Julep Oxygen Nail Treatment

THE STATS: $18.00 USD ($14.40 for Julep Maven members) for 8 mL/0.27 oz at Julep and Sephora.

Julep Oxygen Nail Treatment

Oxygen Nail Treatment is a formula that protects and improves the condition of your nails, all the while providing a light pink-tinted sheen.

From Julep:

Advanced plant stem cell complex provides anti-aging benefits, while ground-breaking oxygen technology forms a nonocclusive film on the nail, proving resistant to water penetration and improving the permeability to oxygen. Results are nails that are structurally stronger, and less prone to breakage and splitting.

Julep recommends using it once or twice a week regularly for best effect.  For the past few months, I have usually been using it for a couple of days every week between each manicure.  My nails aren’t particularly soft or brittle, but because they are painted 75% of the time, they are prone to yellowing even though I always use a base coat.  They also end up with small chips and cracks at the edges when they are especially long.

With two coats on and a 1/3 empty bottle.

I enjoy the delicate nude look the Oxygen Nail Treatment gives me, like a natural French manicure.  I use the treatment without any base or top coat, which means that after two days, it loses its shine and tends to lift around the edges.  But instead of being a bad thing, I take this to be a great indicator as it reminds me to remove the treatment.

Having used the Oxygen Nail Treatment consistently for a few months, I think the effects are great!  Yellowing is removed after one use (it may take a few rounds if your yellowing has been around for awhile), and I am definitely experiencing less cracking and chipping.  The downside is that the product does become goopy in the bottle, at about the same rate as a fast-drying top coat, which isn’t too bad all in all.

THE VERDICT:  Julep’s Oxygen Nail Treatment does its job while being pretty.

Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment Plus and the rest of the Damage Reverse team

My hair is thick, coarse, dry at the ends and yet too oily at the scalp – in short, my hair is the worst.  Most of all, it is brittle and damaged from perms and heat styling.  When my split ends started to have their own split ends (a nightmare within a nightmare!) I knew something had to be done.  Something serious.

Yes, that is full size.

In comes Ojon’s Restorative Hair Treatment Plus from their Damage Reverse line.  It claims to resuscitate your hair after just one use.  Says their site:

This clinically proven cult classic is now purified using an exclusive double-filtration method and fortified with nature’s golden elixir plus Rouge Oleifera to create the next generation of our deeply restorative treatment.

Golden exilir? Oh my.  Long time Ojon fans will know that this treatment didn’t used to have the “plus” suffix.  In fact, Ojon still sells the original hair treatment, but skirt around revealing the differences between the two.  In my opinion, it’s mostly a smell thing.  The original treatment has a heavy musky scent that I liked, in a intensive spa kind of way.  Plus’ aroma is lighter but still has that distinctive smell.

A little goes a long way, and mileage will definitely vary depending on the length and thickness of your hair.  The instructions recommend 1 to 1½ teaspoon, but I find I need twice that amount to truly coat my head of hair.  After leaving it to rest for half an episode of Empress Ki (e.g. 20-30 minutes), off to the shower I go.  Since the treatment is oil based, it’s difficult to get off at first.  I like to give it a good rinse in very warm water, and shampoo twice.  The first time, focus on the hair ends and then proceed as normal. Word of warning though, the treatment left an oily residue at the bottom of my tub – yuck.

One of the perks of living in New York city is unsightly heating pipes everywhere.

I also got the travel sizes of other products from the Ojon Damage Reverse suite, including the Restorative Shampoo and Conditioner, Restorative Finishing Spray, Revitalizing Mist, and the Instant Restorative Hair Serum.  I feel like a chump because I knocked over and spilled the serum after only one use – c’est la vie.

I can’t say that the Ojon treatment changed my life.  I suspect that when your hair is truly damaged, there’s nothing you can do to save it short of a visit to the scissorsmaster (aka getting a haircut).  What the Restorative Hair Treatment does do is make my hair feel oh-so-soft and fluffy like a cloud.