Hello Curlies Giveaway Winner!

HELLO CURLIES REVIEW + DEMO + GIVEAWAY

So about a month ago I was sent Hello Curlies full line of hair care products for those of us with naturally textured hair. The Hello Curlies line caters to all three curl types.

- Hello Curly for loose/wavy textures such as 3a and 3b. 

- Hello Tight Curly for tighter curl textures such as 3c and 4a. 

- Hello Coily for Coily/Kinky textures such as 4a-4c. 

Now ofcourse I dibbled and dabbled, and decided to do a quick video review, blog review, AND with the help of Hello Curlies a GIVEAWAY! Check it all out below.

28 Days A Pescetarian| Day 3

So here we are on Day 3 of 28 Days A Pescetarian, and it was rather exciting! Instead of boring you with my usual banter (and really because I'm tired from work today), I'm going to get straight to the food!

Breakfast

For breakfast I had what could be considered a twist on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Dark Rye Bread, Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Almonds & Purple Grapes. I ended up throwing out the rest of my strawberries, which I told you about yesterday, and had to substitute them with the grapes. It was a really SWEET breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of sweet, but it was good nonetheless. Any other person would have loved it tho lol.

Lunch

For lunch I snacked on BIN-BIN Rice Crackers, because I knew I was going out to dinner later and didn't want to ruin my appetite. I found myself indulging int them a little too much, but they're a really low calorie snack, so it didn't do too much harm.

Dinner

So as I told you before, I was headed out for dinner. I decided to go to PEI-WEI, just because I wanted to try some Asian foods out that I figured would inspire me and give me ideas on meals I can make at home. And that's exactly what it did!

 I ordered the Wasabi Tuna Sushi Roll and Shrimp Pad Thai. It was SO good! Especially the Pad Thai! I am definitely going to make this meal at home sans  the shrimp. It already has a good amount of protein from the Tofu, Eggs, and Peanuts in it! This meal was like a big bowl of protein, and needless to say I was full before I could really get started! I ended up taking more than half of it home to save for another day. Here's a closer pic. I think I'm going to veggie overload mine when I make it at home. And I really LOVED Tofu! This was my first time trying it, believe it or not.

Dessert

After dinner and some walking around I stopped at a frozen yogurt shop. I hadn't had frozen yogurt in a while and decided to make the whole day memorable by slightly indulging. I got a small serving of the cake batter frozen yogurt with almonds, crushed graham crackers and crushed oreos. So good!

So, that concludes Day 3! See you tomorrow with Day 4 :)

- LOVE

28 Days A Pescetarian| Day 2

Hello everyone! So I am now on Day 3 as a Pescetarian. I am glad to report that it hasn't been hard at all. It's actually been quite fun trying out new recipes, and I have been feeling a lot lighter lately. I weighed myself  last night, and I noticed that within the past 3 days of this diet, that I've lost a total of 4 lbs. I'm guessing that's mostly water weight though. It's really easy for me to lose weight once I start eating healthy, but just as easily as I lost it I can easily gain weight back by straying away from my diet for even the shortest amount of time. I've done this time and time again. I'm a yo-yoer when it comes to weight. I still think back to once upon a time ago when I wore a size 4 lol, MAYBE I CAN GET BACK TO THAT (silently prays for 10 seconds) ...

Okay I'm back! Anyway, since I've been paying more attention to my diet I've noticed that I haven't been snacking as much on junk-food like Doritos; which happens to be one of my favorite snacks - along with Wise Crunchy Cheez Doodlez, Cheetos, and anything cheesy basically haha! I also love Funyuns, but that's a whole 'nother blog post! I've been snacking a lot more on rice crackers and lighter, low calorie snacks since I've started this diet. And again, they aren't bad! They actually taste good! With all of that said, let's get into my meals of Day 2!

Breakfast:

Seedless Grapes.

So for breakfast I had a small bowl of grapes and some water. My breakfast was really light this day, because again I had to rush out of the door to class. I was back home about 2 hours later, so this sustained my energy for the short time that I was away. 

Lunch

Water, Dark Rye Bread, Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Almonds and Organic Strawberries.

For lunch I had Dark Rye Bread, Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Almonds and Organic Strawberries. Basically my breakfast from the day before. I made this again because my strawberries were going bad so quickly I HAD to use them up. 

I still ended up throwing away a good amount of strawberries that had already molded. Does anyone else have this problem with organic strawberries? That's all I buy, so I don't know how other strawberries react after purchase. I'm going to have to look into this, because these strawberries were only about four days old.

Anyway, this meal was nice and filling because again I had a long day after this. I spent the rest of my day buying new camera equipment, filming set ups, I mean the whole works. It was exhausting! Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention how I'm on the hunt for a NEWER car. Key word NEWER lol, not necessarily new. I'm saving the NEW for when I'm done with school and I am successful at my future endeavors. Don't get caught in the hype of others life, save your coin, SAVE YOUR COIN! Let's move on from that though and get into Snacks and Dinner ;).

28 Days A Pescetarian | Day 1

Breakfast

For breakfast, (which I ended up having at lunch time because I got so overwhelmed with work and school) I had Dark Rye Bread, with Kroger's Hazelnut Spread, Blanched Silver Almonds, and sliced strawberries. I chose Kroger's brand of Hazelnut spread over Nutella's because it has less calories, and they use skim milk vs whole milk in the ingredients.

I didn't have much time for snacking, because I had to handle errands all day. One of which included grocery shopping. That's actually where I found my next snack, Bin-Bin Rice Crackers! They were such a nice little pick me up until dinner.

28 Days A Pescetarian | Why I'm Doing It.

Seriously thinking about going on a pescatarian diet for 30 days.

— سميرة (@SAMIRAHxGILLY) October 20, 2014

It all started with a simple tweet. That's all it took for me to finally challenge myself. I eventually changed it to 28 Days, because that's a better calculated cycle. It's in tune with ovaries, so I had to haha, jk! But yeah, I decided on 28 Days as a sleeker choice.  Anyway, I've honestly been thinking about being a Pescetarian for a long time though. I'd just never decided WHEN I was going to go through with it. I mean, I've seen enough research and documentaries on the benefits of eliminating red meat from your diet to know that being a Pescetarian is a pretty good life choice.  Now don't get me wrong, I love a good beefy burger just like everyone else. But lately I've been dining on leaner options such as turkey, chicken, and even salmon burgers (which I'm making for dinner today ;] ). So with that said, obviously I'm not changing my diet to exclude red meat because I want to save the cows. I just want to live a healthier lifestyle. Will I stick to only eating a plant based diet with fish/seafood? Who knows. But I figured challenging myself to see if I can do it and like it will ultimately decide for me. I really think everything in life boils down to moderation. If after this 28 days I see a juicy slice of beef and I want a bite, do you think I'm going to deny it? Honestly I don't know, but right now I say I'm gonna bite it lol. I say that all to say, it's really about whether I think that slice is going to take me on a downward health spiral (which I doubt).  Either way, I'm going into this challenge wholeheartedly. And after these 28 days, we'll see how I feel. Because honestly who knows how I will feel in 26 more days. I'm on Day 2 right now, and so far I haven't felt that much of a strain on myself. But like I said, I hardly ate beef anyway, and I've never eaten pork. Turkey became my beef a long time ago, and chicken was a side chick lol. As for fish, I've always eaten that more than any other meat, so again this hasn't been a strain as of yet. I do feel like I'm going to miss having turkey burgers eventually though :( . Well the next blog post is going up in about an hour, and it's going to be about Day 1. In it you will see my meal log, pics of my meals, a recipe for a quick healthy meal I had, and my thoughts on everything so far. See you there :)

Are Natural Hair Subscription Boxes Worth the Hype? September CurlKit Reveal.

So last month I signed up for CurlKit as a personal experiment. I wanted to see what the craze with natural hair subscription boxes were about. Is it over hyped, is it worth the money you shell out, are people wasting their time? Yeah, just a whole lot of questions I needed answers to.

Well, the easiest and most affordable one for me to jump into was CurlKit! Their subscription is $20/month, and you can buy it in allotments of 3 , 6 , or 12 month/YEARLY subscriptions. There was no waiting list, open sign-up dates, none of the things I occasionally see with other subscription boxes. All you have to do is go to the site, and you're able to subscribe and unsubscribe as you please. This I LOVED! No worries about being scared that you won't be able to get back in if you decide to take a break from it (another thing I see people worried about with subscription boxes). 

So with that said, I signed up for the 3 month package ($60+tax). Let me be clear, I paid for this with my own money, I was not asked to review, paid by, or even contacted in any way, shape or form by CurlKit.I chose to do this on my own. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, I received my first CurlKit not even a week and a half later. It arrived in what looked like a white shoe box (the packaging could be better honestly), and it was very tiny looking, but it was PACKED! I mean it was literally bulging open because there was so much packed in it (which I had NO ISSUES WITH lol). I liked seeing that it was so full, that meant I didn't receive a bunch of tiny samples (which I've often heard people complain about with natural hair subscription boxes). 

So without further ado, let's see what was inside. As for the products, I have yet to try them, but I will list each product as we go along and their retail price. There were also BONUS products in the kit, full size at that!

P.S: As for the products, I have yet to try them, but I will list each product as we go along and their retail price. There were also BONUS products in the kit, full size at that! ALSO, I just received my October CurlKit, so next time I will have swatches of the products, and I will do reviews with them :) 

Okay let's get started!

Pink wrapping paper with CurlKit sticker logo. I slightly ripped the paper when opening it.

Camille Rose Naturals Curl Love Moisture Milk & Curl Maker Review + Style Results !!

Hey everyone! So today I am going to be doing a review and style using Camille Rose Naturals products! This is my first time ever using their products, and I must admit I am quite impressed! One of these products has become an absolute must-have of mine! You'll have to keep reading to find out which one though :)

Camille Rose Naturals Curl Love Moisture Milk & Curl Maker

So first, let's get into the products I tried! I tried the Camille Rose Naturals Curl Love Moisture Milk & the Camille Rose Naturals Curl Maker!  Here is a close up of what the packaging looks like. I just love the cute packaging of their products. It really reminds me of a vintage cameo necklace. I've always thought they had cute packaging. I mean to be honest, I'd already seen Camille Rose Naturals in my local Target. I was tempted to try them out when I did, but I thought, "Hmm .. Kind of expensive. Should I spend the extra money on a product I really know nothing about? I mean, I do already have a bunch of other products I need to review," and with that, I passed on it. Yup! I passed on them, but I made a promise to myself that when I actually had the time and extra money I would try them out.

 I had heard so much about them in the natural hair community, so I was simply curious. I mean, I'd seen blog posts, tutorials, and video reviews on their products, but I was STILL skeptical. As we all know, what works on one natural may not work on the next. And let's not forget those people who LOVE everything they're sent for review ... Yes, I hate them too lol. So, after all of that I just  decided to wait it out. And it wasn't long after I noticed them in Target that Camille Rose Naturals actually noticed and contacted ME! It turns out they had re-formulated one of their products and wanted me to try it out! 

DEFINED Flat Twist & Curl using Whipped Butter & Flaxseed Gel + RECIPES !!

Let me start this by saying, I am a complete lover of all things natural, ESPECIALLY beauty and skincare products. Unfortunately, due to brands having to mass produce their products and ship them out to sell, a lot of beauty and skincare products tend to have artificial preservatives and other toxic chemicals in them, that can sometimes do more damage than good.

The other problem is, when you DO run into a brand that does use all natural ingredients, they charge you an arm and a leg for simply doing what's RIGHT. Okay, okay. I understand that natural ingredients, and formulating those natural ingredients into a good product may cost you some extra coins, but why does buying a shampoo, conditioner, and styling product have to leave me down almost $40-$50? I mean seriously? This is why a lot of naturalistas will take the frugal way out and purchase the product with the formaldehyde-derived preservative.

It's less of a strain on your pocket, you think a little bad won't hurt, and honestly you just want something to keep your twist out looking cute for the time being. I have to admit, I have sometimes taken the easy way out too, but for the most part I stick to all natural brands.

As far as styling, I eventually started making my own products. And I do that by making a whipped butter concoction that leaves my hair SUPER soft, shiny and moisturized. I also use flax seed gel to give me BOMB definition and additional luster!

One of my favorite styles do this with is a Flat Twist & Curl. Flat Twists give you definition from roots to ends, and adding perm rods to the ends, just gives you even more of a pop!

The recipe for the Flax Seed Gel and Whipped Butter -not exactly mine, but a general recipe that you can moderate as you see fit-  is listed below as well as a video tutorial using both products, pics of the results, and pics of the definition holding up days after ! ---->