Macadamia Natural Oil Will Change Your Life!

Macadamia...what is that? How do you even say it? Well, don't worry, I am going to tell you. Well, I'm not going to tell you how to say it, I'm sure you can work that one out for yourself, but I can tell you what it is, and more importantly, what it does!

Macadamia Natural Oil is two things; one, it is a natural oil, as the name may suggest. Secondly, it is a new range of hair products. The hair products are aimed at professional salons and are fast becoming a well known brand that everyone is after.

As the newbeauty.com blog puts it: "You'll find macadamia oil in plenty of haircare products, but it's usually trounced by a ton of other ingredients". They are right, using natural oils like Macadamia oil is nothing that new, but what is different here is that Macadamia Natural Oil (the brand) have based their new line of products completely on the oil itself, and worked hard to make it the key ingredient.

Now I am not really on for all of the science of hair care, as long as it does what it says it will do on the bottle I am quite happy. I am however told on good authority that Macadamia oil is good for the hair and scalp. It is gentle and it is natural. The word natural is of course great because it means green, and green means eco-friendly and that means everyone is happy.

Macadamia Hair Products have been getting lots of publicity as well, which in my books can mean one of two things; a really good PR department, or the products are genuinley quite good. Now I don't know about the PR budget, but I do know the products are really quite excellent.

Macadamia Natural Oil Range

The Macadamia Natural Oil range begins with a shampoo. It is called Rejuvenating Natural Shampoo and it does just that. Using this shampoo feels great, it smells nice (as does the entire line), the consistancy is perfect and interestingly it seems to work wonders on all types of hair, at least in our office it does!

The next in line is a leave-in conditioner. Leave-in conditioners can sometimes scare people off I think. People can sometimes wonder if they should really be leaving it in their hair, after having years of using normal conditioner after a shampoo. Well, let me tell you, this conditioner feels so nice the last thing you will want to do is wash it out! Again, it works well with all types of hair, but particularly works well with dry or damaged hair.

Also in the range is a healing oil treatment that comes in a small vial size and a large size for those who fall in love with it, of which there will be a lot of us! The oil treatment is wonderful and worth the little effort it takes to use. Like the rest of the products, it smells beautiful. Just apply it to your hair when it is damp or dry and then just style your hair. Easy to use and really very effective. I am inclined to say that the healing oil is my favourite product in the line.

Finsihing off the range is a deep repair masque. This is great for using of dry and damaged hair and is a wonderful quality product. Use it like any treatment but the results aren't like any treatment, they are fantastic. Someone in our office was using one product after another but wasn't completely happy with any, then they used Macadamia and haven't really changed since!

So, this breif introduction to Macadamia Natural Oil is complete. I would really suggest you give them a go, they will change the way you look after your hair, be careful though, any products you use after this might not feel as nice!

Where to buy Macadamia Natural Oil:

Buy Macadamia Hair Products *official UK supplier

Official US Website

or...  If you fancy something similar why not read our NEW Montibello Gold Oil Essence review!

How To Get Hair Like...Blake Lively (Gossip Girl)

Ever watched Gossip Girl and thought to yourself..."how do they get their hair to look so good all of the time?". Us too! But fret not, they might have a professional team working on them all of the time they are on set but we are here to take your hand and be your own personal hair care expert! So, Blake Lively, with your luscious locks of wavy blonde hair, we are going to crack the secrets behind your look!

• Step 1: Get it Clean!
  
  Wavy hair is all about body, and so it is imperritive that you add body to your hair at the earliest stage of styling. To set your hair so that is ready for a light and weightless wavy look you will need to use a suitable shampoo that will add a good amount of moisture withough weighing your hair down. Hair will also need to be strong and protected so that you have no split ends that will ruin the wavy look that Blake Lively's character, Serena van der Woodsen achieves.
  
  For the shampoo stage of this style we have chosen to use a professional shampoo that is made specially to help you obtain perfect, gentle waves. We have chosen to use Montibello Densi Volume shampoo (see end of article for links to products!). Densi Volume Shampoo is used by our friends who work in salons and they swear by it. If you have been following our blog you will know that we are big fans of Montibello Hair Products and Densi volume is a shampoo that is specifically designed to give your hair weightless body. Montibello will leave your hair moisturised and protected as well as light and a breeze to style, the perfect condition to work the best waves!



• Step 2: Condition, condition, condition
  
  Ok, ok, this is becoming a bit of an obsession for me, but if there is one thing you should do propely it is to condition your hair with a high quality and suitable conditioner. As I have said in previous articles, it is usually worth while spending more time and money on a good conditioner than a shampoo, and this is still true when you are trying to get light waves.
  
  Your conditioner will need to be a light conditioner that won't add too much moisture to your hair but rather add a protective element to your hair to eliminate the risk of frizz; remember, frizz is your number one enemy when you want to get wavy hair. We have decided to use Milkshake Conditioning Whipped Cream. There are two reasons for this choice, one, we love the natural ingredients that make this conditioner, two, it is a beautiful, lightweight conditioner that will protect your hair from split ends and frizz.
  
  Work the conditioner through your hair and allow it to work its magic for a minute or two. Make sure that you wash the conditioner out of your hair thoroughly before moving onto the next stage. We are getting closer to getting hair like Serena from Gossip Girl!



• Step 3: Dry Gently
  
  Next you have to dry your hair, but STOP! Don't just get the hair dryer on it and go mad until your hair is a steaming mess that is the same temperature as the sun. The temptation is to often use tools like a blow dryer too much, but be careful, using this too much can undo all of your hard work before now.
  
  Before you pick up the hairdryer there are a couple of careful steps you need to take. The first is to add a good quality volumising spray to the roots of your hair. We have chosen to use Milkshake Open Air Hairspray. Another Milkshake product, and again we have chosen it becuase it is quite light and gentle. Apply the spray directly to your roots, you don't need to use too much but enough to add the required lift from the root.
  
  Next you need to apply a mousse to your locks. We have chosen to use Montibello Densi volume treatment mousse. The treatment mousse is part of the Montibello TREAT range and it is great for adding a lift and full bodied volume. Apply the mousse by gently working through the length of your hair, you don't need to add it to your roots!
  
  Now you have a volumising spray on the roots and a full bodied mousse on your hair you can gently blow dry using a mixed bristle paddle brush to add volume whilst you dry.



• Step 4: Styling
  
  The next stage to achive the Gossip Girl hair look is to using the curling irons. We find it easiest to separate your hair into three sections so that the hair you aren't styling at the time is kept out of the way. The trick to achieving loose curls is to wrap about 1 or 2 inches of hair around the barrell of the curling iron. You can alternate the direction of the curl as you work from the root to the tip.



• Step 5: Finish Your Blake Lively Look!
  
  Finally, once you have curled all three sections of your hair, add a small amount of hair finishing cream to stop any frizz in its tracks! We use Macadamia's Curl Reviving Cream, which provides hold and amazing form to curls or waves without leaving any oily residue. Only use a small amount and gently work it through your hair to finish off your style.
  
  Now you have weightless curls that wouldn't look out of place on the set of Gossip Girl! Below are a few links to all of the products we used in this hair tips article and if you have anything to add please leave us a comment,we'd love to hear from you, oh...and we do requests! Also while you're here I'd like to ask you to subscribe to our newsletter because it's great! and it's written by me!!

Hair Products we Used:

Montibello Densi Volume Shampoo

Milkshake Conditioning Whipped Cream

Milkshake Open Air Hairspray

Montibello Densi Volume Treatment Mousse 

Macadamia Reviving Curl Cream

Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ligadoemserie/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

How To Get Hair Like...Audrina Partridge

Over the hills and far away are the secrets for you to have a good hair day. That's right, they might be rich, they might be pampered and filmed all day long but there is no reason why you can't use a little bit of magic to get hair as beautiful as the girls in the hills. This week we have picked the sleek dark hair of Audrina Partridge to try and emulate and here is how we did it.

Colour:

Audrina constantly has a beautiful deep, dark colour to her hair. The first thing you need to do is bring out the dark, smooth tones in your hair. For this we use a shampoo that is designed especially for brunette hair. We have chosen Toni&Guy's Dark Brunette Shampoo. It is from Boots and is an easy product to get hold of. Even though this is only an 'off the shelf' shampoo we were impressed with its quality and its promise to 'add shine' was a fair claim. The shampoo isn't too strong and will simply enhance the dark tones in brunette hair.

Shine:

The main element of Audrina Partridge's hair is perhaps its amazing, seemingly never ending shine! It is the shine that stops people in their tracks and makes her hair noticible for all of the right reasons. There are plently of ways to ensure good shine in your hair but we want lasting shine that will last the whole day. Our advice is to start with a really good quality conditioner.

Only last week we were telling you how important a good quality conditioner is. It is always worth spending the money on a good conditioner for your hair and this is truer than ever now. We have been using a bit of a special product called Voila Color Kult. Color Kult is a specialist conditioner for brunette hair and it is an amzing product. This conditioner is infused with colour which will add to the tones in your hair already.

As well as dealing with colour, Color Kult is also a great quality conditioner. Your hair will be left silky smooth and most importantly; shiny!

Straighten

WAIT! Don't touch the straightening irons yet. One of the biggest mistakes women make when they want to achieve the 'Audrina Partridge look' is to get the irons out and straighten the living daylights out of their hair. Yes, you can use irons to straighten your hair, but it is not the be all and end all. Before you even look at the heated irons, there is a strict regime to follow.

Only after you have properly washed your hair and conditioned it with a good quality conditioner should you move onto the straight stage. Before using any kind of heated tool on your hair you should make sure you protect it. For straightening irons there are hundreds of good quality products on the market that will protect your hair from damage by using tools.

For this job we want a spray which will add protection as well as promoting frizz free, shiny locks. We went for Milkshake No Frizz Glistening Spray, a natural hair spray that will protect against damage from heat tools. The great thing about this heat protecting styler is that it adds a beautiful glisten to your hair, perfect for achieving the Audrina look.

Summary:

• Use a shampoo that works with the tones in your hair to deepen your colour



• Follow shampoo with a good quality conditioner to prepare your hair for shine!



• Protect your hair before going near straightening irons

This is quite a simply style but there are important steps to follow. The most important thing for smooth, frizz free hair is that it is healthy, this means not too much straightening with irons and using good qualitys products!

Picture: Used Under Creative Commons Licence

Haircare Profile: Milkshake Hair Products Will Change Your Life!

Milkshake are considered by many in the industry as a "best kept secret". Chances are you have never heard of Milkshake hair products, and we can't blame you. A quick search around the net reveals that you won't really find anything on Milkshake (or Milk_Shake as they are often called) unless you actualy type in the name. This isn't good, we think Milkshake are products worth sharing, so this secret shall no longer be kept. Your salon knows about Milkshake, now, so shall you!

Where it all began

Milkshake hair products are a range of haircare products developed by a rather fashionable little outfit called Z:One Concept. Z:One Concept are based in Italy and have been in business since 1999. They grew very quickly and soon became held in very high regard among salon hair professionals who began to take on their products and be very impressed with them.

Milkshake is one of Z:One Concepts best known brands in salons, alongside two of their other very successful ranges: Urban Tribe and Simply Zen. Z:One Concept have always specialised in selling products to professional salons and so have not taken any efforts to sell in shops, they want to keep thier products exclusive to salons, and that is fair enough, but we still think you should know about them.

The Milkshake Brand

Like all ranges, Milkshake hair products have a very definite style and brand image. They are marketed as a range of gentle and most importantly natural hair products. The images used the market the range show shots of models who use very little makeup and use their natural beauty to full effect. Poster images a genreally all shot either in locations such a fields and clean white areas to give a clean, gentle and enviornmentally friendly image to the range.

The range, like the name suggests, uses milk protein as its main ingredient. This means that Milkshake can be sold as a range of natural hair products. Because the natural products are all gentle, they are generally targeted at caring for coloured hair. Coloured hair is a big part of the Milkshake range, which includes a wide variety of hair colours, available strictly only to salon professionals. Salon visitors can however purchase the Milkshake colour maintainer range which is designed to be gentle on coloured hair but give the same levels of cleansing and conditioning you would expect from perhaps a more chemically obtrusive hair product.

The Range

The Milkshake range is split into different sections: Like any good haircare range this begins with the Shampoos and conditioners, built around the cornerstone of the aforementioned Colour Maintainer range. There is a No-Frizz range which as you might expect is designed to fight the evils of frizz. There is a selection of treatments including the very popular milk mask and yogurt masks (we love them in the office!). Then there is the Lifestyling range which is Milkshakes hair styling range. All in all the range available to consumers consists of about 30 products covering pretty much all hair care needs at a basic level, the specialist hair care products tend to focus on coloured hair.

What's It Like?

So, the big question; what is the range like? Well, very good to put it simply. Our favourites in the office are the Colour Maintainer Shampoo and Conditioner as well as the Active Milk and Active Yogurt Masks. We have found that Milkshake have been particularly popular with those of us who are concerned with using too many chemicals on our hair. Milkshake is gentle and kind to hair, sometimes it can be too gentle and some of the styling products are beaten hands down by brands like Montibello, but then Milkshake don't always specialise in this kind of product.

All in all, Milkshake does a very good job. If you have coloured hair you can do a lot worse than using Milkshake hair products. The pricing is very reasonable and all we want now is for this wonderful, natural range to get a bit of media coverage and we are sure it will take off in a very big way!

Official Suppliers:

• Milkshake Hair Products
• Specialist Hair Supplies

Condition Your Hair Like A Pro! Our Top 5 Tips

Conditioning your hair might sound like an everyday kind of task yet there are certain nuances that will allow you to take it to the next level... You shampoo and then you condition, that's the routine and it never changes... But wait! We know that a lot of the ladies out there don't put nearly enough thought into conditioning their hair. Conditioning is very important, and I am here to show you why. Don't just think of hair conditioning as an after thought, plan your hair regime around your beautifully soft and healthy hair and you will not regret it! See, look how happy your hair can be ;)

Photo: David365

1. If you are looking to save money, save it on the shampoo. Don't get me wrong, having a good quality shampoo and a top quality conditioner at the same time is an excellent thing, but if you have to make cuts somewhere, make them on the shampoo. A good quality hair conditioner will make up for the losses you are making on shampoo, but try it the other way around and you could be left with a dried out mess in weeks. So, tip 1, condition with a good quality conditioner, even if you have a standard shampoo.

2. Don't just slap a palm full of conditioner in your hair and work it in like you would with shampoo. All you need is a small amount of conditioner. Then apply it to your hair gently, working it down the length of the hair. We suggest you use a comb to gently work the conditioner right along the hair to the tip, don't force the comb through your hair though, let the conditioner smooth it out slowly, there is no rush when conditioning.

3. Avoid the root of the problem! Conditioner is designed to work on the length of the hair, not the roots. There is no point in spending time working conditioner into the roots, that is the work of shampoo. Just concentrate along the length of the hair. Working conditioner into your roots will only clog up your style and leave your hair looking lacklustre.

4. Timing is important. The optimum amount of time to leave conditioner in your hair varies from person to person, but there are general rules of thumb to follow. If you are just taking care of your hair in your normal routine, then leaving the conditioner in your hair for 2-3 minutes should be long enough for the conditioner to work its' magic. If your hair is particularly dry and in poor quality you may want to leave the conditioner in for about 5 minutes before washing out. If your hair is very badly damaged it is time to use a hair treatment mask. Masks are best described as intensive conditioners and are designed to be used on a weekly basis, follow the instructions on the mask and be amazed at your new silky smooth hair afterwards!

5. Wash it all out! One of the silliest things you can do is to not take care when rinsing your hair after conditioning. The top tip is don't leave any conditioner in your hair, it will only clog things up and effectively undo all of the good work you have done. A good rinse to make sure that all residue is out of your hair will ensure that the conditioner has done its' job properly.

So, now we know... conditioning is important and if you are going to do it, do it properly! Watch this space for our top 5 conditioners of all time...