September + October favourites and empties

Double posting because I meant to post this bi-monthly favourites and empties earlier, but I wanted to get a review together to stuff in between. The stupid thing is that the reviews that are mostly complete, I don't have pictures for and the pictures I did take in a massive picture taking spree last month are mostly for as yet unwritten reviews, *sigh* for boss organisational skills. 

Favourites

Lady Jayne ‘smoothies’ hair ties

Lame ass name but these velvety hair ties that I was sent for beautyheaven trial team actually work really well. Because they’re covered in velvet (and because the elastic is tight and stiff) they grip hair really well and STAY in my hair all day. They’re kinda chunky tho so not great for smaller work, but if you want your hair out of your face for the day then these are perfect.

Empties

    So I chopped off my ponytail in September which meant that my hair was a lot shorter so I don’t have any hair empties this time (I definitely would have finished off my shampoo and conditioner otherwise) and I finished the giant bottle of bodywash I’ve been using (p.s. if you thought I went through a lot of shower gel based on my previous empties, I share that bottle with my cousin so yeah, 2 people can go through a lot of shower gel) a week into November, so I can’t include it either.

Natio eye contour treatment gel 

I have a review on this up already, so suffice to say it’s a good moisturiser and there’s a lot of product left in the tube. I started having problems squeezing much out at the start of September and I realised that was partly because there were cracks in the tube (after so long, and because I kept flattening the sides) so I couldn’t use air pressure anymore. So I squeezed the tube as flat as possible and squeezed all the gel I could possibly push out of the tube into a small tub with a twist lid. The total gel that came out lasted me like a month and a half, that’s liberal use + I used it to mix with tea tree oil to treat pimples.

Polished London dry shampoo in Blightly Brunette review

Today's review is on another dry shampoo . . . as you can tell from the title.

taken from Priceline website

    These are the cheapest dry shampoo (by size) in Priceline and I really wanted to try them especially since they clearly had 3 colours instead of just light and dark hair. However I hesitated as it was a large can and I didn’t want to get such a large can of dry shampoo when I wasn’t sure if I wanted dry shampoo at all. So after being unimpressed by Cedal dry shampoo for dark hair, I bought blighty brunette because I have almost black hair, so the normal ones were unlikely to match. 


    The colour of this dry shampoo was a good darkness, though a tiny bit light for my hair, it would probably suit most brunettes. I would say the colour was neutral to cool, though one of the reasons I noticed polished London dry shampoos was because they had a dry shampoo for red shampoo, so if you have auburn hair you have that option instead of blightly brunette. 

    In terms of what dry shampoo is actually meant to do this one was about the same as the Cedal dry shampoo for me though. It didn't get rid of the oily feeling and didn't add lift. If I sprayed a little it didn't do anything, and if I sprayed a lot, my roots would feel slightly sticky. I did feel like it got rid of the greasy feeling when I’d sprayed to the point of stickiness, but why swap one uncomfortable sensation for another? Unlike the Cedal one, I really didn't like the smell of the Polished London dry shampoo; I don't know how to describe it, it was just one of those weird chemical smells that your nose instinctively wrinkles at, not like cleaning chemical smells but more like "what is that funk?!". Thankfully the smell didn't really cling to my hair, but it stayed in the bathroom air for more than an hour. 

    Another thing is that for such a seemingly large bottle this dry shampoo lasted about as long as my mini Cedal bottle i.e. not very long (I don't use dry shampoo regularly so I can't really give an estimate).

    I’d recommend this dry shampoo to people who want that grit/stickyness in their hair for better styling (apparently, as my hair type isn't the kind that benefits from grit). Sharon Farrell on Youtube for example listed this product in one of her monthly favourites for that reason and I suspect that this would best work if you have soft, fine (as in thin), not shiny hair, a bit like cotton. I’ve only seen this hair type among Caucasians, and since my hair is nothing like that, (thicker individual strands, naturally smooth) this product does nothing for me and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with a hair type similar to mine.

Effectiveness: 4/10

Feel: 4/10

Packaging: 6/10

Cedal dry shampoo for dark hair review (mini bottle)

    Today’s review is on the first dry shampoo I ever tried, a mini bottle of Cedal dry shampoo for dark hair. I didn’t really get the hype around dry shampoo, so I wanted to try some but I didn’t want to buy a full sized bottle in case it didn’t work for me so I bought a mini bottle of Cedal in Priceline for $3.99. 

picture from Priceline website because I dumped this last year

Garnier Fructis Fortifying shampoo and conditioner: Sleek and Shine 72H review

Now, onwards with the reviewing!

(I meant to put this one up before I started studying again but I got a bit lost as I'd never even thought of reviewing a haircare product before. Turned out to be a good thing as I had the time to do a little more research)

    Today’s review is on the sleek and shine shampoo and conditioner set from Garnier. This set is supposed to be for thick, dry and frizzy hair and claims to smooth hair as well as preventing frizz, static and humidity effects for 72 hours. The shampoo packaging claims the product provides “97% humidity resistance” and contains “strengthening Phyto-Keratin and argan oil”. The conditioner claims the same humidity resistance, but only contains Phyto-Keratin, not argan oil.