Parched hair does not actually want “deep conditioning” as most hair product commercials would have us all believe. If it did want that then we could all just pour Olive Oil over our heads or slick it through with a bit of Crisco and it would bounce to life.

I can only assume there are others out there who made the teenage mistake of putting Mayonnaise all through their hair after seeing Julia Roberts doing it in Dying Young?? What?…no?…well never mind, me neither then.

Anyway, what dry hair really wants is a perfectly balanced combination of stuff that I am far to ignorant to specifically know by name, but I certainly know products that have found this balance and work.

The full name of one such product is…Dove Advanced Care Sheer Moisture Leave In Replenishing Mist for Normal to Dry Hair…seriously, is that not the most absurdly long product name you have ever heard? However, this is great stuff. It really, really works and costs around five bucks! An extra note, do not buy the coordinating Dove Luminizing Leave-In Mist or the cream version as the Sheer Moisture as they are crap.

Some people just have more delicate stomachs than others. Some of us experience nausea at random times, by no fault of our own. Some of us have no idea why we are nauseous and therefore cranky on a semi-regular basis. Some of us really hate those of you with “Iron Stomachs” and jealously watch you eat anything and everything with wild abandon and no consequences after the fact. Some of us just have really wimpy, pathetically sensitive, should have their little stomach asses kicked stomachs!

And now, some of us have come across Dramamine. Forget about motion sickness (which I guess it is primarily meant for) this little product is a honest to god life saver in dealing with basic nausea.

Nausea can truly be debilitating when it just sticks around for no reason. It’s just awful. But one Dramamine can make a tremendous difference.

It’s Dimenhydrinate which per the website is benign enough for even children as young as two to take and it is a pregnancy category B. It costs $5.00-$6.00.

It’s a terrific little product that is surprisingly effective. Even works on hangovers.

I just look really sad when my hair is limp. By sad I mean like a dork, not so much sad as in tearful. And so I use a really fantastic product that you might not have heard about.

Stila Hair Powder is meant to be used for those days when you don’t want to wash your hair and need volume. Or as I have found, even if your hair is freshly washed, it is excellent for adding thickness.

This product is not to be confused with the other somewhat known hair powder product by Bumble & Bumble. The B&B Aerosol Hair Powder Spray is very odd and when I bought and tried it, it totally reminded me of those late night “spray on hair” infomercials for balding men. Not a fan. However, I have found the Stila Hair Powder to be a great product.

A few helpful tips for use…

1.) Is best for somewhat lightish hair shades since it is a whitish color.

2.) Only put it on the roots (except as specified below). On the rest of the hair it just kind of makes hair clumpy.

3.) Do not use if you have extensions.

4.) Especially fabulous if you have fine hair.

5.) Makes hair really “grippy” for an updo. It is wonderful for this and this is the one circumstance where you would want to apply the powder throughout your hair.

6.) Do not buy the “Creme Bouquet” scent, it smells weird. Only buy the “Jade Blossom” scent which is lovely.

This product, if used correctly, basically makes you look like you have a lot more hair. It is $28.00 a bottle and a bottle lasts a really long time. When I use Stila’s Hair Powder, I don’t need mouse or hairspray or teasing, (of my hair that it). It’s a fabulous product.

Okay, I don’t have any kind of chronic bad breath issue or anything, but I am a bit anal about fresh breath…hence, my love of Crystal Breath. Most people I mention it to have never heard of it, but it is a truly useful little gem.

Now you don’t chew on these little capsules. You swallow them (a couple) with water after you have eaten something particularly fragrant, and thats it! They “Freshen your breath from within”…really.

The ingredients are completely benign, nothing scary at all. They are not the cheapest breath fresheners out there, the least expensive I have found are $6.65 for one pack. But one pack lasts me a month or two.

They are also a bit hard to find. I have not seen them in the stores in the past 5 + years, and on-line is almost as hard to find them as well. But the manufacturer’s website is a reliable source to buy from.

These little drops are super great and amazingly effective.

One of the most lovely perfumes I have ever come across is Carolina Herrera New York.

I’m never fully sure how to interpret those descriptions of perfumes that you read in catalogs and on-line, but in case they make sense to you, this fragrance has what they call a white floral base with Jasmine and Tuberose notes.

Basically it is a gentle, very feminine perfume. However, it doesn’t have that sticky sweetness that I seem to associate with those cute, but more juvenile scents. It has a bit of a warmth to it, yet doesn’t become musky.

Does that help at all? Now that I read it, my description is just as unclear as the wordy distributor ones isn’t it? Okay, well I have another idea. If you think you may want to take it for a test run for a week or two or whatnot, I found a store on Ebay that sells little mini bottles of Carolina Herrera New York for only $6.50. I purchased one of these and then eventually ordered a full size bottle from Nordstrom. The 1.7 oz is $63.00.

I have had several friends who have asked me what I was wearing, tried this fragrance and then switched from their perfume to this classic and elegant fragrance.

That title sounded like I was talking about douche huh? Well, no fear, no douche advise here! This ones just about lovely, girly soap…just regular soap, not special soap.

So anyway, I have never really been a bar soap type of gal. However, I permanently switched over to bar soap entirely because I fell in love with Philosophy’s Amazing Grace soap.

First, it truly gets you clean, no residue feel on your skin after. Second, somehow it leaves your armpits totally happy and un-irritated, (like Dove claims to.) And third, it is the best smelling soap ever made…that is IF your a girl. And the scent lingers just the right amount on your skin out of the shower. It really is wonderful.

You can find Philosophy products all around, this set comes with two bars for $18.00. And each bar lasts a really long time. And besides, the cotton candy pink bars are just so damn pretty.

So I am telling you I have found an eye cream that truly reduces that permanent under eye darkness that so many of us have. And it costs $28.00 for a jar that will last you 6 months! So listen up, because seriously, this stuff works.

Okay, so I have inherited some not subtle under eye circles from my mother’s side of the family and have therefore for years been trying out different kinds of eye creams.

Just a couple of the “miracle”,(actually a synonym for “expensive”,) eye creams I have tried are; the La Mer Eye Balm~$130.00 and Hylexin~$95.00; along with many, many other high end under eye treatments. None of them, and I mean none, seemed to make any difference to the actual purpleness under the eye.

Now Eyecon from Benefit Cosmetics positively works. I don’t know how it works, and I don’t know why it is only $28.00, but I’m telling you…it works.

A sheet of these Alpha Bitch stickers were given to me as a gift a while back, (I am assuming the nature of the gift implied nothing,) and I just love them. They are stickers blazoned with authentic vintage advertising art work. They show manically smiling 1950’s housewives with really, really perky boobs saying things like…”I childproofed my house..but they still get in!” and “Housework is evil and must be stopped.”

These stickers are delightfully funny and passive-aggressively sassy. And the cost per sheet, (and the sheets are quite large,) is only $4.99.

Blue-Q also has other sheets with titles like “Spiteful & Delightful” as well.

The best place to find would be on the Blue-Q Site. Blue-Q actually also has a bunch of slightly inappropriate, but really funny little items, most of which are inexpensive and make great gifts to someone with a healthy sense of humor.

One quick little “thing that is super great” is Giorgio Armani’s Star Lash Mascara. Hands down the best mascara you will ever own.

The only possible down side is it is not waterproof, but waterproof mascara is so hard on the lashes anyway. And it does cost $26.00, but really that is right in line with most high-end mascaras, (which in and of itself is ridiculous, but there is little we can do about that at the moment is there?)

Do not get the Armani Soft Lash or the Maestro mascaras as having tried both, I have found them both to be crap.

The Star Lash on the other hand does it all. It lengthens, it thickens, it separates. It’s perfect.