Top 3 Skin Care Tips You Are Not Doing!

Hi Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

Today I wanted to do a quick tip that lists the top 3 skin care tips you might not be doing.  Doing these 3 things will dramatically increase the effectiveness of the products you use.  In the interested of making this an actual quick tip, not a mile long post, lets get straight into it.

#1: Always Apply Products to Clean Skin/Exfoliate Occasionally:  If there is a lot of dirt, skin build up, or bacteria on your skin, it will be harder for your products to work.  If nothing else make sure your skin is clean.  Washing your face 2 times a day with a gentle cleanser is my recommendation.  Every so often use an exfoliating face wash (Without microbeads please! Read about that here!) to get off dead skin cells.  Who cares if you apply product to dead skin cells, we want to nourish the healthy ones!  Why not exfoliate every day? Why not with harsh face brushes?  Because irritation to your skin is never good.  It contributes to acne and the increased pulling/over exfoliation can lead to making your skin very sensitive and more prone to winkles/sun damage. Boo to that.

#2 Let Each Product Absorb Before Adding the Next One:  It might make your skin care routine take a bit longer, but if you wait for each layer of your routine to fully absorb and dry in between layers, they will work MUCH better.  This applies even if you just apply moisturizer after you wash your face.  If you wait for a clean dry surface of your skin, it will make those products work better because they are not mixing together as much or competing.  You also will prevent any products from balling/caking up and looking weird on your face.

#3 Wash Your Face Last In The Shower:  I know you might think this wouldn't matter, but it does.  Washing your face last means you get off any shampoo, conditioner, bodywash/soap residue that might be on your face. These residues are not great for your face and could effect how well your face products work.  Conditioner especially can contribute to break outs, so this step is very important for acne sufferers.  Doing this, ensures that you have the clean skin noted in #1 to start your skin care routine.

 Hope you like my quick tips and hope to get an updated skin care routine post up and a Vegas post (if you follow me on facebook, twitter or instagram, you'd know about that already) asap.

Shine & Sparkle! 

My B-Day Vegas Trip 2014!

Hi Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

Where have I been all last last weekend?!  LAS VEGAS!  I thought I'd do a little post about my B-day trip with my boyfriend to Vegas.  So keep reading if you want to look at a little picture timeline of how I prepped for Vegas, some of my fashion choices, and some beauty/fashion/food/activities I found when I was there.  I hope that this report helps you  decide if a vacation to Vegas would make you Shine and Sparkle (or not).  Quick disclaimer, these are all my own honest thoughts and experiences.  I saved up to afford the trip so nothing is sponsored and thus did what I wanted to do. Hope you enjoy tagging along though this blog post!

To prepare for Vegas I kinda ran around San Francisco like a chicken with my head cut off.  I sat through round 2 of highlighting my full head of hair + a hair cut at Groove Salon with my all time favorite stylist Krystin.  Click if you missed the Part 1 of My Hair Lightening Process post. Hopefully the final result/Part 2 will be evident as you see my hair in the following collages. I also got my acrylic nails filled.  They are painted "Play the Peonies" by O.P.I on 9 fingers, and some pearly white O.P.I color (sorry don't remember which I picked) on my left ring finger with a row of bling.  I have never had diamonds on my nails before, and I figured what better time than when going to Vegas for your B-day right?!  Lastly, I did some last minute shopping at Guess.  Am I jumping on the crop top and high slit skirt trend? Hell yeah!  Mini Tip: If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you already have seen these pics in real time, how cool!

Hair done, nails done, everything did....I felt fancy (Thanks Drake's "Fancy").  So then it was on to Vegas! Checked in to my flight.... I totally checked-in on-line at the absolute minute that Southwest allowed me to (Boarding section B5 and B6 baby!)...then arrived in Vegas. Woooooooo!

"Only you babe," my man said while shaking his head as I got overly excited and started snapping pictures in the best Walgreens in the world.  The Walgreens on the strip, across from Treasure Island where we were staying had an amazing make-up selection.  2 whole shelves, for "Pop Beauty" and giant displaces for "The Balm" cosmetics, and "'Tini Beauty".  If you have ever subscribed to Ipsy or other beauty subscription services  you know of these brands.  I have never seen displays for them, only online shopping. So this was an epic and exciting find.  My man had to drag me away from swatching all the products I have considered but been hesitant about due to not being able to try them in person.

Please forgive all the selfies...They are just so easy!

After my Walgreens beauty-nerd-freakout, my favorite activities were pool partying at Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, Wet Republic at MGM, B-Day Dinner and show at Rose.Rabbit.Lie at Cosmopolitan, and B-day lunch at Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill at Caesar's Place, and the Hakkasan Night Club at MGM.  Above are some of my fashion choices for the events.

Unfortunately, my $30 investment in winning the jack pot failed so I am now back in the Bay Area living my normal life rather than the dream one my $30 could have bought me.

I hope you enjoyed a look into my B-Day trip to Vegas.  If you have any questions about my experiences feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you as your unofficial tour guide.

As always,
Shine & Sparkle!

How to Clean Out Bath and Bodyworks (or any) Candle Jars DIY

Hi Shine and Sparkle Report Readers!

Today I want to tell you how I clean out my candle jars.  I noticed when I first became obsessed with Bath and Body Works candles, that it was a HUGE waste to just throw out such nice glass containers.  You can use them for all kinds of fun things.

So without a long winded intro, lets get into how I clean them out:

Step 1: Freeze It- I take off the top of the candle jar and stick it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.  This causes the wax to become brittle and shrink a bit away from the glass.

Step 2: Pop Wax Out-  Carefully (ask an adult if you are a kid, or just really clumsy), use a sturdy dull knife (butter knife works great, I only had this regular dining knife) to pop out the wax.  The pressure should crack it into easily removed pieces.

Step 3: Soak in Hot Soapy Water-  There might be glue or little metal pieces with the wicks still attached to the bottom.  Soaking the candle in hot soapy water will make the glue pliable and the metal easy to remove.  This will also loosen all the labels attached to the jar.  The bottom sticker should remove easily with a bit of scrubbing with a rough sponge.  The outer label will peel off pretty easy.

Step 4: Remove Sticky Reside-  This is the most annoying part for me.  If you have a product like "Googone" that will help.  Otherwise, I find that pure acetone (which I have around for removing nail polish) on a cotton ball works pretty well.  You might have some time (and lots of cotton balls) getting the glass perfectly clear of goo.

Step 5: Rewash the container-  After the sticky stuff is gone, I re-wash the container to remover any  residual chemicals on the glass.

Step 6: Reuse-  I will be doing a more detailed post on how I reuse candle jars, but generally speaking, I like using them for storing small items (cotton balls/Q-tips/cotton rounds), as make up brush holders, gift containers for DIY bathsalts/sugar scrubs, terrariums, and to regrow/root plants and veggies.  Quick Tip: If you are feeling really creative, you can invest in some glass paint and paint labels or art on the glass. I love to cut out stencils out of paper, stick them on the jars, then sponge paint over the stencil to create perfect designs.

I hope you found this helpful and it encourages you to reuse those great candle containers!


Shine & Sparkle

SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque Review (An Asian Hair Perspective)

Hi Shine and Sparkle Readers,

Sorry about the crazzzy long title. It's not my fault that "SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque"* is a mouth-full. But I have found a miracle product.  I really wanted to review this because most of the literature out there on this product is not for Asian hair.  However, I think everyone with dry/damaged hair should check this baby out.

 Here is the scoop:

1. Great ingredients (or pleasant lack there of). It has no sulfates. No parabens. No phthalates. No paraffin. No gluten. No propylene glycol. No mineral oil. No synthetic fragrance. No PABA. No synthetic color. No DEA. No animal testing.   All that being said, the first few ingredients are water, shea butter, argan oil, vegetable glycerine, wax, sea kelp.  Amazing! 

2. Replaces oiling my hair.  I have moisturizing conditioners and protein conditioners.  However, sometimes your hair needs oil.  You can use pure oils to deep condition your hair using olive, coconut, castor, almond oil, you name it.  If it is an oil, someone has a youtube video on how they use it to help maintain the health of your hair.  All of these methods involve saturating your hair with TONS of oil and letting it sit 30minutes to over-night.  This is a pain it the butt.  No matter what I do it's messy.  Don't get me started about the mess if I try and sleep with it in my hair.  SheaMoisture Deep Treatment Mask to the rescue!  I get the same results just by following the directions.  What are the directions?  Funny you should ask-- "Section clean, wet hair. Apply generously. Use a wide tooth comb to distribute evenly from root to ends. Leave in for 5 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. For deep penetrating treatment, cover hair with a plastic cap and apply moderate heat for up to 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. When using a hair steamer do not cover hair, moist heat will add to masque's hydration."  Now, I'm too lazy to hold a hair dryer to my hair and I certainly do not own a hair steamer. But if you stick to the 5 minute or 30 minute applications without special devices, this still works wonders!

3. Fun Texture & Natural Scent: Ok, so this shouldn't be a huge deal, but I have to say, this strangely "crisp" texture is almost like a body butter.  It just melts into your hair and scalp and makes everything feel lovely.  The scent is pretty much just the smell of shea butter, which is light and vaguely nutty.  I'm happy with it.  It makes me feel like I'm doing nice things to my hair rather than slathering on chemicals.

4. Price:  Can't be mad at about $10USD a 12 oz tub.  You can sometimes find these on sale (or "on offer" if you are British).  I got them "buy one get one free" recently, but more typically I see them "buy one get one 50% off".

5. The Only Sort of-Cons:  While there are very few things wrong with this product I have a few draw backs:

• The awesome melty-ness texture means that you do end up using a lot of product to really feel like you have saturated your hair.  But trust me, it's kind of fun in a weird way to put something of this texture on your hair, so I don't mind. 
• If you have very fine hair or want to have "big hair" volume after using this product, you might struggle with the weight of it.  That being said, if you are looking to air-dry your thick straight Asian hair, it might work out perfectly to make your hair look like you did way more with it.  I know it does with mine.  I get nicely straight hair with healthy shine after using this product.  Win.
• I find that product works best with time and after using a clarifying/sulfate shampoo.  I have noticed that it really improves the integrity of my hair best when not covered with any silicone products before hand. Check out my Silicone in Hair Products 101 post to learn more.  I apply a silicone serum to my hair after using this product to lock in all the goodness.

 Shine & Sparkle!


*I am not paid or contacted by any of the companies mentioned in this post.  These are my honest feelings and opinions. Also, like all my images, I'll gladly give someone credit for their image or take it down if someone throws a hissy fit.