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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Empties – April 2016

Hi there! I haven’t done any posts about emptied products before. But every time I read my fellow bloggers’ posts about emptied products, I’m thinking I should do such posts too! And as someone who’s guilty of hoarding beauty products and toiletries, I’m sure that looking at the products I emptied every month will make me feel like I’ve accomplished something. 🙂 So, here’s what I emptied this month!

1 Palmolive Pampering Touch with Coconut and Moisturising Milk – what a lovely shower cream! This one’s been a shower staple for years. I love the creamy and gentle formula and the gorgeous fragrance. Yes, I will definitely repurchase this one.

2 Positively Fruity Smells Like Tropical Showers Body Wash – a nice body wash. It smells sweet, sunny and tropical and the formula isn’t drying at all. I think this is a good product and I might buy it again.

3 Harmony Hair Indulgence Herbal Conditioner with Mulberry Extract – an OK conditioner for my hair type (long, thick, curly). But I’d recommend it to ladies with fine and straight hair. I’ve got about 25% of the matching shampoo left in the bottle. As almost always, whenever I finish a conditioner, my husband will finish the matching shampoo and I move on to another shampoo and conditioner combo. 🙂 Anyway… repurchase? Don’t know. Maybe.

4 Colgate Kids Toothpaste 0-3 Years – I bought this toothpaste because it looked cute. I know kids toothpaste doesn’t have much fluoride, so it doesn’t replace an adult toothpaste. But I really liked using this toothpaste every time I wanted to give my teeth a quick brush in between (during the day, after work, etc…). I think I’ll repurchase this toothpaste again because it tastes yummy and it’s fun!

5 Colgate Max White One Optic – I tried this relatively new toothpaste for the first time and I really like it. It keeps my teeth clean and it tastes quite good! I’ll definitely buy this toothpaste again!

6 Boots Extracts Festive Spiced Apple Body Scrub – the matching shower gel and body butter are long gone. But I only just emptied this scrub. I found the body scrub too gentle for my liking. I prefer a more powerful scrub for my body. And now, a month after Easter, I’ve really had it with the christmassy apple-cinnamon fragrance. I’m glad this product is finally gone. I wouldn’t repurchase it for myself.

7 Superdrug Hand Rescue Balm – one of the hand creams I’ve been using on and off over the past few months. It’s an OK hand cream, but I had to keep using it all the time. And I grew tired of its weird scent quickly. Repurchase? No. There are much better hand creams out there.

8 Superdrug Animal Mad Lip Balm – a great lip balm! I like the soft and rich texture and the pleasant and subtle berry flavour. I have three more lip balms from this set, so I don’t need to stock up. But if Superdrug does a similar lip balm set again this autumn or winter, I’ll probably buy it.

9 Boots Botanics Hydrating Serum Capsules – good stuff! Too bad these capsules have been discontinued. If they were still available, I’d repurchase them in an instant.

10 Max Factor Pan Stik 25 Fair – this is THE ONE foundation for me. Full coverage, very affordable, makes my dry skin look dewy… what’s not to love? I’ll keep buying this foundation for as long as its made!

So, this was my first empties post. Looking at the stuff I’ve used up, I feel a bit proud of myself. 🙂 Now I have to tackle the countless eyeliner pencils which are almost used up – but just almost.

I don’t know if I will include toothpastes and things like that in the future, but this time I really wanted to tell everyone that I love kids toothpaste and I wanted to tell you about Colgate’s Optic White toothpaste (just in case you might be interested).

Have you tried any of these products? Feel free to let me know what you think. And thanks for stopping by.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Kawaii Alert – PART 2! Positively Fruity Body Lotions – Smells Like Sunny Strawberries, Smells Like Wild Cherries, Smells Like Tropical Showers

Hi there! Not too long ago I told you what I think about Positively Fruity’s body washes. And now that I’ve tried the matching body lotions, I can tell you what I think about these products as well.

So here they are – Positively Fruity Smells Like Sunny Strawberries, Smells Like Wild Cherries, and Smells Like Tropical Showers. These body lotions share a few qualities – they all contain glycerin and aloe leaf juice which is nice. They’re a bit sticky, but they leave my skin moisturised for hours. Now let’s get to the scents!

Smells Like Sunny Strawberries hardly smells of anything. If you look for a body moisturiser with a long-lasting strawberry scent, look elsewhere because this isn’t it. Compared to the lovely body wash, this body lotion is quite a let down.

Smells Like Wild Cherries smells faintly of cherries. I was hoping this lotion would smell gorgeous – but the cherry scent is hardly noticeable. It’s better than the strawberry lotion, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean much.

In terms of intensity, Smells Like Tropical Showers is the best of the three. However, the scent is still quite faint. And if I hadn’t tested the other two lotions first, I’d probably complain about the lack of fragrance in this lotion.

All in all, I think I wouldn’t recommend the body lotions. They’re decent moisturisers, but the fragrances are hardly noticeable at all. Priced at £1 these Positively Fruity Body Lotions look like they’re good value, but they come in small 150ml tubes only. So they’re not really that good a deal if you keep in mind that Poundland stocks branded body lotions and body butters (i.e. I Love…, Vaseline, etc) in larger bottles or tubs – for the same price…

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Kawaii Alert! Positively Fruity Body Washes – Smells Like Sunny Strawberries, Smells Like Wild Cherries, Smells Like Tropical Showers

Hi there! I found these super cute looking Positively Fruity Body Washes at my local Poundland the other day. The tubes were sealed, so I couldn’t have a sniff. But they looked so cute I just had to have them! I found three fragrances – Smells Like Sunny Strawberries, Smells Like Wild Cherries, and Smells Like Tropical Showers.

Before I tell you about the fragrances, let me mention a few things the three body washes have in common: I think they’re quite thin. So be careful to avoid spilling them all over the place. I had to place the tubes in the corner in my shower – upside down! Oh, and the screw lids aren’t very practical…

What I love about these body washes is that they’re not drying at all. They’re gentle and they actually feel moisturising. But unlike some of the heavier shower creams (i.e. Dove), these body washes make me feel refreshed and clean. Thumbs up! And now let’s discuss the fragrances. 🙂

Smells Like Sunny Strawberries smells sweet and fruity – like sunny strawberries! I think the strawberry fragrance is quite authentic and not overpoweringly sweet. Very well done!

Smells Like Wild Cherries is my favourite of the three. It really smells of wild cherries. Again, very authentic. And much better than higher end products costing ten times as much. This one’s going to be a definite spring and summer beauty staple!

Smells Like Tropical Showers is sunny, sweet and tropical! It reminds me of gummy bears and jelly beans – minus the sugar. The coconut isn’t very noticeable (I think that’s great). All in all, a very nice and enjoyable fragrance!

Positively Fruity Body Washes are available as 200ml tubes for £1 each at Poundland. Now my local Poundland has more products from this range – bath salts, cosmetics bags and body lotions. I’ve now bought the body lotions as well, and I’ll try them shortly. So it won’t be long until I tell you what I think about the matching body lotions.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde