and quickly heated water means you get your tea faster! It is also electrical so no putting anything on the stove etc., just plug it in! :) Below that is what we keep our "fresher" teas in and a few packaged ones as well.  I love this tea case--I can view what specialty teas I have right through the glass pane and also it keeps any air out that may cause the teas to age quicker--something I try and prevent especially with my fresh Chinese Tea's.  

Lets talk health for a moment:

Green Tea Benefits: 

• Studies have shown that those who drink Green Tea on a regular basis have significantly lower risks for developing cancer!
•  Green Tea contains tons of antioxidants which are SO great for your body. 
• The research scientists have done has such great results as far as Green Tea being related to being cancer free, that they are considering using it as part of future cancer therapy!
• Green Tea also lowers your chance of developing high cholesterol, which means that your chances of heart attack and stroke from this are lowered as well!
• Green Tea is proven to lower blood pressure
• Green Tea possesses certain antibacterial properties as well, which causes it to lower your chances of catching certain bacterial viruses--especially the Staph Virus!

White Tea Benefits: 

• Helps prevent stroke by lowering the amount of cholesterol that is allowed to build up in your arteries.  
• Promotes the growth of strong and healthy bones. 
• Helps promote healthy gums and teeth!
• Contains extremely high levels of anti-bacterial and anti-virus agents, which means better health for you!
• White tea is absolutely wonderful for your skin :) 

Black Tea Benefits: 

• Prevents possible clogging of the arteries which can lead to health problems down the road. 
• Although not "proven" yet, certain studies show that elements in black tea prevent the growth of already existent cancers! 
• Black tea is wonderful for killing germs on contact--meaning that when you drink Black Tea, you will most likely be cleaning your mouth out of any possible bacterial/viral germs that are lingering in your mouth that could lead to possible sickness down the line! How great is that?! (Makes me want to brew some right now haha)

I pretty much just wanted to touch base on the three most popular teas, at least in my household anyway.  I didn't want to talk to much on those teas that I don't regularly drink because I wouldn't be able to back anything up that I was writing! haha Below are some of my favorite ways to get my "healthy tea" on :)

Instead of sugar or other artificial sweeteners, I prefer all natural honey--it provides the same sweet taste, just better for you and if you don't like the taste of honey, no worries--neither do I and you don't taste any of it actually :)

 

One of my favorite packaged Green Teas is from this company--Bigelow.  Traditional Medicinals is a brand I just started drinking not too long ago and let me say I am loving it! They are in the organic aisle of my local supermarket and offer teas for ANYTHING--you name it they have a tea for it.  I bought this one because I find that in the colder months, I am ALWAYS getting sick--which means my immune system pretty much stinks. Well let me be completely honest, this is a MIRACLE worker.  It tastes wonderful and helped me through a recent cold I got--I usually get them really bad and instead only felt like I experienced a "hint" of a cold.  I am stocking up on this for sure!

The tea on the bottom is actually a cold canned version of Green Tea.  For the days when its a little warmer or for lunch etc., I drink these.  They are Organic, only lightly sweetened and are SO good for you as they are packed with antioxidants.  They come in a variety of all natural flavors which makes them even more like-able :) I HIGHLY recommend these!

Wishing you all a "TEA"-riffic day! (my corniness for the day haha),

xox

Product Review: Power of Pink Conair Infiniti Curling Wand

I am so excited to review this product for you guys! It is by far my FAVORITE hair product I have purchased all year, and that says a lot.  I originally wanted this a few months ago, but didn't get around to purchasing it so when I saw that during the month of October, Ulta was offering this Limited Edition Breast Cancer Awareness version of the original one (I think it is just the color that is limited edition honestly) I was sure to scoop it up!

This is the curling wand that was featured in my most recent Shop and Tell Breast Cancer Month Feature. Here are a few of the pro's and con's that I found with this hair tool and my final thoughts on it:

Pros: 

• I love the bright pink color, very different than the other lighter pink tones that I was seeing everywhere, adds a nice special "limited edition" touch!
• I love the swivel cord because this assures that you never have any of those messy tangled wires to deal with.  
• I love that you can choose from various different heat settings depending on what temperature you are comfortable with using on your hair type. (I use the hottest one because in my opinion, after a heat protectant, my hair can handle this :)
• The fact that this curling wand heats up in no time is just wonderful as well, who wants to wait forever for their curling iron to heat up after all right?!
• Another small but very helpful feature is a little plastic fastener on the cord. It allows you to secure the folded wire in place for safe and completely fool proof neat storage.

Cons: 

• I find that my hair often slips down the barrel and this is definitely because of the way it is shaped.  I love the shape of the curl I get, but hate that I often have to "re-wrap" my hair around the barrel.  Practice is really the only thing that can assure that you encounter this less often. 

• Another thing that I find happens a few times while I am in the process of curling is that I accidentally power off the curling iron all together! It's quite easy to do being that the button is right in an area where you are placing a good grip while curling.  It is easy to just switch it back on and because of the lightening fast heat up time, isn't REALLY a huge problem, but kind of annoying to say the least.  

** This comes with a glove to prevent you from burning the two fingers that get the closest to the iron while actually curling. Honestly, I need to separate the sections of my hair with those fingers, and wearing the glove didn't let me do so with ease, so I opted out of using this and I haven't really ever burned myself, so I don't think this is mandatory to use, up to you!

Some pics of my personal results:

 

I absolutely loved the results curling with this product gave me. They were the most natural looking beautiful waves ever! They started out tighter and throughout the day, fell just perfectly to a gorgeous look.  To top it off, I was SO surprised to find that even the next morning when I woke up, they looked the absolute SAME! I touched up the top of my hair a little with some hairspray and pinned back my bangs the next day and had the SAME beautiful waves, it was as if I had just curled them again.  This proved that this wand provides long lasting curls and I love that.  

**I used Heat Protectant as always, and for the hairspray, I used Paul Mitchell Soft Spray. 

Flowy Waves, 

xox 

Food for Thought

Here is more info for  my friends/family who were brought here through my personal Facebook page:

Although not a traditional bog post, this has just as much of my heart in it as all of my others.  Thanksgiving (here in the United States) is about being thankful, for friends, family, health, education, love in general life.  We share a warm meal with one another around the table because food always brings loved ones together, why do you think going out to dinner is one of the number one ways people celebrate their birthdays, such a special day? Reading the article about all of those Americans living amongst us (possibly even in our own neighborhood) who barely make ends meat and probably won't be having that Thanksgiving meal the same way we will this year, broke my heart.  Although poverty exists all over year round, the Thanksgiving season, one whose day is focused on a rather grandiose meal, is a rather unique time to do something about it, even if something small.

Here is what I am going to do, you can do the same for another family, or you can just spread the word and that will be enough!

1. I am enlisting each and every one of my Facebook friends reading this to try and really reach out in your community and think of someone who you think could use a little help with Thanksgiving this year.  Remember a turkey these days can cost $40+.  For those that do a meat alternative, it can cost a whole bunch of money as well!

2. Think of one family who you think in the goodness of your heart would like me to sponsor their Thanksgiving dinner this year.  I am no millionaire, and I work very hard for every dime I have but I can do without the movies and clothes shopping for a week or so to help a needing family out.  With lay offs STILL happening daily, some are afraid or embarrassed to ask for help, which is why I need YOUR help to nominate a family. 

3. This family can come from your church, maybe they just had a fire (as sad as that is, a lot more of those are happening!) maybe they just had another baby and times are really tough, maybe BOTH parents are out of work and struggling to put any food on the table all together.  Whomever you think deserves this, please nominate them.

4. I wanted to give you guys an entire month to work on this, although it may only take you a day or so to think of someone, the work for me is endless! haha I will do my best to provide to them a Turkey, potatoes, yams, rice, etc all the goodies that I grew up with for Thanksgiving.  I will probably shop for the family a week before so that when I deliver everything it is still delicious (most will be non-perishables anyway).

5. Here's all you have to do:

• Think of the family who is struggling a lot this year that you wish to nominate and get their name to me. (EVERYTHING we discuss is CONFIDENTIAL and will in no way, shape or form EVER be shared with anyone else, other than probably my boyfriend, the driver haha) I know most people are embarrassed about going through hard times, and although they shouldn't be, I respect that completely!
• Once you get me their name, your work is done, I will stay in touch with you when I decide which family I am going to choose. I wish I could choose them all, but hey maybe this will inspire you guys to take one of them on?!
• They can be from your workplace, church, neighborhood, family etc. EVERYONE in need qualifies :)
• Shoot me an email at alysea.pereira@gmail.com  if you want to know anything further or send me a message on my facebook--although I prefer email because I can keep track of everything better!

Thank you ALL so much in advanced. I am no angel, but together we can ALL make a difference, and where I have plenty, I will ALWAYS share with those who don't.  Food can really heal the soul, even a simple plate of rice.  Being able to spend the day with your family during this Thanksgiving Holiday season can really be a "pick me up" for someone, and after all, that's what we are striving to do here.

To being thankful always,

xox

Mini Shop and Tell : October Breast Cancer Awareness Purchases!

So the time has FINALLY come, everything has come together as far as my BCA purchases this month. Now when you see that its really only about 5 things, you are probably going to wonder why it was so "stressful" getting those things but let me just say, it was a good and a bad thing.  It was good that things were sold out almost everywhere (and I started shopping for this stuff rather early too!) because that meant that Breast Cancer was getting a lot of money, but a bad thing as well because it was taking me forever to get my hands on any of this stuff! Anywho, enough rambling, let me just show you the items!

 Shown above are the following:

1.Limited Edition Power of Pink Conair Infiniti Curling Wand---$39.99

• Can be purchased by clicking here: Ulta

2. Ulta BCA Thermos ---FREE with any $5.00 Donation

• Unfortunately I don't even see this on their site anymore, they were apparently their biggest seller! They still do, however, offer a pink ribbon cosmetic bag with any $10.00 donation.  View this offer here: ULTA

3. The North Face Breast Cancer Limited Edition Denali Fleece---$165.00 (a gift from my boyfriend!)

• This was purchased as a gift from Sports Authority. The link is here: Sports Authority

4. Seche Vite/China Glaze Nail Polish and Top Coat Duo---$8.99

• This was purchased from Sally Beauty Supply.  (I only paid about $7.00 with my Beauty Pro Card!) It can be viewed online here: Sally Beauty Supply 

5. Brush Strokes Teasing Brush--$1.99

• This was purchased from Sally Beauty Supply as well.  It can be viewed online here: Sally Beauty 

6. Its a 10 Leave in Miracle Product---$17.00 or so

• I got this product from SuperCuts as my Aunt is a stylist there :) Some of the proceeds from this one went to the Christina Applegate Breast Cancer Foundation!

Well that sums up my Breast Cancer Awareness purchases.  A portion of the money earned from the purchase of each and every one of these products was donated to raising awareness and money for research for Breast Cancer.  Most of these were all on my wish list anyway and I figured why not have them go to a good cause as well! After all, they came in pretty pink colors anyway ;)

My Visit to the World Trade Center Memorial Site NYC

So, as some of you may know, I live just about 15 minutes outside of NYC.  Although the tragic events that happened on September 11, 2001 did not affect me directly, they did affect the hope of the wonderful country that I live in, and because of that I guess you could say I WAS directly impacted.  I remember that day like it was yesterday, as I sat in my first class of the day as a freshman in high school which was then English.  We got released by 11am that day because parents were coming to the school frantic and disoriented about what had just happened.  I remember being thankful that I didn't know anyone that was close to me that worked in NYC, but seeing that some of my very dear friends couldn't say the same, my heart hurt with them.  As the months and years passed, I saw flags everywhere, as a matter of fact the #1 flag store in my neighborhood was sold out of EVERY American flag in just hours! That said a lot, that said that we were all coming together as ONE nation and standing TALL--that our pride had indeed NOT been tarnished and for that I am one proud American girl.

10 years later, what was once the most chaotic and debris filled section of all of NYC is now the home of a beautiful memorial.  A place where those innocent lives that we lost from our American Family, can be honored and visited to remember.  I had not had any intention of ever visiting "Ground Zero" in the previous years because I knew what it would entail and I was not quite sure I was ready to "remember" all that had happened.  However, now that something so monumental and beautiful has been resurrected, I am sure that now, was just the perfect time to go.  As the rebuilding continues of the new towers, seeing the progress that each building has made brings a smile to my face, after all we are progressing as opposed to regressing, and that is always something wonderful.

I was lucky enough to be invited on the First Responders day by a fellow First Responder himself.  I made this journey with my boyfriend and his family, and it was for sure one that I will never forget.  I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area, it is something that every American (and those who aren't as well) should do even just once.  Below are some pictures of my adventure:

We are making progress! That is only HALF way done! What a beauty :)

My boyfriend's sister pointed out the rainbow that had formed just as we were about to leave. Do you see it in the corner, it gave me happy peaceful chills. That must be what happens when there is so much love in one place <3

This tree is the ONLY tree that survived the tragedy.  You can see that one half of the tree was seared and disturbed, where as the other half managed to rebuild beautifully--definitely amazing!

The Fire House only a block or so from the WTC. I was told these  were the first ones on the site and were all killed :( What a beautiful bronze piece of art.

Proud to be standing there after all these years. God Bless America <3

Product Review: Maybelline Instant Age Rewind-Dark Circle Concealer

 

My Color: #30 Medium                               Price $ 7.99 (approx)

Things I Love: 

1. That it comes in a shade that actually matches what I am looking for! So many of these under eye concealers just don't match up well with my skin tone--odd I know. 

2. I love that you can see through this tube exactly how much product you have left--with my Garnier roller-ball one, I could never tell and I was always afraid of one day just suddenly running out.  

3. The quality for a drugstore reasonably priced item. The Garnier one I used before this retailed for around $13! I actually prefer this one and its almost 50% cheaper!

4. NO CREASING or settling in fine lines! I cannot stress enough how much this kind of thing bothers me. I am only 24 people, there is NO reason why I should have concealer settling under the "fine lines" beneath my eyes haha With this one there are none of those shenanigans going on. 

5. The applicator is so cool! It is like a velvety sponge where you click to activate the product from beneath to come into the sponge tip. Then you just swipe it in a "U" shape under your eye, that simple! 

6. Its durability--I have to say that personally speaking I haven't really noticed any fade with this product, I have been satisfied with how it holds up throughout the day for sure!

Although I don't particularly use this for dark under eye circles, because I don't have those, I use this as more of a slight brightener and it works wonderfully for that as well. I definitely recommend this product if you are looking for a drug store under eye concealer :) 

Bright eyes, 

xox