Monday, July 11, 2011

A Scientific Experiment

Or, should I say, a product review. I was contacted a little bit ago by Misikko.com to do a review of their HANA air salon hair dyer. They are most known for their Tourmaline Flat Iron and of course the HANA. I have to admit, I was both excited and wary about reviewing their product. I'm not a "beauty blogger" by any means so I didn't know if you all would even be interested in hearing what I have to say about the product. On the other hand, I was excited that someone had noticed my blog and wanted to send me their product. I also didn't want to endorse something that I didn't think was worthwhile. I went to their website and saw that they were indeed legit and even spoke to Jill about it. She did a review of their flat iron and said that it was a really nice product so I decided to move forward. The marketing guy who contacted me was very friendly and professional which made me feel even better about the experience.

So, I decided to do a little experiment (I am a science nerd if you didn't know). I wanted to see if their blow dryer was any better than my new $35 one from Target. I am not known for dropping a lot of money (hence all the thrifting) so I am wary of very expensive things. Why would I pay 315 dollars for a blow dryer when 35 gets me a perfectly fine one? I set up my experiment and tried to keep all variables the same except for the blow dryer. I wanted to look at a couple of things when I compared the two. First, was the expensive dryer quiet? My new dryer is very loud; much louder than my previous one. Although, it started to sound like a dying Chewbaca which is why I have the new one. Secondly, what did my hair look like afterwards? Was the quality of the blow dryer evident in how my hair looked and felt? Also, was the HANA any faster? I had read reviews that it cut a lot of people's drying time in half so I was interested to see how my fine hair fared. Lastly, was it easy to use? Sounds silly but some dryers have so many do dads that it makes it hard to just turn it on and dry your hair.

Here is my little experiment laid out for you in photos! Don't worry, I also have data and a conclusion coming :)

dryer goodies
Look at all the goodies I got!

dryer wet hair
Start with wet hair

dryer mousse
Add the same mousse

dryer2

dryer1 time

dryer1 hair
The end product of my Target dryer

dryer1
The HANA dryer

dryer2 time

dryer2 hair

HANATarget
SpeedX

QuietnessX

Hair QualityX

Cost
X
Ease of Use
X

dryer2 hair2
Winning hair!

You can see from my little graph that the HANA wins in many of the important categories. It also came with a lot of fun goodies in the box. It has a MUCH longer cord length which would be helpful if I had a bigger bathroom or if I shared my bathroom. I don't know if you could tell from the pictures but my hair was smoother and shinier when I used the HANA and I didn't even have to use my smoothing hair product. It wasn't much faster but if you think about it in terms of how much of a difference that would make if I had thicker or longer hair, it would really add up. A minute or so saved is a big deal to a low maintenance girl like me. I don't have nice, thick hair but if I did, I think it would totally be worth it. Someone on their website said it usually took her 40 minutes to dry her hair and with this dryer it was only 15. How cool is that?


Is it worth as much as it costs? That I'm not sure of. Like I said, it made my hair shinier and smoother and saved me time. Those are all really good things!

If you want to go and check out their website, the lovely people at Misikko are offering 10% off to all of my readers! How nice is that? Just use the code HANA10 at checkout. I just want to say thanks again to Misikko for their wonderful blow dryer and giving me the opportunity to review it.



**For full disclosure, they are letting me keep the hair dryer in exchange for this review.**

Friday, July 8, 2011

Blogger Book Club - June Review

Hi everyone! I hope some people got to read the Sugar Queen and will be up for a discussion/questions.

The Sugar Queen (Random House Reader's Circle)

I thought this was a light, fun book. Even though the plausibility of this story was lacking (I mean what 20-something person would only leave the house when her mom did?) I thought it was a good read. In my book club discussion, my friend Laura said she thought the characters were a little flat and I have to agree. I wish we could have learned more about each character throughout the story instead of just lightly touching on multiple people. I also wish the author had given a better explanation for why the mom was so terrible. I didn't want to like but maybe we weren't supposed to.

Did anyone else get a chance to read this?

The next book is a book I just finished called The Winter Sea. It wasn't for my book club but I really liked it. I do love everything Scotland but the story was really compelling . It is a historical fiction/romance which is one of my favorite genres second only to mysteries :)

Here is the review!

In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her...

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Fourth of Ju-ly

This is a couple days late but I had to show you my 4th of July. We walked down to the Stone Arch bridge with my cousin Sarah and her husband John, parked our blanket and enjoyed the show. I was wearing my favorite jean shorts and a sleeveless white shirt. So comfy! With my red hair, I was totally patriotic! In the right order too (red hair, white shirt, blue shorts).

Here are the fun sparkler and firework pictures. Shawn was manning the camera and Sarah and I attempted to write. We couldn't figure out letters so it's mostly shapes :) I finally put my camera on the tripod I carried all the way down there halfway through the fireworks and got some cool pictures!

7.4.11starcircle

7.4.11hearts bright

7.4.11squiggles

7.4.11fireworks1

7.4.11fireworks3

7.4.11fireworks2

Hope you all had a fun and safe weekend even if you don't live in America!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Holiday Weekend Fun

Well, the weekend isn't quite over since tomorrow is a holiday but I thought I would share anyway. Plus, I'm sure there will be enough pictures from tomorrow warrant a whole post :) I love me some fireworks!

Friday I was invited to Megan's house. Nora came later and we had so much fun! I haven't seen that many gross pictures in long time but it was so funny. I can't wait to hang out with them again.

twobirds me2

Saturday I hung out by my lonesome and cleaned for about 8 hours. I had no idea my tiny place could have that much to clean. Let me just list what I did for you: swept, mopped, cleaned the fridge, stove and sink, cleaned the bathroom including the tub, washed all my bedding and Ace's beds, and washed 3 loads of clothes. Phew!

Sunday, Shawn and I went for a 10 mile bike ride. I am out of shape so it was a hot and sweaty ride. We did stop to take some pictures though!

7.3.11a

7.3.11c

forest steps

7.3.11bike

7.3.11b

7.3.11view
Across the Mississippi from the U of M

Outfit Details:
Skirt - Lulu (from my shopping date with Maria)
Tank - Target
Bike necklace - Assembled by me
Shoes - Thrifted
Belt - stolen from my mom :)
Sunnies - Forever 21

Friday, July 1, 2011

100th Post - What I've been up to

Hi friends. Can I call you friends? I like to think so! I have been totally slacking with outfit pictures lately so sorry about that! The past 2 days have been 100+ so I've been staying inside for the most part. Me+extreme heat=unhappy.

Here are some recent iphone photos so you can see what I've been up to!

iphone 051
New spoon my mom gave me. He's happy to make pasta!

iphone 075
Twin game with my family. Great seats, worst game I've ever watched! (15-0)

iphone 074
He loves his new rope!

iphone 073
My new skirt + a bonus gift from Modcloth!

iphone 076
Yuck.

CameraBag_Photo_1000
Hanging with Maria. She is so sweet and funny. I recommend checking out her blog too but I'm sure you already have. Great style and a great gal. We were laughing the whole time! Totally copying her with her iPhone photo post. Thanks!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Shameless Self-Promotion

Hi all! I'm going to promote myself a bit because what else is a blog but promoting yourself right?
Right? (please say yes) :)

I am doing a giveaway over at the HandmadeMN blog today so go over and enter to win my necklace! http://etsymn.blogspot.com/2011/06/handmademn-giveaway-penguin-palace.html


Also, for you locals, there are some fun events coming up!

July 7-9th - Junk Love Sale
My friend Malia collects tons of cool and unique vintage housewares/decorative items. Everything is really reasonable (and by that I mean cheap!) so come stop by. I will be there all day on the 8th hawking my wares.

July 16th - HandmadeMN summer market: I will be there selling jewelry and prints so stop by and say hi!

July 23-24 - Mighty Swell vintage pop-up sale: I went last time and got a super cute skirt (which I have worn 3 times and never photographed). it was so busy last time but I will for sure be there again!

Oh and the 23rd is the MN blogger meetup! If you didn't get included on the email, shoot me one and I'll forward you the info. I'm so excited!!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Pleats Please

I found this puppy at the thrift store a while ago. I finally got around to ironing it so here it is! I also attempted to wear a scarf on my head. It got really annoying halfway through the night so that's why some of the pictures don't have it. I liked how it looked though!

6.24.11b

6.24.11a

6.24.11d

6.24.11c

6.24.11e

Outfit Details:
Shirt, jeans - Thrifted
Scarf - Gift from my friend from India
Shoes - Target
Necklace - Forever 21