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

Garnier Ultimate Blends The Silky Smoother Shampoo & Conditioner

Hi there! Today’s post is about Garnier’s Ultimate Blends The Silky Smoother shampoo and conditioner which I’ve been using for the past few weeks. These products are aimed at people with longer hair and split ends.

I don’t have split ends, so I can’t tell you if these products would help with this problem. But I’ll tell you what I think about this shampoo and conditioner combo in general.

The Silky Smoother shampoo is gentle on my hair and scalp. And I love the vanilla and papaya fragrance. What I don’t like is that this shampoo makes my hair feel knotty and unflexible as soon as I’m lathering it up. So when I rinse out the shampoo my hair is a knotty and unflexible mess.

The Silky Smoother conditioner is not very effective. Again, it smells absolutely lovely, but the product is too thin and not very conditioning at all. I have to double-condition, sometimes even triple-condition (!) just to detangle the knots. And keep in mind, the shampoo is causing the majority of the knots in the first place…

In summary, I don’t think you’d be happy with these products if you have long, thick and curly hair (like me). It might be different if your hair is straight or thin (or both) though.

I’m glad I finished the conditioner. And my husband will use up the shampoo. My husband actually loves this shampoo, and he said he’d definitely want me to buy it again for him – but he has short hair, and he admits he’s totally drawn to the vanilla fragrance.

If you want to give Garnier’s Ultimate Blends The Silky Smoother shampoo and conditioner a try, these products are available as 400 ml each for about £3.99 – but there’s always a half price or BOGOF offer somewhere. These products are also available in a smaller size – 250 ml shampoo and 200 ml conditioner – for about £2.79 each.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde