Review: Curl Harmony Intensive Repair Deep Conditioner and Buttercream

As much as I’m into skincare and looking after my skin and such, I really neglect my hair. Not on purpose, but I don’t have a hair routine as I have a facial and body routine. However I do really try to keep my dry, brittle tresses as hydrated as possible, especially with conditioners, balms and serums.

I recently received some lovely items from Curl Harmony and have been using them for the last few weeks. First up is the Curl Harmony Intensive Repair Deep Conditioner*.

It contains lots of ingredients that are great for your hair and is designed to strengthen and moisturise. I absolutely love intensive moisturisers and had high hopes for this, but unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me. I imagined that it’d be very similar to the Macadamia Deep Repair Masque but it falls very short.

It’s gorgeously thick and smells lovely but it didn’t really leave my hair feeling very moisturised. It wasn’t awful but with words such as ‘intensive’ and ‘repair’ in the name you expect it to be a bit more impressive than a regular conditioner. I think it would suit all hair types as a mid-week pick-me-up, but not so much as an intensive treatment. 

The winner for me was the Curl Harmony Buttercream*, which is all kinds of amazing. I’ve said it many times; multi-use products are just brilliant and this didn’t fail to impress me. I used it as pre-shampoo treatment, a hot oil treatment, when my hair was feeling like straw and also just after I’d blow-dried it and it was looking a bit ‘fluffy’.

The buttercream contains coconut oil, shea butter, olive butter, mango butter, avocado oil – need I continue? It’s so rich and smells absolutely gorgeous and has seriously been my hair saviour this winter. It also works as a nice ‘glosser’ when you warm a little in your hands and run it through your hair.

It’s quite heavy so I’d say it’s only suitable for the driest of hair or Afro hair – but I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Curl Harmony Intensive Repair Deep Conditioner and Buttercream are available from the Curl Harmony website, both priced at £4.95/60ml and £14.50/250ml.

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Review: Paul Mitchell Super Strong Liquid Treatment

Hair care is really important to me so I couldn’t wait to try Paul Mitchell Super Strong Liquid Treatment*, from HairTrade.com – a leading retailer of hair extensions and hair care.

I’ve mentioned dozens of times before that I chemically straighten my hair, so anything that promises to add strength and repair my hair draws me in like a magpie to something shiny.

Paul Mitchell Super Strong Liquid Treatment repairs hair from the inside out. It helps seal split ends for smooth, healthy-looking results. Its Super Strong Complex and UV protection replace lost minerals and proteins.

Honestly speaking, the first time I used this I didn’t like it. As with all treatments, I doused my hair in it just before blow-drying but I found that it left a coating on my hair that made it feel dirty, albeit very strong. I’m guessing it’s the silicones.

When I tried again the next time I applied it more sparingly, spraying my hair as I sectioned it off – paying particular attention to my brittle ends. To say that I’m in love would be a vast understatement. I’ve noticed such a difference in how strong my hair is since I started using this.

I do find that if use a bit too much then it can weigh down my hair. But on the upside to that it makes my hair look really full and not at all ‘fluffy’.

My main issue, aside from the negatives of over saturating your hair, is that once my hair is dry it looks really dull – no shine at all. Obviously that’s easily rectified with a hair serum and/or oil, but it definitely makes them a necessity.

Bottom line: A definite hair staple. My hair is a lot less brittle and I’ve noticed a significant difference in breakage. The huge 250ml bottle will last absolutely ages as I only use it once or twice a week.

Paul Mitchell Super Strong Liquid Treatment is available from the HairTrade website, priced at £14.03/250ml.

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Review: OMG Beauty in Bow Wharf - Mink Lashes & HD Brows

Long post!

It took me a long time to realise that you really do get what you pay for. If something seems too good to be true then it probably is. However, this usually isn’t the case when it comes to Groupon. Always on the look out for a bargain, I’ve purchased many a Groupon and I’ve always been pleased. So when a deal came up for HD Brows and Mink Lashes for just £16 (a whopping 81% off!) I was sold.

After a bit of googling I realised that the deal was also available on KGB Deals and Wowcher as well, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised when I called for an appointment and was given a date more than three weeks later! I tried to wait patiently and grow my eyebrows out but I caved and got them threaded – blogged here – and I’m SO glad I did.

When I arrived at Bow Wharf and found the salon I was immediately surprised at how tiny it was. And when I say tiny I mean teeny tiny. My bedroom is probably bigger than the whole salon which is saying something, as my room is by no means big!

Anyway, after a little wait for my appointment I was led into the appointment… area? The even tinier space consisted of a treatment bed and a trolley with a packet of lashes on top – erm, individual mink lashes appointment, who invited the packet lashes?! I’d watched a couple of mink lash videos on youtube, so I was prepared to be in the claustrophobic treatment … area … for the next 90minutes at least. However, in less than 15 minutes I was ‘done’.

The girl had explained (read: lied) that the individual mink lashes didn’t give a very ‘full’ look, so if I wanted I could have a few clusters put in just to fill them out. I’m not a fan of clusters but agreed, as I didn’t want them to look too scarce. I was told not to get them wet at all – because that’s possible! – or use anything oily on my face, which again seemed impossible as my face is like an oil slick!

Next were my eyebrows, she waxed off the bits of growth on my brow bone and my emerging mono-brow with the world’s hottest wax. Honestly, she could have poured boiling water over my whole face and it would have burnt less. I’ve never had any waxing done on my face though, and didn’t want to look like a Moany Mindy – but I obviously am! – so didn’t exclaim, and luckily it was over very quickly.

After the burning wax she applied the tint. Very dark eyebrows look too heavy set on me and so I opted for a dark brown instead of black. She applied it and then asked me where I was heading next. I thought it was a little strange, I mean we’d covered the usual salon small talk – where I live, boyfriend, job, going on holiday this summer? – so I wasn’t sure how to answer. I soon realised that she wasn’t making small talk, she was asking because I was finished and was expected to remove the tint myself. WHAT? How does that make sense? People don’t go to the hairdressers, get the hair dye applied and just go home! My mum had her lashes and eyebrows tinted once when I was really young and she didn’t remove the tints herself. However, I was a tinting virgin and wasn’t sure whether that was normal now so I didn’t object to a bit of forced DIY.

After a multitude of questions from me and some very unclear answers from her, I still wasn’t sure when I should be removing the tint. The girl didn’t even look 20 and seemed so blasé about the whole thing that I felt like I was in very inexperienced hands.

I was told not to wipe it off for 20minutes, which was later changed to ‘no more than 45 minutes’. Worried I’d look like a circus act I wiped it off 10 minutes after I left the salon.

Looking in the car mirror I was immediately aware of how stupid the lashes looked. She’d used about 10 individual lashes on each eye and then tried to fill them out with clusters, they looked awful. Some were really long, others were short and stuck together, then there were the awful few that were piled on top of each other. It looked at if the person applying them had done it with their eyes closed! However, my eyebrows did look thicker and definitely more defined – this was short lived though, as it turned out the tint had transferred onto my skin so when I washed my face the ‘thick’ look disappeared and my old brows were back.

In a desperate attempt to fix the lashes I decided to trim down the really long ones thinking that it would make them look slightly better. Wrong. Even though I’d hardly moved them, some of the glue had loosened and I now had hard gunk around my eyes that looked like sleep! That, coupled with my Liz Earle rash? Attractive.

When I woke up the next morning my eyes were really hurting. Bits of glue were falling into my eyes and scratching them as I blinked, so I had no choice but to remove them. I rubbed an oil-based cleanser over my face and around my eyes, which helped loosen the lashes so I could pull them out.

Enough talking, here’s what they looked like.

Just so you know, this was during the time of my Liz Earle rash so please excuse the rash on my face!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

THREE HOURS AFTER 'TREATMENT':

So would I go back? HECK NO! Not even if they paid me! I wasn’t the only one who didn’t think much of the treatments at OMG Beauty, here are a few screen grabs of what others are saying on QYPE.co.uk

If you’re wondering what proper mink lashes should look like then here it is:

source

All in all, I’ve learnt my lesson and will not be returning.

However, if you fancy your chances at OMG Beauty then they’ve got another Groupon running. Or you can check out their website here.