This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 49 Product Junkies - April Edition.

Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here or view our podcast episode guide.

Amy: 0:06

Welcome to Nirvana sisters podcast where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state your nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.

Katie: 0:18

And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation

Amy: 0:29

Welcome back to the show Nirvana sisters family. So Amy and Katie here and we have a special episode we are starting to introduce something called our hashtag product junkie sessions. And this is the first one this was based on a lot of feedback from you all saying that you love to hear other product reviews at the end and the different things we talked about there. And so we're doing a bit of a we're gonna do a quick quick flash round of a bunch of products that Katie and I have been loving lately. If this is something that you like, we'll continue to do it monthly. Katie and I are always trying out different products. I want to make sure that we're bringing you kind of like the goods and the bads of all the things starting with a quick round I'm going to I'm going to send it to Katie to give us her first product reco of this episode.

Katie: 1:15

All right, this is great. I'm super excited because I have some products that I'm like obsessed with the first one here the first one all right, I was looking at pictures of myself from years ago and I was thinking why does my skin look like that? It was really like really clear my pores are really small gonna have a pore on my face and I was I just couldn't understand what had changed. And then I remembered I had this product that I was obsessed with back then and for whatever reason it just fell out of rotation and I totally forgot about it. So here she is again, or the company rather good old Sunday Riley I don't know how many times I've talked about them I'm upside I do love Sunday Riley Yeah, love it's there Martian mattifying melting water gel toner and interesting gives your skin this really nice matte look. And it also really legitimately minimizes your pores so your face just looks I know it's like the smoothest and my skins ever looked and I don't know why I stopped using it I have no clue maybe I like couldn't find it one day and I was too lazy to order it online and then forgot about it. But as soon as within probably a week of using it it my skin game was

Amy: 2:30

back on like it okay so it's Sunday Riley and what's it called Martian

Katie: 2:34

Martian mattifying melting water gel toner.

Amy: 2:39

And is it in the morning or at night

Katie: 2:41

I use it in the morning I use it during the day for like how I want my skin to look during the day and it says it's for oily to blemish prone skin which lately mine really has been in this is helping instantly transforms from a cooling gel to a water toner as a clarifies removes oil and tightens the appearance of pores for clearer cleaner skin. And let me tell you, it delivers. It really does.

Amy: 3:05

I need to try it. I'm

Katie: 3:06

as much as that it's $25 and they have it that's it. Yeah,

Amy: 3:11

that's very reasonable for Sunday. Riley it is.

Katie: 3:14

But also I should note this is for 1.7 ounces. It's a pretty small thing. But if you're only using a little like dime size once a day dime size does that it's all you need. Okay, and yeah, and they have other things in this like Martian family that I haven't tried yet. But yeah, um, I like this will never go out of rotation again in my life.

Amy: 3:39

That sounds great. It's funny, my friend Erica. I was talking to her about products the other day and she said she got a product similar to that by Clinique that minimizes pores I don't know if it was a toner or a CRM or something but interesting, I will have to try that. Okay, next product let's give each other and this week take a picture. Take a picture of this one because it's a fun bottle, we'll edit the sound texture spray. So first of all, the packaging is so cute. I love it. It's so colorful. But this is actually like a really good spray if it's like second day or third day or whatever and you just want to like judge up your hair and give it some volume and texture This is great. So my hairstylist Teresa shout out introduced me to this not this brand but this specific spray she had introduced me to another spray years ago from aura bay that I still use, which is good but I actually like this one better. It's just a little bit more texture II so whenever I use it, it adds like volume in it's great. I think I might have used a little bit today but it's it's great. So it's a mica undone volume and matte texture spray $27 You can find it on Amazon probably Sephora, etc, etc. So good little hair hack,

Katie: 4:47

do you so do you use it on like clean just dried hair or do you use it like a couple days later? Like a dry like a dry shampoo?

Amy: 4:58

I think you can do both. I think it works better on dry hair I'm looking at the directions and it says dry finishing spray builds instant fullness and matte texture for perfectly. How do you say this word to us led Taos Walsall. Okay, for perfect not editing

Katie: 5:18

that out.

Amy: 5:21

I can't say the word Telcel high volume hair, use it shake spray in sections all over dry styled hair tarsal is so you I use it like you could use it after you blow out your hair. I've done that too. Like I've blown out my hair and then just use it to like judge it up. And then I'll use it like day to day three, whatever. So you could use it anytime. But you do use it on dry hair. Yeah, I mean, it's almost like a dry shampoo or conditioner but more of a texturizer

Katie: 5:46

right. So when I wash my hair, I let it air dry and then it doesn't get that good texture for like a day or two. So that would be a way to do that. Because I had never washed my hair the same day. I have an event for that reason. I need something like that. Yeah,

Amy: 6:00

I always do second day hair too. I find it always looks better the second day, but this definitely helps with that. It just like pulls that texture out. Yeah. Okay, what do we got next?

Katie: 6:07

All right, well, speaking of hey, this. So lately I've been getting a lot of compliments on my hair, you wouldn't be able to tell right now my roots are so grown out. But this actually fixes that problem. I like I just said I washed my hair and then I have super thick hair as Do you. So really I wash it like once or twice a week max otherwise it gets dried out. So the way that I keep it going and fresh is with dry shampoo. And I've tried a billion different brands. And this is my new fav This is a super cheap drugstore. Find. It's Batista. I use their Oh yeah, they're brilliant blonde. Which is great, because when my dark roots come in, it actually like hides my roots. So the great thing about it is that obviously I can stretch the washes and but it also it also gives me volume. And like covers up the roots and makes it really fresh and great. Yeah, I mean, I'll show you right now.

Amy: 7:03

Wait, is it sorry, did you say it was a dry shampoo?

Katie: 7:05

It's the Batista dry shampoo blonde blends smells like our color tracks. Yeah, look, watch.

Amy: 7:12

Okay, cool. Demonstrating

Katie: 7:16

look like I mean, I mean, like blended a bit, but no more. Wow. Isn't that wild?

Amy: 7:22

That's so cool. I need to get that ASAP. Yeah,

Katie: 7:25

I'm obsessed. And they have got like CVS, yes, CVS, you can get it literally at any drugstore. I feel like it's I mean, and let me see. It's $10 and then they How

Amy: 7:36

does it How does it wear? Like if you put it in your hair today? Like is it still in tomorrow? Is it like get weird and gross are

Katie: 7:43

wears really well. I'll put it in sometimes, like a couple times a day, I have to do it. And the only thing that I do notice is that when I do go to wash my hair, I really need to do like a double rents to clear up any just like product residue, you know, right? If it gets a little sticky or something. Yeah, but like, because it's dry shampoo. It keeps your hair going for a long time. Like I mean, I can get away with one wash a week with it. And then totally it's

Amy: 8:12

it frustrates me it's like playing double duty. It's like doing your roots plus it's a dry shampoo. And I don't I don't use dry shampoos that much because my hair like I could wash it once a week and it never gets oily but I do use a dry conditioner which I've mentioned before from dry bar which is really good. But I want to try that because I My roots are I feel like the older I get the more and more my I need to get my roots or like my highlights done more often. So that's a great one.

Katie: 8:36

Yeah. And they have like they have it in brown. They have it in different colors they have they also have dry conditioners, which I'd never heard of until I was on their site earlier. So I need to look into a dry conditioner, especially for metal anything could be really good for her. So yeah, there you go. Yeah,

Amy: 8:52

I love a dry conditioner. It's not it's just as a different feel than a dry shampoo. It's not as like thick. It's just a little bit more smoothing. Okay, so speaking of hair than and getting out all of the dry shampoo that makes your roots blonde. I have another products. This is a hair scalp massager. I've seen this. So I actually got this shout out to Taylor rose aka healthy who got who we had on our show because she's doing a lot of content lately about hair and using Rosemary which I started so I'll report back to to get the results on that. But on her site, she had a link out to this specific hair scalp massager I got on Amazon, it was $6.98 and it's great. I've never used something like this before. First of all, it's nice and big. So when you put it in your hand it has like a good feel and then you literally just like massage your hair with it. First of all, I love the massage part. It feels so good, so much better than just like washing your hair and like scrubbing with your fingers. And I do feel like it does a better job at cleaning my hair because I usually just do it so quickly and Ramona veers fingers through it, but this really like gets in there and I think it like stimulate your hair follicles. It's really good. So I just put shampoo on this now and then I wash my hair with it and use the conditioner with it too. It feels really good. It's a little little little Nirvana in your shower. So what's it called this product? It's called I'm sorry if I didn't mention it. It's called just the hair scalp hair scalp massage shampoo brush, by Mack soft scalp care brush. So we'll we'll provide all the links of all these products so you all can check it out. But great one

Katie: 10:28

nice. Okay, hair. All right, well, I'm going to pivot to skin back to where we started. Alright, Trader Joe's find supergene love it. It's always there. Their dermatologists formulated hydrating Hyaluronic body gel cream. Oh this is my new like everyday go to body lotion. And it's really it's really nice like it's definitely moisturizing and it leaves kind of a nice I don't know just like a cooling effect on your skin. It's not super heavy you know solutions you put on there like really thick and it feels like you got to rub them in and rubber man and rubber men right

Amy: 11:09

and then like you have to wait to put your clothes on because they get sticky exactly that

Katie: 11:13

this is not that it's nice and light and and it really is very hydrating. I mean it's like still winter where I live which is shocking. And my skin is really never dry because I'm using this so it's from Trader Joe's and it's only 699

Amy: 11:30

I love Trader Joe's so on we've been finding so many Trader Joe's products frankly like we I think we talked about the the eye cream and the rose spray. Yeah, they just randomly have like good products. Is that product thick or thin?

Katie: 11:41

It's kind of it's funny, it's like in between it's kind of hard to explain. Yeah, because it's a gel cream. A gel cream like that's fine like the little cooling Yeah, like it's I mean you can see it's on my finger right now. And it's looks like it's thin and I guess it kind of is but it's like it was clear. It's as hydrating as a healthy a heavy one would be Yeah, I love it.

Amy: 12:06

I definitely want to try that. Okay, so speaking of body lotions and oils I've been using this one for a while and I haven't talked about on the show. It's the OSA undara Algae body oil nice. Have you seen this I love this body oil. It feels so good on this skin. It's $48 you can get it at Credo Ulta Sephora etc but let me talk about the the oil so my skin is really dry so I do use moisturizer but sometimes I like to use maybe a couple times a week in oil just because I feel like it's more hydrating and my skin doesn't get as dry when I use an oil but a lot of times I like what will what I do with this is because sometimes I don't like to put the thick oil on my skin it just feels like too sticky. So what I do is I put a pump of this and a pump of moisturizer and mix it together and then it's like a smart combination of like cream and oil and it my skin feels so good when I use it it feels so like just plump and moisturize and I love it so I've been using it for a while as you can see it's helpful and it's a really really good one a little goes a long way so it is $48 But it does last a long time. I also have another one that I don't have in front of me and I can talk about it on the next episode. There's another bottle oil that I have from skin and senses which I think is a little bit less expensive and I also really liked that one so I can talk about that one but anyway really good finds. Again it's the Osia Undaria Ondara algae oil

Katie: 13:33

and what lotion do you mix it with?

Amy: 13:36

It's funny I don't have I don't have it to show you but I can send a link to it. And it's I found this suave lotion which is super cheap because I used to use you remember the and you have a to the bliss butter and Shea cream like that thick moisturizing cream I like love that lotion I used to buy it all the time. But I was like sick of buying it you can't like find it in the stores to buy it online. It's it's they would sell it in these big jars is really expensive. So the suave stuff that I found is almost it's not a dupe for it, but it has similar it has a similar smell. It has shea butter and has coconut and it's paraben free you know all natural it's like from the suave naturals collection so I really like it and the consistency is perfect for me. So that's what I've been using lately and I mix it with the oil so I'll put a link up for

Katie: 14:24

that tonight. So do you know what say I feel like our listeners have heard sky bark so many times that we need to give them some sky can assume your office. Take a picture she is let's get her in there

Amy: 14:34

crazy woman topic she has to she's so bad cashmere. She just got something in our mouth Put on Skype probably wants to go outside. Oh here she is.

Katie: 14:50

I cannot believe she's like quadrupled in size since I saw a huge

Amy: 14:54

Yeah, look at her. She's a big girl.

Katie: 14:55

Oh, she's so cute.

Amy: 14:57

She's like 26 pounds now.

Katie: 14:58

Oh my gosh.

Amy: 15:00

Okay, all right, I max on the skin route.

Katie: 15:03

I'm done on square one, actually. But I have. So I have a product that I promised I would review a long time ago I story about it. Actually, I posted about it, it's volume. It was their, their health intelligence test that I did, that you they send you a kit. And they take a stool sample and not the funnest, and then a blood sample. And then you send it back. And they have all of this amazing technology that tells you exactly what pre and probiotics your system is missing and needs, and what vitamins and minerals and antigens your body needs. And then they customize and send you probiotics and vitamins. So it's not cheap. I mean, when you when you think about what it actually is, I think it's a very good price. It's 199 to do the testing, and then the supplements and everything that come back, I think the first go around, they give it to you for like $70. But it's a lot. It's like, for example, this one package. I'm supposed to take this whole thing in a day it has eight in it, there's no way I could take eight vitamins, like one in here does the job. I feel it working.

Amy: 16:24

What what vitamins. So when you do the stool sample and the blood sample, what does it tell you about your store? Because I know we talked about that on the period guru episode and I was like, oh, I should do I should do that testing to see like what I'm missing or all of that. What is it? Does it tell you anything or just recommend something, it tells

Katie: 16:40

you so much information, it's insane. You download the app, it gives you all of these scores, whether or not your gut microbiome is like a good average optimal or not optimal, your cellular cellular health, your mitochondrial health, immune system, your stress response health, your what's your biological age, mine's 35, thank you. And it's and then it goes deeper, and it tells you foods that you should be eating and foods that you shouldn't be eating. And then in regards to like the stool test, it basically tells you like what your microbiome like what the imbalances are, and it gives you what you need to balance that in the customized probiotic. And then and so

Amy: 17:28

with the probiotic has that been helping you?

Katie: 17:30

It has, you know what the probiotics really heavy and actually, my stomach's been pretty good lately for like the last year I've taken out eggs kind of like was it a huge life changer for me. So for the probiotics, I'm not using them that much because my stomach has been doing very well. And when I do use them, it did feel a little bit heavy. But the disclaimer is they say you have to give your system kind of some time to adjust to them, which I think is fair. The vitamins, like for example, in my vitamin is 300 milligrams of curcumin, 35 milligrams of B 649 milligrams of a Kobo manera extract 201 milligrams of vitamin C and it goes on and on. And apparently this is like the exact dosage of what my body needs. While meanwhile, they're pretty strong. And I'm also just you know, I'm hypersensitive to stuff I put in my body. So that whole like trying to do aid, no shot, so I paid Yeah, like $75 for all of these. And I'm taking one pill from this pack a day. And there's 30 of these pills 30 of these patterns. So it goes it's gonna go a long way.

Amy: 18:34

How did you find out about this company? Like, what's the

Katie: 18:38

it was in that's kind of embarrassing, but it was really good Instagram advertising. But it was targeted me properly. But I went in and I did loads and loads of research and qualified them and read all the reviews and everything and the science and it's like it's backed. I mean, there's there's a lot of like peer review studies that are backing all of it. So it's legit. Okay, that's good. Great. Yeah.

Amy: 19:00

Okay, so speaking of. I have a the a bunch of skin stuff. But since we're in the supplement vitamin space, I'll talk about this brand, which is my new favorite semiotica Oh, yeah. So I have mentioned this brand before. And I've heard the founder interviewed several times on, I think it was the skinny confidential podcast and he goes super deep into the science and all of the backing and so totally legitimate. And these two supplements, one of them is the symbiotic aka b 12, and B six cellular energy. And the other one is the D three plus k two plus CO Q immunity and heart health. And these two I picked because I take B and D Anyway every day, but this is according to the founder and this company which I heard the whole explanation. The way that this is administered is lipids. somo which means through the mouth, so it's a pump, and you just put it in your mouth and it tastes yummy. You just do like 12 drops a day of each. And so that, I guess is a better way to take these types of vitamins. The other thing about this and I'm gonna butcher this as I don't really know how to describe it, but this b 12, mix with a B six, it's a better way to administer the B like it, I don't know, there's some rationale. They help each other i But if you absorb, they help each other. And that is the same thing with the d3. So I was just taking d3, but this has the k two and the CO Q and I think co Q is what you just I forgot what the it stands for like CO

Katie: 20:42

it might be co cretin. CO Q is maybe yeah, so Oh, no, I'm sorry. Coenzyme Q 10. So yeah, so this

Amy: 20:51

one with d3 has k two plus CO q 10. And the K two is a vitamin, which I don't know much about, I just like listen to the guy. And it's, you know, made sense to me. So, and essentially it says Like if you, you know, take these together the d3 Ketu and CO q 10. With the B 12. They help each other. So the d3 supports immune health support strong bones by assisting in the regulation of calcium and supports cardiovascular health by reducing arterial plaque. So that's the D three and then the B 12. So the B 12. It's the beach of plus B six can help with boosting energy improving your moods supporting heart health. And again, it says you know to take 12 pumps daily. And these two so when I was listening to the episode, he basically talked about his whole company and all the stuff they had about a few other things I bought like a vitamin C supplement, I bought magnesium supplement a few other things. But these were the two that like he said appeal to most people and that everyone should use so because they asked him on the show. Like if you had to pick two or three, what would you pick and it was like these jewels, something else. So anyway, I tried it two months ago, and I really like it, I replaced my I usually take like a gummy vitamin because I don't like to swallow a big pill. So I replaced my gummy vitamins with these. And I can definitely tell a difference with my energy, my mood, everything, I think it's definitely made a difference. In fact, I've ordered it now. I had one I ran out of it, I ordered another and now I just started I subscribed to their like bundle and save. So I get it every month. The only rub with this company is it is not cheap. So the vitamin B 12 is I mean, it's not too bad. But it's like if you do this, Subscribe and Save. It's like $43. And it's you know, not a huge amount. It's it basically a month, a month's worth the d3 is $69. So it is quite expensive. But if you've read and do the research and listen to some of these episodes I listened to I think it's worth it. I've also eliminated all my other vitamins and supplements. I literally use these two and it's like the vitamin C and whatever a few other things, but it's sort of equaled itself out because I'm not buying all of this like gummy vitamins and things. So yeah, I'm really, really into this synbiotic A company I think their stuff is it's super clean the way he describes all the way that they get their minerals. It's super legit, and I love it. So that is my supplementation product reco lately,

Katie: 23:16

I think you know, investing your money into a quality supplement product that you know the source and you know, what's in it is really important because supplements and vitamins are they don't go through like FDA approval. So you can buy a supplement and it can just be complete garbage. So I don't the price doesn't scare me so much. And the really cool thing about the fact that it's a spray that I heard you say it like was so long, I don't know if that's like a cell wall. Yeah, so part of that is the perk behind that is because they can they can give it to you with less filler with less junk, it's more of a straight shot and then just the way that your body absorbs it is faster, it's more readily available in your system. So I think

Amy: 24:02

I can I can definitely tell a difference and these are both I know the vitamin B says it's keto and vegan. I think the other one is too nice. So really, really quality quality product. Yeah,

Katie: 24:13

I love that. Well I just have one last super quick one that is just kind of like a fun little bit. It's my new favorite candle. It's the it's the root brand I find it here at Fresh Market. I don't know I mean they have their own website root candles.com part of their aromatherapy seeking balance like capsule collection and you can get a you know, an eight ounce candle for $23 It's a little steep but it lasts a really long time. It's a scent of eucalyptus now

Amy: 24:42

I think that's a good price for our candle. Yeah, those

Katie: 24:44

are right, like I pay $65 for my favorite Diptyque candle. But the cool thing about this is that it increases overall brain activity and relieves congestion. And I swear when I like this sucker during the day when I'm working, I don't know what it does, but it stimulates something like it helps me With my flow the scent in the air I really like I kind of spares if I can't light it when I'm working so anyway it's just a fun one it's a good thing to have in your house

Amy: 25:08

yeah that's a good one and I think that's a reminder any like I have so many candles and I never like think to put them on I just like we put them on sometimes at night for having dinner but like it is a good thing to do while you're working put you in the zone. Yeah, for sure to in a good flow. So I have a few products and we're gonna go through them really quickly because we all gotta go. So first one I'll recommend is this Glow Recipe watermelon glow, nice cinnamon dewdrops, obsessed, obsessed, obsessed. I've seen this like all over it's something I've wanted to try. It's like a serum you put on that basically, it's it can serve as a primer or just a serum. But as soon as you put it on, it's like your skin is glowing. And I love that glowy dewy look. So highly recommend $34 Sephora, you know glow recipe.com another one and this is like an amazing dude. So everybody, listen to this one. We all talk about the SkinCeuticals vitamin C and folic acid. This is a dupe of it. It's called the Dr. Brenner C serum vitamin C for like I think is around like 160 $170 this Dr. Brenner C serum is $20. Wow, got on Amazon. And I found it through, I had posted about a site which we'll put the name in the show notes because I can't recall the site right now. But there's a website that you can put in certain products and it takes the ingredients and it matches it with other products that are very similar. So this was a match by like 99%. And I've been using it and I don't see a difference. I actually almost like it better. It's it's a really, really nice quality product. So highly recommend this for do for this SkinCeuticals vitamin C E for reliq. And two other things quickly. So this I got from our friend, Shelley, a beauty Shaman. So this is one of her tools. She posts about it a lot, but it's called the this is called the obsidian rock roller. And I am obsessed. I use it all the time. So I just brought this out skiing with us with all the altitude I was so puffy. And I use this every day. I used it on my kids, they loved it. I mean, it's on my neck though. It's basically like it's kind of like a guasha and like a cupping. I'm feeling all at once and I just feel like it's like a lazy guasha. So for me, I just sit here and I use it all over my face and it's so like it kind of sucks in your face and it definitely works for swelling and just like to get kind of like stuff out of your skin. I use it on my neck first like Shelly always says and then I also use it on my shoulders when they're sore to like massage my shoulder. So I was just using it on my kids the other day on their shoulders in the back of their neck. It's such a good one. So I've been using this a ton of time. It's the obsidian rock roller on beauty shamans website. It's $98 Such a great beauty tool. I love it. And the last thing I will say is I've been using for a while now this L'Oreal True Match nude Hyaluronic tinted serum. Okay, so this is a serum but it's tinted. The only thing is is doesn't have SPF like the there's a another one that I have to that's not to say but the other brand that I always mix Ilya, Ilya, I always get those two brands confused and that one has SPF and is good, but I actually like this one better because it's a thinner formula. So this is by L'Oreal. And again, it's just like a serum. And so you put it on your hands like a serum and you just rub it in and it just kind of smooths out your face. I mean, I don't really wear foundation and this is like a good like, I'll wear this at night. Sometimes you could just you could wear it every day. It's super light. It's just kind of like, you know, puts puts together your luck almost like a tinted moisturizer but it's a serum so it's not so thick and you just like put it on and it really makes a big difference. It's

Katie: 28:40

great. It just smooths out so drunk so I lie and write Did you say L'Oreal?

Amy: 28:43

It's a drugstore fine. Yeah, it's, it's $15 Target Amazon, wherever and it's a great one. So it's great one to put on after you've done all your glowing tools and everything else. So that's it. That was our episode. And we hope you enjoyed it. Definitely give us feedback and we'll be sure to do another product junkie section session next month. Thanks for listening to Nirvana sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes please subscribe and leave us a review. also find us on Instagram at Nirvana sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana sisters will continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.