Favourite products - Haircare

After doing my post on products which I regret buying I thought it would be a good idea to show you all which products I love and repurchase time and time again. I've split these posts up into categories so today it's the turn of haircare.

Lee Stafford Poker Straight Flat Iron Protection Shine Mist - £5.89 (200ml)

I've bought this for as long as I can remember, simply spray onto wet or dry hair before styling and it protects against heat damage.

Lee Stafford Poker Straight Glistening Straightening Balm - £6.19 (75ml)

I struggled to find a price for this on the internet but I think it's about £6.19. Again I've bought this for years and you rub a small amount of product into your damp hair before drying it and it gives it shine, sparkle and lovely straight hair!

Boots Essentials unperfumed natural hold hairspray - £1.62 (450ml)

Simply the best hairspray I've used. I try other brands but always go back to this one. It's non-sticky, lasts all day and brushes out easily.

Avon Advanced Techniques Oxygenating Scalp Treatment - £5.00 (150ml)

This is now discontinued but a similar product has taken it's place which I've yet to buy. I use this to help control the eczema on my scalp and it does. It's a mousse like product and I used 2 pumps and apply to my scalp before drying my hair.

Batiste dry shampoo - £2.35 (150ml)

I first bought this when I went to uni as I thought it might be quite useful for if I get up late and don't have time to wash my hair. Needless to say that was 5 years ago and I love it even more! It's a saviour for my slightly greasy hair and refreshes it in no time at all!

So there we have it my most purchased haircare products. Are there any which you swear by? If so pop them in the comments below!

Stockists

Lee Stafford, Boots Essentials -  Boots

Batiste - Boots and Superdrug

Avon Advanced Techniques - Avon

Review - Lee Stafford Argan Oil

There seems to be a boom in products which contain Argan Oil at the moment but what is Argan Oil? Well it comes from Morocco and is extracted from the Argan Tree. It is used in lots of cosmetic and beauty products including hair care, skin care and nail care. 

A while ago my hair was really dry as it's getting to the point where it needs cutting badly but I can't decide what to have done so I found this little bottle of Argan Oil from Lee Stafford.

This 50ml bottle contains a Pro-Argan complex which helps to create soft, shiny hair which helps to improve it's condition without any product build up. It can be applied to wet or dry hair and only a few drops are needed.

I've been using this everytime I wash my hair, which is every other day, and from the first use I noticed an improvement. My hair is soft, smooth, manageable and most importantly it is in great condition. Yes I still have split ends but they aren't anywhere near as dry as they were. I will continue to use this until it's all gone & then without a doubt I'll re-purchase.

Has anyone else used any Argan Oil products? Is there anything you would recommend?

Oh and this is £11.99 and available from Boots.

Haul - ASOS, Boots & Glamour mag

This is just a quick haul post showing some things which I've bought over the last couple of weeks.

ASOS

Like many of you I bought the ASOS Groupon a couple of weeks ago, well actually I bought two. This was were you bought a £20 voucher for £9, it would have been rude not to have bought any! So what did I buy?

Nip + Fab Bust Fix - £16.25

Nip + Fab Tummy Fix - £19.25

Bourjois cleansing wipes - £3.50

Models Own nail polish in Disco Mix - £5.00

Boots

I popped into Boots to get some toothpaste but ended up with a few more bits!

White Glo - £4.07

Sensodyne repair & protect - £3.99 (I think!)

Colgate sensitive pro-relief - £3.56

And they are on 3 for 2 so I got the Colgate one free!

Sure Crystal clear diamond - £1.44

Lee Stafford Argan Oil - £7.99 (normally £10.99)

Nivea Pure & Natural hand cream - £2.03 (normally £3.05)

Nivea Pure & Natural face cream - £3.40 (normally £5.10)

Revlon nail polish in Ocean Breeze - £6.26 (or 2 for £8, me and my mum got one each)

No7 mens Multitask hair and body wash - £2 with my £5 off voucher

No7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour brush- £1.75 with my £5 off voucher

Glamour magazine

I have only tried Clinique twice before and have to admit I wasn't impressed but I did like their liquid soap. So when I went on a hen weekend last week I needed a mini face wash & my local Asda had had a new delivery of Glamour mags so I got two, one with the liquid soap and one with the all about eyes cream.

Liquid soap - £13 (200ml)

All about eyes - £22.50 (15ml)

Have you tried any of these? What did you think? And have you had a spending spree lately? Link the page in the comments below for me to have a nosey!

What I did with my Soap & Glory OOTW...

As mentioned in a previous post, here, I used my Soap and Glory OOTW from Boots as a storage bag for my new beauty products which I want to use after I've used my hoard up. I thought I'd do a quick post to show what exactly is in it.

Overview of my bag

Sanctuary goodies from another OOTW

Dead Sea Source products

Soap & Glory products:

Glad Hair Day shampoo x2

Glad Hair Day conditioner

iFoam shower gel

Butter Deluxe body butter

Heel genius foot cream

Scrub your nose in it x2

Hand Food

More Soap & Glory:

Clean Mary (mini)

Catch a Wrinkle (mini)

Flake Away scrub

Breakfast Scrub

Off Your Face wipes x3

Girligo moisturising body mist (mini)

Fab Pore mask x2

Hand Food (1 full size & 1 mini)

Clarity face soap

Clear Here moisturiser

Sexy Mother Pucker lipgloss

Naked shine shampoo

Naked Detox shampoo and conditioner

Naked Sensitive shampoo and conditioner

Naked Coco de Mer body wash

Lee Stafford grow faster mask

Lee Stafford big fat texturised hair spray

Sally Hansen kwick off nail polish remover

Bomb Cosmetics bath bombs

I'm excited to used all of these but as my challenge of my product use up post said I'm going to use up all of my 'old' products before I'm going to start on these. It's a little incentive for myself!

Did you manage to get one of these Soap & Glory bags? What are you using it for?

Review - Lee Stafford blow dry faster spray

Currently Boots are giving out £2 off professional haircare when you spend a certain amount in store (not sure how much) so I thought I would try the Lee Stafford blow dry faster spray which I had been eyeing up for a while.

Like it's name suggests it's meant to enable you to dry your hair faster and as my hair is really thick and holds loads of water I thought this could be my wonder product. I was wrong.

It suggests you spray this onto your hair before combing it through but I comb my hair, towel dry it and then spray it on.

Normally I wait 30 mins before drying my hair because it's just too wet and takes forever but one day this week I vigorously towel dried my hair and then dried it straight away. This took me 4 minutes. When I washed my hair the next 3 times I used the spray but there was little difference in drying time, either 3 or 4 minutes.

The only good thing about this spray is that it left my hair really soft and manageable which it normally isn't if I've dried it straight after washing it.

This is £5.99 for a 200ml bottle and with £2 off is quite a good buy but would I repurchase? No, not even with money off. I will continue to use it just because it makes my hair lovely and soft but that's the only reason why.

My most repurchased products

This is another request from my blog giveaway. This post is going to feature my most repurchases make up and haircare products.

Make-up

Back row:

• No 7 Shine Free make up base - I use this on my forehead and chin to elevate shine, the secret behind this product is less is more!
• Collection 2000 clear mascara - I do need a new one of these as you can tell from the colour! I like clear mascara because I don't want to wear mascara everyday so this just adds a little definition to your lashes

Front row:

• L'Oreal True Match powder - I use this over the shine base on my forehead and chin to prevent shine
• Benefit Boi-ing concealer - This is the best concealer ever! I use it to cover my under eye circles but it is anti-bacterial so it's perfect for spots
• Benefit Lemonaid - This is a yellow colour correcting eye primer. I use this under my concealer to try to neutralise the colour of my dark circles and I wouldn't be without it
• Benefit Powderflage - This is a light pink powder concealer. I use this over my concealer to set it and it also helps to brighten my under eye area. It does come with a brush but I find it easier to apply with my finger

Hair care

• Avon Advanced Techniques Oxygenating Scalp Treatment - This has now been replaced with a different product. I have eczema on my scalp just behind my hairline near my face and after I've washed my hair I use a couple of pumps of this to rub onto the problem area and dry my hair as usual. It definitely helps to elevate my eczema, I just hope the replacement product is as good!
• Batiste dry shampoo - I use this every night before I got to bed to absorb any oil which is produced whilst I'm sleeping. The reason I use this at night is because my hair is dark brown, this product is white. I sometimes got a little OTT with spraying this on which leaves me with a bad greying hair effect after! Not good!
• Lee Stafford Poker Straight Flat Iron Spray - I use this before blow drying and before straightening to protect my hair from any heat damage
• Lee Stafford Poker Straight Glistening Balm - I rub a little of this onto my hair before blow drying to protect against heat damage and it does give it a slight shimmer as it is a glistening balm

Do you use any of these? What are your most repurchased products?

Product Awareness: Parabens and SLS

A few years ago I saw a program on TV (sorry I can’t think of it’s name or who presented it) and it was about what we put in our bodies by using beauty products. It did talk about fluoride and things like that but then went on about parabens. I had never heard of these before in my life and was very shocked at how harmful they can be.

This post is going to hopefully explain in the simplest terms possible about ‘bad’ things in beauty products so here it goes....!

Parabens.

There are many different parabens and common ones begin ‘methyl, butyl, ethyl, isobutyl, propyl’ paraben. Health risks include:

• Cancer
• Allergies/immunotoxicity
• Endocrine disruption (hormones responsible for bodily functions)
• Organ system toxicity
• Neurotoxicity (harm to brain or nervous system)
• Irritation (eyes, skin, lungs)
• Developmental/reproductive toxicity

By having effects on the endocrine system parabens mimic oestrogen, which is a female hormone, and there is research to indicate a link between this and breast cancer. Which product do you use near your breast everyday? Deodorant. This also has an effect on men as they shouldn’t have oestrogen in their bodies and as a result some men have been found to have a low sperm count.

But checking your products isn’t necessarily easy by looking for ‘paraben’ as they are sometimes called something different. Common names for isobutylparaben are:

• BENZOIC ACID
• 4-HYDROXY-
• 2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER
• 4-HYDROXYBENZOIC ACID
• 2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER
• ISOBUTYL P-HYDROXYBENZOATE
• ISOBUTYL PARAHYDROXYBENZOATE
• PARAHYDROXYBENZOIC ACID
• ISOBUTYL ESTER
• 2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER BENZOIC ACID
• 4-HYDROXY-
• 2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER 4-HYDROXYBENZOIC ACID
• ISOBUTYL ESTER PARAHYDROXYBENZOIC ACID
• 4-HYDROXY- 2-METHYLPROPYL ESTER BENZOIC ACID
• SODIUM ISOBUTYLPARABEN
• BENZOIC ACID
• 4HYDROXY
• 2METHYLPROPYL ESTER

But it is also important to remember that parabens also naturally occur in some food but like everything in life in moderation these are ok but when they’re in everything you use it’s not that good.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).

SLS is a detergent and is found in many beauty products as well as many cleaning products (in a much higher concentrate). It could cause:

• Cancer
• Developmental/reproductive toxicity
• Restrictions and warnings
• Irritation (skin, eyes, lungs)

I had seen that this was also listed as an ingrediant on my toothpaste and when doing research for this post I found out that SLS in toothpaste can cause an increase in ulcers and sores in the mouth. Eeek!

With all this in mind Im trying to use up all my ‘old’ beauty products in the hope of finding new paraben and SLS free products. So I have a number of products which I love and am currently using so thought it would be interesting to see if these contain parabens and SLS. I’m going to do this as follows: (I (ingrediants): amount. P (parabens): amount. SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate): amount) % of ingredients which are ‘bad’ stuff. Hopefully it’ll look simpler than it sounds here!

L-R:

• Body Shop banana shampoo (I: 24. P: 5. SLS: 1) 25%
• L’Occitane red rice cleanser (I: 28. P: 0. SLS: 1) 3.5%
• Avon Senses shower gel (I: 18. P: 0. SLS: 1) 5.5%
• L’Occitane citrus verbena shower gel (I: 25. P: 0. SLS: 1) 4%
• Body Shop seaweed toner (I: 23. P: 4. SLS: 0) 17%

L-R:

• No7 Perfect and Protect lip cream (I: 32. P: 2. SLS: 1) 9%
• Batiste dry shampoo (I: 8. P: 0. SLS: 0) 0%
• Lee Stafford flat iron protection spray (I: 25. P: 5. SLS: 0) 20%
• Lee Stafford poker straight glistening balm (I: 26. P: 5. SLS: 0) 19%
• No7 Lift and Luminate eye cream (I: 37. P: 5. SLS: 0) 13%

So a quick summary, the product which contains the highest percentage of ‘bad’ stuff is Body Shop’s banana shampoo and the product which contains the least is Batiste dry shampoo.

Why don’t you check out what’s in your beauty products, you could be suprised!

Tomorrow I’m doing a follow up post to this so check back then!

PLEASE NOTE: THESE INGREDIENTS HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED SAFE TO USE AND THERE IS NO CAST IRON EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST OTHERWISE. THIS POST SHOULD ONLY BE USED AS A GUIDE ABOUT WHAT YOUR PRODUCTS CONTAIN.

Websites which helped me:

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/FreeBuyersGuides/healthbeauty/deodorants.aspx

http://www.health-report.co.uk/parabens.htm

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com