Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 5

Hi there! I’ve already done a few posts to tell you about some of the beauty products I didn’t like at all. But let me tell you about a few more products that I hated! 🙂

Elizavecca Gold CF-Nest Collagen Jella Pack Mask

This mask is simply awful. It makes your skin feel like it’s covered in lard. In addition, the only way to remove the mask is to rub it off. This causes the mask to flake big time (but there’s nothing else you can do) which means that you have to wash your hair after you’ve used this mask. A truly awful product!

TRESemmè Colour Revitalise Vibrant Colour Protection Conditioner – I didn’t like this conditioner at all because it made my hair go greasy quickly. And the “fragrance” was borderline unpleasant. The shampoo was OK, though.

Montagne Jeunesse 7th Heaven Charcoal Masque – this mask contains crushed walnut shells which are unsuitable for the face. Awful!

L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Masque

I could write an essay about why I didn’t like this hair masque, but I won’t. In summary, it took 24 hours for the thickening effect to kick in, and the product made my hair feel crunchy. 😠

The Body Shop Fijian Water Lotus Body Lotion – this body lotion smells really bad. I have to admit I’m not the biggest fan of lotus or water lily scents, but this is the worst lotus “fragrance” I’ve ever smelled in a product.

L’Oréal Elvive Smooth & Polish Thermo Detangling Spray – it doesn’t detangle hair, but it seems to straighten and flatten it, so if you have wavy or curly hair, this spray just ruins your hairdo…

Boots Being By The Sanctuary Spa Cloudberry & Lychee Blossom Body Mist – one of the cheapest fragrances I’ve ever smelled. I tried to give it away, but none of my colleagues wanted it…

Superdrug Red Colour Conditioner – this stuff was anti-conditioning! Truly awful! Guess what, it’s been discontinued!

Superdrug Optimum Phyto Brighter Triple Action Illuminating Black Moisturiser

This moisturiser left a grey residue on the skin. I can’t believe I actually finished it…

Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation

One of the worst foundations I’ve ever tried. Poor coverage, but cakey look, feels super silky, but impossible to blend. Rubbish!

This was part 5 of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Whilst I’m not saying that no one could ever like any of these products (some of them are still around), I found these products to be rubbish. But if you do like any of these products, that’s good for you. Feel free to get in touch if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 4

Hi there! Over the past few months I did a couple of posts about beauty products that I think are useless. Those posts were quite popular, so here’s Part 4 of The Ultimate Beauty Duds. 🙂

MUA MakeUp Academy Matte Lipstick Lilac Belle

MUA’s matte lippies are probably the worst matte lippies out there. I’ve read a few positive reviews (?), but I can only guess the reviewers never had a decent matte lippie to compare MUA’s offerings with. Or they never actually tried the lippie. Or they found it rubbishy too, but didn’t want to be negative because they got the lippie for free. Who knows?

Now why is this lipstick so horrible? Well, this lipstick is very waxy. It’s almost impossible to apply it properly, it’s poorly pigmented and it’s drying. And because it’s so difficult to apply, my lippie broke off the first time I’ve used it. Rubbish!

Pantene Breakage Defence Hair Strength Tonic

This stuff scared me! I tried it, I got scared, then I binned the product! I thought of giving the product away – but I didn’t want anyone else to be scared by this truly binworthy product.

Superdrug Simply Pure Refreshing Toner For Sensitive Skin &
I Love… Cherry Almond Sparkle Refreshing Body Spritzer

Superdrug’s Simply Pure toner for sensitive skin isn’t very effective. As if this weren’t enough, this toner gave me an unpleasant skin reaction. I’m now using it to clean my nail art stampers! 🙂 I Love…’s Cherry Almond Sparkle smells like bread. Not a great fragrance, eh?

John Frieda Forever Smooth Shampoo, Conditioner, Anti-Frizz Primer

I’ve never used John Frieda hair products before – and thanks to these samples I can safely say that I won’t be using John Frieda hair products again. Complete rubbish!

Superdrug Moisturising Cocoa Butter Body Lotion
Yardley Invigorating Blue Orchid Body Lotion &
Pacifica Indian Coconut Nectar Body Butter

I can make this one short – these 3 moisturisers didn’t smell great at all. And Pacifica’s Indian Coconut Body Butter is the worst smell I’ve ever came across in a moisturiser. These 3 products were used as foot lotions.

Superdrug Clearly Youthful SPF 15 Skin Balancing Moisturiser

It’s impossible to apply this cream without causing it to ball up. The only way to use the product at all is to use it as a targeted treatment. But again, you can’t rub it into your skin. Major fail!

Pantene Volume & Body Shampoo & Conditioner

The shampoo wasn’t completely horrible. However, the conditioner was rubbish. It failed to detangle my hair, and it didn’t feel conditioning at all. As if this weren’t enough, the conditioner also flattened my hair. Bye-bye Pantene Volume & Body hair products. You won’t be missed!

Have you tried any of these products? Which products have you hated recently? Feel free to get in touch via the comments. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 3

Hi there! Welcome to Part 3 of the Ultimate Beauty Duds. I’ve already done parts 1 and 2, and these posts were well received. So her’s part 3! 🙂

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel

This Neutrogena moisturiser made my skin feel terribly dry. But Olay saved the day (and my skin).

Dolly’s Mixtures Rainbow Sherbet & Strawberry Daiquiri

These 2 Dolly’s Mixtutes shower gels were disappointing. The fragrances are best described as fizzy plastic and random soapy nothingness.

Simple Pleasures Winter Woodland Body Mists

The ultimate cheap body mist collection. These are the kind of body sprays you give to a young girl to experiment with – if you want her to dislike fragrances…

I Love… Chocolates & Orange Bath & Shower Crème, Refreshing Body Spritzer

I like quite a few I Love… toiletries, but the Chocolates & Oranges products smell like cheap dish soap. Yikes!

Paperchase Cherry, Strawberry & Blackcurrant Lip Balms

These Paperchase lip balms tasted like plastic. I binned them a long time ago.

I Love… Chocolate Truffle Bath Fizzer & Yves Rocher Cranberry Cooling Effect Mask

I Love…’s Chocolate Truffle products are excellent. However, there’s one stinker – the Bath Fizzer! It smells like cardboard with the faintest hint of cheap chocolate. Not pleasant at all.

Yves Rocher’s Cranberry Cooling Effect mask is pretty useless. It doesn’t do anything at all. This is, without doubt, one of Yves Rocher’s most disappointing products.

Accessorize Paradise Eyeshadow Palette

I think the Paradise palette is extremely pretty. But of 32 eyeshadows, 16 are so poorly pigmented that they’re essentially useless. Check out my original post which includes swatches of all 32 eyeshadows – you’ll be disappoited, no doubt.

This was part 3 of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Whilst I’m not saying that no one could ever like any of these products (some of them are still around), I found these products to be rubbish. But if you do like any of these products, that’s good for you.

Feel free to get in touch if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 2

Hi there! A few weeks ago I did a post about beauty products that I think are useless. That post proved to be popular, so here’s part 2 of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Enjoy!

Positively Fruity Body Lotions – Smells Like Sunny Strawberries, Smells Like Wild Cherries & Smells Like Tropical Showers

These body lotions were a total letdown. The tubes looked really cute, and the fragrances sounded nice. But these lotions were extemely poorly fragranced. Seriously, I could hardly smell anything at all. 😦

Boots Naked Colour Shampoo & Conditioner

These two hair products are two of the worst I’ve ever tried. The shampoo doesn’t lather up properly (it’s SLS-free), and the conditioner doesn’t condition at all. I think it anti-conditions, and it made me lose about five times as much hair as I’d normally lose in the shower. Complete rubbish!

Poundland Make-Up: Make Up Gallery Colour Story Eyeshadows &
Olay Regenerist Luminous Dark Circle Correcting Eye Swirl

I was so excited when Poundland launched its own make-up line. We were promised foundations, powders, blushes, lip gloss, eyeshadows, lipsticks and other make-up basics for £1 per item. I ended up with one lipstick (the only wearable shade), one nail polish (glitter) and three eyeshadows. The eyeshadows are rubbish. They’re chalky, they’re not well pigmented, and they’re not buildable at all. Definitely the worst eyeshadows I’ve ever tried.

If you read my blog regularly, you know I’m a total Olay nut. So whilst I usually find Olay products excellent, this eye swirl disappointed me. I didn’t see any improvement in my fiine lines or my dark circles. And whilst the shimmer particles in this eye cream reflect light and can make dark circles invisible, this effect is only temporary, and it’s gone as soon as you cleanse your face. Another problem is that eye cream is too rich. I couldn’t use it under my make-up, so I could only use this eye cream on homeworking days (= when I don’t wear make-up). Not what I wanted or expected…

Maybelline Colour Sensational Popsticks 040 Crystal Pink, 060 Citrus Slice, 080 Cherry Pop

These Maybelline pop sticks were awful. They were supposed to be lip balms, but they weren’t hydrating at all. They felt super waxy, and they smelled like plastic… I binned these a long time ago!

Body Fantasies Kissing In The Rain & Pink Sweet Pea Fantasy Fragrance Body Sprays

I really hated these body sprays. Kissing In The Rain smells like gym locker + wet dog. Pink Sweet Pea Fantasy smells… sour. Just the thought of these ‘fragrances’ makes me gag…

Yves Rocher Complete Anti-Age Global Serum &
Clarins Double Serum – Complete Age Control Concentrate

This Yves Rocher serum made my skin feel sensationally dry. Clarins’ serum didn’t do anything at all for me. Well, it made my pores look bigger, but that’s not what it was supposed to do…

Garnier Ultimate Blends The Silky Smoother Shampoo & Conditioner

Whilst these two hair care products smell absolutely delicious, there was nothing else that I liked about them. The shampoo turned my hair into a knotty and unflexible mess which the conditioner couldn’t take care of. Double-conditioning, sometimes even triple-conditioning, was a daily must… I think I finished the big 400ml conditioner in around ten days. Shocking, I know! By the way, these two products seem to disappear from the supermarket and drugstore shelves. So I guess I’m not the only one who was underwhelmed by these products.

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Superdrug Clearly Youthful Blemish Treatment Gel

This product did the opposite of what it was supposed to. The spots that I “treated” with this product took even longer to heal!

So, this was the second edition of The Ultimate Beauty Duds. I’m not saying that no one could ever like any of these products (some of them are still around). It’s just that I found them to be awful. But if you like any of these products, that’s good for you.

Any beauty duds you’d like to tell me about? Feel free to let me know. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Never Again – The Ultimate Beauty Duds – Part 1

Hi there! I’ve tried and tested countless products. Most of them were good, some were great, and some were disappointing. So I thought I’d share some of my least favourite products with you! 🙂

Naturtint Shampoo & Naturtint Nutrideep Multiplier Protective Cream

Naturtint… oh dear! The shampoo was tolerable, but the ‘protective cream’ was the worst thing that ever happened to my hair in all my life. Honestly, the ‘protective cream’ scared me big time. I thought it ruined my hair. Thanks to L’Oréal I managed to restore my hair to its pre-Naturtint state!

MUA Matte Lipstick Wild Berry

This is an awful matte lipstick from MUA. It feels waxy, sticky and drying. And it’s a nightmare to apply because of the thick and waxy texture. On top of that, the colour doesn’t transfer well onto lips. Rubbish.

Original Source Skin Quench Pineapple & Coconut Oil, Peach & Apricot Oil, Watermelon & Jojoba Oil

The Pineapple & Coconut Oil shower gel smelled like… almost nothing. It was very, very faint. But this shower gel didn’t smell great anyway, so I didn’t miss out on anything. The Peach & Apricot Oil shower gel was horrible. It smelled like furniture polish. I’m not surprised this one was discontinued quickly. The Watermelon & Jojoba Oil shower gel was the winner of the three – because it smelled OK. Still, the scent wasn’t special at all and it was very faint.

B. Pure Sensitive Micellar Cleansing Wipes

These micellar wipes from Superdrug made my face tingle in an unpleasant way, and they’re definitely not suitable for use around the eyes. Another thing that annoyed me was the sticky film these wipes left behind. Why Superdrug thinks these wipes could replace a face wash and a toner, I don’t know.

NYC Skin Matching Foundation 685 Fair &
Miss Sporty Morning Baby BB Cream 001 Nude Radiance

NYC’s foundation doesn’t blend. At all. Any attempt to blend it into your skin will cause the product to flake. I tried different moisturisers and different beauty tools, but this foundation was impossible to work with. No surprise it’s been discontinued.

Miss Sporty’s BB Cream didn’t cover up any skin imperfections. It highlighted them! Simple redness turned into shiny redness. Also, this BB cream made my skin look orange. And on top of that, it balled up!

Rimmel Colour Rush Trio Eye Shadow 760 Elements

This Rimmel eyeshadow compact disappointed me big time because the eyeshadows are incredibly poorly pigmented. I usually find Rimmel products excellent, but this compact is a joke. The swatch says it all. And yes, that almost unrecognisable thing on the right is a swatch.

Gliss Oil Nutritive Shampoo & Conditioner

These two Gliss products did smell amazing. But they made my hair feel and look greasy within hours after washing it. Not good. The conditioner is one of the worst I’ve ever had. It robbed my hair of its elasticity and flexibility, and I had to double-condition after each wash because detangling my hair was the new ‘Mission Impossible’. Fortunately the conditioner only lasted 7 days (yes, this means I emptied the bottle in 7 days).

Sweet Snuggles Chocolate Vanilla Hand Cream & FCUK Pure Bodyspray

I really hated this hand cream. I used it once and it moisturised my hands well. But it had the most sickly sweet vanilla scent I’ve ever had the misfortune of smelling.

The FCUK fragrance annoyed me just as much. The strong white pepper note reminded me too much of the raw meat smell at the butcher’s. And the drydown was all about violet and, again, sickly sweet vanilla. I just couldn’t stomach smelling these two products so they had to go.

This was the first edition of The Ultimate Beauty Duds! Part 2 is coming soon!

By the way, I’m not saying that no one could ever like these products (some of them are probably still around). So if you do like any of these products, that’s good for you.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde