Sample Sunday - Glutton for Punishment

You may remember a few weeks ago I tried a Tresemme shampoo and conditioner and hated the shampoo in particular.  I then felt I had been a little unfair, as I had a mixed bag of comments - some people loved it and others hated it.  The reasons why I felt it was unfair, was because my hair was absolutely covered in products as I'd done my Burlesque hair the night before.  My hair was crisp with mousse, serum and super-strength hairspray.  My shampoo doesn't usually have to contend with this, so I was a bit harsh to judge the Tresemme one.

So when I was contemplating my Sample Sunday today, I spotted another sample of Tresemme shampoo (although a different one), and thought I would give it another go, in the interests of fairness.

This shampoo is designed specifically for blonds - I'm a die-hard brunette - but I didn't let that put me off.  I'm unlikely to emerge from the shower with golden locks from one sachet of shampoo am I.  The packaging says that it contains chamamile, not a scent I'm overly fond of.

So I used this Tresemme shampoo, and I still don't like it! It was better than the other Tresemme shampoo sample, but only marginally.  I found it difficult to foam, even though I used the entire sachet, I didn't like the smell - it smelt like chemically-enhanced chamamile - not nice.  At least the smell hasn't lingered.  This time, the shampoo didn't knot up my hair, which was a big improvement of the previous sample.  It rinsed out OK (considering it didn't really foam up), but my hair didn't feel in as good a condition as I would've liked, slightly dry and straw-like.  I used a deep conditioner to make my hair feel better.

I conclude that I don't like Tresemme shampoos, and I will be avoiding them in future.  They just don't work for me!

In a little update on my gushing praise for the Body Shop Vitamin E Night Cream I trialled last week, I'm still liking it.  But, I've found that it doesn't work as a day cream at all!  I wore it on Monday and Tuesday, and although my skin felt great, my makeup slid off, even using primer on Tuesday.  I also felt my skin was starting to have a mini break-out.  I switched to using it as a night cream only, and my skin has calmed.  I still love it, but only as a night cream.

Thanks for reading!  xx

Sample Sunday - More Vitamin E

Hello all.  Hope you're enjoying your Sundays.  I'm having a very lazy weekend, after not being very well during the week.  I had a bit of a nightmarish Friday where I went to London for a meeting which was cancelled, nearly started crying at London Bridge Station as I felt so poo, and then came straight back home to bed!  The annoying thing was, London Bridge is only a 10 minute train journey from my parent's house, and when you're ill, you sometimes just want your Mum to look after you.  But, my Dad has quite serious health issues, so we have to stay away when we're ill, so I couldn't even go and see them. I've not really done much since then other than try to catch up on sleep and relax, whilst doing bits and bobs around the house.

Anyway, today's Sample Sunday is Vitamin E Night Cream from The Body Shop.  If you remember my first post in the Sample Sunday series, I reviewed the Vitamin E Day Cream here, which I really disliked.  I felt it was not moisturing enough and it did nothing for my skin, even though it was summer at the time, when I can generally get away with less moisturiser.

However, I think completely the opposite about the Vitamin E Night Cream - I really like it.  I used it last night (it was 'technically' Sunday), and I've also used it this morning as a normal moisturiser.  It's a thicker consistency than the day cream, as you would expect, but it absorbs really well and doesn't sit on the skin like some moisturisers, or cause little 'bits' of the cream to flake off onto my face (this is really difficult to explain, but some heavier moisturisers do this on my face - weird).  My skin felt really soft after application and my make up has gone on fine on top of it, and it has lasted well so far.  It also felt very gentle, with no stinging.  It has a pleasant, and very light fragrance, that I struggle to describe, but smells nice!

I don't usually use a separate day or night cream, and as I do need more moisture as it gets colder, I'll be happy using this as a day cream as well as a night cream.  This is certainly a Sunday Sample I've enjoyed using so far, and will probably get a week's worth out of this little pot. If I continue to like it, and if I don't break out, I might even purchase it which would be a first for my Sample Sunday trials.

Thanks for reading!  xx

Sunday Sample #1

As part of my beauty diet (see post here), I promised myself to use up my sample stash.  So, today I took the easy option, and opened this little pot of Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream – I plan to keep using it up this week.

 

I’m very fussy about my facial moisturiser, as I have extreme combination skin – very oily in patches, and very dry in others.  Usually I don’t stray too far from my Nivea Light Daily Cream, so I was a bit nervous as to whether it would be any good.  And my fears were confirmed.   I used it over the top of my serum, and found it was extremely light – far too light for my skin.  Despite its creamy appearance, it sunk in very quickly – very little was needed as it was so light.  I definitely need a richer moisturiser - even though my regular Nivea one is supposedly ‘light’ it’s much richer.

I slapped on (I mean gently massaged) two applications of the Vitamin E moisturiser to try and achieve that ‘moisturised’ feeling, but I couldn’t achieve it – my skin felt tight across my cheeks and slightly stretched.  So I added some more and it felt OK.  But writing this several hours later, my skin is feeling slightly tight again, and not that well moisturised.  My make-up went on well and has lasted pretty long, so it works well as a makeup base.

I think that in very warm weather, or if you have less dry patches than me, this would probably be a really good cream.  But with my skin type, it wouldn’t be my first choice.

I’ve got quite a lot to use up this week, but as I’ll use several applications at a time, hopefully I’ll get through it all!

Thanks for reading!  xx