Mybeautywaxstash

Tag: haircare

  • Products I Bought & Used In The Month of August

    Its officially September! For me? I’m happy about this. Kids go back to school, routines can come back into play and we drift into my favourite time of the year…autumn! But as a month, how was August in regards to budget friendly products I bought and used?

    Impulse’s Wide Awake Sapphire Fragrance Mist

    A body mist I managed to grab at an amazing low price, but I found Impulse’s Wide Awake Sapphire Fragrance Mist to be great mist scent wise but poor strength and longevity. Not a product I would buy again. It didn’t last long and was too subtle. But I would happily try other scents in this range in the future.

    Wide Awake Sapphire Fragrance Mist by Impulse
    Frozen Lemonade Wax Melt From Wickford & Co

    An ideal wax melt to use during summer, Frozen Lemonade Wax Melt From Wickford & Co was really enjoyable to use. Fruity, energising and not the usual tropical scents that is pushed out for this time of year. A typical low priced but good quality product available in Home Bargains.

    Wicford & Co’s Frozen Lemonade Wax Melt
    L’Oréal’s Hyaluron Expert Eye Serum

    Anyone that has issues with their under eye area and wants to address it, will try many different eye products to deal with the problem. My current eye product is L’Oréal’s Hyaluron Expert Eye Serum which is very different from products I’ve used before. The serum applicator acts as a massage tool! It’s a pricey product (of course, I didn’t pay the rrp!), but a product I enjoy using morning and night and I THINK it’s helping slightly!

    L’Oréal’s Hyaluron Expert Eye Serum
    Superdrug’s Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo 

    First time I’ve used Superdrug’s Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo and it will be the last. Of course, I will use the bottle up, not wasting it! I didn’t find this shampoo was right for my hair. Cleaned scalp? Yes. Cleaned hair? Yes. Enjoyed using it? No.

    Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo by Superdrug
    ASDA’s Wellness Awaken Wax Melt

    Not only do I love a reduced priced product, I love it when it turns out to be really good! ASDA’s Wellness Awaken Wax Melt is a beautifully fragranced wax melt which is a great combination of eucalyptus, tonka bean and vanilla. Great scent, nicely packaged but longevity needs a little improvement.

    Awaken Wax Melt

    All of the above products I bought (at different times and months) and used in August, and all were bought at very affordable prices. Some products I liked, some I didn’t. But I know what I would repeat purchase and avoid in September!

  • Is Superdrug’s Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo A Good Buy?

    Hair is a very personal thing. Its more of a minefield buying hair care products than skincare products. Why? Because hair comes in different textures, forms, lengths, conditions and people do various things to it to change the structure and look of it. As someone who has afro Caribbean hair, I’ve always grown up to think I can’t grab any shampoo and conditioner on the shelf to use. And that’s not wrong! Thankfully the market now is much more accommodating to this type of hair with much more products available to buy than 5, 10, 15 years ago. I recently tried Superdrug’s Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo. But did I like it?

    Superdrug’s Coconut Clarifying Shampoo
    Who is this shampoo for?

    Superdrug’s Coconut Oil Clarifying Shampoo comes from a range of products designed for tight textured, coily and curly hair types. So that can include my hair type, right up to someone with bouncy, loose curls. There isn’t much more information to say what this shampoo will do to the hair, except it shouldn’t strip the hair but effectively cleanse it. With the word ‘clarifying’ in its name I would assume it should focus on making sure the scalp and hair is clean and remove any residue or build up or products possibly used on it.

    Cost

    This costs £5.00 for 400ml, but regularly is on some form of offer. I bought this when it was 3 for 2, which is the promotion it tends to be on most of the time. For anyone that buys products from black hair care ranges, you will know that they’re a lot more expensive than £5.00. Rrp of shampoos for my type of hair, when not on any discount or promotion, can be around £9.00 plus mark.

    Packaging

    This shampoo comes in a standard, flip top plastic bottle. It looks like it’s a part of an own brand of Superdrug, and doesn’t look massively eye catching, but on a practical level does the job. What IS important is on the label it shows a basic illustration of what your hair pattern should look like to use this, which is very helpful.

    Fragrance

    This has a sort of coconut, tropical smell to it but it’s not a natural one. Quite synthetic, not awful, but for me not massively enjoyable. It’s fine, not great and thankfully not too strong.

    Look & consistency

    Liquid but not too loose. This looks cloudy in appearance e.g not transparent, with a shine. Easy to pour and use as it’s not too thick. Very much like most shampoos when it comes to consistency.

    In use

    With most shampoos they don’t really start taking to my hair until wash number 2. Wash one, it doesn’t foam up too much, my hair resists being wet and lathered! By wash two, the foam is coming through the hair and I can get on with washing it. I wash my hair at least a good 3 to 4 times. Excessive? Not really. With the amount of hair I have, it’s thickness and the fact my type of hair doesn’t get washed every day, I need to be thorough!

    The fragrance I didn’t love and I didn’t hate it. It was ok. But I’ve personally smelt better.

    I found my hair felt clean while washing it, but got tangled up quite easily. And I didn’t get that nice, clean feel to it. Clean? Yes. But something about my hair didn’t have that lovely feel to it. Hair and scalp were clean, but after finishing what felt like a hundred washes, it just lacked softness. And I really felt I needed to throw on conditioner to make it feel moisturised.

    Would I buy this again?

    No. And the reason for this is it wasn’t moisturising or nourishing enough for my hair. It did the basic job. But for someone who has hair in twists for a good number of weeks, I need every wash to feel moisturising and this didn’t. I wanted to give this a go to see what it was like and I did. But I’m going back to Black Castor Shampoo as this gave my hair everything it needed.

  • My First Time Using Superdrug’s Black Castor & Shea Shampoo & Conditioner

    Having multiple people in a household means the need to restock certain items. Face wash, deodorants, shower gels, all essential items that my family use regularly. One duo of products that I noticed I needed to replace recently was shampoo and conditioner (we all use the same products to wash our hair). The shampoo I originally wanted to buy in Superdrug wasn’t available at the price I wanted to pay. So I opted for their own brand of Black Castor & Shea Cleansing Shampoo and Hydrating Conditioner. So what were they like?

    Superdrug’s Black Castor & Shea Shampoo and Conditioner
    Who is this suitable for?

    This range of products is formulated for people who have coily and curly hair, which will include afro Caribbean hair (which is my hair type). So from lose curls to the tightest is what Black Castor & Shea Shampoo & Conditioner is perfect for.

    What do these products aim to do?

    Black Castor & Shea Cleansing Shampoo is designed to clean hair and scalp and remove any product build up gently. Scalp and hair should look and feel clean without being stripped. The conditioner helps moisture and treat the hair after washing.

    Packaging

    Both products are housed identically in pink plastic bottles with black labelling and flip top lid. These really do stand out and drew my attention to them by how they looked while I was in store. What I liked about the label on these products is it showed by a simple illustration what kind of hair types would benefit from using these products. Very useful and simple to understand.

    Texture, consistency & look

    Both of these products surprised me by being orange in colour. The shampoo had a more fluid consistency to it and the conditioner more thicker, where it had hold when poured out of it’s bottle. Both products were smooth and shiny in consistency and look.

    Fragrance

    The scent of these haircare products I would describe as smelling sweet, almost caramel like. Very comforting, not sickly or too strong but very nice.

    Washing my hair

    It’s normally on the second wash that my hair really takes on any shampoo, but with this shampoo it was on the third wash. The first two washes it didn’t lather up much but on the third the lather was insane, creamy and plentiful. On each wash I could see the dirt coming out of my hair and it started to feel really clean. But on the third wash this was when I really felt the shampoo was being effective. My hair had that clean feel to it, didn’t tangle up and wasn’t difficult to manage.

    Using the conditioner

    I covered my scalp and hair with the conditioner and left it on for around 10 minutes and rinsed it off. My hair still felt clean but lightly moisturised and treated.

    Overall, once I checked my hair and my scalp both looked and felt clean. No dry scalp, no flakiness, which sometimes I have. Both looked like they were in great condition. Was I happy with the end result? Yes I was!

    Recommended?

    I was a little sceptical about this hair care duo. I’ve been using a specific brand of shampoo and conditioner which works well especially on afro Caribbean hair. So I was unsure whether I would like these products or not. BUT, these did everything they promised. Black Castor & Shea Cleansing Shampoo gently but effectively cleaned my hair AND scalp without stripping it. The conditioner moisturised and treated the hair. Not only were these products great on my hair I enjoyed using these products too, so I totally recommend these if your hair type is right for this range.

    The shampoo retails for £5.99 and the conditioner £4.99, but I bought these on a buy one get one half price promotion. Great products and great prices!

  • Is This Rosemary Hair Oil For £1.99 Any Good?

    A buzz ingredient in haircare products is rosemary oil. It’s reported to help with hair growth, improve and maintain healthy hair and keep the scalp in good condition. No wonder products that are promoted to be rosemary oil based are so popular! But they can be expensive too, with some well known brands selling their rosemary hair oil for up to £11.00. So curiosity got the better of me when I saw Rosemary Infused Scalp & Hair Oil in Home Bargains costing £1.99 for 100ml. I bought it, tried it, so what is it like?

    Rosemary Infused Scalp & Hair Oil
    Packaging

    This hair oil comes in a dark tinted, plastic bottle. It has a pipette applicator and the labelling on the bottle gives the product a ‘natural’ look to it. Overall, Rosemary Infused Scalp & Hair Oil is packaged in a practical and easy to use way. It also looks very appealing and more expensive than the £1.99 it’s being sold for.

    Ingredients

    Some of the ingredients included are:

    Castor seed oil, soya bean oil, rosemary leaf oil, jojoba oil, eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil and sage oil, to name a few.

    Consistency

    As you can imagine this is oil like, but almost clear in colour. It’s not particularly thick, its actually quite runny and thin. In the hands it’s a light weight oil, not too greasy or oily in feel.

    Fragrance

    I expected this to be strong in smell considering it’s ingredients. It’s quite a soft scent, but clearly a scent is there. There’s a freshness to it in the form of a cooling mint type ingredient. Herbal with a touch of an antiseptic edge. It’s a nice smelling product that despite it’s ingredients doesn’t blow your nose off.

    In use

    I have Afro-Caribbean hair, which means my hair is made up of super tight curls. My hair naturally is thick and coarse. This type of hair loves oils and balms because it can quickly dry out and be very brittle. I dab a decent amount of the oil onto my scalp, focusing on areas where my hair doesn’t seem as full. I also rub a small amount into the rest of my hair as well.

    This oil sinks into my scalp and hair well and quickly. It’s light weight, so doesn’t leave my hair feeling too greasy, heavy and provides enough of a treatment for my scalp. BUT my hair type, and my scalp, would probably benefit more if this was thicker and greasier which would leave it more hydrated for longer.

    Recommended?

    This is a nice oil filled with a lot of good ingredients. It’s packaged well, good size and the fragrance is the perfect strength. This would be good for people who want to add a slight shine to their hair or a light treatment on the scalp or hair. So yes, I would recommend this, it’s a good product at a great price. But if you have hair like mine, you may find it doesn’t delivery as much of a treatment as you need, and you may need to alternate with a different, thicker oil.

    Has this made my hair grow or any other miraculous events occur? No it hasn’t. But would I expect anything less when I’ve only used it a few times a week over a month? For what it is and how much it costs it’s still worth a buy.