March 2016 | The Glam Mom

The Glam Mom Tests: RED by Kiss Edge Straightener

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Hi there!

If you've been following this blog for a while, then you may know that I have suffered from a bit of hair loss at my hair line.  My dermatologist told me that it was Traction Alopecia. I stopped wrapping my hair at night to keep pressure off my hairline and started using men's Rogaine to help the problem. It didn't work. But, since having my 3rd baby, the hair I'd lost years ago started to grow back, which is a HUGE blessing.  But it's also been a bit of a curse because those new hairs stand up all over the place and don't stay straight.  I've been using edge control gels since the fall, but they leave my hair feeling a bit goopy and I just don't love the result.
Look how straight my edges are!!! This is a big deal!
But, on a trip to a beauty supply store with my mom in New Jersey, I discovered this AWESOME tool - the RED by Kiss Edge Straightener.  It's AMAZING!!!!!!  It gets my edges looking so smooth! I LOVE it!!!  I made a video to show you how well it works.  So have a look and let me know what you think!

Here are a few more details about the straightener

  • ⅜” Ceramic EDGE Straightener, innovation at its best. Style, straighten, or lift close to the hair line without burning the scalp
  • Ceramic barrel with Heat-Resistant protection, get right to the root
  • Safe to use at home yet powerful enough for professionals
  • Child Safe: No Need for Hot Stove, Stress-Free Glide, no more tears
  • The perfect tool for the perfect weave: Smooth out CLOSURES effortlessly, Lay down FRAYS on your tracks, blend track hair with your natural hair
  • Variable Heat Settings up to 450°F
  • Safety stand
  • Swivel Cord with hanging loop
  • Limited One Year No-Hassle Warranty

And if you decide you want to try one, here is an affiliate link to the 1/2" version from Amazon

red by kiss edge straightener

Until next time!

xoxo




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Chalkola Chalk Markers Review

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This item was sent to my for review by Chalkola 


Hi there,

I never knew chalk markers existed until Chalkola asked me to try their's out. Just in case you haven't heard of them either, chalk markers/pens are meant to give your art projects the look of chalk WITHOUT the dusty mess. 


These are seriously cool.  My kids LOVED them and have begged me to use them every. single. day. since we first tested them.


Here are some details about these chalk markers:

  • They are literally chalk, just in liquid form!
  • You can use them on NON-POROUS surfaces (white boards, chalk boards, glass, paper, labels, things like that)
  • They are water-based
  • They will dry and the ink will only be removed when you're ready for it to be removed.
  • They EASILY wipe clean with a damp cloth
  • They are meant for children 3 and over (I let my 4 year old son and 2 [she will be 3 next month] year old daughter test them. I stood right over them, so I had no safety concerns at all.)
I received three items to test:


First we tested the 15mm pens.  I let each child choose one color to experiment with.
To use the markers, you have to press the 
markers on a hard surface to activate the ink. 
We used them on white boards.  My kids love 
to write on white boards, so they were happy.
Once the ink was activated, they were really easy for the kids to write with.  But there was a little PROBLEM - they splash.
They splash everywhere.  Especially with excited kids who love shake things.  We had chalk ink everywhere - on the table top, on the floor, on the chairs, all over their clothes.  It was a mess.  The saving grace was that this ink wipes up SUPER EASY with just a damp cloth.
 Splatter on the table
 My son's hand afterward
My daughter's hand afterward
My son's shirt and arm after 
working with the 15mm marker
So, they are definitely not the neatest markers I've ever allowed my kids to use.  But like I said, they wipe up really really easily, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  The ink also washed right out of their clothes.  

After we cleaned up a bit, we tried the 6mm markers on the fancy labels.
We didn't spend too much time on this since the kids had no interest in writing anything.  They just wanted to scribble.  No big deal. But we tried it out, and the markers work nicely on the labels.  They leave a good vibrant color.  You just have to be careful no to shake the marker too much otherwise it could drop or splatter and mess up the label.
This is what the labels look like. Super cute designs!
As you can see, they just wanted to 
scribble, so we stopped this pretty quickly.  
These markers can be a bit messy, especially for little kids.  But once they are dry, they are DRY.  You can't rub the ink off, even on the white board.  Whatever you create with them will stay in tact until you use water to remove it.  My son was so excited because he drew a picture and it lasted for DAYS.  The only reason we ended up erasing it was because my daughter used a brown dry-erase marker and drew all over it.  He was really, really upset.
He told me what this animal was, but I don't remember.  Probably a tiger since he LOVES pretending he's a tiger these days LOL!
But like I said, this drawing lasted for days.

So all in all, I really like these markers!!!  And so do my kids.  They keep asking for me.  I've had to move them out of their reach because they kept trying to sneak them out of the craft drawers to use!!!  I just don't feel like cleaning up the mess.  But I told them that come summer time, we can take them outside with the white boards and they can use them whenever they want to.

I know the recommended age is 3+, but if your kids are like mine, I'd hold off until they are older. Unless you don't mind cleaning up ink splatter.  But for an older child and especially for an adult, these would be GREAT for any art project on any non-porous surface.

If you want to try them out for yourself, I added links above to each item.  And if I know you, you can just come to my house to try them out! LOL!  

Until next time,

xoxo


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My MommyCon Experience

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Hi there!
Have you ever heard of MommyCon?  Most people haven't.  Well, I'll fill you in.  MommyCon is a natural parenting convention. And when I say "natural parenting," that means baby wearing, breastfeeding, natural childbirth, co-sleeping and cloth diapering, among other things. These practices are also referred to as "crunchy." I consider myself a semi-crunchy mama. All of my babies have slept with me at night for ease of nursing; I breastfed all 3 of my children (for 7 months, 13 months, and 16 months); and have way too many baby carriers. I considered natural childbirth, but I just ended up getting scared. LOL! Cloth diapering, however, I have no interest in. Therefore, I'm only semi-crunchy.

My semi-interest in these parenting methods was enough to draw me into MommyCon. I wanted to go in 2015, but couldn't make it. So when I learned the tickets went on sale for 2016, I bought one right away.  I also requested a media badge, but never heard back. Then my friend Melissa forwarded an email inviting her to a Blogger Breakfast and she asked me to come along. I was already going, but who would turn down free breakfast? LOL! So, I RSVPed to the breakfast. But I missed it because hubby wasn't feeling well the day of the even and I didn't feel right leaving him with all 3 kids. Anyway, because of this, I ended up with 3 tickets and therefore 3 SWAG BAGS! (I'll be doing a video on all the swag soon, so SUBSCRIBE HERE). 

MommyCon took up an entire floor of the Stevenson Conference Center in Rosemont, IL. Here are a few photos of the rooms:



As you can see, there were a LOT of people.  I didn't arrive at the event until 4pm and it started at 9am. So this is only a small fraction of the people who attended. Most had already gone home by this time.

There were all kind of vendors present - some brands that's I've heard of, most that I hadn't. Everyone I talked to was super friendly and helpful. Here are a few items that I learned about that I really LOVED - 

Leche Libre - These dresses really caught my attention. I love anything fatigue or with studs, so this line is right up my alley. If you follow this blog regularly, then you know I'm no longer nursing my now 17 month old, so I'm sad I'll never get to really test out one of these dresses for their actual purpose. But I would still wear one anyway! See those seams over her boobs??? Those are CONCEALED ZIPPERS!  
When it's time to nurse, just pull a zipper down and your boobies are ready to go! I love that idea! Not all the zippers are concealed though, but they totally fit the style of the dresses. The girl I spoke to (pictured above - sorry, I forgot to ask her name!) said the line is working to bring the price point down (it's currently $125 for each dress) by working with a new manufacturing company and also planning to expand the range of sizes (currently they go up to a size 16). This dress is the one on the rack that really got my interest. I love the studs on the pockets and the versatile collar. I may just have to buy it! 
All parents have heard of the NoseFrida. (If you haven't, google it asap and then go buy one because you NEED it!) Now FridaBaby has developed the FEVER FRIDA, a bluetooth enabled, wearable thermometer.  I mean - WHAT?!?!?  
From the FridaBaby website:
"FeverFrida checks in on your babe every four seconds without waking him or her, thanks to a bitty Bluetooth monitor and patch placed under the arm. The FeverFrida will alert your smart phone when the temp goes above a predetermined threshold and continuously stores data for pediatrician visits and medicine dose reminders. Think thermometer meets very smart baby monitor!"
It requires buying patches that need to be replaced. There is an app to download and you link to the thermometer by bluetooth. It costs $69.99, which is no more than my Braun ear thermometer which reads all over the place and we are never sure if it's actually accurate. I would have bought it ON. THE. SPOT. Except, it wasn't available for purchase at MommyCon. So excuse me while I go buy it right now...
OK, done. 
The only purchase I made that day was from Sacred Art, a boutique in Lincoln Square that only carries products made by local artists.  I'll be honest - I don't shop at local small businesses often. I just prefer big box stores for the convenience. But this booth had so many super adorable pieces.

So, I decided to buy my littlest this adorable Chicago Flag onsie.  I'm pretty sure my friend Amy bought one of these for my oldest when he was a baby, but I'm not sure what happened to it. Even if I find it, there's no harm in having 2!

I'm going to wrap this up with some more photos and captions because there was just so much to see, I could write about it forever.
Cloth diapering is a big trend these days (obviously not new, just trendy again). So there were several booths with cloth diapers for sale and even a resource center. And notice how every single mom in this photo is baby wearing.  I'm sure there were some sore backs the next day! I went sans kids, and I'm glad I did.
Baby Wearing of course was represented in a BIG way.  This is the Baby Wearing Lounge, hosted by BabyWearing International.  I follow BabyWearing International of Chicagoland on FaceBook. It's a great resource if you have questions on carriers and carries (the way you tie your wrap) and you can even sell your used carriers there.  I have bought a NatiBaby size 7 woven wrap there. Since I never use it, I'll probably go right back there to sell it. The ladies in pink were there to help fit mamas into carriers and answer questions.   
If you didn't have a baby to test in a carrier, they had this guy to help you out.
 Non-nursing moms were of course represented (because as long as your baby is fed there is no WRONG way to do it!)  This bottle bar had mostly Medela and Evenflo bottles on display and lots of different nipple styles. 
There was no one at the booth when I stopped by (notice the Be Back Soon sign on the left), so I just snooped around on my own.

In the hall outside the room where the large presentations were being given, there was a hallway with some very helpful rooms - A Sleep Consultation Room, A Quiet Room and a Feeding Lounge.  

Then there was Vagina Village.
Inside Vagina Village, the were selling, well, stuff for your vagina. Most notably The Diva Cup. Never heard of it? Well, here's the LINK so you can read up. I'll say this: I have never used the Diva Cup, but I HAVE used the Instead cup. And if you can handle sometimes cleaning up a little mess, it's worth a try. It got me through a Hawaiian vacation with ease!

I won a prize from Vagina Village.  I'll blog about it once I've tested it out.

There was a Selfie Spot so you know I took advantage. 

OK, last thing I want to share was the SWAG BAGS!!! I mentioned at the beginning how I walked away with 3. And here's a shot of what was inside:
Like I said, I will be doing a video on these items and giving many of them away.  So make sure you keep an eye out for that! Especially if you're a preggo!

So MommyCon was a success! It was so fun and I'm glad I made it this year. I'll probably go again next year because I love checking out great mommy gear!

Let me know if you have any questions and check out the MommyCon Facebook Page to stay up to date on their events!

Until next time,

xoxo



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I'm. So. Tired.

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Hi there!

I'm tired. So tired that I let things get wild and crazy around here today and now I've just given up and turned on the TV so I could sit here and write this.

I've been struggling with sleeping lately.  It's been weeks (like 6 maybe?) and I haven't slept more than 6 hours in a night, and it's usually broken by a child waking or having to get up to go to the bathroom 2-3 times (that's a whole other issue, man!).  My bedtime lately has been around 1am.  I just can't wind down at night. Sometimes it's because I drank too much soda in the evening in an attempt to get some energy. But usually it's just because I get caught up in Glam-Momming and always find one more thing I need to do before I go to sleep, until I just can't keep my eyes open anymore.

Last night was another 1am night.  I stayed up with husband watching The People VS OJ Simpson (ADDICTED!!!) and blogging. #3 woke up crying at 6:03am.  Husband was sleeping with him in another room and took are of him, but it woke me up and that was that.  We had to be up extra early to make it to a 9am birthday party anyway (this is basically torture for us), so I just sucked it up and got dressed so we'd be on time. We were still 15 minutes late. Don't ask me how.

#2 refused to sleep last night until after 11pm, and #1 and #3 dozed off around 10pm, so I thought for sure they'd be extra tired today.  I was wrong.  #3 slept in the car home from the party for 30 minutes. #1 didn't sleep at all.  After some crying, #2 slept for about an hour.  I put her to sleep in #1's room and I kept #1 and #3 in #3's room with me, gated in, and prayed they'd fall asleep. They didn't.  I just laid in the bed while they played around me.  Finally I just gave #1 my phone with The Backyardigans on YouTube and asked him to watch with his brother while I rested. I just couldn't stay awake. I haven't done this in a long time. I know it's not the best idea. But they were contained (or so I thought!) and I just needed to rest my eyes for a few minutes. I really don't think I was asleep for more than a few minutes, but I have no idea. But I woke up when #2 came to the door telling me she wasn't tired (Sure kid. That's why you just slept for an hour).

#1 was gone.  He's climbed the gate.

#3 was cuddled up next to me (because he's the cuddliest little cuddle bug on earth!!!)
My glasses were not where I left them.  
I found them on a different bed (I'll explain this soon).
They were bent. Badly.

WTH!!!!!!!!!!!

Follow me on SnapChat at The Glam Mom or chellee62001


I thought for sure I'd left my glasses right next to me, hidden under the blanket so this exact thing would not happen. But #3 is obviously a super-sleuth and found them and played with them till they were practically a Photo Booth prop.

OK. I was able to bend them back enough that they are still wearable. Thank goodness I have insurance on them.  I'll have to try to get them fixed or get a new pair.  

I found #1 in my bed watching TV.  OK. That's ok. 

I got distracted Snap-Chatting about how #3 broke my glasses. #1 starts trying to steal candy he saw on my dresser.  By climbing into the drawers! Thankfully, I stopped him before he started.  He ran off downstairs. Which is not good because that means someone (husband probably) left the gate at the top of the stairs open and I didn't know and was letting baby #3, who can't climb down the stairs alone, wander around the floor. Meanwhile #2 has gone silent. So I go searching for her.

I found her.

Covered in lipgloss.

Lipgloss that had fallen out of my pocket and she found on the floor and I'd just taken away from her a few minutes before, but obviously didn't put high enough out of her reach to keep her from playing with it.

OK.  I just laughed and brought her downstairs so I could get my camera and take a photo. Because, she looked really cute and she was proud, and I was too tired to be mad.
So, I get downstairs and #1 is hiding. Under the dining room table. With a box GoGurt (We call them yogurt pops because we freeze them for a special treat.) Thankfully he wasn't able to get them open.

I clean up #2's face after snapping her photo. 

I gave the kids all dry cereal as a snack because that's what they wanted.  #3 throws his all over the floor.  Thankfully #1 is a master with the dust buster, so he volunteered to clean it up. 

#2 says she has to poop. So I put her in the bathroom. She has a habit of trying to wipe herself, so I didn't replace the toilet paper roll just to avoid the temptation for her.

#1 asked me for help with his Legos. 

While I'm working with him, #3 rips down one of the vertical blinds off the back sliding doors (he has a bad habit of doing this). I pull out the scotch tape to fix it.  (Yep, you read that right. If you care, ask me and I will explain.)  

Simultaneously, #2 comes out of the bathroom with no pants on telling me she's done.  I run in to see what damage she has left behind by getting off the toilet all by herself, only to find she went in the drawer and got new toilet paper, put it on the roll and wiped herself.  All things I told her not to do.  But hey, it could have been worse.  It HAS been worse.  

I had to take a break to type this because #3's diaper fell off.  He's now barking while looking out the window at the next door neighbor's house.

#1 and #2 are playing a game with a paper cutter (again, you read that right. But don't worry, it's safe. I think.)

And I'm just sitting her making sure they don't tear the place down and praying they go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight without a fight.  

This isn't even a bad day.  It's just a day.  Normal kid stuff.

They are cute and sweet and smart and I love them beyond words.  I just don't have enough hands or eyes. And the ones I do have are sooooo sleepy!

Paw Patrol will be on for a while longer.

Despite this afternoon's nonsense, the kids had a great time at the birthday party we went to this morning.  Here are a few photo highlights:
 Me and my #3
 We went to a place called Happy Play Cafe in Lincoln Park. Super cute and fun for the kids! They have parakeets and bunnies to feed!
 He was so brave and excited to feed the birds!
He was not so excited to feed the birds.
Happy Sunday!

xoxo

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Dose of Colors Liquid Lipstick Review and Swatches

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Hi there!

There are a ton of brands on Instagram that are super popular with "Makeup Gurus."  I haven't taken many of them seriously before now, but I'm starting to pay a bit more attention.  Until now, the only Instagram-popular brands I've given a true try are Huda Beauty and Anastasia Beverly Hills. But, I'm starting to branch out and have recently given Dose of Colors a try.

I've seen a billion swatches of these colors on IG, but never considered trying them myself. I'm just too cheap to pay shipping LOL! But one day, while scrolling through my feed, I saw a post on their IG that a few of their most popular shades were back in stock, so I thought - ya know what? I'm just gonna try them! I ordered them immediately and now I'm OBSESSED!!!!!!

I wanted to do swatches but had to wait until I get my mustache removed LOL!!!  So here they are:
Top Left - Mood
Top Right - Cork
Bottom Left - Stone
Left to Right - Mood, Cork and Stone
What I LOVE about these Matte Liquid Lipsticks is the STAYING POWER! They don't wear off.  Like, at all.  And they aren't nearly as drying as the Anastasia brand! When I wear the Anastasia Liquid Lipsticks, I feel like all the moisture has been sucked out of my lips and I have to apply lip balm to stop feeling so dehydrated. The Dose of Colors lipsticks don't feel that way.  On Sunday I wore Stone for literally 12 hours, never reapplied and it was perfect.  I ate and drank and lived life normally and never even gave the lip color a thought.  It had to be removed at the end of the night with makeup remover - it didn't go ANYWHERE.  How amazing is that?!?!?! And I lost track of the number of compliments I received when wearing Mood around NYC.  Three separate MUAs in Sephora on 5th Ave. asked me what I was wearing!  It's an amazing, every day shade.

So, I'm addicted and I will be buying more colors.  If you give theem a try, let me know what you think!!!

Until next time,

xoxo

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