Last year, when I hosted my Suave Red Carpet style party, the guests were disappointed only because they had these fabulous hair dos and no place to go! This year, a few of us were attending a Gala for our local Boys & Girls Club, which was a perfect excuse to get our best “Suave Red Carpet” on including some fabulous hair styles.

I love the Suave Professionals line for the price and for the quality. In 2009, I even had my hair styled by stylist to the stars, Luke O’Conner. I’ve been a fan of the Suave line for quite awhile, which most of my long time readers know.

Suave has come up with some great new additions to the Suave Professional line. I’m absolutely LOVING the Rosemary Mint Shampoo and Conditioner. It tingles a bit while it cleans and conditions and the aroma is a great way to wake up in the morning or relax in the evening.  The Almond and Shea Butter also has such a great scent.  The conditioner gives me just the right amount of conditioning without being greasy, which is a must in my book.

The styling products are just fabulous too. My hair do held up all night long, which was amazing. A few days after the party, my mom told me how much she was loving the Volumizing Hair Spray.

If you watched the Emmy’s or read any of the celebrity magazine, you probably noticed the beautiful waves on Sofia Vergara, star of one of my favorite shows Modern Family. First of all, her name is spelled right just like my Sofia. Suave Professionals were good enough to give her those glamorous waves styled by Jenny Cho.  If its good enough for a television star to use for the Emmy’s, then it must be good stuff!

Suave sent a stylist to our home to help the ladies get Suave Red Carpet Ready. Plus, each guest was able to take home a goody bag full of awesome Suave products. We had so much fun and were able to really try out these great products! I’m loving my wavy look and my Sofia looks gorgeous with her curls! Though, they were gone just a little while longer after she went swimming.

The product in this post was provided to me by Suave and compensation was received. Post was written 100% by me and was not edited by the sponsor. Read more on my Disclosure Policy.

As a lipbalm freak/addict, the YoYo Lip Gloss totally intrigues me. It is a pacifier buddy for people like me. (You know those who aren’t even without their lip gloss and are frantically digging in their purse to find a tube!

Never lose your lip gloss again with the YoYo lip gloss. Just attached it to your purse, bag, jacket, belt loop and you will have access to it whenever you need.  The lip gloss is attached to clip that is a tethered, retractable cord. Cool, right?

This is a perfect stocking stuffer or a fabulous gift for a child’s friend. Retails for just $2.99. Never lose your lip gloss again. Plus, they have amazing shades and yummy tastes!

The Wet Paint Nail Glaze system is a set of nail polish which allows you to create personalized colors to match your mood, personal style, or outfit.

Applies like a regular nail but dries system fast. With 6 bottles you can make 18 color shade by mixing shades.

Basically, you select your desired nail color shade from the colored wheel. Match the number with the color on the custom sheet, paint the base color and allow to dry. Then you would layer the glaze color shown on the guide and allow to dry. You can create a deeper color shade by applying a second layer of color glaze as indicated in the guide.

Wet Paint Nail Glaze System is a perfect gift from tweens to moms. At just $29.99 for a set of 6 bottles, you can create 18 color shades.

All the Better to Kiss you With Holiday Kiss Kit from the Baby Bear Shop is a unique variety of three organic lip balms in vintage times. Flavors include pomegranate, chai mandarin, and pepperminty.

Packaged in recycled paper packages. Baby Bear Shops states that the ingredients are 100% natural with at least 90% of organic ingredients. No artificial anything. Made in the USA.

For every order, Baby Bear Shop plants a tree and gives a percentage of the sale to children’s charities. Plus, they use a disable center to do their fulfillment and assembly. Good for your lips and a socially responsible company.

Retails for $19.99 online at urbanoutfitters.com or allthebettertokissyouwith.com.

In honor of Suave’s exclusive styling of actress and Emmy presenter, Kate Walsh (Addison on Private Practice/Grey’s Anatomy), Suave rolled out the red carpet for several of my closest friends. With help of Absolutely You stylist, Britni, we were all able to get celebrity hair with Suave’s styling products!

Doesn’t Kate Walsh look beautiful? You can get her hair with these tips from Luke O’Connor.

Modern Bob – Get the Look!

1. Begin with Vibrant Shine shampoo and conditioner from Suave Professionals to restore shine and luster to dull hair.
2. Next, blow dry hair in sections with a large round brush.
3. For the side-swept bangs, take the front section and blow-dry back with a large round brush, swooping to the side.
4. Finally, apply a dollop of Suave Professionals Sleek Anti-Frizz Cream.  Apple first to ends and work your way up to control fly-aways.
5. Finish the look with Suave Professionals Extra Hold Hairspray.

I was excited for this party to share Suave’s affordable Professional hair line with my friends. If you recall, at Blogher this year, I had my hair styled by the Suave’s celebrity Stylist Luke O’Connor. It was so much fun and I love Suave’s Professional line for its affordability and performance.

In addition to the celebrity hair, we had wine tasting from Wine Shop at Home provided by my cousin Tabitha, cheese, hor ‘doeuvres including Red Carpet Taco Pizza, Crab Dip, and Fresh Mixers provided by Healthy Choice. There was quite a bit of laughter and fun just getting together with the girls and getting our hair pampered by Britni!

At the end of the night, which ended a little after the actual awards show started due to it being a school/work night, everyone left with a goody bag of Suave products to try in their own home. My oldest daughter helped distribute the goodies and help people pick the products best suited for their hair. I was a little surprised that not many people had heard of the Suave Professionals line. Everyone, of course, knew of the classic products from Suave, but the Professional line was new so it was fun to share.

I hope my guests enjoyed the party as much as I did!

While at the Blogher Conference in Chicago this past July, I was asked if I wanted to get my hair styled by Celebrity Stylist, Luke O’Connor. Oh, you know the guy who styles DEBRA Messing’s beautiful hair. Of course, I jumped at the chance to get the celebrity treatment.

I’m already a big fan of Suave products because of their affordability. I’m loving their professional line, which I was introduced to at the beginning of the year. Suave’s professional line products are as good or better than the more expensive salon brands.

For my appointment, Luke wanted to give me a messy type look. He suggested I use Suave’s Professional Volumizing Products, which are the purple bottle. As you can see, my hair turned out fun and different than the flat boring way I normally wear it!

Overall it was a fun experience and it was exciting to get to meet Luke and see him in action!

If you are looking for a body wash that will nourish your skin but not empty your pocket book, you will want to check out Softsoap Nutri Serum. Softsoap Nutri Serum retails for just $3.50 and if you watch sales or clip coupons, you can find it a much lower price.

By just looking at Softsoap Nutri Serums, I know it is a different type of product. It is clear with softening serum pearls. After using it, I knew it would be one of my preferred body wash products for this winter. I get really dry skin and by using a product infused with the softening serum pearls and Vitamin E, it delivers a concentrated dose of essential nutrients and hydrators for clean and soft skin.

Softsoap Nutri Serum body wash is available in two varieties: Restoring with Vitamin E and Moisture Retaining with Omegas 3 & 6. Both are in pleasant scents and work to hydrate your skin through the innovative Serum Pearl technology.

But really all you need to know is it really does make your skin feel soft and silky!

Hopefully, you will able to purchase Softsoap’s new Nutri Serum body nourishing body wash when it was free at the drug stores a couple of months ago. If not, you will want to try this new body wash especially since dry skin season is coming up!

Even though my oldest son is almost nine, he stinks like he is a teenager. Or maybe he is going to smell worse as a teenager? Please tell me that isn’t true.

Since the baby shampoos just don’t cut it anymore and really, they aren’t even cool when you are a third grader, he has taken to using Daddy’s stuff. You know he isn’t going to use girly, glittery personal hygiene products in our stockpile.

So when Axe sent over a package with some manly smelling products, he was all over it begging to use the shower gel and shampoo. Well, heck yeah, PLEASE do us all a favor and use the soap. Like, mom is going to say, uh, no, please don’t do it.

He even let his older sister use the Axe Messy Look Paste to style his hair.

So every night, the boys make it a ritual for mommy to smell their hair after they shower!

You may know of Mr. Bubbles (who doesn’t?), which is made by the The Village Company, but you may not know about their Village Naturals Line.

The Village Company is a privately owned company based in Minnesota dedicated to making high quality AFFORDABLE products. Their motto is “Exceptional Products at a Great Price.” So of course, I’m going to be hip to that!

I recently tried out the Natural Therapy and Stress Tension Mineral Shower Gel. Normally, these are the kind of products I like to try out in the bath tub after a nice walk or run but since a person who won’t be named has not fixed my bath tub, I can only shower. Enrich your body with a product derived from 88.96% natural ingredients such as juniper, orange, and menthol.

Village Naturals also offers Foaming Bath, Mineral Bath Soaks in many varieties.

Showering is not usually a place we think we can relax and unwind as much as a bath. However, with this shower gel, the aroma relaxes, cleanses, and makes you feel better. However, with a shower gel that is designed with this is mind it is possible. Honestly, even just sniffing this stuff feels good.

Bargain Briana Buzz Disclosure: The Village Company provided two shower gels so that I could try out this product and share my honest opinion with my readers. No other compensation was received.  All reviews/recommendations are based on my own honest opinion and experiences and not edited or written by the sponsor.

Gross, right? That is what my heel looked like after a walk/run a few weeks back.

Half way through, I remembered Band-Aid had just sent me some of their Friction Block. Why didn’t I use it, I thought as I hobbled the last half a mile home.

BAND-AID Friction Block Sticks glides on similar to deodorant. My 3 year old daughter thought it was deodorant and wanted to use some. It goes on clear and smooth with no mess and it really makes you wonder if you even put it on. From there, it is suppose to reduce friction caused by wearing uncomfortable shoes.

I have no scientific proof but when I took my next walk/run two weeks later I was blister free. Yes, it was two weeks before my heeled recovered from the previous walk/run. It may not work for everyone or for every shoe type but it worked for me and saved me several weeks of recovering from a blisted heel.

It should be noted that you are not suppose to use them on any open blisters you already have! So use them before. It runs $6.99 online but watch for a sale and use a coupon to get the best deal!