If we’re rating my hair styling skills on a 1 to 10, I’d give myself a 4 at best. Sure, I can straighten my locks with a traditional straightener, but I have no idea how to give myself a salon blowout. And don’t even get me started with curling irons. They’re my mortal enemy. I’m pretty good at throwing my wet hair in a ponytail and letting it air dry for literal hours. Clearly though, my skills are severely lacking. My biggest issue with hair styling is how long it takes. When I get my hair done at the salon, they spend HOURS doing everything from start to finish. Granted, my poor stylist is usually giving me a full head of highlights or lifting blue dye from half of my hair, but I digress. My point is, I want cute hair with minimal effort. Impossible? Maybe not. 

I saw RawBeautyKristi talk about this Amika Smooth Operator Set (it was sponsored by Amika) in one of her recent videos. Ironically enough, the entire video wasn’t about this product, but for the few minutes she did talk about it, I was hooked. I love the way my hair looks when it’s straightened. There wasn’t a day during freshman year of high school where I walked into class with waves. Despite how obsessed I was with pin straight hair, my 20’s have made me realize that that’s not very natural looking. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE the straightened look (why would I have bought this set if I didn’t), but I’m tired of losing all my volume and spending over an hour doing my hair. Enter this set.

Packaging:

Clearly this set was crafted for the holidays, since that’s when most brands offer their best products bundled together. Amika’s packaging has always been very other-worldly or psychedelic if you will. The bright blue and orange really draws your eye to this set immediately. The designs on the three various bottles are even prettier. Although they are the same, the color schemes differ to make each one unique and distinguishable from the others. Although I will probably throw this box out after this review, I can greatly appreciate the packaging that went into making this set simply beautiful.

Product: 

This set includes the following:

• Polished Perfection 2.0 Straightening Brush 
• Mini Ionic Hair Dryer & Attachment
• The Shield Anti-Humidity Spray
• Perk Up Dry Shampoo
• Silken Up Dry Conditioner

This is a Sephora exclusive gift set, however there is another option called the Smooth Criminal Set on Amika’s website. The products do vary though, so keep that in mind.

Price: $120

I bought this set during the recent Sephora sale where Beauty Insider’s received 10% off their purchases for a few days. It only took $12 off the grand total, but still better than paying full price, amirite? What really sold me on the set as a whole was the fact that the Polished Perfection 2.0 Straightening Brush by itself was also $120. Why would I pay the same amount of money for just the brush when I could try out some other hair care items too? Needless to say, I opted for the set. Even if you’re not interested in the additional products, you could just as easily give them away as gifts and keep the straightener for yourself!

Performance: 

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for. I’m gonna break down each product individually so every item gets their fair share of time.

Polished Perfection 2.0 Straightening Brush: $120 

I absolutely, 100% love this product. It’s infinitely easier to use than a regular straightener because there’s no squeezing or tugging. Ok, yes, if you’re too rough with it you will obviously still tug your hair, but my point is you have so much more control. Instead of clamping your locks and forcing two ceramic plates to get the job done, you simply brush a section of hair like you would with a non-heated brush. I do recommend holding the bottom of your hair while gliding the brush through for the best results though. 

 My favorite part about this brush is the fact that you can get a much more natural look as opposed to a traditional straightener. Glide the brush through smaller sections of hair for a very polished, but still natural look. Or separate the hair into larger sections and slide through for major volume and an “I’m not trying so hard” look. Either way, your hair won’t be pin straight. If that’s what you’re trying to achieve, I would stick to a traditional hair straightener. However, this is exactly what I wanted from this product, so I’m ecstatic I got the right results. 

I would also say this brush makes styling my hair faster. With a regular straightener it takes me a solid hour, but with this baby it takes me about half the time to get the look I want. (That excludes the amount of time I spend getting distracted and checking messages on my phone.) This brush also heats up relatively quickly and you can easily adjust the temperature to your preference. I usually set it to 350 degrees when I’m using it on newly washed hair and roll back the temperature if I’m just touching it up in the upcoming days. I do find that it takes this brush a decent amount of time to cool down, so as soon as I’m finished with it, I make sure to turn it off, unplug it, and let it rest on my desk before putting it away.

Mini Ionic Hair Dryer & Attachment: $60

Up until recently, I rarely ever used blow-dryers. I always preferred the way my hair looked air-dried and if I did indeed blow-dry it, I had to style it after. Because this one was also a mini size, I had major doubts. To my surprise, I actually love this product as well. It has an insane amount of power and dries my hair faster than any regular sized blow-dryer I’ve tried in the past. I typically use this blow-dryer on my hair until it’s slightly damp and then throw the attachment onto the end. I continue until its dry and even try to press the attachment to some sections in hopes of achieving that salon blowout look. However, I definitely need practice and a better brush. I do think the attachment helps take down the volume of my hair, which is a plus in this case. With other blow-dryers my hair would look like a poofy disaster once I finished. 

The Shield Anti-Humidity Spray: $25 (full size)

I’m a bit skeptical about anti-humidity anything because if my hair wants to frizz, it’s going to frizz. I’ve sprayed this in my hair every time I’ve used the brush so far, but mostly because I want my hair to smell good, rather than fried. I think I’ll have to wait for the summer to get a good grip on the product, since it’s cold nowadays and my hair isn’t prone to the frizzies. Like all Amika products though, I love the signature scent.

Perk-Up Dry Shampoo: $25 (full size)

I’ve used a sample of this dry shampoo in the past and was sad to see it go. Formula-wise, it performs just as good as my trusty Batiste Dry Shampoo, but the smell is unmatchable. They sell their signature scent in a hair fragrance and room spray (kinda need to try both), but I wish they made an actual, long-lasting perfume or body spray. I promise you, I’d wear it every day. As for the dry shampoo itself, I’m glad it’s back in my life, but I probably won’t repurchase once I run out just because Batiste is much cheaper. 

Silken Up Dry Conditioner: $25 (full size)

Don’t be an idiot like me and spray this in your roots. I made the mistake of not reading the instructions and just assumed this was a glorified dry shampoo, despite literally being called a dry conditioner. It turned my roots into grease city. Once I actually did use this on the bottom third of my hair (like instructed) I enjoyed it so much more. It definitely made my hair feel a bit softer and look a little shinier. I’m not sure I would repurchase because of the price, but I may look for dupes because I like the concept of this product a lot. 

Final Thoughts: 

When I bought this set I was hopeful, but I didn’t realize how quickly I’d fall in love with it. The brush and blow dryer actually make me excited to style my hair and they do so in a reasonable amount of time. I’m also happy I get to play around with three of their styling products because I probably wouldn’t have bought them otherwise. If you have a friend who loves all things hair, needs a new beauty tool, or you just wanna treat yourself, I don’t think you can go wrong with this set. 

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