.:: CybeleSays ::.

With this line brings the second time this year I’ve heard about the topic of pH and hair care products, as in, keeping the pH level of shampoo and styling products between a certain range will help keep treatments longer. Why is this good? From what I understand, a product’s pH plays a big factor in how long your hair color or treatment stays in the strands. When you have hair color put in for example, the cuticle must be opened up to deposit the formula, and it must be above a 5.5. So if you use a shampoo and other styling products that have a high pH, you are opening the cuticle and removing the color/treatment every time you use them. Makes sense.

When I met with the very knowledgeable Cindy from Zerrans here, they were the first ones to bring this fact up to me and their line is also pH-friendly. So now you’re probably wondering how the products you currently have in your bathroom will fair. If you’re up for it, Cindy says to get some litmus paper and test them. Yup, the same litmus paper you used to use in science class, and test your shampoos and conditioners. Bring on science class 101 again! Anyway, back to the products. The line is called SOJOURN and was created by Vidal Sassoon’s son Elan, so you know he knows something about hair, right? He studied the hair in its natural state and determined that the idea pH range is 4.5 to 5.5 so all the products fall in that range or lower. And they also incorporate keratin into the formula with what they call Keratin Cashmere Protein to really help moisturize strands and keep it strong. The line is also 100% biodegradable and free from parabens, formaldehyde, and sulfates.

And he’s made it easy for us to get the most out of the line by breaking it into four different collections – Smooth (the peach bottles), Moisture (the sky blue bottles), Volume (the moss colored bottles) and the one I tried, Colour Preserve (the ivory bottles shown here). Prices range between $20 and $26 @ sojournbeauty.com for salons.

Ok, you get your ubber-expensive Brazilian Blowout or whatever your salon is calling the Keratin hair treatments these days and now what? How do you keep the super-straightness of it for as long as possible? Yes, sulfate-free is now your main business but two new companies have not made it their business to help you keep it straight for as long as possible too.

KERATIN PERFECT – Exclusive to Sephora, this line contains:
PerfectCleanse Keratin Enhanced Shampoo ($24/8.5oz)
PerfectSilk Keratin Enhanced Conditioner ($24/8.5oz)
PerfectRenew Daily Keratin Replenishing Spray ($34/6.7oz)
PerfectRescue Intense Keratin Repair Serum ($40/1.7oz)
PerfectShine Keratin Oil ($40/1.7oz).

This line uses a very tech-forward process called ReBonding Techology, which penetrates the hair to repair any weak Keratin bonds and keeps strands frizz-free and manageable. The Repair Serum has been my go-to for the past few weeks and I really feel this one fills in the nooks and crannies as my straightening treatment slowly washes away. Get them @ sephora.com.

GLOSS MODERNE - Line contains:
High-Gloss Shampoo ($27.50/8oz)
High-Gloss Conditioner ($28.50/8oz)
High-Gloss-Serum ($26/4oz)
High-Gloss Masque ($32/4oz) and you can purchase all four products for $114.

Their products contain Keratin, panthenol and botanicals like coconut and passion fruit extract among others to help keep hair 180 degrees from frizzy. And these have a Coco de Soleil scent to them, which is a blend of coconut, almond and rum and was created in a fragrance house just for these products. Nice. Get them @ glossmoderne.com.

Disclosure: Samples of these items were provided for review purposes.

For some reason I am more into the beach this year. I mean, I’ve been about 3 times in the past month and that’s three times more than 2010 total! So of course I have to get all stylish. I bought a good fitting top here, a swimskirt bottom here, a beach cover up here and a really cool sunhat here. For those who actually go swimming in the ocean or the pool, don’t forget to think about your strands and keeping them sane this summer. Thankfully there is now a line of products just for you beach junkies! It’s called TONIC and was created for surfers and beach bunnies that love the water but also love their hair. It conquers sun, saltwater and is quite overall quite earth-friendly.

Product line is 4 skus and includes:

The Chronic Shampoo and The Chronic Conditioner – a daily use duo infused plant-based ingredients into the formulas and is both paraben-free and sulfate-free. $14/8oz each.
Threesome Tonic – a 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner and body wash in one that's also sulfate and paraben-free. This one contains vitamin B5. $12/8oz.
Luster Tonic – a leave-in conditioner that includes aloe vera and grapeseed oil in the formula. $14/8oz.

All @ tonicshop.com.

I just had my hair colored with a color system that uses no amonia to deliver the color. It’s called Inoa from L’Oreal Professional (review coming later this week). As far as color goes, I decided to go with the color of the season, copper. And I love it! It looks just like this color model Lydia Hurst has on the March 2011 cover of Elle Mexico. Gorg! Anyway, with a new head of hair color, comes the time to assess the latest shampoos, conditioners and hair styling products to keep it lush and vibrant.

KERASTASE Chroma Sensitive ($43/6.67oz @ kerastase.com) – this one is one part cleansers and three parts conditioner. Even if you use a color-safe shampoo, this one doesn’t strip the color as much as even those. Use this one the first three shampoos after coloring and then alternate each time with your color-safe shamp.

For shampoo and conditioner, I’ve been all over OJON’s new Color Sustain Color Revealing Shampoo ($22/8.44oz) and Color Sustain Color Revealing Conditioner ($23/8.44oz) that will help maintain your new vibrant color from water-induced fading for up to 40 washes. Tah-dow! Water and any kind of cleansers will fade color fast so if you can cut down on how often you clean your strands and use something like this duo to gently clean them, you will save some money and time in the end.

And they also have a Color Protecting Cream ($24/4.2oz) and Gloss Finishing Hair Spray ($23.50/7.4oz) as part of the collection so if you’re really serious about your investment, invest a little further. All @ ojon.com.

Disclosure: Samples of these items were provided for review purposes.

This next one is something I was looking for for quite some time – a clarifying shampoo made especially color-treated hair. And I finally found it! OUIDAD Water Works Clarifying Shampoo uses a combination of fruit acids like grapefruit, orange flower extracts and botanicals to rid hair of water residue, chlorine and minerals yet gentle enough to be used on my lovely colored strands.

And they claim this one can actually help enhance hair color!

$15/8.5oz @ ouidad.com.

Disclosure: A sample of this item was provided for review purposes.

I sometimes don’t feel quite qualified to speak about a product and this is the case with this next one from NEXXUS. It’s their ProMend Kit that is supposed to actually repair split ends. Impossible, I thought so I decided to bring the products to my trusty hair and makeup artist extraordinaire Kristin Merkling (HairbyKristin.com). She’s seen it all and could really give these a good run.

Click the below link to check out my Q&A with Kristin!

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I can only think of one other hair care brand in the last year that has gotten as much attention as my next pick. The products in the OJON line each contains their Ojon oil found in Honduras and wow, has this line taken off. My pick for the Gift Guide has to be their Shine & Protect Winter 4pc. Collection.

This kit contains: Shine & Protect Shampoo (8.5oz), Shine & Protect Conditioner (8.5oz), Leave-in Glossing Cream (2oz) and Glossing Mist (.85oz). $44 only @ sephora.com.

Can you guess what the other hair care line is that is getting quite the buzz these days? Let me know your answer in the comments and you could win a prize!

Disclosure: A sample of this item was provided to Cybelesays.com for review purposes.

How would you like to win one of the gift bags given out at the official post-party of this year’s GRAMMY Awards? I have two to giveaway! Inside the 16”w x 13”l x 10”d beautiful blue reusable Moroccanoil bag is 3 full size Moroccanoil products in a cloth zippered tote – Shampoo (8.5oz, Conditioner 8.5oz and the Treatment Oil (1.7oz)

Simply follow me on Twitter (Cybelesays_com) and RT the following: “Win a Moroccanoil gift set from the GRAMMY post-party on www.cybelesays.com." Just follow me and RT and you’re entered. The two winners will be randomly chosen on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 @ 6pm PST. Good luck!

For some reason, when I’m in the supermarket and come across a can of baked beans, which I love, I always go for the vegan kind because in my mind, it will have less bad stuff for you inside. Is this true? Probably not but I can’t seem to shake this conclusion just short of sitting down with a vegan and non-vegan version in my hands and comparing ingredients. I’ll do that someday. So was I thinking this same notion when I was sent samples of WHITE SANDS’ Volumizing Shampoo and Volumizing Conditioner to try? Kinda. Ok, yes, I am. Probably not the smartest but maybe it is. This duo is 100% Vegan, sulfate free and silicone-free but let’s not confuse the word vegan with being natural. Vegan just means it contains no animal-derived ingredients inside. So this duo cleans and protects your color without using any kind of animal products in the formula. What else do you need to know? Shampoo ($12/7.6oz), Conditioner ($15/7.6oz) @ whitesandsproducts.com.

Along with the month of December comes our Holiday Gift Guide, which is quite fun, but also means that every other product gets put on hold until after the New Year. I’m so behind right now with trying things out but this one seems quite timely as your hair is probably windswept and needs a little TLC so let BIOLUSTRE Instant Hair Repair bring it back to life. Here’s the process.

Step 1: wash hair with Release Cleansing Shampoo – this is like a clarifying shampoo.

Step 2: towel dry hair

Step 3: saturate the hair with the Revive Repair Treatment – as it states in the brochure, you might end up using the whole 4oz bottle depending on how long and thick your hair is. Mine is medium thickness and just below my shoulders and there is about ¼ of the bottle left.

Step 4: work the formula into the hair

Step 5: blow dry your hair with either your hand held dryer or one of those bonnet ones. Hair will become stiff just like you think it would if you dried a bunch of product in it. It feels quite eww.

Step 6: rinse hair with warm water. Hair will still feel too clean. It said in the brochure to make sure the Revive Treatment was removed fully before the next step but how do I know when that is? No clue so I just had to make sure I rinsed really well.

Step 7: wash hair twice with the Restore Maintenance Treatment Shampoo. This is a very sudsy/SLS-based shampoo and my hair still feels over clean.

Step 8: apply the Renew Daily Conditioning Sealant. Ahhh, now my hair is feeling back to normal and not so stripped and squeaky. As soon as I apply this one, I smell mint and feel it tingle a little on the scalp. Come to think of it, the other three products had absolutely no smell what-so-ever, which is kind of refreshing so you can really appreciate the ending of this one more! Nice touch Biolustre people. This conditioner stays on hair for 3 to 5 minutes and then you are done. Style as usual. 

see my conclusion after the jump!

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