February Favourites, Updates & Wishlist


I found three good waterproof mascaras last year: L'Oreal's Paradise, Maybelline Total Temptation and this one. Revlon's is the one that long term held up best. It stayed fresh longest, it continued to give a great volumising effect and stayed a top performer. If Essence ever discontinued their I <3 Extremes WP, this will be my permanent replacement, but I will buy this one occasionally too despite the higher price because I prefer the less clumsy brush compared to Essence.  

PALMER'S Cocoa Butter Formula Swivel Stick and LANEIGE Lip Sleeping Mask
I'm scrapping the last bits of Palmer's Swivel stick, which I've mentioned many times as the best ever due to the soft, non obnoxiously hard/waxy formula and for many years (since 2012) this was the only lip balm I used. The replacement I ordered on Feel Unique got lost (as did my Look Fantastic order. 2 out of 3 orders from UK post-Brexit) and I've been trying to find a regular stick/squeeze tube replacement here, but so far nothing impressed me. Blistex serum is a nice one, but it's a night treatment that needs time to work and not something you can apply without using fingers, so I'm stuck to using the only thing that works - Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. It sticks on the lips for hours, even under a mask and fixes dry lips. My only complaint is that like Blistex it's also not in an easy-to-apply stick format, though you get a silicone applicator, but I can't carry this with me all the time, so I'm still looking for something decent in our drugstores until I finally get Palmer's again, but these two are my lip care heroes for dry, flaky lips. 


Honestly I expected this to be some lame gel-cream formula with a few sparse beads like so many of scrubs in the drugstores, but the formula is nothing like at others. It's so nicely creamy with no oily residue and the beads, though small, are far from sparse. It's not a harsh scrub, so nothing like sugar or salt ones, yet it does the job ok and it's not abrasive at all. The scent is typically for Dove a nice creamy that just makes showering a bit better. Such a nice pampering product.  

Despite the misleading name which made me buy it only to realise I've been betrayed since it's not an oil, I've really grown to like this gel cleanser a lot and I just tossed my Balea one away (well, I used it up as a shower gel). It's a simple gel in a very convenient pump packaging that I use for cleaning my face either alone or as a second cleanser after oil. It's gentle, not scented, my skin doesn't get tight as fast as with Balea gel and it doesn't irritate my eyes. It even has some niacinamide.  


I've explained what OGX uses as bonding ingredients in New in post, but to be clear this is not a dupe for Olaplex. The conditioner is so far the only product that I notice makes my hair stronger - temporary of course, as the effect lasts a few days until my hair gets dry and therefore brittle again, but it definitely helps that those hair that are already damaged/broken to still "hang on" and don't snap. I also love that the formula is thick and rich, and it manages to keep my hair hydrated longer than most other drugstore treatment (I've been testing new products in the last months and this + Lazartigue stand out a lot in terms of length of keeping the hair from drying out fast). It's not a light product and it removes slip from the hair, but I just add some leave ins and in the morning my hair feels really good. I use Bonding Cream at every wash now and it's not as effective against breaking on its own, but it's easy to combine with other products and it offers extra heat protection. I've been avoiding OGX because a reader told me their stuff isn't good, but I think I'll explore their other lines now.   

This is one of the most impressive hair masks I've tried ever, but it's also very expensive, so naturally you should expect a lot. This makes my hair soft like I used Olaplex overnight (0+3), it feels silky despite the fact this mask has no silicones and my hair stayed hydrated for almost a week, which happens with only one other product. I've been testing other masks since and I really miss how great my hair was with this one, the rest has such short term results. 


A feather light spray with nice ingredients since it has hydrolised proteins high on the list. I find this spray makes my hair a bit softer than when I don't use it, though it doesn't work miracles if the conditioner I use is not that great (Langhaarmädchen). It's easy to include into a routine and the mist is nicely fine, only the bottle is a bit small, but we'll see how soon I'll have to repurchase. 

This is such a unique product. It's a hair fragrance/leave-in whose scent "activates" every time I touch my hair and it lasts all day. As a leave-in conditioner it's ok, a bit light for my liking and I'd wish for more oil, but it's a nice one nonetheless, at least it's an alcohol-free fragranced hair mist, which is hard to find and I really like the fruity Aussie fragrance. 


UPDATES


GOT2B Mein Color Shampoo
Lila
When I posted about this it hasn't washed off completely yet, so I said I'll report back how long it took. It was too long for my liking, in fact my ends still have a pinky-purple tinge, which I think may stay there permanently, but the rest washed off completely by now, which is two months after I used it (I wash my hair once, sometimes twice a week). For a temporary pastel to stay that long, it's not common. It's a nice product if you actually have purple hair that you want to maintain and keep, since it will last a long time, even permanently tint porous hair, but I prefer Subrina Colour Refresh in Violet, which is the same colour and has so far always washed off completely. You also use up a lot at once, about 1/3 of the tube if you want to create a faint pastel on blonde hair (with Subrina I could get a deeper purple, while this is only for pastels) and it won't work on anything darker than light blonde.

JOHN FRIEDA Full Repair Hydrate and Rescue Deep Conditioner Treatment
I liked this a lot the first day because it quite successfully for a drugstore mask tames frizz and I had sleeker hair than with most drugstore treatments, but my hair got very dry on the 3rd day (not tangled, though), so this is a mask I have to combine with a lot of leave-ins for my type of hair. I think I'll explore JF Frizz purple line, it looks like it might be able to handle my super frizzy mane, but I'll have to combine it with Cantu and La Croa. 

LANGHAARMÄDCHEN Haarmaske Moisture Care
I like the ingredients list of this one because it looks like the perfect hydrating hair mask: glycerine, panthenol, arginine, hyaluronic acid, serin and other amino acids. It has no silicones, which was noticeable on my hair because it wasn't easy to comb, as this didn't provide much slip or detangle. Formula is light, though not super liquid and it's the type that I think won't weigh down anyone's hair. For me it was overall way too light, I had an unprecedented level of frizz (it looked like I had twice as much hair. Like Hagrid) and my ends were bone dry on the second day + very tangled. I couldn't fix it with anything, my hair was just absorbing everything in hours and became so brittle. It has a high feedback online, which I guessing is from people with thin hair that gets weighed down fast, but when I read them some mentioned they have bleached hair and I just don't get why they like it. Ingredients are great, but this is missing something nourishing for dry hair.

WISHLIST


L'OREAL Infallible Fresh Wear 24H Powder Foundation - apparently there is a massive hype about this, though I only saw it in one place and that review with before/after convinced me to put it on the wishlist. I'm waiting for Notino or Spletična to get it because I'm 100% certain the shade range will exclude lightest shades in our drugstores, as usual, though I really hope I'm wrong. 

OGX Brazilian Keratin Therapy Conditioner and Renewing + Argan Oil of Morocco Hydrating Hair Conditioner - after being so impressed by the Bonding Plex version I want to explore more of this brand. These two are both sold in DM and have interesting ingredients. 

L'OREAL Elvive Dream Lengths 8 Second Wonder Water Lamellar Rinse Out - this has been high on my wishlist for over a year since it was launched in North America and it finally started appearing on UK and German blogs, so I'm hoping this will get to our drugstores soon too. They changed the packaging for our market and added it to the Dream Lengths/Dream Long line.   

JOHN FRIEDA Frizz Ease line - Full Repair mask did a good job of smoothing the hair, so now I'm interested in trying more. A lot of their products have great reviews online. 

L'OCCITANE Terre de Lumière Intense Shower Oil - I've been a huge fan of the almond oil for well over a decade and I spotted they have new shower oils (also Shea Butter one). L'Occitane makes the most luxurious formula of shower oils and their stuff tends to smell amazing. 

JOHNSON'S BABY Shiny Drops Kids Conditioner Spray - I spotted this while checking ingredients on DM's website. It's such a simple formula with amino acids high on the list plus some argan oil. It looks purchase worthy. 

PALMER'S products - I actually purchased some of the things on the pictures already, as well as repurchased Swivel stick and the face oil I love, but like I said my parcel got lost. I've been wanting to try a ton of Palmer's products for a while, but buying online sucks (shipping, customs, waiting,…) so I delay. If only we had this brand in our drugstores. I'm interested in Smoothing lotion for body which contains lactic acid (ordered), Moisturising Hair oil (ordered), coconut version of Swivel Stick and proper lip balms, Enzyme Mask, Moisture Rich night cream (retinol, peptides) and their original formula.

TERRA NATURI Long Hair mask - on my wishlist because it has shea butter high on the list, but honestly I don't expect a lot from it since it's drugstore, but maybe it will surprise me and it's worth a try.

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