Beauty of a Site Blog

So here we are, the week after Memorial Day, enjoying the first warm days of summer (at least that's what's happening here in the Midwest!).  We all flocked to the lake or to barbecues on Monday, stayed out all day, and now are suffering from our very first sunburn of the summer.  Here's a refresher on sun care for your skin and hair during the summer months ahead: 1.  PREVENTION:  As your mother and health professionals everywhere can tell you, the best way to care for a sunburn is to prevent it from happening in the first place.  Especially with the prevalence of skin cancer among our generation, we must be careful to protect ourselves from the damaging sun.  Here are some of our favorite protective sun products: Coola (SPF 45) is one of our favorite classic sunscreens, providing powerful protection, custom made for those leading an active outdoor life.  Endorsed by the American Lifeguard Association, this sweat-proof formula is the best we've got! If you're looking for a mineral alternative to classic sunscreen, Alba Botanica's Natural Mineral Sunscreen (SPF 30) uses a chemical-free formula that provides excellent protection from the sun without compromise. Orly's Sunscreen for Nails is a must-have.  As you beach-babes know, after long hours in the sun, your manicure can become discolored and faded.  Sunscreen for Nails is a high-shine topcoat that protects the colors beneath it with its UV absorbent formula. Rene Furterer's Protective Summer Oil (KPF 90) uses sesame and castor oils with UV sunscreen to ensure protection for exposed hair while swimming and sunbathing.  It's waterproof formula is a must for any beach bag. 2.  TREATMENT:  We know that there will be days that we didn't plan ahead and didn't apply the sunscreen as much as we should have.  Here are some treatments to refresh skin and hair after long hours in the sun: The absolute best in the business, Hempz After Sun Gel soothes heat and pain from sun-burnt skin, prevents peeling and uses the nurturing qualities of hemp seed oil and tea tree oil to start repairing skin damage and even minimize the look of fine lines and wrinkles! Bed Head Some Like It Hot Heat & Humidity Resistant Serum is not only treatment oriented, but also for prevention.  It, along with the Some Like it Hot Shampoo and Conditioner provide a shield to help hair that will be in the sun and water constantly.  This product in particular, though, is essential after sun, taming frizz and re-moisturizing burnt-out hair. Rene Furterer Repairing After Sun Shampoo is specifically designed to combat the drying effects of sun, salt water and even chlorine, enriched with palm butter to restore shine and softness to your hair! Awesome. So, enjoy the sun, ladies, but care for yourself while you're doing it! Check out these products and more at www.beautyofasite.com to help you enjoy the summer in style!

Hello, my name is Michelle, and I am an alcoholic a frizzy mess.  Until now.  I've been frizz free for a month, with the help of a very powerful new product:  Living Proof. Now obviously frizz isn't an addiction; I don't know about you, but it's not something I strive for.  But like bad habits, traffic tickets or terrible ex-boyfriends, frizz is terrible to get rid of.  Good news, friends: we have live, fresh, proof that frizz-free hair is possible and totally at your fingertips!! Living Proof Haircare is actually quite groundbreaking, using a brand new frizz fighting technique (the very first change in frizz technology in the last 30 years!) that doesn't use oils or silicone.  Test after test shows the superiority of Living Proof's PolyfluoroEster molecule over normal silicone based products, with incredible results! Humidity proof, calming, safe, powerful and perfect for taming out of control hair, we're so glad to be bringing Living Proof to you!  Whether you're styling straight or rocking your waves, Living Proof has something specifically for you and your favorite styles. Click here to browse all of Living Proof's products!

Recently, one of Beauty of a Site's most trusted friends and beauty experts tried out the Joico VaporIron and couldn't get enough of it!  This flat iron is like nothing we've ever seen before, releasing a vaporized conditioning serum into hair while straightening and styling!  We wanted to get the down low from someone in the "biz," so we were totally excited when Cheri, the creator of Orglamix Mineral Makeup (check out Orglamix here!), purchased the iron and gave it a try.  Having been in the beauty business for years, Cheri is truly a beauty expert, so we asked her to share her thoughts.  Here is the high praise she had for the iron!

My flat iron, and admittedly my hair, have seen better days. I'm constantly changing my hair color (more often then not DIY = box) from dark brown with caramel highlights  to chestnut to red and everything in between; all the while using my trusted Chi flat iron, circa 1999 weekly --rain or shine. On days when I don't use it, it's a BHD (Bad Hair Day) and I'm sporting a ponytail. I'm not an overzealous KPak fan (hello Taylor Swift), but when I read about the virtues of the new Joico KPak VaporIron, I knew I had to have one.  I ordered one on the spot. I've been using it for the last two weeks and am in love. I used to cringe when I used my flat iron, but not anymore.  Now I can flat iron and condition my hair at the same time!  I really love how straight and glossy this made my hair. I'm happy to report I'm now sans both the ponytail and the frizz.

Here are the details of the Joico VaporIron: Decreases hair breakage by over 40% Reduces color loss due to daily shampooing and thermal styling by 33.5% Minimizes curl reversion, even after 12 hours in 90% humidity Adds antioxidants, essential fatty acids, botanical moisturizers & light silicones to hair, WHILE STYLING! Tried the iron yourself? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Even though it's May, Spring seems to be delivering all sorts of showers just a little bit late.  All of our May weddings, events, graduation parties and picnics are requiring serious humidity-proof hair, as showers hang in the distance, threatening our sunny plans.  Here are our top three products for fighting humidity, and keeping a style looking great all day long:

	Cutler's Volumizing Spray is by far my favorite humidity proofing product, and it doesn't even have humidity in the title! My biggest problems with humidity are one either my hair totally flattening and losing curl, or my hair poofing and frizzing out of control. Cutler's Volumizing Spray both controls these factors in daily styles, but also provides nurturing ingredients and heat protection that keep your hair healthy, reducing these effects from the beginning! Purchase it here for $21.
	Bed Head Some Like It Hot product range includes three products that are all uniquely designed to protect against humidity while styling. Including a shampoo, conditioner and weather-neutralizing serum, these products not only protect against frizz from humidity, but also from the damage of heat and from color loss in the sun. Perfect for beach-y summers and sunny weekends! Purchase here, $16-17.
	The Blow Weather Girl Climate Neutralizing Complex is a miracle product created by Blow, a company that prides itself on creating products for people who heat style daily. Gentle and nutritive on over-heated hair, Weather Girl locks out humidity by coating hair, while remaining weightless and protecting from frizz. Purchase here for $22.

Happy Earth day to our fans and friends! Today reminded us about the importance of being green.  Saving the Earth and caring for nature is something that we can do one step at a time.  We have to remember that every step counts! Looking for ways to take care of our planet?  Here are just a few of our products who take caring for the Earth seriously: 1.  Tigi Love, Peace and the Planet is a range of superior quality hair care products that make earth friendly packaging their number one priority.  And not only does each eco-friendly bottle, tub or tube use only a minimal amount of synthetic material, but each product sports as many fresh and natural ingredients as possible.  Hug a tree with every style!  Click here to get started. 2.  Get Fresh Santa Monica Lifestyle Reusable Shoppers feature fabulously stylish designs on strong, market quality tote bags.  Save the earth using one less plastic bag at a time!  These are reasonably priced and HUGE!  Perfect for groceries.  Click here to see them! 3.  Organic Grooming is a men's product line featuring incredible organic products that carefully consider the earth when producing and packaging their products.  Many products, including their triple milled bar soap, uses completely biodegradable packaging, even printed in soy ink!  Click here to see all of their products.

Don't forget that Tosca Hair Care products are being featured at Beauty of a Site this month!  These professional, salon quality shampoos, conditioners, treatments and serums are designed to treat individual hair types with precision and care.  Each of Tosca's hair care products feature 100% certified organic botanical extracts while being 100% sodium chloride free, 100% sulfate free, static free and humidity resistant.  They truly are composed of the highest quality ingredients available, and the results speaks for themselves! For this month only, we'll give you a FREE 5 oz Tosca Treatment Shampoo with any $25 order.  With many of his professional quality products, buying even one product (which we know you'll love) will earn you this free shampoo.  It's an easy way to get to try both a conditioner and a shampoo, only having to pay for one of them! If you're brand new to Tosca, start by identifying your hair type:

• For thick / course hair: try Tosca's Texture Products
• For curls or waves: Try Tosca Curl
• For thin / flat hair: Use Tosca Volume
• For hair that's dull or lifeless: Tosca Shine

Both Tosca Classic and Tosca Repair products will work beautifully with any hair type.  Classic will cleanse hair and work with common hair issues, while the Repair line will focus on intensely conditioning and healing damaged or over-ly processed hair of any type. Click here to browse all of the products!

Tigi's newest collection of revamped Catwalk products helps us achieve dramatic, controlled beautiful curls with products that prep, work and perfect your hair.  Designed by Tigi's creative team, the Curlesque Curl Collection is based on an aquatic formula designed specifically to moisturize and soothe natural curls and waves.  This remarkable new formula brings out the best of what is already in your hair, using advanced ingredients like kelp, algae, cucumber water, sea weed and sea fennel to define, hydrate and nourish curls.  These brand new products are all in stock at Beauty of a Site and ready to ship! Check out the new collection here!  As an introductory offer, Beauty of a Site is giving up to 20% off the entire collection.  It's truly the perfect time to try Curlesque!

Haircare has taken a must needed turn in recent months, focusing on designing lines that promote not only incredible looking results, but healthier hair in the process. Beauty of a Site has recently added two new haircare ranges to help provide our customers with products that will strengthen their hair and enhance its natural beauty. Deva Concepts Haircare is a botanically based hair care range which is sulfate free and incredibly nutritious.  Stripping all unnecessary chemicals out of shampoo, Deva is famous for taking the "poo" out of shampoo.  The Deva Concepts range features different products for curly, wavy and chemically processed hair specifically, to help you choose the product that's perfect for you.  Click here to check it out! Marcia Teixeira Brazilian Keratin Hair Care is a wildly popular and extremely effective line of Keratin-infused products that works to restore your hair’s natural keratin proteins to bring you a healthy, shiny, manageable, frizz-free head of hair no matter if it’s completely damaged or just needing a slight pick-me-up.  Designed specifically for those whose hair is chemically relaxed (though it is effective with all hair types!), Marcia Teixeira products use the best of Brazilian inspired hair treatments, delivering frizz free shine without excessive pH levels or damaging chemicals.  Click here to see more!

[caption id="attachment_653" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Catwalk Your Highness Products"][/caption] We had no idea that styling products could be so beautiful. Tigi is in the process of revamping their entire Catwalk line, and their newest edition, the Your Highness range, achieves volume like we've never seen. Instead of just selling individual products to help you achieve a certain style, the new Tigi Catwalk lines feature a concept from wash all the way to finishing spray.  The formula in each product helps prepare your hair for the next, resulting in a well thought out product line that gives maximum results. To help initiate volume-lovers into the new line, Tigi released a limited edition introductory set (pictured below) that includes all of the Your Highness range gift packaged in a starter kit that costs nearly 40% less than buying them each individually. [caption id="attachment_655" align="alignright" width="234" caption="Your Highness Starter Kit"][/caption] The Catwalk Your Highness line (and the starter kits) include: Elevating Shampoo (10.14 oz) Nourishing Conditioner (8.45 oz) Thickening Gel Creme (7.27 oz) Root Boost Spray Mousse (8.1 oz) Weightless Shine Spray (5.15 oz) Firm Hold Hairspray (9 oz) Don't forget Your Highness this Christmas!

New for Fall 2009, Beauty of a Site announced our more recent product addition: IKove by Florestas.  This range of haircare, skincare and bath & body products is completely organic and natural, using a botanical base full of oils and extracts from the forests of the Amazon. We have to label IKove products as some of the most guilt free beauty products we've ever seen.  A socially responsible company, IKove is dedicated to growing the economy of the Amazon, allowing local villages to stop cutting down trees and protect the region's beautiful and rare rainforests.  The company uses certified organic ingredients, avoids synthetics and potentially harmful chemicals, while also avoiding any animal ingredients. IKove also strives to use as many certified fair trade ingredients as possible. The lush and luxurious ingredients in the IKove products are what truly set them apart as unique- as must-haves!  Acai Berry is one of IKove's favorite ingredients, an Amazonian palm berry harvested from the forests of Brazil.  Totally PACKED with antioxidants, fatty acids & omegas, Acai Berry is truly a miracle fruit, fighting premature aging and encouraging healthy skin. We're totally excited about these new products and hope that you are too!  If you've tried, please let us know what you think!  You can see all of the IKove products here.

[caption id="attachment_450" align="alignright" width="170" caption="Free gift with purchase! "][/caption] At Beauty of a Site, we're featuring Cutler Haircare in our brand spotlight section for the month of August.  Created by Rodney Cutler, this awesome product line based out of Cutler Salon in New York, is all about getting the right product to help you achieve the runway style of your dreams.  From deep conditioning treatment sprays to daily shampoos, Cutler's versatile but specialized range offers a little something for everyone! As a treat for you this month, we're offering a FREE travel sized Daily Shampoo & Conditioner with any $30 Cutler purchase (see picture at right)!  Pick up a couple of products that you think you'll like, and we'll toss in a free gift so that you can enjoy the full Cutler experience! Click here to browse all of Cutler's products. Click here to read more about Cutler's philosophy and our favorites!

We're excited to announce that Beauty of a Site has started carrying Philip B Hair Products! We can't tell you how happy we are to make these products available to our internet community.  Probably the best hair treatments available, Philp B products are carefully designed by Philip B himself, who is truly Hollywood's hair treatment expert.  Each product specifically addresses the damage that day to day routines can cause hair and besides shampooing, volumizing, anti-frizzing or smoothing, the product deeply treats tired hair, helping your 'do to look healthier than ever! The coolest part about Philip B products is that they are not only incredibly effective, but they are based on pure botanical ingredients and essential oils, making them extremely nourishing and safe for your hair. Featured in magazines worldwide, Philip B products such as the Lovin' Leave In Conditioner, the Imperial Shampoo & the Maui Wowie Beach Mist have been adored on pages of Lucky Magazine, Vogue, Elle, Life & Style, Glamour & In Style, among many others! Check out all of the new Philip B products here! Ever used Philip B?  Let us know what you thought and share your product reviews below!