Review: ilike organic skin care

I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on my skin as of late.  Since my last birthday, I’ve been super vigilant about taking care of my facial skin (the rest of my body, not so much).  What happened?  My mother gave me a full regimen from the skin care line I had been cooing over for more than a year.  It’s a Hungarian skin care line called ilike organic skin care.

Shopping Alert: Insane ACII Price @ Amazon!

I don’ t know how long this will last but you can get Assassins Creed II (Xbox 360 and PS3)  for not only $24.99 at Amazon, but also receive a $10 Video Game Credit AND a $5 Amazon MP3 credit.  Can you get much better than that?  Jump on this!  This deal is much better than the used version that’s floating around the Intertubes…

I love Anush!

Isn’t the start of a new relationship…so exciting!?

I am not super attractive (despite the hottiescientist name, but compared to most scientists, I probably fare ok), but when I was younger, I had my hair.  Beautiful, strong, healthy black flowing hair.  And so much of it!  And then, my genetics hit me and my hair started to thin out in the most obvious place imaginable — front and center.  It’s been a steady decline since I turned 20 and the source of a lot of grief.  I try not to think about.  In the end, it’s just my hair and looks and appearance don’t mean that much, right?  Yeah, but your self-esteem does and let’s face it, it’s tied to the way you look sometimes.  And frankly, I don’t think it would bother me that much if freaking stylists knew what what to do with it!

Seriously, I live in LA where even a Supercuts haircut is more expensive than the ones I used to get in the middle of nowhere when I lived back east.  Why should I dump $50-80 per haircut when they can’t do the one thing I want it to do: make my hair look good!  And I mean, good without spending 50 minutes a day styling it.  I hate using product (it speeds up hair loss too), I hate applying heat (it speeds up hair loss too), and I hate stressing about time lost (it speeds up hair loss too!).  I want the nice, versatile haircut: one that makes me look decent, and not balding, when I’m just letting it air dry, and one that makes me super sexy when I have time to be super sexy.  Is that too much to ask?

Apparently, it is.  The last couple haircuts have either been nightmares or nothing to get excited over, promptly followed with, “I can’t believe I just paid and TIPPED that.”  And then I found Anush.

I found Anush online and she quickly responded to my voicemail and freed up her schedule so I could see her.  After accidentally going to her former salon (where I met her incredibly bitchy former boss), I arrived at her new salon, the Louis Michael Salon.  First off, her energy was exactly what I needed.  I had a stretch of bad days on what should have been a nice weekend, and I frankly, I wanted to salvage that weekend.  If you could mix Hollywood FABULOUS with a huge heaping of SUGAR & SPICE (gotta love the spice!) in a totally down to earth woman, that would be a clone of Anush.  We went to a station where we talked about my alopecia, my horrid haircuts, and I almost broke down and just said, I just want to like what I see in the mirror.   We talked options and  about what I could afford and what I couldn’t, but she did not pressure me into anything at all.  It was a relief that she had sympathy to both my vanity and wallet.

And then she went to work.  And she did work.  She conditioned my hair and my gosh she started doing all these things with those scissors!  Some of it I recognized, some of it I didn’t, but whatever it was, it made me feel sexy.  She layered my hair so beautifully that you could hardly tell I suffered hair loss.  This haircut is what I’ve been wanting for years.  I know for a lot of people, they probably didn’t notice that much (like certain a-holes at lab), but for someone who has to stare at my alopecia every time I look in the mirror, it was freedom.  Beautiful, layered freedom.

Anush then did a quick look at my husband and suggested some great ideas for his mop of a head as well.  Beverly Hills is a big trek for me from Pasadena, but I really feel like she’s worth it.  She’s a completely high end stylist — actually, dare I say it?  ARTIST!  There I said it — and she’s worth every penny.  And you know, I’m going to save up every penny so I can continue to go to her.

UPDATE (5/22/10): I dropped by Anush’s station this weekend after convincing my husband he should get his hair cut by her.  What were we in for?  I was in for a Kerastase treatment and he was getting a Brazilian straightening treatment on top of his haircut.  Gosh, just seeing her lights me up.  The Kerastase treatment is do die for — if you can afford to do it, go for it.  The treatment has softened my hair and hopefully will restore my mop from whatever previous damage it has received.  She then blow dried my hair and, man, I love my hairstyle because she’s managed to make it look awesome in a different way again.  My husband got one of the best haircuts he’s ever gotten.  She spent so much time on him, I’m afraid he’ll get used to all the attention.  He thoroughly enjoyed her pleasant attitude and is definitely set on the two of us exclusively going to her for our hair needs.  So, THAT’s how good she is — now my husband wants to only see her!

To try Anush out yourself, check her website out at www.anushhairdesign.com.  Tell her the hottiescientist recommended her!

Watching Comedy Evolve

Friday night, my husband and I managed to snag tickets for 50% at the Ice House so we could see Christopher Titus, my favorite comedian.  I was first exposed to him on the show Titus which aired on Fox during my sophomore year of college, and I fell in love.  Always a fan of dark comedy, I get very excited to watch a special on Comedy Central or every once in a while see him in an intimate setting in my own neck of the woods.

The show was funny for the most part, but it was clearly a work in progress.  He did recycle some jokes from the “Love is Evol” Act.  It was hard to say what his theme really was… I’m not sure if it was trophies or revolution (and he really should stay away from the latter because he sounded like a tea-partier(bagger) when he went off on that).  I was only visibly annoyed in one part where he exhibited (I think) an ignorant to the point of unfunny take on anti-depressants, but there were definitely moments when I was laughing so hard my sides were hurting.  So, I’ll take it as a win.

It was while walking away slightly tipsy (because the Ice House makes you pay a buttload in drinks on top of their tickets), I realized that 1) I really admire Christopher Titus for working on his craft so rigorously that his final product is truly something to be admired and 2) I don’t think I’ve ever seen the beginning workings of a comedy act like this before.  I’m pretty critical at comics (oh, and his opening act SUCKED), but I don’t think I ever really walked away from an act going, that was a good START and I’m excited to see what will come of it.

Now, I hope I didn’t just curse him to an unsuccessful act!