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

Empties – December 2016

Hi there! Before I start the new year with new product reviews, let’s take a look at what I emptied last month. As always, I used several face masks – but I never keep the empty sachets. I’ve also thrown out my first konjac sponge. Yes, I have replaced it with a new one.

And I’ve finished a black eyeliner pencil. Yay! I’d have loved to show it off but unfortunately I lost it. I probably hoovered it up or my husband may have seen it and just thrown it away. But I’m working on two more eyliner pencils (Essence and Maybelline). Once they’re finished, I’ll make sure I’ll keep them safe. Now let’s look at all the bottles and tubes I emptied in December.

1 Superdrug Clearly Youthful Hydrating Day Serum – this serum has its flaws. It doesn’t work with every moisturiser (it might ball up…), but it does make my skin look and feel clearer. And despite its flaws, I actually love this serum. Unfortunately I can’t buy it again because Superdrug has discontinued the collection. But I have a back-up bottle which should last me for another six months. I’ve also gone to great lengths to get every last drop of serum out of this bottle – I even had my husband cut the sturdy bottle in half! 🙂 The leftovers lasted me for 4 more days!

2 Givenchy Ange Ou Démon Delicate Bath Gel – I used this travel-sized bath gel as a shower gel and I really liked it. Great formula, wonderful fragrance. I can’t repurchase this exact product because the fragrance has been reformulated.

3 Givenchy Ange Ou Démon Silky Body Veil – a lovely moisturiser. It felt light and non-sticky, but it was actually very moisturising. Great fragrance! Too bad Givenchy changed the formula…

4 Olay Anti-Wrinkle 2 In 1 Instant Hydration + Radiant Glow – this is a wonderful moisturiser. It smells lovely, it hydrates my skin well, and it really gives my face a nice glow. I haven’t touched it in a while but I’ve rediscovered this little gem because I’m making an effort to use up all my part-used moisturisers. I don’t need to buy it again any time soon because I have two back-up bottles (please, say nothing). I’ve also cut this bottle in half (I managed to do this myself), but there wasn’t much product left in it. It was just enough product for one generous application.

5 Superdrug Strawberry & Raspberry Shower Gel – a nice, fruity shower gel. It smells a lot better than some of the strawberry or raspberry-scented products you can find for five times the price on the high street. Well done, Superdrug! I’ll buy this one again, no doubt.

6 Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Conditioner – I didn’t love Pantene’s Volume & Body products. The shampoo and the conditioner flattened my hair! I’m glad the conditioner is gone. I wouldn’t buy it again. If you’re wondering what happened to the shampoo – I always use more conditioner than shampoo. And whenever I empty a conditioner, I pass the matching (leftover) shampoo on to my husband who’ll use it up.

7 NSPA Caramel Fudge Bath & Shower Gel – a wonderful shower gel! I loved everything about it! I’d love to buy it again but it was a limited edition and it really is gone. 😦

8 Superdrug Lotus Flower & Cherry Blossom Body Butter – I love this body butter. It’s very hydrating and not sticky at all. And it smells fantastic. Repurchase? Oh yeah!

9 Boots Mediterranean Grape, Avocado & Lemon Body Butter – this body butter was quite old when I rediscovered it in my stash (Oops!). It has been discontinued years ago. However, it hadn’t gone off (I think preservatives are awesome!). The fragrance wasn’t great. So I decided to use it as a foot butter. This one is a shared empty because my husband used it too.

10 Calcot Manor De-Stress Body Buff – a great body scrub! But the charmingly old-fashioned floral fragrance is quite strong, so you might want to give this one a sniff before you buy it. Calcot Manor products are exclusive to Tesco, although bargain stores have snapped up some of the older stock. If I were to find this one again for 99p or £1, I’d buy it again. But I wouldn’t pay a fiver (Tesco).

11 Alberto Balsam Stunning Shine Conditioner – another great Alberto Balsam product! It’s dirt cheap but it’s really good. Pantene should take note! My husband is now using the matching (leftover) shampoo, and he likes it too. I’ll buy the Stunning Shine shampoo and conditioner again, no doubt.

12 I Love… Strawberries & Cream Bath & Shower Cream – I wanted to give this away because the strawberry fragrance was just too strong for me. But I forgot to put in the ‘for my teenage relative’ box. And then I just used this shower gel on and off for about half a year. And now it’s finally gone! I wouldn’t repurchase it, but if you love strawberry-scented products, this one is worth a try for sure. It smells much more natural than the overpriced strawberry-scented products from a certain high street brand. 😉

13 For Kings & Queens Nefertiti Honey Shower Gel – this is a fantastic product. It smells like… heaven! It’s that good that I’m looking into buying the matching fragrance.

14 Superdrug Naturally Radiant Renewing Night Cream – one of the best night creams I’ve ever had. It’s rich and hydrating, and at the same time it has a brightening effect. And it’s under £3 when it’s on special! I’ve already repurchased this cream.

15 Rimmel Stronger Double Duty Base Coat – this base coat promises to strengthen and protect nails. And it really works! This base coat has been discontinued but I have a few back-up bottles.

This is it for December. I hope I’ll be able to finish lots of products in 2017 so that I can finally get on top of my stash. Feel free to get in touch if you want to. And thanks for reading! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Shampoo & Conditioner

Hi there! Today’s post is about Pantene’s Pro-V Volume & Body Shampoo & Conditioner. I’ve had mixed experiences with Pantene products this year (and actually last year too). But I’ve never tried these two products before, so I wanted to give them a try.

Let’s start with the shampoo. I like that the shampoo is clear. I’m bored of creamy white shampoos (who isn’t…), so this one gets an (imaginary) extra star for being clear. I also like the fragrance – it’s not very special, but it’s definitely pleasant. I think this shampoo cleanses my scalp and my hair reasonably, and it doesn’t make my hair look or feel greasy after 24 hours. That’s nice. However, this shampoo doesn’t make my hair feel soft.

Sure, most hair products that promise more volume aren’t softening, and I understand that this is how they (claim to) achieve the actual volume, but I like my hair to feel soft. Still, this is a decent shampoo, and I think it would work well on oily hair.

The conditioner isn’t great. It’s not very conditioning, and it doesn’t detangle my hair well. Again, I appreciate that this is a product feature, and not a design flaw. However, how am I supposed to achieve more volume if  I have to use a handful of conditioner just to detangle my hair?

Looking at other Pantene products, I think this conditioner is definitely better than the Youth Protect conditioner and the Colour Protect & Volume conditioner. But it’s not working well with my hair type (= curly, although I think my hair is transitioning to wavy due to its length) and because of this it actually flattens my hair. 😦 But I’m sure this conditioner will work much better for ladies with straight hair.

I’ll continue to use these two products on homeworking days and stay-at-home weekends. But I don’t think that I’ll buy these two products again once they’re finished.

Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Shampoo is available as 400ml for £3.99. Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Conditioner is available as 360ml for £3.99. I got these two on a half price deal.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde