Samantha on the Prairie

I shop at Target a lot, often enough that my preschooler tells me which doors to go in for groceries or household products. We're fans of Method, mainly because the prices are low and the product packaging is really cool. Since we're on a "buy healthier" kick, I decided to try Method's All-Purpose Cleaner in Pink Grapefruit scent. I keep this cleaner primarily on the first floor, usually under the kitchen sink. Most nights, I use it to quickly clean off the counters and the stovetop, but at least once a week, I also use it on the bathroom mirrors and sometimes the tile floors for quick clean up jobs. It's fantastic for cleaning off the top of the washer and dryer, and honestly does an amazing job on my dining room table without destroying the wood. I was pretty happy with this cleaner until a couple nights ago when my husband noticed that there's a slightly sticky residue on the counters after I clean. Bummer! I tested it out to make sure it was th...

It's been two weeks since I colored my hair with Vidal Sassoon Pro Series hair color in 5C Medium Cool Brown . I admit that I didn't like that my hair wasn't as soft and smooth but the color seemed like a good match to my natural color and took well. In my entire history of coloring my hair, except when using rich red or true black, I either end up with the color not taking at all (rarely) or the color lasting about 4-6 weeks before notably fading. My experience with VS Pro Series is an exception in that it lasted about a week before looking kind of blah. You can see in the picture above that some of the brown is still there, and it does continue to look pretty good near the ends, but the areas around the side and front have mostly faded away. This is funny since I only shampoo twice a week, use a gentle product, and have tried to avoid washing the more faded areas as much as the rest. I was on the fence about using this brand again, but now definitely won't try...

It's been nearly three months since I colored my hair with Olia and I was finally ready to say goodbye to the red. Three months of root growth looks pretty lame when the dyed color is reddish and the natural color is a greyish-tinted mousey brown. Since I've had a stash of Vidal Sassoon coupons, I decided that would be the brand to try. At this point, it's probably the only brand of home hair color I haven't yet used. To mask the red, I chose an ashy cool shade of brown, the Pro Series  5C Medium Cool Brown . Though there are 18 Vidal Sassoon colors to choose from, including 8 browns, I found the only box of medium cool on the shelf. I'm starting to think my Minnesota location is the reason there are always way more light browns and blondes in the hair color section than medium and dark browns. My biggest fear with trying a new product was what happens if the color comes out way too dark. It's always easy to fix light hair, but near impossible to safely l...