It's not me, it's you.

You know those products that everyone raves about when they first come out and  you are desperate to try but some perverse sense of not wanting to run with the herd prevents you from purchasing?  The ones where the praise is still being heaped on the product months after the launch and you hear stuff like "24 are bought every nano second" and you can't find a bad review any where?  If they are stocked in Boots sooner or later you are going to have just the right amount of points to hand and you start to toy with the idea of caving in and then the brand has a promotion where if you buy a full size one you get a mini one free and suddenly it's a no brainer.

And you want to love it, you really do.  Initially you pretend that it isn't failing at a very fundamental level, that it isn't doing the thing that your absolutely HG equivalent, that costs half the price btw, that you have re-purchased over and over again, until this last time - stupid, stupid - never, ever did.  You re-read the reviews to see if anyone else ever mentioned having similar issues and they didn't so you decide it must just be you.  Then you just get used to it.  Until one day, months later, you look in the mirror and you just decide it has to stop.  You can't keep pretending that it's not happening and that you don't hate it.  It's not working and no amount of wanting it to is going to help.  And you have to say good bye, so long, do one you over-priced, over-hyped peace of poo.

Never again will I wipe big panda rings of mascara off from under my eyes.  I'm going back to my first love, my HG mascara L'Oreal Telescopic.

So, Benefit They're Real I'm sorry, your dumped.  It's not me, it's  you.

So beauty fans, do you have a product that you're slogging on with that you know you need to dump but you just can't bring  yourself to do it yet?  Or have you dumped something that everyone else raves about and secretly wonder if actually it IS you?!  Spill the beans!

Shock horror! Drugstore hair products!!

My name is Debbie and I'm a hair product snob.  There I said it!  Personally if I ever find myself with a lump of cash that I don't need I am going to buy myself Frederic Fekkai Overnight Hair Repair which is £138.  OK, I probably wouldn't, but if that £138 really really was spare I'd be sorely tempted!

I have wanted to use Kerastase shampoo and conditioner for ever but always baulked at the price.  Then last year I managed to justify it on the basis that I was getting my hair cut every 4-6 months and colouring it at home.  I love Kerastase products and would happily use nothing else.  But I have had a complete change of heart regarding salon visits and my hair.  On April 18th I spent £50 on highlights and glossing (thats the nice way of saying they cover up your grey roots that would show between the hightlights).  Then yesterday I just had the "glossing" bit done and a tiny trim, £62, and whilst I was there I booked T-section highlights and glossing for 7th July which is going to be another £60 I'm guessing so I really, really can't justify my Kerastase habit any longer.  

Fortunately Em had a sample of L'Oreal EverPure in a magazine which I pinched.  I have to say I have been sort of drawn to this range since I first saw it.  Just in case you don't know here's what they say:
 Non-sulphate cleansing system. Indulgent care to help protect over-processed, frizzy hair.

Specifically designed for fragile and brittle hair, EverStrong Reinforcing & Vitality is a Reinforcing System that combines non-sulphate cleansing and conditioning care. The formulae are enriched with botanical rosemary and juniper oils. Hair looks shinier, smoother and protected. For extra care use L'Oréal Paris Hair Expertise EverStrong Shampoo with EverStrong Reinforcing & Vitality Conditioner and EverStrong Nourishing Intense Mask

I decided to try EverStrong because it seemed closest to the Kerastase range that I was using.  I have used it for the last week and whilst I don't think it tames the frizz quite as well as the Kerastase did, I think that given I bought the shampoo and conditioner for £9 together in Boots compared to a joint price for the Kerastase of £34.80, the difference isn't worth the additonal £25.90 - gad that's a Dior Extreme Addict lipstick right there, in case further justification were needed!  Considering this is sulphate free it works up a nice lather, it smells lovely, sort of herbal which, considering it contains rosemary and juniper oils is hardly surprising - mmm hair that smells of gin, quick squirt of Juniper Sling and I'm good to go!!  The biggest downside I have found is that with the Kerastase and a good blow dry - this takes me 20 mins and I don't stint on the products;  a smoothing gel, an anti split ends serum (see below!) and a squirt of Kerastase to thicken, the next morning I can "refresh" my hair, using EverStrong I really could do with starting from scratch again the next day, it just doesn't stay as frizz free as it does with the Kerastase.


As if all that weren't bad enough there's this:

 I know!!! Shocking isn't it.  TRESemme stuff.  My god who'd ever have thought it.  Tell you what though, this bloody stuff works!  It smells lovely, like sherbert sweets - covers up the ominpresent whiff of gin! - and it works.  I rub a couple of pumps through my wet hair before styling and then rub a single pump onto my hands and then lightly froof the ends of my hair once its dried and it really tames the frizz.  This costs a budget busting £5.99 and given the amount you need this could last me well into my 80's.

Big thanks btw to Claire of Jolie Laide Beauty Blog, whose review of EverStrong I read and who then answered my questions on twitter, she helped me to decide it was definitely worth trying, thanks Claire; my hair loves you, my wallet loves you, but more importantly my husband worships you and your frugal good sense!!

NOTD - L'Oreal Color Riche Beige Countess

This is one classy manicure!  Super work appropriate for anyone that's important to, one of the benefits of being self employed is that I can wear any colour nail varnish I like!  Some nudes can be pull out any of the pink tones in your skin, this one doesn't seem to do that on me and I completely love it.  There is a chance that I like this one most of all in fact.

Em and I are heading back to Boots on Friday, I have a fancy for a pale grey cream now, if anyone has picked up and blogged any of these please let me know, I'd love to see how some of the other colours look.

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Luminizer

I am an ad man's dream.  Saw this advertised on tv and had to have it. Didn't even bother to check whether it had been enhanced in post production, it was purple mascara and I really really wanted it.

Hauled Em off to Boots today and dithered over buying just the mascara or whether to get the eyeliner as well.  Em, who is clearly now the boss of me, refused to let me buy a liquid eye liner until I had proved to her that I could use it?! so I settled for just the mascara.

One thing I don't get with these mascaras and eye liners is the colour options; purple for hazel eyes makes sense I guess, green for brown, can see that working though would have thought blue was better but blue for blue eyes, have been told since I was tiny that was a total no-no.  Anyway, not sure why I was bothered as I was buying purple for my blue eyes and would not be dissuaded.

So got home, cleaned off my usual L'Oreal mascara which I love and had a go at applying the Million Lashes.  First lets talk about the brush.  It's hard plastic and sodding huge.  It's like applying your mascara with a hair brush.  I have very short, sparse lashes and nothing ever really makes them look long and lovely and this was no exception, unlike my usual mascara I had to do a couple of coats to have any effect at all; for all its size the brush doesn't apply very much mascara. 

Anyway I was doing all this in my usual subterranean lair so wasn't expecting to see beautiful, illuminated colour on my lashes, though it would have been nice.

When I came upstairs into day light my disappointment was huge.  £12 all but and I had basically bought a mascara with a brush I  don't like that looks no different in colour to my usual £9 one.  Perhaps if I was having regular retinal scans the colour would be seen by someone, but even then I doubt it.  

It wasn't until I smeared some onto a piece of white card that I could see the actual colour which to my eye looks much more of a brown shade than a purple, if I was being generous I might call it garnet but I am not.  So in essence a brown mascara for people with hazel eyes, total fail surely?

Em seems to think I'd be much better off with the Collection 2000 purple mascara, which someone I was chatting to on Twitter (@misspurplemakeup - or similar twitter name?) also suggested so might have to give that a whirl instead.

To sum up, if you have been sucked in by the advert save your money, add £6 to it and buy the new Benefit mascara that EVERYONE is raving about, could bloody kick myself that I didn't. 

Em and I spent ages trying to get a usable pic of the mascara on my lashes by the way, she kept vetoing them because I "looked ancient" and apparently I don't in real life!  My eyelids are so crepey I was a bit freaked out.  Em decided I needed a helping hand......

L'Oreal Prelightening Creme - test run

Have felt like a mad scientist all afternoon doing this, been great fun! First of all I cut two swatches of hair.


Then I made up a little of the L'Oreal Prelightening creme. Not as scary as I had thought, there is a bottle of liquid and you add the 2 sachets of powder and the tube of cream, shake and apply. I mixed a little of all three onto a plastic takeaway lid and mixed it with a drinking straw - such a professional!


I also decided to see what would happen if I just applied the Casting Creme Satin Blond semi-permanent to my hair as it is, so I mixed up a dollop using my tried and tested method.


I put a hair swatch in each and made careful note of the time.

Will put Toni & Guy out of business at this rate!

In the meantime I made Emily take some "before" photos for me. Much prefer the back view to the one from the front.


(thank god I decided to switch to smaller photos!) This one does nicely show off the unintentional graduation of hair colour and the nice grey line down my parting though!

After 20 mins I washed the sample that had been dunked in the colour and there was no discernible difference, as I had expected.

I checked the lightened sample at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mins. 60 mins is the maximum time and the results are pretty impressive. If you think orange hair is impressive.


Can you imagine if I was really stupid and had just decided to leave it at that?! Would look like I was supporting the Dutch all the way tomorrow night!


Side note - how come if I was trying to take a photo of my nail it would have been horribly out of focus? What is that all about?


Side by side with original hair colour swatch


Side by side again, this time up against Emilys' left boob - apparently showing them against a black background was vital, for some reason!

So, its orange. Fairly inevitable but doesn't mean it wont scare the bejaysus out of me when I do it for real in a mo!

Luckily I had anticipated that and had selected a Casting Cream colour that deals specifically with the problem of lightened hair looking "too warm" (they mean "orange").

So the poor little hair swatch now gets dunked in a freshly made up dollop of Blond Satin.

And ta-dah!

Blond! Its a really nice darkish beige/blond which looks a bit golden but not really orange.


This time my lovely assistant is Steve - look at the state of those hands!


Now bear in mind the lighter of these two has had an hour dunked in bleach and 20 mins in a colour that also contains hydrogen peroxide and has been rinsed and dried, no conditioner, it is in pretty amazing shape. I am seriously impressed with how soft and shiny it feels and I love the colour.

My only concern is that when I do it on my head it is likely to be very matt, one colour all over and so obviously home dyed, but there's no turning back now. Time to do the deed. Watch this space for the "after" photos...............

(oh god, I am feeling confident. That's GOT to be a bad thing, hasn't it? Wish me luck!)

Post Edit 2 hrs later....
I swear that was the most terrifying thing I have ever done in my life. What I hadn't allowed for was that not all my hair had the permanent colour on, so having gaily slapped on the bleach on tips and ends, leaving for a bit and then working through into roots it quickly became apparent that the re-growth section and the hair that had only had semi-perm colour on it was going to go waaaaaaaaaaay lighter, very, very, very quickly. In the end rinsed the bleach off after 45 mins and then was nearly sick when I looked in the mirror, the roots were totally bleached, no pigment at all, the 3 inches of semi perm had gone very light blond and the rest was orange, really really orange, more orange than the swatch had been and I couldnt leave the bleach on any longer otherwise the top 3 inches were going to be white and the rest orange and the semi-perm Casting Creme wouldnt be able to match it up. Vile moment, hands shaking so much putting on the casting creme and to be honest it was only when it was dry and finish that my heart stopped pounding. It is by no means perfect and I suspect the roots are going to look awful when they start showing, which is likely to be tomorrow! But for now I think I got off lightly - at one point I seriously thought I was going to have to have 6 inches cut off my hair.

Now I need a really, really bloody massive drink, if you will excuse me!
From this:


to this:


Extra Post Edit: Can you hair colour intensify over night? I woke up on Sunday looking like a ginger tom cat - really quite scary marmalade coloured hair. Of course guest house was rammed so had to do breakfast like it but then made rushed trip to Boots, decided on Perfect 10 Medium Ash blond, thank goodness it seems to have worked and has reduced the orange to manageable levels - its chucking it down or I'd do a further photo update. Just shows the quality of stuff these days though, my hair isn't in any worse condition than when I started all this, which is frankly nothing short of a miracle!

TWIHMBL - First ever POS awards!

Gad, sorry its been ages! Loads going on here and I we have "tightened our belts" as husband is fond of saying so beauty splurging has become a thing of the past - might have to change the name of this blog to frugalista beauty! Did splurge a whole £2.95 on a Barry M Cyan Blue nail varnish on Saturday and had it not been grey and flaming miserable since would have had some pics of that, might do a couple anyway and use the magic of Lightroom to make them bright and lovely! That said the £2.95 spend was shortly before the £50 Toni and Guy hair cut, but that's not a splurge that is an essential, as husband is not so fond of hearing! That said think my hairdresser was not really in the mood this time, the cut is good it just lacks that certain something that it gets when he is buzzing, and I think I do mean "buzzing" quite literally!! No photos of that as hair comes with face and frankly no one needs to see that!

OK onto the POS awards. Leanne nominated L'Oreal Perfect Clean foaming gel wash, but not the "scrublet" that comes with it, on the basis that it is very drying.

Fran nominated waxing strips, any and all. On the basis that they hurt like a bitch without actually achieving anything - all the hairs are still there it's just the skin you have just ripped off that's missing!

Emily nominated L'Oreal Sublime Bronze self-tanning gel, tinted and shimmering because it burnt her skin. Quite literally red, sore burnt skin, like sun burn but without the pleasure of laying under a swaying palm sipping a cold drink to get it.

I nominated the Philips Lady Shave, in a fit of pique to be fair! I had bought one for £15 from Boots, used it once with satisfactory results and then when I used it again for a tidy up it didn't do anything, so I assumed that maybe the re-growth was still too short. Left it and tried again and again, in the end I looked like a yeti and this particular pos was refusing to do anything. I have since taken it back to Boots and exchanged it, so far so good so will keep you posted!

Well, for my money the winner is - everything. Anything that we spend our hard earned on that doesn't live up to expectations deserves this very special honour! If you buy anything beauty related that stinks please let me know and I'll pass it on.