Bargainista’s High Low beauty review - Calia Texture Curl Cream and Tousle Me Softly

I’ve been quietly trying some new products over the summer. Some because I found them in stores and wanted to give them a try. Some were sent my way from friends at PR firm or directly from the brands themselves.

Let’s start with the hair. You may remember I’ve got a cool tool to help me straighten my hair. Well, actually, although it’s awesome it’s quite hot and the process of blow drying my hair first (it’s got a mind of it’s own and needs a good stretch first) then using a straightener is time-consuming.

So, for summer I decided to go with the flow rather than fight it. Calia, my current hair salon launched a new line of products and for $18, I bought a tube of their new Texture Curl Cream for curly hair with the promise of soft curls without frizz. A dab the size of a quarter will do you. On a good day, my hair has soft waves and curls, little frizz and no crunchy or sticky residue.

Shortly after I started using this new product, the folks at Palette PR sent me the complete Tousle Me Softly product line by Herbal Essence totally by coincidence. When it comes to hair products, I’m a bit of a snob and usually stick to salon quality brands. I’m not a big user of drugstore brands per se, even if they often sell for a quarter of the price.

But, I couldn’t resist since the timing was right and I decided to give the Tousle Me Softly finishing touch cream (approximately $5 per jar). I tried it and put it through exactly the same process as the salon brand since both products had similar instructions, once I dissected the marketing speak on the containers.

Results:
Tousle Me Softly finishing touch cream provided great hold and little frizz. However, my hair did feel a bit crunchy. If you’re on a budget and can’t afford the higher-priced stuff, this did an impressive job.

As for the other tousle me soft products, I tried the tousling spray gel too. It didn’t work on my hair nearly as well as either cream. My hair was crunchy and sticky. I’m keeping the flexible hold hairspray ‘cause I’m sure it will suit me fine and the wild violet and pomegranate scent is fresh but not overpowering. I gave the shampoo, conditioner and mousse away to a couple friends.

Whether I’ll keep the curly, tousled look over the fall, the verdict is still out but the tousled look seems to be sticking around for a while.

Have you tried either of these products? Do you have hair like me that’s neither naturally curly nor straight but somewhere in between? What are your favourite summer hair tricks?

Winner what ageless beauty means to you giveaway

We have a winner! Thanks to Random Interger Generator, commenter #6 The MeFest Team gets the Olay product prize pack. Congrats! (Please email me with your contact info. so we can make sure to get you your goodies.)

Here’s her winning comment:

“As long as there is a smile on your face, you are beautiful!”

I thought all your entries were wonderful, creative and captured the essence of the ageless beauty theme. You can read the rest of them on the original post.

Thanks everyone for playing and to Palette PR and Olay for the awesome giveaway package . Stay tuned for some more giveaways in the next few weeks.

Note: My comments were excluded from the count.

Giveaway: what ageless beauty means to you

The nice folks at Palette PR keep sending me lovely gifts. (I’ve been using Olay Total Effects Daily Moisturizer for the past few weeks and so far, so good.) It will take me a while to try them all.

I really wanted to be able to share the goodness with you as soon as possible, so I asked if we could do a giveaway of some new Olay products that caught my eye. They agreed.

Here’s the prize:
• Olay Complete Ageless Skin Renewing UV Lotion, SPF 20 (suggested retail price $30.99)
• Olay Complete Ageless Rejuvenating Lathering Cleanser (suggested retail price $14.99)
• Olay Complete Ageless Eye Brightening Cream (suggested retail price $30.99)
• Olay Body Wash plus Tone Enriching Ribbons (suggested retail price $8.99)
• Olay Quench Advanced Relief Body Lotion (suggested retail price $8.99)

It’s summertime and the living is easy so just leave a comment and in 140 characters or less, explain what ageless beauty means to you. Entries are due no later than August 21, 11:59 p.m. ET. A winner will be chosen at random and announced by August 23.

The fine print
You must be a Canadian resident to win, 1 comment = 1 entry.