I've been anticipating the end of classes partly because I wanted to get my blog back on track! I'm now finally able to put up this post!!!
As of this monday April 8th 2013, I'm eligible for my Makeup and Airbrush Diploma! :) Now just waiting for my diploma and final portfolio prints to come in. I'll mention a little bit about that last shoot in this post. We were working with photographer David Hou
www.DavidHou.com (and it was an absolute privilege to work with him!) and when he had saw me holding the KMS hairspray he commented that he loves KMS California products and the flexibility that they give to hair styling! I wish I had asked for the name of the product, but he said it's a certain pomade product.
So foremost, a quick thank you to KMS for making me stand out to the professional :)
NOW, let's start the review!
I've used these products for about a month now and I feel that it's about time for a thorough review.
A very special thanks to Yasmin from
Kao Canada Inc. for sending these products to me to try out. I'm so thrilled to have been able to test out these great quality products and have them for my upcoming hair courses at the School of Professional Makeup!
"Kao Canada Inc., is a leading manufacturer of premium beauty care brands that are recognized around the world for their innovation and quality."
In addition to manufacturing brands such as Goldwell and KMS California, they are also the manufacturers of these popular brands that I'm sure you've heard of before (and more)!
On to the review shall we?
When I had first propped open the well-packaged box, I was SHOCKED at the amount of things that were inside. Yasmin had told me she'd be sending me samples to review, and of course I happily accepted (just a note to my readers, I frequently turn DOWN reviews as sometimes I am simply not interested or feel that the product won't be beneficial to me or the demographic of readers on my blog) -- I was just expecting a deluxe size sample of everything, at most! BUt anyway I was so PUMPED to try everything out and the products still live up to their hype a month later as I am reviewing them :) I can't wait to use them in school and on my future clients.
The second emotion that I felt was utter confusion (I'm actually really horrible with doing hair, hence I need the hair course) so naturally I went and tried out the product that I was the most familiar with, and that was the bottle of hairspray!
1. PLAYABLE TEXTURE (hairspray) - KMS California
The first thing that I had noticed about this product was that it has a very convenient packaging! Not only do I love the current colour scheme of the KMS California products but I love that I'll never have to go looking for a LID when I use the hairspray!! Drives me nuts when I knock over a lid or have it go missing or I can't put it on properly in the first try and it's lopsided =_=.
Love love love!!!! The packaging!!! :)))
Since starting school, the girls that I had met at school (including my instructor) have been constantly been telling me not to wash my hair everyday (I couldn't help it! Noone ever told me that it was wrong until my very late teens. It's hard to break a bad habit), and so for this review I did not wash my hair for 3 days and I sprayed my hair with the KMS California Playable Texture hairspray only ONCE when I had done my hair on NIGHT 1.
I had curled my hair, sprayed my whole head (except for the crown/roots) twice, took a photo and called it a night. I slept comfortably in the hairstyle, my hair was still flexible and smooth and very easy to comb through with a brush or my fingers. So far so good!
24 hours later:
At this point I was killing myself not to wash my hair for the sake of this review LOL BUT as you can see even though the top of my head had gotten flatter (because of oil produced on my scalp + weight of hair + sleeping on hair, my curls were still holding! I was impressed. I went to bed again and..........
12 Hours later
At school I had one of my classmates take this photo of my hair. At this point (3rd day of not washing hair) I had no choice but to put my hair into a pony tail or my scalp would be constantly screaming for a good shampooing! As you can see the curls in my hair are still really distinct, and keep in mind I did NOT spray again. I didn't spray again not only because I was trying to fairly test out the product's capabilities, but I also didn't want to add anymore things onto my hair.
I am happy that I had done this for the review because guess what bad habit that I ended up breaking (once I had found out that it's really not that bad)?? YEYYY YEAHH I had stopped washing my hair everyday! It took a while to get used to but now I wash it on every third day instead =) And my scalp has fully adapted to that in 3 weeks and as a result, it doesn't produce oil like crazy on the 2nd day and my hair feels much much healthier in general.
Before I had gone out at night on NIGHT 3, I had introduced a
second product just to get rid of the flyaway stray and baby hairs. I usually use this product for just this on pony tail days. I use it for either a clean but lazy pony tail or for a sleek, pin straight editorial and high pony tail.
2. Molding Paste - KMS California
"Provides texture, definition and pliable hold.
Use: Work through towel-dried hair for shaping and texture. Use in dry hair for definition."
I really love the new packaging! I'm a big fan of this product! I didn't realize that I actually own it because well.. the packaging had changed! Ever so slightly though. I mean the actual physical packaging is the same form. It's also still in a convenient pump plastic bottle but the theme of colours are much ediger, fun, bright, eye-catching and the writing is much more clear and contrasting against the main background colour.
My brother and I both use this product. He uses it to style his longish hipster bangs to the side and I use it to neaten up my pony tail.
It's texture (starts off a viscous white paste) disappears instantly and doesn't leave a SHINE like the one you get from using gel. Although it's not entirely matte, it has a nice subtle SHEEN to it.
So this was 8+ hours later after the photo that was taken in class my hair looks like this. The curls looked like they've barely changed. I used just a breath of the product (molding paste) to smooth down my hair and re-pinned it (NOTE: I don't even have to use water, the product appears sticky and white when pumped out of the bottle BUT just disappears once you work it into the hair). Even though my hair is oily at this point, the product doesn't make it look greasier. The integrity of the texture of my hair is still nicely maintained.
3. Clay Creme & Messing Creme - KMS California
I used the clay creme and the messing creme together.
In terms of Flexibility I would say from .....
MOST flexible (but less strong hold) ---------> to LEAST flexible (stronger hold) it'd be:
KMS California:
MESSING CREME ---> MOLDING PASTE ---> CLAY CREME
1) Messing creme:
"Instantly creates grip and fullness for a lived-in, 2nd-day style. Use: Work through towel-dried hair and air or blow dry for fullness. Use on dry hair for 2nd-day texture."
2) Clay Creme:
Creates roughed-up texture and strong, flexible hold with a matte finish. Use: Work through towel-dried hair and air dry for roughed-up style. Use in dry hair to sculpt."
So to me, molding paste (2nd reviewed product) is like the inbetween product of messing creme and clay creme when I want FLEXIBILITY and medium-strong HOLD, I use the molding paste.
This is my friend CZ (blocking his face for privacy), he was happily forced into being my hair model (and as well as my makeup model on some occasions) :D haha! Just kidding he volunteered.
In both styles I had used both the Messing Creme AND the Clay creme but different RATIOS of both.
STYLE 1:
I had first used MAINLY (5/6th of) the MESSING CREME, to give his dull hairstyle a quick little flavour: With the hairs that were less cooperative, I put in just a breath (1/6th) of CLAY CREME to hold them in place. I wanted to give him just a really effortless style and give his hair some volume. This style took literally 2 minutes to do, and probably 1 minute had I not been a perfectionist. With the MESSING CREME smoothed out on my fingers I ran my fingers through the hairs and pushed them in the opposite direction of growth and then just styled the hairs into the directions that I had wanted to achieve the look. With the uncooperative hair pieces I put a little bit of CLAY CREME to keep them in place.
STYLE 2:
This second style my boyfriend likes to call "HK celebrity style" LOL. Apparently a lot of the older male HK stars like to do the comb over. I just wanted to test out the hold power of the CLAY CREME.
The majority of this hairstyle was CLAY CREME, and I used a bit of the MESSING CREME to just push his baby hairs at the front and flyaways into place without putting too much product into his hair. His hair definitely required the CLAY CREME to do the comb over style. He has very thick and dense (lots of it!) hair and the CLAY CREME's strong hold makes it easy to achieve this style in less than 3 minutes. It took a little bit more time because I wanted to comb it over but give it a little volume at the same time. I spread the product through his hair (after making his hair a little damp), combed it through with a comb and then used the comb to hold down the TIP of the hair while pushing back and LIFTING the middle of the hair for some added volume! (give's some curves/roundness to the top of his head to look like volume).
KMS California also has a little handy lookbook of hairstyle inspirations and steps to achieve them!
4. ELIXIR - GOLDWELL
I've saved the best product for last. I am so happy to have received this product and I can say after a month of usage it is now, without a doubt, my favourite oil treatment product.
WHY favourite?
1) SMELL: The first thing that I had noticed about it was that it did NOT have a heavy oil smell. The colour of the bottle made me fear trying out a product that may be sweet smelling. I don't prefer the smell of sweet oils in my hair (not a fan of coconut oil/shea butter in my hair - easily get headaches). It smells fresh, light, like an expensive salon product that I always want to put into my hair! I don't know how else to describe it. Smells like a really refined product.
2) PUMP BOTTLE: I fell in love with the way that the bottle looks. The colour, the name of the product, and the fact that it pumps out just the right amount that you will need to spread in your palms and work through your hair.
3) LIGHT & NON-GREASY: I put 3 pumps (1 at a time) of this product into my hair on a day that the air feels extra drying. The bottom of my hair is extremely rough and dry and as I work more into my hair it gets silkier and smoother each time BUT NEVER BECOMES HEAVY or WET LOOKING or GREASY LOOKING.
Side note: I am a huge fan of Biosilk (I'm sure a lot of you have heard about it and have used it), I've mentioned it many times on this blog and have been a fan of it for probably a decade. I also refuse to try other oils/serums because I love it so much.
Elixir reminds me a lot of the quality of biosilk but feels a lot more refined, better packaged, smells just as great, and I even feel that it works a little better (the "doesn't become oily" part really sells me because a little too much of some oils and you have this really wet look). You can also put it into your hair while it is DAMP. I put in quite a bit of the Elixir when I want my hair to be super silky and so far I haven't had break outs from the hair touching my face, and it doesn't feel heavy what-so-ever. I don't feel the effect of the oil making my hair greasier by day two and normally I avoid putting too much serum/oil in my hair because of that reason.
So there you have it, that's why this is my fav product out of the bunch and it's also become my new favourite oil treatment for my hair. I've been using it everyday since I've received it and my hair feels a lot healthier and a lot less tangled!
Before I had cut my hair this month (ew..), my ends were super dry and dead (still are but a lot better than this photo!). After I had put in the Elixir and took a photo (with flash), you can really see the healthy shine that it's given my hair and it's helped to calm the frizzies and soften the look of my dead ends.
Speaking of hair, here's a sneak peak at our photoshoots on the last day of school. KMS California Playable Texture Spray was used in the hair of both of the models to hold their curls.
Below in the pink head piece is Ceileigh, my second model of the day. I wanted to give her a really soft look with beautiful soft curly locks. Makeup and Hair piece done by yours truly and Hair done by talented Sasha Muir.
One of my classmates (Kasia on the RIGHT) had bought her own hairstylist (
Sasha Muir) and she ended up helping all of us with the hair for our shoots (bless her soul!). She was using her own hairspray at first and then after I had brought out the KMS California during touch up, she had asked me to use my hairspray instead because it holds curls much better in straight hair than her spray does.
I can't wait until our actual PRINTS come in, our photographer was AH....just AMAZING. We all ended up with very strong shots for our portfolios.
And Lastly,
Yasmin had mentioned to me that KMS California's Messing Creme had won the German Packaging Award!
How cool that their packaging reflects the capabilities of their Messing Crème product to create a messy second-day look and texture for the hair!
A special thanks again to Yasmin (Kao Canada Inc.), to KMS California and Goldwell for this opportunity to review the products. I enjoyed them very much and I can't wait to apply them to my Hairworks program!
~ Valentina
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