Favorite Hair Products!

As you might remember from my videos, I mention that I am not a big fan of hair styling products, I like treatments, heat protection, and oils. I have been trying to grow my hair long and strong for 3 years now and am finally achieving what I want. I made the big mistake of going blonde last summer just out of curiosity and DUH my hair went dry and eternally frizzy. Keeping up the trims to make sure I get rid of any split ends and finally back to brunette.

Here are the products I use the most:

Shampoo & Conditioner: Lee Stafford's Hair Growth Shampoo & Conditioner both on the pricier side considering they are both 200ml bottles, I always make sure I buy these at Boots while there is an offer and throw in the Hair Growth Treatment. My total would be over £20 but Boots always puts out a beauty offer of 3 for the price of 2 at least once every other month and you can save up to £7! There's nothing wrong with trying to be thrifty. And because I WASH wash my hair a max of 3 times a week, I tend to use all 3 products together. First the shampoo, then I apply the treatment to my roots and the conditioner to my end and leave those 2 in until I'm done with the rest of me :P

After showering I like to put in a leave in conditioner/detangler/heat protectant. I haven't seen this one sold anywhere in the UK but I get it at Walmart.com. It's a 10 Miracle Leave-In Conditioner. I had read about this leave in conditioner on several blogs, read dozens of reviews on it and now that I have been using it over a month now I can give you my honest opinion. I like it and plan on repurchasing over and over again. I have to say I didn't expect it to make my hair miraculously beautiful from one day to the next or go super model shiny... However I do like the fact that it detangles, it is a heat protectant and it doesn't leave a gooey residue like some leave-in conditioners do.

After this process, I either let my hair air dry or half air dry and then go in with the blow-dryer for as little time as possible just to give me some volume and dry the rest of my hair. I could just count the leave-in conditioner as a heat protectant but I always go in with a little extra help. At the moment I use 2; Ganier's Anti-Frizz Serum which contains Morrocan oil and apricot oil. Not a hug fan of this one, it does help my hair dry even faster but if you get carried away by a little bit you end up with oily hair. My other heat protectant... well I just can't find anything negative to say about it! Redken's Smooth Lock Heat Glide. It smells delicious; I could not shut up about how sexy it smells, pretty sure my friend Helena hates me now because of it LOL. One and a half pumps is more than enough for my hair length and oh my, does it tame the frizz instantly!

And here are the products I use the least yet still would recommend:

Clear's Scalp & Hair Therapy Nourishing Oil. This I only use once every other month when I am doing the inversion method to help my hair grow. I massage it into my scalp for about 5 mins, leave it in for 2 hours and then shower. If you have straight or thin hair you might want to avoid this product, it's more for ethnic hair but I love it as a deep conditioning treatment and as a massage oil for my scalp.

BedHead's Ego Boost. This too is a leave-in conditioner that protects your hair from the elements (or so it says it has little to no description as to what it is protecting you from). It's said to be a split end mender which obviously I don't believe, does it smooth them out? Yes. I use this more as a freshen up from time to time because it smells pretty and yes it does smooth out your locks a bit. It's main use on my head; tame flyaways. I stopped using this after I started using my It's a 10! Leave-in conditioner.

IF! If I ever use hairspray (has to be a super special occasion AKA a ball or wedding) I use TRESemme's Tres Two if I'm looking for an updo. And bigsexyhair's Spray & Play if I'm going for voluminous loose locks. I tend to use these products more with my customers (I freelance hair, makeup & nails) along with this other product which I have never used on myself but it gives my customers the "texturized look" with a bit of hold; got2b's Beach Trippin Waving Spray.

And the extra: Charles Worthington's Style Setter Dry Shampoo. Does what it says on the tin and smells lovely. I have used it on both myself and customers to give a little MORE volume when needed.

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February Glossybox Unboxing

YAY! I actually love this month's box! I got the following products:

Maybelline ColorSensationals Stripped Nudes Lipstick. This one actually ticked me off, says so in the title "Nudes", and I as-well as all other girls subscribed to Glossy had to fill out a beauty profile where they ask you hair colour, skin tone, hair texture, etc. Yet I was sent a dark brownish plum lipstick. How is this a nude on my super light skin??? I'm pretty sure I ticked the "Fair Skin" box when I filled in my beauty profile!

ELDORA False Eyelashes. A s a person who ONLY uses false eye lashes when I go out to a proper nightclub (which is once every 4 or 5 months) I can't really say anything bad about these. They look a little too dramatic for every day wear but again I don't use falsies every day. They're perfect for going out. It's a perfect score for this one :) 

Toni&Guy Stick It Up Gum. Again... WTF Glossy? Google this product. It's meant for short hair/layered hair. I'm pretty sure in your beauty profile they ask you to describe your hair, if you prefer styling products or hair care products, the length (maybe, not sure about this one). I have LONG straight hair and I don't use styling products, I use oils, treatments, masks. I am trying to grow long healthy hair and you send me a moulding wax with hard hold. The cool thing was that it's actually a full size product... that sadly I'm never going to use. My boyfriend is deployed as-well so it's not like I can just give it to him for testing. Although now that I think about it, I might ship it to him in a care-box. 

Ciate Paint Pot in SOMTHING Chilli. The colour was lovely, this is actually my first Ciate Paint Pot. Downside; it looks like the product is old and has been in storage. I'm not saying for a very long time but nail polishes tend to have a 24 months shelf life. Now lets say it's been in storage for 10 months... it won't have the same consistency as a new Ciate nail polish yet for someone like me who had never tried Ciate before, I'm going to base my opinion on this product, I might not buy another Ciate varnish because I disliked the formula's consistency. The idea is to try new products we could very easily love and end up purchasing full sizes, right? 

NOUGAT LONDON Body Shimmer. Great smell, pretty presentation. Not so much shimmery, but I didn't mind that at all. I applied and reapplied several times to see if there was a "in your face" shimmery effect but there wasn't. I was please with this one.

Lindor Chocolate Bar. I'm not going to say anything negative about this... I love chocolate. 

The seem to have redeemed themselves this month after all the negative feedback they received. One negative thing I can say about this is the fact that unlike most companies; Glossybox takes the payment WAY ahead of time before even preparing the boxes for shipment. No w I don't know how common this is in the UK but other beauty boxes I've subscribed to in the past have never done that. Another thing was that February Glossybox was "Valentine's" themed, well guess what? I got my box on the 22 of February… nearly 10 days after Valentine's day, plus I never received my shipping confirmation email. 

The box looked beautiful, well designed, good sturdy materials but again… they just don't seem to understand that most of their customer's are getting very annoyed over the fact that you see most of their budget washing away on a cardboard box instead of the contents of it. And I too agree they should focus more on the quality of the contents than the quality of the box. 

That's my opinion on this month's Glossybox and I cannot stress enough that the company really needs to stop focusing on the pretty paper, so many year long customers are giving up and unsubscribing from Glossy due to this. 

Best of luck and keep your chin up girls :)