LesleyKat

Aveda Damage Remedy Review and Giveaway [GIVEAWAY CLOSED]

lesleykat — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:28:17 EST

I've always been one of those people who likes to experiment with their hair. While it can yield pretty results, there is usually heat or chemicals involved. While I have sworn off color treatments for the last couple of years (that might change soon though. Stay tuned...) I have also not taken as much care of my hair as I should. Mostly due to the fact that haircuts and treatment in nyc are very expensive. While I have been able to find a couple of good drug store hair products, they are for the most part, unimpressive. I have even tried pretty high end products to find that some just dont justify their price. My hair stil has a mind of it's own and doesn't like to do what it's told.

A few weeks back I started using the Damage Remedy line from Aveda after receiving a treatment at their soho location. I've been using it ever since then and I must say I really enjoy the products. The shampoo is gentle but does a good job of striping out the old funk and gunk out. After all, I only wash but 2 times a week, 3 if I get sweaty or if it's summer. Out of the entire line I really like the Intensive Restructuring Treatment. It has a way of just releasing any tangles with very little effort. I usually have to use a wide-toothed comb and a little elbow grease to get tangles out. This stuff just releases them. It's pretty amazing. I like to use a big squirt of the Restructuring Conditioner with a small squirt of the Intensive Restructuring Treatment mixed in.

One of the greatest things about Aveda products are the amazing scents. They're very herbal and natural smelling not like other products that are purfumey or sweet smelling. I just can't stop sniffing my hair!

Overall I really like the Damage Remedy line and I'm going to use every last drop of it!. If the beast known as winter is taking its wrath out on your hair or you use a lot of heat on your hair this stuff will help nourish and pamper it to restore moisture.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

To win a set of Aveda Damage Remedy Shampoo, Conditioner and 2 treatments (retail value $101) LIKE Aveda on facebook and leave a comment below telling me about your hair and why you could uses some Damage Remedy.

For an additional entry Follow me on twitter and tweet: "RT to win! @lesleykat I want to win @Aveda #DamageRemedy"

RULES: Contest ends Friday January 13, midnight EST. Open to US Residents only. One winner will be chosen at random and notified via email, or direct message on twitter. If winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. Maximum 2 entries per person, any additional entries will be disqualified. Any twitter entries that are not following @lesleykat will be disqualified. Good luck!

Info from Aveda on the family of products:

Damage Remedy™ Restructuring Shampoo, $24: Our gentle daily shampoo helps repair damage with quinoa protein, while nurturing with rich coconut and babassu-lending new life to hair.

part of a three-step restructuring system
helps hair weakened by chemical processes, heat styling and environmental exposure
babassu and coconut-based cleansing formula is kind to damaged hair
with quinoa protein-to help strengthen and repair hair from the inside out

Damage Remedy™ Restructuring Conditioner, $24: Our daily conditioning formula with quinoa protein helps repair and re-moisturize damaged hair-infusing it anew with healthy movement, silkiness and shine.

part of a three-step restructuring system
helps hair weakened by chemical processes, heat styling and environmental exposure
formula blends phellodendron, sandalwood and barley to smooth the hair cuticle
with quinoa protein-to help strengthen and repair hair from the inside out

Damage Remedy™ Intensive Restructuring Treatment, $29: Our intensive weekly treatment deeply penetrates to help repair, seal and smooth even the most damaged hair. Using the power of pure plant oils and quinoa protein, it restores health, silkiness and shine.

part of a three-step restructuring system
helps strengthen hair weakened by chemical processes, heat styling and environmental exposure
quinoa protein penetrates the hair shaft, working from inside to help strengthen and repair
phellodendron and barley seal in moisture
castor, jojoba and meadowfoam seed oils smooth hair's surface

Damage Remedy™ Daily Hair Repair, $24: Our daily leave-in treatment instantly repairs damaged hair by 26%*, helps protect from heat styling and detangles to help prevent further damage.

Certified organically-derived quinoa protein penetrates hair to instantly repair damage and strengthen from the inside out.
Wheat protein helps protect from heat styling-such as blow-drying and ironing.
Soy-derived oil detangles to help prevent further damage and breakage.
Certified organic essential oils including bergamot, mandarin and ylang ylang provide an uplifting aroma.

FTC Disclosure: I recieved the deep conditioning treatment and set of products from Aveda. Giveaway price will be furnished by Aveda. Image provided by Aveda.

Five Resolutions for Digital Zen in 2012

lesleykat — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:05:45 EST

We are 4 days into 2012 and I have already successfully completed a few of my digital resolutions. While these are my resolutions, they are something we should all think about doing. Organization makes life easier but it also takes practice. Lets start 2012 off right!

PS. I know this isn't my usual type of post but I thought maybe it might inspire a few of you out there. Hope you enjoy!

1. Sort and organize RSS feeds

I subscribe to ALOT of blogs as I am sure many of you do. Monday I took some time and cleaned out my feeds. I sorted them into folder and unsubscribed to dead feeds. It feels so good to look at a clean dashboard. (I use google reader to manage my feeds.)

2. Create meaningful lists on twitter

The more momentum twitter gains the more unmanageable it seems to become. Its important to filter out the noise and focus on what you need when you need it. I have divided the people I follow into a few lists. Note, I keep my lists private for the most part. I like keeping my filters to myself but public lists are just fine. My lists include:

Friends: these are people I know and see often in real life.
Bloggers: duh, this one is pretty self-explanatory.
Brands: these are brands and stores I subscribe to.
News: news feeds that don't apply to fashion, beauty, etc... real life stuff because hey, I don't read newspapers.

I will probably be adding more specific lists when I finally get around to doing this especially since I'm going to seek out additional people to follow for things like organization, tech, design, photography, etc... I am a renaissance woman after all. I like to soak up as much info as possible. Oh and I'm a big fan of seesmic web for watching my feeds.

3. Simplify digital workflow
Seeking out and using tools like Dropbox & Evernote to create a more seamless workflow for myself. I store most of my photography on my laptop at home but sometimes I need to access specific things when I am in the office. I use dropbox to allow myself access. When I am on the go I like to use Evernote to jot down ideas and even write entire posts, sans photos. (I am writing this post right now in Evernote) I can start off a post on my iphone and finish it off on the web.All my notes are synced on all my devices. Love it! I am still searching out additional tools as I move forward.

4. Email filters

I have a love hate relationship with email. I feel like it's this nagging thing that becomes so overwhelming, annoying and unmanageable. Instead of unsubscribing to all of blasts that companies send I am finally putting filters in place to keep them out of my inbox and corral them in their own little place, the "Blasts" folder. At one point I was getting 10+ emails a day from various flash sale sites. Its just too much for a girl to take! Now I can browse them when I want and soon I will have inbox zen. (Big sigh of relief)

5. Digital bookkeeping

I am terrible at keeping my finances in order. I usually pay all my bills last minute and sometimes even forget. (SO BAD, I know!) I'd like to make an effort to change all that in 2012. While Mint still freaks me out a bit I know that I need a tool to help me get my spending and bill paying under control. Mint helps you track all your accounts and tells you where/on what your money is being spent. I'd like to start being adult about my finances so this is a resolution needs to be tackled sooner rather than later.

What are your digital resolutions? Have any tips for me? Share!!

Imaginary Beauty Products: Dior J'adore Scented Nail Lacquer

lesleykat — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:15:50 EST

The other day I read an article about scented nail polish and it got me thinking. What if instead of the nail polish coming in ridiculous scents like grape and cotton candy (um, hello! we're adults) it could smell like your favorite designer fragrance? I let my creative (and photoshop) juices flow and came up with a few examples of what I would like.

Dior J'adore Nail Lacquer would be my beauty dream come true. They'd be super multi-dimensional with crystallized pigments that look like crushed jewels. When they dried they would have the scent of my signature fragrance, Dior J'adore. They'd probably retail for $30 and I would buy every single one of them! Of course they'd be shaped like the fragrance bottle because they're super limited edition and highly coveted.

"Tricolore"
Named after the French flag. A royal blue jelly base with flecks of red and white glitter.

"Roquefort"
Named after one of France's most notoriously stinky cheeses. A champagne colored sheer base with 3 sizes of hex glitter in antique gold, champagne and light gold.

"Ciel Nocturne"
Named after the night sky as seen from the French countryside. A Black base with hyper-reflective multi-chrome glass-fleck finish.

"Rosas Salvajes"
Named after wild roses. A deep red-pink jelly base with glass-fleck shimmers of gold and baby pink.

If you could create your own dream product what would it be?

Inside the Industry: Behind The Photoshop Curtain

lesleykat — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:45:39 EST

I work at an advertising/marketing agency that specializes in fashion retail, and I have a few thoughts on Photoshop and the industry that I'd like to share. I spend a lot of hours out of my day cleaning up photographs of super beautiful models both male and female. We enhance our images by booking photographers that specialize in fashion. We bring out certain features, mood, and emotions using makeup, lighting, composition and styling. Photoshop is just another one of those of tools used to make a photo more appealing to the eye. Photoshop is not the enemy folks, it's the abuse of photoshop that is.

Banning Photoshop in ads will NOT make much difference because the beauty world will still find a way around it. Whether it's lash extensions or just finding models who are naturally blessed with long, lush lashes they will book THOSE girls for mascara ads. I can't imagine what will be done for foundation ads.

We are used to looking at idealized representations of human form. Before the days of photoshop, images were literally airbrushed, recolored, cut apart and put back together to do some of the same things I do in photohop every day. It took a lot longer, but the results were still pretty good. In the world before photography, artists and illustrators often idealized human forms. If you were to open up an old Sears catalog you'd see a lot of long-legged women with tiny waists and perfect-looking hair and features. Human beings like to look at beautiful things. Our eyes/brains are naturally attracted to them. Do you think Mona Lisa never had a zit on her face? I betcha she did but it certainly wasn't added into her famous portrait.

My point is that advertising is a fantasy. Its about making you feel that if you buy product X then you will look/feel/be like the people in the ads. I guess what's making people so upset is when product X doesn't live up to the expectations.

We start with a RAW image. On set a style is applied that enhances the photo right away. These can range from color correction, brightness, contrast, even pushing colors into blacks and whites. This stylizes the photo right away. Many photographers have certain "curves" that they apply that define their style. A few specific examples are photographers who have very specific styles include Guy Aroch and Mary Ellen Mathews. Then the images are marked up for retouching. The usual stuff includes cleaning up skin, delete dark circles, enhance clothes and makeup (on women) and even cleaning up hair. Further color shifts are made to enhance style and product.

For beauty retouching the general process goes a little something like this: general cleanup followed by more detail work like deleting wrinkles, enhancing color of skin and even tweaking facial features. As you can see in the above GIF I have arched the brows more, slimmed the nose and enhanced the chin by pushing it out slightly. The skin has been stripped of all freckles and pores/natural texture. Additional "light" has been added by darkening shadows and lightening high planes of the face where the light is naturally reflecting. If the model is wearing lipstick the lips are cleaned up and often reshaped. (Not the case in this photo) The backgrounds was finessed to POP the face. The hairline was filled and cleaned up. Oh, did I mention the eyelashes? You see the makeup was enhanced dramatically by cleaning up the edges and darkening the rims of the eyes. Also lightening of the eyes and reducing the redness of the inner tear duct pops the eyes.

This type of retouching happens to just about every ad you see. Sometimes less and sometimes WAY more.

PS. Just so you all know, I do not do this extent of retouching to my own photos for this site. I will clean a spot or two if necessary but NOTHING to the degree demonstrated in the above GIF.

Mani Monday: Glitzy Gold nails perfect for New Years

lesleykat — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:25:33 EST

I know NYE is a little ways away still but don't tell me you haven't considered a few nail options yet? Right? Yeah, that's what I thought. For this glittering glory I started with 3 coats of Maybelline Express Finish, 650 Sunlight. You can get away with 2 but I like 3 since this polish is on the sheer side. I then topped it with a couple of coats of Sally Girl, Chunky Gold Glitter. This glitter is a little tricky to apply because instead of swiping like a normal polish you have to dab it to place the glitter where you want. I love the 2 different sizes of glitter so I don't mind applying it this way at all.

What do you think? Is this nail look perfect for NYE or what?
PS. Click through to see what it looks like with a coat of Essie, Matte About You on top. Spoiler alert... it's really awesome.

For the matte look...

KEEP READING...

A Festive Jeweled Forest Green Manicure with Zoya and Forever21

lesleykat — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:54:52 EST

Well I missed mani monday but I am making up for it with this awesome combo for you all! I have been sitting on these Forever21 Love & Beauty glitter polishes for a couple of months now. I finally pulled them out monday night and I am so happy I did!

I started with 2 coats of Zoya, Verushka which is one of Zoya's matte velvet colors. Its a rich warm forest green and when topped with clear it comes alive with beautiful shimmer. I then added 1 coat of Forever21 Love & Beauty, Turquoise. It has tiny holographic circle glitter and large hex glitter. With an almost tone-on-tone color combo it adds a richness and depth to make this combo look awesome! I was so pleased with the results. I think it's perfect for the holiday season. I hope you all enjoy.

Have any of you out there tried the Forever21 Love & Beauty polishes? thoughts?

It's a Holiday Craft Up!

lesleykat — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:05:35 EST

Hey kittens! If you're in the NYC area and want to join me for a craft up this coming sunday well you're in luck! I'll be co-hosting a craft up with my girl Sonia (@alwaysinstyle). We're starting at 3:30pm and going until we run out of materials... or get too tipsy to glitter anymore.

If you're interested in coming simply RSVP to me lesley@lesleykat.com to get the address. While you're at it, check out my DIY Pinterest board.

Hope to see you there!

Mani Monday: Snow Globe Nails

lesleykat — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:30:33 EST

This weeks's manicure is a snow globe inspired look. I used 2 coats of Color Club, Sheer Disguise as my base color. It closely resembles the grey-blue color that the sky becomes when it's snowy. I then used LASplash, Great White and a dotting tool to carefully place my snow flakes, which are more like snow balls, but whatever. I made them more dense at the bottom to resemble accumulation. I then topped it all off with Sally Girl, So Disco to give it a bit of winter magic.

Now if only that snow would just get here already! Enjoy kittens.

Flavorful Green: Avocado with Vinaigrette

lesleykat — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:48:38 EST

The French are great at making simple food outstanding. At dinner one night on my European holiday we ordered avocado vinaigrette and it might be the 3rd best thing I've eaten in my life. (The first is a ridiculously good almond croissant, the second being cheesey fondue.) Who knew something so simple could be so delicious?

I recreated it last night with a couple of tweeks. The dish I had in France was made with watercress but my crappy grocery store doesn't carry such "fancy" items.

For recipe and instructions KEEP READING

#2011MUC round up from the last couple of weeks

lesleykat — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:08:16 EST

YO! Happy thursday dear kittens! I hope your weeks are all going well. I've got a little photo spam for you rounding up my favorite looks from the #2011MUC (2011 make challenge) from the past couple of weeks. Sorry for the inconsistent lighting/color. I've been messing with my camera's manual modes trying to push its limits a little more.

We're planning on going to the end of the month with this challenge. If you want to join just upload your images to twitter and use the hashtag #2011MUC. Check out all the other contributer's posts at the offish tumblr blog.

Here we go! Hint: Click the pictiures to view them full size and hit the link underneath for product lists.

11.15.11 Green Screen

11.17.11 Vintage french

11.29.11 Teal cat eye

look from 11.30.11, A lesson in bright liner

12.1.11 Smokey duochrome red-green