Weekly Recap 26 Jun – 2 Jul 2017

Hi there! How’s your week been? I hope you’ve had a good week so far! Today’s post is my weekly blog recap. And this is what I’ve been up to this week… 🙂

Monday 26 Jun – L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Masque

Monday’s post was about L’Oréal’s Elvive Fibrology Thickening Masque. Click here to read the post.

Tuesday 27 Jun – Nail Of The Day / Nail Art Challenge
Wednesday 28 Jun – Superdrug White Chocolate Mousse Mask

Tuesday’s post was a Nail Of The Day post. Click here to read the post.
And on Wednesday I reviewed Superdrug’s White Chocolate Mousse Mask. Click here to read the post.

Thursday 29 Jun – Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel

Thursday’s post was about Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Water Gel. Click here to read the post.

Friday 30 Jun – June Beauty Awards a.k.a. June 2017 Favourites

On Friday I told you about all the products I loved in June. Click here to read the post.

This is it for this week. I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

L’Oréal Elvive Fibrology Thickening Masque

Hi there! Today’s post is about a product that I’ve been using once a week since early May – L’Oréal’s Fibrology Thickening Masque. This product promises to expand hair from within, thus increasing the diameter of every single hair. L’Oréal also says that the thickening effect is long-lasting and buildable. This sounds fantastic! But does it work? If you read on, I’ll let you know.

This mask is easy to use. It’s supposed to be used instead of a regular conditioner – you just need to leave it on for 2 to 3 minutes before rinsing it out.

I’ve used this mask several times, but I’m not impressed because this mask feels like ‘product’ in my hair even after it’s rinsed out. I also don’t see or feel any immediate thickening effect. The only thing I can feel right away is that, as soon as my hair is blow-dried, it feels crunchy.

But whilst there’s no immediate thickening effect, there is, without doubt, a delayed thickening effect which seems to kick in after about 18 to 24 hours. Unfortunately I can’t appreciate the delayed thickening effect because I wash my hair every day, so I won’t benefit from products which (claim to) start working after 24 hours.

I will continue to use this hair mask because I can hardly give it away now, and I don’t want to be wasteful, so I won’t throw it away. Maybe I should treat my husband to a thickening hair mask every now and then! 😀 L’Oréal’s Fibrology Thickening Masque is available as 300ml for £5.09. I paid £2.49 (better than half price offer).

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

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

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 

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

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

Making Products Work For Me – L’Oreal Fibrology & Alberto Balsam

Hi there! It’s been a while since I used L’Oréal’s Fibrology hair products. Back then I had to say that these products weren’t right for my hair type. In summary, the Fibrology shampoo turned my hair into a tangled mess. And the Fibrology conditioner (I think it’s too thick) wasn’t good enough to detangle my hair – and it took a lot of time, effort and product to tame my mane.

Because of this I thought it was unlikely that I’d buy the Fibrology hair products again. However, not too long ago I went through my stash and I found another set of Fibrology products. Ah, the joys of beauty & toiletries hoarding!

But since I had a spare Alberto Balsam Mandarin & Papaya shampoo and a spare Sunkissed Raspberry conditioner (they were 50p each at Sainsbury’s, and these two were the only ones left – so I just bought them), I thought I’d see whether they’d work with the Fibrology products. I’ve been using the two L’Oréal and Alberto Balsam combos in a rota for a few weeks now. Read on if you’d like to know how it’s going!

L’Oréal’s Fibrology Shampoo is definitely unique. It expands – almost like builder’s foam! Whilst I love this effect, this is the reason why my hair gets tangled up. And, as I said before, the Fibrology conditioner isn’t good enough to undo the damage.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been using the Fibrology shampoo with Alberto Balsam’s Sunkissed Raspberry Conditioner. And this combo really works! I had my doubts because the conditioner doesn’t look very conditioning, and it’s quite thin. However, it detangles my hair with ease. I’m really surprised that these two products work so well together – and I’m certainly not complaining. 🙂

Even though L’Oréal’s Fibrology Conditioner didn’t really play well with the Fibrology shampoo, I didn’t think it was lost cause. So I’ve now teamed up the Fibrology conditioner with Alberto Balsam’s Mandarin & Papaya Shampoo.

This shampoo is wonderful. It’s clarifying, but it’s not harsh at all, and it smells lovely! In addition, it doesn’t turn my hair into a rat’s nest! This in turn also means that it’s much easier to detangle my hair with conditioner – and the Fibrology conditioner does a great job! So yes, these products are great together!

Whilst I usually don’t like to ‘mix’ shampoos and conditioners from different collections, let alone different brands, I must say that I’m very happy with these two L’Oréal + Alberto Balsam combos. I went from “Oh dear, I gotta use this stuff!” to “Yay, this is fantastic!” in a matter of days.

Do you like to mix things up in the hair care department? Feel free to comment. And thanks for stopping by! 🙂

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.

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