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Birchbox Breakdown Sept. 2013: Amika Bombshell Blowout Spray

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If you watched the New York Fashion Week coverage, you know that volume is IN. For a great “bombshell” look, you want something that will really help you pump up the volume. Enter: Amika Blow Up Spray ($23.99, amazon.com), which promises to give you that va-va-voom volume you’re craving. Better yet, it’s also full of beneficial ingredients for your hair.

For this one, I asked our fearless designer Meredith to play guinea pig and blow dry her hair to see if she’d end up with bombshell hair.

Sea Buckthorn Berry: Protecting Your Hair

Because your actual hair shaft is “dead,” it cannot repair itself the way your skin can, which is why when it’s damaged, it’s up to you to repair it. The environment, certain processes, and heat styling can all do damage to your locks, which is why it’s so important to use antioxidants like sea buckthorn berry in your hair. When you use heat styling products, you can actually increase the numbers of free radicals in your hair. In fact, using a styling tool at over 212°F (100°C) can increase free radicals in hair significantly (Life Sciences).

Enter this cute little arctic fruit. Used in Chinese medicine for centuries, this little berry is packed full of nutritious ingredients like vitamins C and E, phenols, carotenoids, phospholipids, and omega fatty acids (Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine). All that means that this guy is great for scavenging free radicals that would otherwise damage your hair; particularly important when you’re blasting it with heat for a bombshell blowout, right? Better yet, industry studies have shown that when applied topically, it can increase hydration, meaning it should help stop some of the dryness that comes with heat from your hair dryer (Aromtech).

[Related: Product Review: Fresh Seaberry Moisturizing Oil]

Vitamin B5 aka Panthenol: Hair Wonder

Do you know why hair care giant Pantene is called Pantene? One ingredient: Panthenol. It’s one of those products that pops up in tons of products, and with good reason. It has been found to bioconvert into vitamin B in your hair (Drug & Cosmetic Industry). It helps ingredients penetrate your hair shaft (Heck, studies show that it can even penetrate and help improve the health of nails, and they’re pretty darn thick!). It also works to coat and protect the hair.

Panthenol is a humectant moisturizer, which means that it pulls water from the environment to suck up into your hair (International Journal of Cosmetic Science). It also adds a protective coating to hair that can help strengthen it against damage. In a study on dyed and virgin hair, researchers found that in both cases, panthenol helped to reduce breakage. 

[Related: Spotlight On: Panthenol]

The Big Blow Out: Before and After Photos

We sprayed Amika Blow Up Spray through Meredith’s hair from root to tip, per the instructions.

 

Then we blow dried her hair, trying to add as much volume as possible without adding frizz.


Overall: 70%

I love that Amika Blow Up Spray came equipped with antioxidant-filled sea buckthorn berry (and plenty of it), and I love that Amika Bombshell Blowout Spray had moisturizing panthenol, and I even love the smell. But, alas, I don’t love the way the product works. It added some volume to Meredith’s hair, but it really didn’t have the hold that it needed to for her silky hair. Perhaps someone with more texture to their hair will benefit, but this just didn’t create the kind of texture we needed to really get real bombshell volume. Overall, I liked it, and if you’re looking for a light hold hair spray that feels natural in, this is a good product. But if you want real protection and volume, get an antioxidant hair serum and a super hold volume spray.

Ingredients: Water/eau (aqua), octylacrylamide/acrylates/butylaminoethyl methacrylate copolymer, hippophae rhamnoides (sea buckthorn) seed oil, panthenol (vitamin b5), glycerin, peg-12 dimethicone, fragrance (parfum), aminomethyl propanol, benzophenone-4, propylene glycol, imidazolidinyl urea, methylisothiazolinone, yellow 5 [ci 19140], blue 1 [ci 42090], butylphenyl methylproponial, limonene, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene, carboxaldehyde, hydroxycitronellal, citronellol, coumarin

*Editor’s Note: This post contains affiliate links.

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