My Beauty Faves

I am an absolute fashion junkie, I’m obsessed with clothes, makeup, and hair. When I was in highschool I couldn’t afford the Jadore Dior, Manolo’s, and Dolce that I dreamt of, and who am I kidding? I still can’t. But a girl has to satisfy her sweet tooth somehow. Since I couldn’t get my hands on the latest must haves in clothes, I decided to strive for more attainable things, if I couldn’t have the designer wardrobe, at the very least I could have a fabulous hair day and beautiful skin. So I became obsessed with my local drug store, buying several beauty products a week. Some of the things I bought worked, but most didn’t. So after many trials and errors I eventually became a keen shopper. Now I can bring my expertise to you, giving you the dish on fantastic beauty products, old and new.

My absolute favorite shampoo right now is Jonathan Product Add Moisture Shampoo, it’s great for dry and chemically treated hair, even hair that’s relaxed because it doesn’t contain sulfates. If you check the ingredients for the average shampoo, one of the very first, after water, is usually sodium lauryl sulfate, which is used in dishwashing liquids and toothpastes. This chemical cleans the hair, but it also strips it of oil, leaving it dull, dry, and more susceptible to breaking. I chemically treat my hair, and for years suffered with unpredictable hair days because of the dryness I encountered with the dozens of shampoos I bought, all because of the sodium lauryl sulfate. Even ones that claimed to be moisturizing shampoos still didn’t work because they were drying shampoos in disguise. They all usually contained sodium lauryl sulfate, and just added more conditioners or softeners to help ease the dryness. So for years I had good hair days if the stars would align in my favor, but mostly I had bad ones and wound up rocking a ponytail because my hair would be frizzy and dry even after the many hours I spent coaxing my hair into a style. No matter how much I conditioned, blow-dryed, flat-ironed and added beauty product after beauty product, I still got lackluster hair, and no one wants that.

Eventually I gave up hope in ever finding a way to style my own hair everyday and have fantastic results. When about two summers ago, I started watching the Bravo reality series Blowout which was about the Beverly Hills hairstylist Jonathan Antin and his dramatic life. By the show’s season finale, I was thoroughly entertained, but I also was informed about the product line that Jonathan was getting ready to launch at Sephora stores. I was hesitant about buying from his line because I relax my hair and I didn’t think that his line would cater to those of the African American persuasion. But he was so passionate about his products and had such a desire for them to be the best that I finally decided to buy a bottle of his moisturizing shampoo, especially after a Sephora sales woman urged me to do so, and gave me the guarantee that if I didn’t like it I could return it. Two years later I’m so glad that I did.

The shampoo, which is certified vegan, has an absolutely incredible scent and it cleanses the hair without leaving it stripped and dry. It doesn’t lather up, like most shampoos, and that’s cool, because lathering isn’t necessary to clean hair, that’s why companies use the sodium lauryl sulfate, it’s a great lathering agent that makes you feel like you’re really accomplishing something with all the bubbles. Even though the shampoo costs about 20 bucks a bottle, it lasts a really long time, it took me about a year to go through my first bottle, and it’s been 10 months since I bought my most recent bottle, and I still have more than half of it left. I saw Jonathan on QVC talking about his line, and he informed customers that you only need a drop in the hand to get the hair clean.

Another benefit is that if you have dry hair and you use this product, you’re totally going to use less conditioner, because the need to throw a whole bottle of conditioner on your hair will go away. Also I swear that my hair is in much better condition now that I started using this stuff, I realize my hair is already damaged, just because chemically altering your hair does that, but it’s definitely helped me to not exacerbate that damage. Since my hair is much more moisturized I don’t have to constantly do battle with it everyday and I don’t have to worry about frizz and breakage as much, and what’s even better is that I have great hair days every time I shampoo my hair. I think everyone who has dry and damaged hair should definitely consider the Jonathan Product Add Moisture Shampoo, it’s lovely.