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 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
john-frieda-forever-smooth-samples
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
superdrug-clearly-youthful-spf-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
pantene-volume-body
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

Reducing My Samples Stash – John Frieda Frizz Ease Forever Smooth Shampoo, Conditioner & Anti-Frizz Primer

Hi there! Today’s post is about John Frieda Frizz Ease Forever Smooth Shampoo, Conditioner & Anti-Frizz Primer. I received these products as samples (2 x 8ml shampoo, 2 x 8ml conditioner and 2 x 3ml anti-frizz primer) some time ago, but I’ve only tried them now. That’s because, just like every other person, I hate having to cut open sachets while I’m in the shower…

But I wanted to see if these John Frieda products were any good. So I tried the shampoo and the conditioner (and nothing else) on day 1, and I used the anti-frizz primer (after a different shampoo and conditioner combo) on day 2. Yes, I wash my hair every morning! But now, let’s get to the actual product reviews!
john-frieda-forever-smooth-samples
I found the Frizz Ease Forever Smooth shampoo OK. It lathered up well, but it didn’t feel very clarifying. I guess it’s OK if you wash your hair very frequently (like my husband who showers and washes his hair first thing in the morning – and he showers and washes his hair again in the evening when he comes back from the gym).

The Frizz Ease Forever Smooth conditioner was disappointing. It wasn’t very conditioning, and because of this it took me quite a while to detangle my hair in the shower. I used both sachets, but I think I would have needed at least another two sachets (that would be 32ml for a single use!) to get any conditioning ‘benefits’ from this product.

Whilst the Frizz Ease Forever Smooth conditioner isn’t as bad as Naked’s Colour Conditioner or Naturtint’s ‘Protective’ Cream, it’s definitely the worst conditioner I’ve had in quite a while. I’m pretty sure that if I had a full-size bottle or tube of this Frizz Ease Forever Smooth conditioner, I’d complain about having to double-condition!

What else? I also didn’t like how my hair felt and looked. My scalp started to grease up after less than 12 hours (Yuck!) whilst my ends felt and looked ratty. Forever Smooth? Absolutely not! I even wore my hair up for the evening because I didn’t want to scare my husband!

Now onto the anti-frizz primer! My initial review (which I rewrote a few times – and then I deleted it) contained many words – many words of disbelief, anger and disgust. But in the spirit of keeping things positive and funny, I’ve decided to share a few “highlights” only. 🙂

First of all, the anti-frizz primer feels gross and sticky. After I had blow-dried my hair, I had to wash my hands twice – because the tacky anti-frizz primer residue wouldn’t budge! And right after that I had to wipe down my hair-dryer. The handle was covered with icky anti-frizz primer residue and it bothered me that much that I couldn’t even leave it for later.

Once the hair-dryer was taken care of, I went back to the bathroom to check my hair. Since I knew that my hair felt very greasy, I knew it wouldn’t look great. However, when I actually looked at my hair, I was shocked. It looked… sensationally greasy and sweaty, dull, flat and lifeless. I’d describe the look of my post-anti-frizz primer hair as that of a tennis player after a three-hour match in sweltering conditions.

I was lucky that it was a home-working day, and that I didn’t have to leave the house. So I spent the first few hours wearing my hair up and trying not to think about it. However, the next time I looked in the mirror, I decided to take action. What did I do? I had another shower and I washed my hair again! And then I threw the (unused) 2nd anti-frizz primer sample in the bin. Life was good again! 🙂

John Frieda Frizz Ease Forever Smooth Shampoo & Conditioner are available as 250ml for £7.99 each. The Anti-Frizz Primer is available as 100ml for £9.99. I think these products are completely useless and I wouldn’t use them again – not even if you paid me. And I wouldn’t recommend them either.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde