Professionalism in a Can: A Review

So this is a review for Salon Grafix High Beams Intense Temporary Spray on Haircolor. I’m going to post it on Amazon. I had gotten myself up into the top 2,000 reviewers in hopes of getting into Amazon Vine and get free shit to review. Now I’m like 5,000. Lame. Anyway, Hair Spray. Or, as Amazon calls it: “High Ridge Beams Intense Spray-On Hair Color -Brown – 2.7 Oz – Add Temporary Color Highlight to Your Hair Instantly – Great for Streaking, Tipping or Frosting – Washes out Easily (SG_B008W3057A_US)” (click here now).

So. We all know I have shitty hair. It’s always been fine (the strands are skinny) and thin (there’s not a lot of strands). Then I started balding because yay. Of course. So I’m pretty open to playing with my hair. I mean, it already sucks. So when K said she was putting pink streaks in her hair and asked if I wanted to join — of course I did! K’s mom was doing the work and we didn’t have any actual beauty salon type tools so she was hesitant to try highlights in my hair. So we decided on an undercut. We bleached it out and dyed it pink. Awesome. So I’ve been rocking that for a few months.

So here I am living my life with a pink undercut. Problem: I’ve got a court case that’s been winding its way through the court for three years. I have to appear in court. I’m the plaintiff. I have to testify that I’m a professional and a god damned good one at that. According to my lawyer, juries don’t think professionals have pink hair. Which is obviously a stupid stereotype. However, I want to win my case and my lawyer said the pink had to go.

Well. I could dye my hair back to brown. That would be unfortunate as to get it back to pink, we’d have to strip the color and bleach it again. This would most certainly damage my shitty hair so not a good idea. So if I went back to brown, I was committing to leaving it that way for months. I had already given up on this court case anyway, so fuck that. I’d fake it. People spray paint their hair different colors all the time! Well, kinda.

I knew there was temporary hair sprays out there for conventions and Halloween. That’s all I needed. Fake it for a few hours and back to pink we go. The only problem was, apparently, people don’t spray their hair brown a lot. Pink, blue, purple, green? Twenty plus options for you to choose from. Brown? Not so much. Only one option that I could even find, in fact. Salon Grafix High Beams Intense Temporary Spray on Haircolor. I read the Amazon reviews and I knew one can wouldn’t go for more than one coloring so I ordered two just in case. It was a good thing because this trial took THREE DAYS.

So when the day came, I woke up freakishly early so my bestie could come color my hair on her way into work. This isn’t something you can really do yourself. From the previous reviews, I knew this stuff would get everywhere so we sprayed it outside with a towel over my shoulders and gloves on our hands. I also knew that this would easily shed everywhere. So my best bet was for my hair to move as little as possible. So I had put in hair gel the night before. Then heavy set mousse the morning of. Then we pulled it back and pinned it in place with bobby pins. My hair was solid. K sprayed me down with brown spray. Even with just covering an undercut pinned back, we used half a can. So yeah, order a lot.

The coverage was amazing! This stuff is solid. The brown was a richer redder brown than my natural mousey brown, but not enough to be egregious. Certainly not something that would jump out at the casual observer. The first thing my lawyer said, I shit you not, was “you fixed your hair!” No, lawyer, it’s Halloween paint.

This stuff was so solid that after an exhausting day of court proceedings, I considered just sleeping in it. When I changed clothes, however, it was obvious that it had shed a lot throughout the day onto the back of my shirt. Ok, wash it out it is. The shower water was a disgusting brown, but it came out 100% in a single shampoo! (Note this picture is after the third day of washing. The pink is a semi permanent dye so it was washing out a lot by this time. The blondish roots are the pink washing out, not from the brown spray staining).

The trial went on for three days. K came over every morning and sprayed it down. Every night I washed it out clean. It did get on the back of all of my clothes, but I ran them in a load by themselves in the washer on cold and it came out completely.

So yeah, I’d recommend the hell out of this stuff. Just make sure you have enough cans because you need a lot. Make sure your hair is an up-do that isn’t going to move a lot. The more it moves, the more it sheds. Expect it to get on your clothes. Oh, and maybe where a face mask when you spray it. We both inhaled way too much brown. Think brown snot. Probably not healthy.

It’s a Good Thing: Pentel EnerGel RTX Retractable Liquid Gel Pen Review

How about a product review? I just reordered some of my absolute favorite pens. I’m pretty possessive of a good pen. I covet them. You will not take my good pen. And ever since I found these Pentel EnerGel RTX Retractable Liquid Gel Pens (Amazon Link), the purple one has been my precious. I’ve ordered a set of just purple and now I’m ordering another set of the multi-colored package because almost all of them have run out.

Here is my original Amazon review (I’m a whore for Review “likes” — so feel free to hop over and mark my review as “helpful”) :

I signed into a meeting Monday with a brown pen — the color was meh (brown) but the ink line was fantastic. It flowed perfectly. Perfectly. I wanted it. I asked whose it was and it belonged to the meeting coordinator — he was not going to let me have his pen. So I asked to borrow the pen and wrote down everything about it. Then I went home and ordered a pack of my own. Now I have purple and dark green (and 7 other colors since I gave three to my husband). They arrived last night. *SQUEE*

Purple is my favorite color of pen to use at work. I’m an engineer so I have to keep it semi-professional. This pack has a lovely dark purple, a dark green (looks lighter in the picture — there are two greens, one is lime and one is dark), 3 of 4 blues (I’m counting the turquoise here), black and brown. I consider all of these seven colors professional enough for work purposes. There are other lovely colors here but those will stick to home use. The Navy pen looks almost black when you write with it. I prefer to avoid black and similar pens at work because I need my writing to pop on printed pages. So this multi pack was an awesome choice for me. Next time I might just order a set of purple. However, I wanted to try all the colors first.

I’d consider getting a nice metal version of this pen and just switching in these ink wells. However, then I’d be even more possessive of my amazing pen. I might develop a tick when someone asks to use it.

“My precious…”

Review: Just Crack an Egg

I finally got around to trying one of these egg cup things. These “Just Crack an Egg” cups were in the cooler at Publix across from my fake milk. I saw this protein one that didn’t have any potatoes in it so I picked some up.

First: I love that I can mix it all in the cup and not waste a dish. Second, look how loaded with fillings it is! The cup was actually full, not just a misleading size. I used two eggs and it was still well loaded. Pretty sure you could do three eggs with this many mix-ins. I think the one egg suggestion is just to keep the calorie count and macros on the package down. This is way too much extras for just a single egg.

Basically, you scramble the eggs in the cup, stir in the additions and pop in the microwave. Halfway through, you stir it again and in about a minute and a half you have a crust-less quiche! It’s really good too.

The only possible negative is that I wouldn’t eat it straight out of the cup. I like salt and pepper on my eggs and there’s no way to do that in the cup full of eggs. That’s barely a thing though as most other ways to get such good eggs involve mixing bowls and pans and a lot more time. I’ll buy these again.

Good Thing: ThermoPro TP03 Digital Thermometer

As for the “Curiosities” part of this blog, I thought I might feature things I think are nifty. Most of them will be from Amazon. Not because I get money for links (I don’t have that set up), but because I’m lazy as fuck and most things I have come from there. Sorry, not sorry. Kinda sorry. I mean, it is really fucking convenient but they treat their workers like trash.

I review everything I buy. I’m trying to get into their “Vine Voice” program where they give you free shit in exchange for honest reviews. So far I’ve worked my way up from some 4 or 5 millionth reviewer to in the 2,000s. And I’m a top contributer in Camping and Gardening. Not that I’d camp to save my life, ha. Well wait, I would to save my life. In fact I’m a bit of a prepper so that’s how that happened. We have a fully stocked storm shelter and bugout bags. Check me out; like my reviews. Every helpful vote gets me closer to free shit. (Clicky clicky)

ANYWAY, so first lets feature my new cooking thermometer. The ThermoPro TP03. Or, as Amazon calls it: the “ThermoPro TP03 Digital Instant Read Meat Thermometer Kitchen Cooking Food Candy Thermometer with Backlight and Magnet for Oil Deep Fry BBQ Grill Smoker Thermometer.” They like the words.

I always cook meat with a thermometer. I’m a great cook, and I could totally not use one and be fine. But why be fine when you can be certain? If I’m serving shit to other people, I’m not giving them food poisoning. Especially Mr C as he has a sensitive tummy sometimes. So chicken, burgers, whatever it is, I’m checking the temperature. I’ve had two digital thermometers that served me well in the past from a wedding gift and then Publix. But they were both lost to dropping them in oil. Sorry, faithful thermometers. And this time, I couldn’t find a damn digital thermometer anywhere in person. Not Publix, not Target, mom looked at Walmart and said not there either. So in steps Amazon. Cause I don’t go to the store.

Why am I showing you this thermometer? Well because it is fucking fantastic, that’s why. It does all the great things a meat thermometer should:

  • It’s digital
  • Has a bright back light
  • Big-ass readable numbers
  • Magnetic so you can hang it on the fridge or a hook if your more of a hook person.
  • Reads the temperature super fast (way faster than my old ones)
  • It’s cheap
  • Folds up for storage and non-stabbyness

Oh did you not catch the meaning of that last one? I’ll tell you what that means. It means it’s a badass, motherfucking, SWITCHBLADE thermometer. Hell yeah!

Don’t act like anything switchblade is not badass. When you got your first car key that was a switchblade, you loved that shit. Well now your thermometer can be too. Press the button and whip this baby out to check the burgers. “WHAH-CHA” Perfect FDA-approved 160 degrees. Dinner is served.

So for $14 bucks, I highly recommend this thing. As Martha Stewart used to say: “It’s a good thing.”