The famous japanese camellia oil: Oshima Tsubaki Oil

Today I will review for you a very famous Japanese product that was kindly provided for me from Japanstore.

If you are interested in Japanese skin or hair care products you probably already heard the word Tsubaki which is camellia in Japanese. Rich in caring fatty acids and antioxidants, the cold pressed oil from camellia flowers is used in skin and haircare since ancient times.

Oshima Tsubaki Oil it's nothing more, nothing less than a 100% pure camellia oil.

The oil is in simply designed and quite heavy glass bottle with 60ml capacity. Luckily for me (I'm so clumsy =.=) the bottle has special dropper that protects oil from spilling out - even if we turn the bottle upside down it will only release one drop of oil at time.

The bottle is packed in cardboard box, wrapped in foil and sealed with special sticker:

There was leaflet with some free samples attached to the box:

Inside the box there was another leaflet:

The oil itself it clear (slightly yellow) liquid without any scent. Ratzilla says that only the freshest camellia oil will have slight floral scent to it, although that level of freshness is possible only if we would buy it straight from the manufacturer, so usually camellia oil would be just scentless. If it has unpleasant smell, it it would mean it's out and should not be used.

My hair enjoys hair oils, especially since I started to dye, so I tried the product on my hair first. The camellia oil is supposedly light and easily absorbing - and I must say that it indeed is, BUT we you need to be really careful with the amount you apply. Unfortunate I used way too much during my first application and my hair was weighted down and looking greasy. Now I use only 2-3 drops and only on my endings. The effect? My hair is softer and less frizzy, although I don't think it worked as well for my hair as almond oil, so I wasn't that much impressed. But something about this product got me thinking - after applying camellia oil to my hair, my hands weren't greasy, usually I have to wash my hands after applying hair oil, but with this one all I have to do is rub my palms together and the greasiness is gone. Discovering that I decided to take a risk and apply Tsubaki oil to my face.

I have oily skin so I was avoiding any face oils for a long time. Eventually I dared to try cleansing oils and I fell in love with them, because they take make up off so easily, without need to rub and they don't dry my skin out. After falling for cleansing oil one night I decided to give moisturising oil a go as well and applied The Body Shop Beautifying Oil on my face instead of moisturiser - it was one of my worst nights EVER, my face was so greasy and sticky, yuck. Ever since that night even though I have a few universal oil I use them on my hair only. The camellia oil was the first oil from a while that I dared to put on my face and I must say, that the results exceeded my expectations.

Firstly - the camellia oil is absorbing into skin very well. Not straight away, it may take 5-10 minutes, but it does get absorbed eventually (in opposite to my Body Shop Oil that would just sit on my face all nigh long...). It does leave a slight film on skin, but it's not sticky, so I can sleep without worrying that the pillow would stick to my face. Secondly - my skin was looking and feeling great the next day! Soft, moisturised, fresh, pores tighten. Thanks to high Omega-9 content the camellia oil has ability to penetrate deep into skin layers, so my skin was moisturised inside and out. Thanks to the great balance between moisture and oil my skin didn't have to produce it's own sebum and less sebum = tighter pores.

However using camellia oil on my face had one disadvantage: this couple of minutes between application and absorption. You know this feeling when you are trying to suck up a very thick drink through a slim straw? How annoying it could be? The oil creates a similar, slightly frustrating feeling when skin dried out after cleansing needs some moisture NOW and the oil takes it's time to get absorbed. For a moment after application I got an uneasy feeling of skin dry and greasy at the same time. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this problem: all you have to do is apply the oil to slightly damp skin, which helps the oil to absorb quicker. I like to experiment so I went a step further and applied my oil on the face straight after Hada Labo lotion. My skin seems to really enjoy this duo and I use it every other night.

Another thing that made me really appreciate the camellia oil, is it's skin softening ability. I could feel my face being a bit softer, although I exfoliate it regularly, so the oil didn't have a chance to show it's full potential there. As an experiment I applied camellia oil on the rough skin on my elbows and just after three applications (every night after shower) the magic has happened - rough skin became moisturised, much softer and smoother. Viva la camellia!

Price: from £10 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ a little goes a long way
+ in opposite to some oils I've tried before camellia absorbs quite well into skin, it leaves slight residue on skin, but it's not very oily nor sticky
+ moisturises skin
+ softens and smooths rough skin

Cons:
- you need to be careful with the amount used, as more than just a few drops can easily weight down hair and make it look greasy
- no smell - some people may consider it as a pro, but I would prefer it to have some nice floral scent ;)

Summing up, I'm very pleased with this product and I will continue using it with pleasure. It's definitely worth trying.

Freebies!
As I mentioned before, there were some freebies attached to the product's box. 

It's a a twin sachet of hair cream, which can be used as leave-in hair mask or for styling. The one with green description is called Sara-Sara and it's a lightweight cream, suitable for thin and limp hair (won't weigh them down). The one with red description is a Moist version designated for frizzy and rough hair. In both products camellia oil is the key ingredient, second on the ingredients list, after the water. You can find full list of ingredients here. I only tried the Sara-Sara one so far and it made my hair really nice and smooth, tamed down fizzines after the hair dryer.

Dyeing hair with henna for the very first time - Khadi Henna, Amla & Jatropha

My beauty perfection is having ginger hair, green eyes and freckles. I already have my green lenses  ;) and I'm hardly trying to be ginger from a while now...

Why henna?

Casual hair colourants didn't meet my expectations. I started to dye my hair quite recently, in April. My natural hair colour is dark blonde, but unfortunately with time it started to be darker and mousy, vague - not blonde anymore, but yet not brown either. I was using some lightening shampoos with chamomile and lemon and they helped me for a while to stay more on the blonde side, but with time that was not enough, so i finally started using colourants. I tried couple different ones, but colours were never right (red, while I wanted ginger) and fading away very quickly. The worst dye I have tried was foam dye by Nice&Easy - colour washed away after only a week, wtf! In meantime I came across many positive reviews about colouring hair with henna, so eventually I decided to give it a go.

I bought my henna on Amazon for £7, it arrived from Germany. In the box there were: bag with henna powder, foil cap and gloves.
The powder is very fine and has characteristic smell, like strong green tea + something else.
What's important - Khadi's henna is 100% natural, herbal dye. Before you purchase your henna make sure you know what you're buying, because there is a few companies that are selling "henna", which is really just chemical hair dye + a little bit of henna. Mixed dyes like that give the most unpredictable results, I read so many bad opinions about them. Always go 100% - either completely chemical dye or purely natural, never in between.

The powder is more green than on the picture.

Unfortunately the leaflet was all in German, so I had to research some blogs and Khadi website for instructions. I have chosen the simplest method of preparation: I used some hot (but not boiling!) water to achive thick yoghurt consistency and let it cool down a little when I went to wash my hair with shampoo without any silicons in it. Henna should be acidic, so many henna powders are supposed to be mixed with water and lemon juice, but we don't have to do that with this particular one, as Amla is acidic itself. To my mixture I also added one table spoon of hair conditioner (no silicons!) and one table spoon of turmeric powder - on dark hair Amla and Jatropha give more red than ginger results, turmeric has brightening properties, so I added it to make sure I will achieve ginger.

Ready to use mixture smells like Panoramix's cauldron :P Green tea, herbs, weird smell... but certainly better than the ammonia.

After washing ma hair and drying it a little bit with towel, my henna was ready to use, still warm, but not hot. I found application difficult - it was only the second time I have ever applied dye myself, usually one of my friends would be helping me. During application henna dries out on hair a little bit and makes them sticky, so I ended up with my hair tangled in two dreadlocks. I must admit that I went through real emotional crisis during application, I was sure that I just wasted my time and money as I couldn't get all of my hair evenly covered in henna and I was afraid that the dreadlocks are just going to stay there FOREVER. I used up only half of the mixture for my shoulder blade-lengh hair, while the packaging says that one box "should be enough for shoulder-lengh hair". I was sure that in the best case scenario I was going to end up with spotty hair. Fortunately, henna surprised me positively :)
I kept the mix on my hair for 2 hours, under plastic cap and towel (I was heating up the towel with hairdryer every so often, because it's important to keep henna warm). During rinsing my hair detangled easily, the dreadlocks were gone, yay! My hair was nice in touch, very soft, just the weird smell resembled. After rinsing thoroughly I applied a little bit of hair conditioner (no silicons), to make sure I will comb my hair with no problems. Then I left my hair to dry naturally.
The result exceed my expectations, most of all the colour was even! The colour differs depending on lighting, but I am a definite ging now:

My hair before henna - faded cooper from Nutrisse.

Day after henna - intense artificial lighting (Halloween at work)

Two days after henna - dark room and picture with flash (Halloween with friends)

4 days after henna, artificial lighting + flash from some distance

4 days after henna, artificial lighting + flash, close up

As you can see my hair is in good condition after this colourisation. It was a little bit dry (henna as a herb is a bit drying) and I wanted to put some oil on it soooo badly... but I couldn't, because first 48 hours after colourisation are crucial for colour intensity and lasting and it's best to just leave hair alone, so henna has time to "catch" and oxidise properly. If you can, you should also avoid washing it during this first 48 hours, however because of work I had to wash mine about 12 hours after colourisation. I have very greasy hair that requires  washing every morning - after henna my hair was dryer, so it looked quite all right in the morning, but I knew that in the middle of the day it will be greasy again... so yeah, I shouldn't, but I washed it anyway :P
The herbal scent lasted on my hair for about three days (even though it was washed every day!). For the first couple of days water would get slightly tinted during washing, so I accidentally marked bright towel, but the good news is that post-henna-tinted-water-stains are easy to get rid of - I just washed my towel on 60°C programme with some casual laundry liquid, no extra stain remover required. The stains from actual herbal mix are much worse - during application I splashed some on my trousers and top and even with stain remover they didn't come off completely during the wash. So be careful and keep  any precious clothing away from henna ;)

two weeks after henna, natural light

It's been two weeks now since my first henna colourisation and my hair feels great, it's soft and shiny (on the last pic I got dry shampoo on my hair so it's not as shiny as usual ;)), doesn't fall. Colour looks nice, natural but vivid. I will sure use henna again.

Advantages of dyeing hair with henna:
+ finally perfect ginger
+ colour doesn't fade away and change as quickly as after other dyes
+ hair is soft and shiny
+ henna doesn't damage hair the way chemical dyes do

Disadvantages of dyeing hair with henna:
- dries during application and tangles hair
- weird smell (although I prefer this smell to ammonia smell...)
- the dyeing process takes longer than with chemical dye
- for some time after colourisation hair is more likely to frizz

Conclusion: for sure I'll dye my hair with henna again, but next time I'll do it when I got at least two days off in a raw, so I don't have to wash my hair for at least 24h (preferably 48).

Beautiful shiny hair: Shwarzkopf Essence Ultime Diamond Color Illuminating Oil

Some time ago Schwarzkopf developed with Claudia Schiffer two new lines of cosmetics - Blonde Ultime (hair colourants) and Essence Ultime (haircare). In Essence Ultime line we can find basic stuff like shampoos and conditioners, but also spray conditioners, hair masks, BB cream for hair (kind of leave-in conditioner) and hair oils. One of this oils it the topic of my review today :)

Product description: Dazzling colour luminosity with diamond gloss serum & UV filter for coloured, highlighted hair. Application:
1. Pre-wash for colour sealing
2. After-wash on damp hair to seal and smooth
3. Style-finish for illuminated colour and shine

Oil is in a nice, plastic bottle with 75ml capacity. The bottle has handy pump applicator, which makes application nice & easy. The pump reaches right to the bottom of the bottle, so there shouldn't be any problems with using up the product.

As we can easily expect from drugstore oil, it is not 100% natural product, it contains silicones, perfume (limonene, geraniol) and colourants (CI 40800 - beta carotene). Despite of this it also contains:

• Sunflower Seed Oil - provides a rich source of unsaturated linoleic and oleic fatty acids and Vitamin E. It creates protective film protecting skin/hair from water loss.
• Apricot Kernel Oil - rich in essential fatty acids, which are vital components of the human organism. It creates protective film on the skin/hair.
• Octocrylene - an oil soluble, water resistant absorber covering UVB and short UVA (a.k.a. UVA-2). It is a relatively weak sunscreen, inadequate when used alone. On the other hand, octocrylene is very stable and it both protects and augments other UV absorbers while improving their uniform skin coating. 

Full ingredients list: Cyclomethicone, Dimethiconol, Helianthus Annus Seed Oil, Prunus Armeniaca Kernel Oil, Octocrylene, Parfum, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Limonene, Beznzyl Salicylate, Alpha-Isomethyllonone, Coumarin, Geraniol, Citronellol, CI 40800.

I take care for my oily hair in similar way as for my oily skin - I use basic and lightweight care in the morning and more rich, heavy stuff, that may increase oiliness at the nighttime. Originally I intended to use this oil at nighttime, but it turned out to be surprisingly lightweight. This oil is not very greasy, my damp hair absorbs it quickly. I apply the oil to my fringe and close to the roots, but it doesn't make my hair look greasy, just shiny and smooth. For one application I use 2-3 pumps, a little goes a long way. After two month of using every other day I used only 1/4 of the bottle. Typically for Schwarzkopf product it smells beautifully, the smell stays on hair for a while.

As you can see my hair doesn't look greasy after oil application, just nice and shiny.

Price: about £5, I bought it on offer for £3. In UK it's widely available in many drugstores and supermarkets.

Pros:
+ lightweight, doesn't make hair greasy
+ beautiful smell
+ gives hair glorious shine
+ little goes a long way
+ handy pump applicator

Cons:
- contains silicones, colourants etc. - no use for people looking for natural haircare
- quite pricey for an oil - we could buy two 100% natural oils in this price
- weak UV filter

In general I am pleased with this product, however I am not sure about re-purchase - I would like to try 100% natural hair oils (but if they turn out heavy I will continue using this one in the morning). If you don't mind silicones in you hair care routine this is definitely worth trying.

My battle with hairloss: Dr. Wolff Plantur 21 Shampoo review

I think that every girl has noticed at some point increased hair loss. My hairdresser has told me that's normal to experience it around solstice - and I had always experienced almost animal-like "fur changing" twice a year. However after last solstice my hair was falling and falling... and my bathtub drain was getting blocked with hair more and more often. The point where I said "ok, that's enough" was in April, when my drain was getting blocked after every hair wash (so basically every day). Even though I know it's only my hair there I was still pretty disgusted and struggled to unblock it. Looking for some solution to my hair loss I came across Plantur range.

 

Product description: The nutri-caffeine complex in Plantur 21 helps to prevent an energy deficit in the hair roots. The caffeine in Plantur 21 primarily slows down degradation of the important energy carrier cAMP.

It can be detected at the hair root after just 120 seconds.

An additional effect comes from the valuable micro-nutrients biotin, magnesium, calcium and zinc. They are important factors for healthy and vigorous hair growth.

The Nutri-Caffeine Shampoo has also been developed for colour-treated and stressed hair. It contains conditioning agents that repair the externally stressed hair. This represents no burden on the hair, since no silicones that weigh down the hair are used.

How to use: Apply on wet hair, massage scalp and leave for 2 minutes, then rinse. Use on a daily basis.

The shampoo is clear and has weird consistency - it's not too rare or too thick, but something about that consistency has made me think "so no foam I suppose...". But surprisingly it does create a lot of rich foam. 2 minutes are passing by quickly, I just count slowly to 120. I have very oily hair, so to make sure my hair is properly cleaned and to save Plantur I first wash my hair with standard shampoo, then with Plantur. Plantur cleanse well, it does not tangle the hair more than any other shampoo (I always have to use conditioner).

In Plantur 21 series we can also get tonic and conditioner. I was afraid of tonic as one I was testing Alpecin Liquid (same company and also containing caffeine) and it was stinging my scalp as hell. The conditioner I decided to skip as I read some review about it and apparently it wasn't very good at detangling or smoothing out hair.

The shampoo surprised my on how effective it is, I noticed some improvement just after week of every day use. I have long hair and I still grow it, my hairbrush is always full of hair, so I can't judge my hair loss by hairbrush - but I can quite easily judge it by my damn drain blockage. Before Plantur I had to unblock it every day, after week of using Plantur I had to do it every other day. In July, after two months of using Plantur, I had to unblock my drain only once a week. At the moment I am using the shampoo only about twice a week, just preventable. What's interesting I'm still one the one bottle that I have bought in April (250ml), so it's super-efficient.

Ingredients of Plantur 21: Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Panthenol, Caffeine, Coco-Glucoside, Glyceryl Oleate, Parfum, Polyquaternium-7, Sodium Citrate, Polyquaternium-10, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid, Calcium Gluconate, Magnesium Gluconate, Sodium Benzoate, Zinc PCA, Niacinamide, Limonene, Linalool, Biotin, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

There is also version "for hair after forty" - Plantur 39. It's slightly more extended, contains tonic and two kinds of shampoo and conditioner: 1. for fine and brittle hair, 2. for colour-treated and stressed hair.
The difference between series 21 i 39 is that Plantur 21 has nutri-caffeine complex, which prevents poor hair growth and hair loss that was triggered by stress and a supply deficit of the hair roots. Plantur 39, on the other hand, prevents hereditary hair loss. The phyto-caffeine complex helps the hair roots protect themselves against the consequences of decreasing estrogen levels.

Ingredients of Plantur 39 for fine and brittle hair: Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Laureth-2, Panthenol, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate, Sodium Chloride, Caffeine, Propylene Glycol, PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, Parfum, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Potassium Sorbate, Polyquaternium-7, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Hexyl Cinnamal, Sodium Benzoate, Zinc PCA, Niacinamide, Limonene, Linalool, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Ingredients of Plantur 39 for colour-treated and stressed hair: Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Panthenol, Caffeine, Glyceryl Oleate, Coco-Glucoside, Parfum, Polyquaternium-7, Sodium Citrate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Polyquaternium-10, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Camellia Sinensis Extract, Hexyl Cinnamal, Sodium Benzoate, Zinc PCA, Niacinamide, Limonene, Linalool, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, CI 47005, CI 42090.

Price: £8.99 in Boots. It's probably the most expensive shampoo I have ever used, but totally worth it!

Pros:
+ super efficient
+ creates nice, thick foam
+ no silicone
+ WORKS

Cons:
- opaque bottle, I can't see how much I got left
- may seem a bit expensive for a shampoo, but considering how efficient and effective it is, there is no con here really

Summing up: this stuff really works, strongly recommended :)

Some pics of my hair:

May 2014: Plantur 21 + Herbal Essences Sensuously Smooth Shampoo & conditioner. I must say tat Herbal Essences "classic series" is my discovery of the year, hair so lovely after them and this smell... I'm close to the orgasmic screams from their commercials ;)
My hair is a little dried out and damaged (pic taken after second in my life colourisation), but no split ends.

August 2014: Plantur 21 + Herbal Essences Shimmering Colour and Sensuously Smooth conditioner + Shwarzkopf Essence Ultime hair oil (review coming soon). My hair is nourished, shimmering, nice and soft in touch. Magic!