Review of Hujan Luxury Skin Care Products

Hi Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

In keeping with my weekly blogs since my acceptance into the "Her Campus Blogger Network"(HCBN), I have a set of great skin care products to review for you all! However, these products were not sent as part of my participation in HCBN. As I promised, I am fully disclosing that I received these products in exchange for my review of them.  I also promise to be completely honest with you about how I feel about them.

 Hujan Skin Care Products are high-end spa products specifically designed for Kinetic Day Spa in Tiburon, California. I personally know that both Kinetic Day Spa and their product line are made with tons of love and commitment to great ingredients.  A little goes a long way, so though initial investment seems pricey, you get your moneys worth!

I made this image, if you'd like to use it please ask ;)  Honestly, I don't know why you would want yo steal the image...I'd want to steal the AWESOME skin care products.

The packaging was simple and clean. Quick Tip: Dipping your fingers in products that come in pots can increase the chance of germs contaminating the product, causing breakouts.  Make sure your hands are clean before using products in pots.  I was immediately really impressed with the quality and purity of the ingredients in these products:

• Natural and Organic Ingredients
• Gluten Free
• Aromatherapy
• No Parabens
• No Artificial Fragrances or Dyes
• No Propylene Glycol
• No Sulfates
• No Animal Testing

They are supposed to be optimized to be:Anti Aging

• Hydrating
• Rejuvenate
• ​Repair

 Pretty Amazing right? These products are great for all skin types and all ages.

My set was equivalent to the "Hujan Starter Pack", which retails for $153.  I know this sounds pricey  compared to drugstore products, however these are the same products used in a facial from Kinetic Day Spa that cost $90-$110 each.  Not only that, but it's a great deal compared to some of less healthy skin care available at say.. Nordstroms. Thus, you can give yourself many more at home facials at with these products.  The products I received included:

1. Balancing Cleanser (4oz)-  I used this first.  I really liked this cleanser.  The first ingredients are organic aloe vera juice, organic rooibos tea extract, and organic olive oil.  I love that it also contains activated charcoal.  This is great for drawing out impurities from your skin.  It doesn't foam, which means it cleanses while not stripping your skin.  While this is great to start your Sunday pamper day (especially for a Hujan-product pamper session), I don't think I would use it to try and take off heavy makeup at the end of the day.  It will not do much to take off things like water-proof mascara.  If you normally do not wear make-up, this is a great daily cleanser.  If you do, then make sure to remove your make-up first.

2. Balancing Toner (4oz)-  Following the cleanser, I used this toner.  The instructions say to "pat around the eye area".  I found that I prefer to spray it on a cotton round and swipe all over my face (including the eye area).  Again, you are looking at the main ingredients organic aloe vera juice, organic rooibos tea extract, and organic olive oil.  It also has activated charcoal.  Pretty awesome. It also does not sting or dry out your skin like some toners.

3. Hydrating C-Serum (2oz)-  I used this after my toner dried.  This is not a silicone serum that is clear and slides over your skin.  It is more of a light moisturizer cream that is packed with a lot of concentrated nutrients for your skin.  A base of organic aloe vera juice works with things like Rosehip seed oil, Vitamin C Ester, and Organic berry extracts to brighten skin, refine pores, moisturize, and seemed to make the biggest difference in my skin out of all the products.  This was probably my favorite of all the products.  I don't really have fine lines or wrinkles yet, but this serum pretty much brings my skin back to my teenage years (without the acne!)  I'm a fan.  Because it's so potent, I don't use it every day, but every day might be a great option if you have more mature skin.  I also use this as my eye cream.  For an eye cream, this is a GIGANTIC tub.

4. Rejuvenating Facial Moisturizer (2oz)- Lastly, my skin was feeling clean, refined, bright, and nourished, but this product is very deeply moisturizing.  Shea and Coco butters make this very hydrating and wonderful.  It is a pretty heavy moisturizer which leaves a bit of a oily feeling to the skin.  Perfect for night time application when younger skin really needs some TLC and amazing for more mature skin.  I ended up gifting it to someone with drier more mature skin who simply raved about it.  It would not be my first choice for day time or under make-up, but it is perfect for after you get finished with this luxurious set of skin treatments. 

All Around Thoughts:  I really like them if you are looking on products for your pamper nights.  I think I will be working them into my daily routine also when my skin needs a little extra something.  Probably use the cleanser and toner in the mornings and moisturizer at night. I can use the serum is behaving and I don't need to use my acne treatment (or as a light moisturizer).  They are pretty pricey, but a little product goes a REALLY long ways.  This makes them a much more reasonable splurge purchase.  All the products all have a luxurious feel when applying them.  They also all have a wonderful herbal and natural fragrance that make you think of a spa when you close your eyes. I would definitely repurchase the serum and moisturizer.  I'm not sure if in the long run I would re-purchase the cleanser or toner because I really love my current ones, not because these are not good. Also, be aware, that with products are so pure and natural, their shelf life is not as long as products with chemicals and preservatives, try not to keep them around for too long. 

Thank you so much to Hujan and Kinetic Waves Salon for this opportunity to try and review these amazing luxurious products.  And as always,

Shine & Sparkle!

You Already Have A Bikini Body

Good evening SSR readers!

I'm sorry this post is so late everyone.  I really had to think about this one.  I know I normally have a well thought out one with pictures and all sorts of hyper-links. But I just had to chat (aka rant) about something as we head full force into summer.  I have noticed that every other beauty blog headline seems to be "Get Your Bikini Body in 20 Steps"; "How to Get Your Body Bikini Ready"; "10 Things to Eat For Your Bikini Body"...and on...and on...and on...  I really wanted to write something about this because it bothers me on a number of levels.

It has been kind of bothering me that it seems like nobody is saying anything about "Your Body Is Good Enough for a Bikini".  It infuriates me that women have anxiety about molding themselves and mentally attacking/berating themselves for a piece of clothing.  You don't have to fit your body into a bikini, the swim wear doesn't own you and you don't owe a piece of fabric anything.  I have several complaints about this "Bikini Body" trend in women's media:

1. What is this mythical bikini body I'm supposed to be striving to get?  Ok, so a lot of them say that it is the healthiest fittest you that you want to be.  BUT I take issue that each of these articles is paired with a bunch of perfectly toned women who are rocking defined abs and thigh gaps (on that note, when did people start caring about thigh gaps...seems ridiculous to me).  How about we see happy ladies of all sizes in bikini's in theses "Getting Your Perfect Bikini Body" articles?  Maybe they should accurately title them "Getting OUR Idea of a Perfect Bikini Body".
2. "Eating/Excercising For A Bikini Body" should just be "Eating/Exercising To Be Healthy".  Eating healthy foods is eating healthy foods.  Eating clean is eating clean. Exerting physical effort to burn calories and tone muscle will happen regardless of if you are thinking about swimwear or not.  You should strive to be healthy whether it is summer, winter, or the moon is full.  To me, these articles seem to be repackaging the good message of eating healthy and being fit into a message to eat healthy because otherwise you won't look like the beauty standard.
3. It Reinforces a Beauty Standard.  While everything you see in the media would tell you that there is a "right" way to look, the reality is that there isn't!  You should want to be healthy, happy, and able to do the things you want to in life.  There is no perfect body, just the one that you want/can achieve the most at this point.  There are infinite factors that play into your appearance.  Embrace your own beauty and embrace your personal body goals.  Looking like "that girl" (whoever "that girl" is)  is much less important than looking like the version of yourself that you are happiest with. 
4. Lowers Confidence and Self Esteem.  When anyone is constantly seeing things that tell them that there is change needed to their bodies to reach a certain standard, it is natural to start nit-picking away at your confidence in your body.  Perhaps before you were perfectly happy with a little extra ramen noodles contributing to your BMI, you are now thinking "oh no! Those ramen noodles are destroying my potential bikini body".
5. My last thought is YOU ALREADY HAVE A BIKINI BODY!  All you have to do is WEAR a bikini and you have a body in a bikini.  There is no shame in rocking whatever swimwear you feel comfortable and attractive in.  I truly feel there is too much shaming that "ooooh why does she think she can wear that" from both men and other women.  I think the better question is "why do you care what she's wearing if it makes her happy?"

That being said, we all have certain expectations for what we would like to look like in a swim suit.  This is FINE!  If you want to change your body in a healthy way and a bikini is a good motivation, go for it!  However, it annoys me that it seems like the media assumes that the vast majority of women NEED to do something to get bikini ready, while in fact, you don't NEED to do anything.  Especially for a piece of fabric!

So enough with my Ms. Sparkles Chats post...which is more like a Ms. Sparkles Rants post.  But I hope it inspires you to think about this trend in posts a little differently.

 As always,

Shine & Sparkle!

How To Get Heatless Beachy Waves Quick Tip

Happy Sparkle-Wednesday Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

Spring/Summer is here (at least in the Bay Area)! This means a lot of girls striving for soft beachy waves. It's that gorgeous "effortless" wave look that seems (to those without naturally wavy hair) to be anything but effortless.  I know my hair doesn't look like "beachy waves" after a day at the beach!  Without committing to a new surfing hobby, consider getting these waves without constant heat damaging.  Plus, it seems silly to bust out a curling iron in order for your hair to have messy/tousled waves.  Since my hair loves to be straight, the way I get hold and piecey beach waves without heat is as follows:

Like all my images, I'll gladly give someone credit for their image or take it down if whoever owns it throws a hissy fit.  Does anyone know if I have added the image to Squiggles if it counts as a new image so I'm not violating anybody's rights?  Hum...

How To Get Heatless Beach Waves: Start by taking your shower in the evening.  When your hair is barely damp/almost dry, put it up in 2 ballet buns (see someone else explain that because I'm lazy here) on the top of your head. Go to sleep.  In the morning you will have great waves.  To get the beachy texture, spray a bit of sea salt spray, then work the waves around your fingers.  If you are like me and have very stubbornly straight hair, you might want to add an extra spritz of hair spray after the sea salt spray has made your hair perfectly separated and the hair spray will help it hold.  Don't worry if the waves seem pretty extreme at first, they will relax throughout the day.

The sea salt spray I'm currently using is the Healthy Sexy Hair: Soy Renewal Beach Spray* which retails for about $20.  My current Hair Spray love is the Sebastian: Shaper Plus retailing about $17. Both leave your hair soft.  You can still run your fingers through it without getting ugly powdery white flakes, but still have pretty good hold.

Hope this quick tip lets you rock beach waves all spring and summer long.

Shine & Sparkle!

*I am not paid or contacted by any of the companies mentioned in this post.  These are my honest feelings and opinions.

Silicones in Hair Care 101

Full report this Wednesday Shine & Sparkle Report readers!

After my hair highlighting experience last week, it inspired me to encourage you all to put on your science hats.  Today, we are going to talk about Silicones in hair products*.  Put on your lab coats, grab a beaker (or graduated cylinder) and lets get started learning about silicone!

Like all my images, I'll gladly give someone credit for their image or take it down if someone throws a hissy fit.

What are Silicones? Silicones are ingredients in many hair care products.This includes shampoos, conditioners, leave-in detanglers, and serums. They are not all bad.  They are considered safe for the human body (breast implants anyone?) They make hair look shiny and soft.  They prevent tangles and protect your hair from the elements and heat styling (all of those fancy kitchen gadgets are made out of silicone for a reason).  I often describe them as "putting plastic wrap around each strand of hair".  Basically they coat each strand and take the brunt of heat damage, repel moisture/humidity that causes friz, and generally make your hair look great!  You can typically determine if one of these super hard to pronounce ingredients is a silicone if it ends in "cone", "col", "conol" or "zane". 


What is bad about Silicones? If you apply silicones before adding moisture to your hair or do not remove the "plastic wrap" every once in a while, it will prevent moisture and oils from getting into the hair.  The silicone can build up and create multiple layers of plastic around the hair which look great as long as you keep adding layers, but once removed, the underlying hair is dried out, brittle and damaged.  So at least weekly removal of silicones and infusion of moisture and oil at this time is important if you want the healthiest hair possible. 


How do you remove Silicones?  It depends if the silicones you are using are water soluable or not.  Not to scare you with basic chemistry, but basically, some silicones will disolve and wash away just with water in the shower.  Others, need sulfates of some kind to break them down.  You do not need to use super harsh clarifying shampoos, just ones that contain some kind of sulfate once a week (most drugstore shampoos unless they say "sulfate-free"--see my first post on sulfate free shampoos and second post involving sulfate-free shampoos). I have heard of apple cider vinegar rinses, baking soda, and other DIY methods for removing silicones once a week, but I find it faster and easier to just expose myself to sulfates once a week.  If you rather go completely chemical free, consider looking into those DIYs.

What are the different types of Silicones?  Different products have different amounts and types of silicones.  Depending on your hair type and condition, different levels and combinations might work better for your hair.  The below lists of silicones can help you find what you are looking for in a product.

These silicones need Sulfates to remove them and are likely to build up on your hair:

1. Dimethicone (probably the most commonly seen are versions of Dimethicone)
2. Cetyl Dimethicone
3. Cetearyl Methicone
4. Dimethiconol
5. Stearyl Dimethicone

Also, there are some silicones that slow down the build-up process and mean you have to use a sulfate containing shampoo less often:

1. Trimethylsilylamodimethicone
2. Amodimethicone
3. Cyclopentasiloxane
4. Cyclomethicone

Lastly, there are a few totally water soluble silicones:

1. Stearoxy Dimethicone 
2. Behenoxy Dimethicone
3. Also, if "PPG" or "PEG" is in front of the silicone, this means that it was specially developed to be water-soluble and will not leave a build-up like other silicones.

Final Gripe/Warning: Do NOT use pure oils as a heat protectant!  If your product has oils AND silicones, that is fine.  The silicone is protecting from heat while the oil is absorbed into your hair.  But a pure oil alone (like coconut, 100% argan, almond, etc..) will basically deep fry your hair.  Eek!  Think about it, would you stick your hair in a vat of oil heated to 450 degrees?!  I don't think you would.  That is essentially what using pure oil then flat ironing/curling your hair is.  Heat + Silicone is your friend!  That is the end of my public service announcement.  Deep fry your hair at your own risk.

 Shine & Sparkle! (without deep fried hair)


*Special shout out to CurlyNikki's Blog for compiling a lot (but not all) of the information seen in this post!

My Hair Highlighting Experience: Part 1

Hi Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

I have started my hair lightening journey!  If you follow me on facebook, twitter, or instagram, you will know that I had my first major highlight appointment to get lighter brown hair yesterday (just in time for my weekly post)!  I had previously gone a dark chocolate brown for my base color, but now the highlights are starting to make my look much softer.  One more highlighting appointment and I think my hair with be the perfect light brown for me.  I know you are super excited for pictures, so here you go:

What is that  alien device on my head in the "before" image?  It's a...a....uh...heat generating thingie-ma-bob.  Hair color processes better in a warmer environment.  Thus, I look like a science experiment.  --Insert tangent about being selected to participate in new superhero power technology studies here.---

My Stylist and Salon:

I went to see the beautiful Ms. Krystin Collins at Groove Salon* in San Francisco.  She is by far my favorite favorite colorist I have ever met (yes I know I just said "favorite favorite").  She has a wonderful bubbly personality.  She also gives great consultations and really listens.  She also has your best hair interests at heart and really cares about you looking the best you can be (and not letting you do anything stupid!) She takes great pride in her work. I also love that she really spends the time to make sure you are her #1 focus and feel very pampered.  If you are in San Francisco, I 100% recommend her!

The Process:

1. Base Color: This is a single process of putting color all over my head.  Mine is a dark chocolate brown.  If you did not know, "color" is actually mixing 2 products.  The actual color and a developer which contains different percentages of peroxide.  The developer is what makes the hair follicle open and change your hair color.  The percentage of peroxide determines how fast/strong/damaging the developer is.
2. Bleach:   A very low percentage of peroxide developer was mixed with bleach and applied to specific areas of my hair to lighten them.  This is the picture in my "before" picture with all the papers on my head.  These paper versions of "foils" are packets of hair with product on them.  Ms. Krystin said that she always uses less than 10% peroxide.  Developer typically comes in 10,20, 30, and 40 percent in beauty supply stores.  Krystin mixed water with a 10% to make my bleach mixture only 5%.  She stressed that it is better to go "low and slow" rather than "fast and frying" your hair.  Doing high percentage peroxide bleach fast also gives the stylist a lot less control over the color because it might process too fast to ensure even color.  I'm all about healthier hair that doesn't look crappy!
3. Toner:  This step adds a veil of color over my hair to make the lighter sections the color I want.  After the bleach, it was really orangey. To avoid looking like a pumpkin, Ms. Krystin added the toner to "tone down" the orange and make it a pretty light brown.  We did it twice, since I still thought the first toner was too pumpkin-esque.
4. Reconstructing Conditioner:  Ms. Krystin used a conditioner that contained both protein and moisture to heal my hair after it's change.  I will definitely be purchasing it and doing a review after I make it through some of my conditioner stock-pile.  Yes, I'm a beauty blogger.  I have a conditioner stock-pile.  I did love the conditioner made my hair very soft, silky and smooth.  Check out my original healthy hair care routine and updated hair care routine to see how I maintain salon shine and healthy hair, even after coloring!  Let me know if you want another hair care routine specifically on maintaining my new light brown hair!

Why lightening in multiple sessions?

No, it's not my stylist trying to get more money!  Ms. Krystin explained it as follows: 

• Color does not lift color.  Day one, she said that my previous red-brown color was not just going to go light brown with a single process because coloring it lighter over my red-brown wasn't going to do anything. Therefore, she has to use bleach to lighten my hair. So that first session, she adjusted my red-brown base color to a dark chocolate brown and did my grown out roots.  
• Bleach Moderately.  In order to maintain the integrity of my hair, Krystin said 2 highlighting sessions is gentler for my hair.  It also gives me the opportunity to see how I feel about the current level of lightness.  She did a lot of highlighting on the upper half of my hair and just a bit towards the bottom.  The very bottom layer is still chocolate brown.  This gives my hair a lot of dimension and makes the lightness look a lot more natural since the sun would naturally bleach the lower layers less.

What is going to happen in My Hair Highlighting Experience: Part 2?

I think I'm interested in a bit more lightening in all of my hair so has an overall lighter appearance.  But I will always trust Ms. Krystin from letting me do anything that wont look gorgeous!

Thank you all for coming along with me on my hair lightning journey.  I hope this helped you learn something new or help you decide if getting highlights is right for you!

FYI, here is the link to Part 2 of my highlighting experience!

As usual,

Shine & Sparkle!



*I am not paid or sponsored by any of the products or entities mentioned in this post.  All were payed for with my own money.  These are my personal thoughts/opinions and recounting of events.