Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo

I’m always wary of new dry shampoos that come out onto the market; I had such a disaster with the Garnier Ultimate Blends ones that came out last year that I haven’t strayed too far from my old reliable Batiste. I thought I’d give these new Herbal Essences and see if they come up to my high dry shampoo standards.

There are 3 bottles in the new range – Ignite My Colour, Uplifting Volume and Clearly Naked. Each bottle has its own unique scent so you don’t just get fresh looking hair, it also smells fresh too – Ignite My Colour leaves you smelling like you’ve just stepped out of a salon.

Ignite My Colour is suitable for all kinds of coloured hair as it doesn’t leave your hair looking chalky like some other dry shampoos. I had seen it being used on Kathleen who has gorgeous dark locks and it sprayed on clear, not a hint of chalkiness at all.

Uplifting Volume definitely does was it says on the can. I would use one of the other two dry shampoos first though, I found that using one of the other bottles to take the initial greasy look out of my hair and spritzing the Uplifting Volume into my hair gave it that boost that you need, especially in the morning when your hair is flat as a pancake from your pillow. Think of this one as backcomb in a bottle.

I was drawn immediately to Clearly Naked and it’s my favourite out of the bunch. This one did make my hair go white when I sprayed it in but it disappeared once I combed it out, as I’ve blonde hair I can’t be too sure if it leaves any white residue in darker hair.

This picture was taken on Sunday; I hadn’t washed my hair since the Thursday so my hair was pretty rank and stuck to my head by that stage. I sprayed my hair with Clearly Naked, a little at a time, usually with my Batiste I’ll spray nonstop but with these dry shampoos it’s best to go slow and spray then massage in to your head and then spray a bit more. Once I’m done spraying I leave it in my hair for a minute or two just so any oils get soaked into the spray before I brush it out. My hair was still looking a bit flat so I popped a bit of the Uplifting Volume into it and it gave me my just the right amount of boost I needed.

I really liked these dry shampoos; they’re definitely up there with my favourite dry shampoo Batiste. The bottles come in two sizes and cost €1.99 to €3.99 (RRP) and can be found in all good stores and pharmacies.

*I attended the P&G Beauty Showcase a few weeks ago and was kindly gifted the new Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo range. If you’re a regular to my blog you’ll know that if I don’t like a product I will say it so if I really didn’t like these dry shampoos you’d know all about it!

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Reverse Hair Washing - Conditioner before Shampoo!!!

I'm an avid reader of the Daily Mail online and I have an addiction to the sidebar of shame, which I have no shame in admitting, my day wouldn't be complete if I didn’t know what every single Kardashian was up to!! Now they don't always get it right when it comes to some of their cookie articles but I think for one they have.

So a few weeks ago one article caught my eye - The Secret ofPerfect Hair! With a headline like that I had to give it a read and after I was pretty sceptical but I decided to try it anyway. Seemingly this craze is known as Reverse Hair Washing and it's a new thing sweeping beauty columns.

The first time I tried it was when I had a shower before work and I was in such a rush that I didn’t have time to was my hair properly or dry it. As a result my hair wasn’t that amazing that day.

I tried it again at the weekend seeing as I had more time. The last few weeks I've been noticing that my hair isn’t lasting very long after I’ve washed it. Usually after I've had my hair dyed it helps with my hair lasting an extra day or two but that hasn’t happened. I was contemplating getting a shampoo to clear any build up but I don’t think I'll be needing one now after the results from the Daily Mail article.

What I did was shampoo first, and then put my conditioner on which I usually massage deeply all over and then leave for a few minutes while I shower and exfoliate. So I washed the conditioner off and then shampooed, It's a bit odd to get your head around because usually I jump straight out of the shower once I wash any conditioner out.

I left my hair in the towel for a while and actually let it dry naturally, I only ever use my hairdryer if I'm in a hurry, but if I know I'm going to be at home all day I won't bother.

I didn’t notice the results until the next morning, after brushing and straightening my hair I found it was light, bouncy and full of volume! I was amazed with the results, usually my hair is flat and heavy and you can tell that there is still product in the hair and usually by that evening it will look like it needs another wash!

So this is going to be my new routine from now on. I'm so amazed with the results and my hair has lasted 3 days without needing to be washed, granted the 3rd day I had to use dry shampoo but I’d call that a result!

So give the article a read in the mail, The Secret ofPerfect Hair and give it ago and let me know what your results where.

And if you’re wondering what I used it was the Claudia Schiffer/Schwarkopf Essence Ultime Diamond Color shampoo and conditioner (try saying that ten times!)

March favourites

Hey Guys, I've been sorely lacking in the posts recently, it’s been a hectic week or so and hopefully I’ll be able to put up one or two posts extra this week.

So these are my March favourites, some of these products I purchased in February but I got the full use out of them for the whole of March and looking back over them they are all super affordable, I don't think I spent more than €10 on each of the products.

Starting off we have the Schwarzkopf Essence Ultime shampoo and conditioner created by Claudia Schiffer. They have a few different types of shampoos in this range; I got mine in Diamond Color which is for coloured and highlighted hair. Firstly it smells amazing, I can't put my finger on it but its noting like I've had in other hair products so that's bonus number one. The shampoo lathers so much, I also think that if it doesn’t lather then it’s not a proper shampoo, usually if I have one that doesn’t lather my hair always gets greasier quicker.

Now for my favourite part of this pair is the fact that it makes your hair super soft and it doesn’t knot at all. The knots just fall out even before you've put a comb through your hair.

I chose the shampoo and conditioner as over the years I’ve gone from blonde to brown to Cheryl Cole red to brown and back to blonde so my hair has been pretty damaged over the years and also with winter and being around heaters all the time my hair has dried out big time but the Essence Ultime shampoo and conditioner has brought life into my locks. I definitely recommend it if you have coloured hair.

This is my surprise favourite of the month which is the Rimmel BB cream matte foundation. I bought this in a 3 for 2 offer at Boots with a few other Rimmel products including their Stay Matte mouse foundation. I first tried the Stay Matte foundation and I really didn’t like it, you can see my review on that in one of my previous posts. But this foundation is really good, I’m not sure if the BB cream has any effect on the skin and it isn’t the most mattifying of foundations and they do have only 3 colours to choose from but apart from that I have fallen in love with it and have been using this foundation more than my MAC and the way my skin has been recently it's looking a lot nicer on my skin than the MAC has been. After using it for the month and getting to know it, I found that applying it with my fingers rather than using my brushes makes the application much better. The light colour is a shade or too darker than my pale Irish skin but I’ve managed to make it work for me with a super amount of blending.

Now I have the oiliest skin in the world and hate to have even a little bit of shine and at the beginning of using the foundation I was touching my skin up with powder a lot but after buying a mattifying powder it has worked perfectly with the foundation. The foundation does last throughout the day and it doesn’t dry out the skin I suppose that’s part of the BB cream in it. It’s a great little foundation, although it isn’t properly matte but I’ve found a way for it to work for me. It’s super cheap and great for days when you don’t want to waste the good stuff.

Just to add on, it’s a sheer makeup and not too buildable and it’s not the best if you want to contour with powders but as long as you just wear it as a normal makeup with a simple bit of blush then your good to go!

I was out one night and had forgotten to powder my face so I asked a friend if she had any, she handed me an Essence loose powder and after hours of dancing my skin was perfect. I was on a mission I went to every Penny's possible but they didn’t have it, but I kept seeing the same one only in a compact. I gave up and bought the compact. It works the exact same though, its translucent powder and really mattes the skin for hours. 

My final makeup March favourite is the Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves from Rimmel, I've done a blog post already on this one so you can read more of it on their. This was only launched a month or so ago but it has taken precedence over my other mascaras this month. What I love about this is the wand, it's a curved wand which I had never seen before and in one swipe it gets every lash and the tip gets every little bottom lash. It doesn’t clump and it stays on all day without losing any height. 

So this isn’t anything to do with makeup but I am in love with these two songs. All of me by John Legend and Magic by Coldplay, both of them are constantly on replay the last few weeks. I usually don't love Coldplay but I love this one and listening to John Legend got me listening to his Love in the Future album. I hope he comes to Dublin this year!

Only a small bit of March Favourites but I haven’t been allowed to spend that much this month.

Thanks for reading

Love Sarah xoxo