March Prize Draw at My Real Life Reviews

For the March prize here at My Real Life Reviews; I am so pleased to be able to offer one of my absolute favorite products as my first prize in the monthly giveaways: the CreaClip!

The CreaClip has been very well-received by millions of fans from around the world and for good reasons.  This innovative hair-cutting tool can save you and your family hundreds of dollars every year! Visit the CreaClip site to see more testimonials and watch helpful instructional videos for dozens of hairstyles. Makes a wonderful gift too.

Speaking of gifts, I can only imagine what some parents "shell out" every month or so, for kid's haircuts, in addition to their own. The CreaClip can easily put an end to that "cash-drain". A savings of mega $$$, in no time at all!

And SO easy to use; the CreaClip actually makes cutting hair at home a fun experience. I know, because I've used it many times already!You can read my full review with photos of the CreaClip here. I'm not surprised that this review is in my top 5 read reviews, week after week.

                                                  

To enter to win a free CreaClip (retail price: $29.95 and includes free postage and handling ) leave a comment for this post.

That's it. That's all. Easy peasy!  :<)

One entry per person. Open to all readers, wherever you live!
                                

The winner will be chosen at the end of the month, by a random generated system.
                                 
                                     

**I know a lot of people aren't comfortable sharing their email addresses on sites/blogs (me included!) so I'm just going to post the winner of each draw, the first week of the following month.Check back then and if you are the winner, send along your mailing info. to my email address: MRLR at myway dot com and I will get your prize sent out! **

Winners will have one month to claim their prize. If not claimed, I'll pick another winner.

And DO spread the word on your blogs,Facebook, Twitter, site pages... Stay tuned for next month's prize draw too. Just in time for Earth Month!

Thank you for your continued support and readership, here at My Real Life Reviews. It's been very gratifying to see the continued increase in monthly visitors and from all over the world.

Good luck with the draw! G :<)

Tints of Nature Permanent Hair Color

After trying out and reviewing the wonderful hair-cutting system: CreaClip a week ago and giving my hair a significant snip; I continued with my hair-improvement "mission" this past weekend.

My tresses got a long-overdue hair coloring, using Tints of Nature in 5N Natural Light Brown. I actually had left my hair very neglected in terms of any coloring for over a year. Giving it a rest I guess. And rather lazy on my part too. And it certainly needed coloring, especially at the front where my hair had become a real mess of grey, white and faded brown. 

                       

 Here's a photo taken at the front of my head, before coloring:

                        

                                 

               

Photo after coloring with Tints of Nature. Natural Light Brown:



                                                                                   

This is a flash photo (not the best) as it was rather dark and cloudy here on the weekend. The color is  a rich, even brown. I would say more of a medium brown actually.  My hair also feels like it's in  better condition, after coloring with Tints of Nature, softer and easier to style. Best of all, the fresh color is a big improvement over my former "patchwork grey"  look!

                                               

From the Tints of Nature website:

Tints of Nature is the only available line of permanent hair colors to use natural, certified organic ingredients wherever feasible. The highly effective formula also has a naturally derived base. It is paraben free and contains no harsh ammonia, resorcinol or nonoxynol, thus helping to ensure damage free results. We use extra mild, low odor, pharmaceutical grade peroxide and the lowest possible percentage of PPD pigments (Paraphenylenediamines) - ranging from 1N (the darkest) at 2.0% to 10XL (the lightest) at 0.03% - giving an average of 0.6% across the line. You can darken your hair by several shades, lighten it by 1- 1 1/2 shades, simply match or even enhance your natural color, and gently but effectively cover all gray hair. You can choose the color and we take care of the condition - leaving your hair soft and silky with a deep and lasting shine.

                           

What did I like about this product?

First of all, any hair color product that cuts down significantly on harmful or questionable ingredients has my vote and interest, right off the bat. Having said that, it's still got to work and work well.

Tints of Nature actually colored my hair better than the mainstream commercial permanent color brands (ie Clairol etc..) I used years ago. In recent years, I had been trying out a variety of semi-permanents and other products like henna, sage rinse....

It wasn't messy to apply. When mixed and ready to use, it has a thick consistency that barely dripped.

There was plenty of product to cover all my hair and I have a lot of hair!

The kit came complete with a generous sample of color safe shampoo and also a conditioner.

And what didn't I like?

 When the hair color product was first mixed and applied to my hair it had a strong, kind of "fishy" smell, which lasted for several minutes and then diminished. Not unbearable by any means but some odor, which is not unexpected with hair coloring.

The shampoo was rather frothy and hard to rinse out, I realized afterwards that I could have used only half the packet to wash my hair and it would have been enough.

 The conditioner had a strong, perfumey scent which I didn't like but again not unbearable. I'm not much of a fan of strong scents in products at any time.

Not a negative comment but it would be great if this company offered a smaller re-touch size product kit as well. I don't like throwing away product that I can't use and this full-size kit will definitely be too much product when I re-touch my hair in a few weeks from now. And re-touch I will!

I'm so happy to finally "wash that grey right out of my hair". It was long overdue.

  

Overall rating for this product: Very Good. 4 out of 5.

CreaClip (haircutting system)

It's not too often that I can say I am very excited about a new product. But that's exactly how I feel, after giving CreaClip a try, this past weekend.

If you are tired of shelling out hundreds of dollars every year on haircuts and trims for you and for your family, CreaClip can provide a welcome $$$ break and not at the expense of getting a good haircut either.

I wanted to give this product a try by having someone who has NO haircutting experience to test it out. My husband Joe was perfect for this hair experiment! Not only does he lack any kind of haircutting training, the whole idea of cutting hair BEFORE trying CreaClip, scared him silly! Now he wants to open his own salon LOL. He actually said it was fun. And it took out all the guesswork when it came to cutting hair. 

On the other hand, I do have training as a hair stylist from years ago and still cut hair for friends and family now. But I know for anyone without that kind of training, cutting hair can be a daunting task. And definitely with unpredictable (and yes sometimes really bad) results.

Enter CreaClip. Talk about an innovative product.

I won't go into all the details of how CreaClip was developed as they have a very informative website  that not only explains how CreaClip works but includes numerous how-to videos that are very helpful for all types of haircuts you might want to try.

The only thing that I noted there that I didn't agree with was allowing for a couple of inches of shrinkage when placing the clip on someone's hair. As CreaClip is used on dry hair, that's not really a concern in my opinion. But I do agree with the advice that when in doubt, cut less. You can always cut again if need be.

Here's my own experience with CreaClip shared in photos:
                            

My oh so neglected hair, overdue for a trim.

                         

               

The larger CreaClip in place, ready for the big snip!

                         

                 

Over 3" of frizzy ends, gone!

                          

I sectioned off my front hair in ponytails.

                          

On to the sides, ready to snip, using the smaller CreaClip.

                                           

We used the smaller clip on the sides as my hair is very thick and Joe didn't want to attempt any layering at the back. This variation worked great.

Each clip has a level in the center (how clever is that!) so that you can be assured of a even cut across. Gripper teeth hold the hair in place but don't pull on hair. Joe did suggest holding the large clip when cutting across, to insure it stays in place. This step may not be necessary with thinner hair though.

And the great results.
                      
                        

      

The  "un-glam" (heh, Sunday is Bathrobe Day here) but definitely happy results!
                                  

The CreaClip kit comes complete with the large clip used for the back hair and smaller clip which is suitable for bangs and angle cuts on the side and printed instructions. As far as detailed instructions though, their website is really the place to go. You'll feel confident trying CreaClip after you check out the numerous videos there, I'm sure. And for less than the price of one haircut, you can order your CreaClip and say goodbye to expensive salon visits.

PS: And stay tuned for Part 2 of my hair transformation!

I'll be testing out and reviewing a new natural hair color product here soon.

                

Overall rating for this product: Excellent. 5 out of 5.