A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Following on from Saturday’s “I want a perm!” declaration, I thought I’d let you know what prompted this revelation. I used a styling wand! And not just any old styling wand but one that is generally considered a bit of a posh styling wand, the Cloud Nine version.

It’s a bit of a chunky beast with a large tapered barrel and a heavy-duty, solid handle.

The wand comes complete with a protective sheath that slides over the heated barrel and protects fingers/surfaces from burns and damage when the tool isn’t in use. The Cloud Nine The Wand certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted (or weak-wristed), it quite heavy and takes a little practice to wield comfortably. I don’t mind admitting that it took not one, but two ear burns (matching) before I realised that at least one secret can be found in a simple solution: for the love of God, do not move or angle the tool once it’s cms from your skin, move the hair. MOVE THE HAIR, NOT THE TOOL. Are we clear on this? Good.

The tapered barrel allows for a good amount of volume at the root of the hair, and as you wind the hair toward the tip of the barrel, the curl will become tighter.

The controls are simple and easy to master, the wand gives you complete control over the temperature you’re using, which is great for anyone whose hair frazzles at standard settings. My fine hair generally responds pretty well at low temperatures, so for obvious reasons, I’m relieved that The Wand (like their straighteners) gives me the option to turn down the heat. If you’ve got coarse hair, by all means… crank that baby up.

The Cloud Nine wand also comes complete with a heat-resistant glove, this took away THE FEAR and ensured that I could wind each lock around the barrel right to the tip, there were no straggly straight bits for me! Plus, just having one glove in your possession is total justification for trying out any Michael Jackson impressions that you’ve been secretly stifling over the past 31 years. Not that I did any. Ow!

Cloud Nine are currently campaigning for women to be kinder to their hair by having “off” days. I have plenty of “off” days but after reading the press release, I realised that weren’t thinking along the same lines. According to Cloud Nine, you can treat your hair without compromising on style simply by rethinking your “2nd day” look. An example of this would be curling your hair on day 1, wearing the curls to their full-potential before using day 2 to be kind to your hair, leave the heated tools on the dressing table and simply wearing your hair in a half up/half down style with loose waves (the remainder of day 1’s curls) keeping you looking stylish.

It’s a bit bloody obvious isn’t it… but I get what they’re saying…

So anyway, onto my before and after… here’s my hair in all its uber flat, just washed and dried glory. Boring.

I honestly thought it would take longer to style, I kept asking Mr. L whether I’d missed a chunk at the back because it took me less than 10 minutes to curl and achieve this…

The above photo shows the curls before I’d separated them with my fingers. I was a little haphazard because I wanted to accurately reflect how I’d use the tool.

I’m not the kind of girl who has the patience to part her hair in a thousand different directions, pinning each section up and spritzing with heat defence. I’m the kind of girl who sprays half a bottle of heat defence, brushes it through, before randomly taking sections (that may or may not be completely different sizes) and curls. That’s me. I’m a crapiologist, and this still came out looking good.

So there you have it, I really like this… for one major reason. I could achieve proper curls a couple of times a week without wanting to gauge my eyes out in frustration. I’m not a hair person, I’m rarely happy with my hair but I hate fussing even more. So much so… that I’m already contemplating a one-off perm so that my hair can look like the above without me doing ANYTHING at all. Except, I know that it won’t work out like that and I’ll emerge from the salon looking like little orphan Annie, so as an alternative to not having to do anything at all, the Cloud Nine wand has proven itself to be a genuine solution to achieving great curls with the least amount of fuss, even on low heat.

Now as for that 2nd day hair… well, I could have done half-up/half-down, but that’s how I wore my hair to school, so screw you 2nd day hair. Instead, I cheated and used an old-skool setting lotion. Take that! No waves for me, these curls lasted until I had to wash the buggers out ha!

Cloud Nine’s The Wand is currently £20 off the usual RRP, priced at £99.95 and available to buy online from cloudninehair.com

* press sample

The second of the three new hair styling tools from Enrapture due to be released on the 15th August is the Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver*.  An odd-looking device with a trio of barrels that promise to coax your hair into a series of smooth “S” shapes, a.k.a “beachy” waves.

In theory, we’ve been here before.  I recently tried the Babyliss Wave Envy which although thoroughly impressive in design, abilities and price, left me with more of a ‘crimp’ than a ‘wave’.

These bad boys boast an impressive 25mm barrel (hence the Jumbo!) which means that they should ensure less crimping and more waving!

They’re heavy but not ‘too’ heavy to hold comfortably.  I found them a little unwieldy around the back of my head but I do have fairly short arms and a distinct lack of co-ordination.  The ‘flipper’ which controls the open/close mechanism on the waver is well engineered, with a light almost springy reaction.  This makes sure you don’t get thumb ache when ‘waving’!

The barrels are made from titanium which promises to give a smooth and snag free styling experience and I can’t argue with that as I experienced no issues with dragging or catching on my hair as I moved the styler through various sections.

It has an adjustable heat setting which I would have preferred to see digitised with actual temperature detailing so I could judge exactly how hot the tool was getting.  On the flipside, the controls are ridiculously simple.  An on/off switch and a heat dial.  Thassit.

So how did I get on with the styler?

Well… pretty well actually.  Similarly to the Babyliss, it’s ridiculously easy to use from a technical point of view.  I’m sure you’re ‘supposed’ to section your hair into accurate little pieces but I just fed handfuls of it willy-nilly into the jaws of the styler, clamped, moved down the hair shaft, clamped again… repeat until you run out of hair.

And that’s all I did.  I’m one of those ‘stylers’ who often start with the best of intentions.  All my little clips, brush, heat protection sprays surrounding me.  After about 7 minutes I’m just shoving my hair AT the styling tool and hoping for the best.

I was done in 10 minutes which goes against the brand’s ethos of “When everyday hair just isn’t enough” because I’d politely suggest that this is perfect everyday hair.  Everyday ‘tousled’ hair.

Wanna see what I managed to get from the Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver?

I had it on the ‘non-commital’ halfway heat setting as shown in the above photo and held the clamp shut for around 10 seconds.  That’s probably too long or something but my hair doesn’t seem to be complaining… I’ll try turning the temperature up and clamping for less time next attempt.

I’m really digging this styler, it solves the crimping problems I found with the Babyliss (albeit at a heftier price tag).

The Enrapture Amplify Jumbo Waver is set to launch this month into all major retailers (Boots, Argos, Debenhams etc.) with an RRP of £74.95 – for more information, check out www.enrapturehair.com or talk to the hair gurus on Facebook or Twitter

* press sample

en·rap·ture

verb /enˈrapCHər/

Give intense pleasure or joy to

Three new styling tools designed to give a variety of curls, waves and va-va-voom to your locks.  The new Enrapture range isn’t about the everyday, roll out of bed and make yourself look presentable.  The tools have been designed for when “everyday hair just isn’t enough”.

But what does that marketing guff actually mean?  Well, it means that this trio of hair styling tools has been created for those times when you want extra-special hair, going-out hair, sex-kitten hair (ok, I made that last one up) – you see what I’m getting at?  I wouldn’t use these on my hair before heading down to Lidl on a Friday morning because a).  By the time I’d mastered my ‘do’ the shop would be shut and b).  I might get chatted up by ‘Art’ the fruit n’ veg guy.

The tools in the range include:

Encode Totem Styler – A curling wand with a teeny flipper and independent heat zones to customize your curl.

Amplify Jumbo Waver – A waver with bigger-than-normal barrels to create beachy hair.

Extremity Heated Rollers – Heated rollers with the ability to heat hair from BOTH sides of the curl.

I’ll be reviewing all three tools but initially I want to show you the Encode Totem Styler* which at first glance looks rather complicated.

It’s basically a curling wand with the addition of a flipper (which you can choose to use or ignore) and three individually heated zones on the barrel that will heat to a temperature of your choosing.  The point of this is to give you the option to customise your curl.  Do you want a looser wave near the scalp getting tighter toward the end?  You need to dial in a 1-2-3 (1 being the lowest heat setting).

The styler incorporates a 25mm, titanium-plated barrel that ensures a fast heat-up and snag-free styling.  I did find the ‘cool-tip’ to be a little uncomfortably warm after around 10 minutes of styling, so that’s something I’d like to see improved in future versions but I can’t say I had any other ‘technical’ problems relating to the tool’s build quality.

The styler is light enough to hold comfortably for long periods of time and once you become accustomed to the way the coding system works, it’s all rather intuitive.

I can see a Facebook group in the company’s future, asking their fans to unlock their ‘codes’ and share their hair results with other users.  “Hey, check out my hair – I’m a 2-2-3!” etc. etc. – It’s a neat idea and whilst it could be a little gimmicky if it didn’t actually work, the whole independent heat zones provides tangible results so I’m not complaining.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if the styler came with 2 extra pairs of hands?

Well, I tried to recreate the Katie Melua-esque (in my dreams) curls that I was given at the launch event in the (dis)comfort of my own bedroom and for a novice,  I didn’t do too badly!  Sure, I may have given myself a minor scorching on the wrist but I’m not used to these wand things!

I’m looking forward to trying out some more coding combinations for different effects (the above was 1-2-3, loose-med-tight), I wanna know what a 2-3-2 would turn out like… it sounds weird in theory!

The Enrapture Encode Totem Styler is set to launch this month into all major retailers (Boots, Argos, Debenhams etc.) with an RRP of £74.99 (ouch) – for more information, check out www.enrapturehair.com or talk to the hair gurus on Facebook or Twitter

It’s all about big hair this year isn’t it?!  Do you curl your hair for special occasions?

* press sample

Just as the waves tumble onto the shore, I want my waves to tumble onto my shoulders.  Defined, smooth and shiny.  I want beach-beautiful locks (minus the sand).  A bit of sunshine would be nice too!

Babyliss Wave Envy promises just this, well… not the sunshine but beachy waves that last!  Never you mind what the shipping forecast says, I wanna look like I’ve just stepped from the Atlantic dunes at La Tranche Sur Mer.

The Babyliss Wave Envy is designed to clamp your hair between the barrels for a few seconds before releasing into a perfectly formed wave.  You then move the entire unit down to the end of that formed wave and clamp again… repeating until you reach the tips of your hair.  It actually works very well and my fairly fine hair was fully (if not expertly) ‘waved’ within 15 minutes.

The Babyliss Wave Envy features:

~ A top temperature of 200°c
~ Three heat settings for different hair types
~ Ultra-fast heat up
~ Ceramic plate and barrels
~ 2.5m salon style swivel cord
~ Cool tip for safety and ease of use
~ Heat protection mat
~ 3 Year Guarantee

It is indeed very easy to use, I’m someone that has never been able to curl their hair very succesfully with straighteners but this makes it a doddle albeit in a very different style.  On my hair, it doesn’t really look that beachy… I’d describe it more like a bohemian, almost hippy-like wave.  I think I should go get some big flowers to stick in it.

The unit is light to hold, easy to wield despite its cumbersome appearance and didn’t make my arms ache during use.  I was able to wave all sections without swearing and didn’t burn my fingers/ears/head once.

My personal preference is to ‘wave’ my hair with this tool and then wear it up in a loose bun with various bits falling and looking all tousled.  In honesty, I would prefer to see slightly larger barrels than are present on the Babyliss Wave Envy… a personal preference for my tastes would be for a looser, less crimped-looking wave.  But I’m sure there are just as many who will love this more boho-chic look.

It is perfect for summer and it also holds amazingly well on my hair which usually repels all curl.  The photos above were taken around 4 hours after waving with just a v. small amount of hairspray and no pre-styling products used.

The BaByliss Wave Envy retails at £50 and is available from Boots, Argos, Tesco Direct and Amazon.

* press sample