I Love My...L'Oreal EverPure Shampoo and Conditioner

I have incredibly fine, flat hair. I am also allergic to sulfate. My whole life, I have used shampoo that has sodium laureth sulfate (check the ingredient list in your shampoo...chances are, its in there). Until recently, I never thought that maybe part of the reason my hair is so fine is because of my allergy to sulfate, and the fact that I have used it on my scalp every single day of my life. A few months ago, I bought some sulfate-free shampoo, but let's just say it sucked. It left my hair looking like a wet sheep dog. Not that sheep dogs aren't cute....it just wasn't a good look for me.

So I abandoned the idea of using sulfate-free shampoo, and went back to using my uber-expensive Kérastase (which I was actually never that thrilled with, but I'll save that for a different post). Then, I heard L'Oreal was launching a sulfate-free line, and I happened to grab the Volume Shampoo and Moisture Conditioner on a random shopping trip to Target (yay, Target!). It actually left my hair fluffy (which is a difficult feat, given how extremely flat my hair is). And, the texture is super-foamy -- more foamy than sulfate-containing shampoos!

I liked it so much, that I picked up the Smooth Shampoo and the Smooth Conditioner, since my hair can also get a little frizzy. Yeah, I know...what a great combo...fine, flat hair that can also get frizzy. Anyway, needless to say, the Smooth Set actually works too! It leaves hair shiny, without a frizzy strand of hair in sight.

There are so many beauty products out there that just don't work, that I'm more than thrilled to applaud when beauty products actually work.

The Great Black Tie Dress Hunt, Part II: Get Thee to Off Fifth...

I had some time on my hands this weekend, so I drove to Off Fifth, the Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet, which just so happened to be having a huge sale. 20% - 30% off of everything...just fabulous, right?!

So off I went, in search of the elusive black tie evening gown for the event I have to attend this spring. Last week, me and a couple of co-workers discussed the event, and decided that we need floor-length gowns. We decided that we wouldn't be able to get away with cocktail-length dresses, since most of the men are wearing tuxes. After scouring the store, and looking at every single floor length gown in the entire store, I found one dress in my size. Still, this was more promising than finding none.

So, I trekked off to the dressing room, waiting for dissappointment. After slipping on the dress, however, it fit perfectly and seemed to be flattering because it made me look about 10 pounds lighter...what could be better than that? Little did I know, it was about to get a lot better. After checking the tag, I saw that the dress was marked down from $900 originally to $100. And the sign above the dress rack indicated there was an extra 25% off. Score! A Badgley Mischka evening gown for $75 plus tax! Seriously...it doesn't get any better than that....

The only wrinkle now, is that I had planned to wear black...and the dress is a wine/burgundy color. I now need to re-think accessories...shoes, jewelry, etc. But scoring the dress for $75, means more money to accessorize, right?