Kevin Murphy Hydrate Me Jet Pack Review

Through the years that I've been using Kevin Murphy there have been a few variations of the jet pack. The whole point is to provide travel friendly sizes of the essentials. I've had both the Angel and Luxury jet packs, which in addition to the wash rinse and styling options, both had a mini lotion and body wash. 

The Hydrate Me jet pack is definitely the best yet. It has literally everything that I would want in an awesome zippered mesh bag. Perfection! The contents of the Hydrate Me jet pack are as follows: Hydrate Me Wash, Hydrate Me Rinse, Anti-Gravity, Session Spray, and Fresh Hair. The cream based products come in 1.4 oz. sizes, and the pressurized spray products are 1.5 and 1.9 oz. All perfectly acceptable by the TSA. 

I literally swear by both the Hydrate Me wash and the rinse. After using these products, my hair actually feels as it does after using a moisturizing masque treatment. It's freaking mind blowing. If you have dry hair, this is the silver bullet. 

Anti Gravity is a volumizing treatment. If I'm going to use a volumizing treatment, this is definitely my first choice. A little goes a long way, and it doesn't weigh down my hair. The only reason why I don't use it all the time is that I rarely blow dry my hair, and this product requires the heat. 

Session Spray is probably one of the best hair sprays I've ever used. It also doesn't weigh my hair down, and it has a very flexible hold. And just because he's the man, Kevin Murphy donates a small proceed to an environmental charity for every can sold.

I use the dry shampoo Fresh Hair almost daily. It smells divine. I can't recommend it enough. 

Overall, this is the best. The zippered pouch is just the cherry on top.

Picture Credit: NASA APOD.

Shu Uemura Essence Absolut

So basically winter sucks moisture out of my life like an inorganic anhydrous salt does out of organic solvent. In other words, I'm parched. I can't hardly even wear my contacts because my eyes refuse to retain any moisture whatsoever. The skin on my legs has gone the way of the lizard, and my hair feels so brittle. In steps Shu Uemura Essence Absolut. I may not be able to fully remedy any of my winter woes, but at least technology is on my side. Essense Absolut is an oil hair treatment and is described as a "multi-use elixir." Fancy. It contains all sorts of elaborate sounding things, but one of the main ingredients is camellia oil, which is a traditional Japanese skin and hair conditioner. I've been using this for almost a year now, and it's helped my hair health tremendously.

To apply Essense Absolut, I just pump a few times into my hand and smooth it into the ends of my hair. Initially my hair does look a bit greasy, but after five to ten minutes, the product is completely absorbed, and the hair looks lustrous and feels extremely soft. You would never guess that I'd just slapped a bunch of oil onto my hair. What's more, the oil also absorbs quickly and fully into my hands, and makes them feel moisturized all day. I think it even makes my (horrible) cuticles look healthier.

Essence Absolut retails for $65 for 150 ml. Blessedly, when Shu Uemura decided to pull their cosmetics and leave the US, the Art of Hair line stayed. So Shu Uemura hair care can still be found in many high end salons. I bought Essense Absolut at a fancy pants place on Bond Street. If you want to locate a salon near you, there's a nice search feature on the Art of Hair website. 

As an alternative, pure Camellia oil is sold by Chidoriya at $31 for 50 ml. You get less for the money, but also pay less overall. In my experience, Essence Absolut absorbs more fully, but the pureness of the Chidoriya is also very appealing. Chidoriya is sold through beautyhabit.

Kevin Murphy Powder Puff Review

As expected, Kevin Murphy Powder Puff is totally fab. After playing with it for the past month, I recently got a real life demonstration on how to use it (thanks Lisa!), and it might actually be what we fine haired girls have been wishing for all our lives. The best way to apply Powder Puff is to take a section of hair starting near the part, and tapping the product right onto the roots. Once you've done a number of sections, concentrating at the back of the head, massage your scalp with your fingers. The more you massage, the bigger and more voluminous your hair gets. If you want body elsewhere, flip your head over and tap some onto the length of your hair, concentrating at the ends. This is literally the perfect product for someone who constantly runs their fingers through, and plays with their hair, like I do!

Powder Puff behaves somewhat like a dry shampoo in that it latches onto the oils from your hair and scalp. I find that the volume doesn't particularly hold up the next day after sleeping with it in my hair, no matter how much I massage, but I guess I could always add more. According to the Kevin Murphy, this product can be applied to damp or dry hair, although I've basically only ever applied it to dry, so I can't attest to the performance on damp. This product is also referred to as a " Metamorphosis Product" which I would agree with. All of those products that claim to give you perfect bed head but just weigh down your hair can eat their heart out, because Powder Puff really delivers. 

Isn't it the cutest?

Unlike most Kevin Murphy products, Powder Puff doesn't confer any specific healthful benefit, but it doesn't do any harm either. And like all of his products, it's paraben and sulfate free. The ingredients are:

Water, Silica Silylate, Sodium Benzoate, 

Butylene Glycol,Nylon-12, VP/VA Copolymer, 

Alaria Esculenta Extract,Citric Acid, Phenoxyehanol

For more information, and even a how to video (that I'm apparently too lazy to watch, shame on me) visit the Kevin Murphy website. 

I only trust my hair with Kevin Murphy

this is an old picture of my shorter, color treated mess

Today's topic is hair. I have long hair that probably reaches close to the small of my back. I can't actually say for sure using those terms, since I can't very well look at my own back while my hair is lying nicely on it, but I can tell you that when I reach around with my hand, the longest strands reach about that far. Anyway, I'm a British mutt in heritage. Meaning I have English, Scottish, Irish and Welsch in my background. So that means that my hair tends to be very fine and delicate. Mostly it behaves as a sort of puff around my head and shoulders because of the slight natural wave. I go to great pains to make it healthy. I want it to grow, and prosper, and lead a contented life. So I've experimented a lot with different types of hair care. I can say definitively that Kevin Murphy products are the only ones I really trust my hair with.

Kevin Murphy hails from Australia, and I seem to recall an ad claiming that the big aussie stars like Kicole Nidman and such were fans. Whatever, the best part about the products is that they're all natural, and soothe the soul of even the most damaged locks. The Kevin Murphy website says: "The products are made from renewable and sustainable resources whenever possible, using pure essential oils, plant extracts and natural antioxidants. All KEVIN.MURPHY hair products are sulphate and paraben free." The shampoo and conditioner, referred to as wash and rinse respectively, were a little hard to get used to at first. The shampoo doesn't foam as much as your token drugstore brand, the conditioner is not the typical plastic-y consistency. The two lines that I've used the past several years are the "angel," and more recently, the "moisturize me." The angel rinse is good for fine hair, and obviously the moisturize me rinse is good for dry hair. Both smell divine, I might add.

So my routine goes as follows. I condition my hair intensely every time I wash it, which means I go through the Moisturize me rinse about twice or three times as fast as the wash. Additionally, I only really wash the top of my head. I swear, the bottom of my hair probably hasn't been touched by shampoo in years. I also use the Born Again Masque once a week on the ends for extra conditioning.

If I actually ever style my hair, I often use Kevin Murphy products as well. I highly recommend the anti-gravity and motion lotion products for creating body. (I really don't use my hair dryer anymore, because it's bad for my hair [in fact, only one person uses my hair dryer these days, and it's my friend Josh who sometimes visits me here in the city. He has flow-y Jim Morrison style hair, and yes, my friend Josh is kind of a rock star]). I'm also EAGERLY anticipating the new product called the powder puff. Hopefully my hair-stylist second-mother gets it in stock soon.

Like whoa, it's gonna be awesome!