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
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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

L'Oreal Fibrology 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

Empties – January 2017

Hi there! As it’s the 1st of the month, today’s post is about the products I emptied last month. So let me show you what I’ve used up in January. As always, I’ve used several face masks, and whilst I didn’t keep the empty sachets, you can read about my latest face mask finds here. Now let’s get to the (more or less) bulky stuff – the ‘real’ empties!
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1 Olay Complete Day Cream – this is a wonderful face cream. I started to use this cream last winter, then I neglected it… but over the past few months I’ve made an effort to use up all my part-used skin care products – and now I’ve finished this one! I’ll buy this cream again, no doubt!

2 Rival De Loop Black Eyeliner Pencil – this is the eyeliner pencil I finished in December. I thought I’d lost it, but it turned out that I did keep it safe! I just forgot where it was and I found it by accident the other day. 😀

3 Olay Anti-Wrinkle Instant Hydration Day Serum – this is one of my favourite face serums. I’ll buy it again for sure!

4 Superdrug Naturally Radiant Glycolic Overnight Peel – this is a very effective product that doesn’t trouble my sensitive skin at all. I love it! I’ve already repurchased it.
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5 Boots Extracts Vanilla Body Butter – this body butter is a real treat. It makes my skin feel incredibly soft and it smells… delicious. The vanilla fragrance in this body butter is one of the purest and most authentic vanilla fragrances out there. This body butter has been repackaged but I have several ‘old’ tubs left.

6 I Love… Iced Cookie Bath & Shower Crème – this shower cream was perfect for the time around Christmas. The fragrance is simply delicious. I can’t repurchase this item because it was only available as part of a winter-themed limited edition gift set.
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7 I Love… Mixed Berries Bath & Shower Crème – a decent shower product. I did like it but it was nothing special. I don’t think I’d repurchase it, but if it happened to be in I Love…’s next Christmas set, I wouldn’t be disappointed.

8 Boots Botanics Firming Body Gel – this is an oldie that I found in my stash. I didn’t find this gel particularly moisturising, and I didn’t love the sticky feel, but I liked the fragrance. Very ‘spa’! This product has been discontinued. But I don’t think I’d repurchase it anyway.

9 I Love… Chocolate & Oranges Bath & Shower Crème – this stuff smells like cheap dish soap and I’m glad it’s gone.
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10 Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care Intensive All Over Body Cream – great stuff. I really like this body cream. It’s quite nourishing and it smells lovely. I have another tub.

11 Alberto Balsam Sun Kissed Raspberry Conditioner – a decent conditioner. It detangles my hair with ease and it smells really good. I think most berry-scented toiletries smell a little off – but this one smells great. I will buy this conditioner again, no doubt!

12 Yardley Invigorating Blue Orchid Moisturising Body Wash – not a favourite. I started to use this shower gel in October – and I’ve only managed to finish it now. I wouldn’t buy it again.
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13 Superdrug Naturally Radiant Brightening Micro Polish – this is one of my favourite skin care products ever. Try it! I’ve used this micro polish scrub once a week (every Tuesday) and this tube has lasted me six months. Great stuff! I have two back-up tubes. 🙂

14 L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Conditioner – not the most suitable conditioner for long and curly / wavy hair – that’s if you use the matching shampoo too. I think L’Oréal’s Fibrology products are probably great for people with thin hair. However, I don’t see myself repurchasing the shampoo and the conditioner any time soon. Saying this, I still have the matching hair mask which I’ll try as soon as my current deep conditioner is finished.

15 Positively Fruity Smells Like Tropical Showers Body Lotion – cute bottle, so-so contents. Because of this my husband and I used this body lotion as foot lotion. So this one is a shared empty. I wouldn’t repurchase this product.

This is what emptied in January – not bad, eh? If you’re wondering why there are two conditioners and no shampoos – I use more conditioner than shampoo. And every time I finish a conditioner, the matching shampoo is instantly (more or less) ‘useless’ to me, so I’ll pass it on to my husband who’ll use it up. 🙂

February is a short month, but I think it’ll be another good month for empties because I still have lots of part-used toiletries and skin care products that I’m working on.

Oh, by the way, I’ve officially run out of storage – you might remember those boxes under the bed… well, that was so last year! Now I’m talking about boxes next to the bed and next to the sock drawer. Because of this I’ve implemented a 1-in-3-out policy earlier this month. Yes, this means that I can buy one item (make-up, skin care, toiletries – whatever) for every three products I finish.

The only exceptions are essentials such as… toothpaste, hand soap, “special” skin care creams (I’m talking about creams like Savlon, Sudocrem, Daktacort…), beauty basics like cotton buds and cosmetic pads, and the original Herbal Essences hair products when they’re on special (Yeah, I mean it!) because I can’t have these products cut into my rewards. 😉

Oh, and something else happened… some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been the best blogging buddy over the past 2 weeks. That’s because I had to slay the tax demon. And I did it! In the UK you have to submit your tax return by 31 January – otherwise they’ll slap you with a fine – no ifs, no buts. I submitted my tax return just before 19:00 yesterday – just in time! So yeah, I slayed the tax demon! This means I have 11 months and 2 weeks of freedom – until next year’s tax demon rears its ugly head!

Feel free to comment if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Weekly Recap 16 – 22 Jan 2017

Hi there! And welcome to this week’s recap! If you’ve missed a post that you would have wanted to read, this is your chance to catch up. 🙂

Monday 16 Jan – NYC Metro Quartet Eye Shadow 796B Queens Boulevard
NYC Metro Quartet Eyeshadow 796B Queens Boulevard 3
On Monday I swatched and reviewed this NYC eye palette. If you’d like to read the post, click here.

Tuesday 17 Jan – Making Products Work For Me – L’Oreal Fibrology & Alberto Balsam
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On Tuesday I told you that I found another L’Oréal Fibrology shampoo and conditioner combo in my stash. I didn’t love these products the first time around because they aren’t the most suitable ones for long and curly hair (by the way, my hair is transitioning from curly to wavy – I think it’s because of its length). But I had a spare Albert Balsam Mandarin & Papaya shampoo and a spare Alberto Balsam Raspberry conditioner, so I matched up the L’Oréal products with the Alberto Balsam products. If you’d like to know how it worked out, click here to read Tuesday’s post.

Wednesday 18 Jan – Empties 2016 Summary 
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Wednesday’s post was about the stuff I emptied in 2016. I know the summary was a little late, but I’m glad I did it anyway. Click here to read the post. Thanks (again) for the inspiration, Stashy!

Thursday 19 Jan – Nail Of The Day
Friday 20 Jan – Nivea Q10 Firming Body Lotion
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Thursday’s post was another Nail Of The Day post. If you’d like to read it, click here. Friday’s post was about Nivea’s Q10 Firming Body Lotion. Click here to read my review.

This is it for this week. Thanks for reading. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Shampoo & Conditioner

Hi there! I think I’ve used most Elvive shampoos and conditioners over the past years, but I couldn’t remember if I ever had these ones. As they were on special (Half price – what else?), I bought them.

At first let me say that I found the L’Oréal Fibrology Thickening Shampoo to be a huge surprise. In terms of quality it’s like most L’Oréal shampoos – it’s quite good and it smells nice – but it’s quite unique because once it touches wet hair, it feels like it’s expanding… like builder’s foam! 😀

However, this is also a bit of an issue for me because I’ve got long and curly hair. Due to the way the shampoo expands, it’s not so great for thick or curly hair. My hair is a bit of a knotty mess once the shampoo is rinsed out – no matter how careful I am.
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The L’Oréal Fibrology Thickening Conditioner
isn’t good enough to deal with the knotty mess because it’s quite thick, so I have to double-condition or use a different conditioner after using the Fibrology shampoo. This also defeats the purpose of this shampoo and conditioner combo. However, when I use the conditioner after a regular shampoo – which doesn’t expand like crazy on my head – it’s absolutely fine.

Would I buy these products again? Maybe. But I definitely wouldn’t use them together again. Saying this, I can see that these two products would work really well together on hair that is not long, thick and curly, so if you’ve got fine or straight hair, you might love these products. L’Oréal Fibrology Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner are available as 250 ml for £2.99 each and 400 ml for £3.99 each.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde