Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Only a few more days until a romantic weekend is upon us.........unless you're me and M and you're off to a Harry Potter party in place of doing anything romantic for Valentine's Day. We're too cool!

I don't know about you but dry shampoo is a big part of my life, I use it a few times a week to save me from washing my hair all the time. That way I save time and effort as well as keeping my hair looking bouncy and smelling sweet. I'm a big Batiste fan - the original is usually the best.....but after my mum bought me these Herbal Essences one for Christmas could they be replacing it?

My mum picked up the Uplifting Volume which has a Citrus fragrance and also an original Dry Shampoo with a Natural Tapioca scent.
Both me and my mum have a bit of a thing for scents - we love citrus scents and plain scents. Anything unnatural and strong is totally out of the question and I can't be going near it!

The packaging promises a 1st Day Clean feel by utilising a formula containing natural tapioca.

It works exactly as any other dry shampoo, you spray it in and work it into your roots. I like to leave it on as long as possible and if you want my number one tip.....spray it on before bed and wake up with fully revitalised hair, It works a treat and requires no brushing or the dreaded 'grey halo' effect where no amount of brushing can save you. Now that my hair is back to its natural brown/black colour this is something I am permanently scared of!

The citrus fragrance for this is perfect, it's light and not overpowering at all and I really like it. 

The natural tapioca is also a really light scent and to be honest, I find both of these better than Batiste.

These are both really great and based on this alone I would repurchase as having my hair smell like these would be awesome!

It's also great that there are no parabens or colourants - any products with less chemicals in is a winner in my books though i wonder if something else has replaced them.

The texture of this is a little weird. I feel like it does absorb a lot of oil from my hair, and therefore works well as a dry shampoo - performing the task it was designed to do. However unlike Batiste this feels like a hairspray with absorbent particles in it and so sometimes I feel like it coats my hair in unnecessary extra product and weighs it down rather than giving it 'uplifting volume'.

Overall I'm seriously impressed that Herbal Essences have created absolutely great smelling dry shampoos and I would buy them again for this alone. However when it comes to performing the task it was designed to do I feel like the extra product can end up weighing the hair down and making it look worse than it did already.

It's really a 50/50 on this one and I'd probably suggest using these if you're a gym goer like myself and can't be washing your hair every day - this product is perfect for you with a stronger scent to mask any sweat and it does absorb oil.

However for other days I would stick with Batiste where I just need the crown of my hair to look a bit less greasy to get me through another day.

Both have their place but for different reasons.

Have you tried the Herbal Essences Dry Shampoos? Which scent do you recommend?

In future when I've used these up I'm going to try out the Aussie and the CoLab dry shampoos and compare them also - dry shampoo is such a vital thing in my life for looking good that its way more than an essential now!
Are you hooked on dry shampoo for its' time saving abilities?? Do you have any other brands that you would suggest?

L xxx

Festive Make Up Ideas

Hello there!

I'm sure we are all feeling very full and probably a little ashamed of our eating habits yesterday. As usual I ended up eating a massive Christmas dinner with cheesecake to finish and then following it up with a second round later on in the evening along with chocolates and nibbles....the guilt is unreal.

The last thing that is on my mind right now is getting ready for my next night out, particularly New Year's Eve as it seems so far away and another eating/drinking session seems a bit vile. However the planning necessary for the hair and make up element of the night seems a nice and easy task right now.

I've been looking up some inspiration and instead of trying to create my own to show you I thought I'd leave it to the more capable hands of Pinterest. All of these images have come from my account if you'd like to view them (username is 'thecsigirls' you can find it by clicking in the toolbar to the right)

So yes, to double clarify, none of these are my own just purely some inspiration for some simple and some more extravagant beauty ideas for the end of year party.

Lauren's Way Dream Rollers

Evening All

I'm feeling great this evening after a great workout. I love the feeling after a good workout. After I've done spin tomorrow I expect I'll be complaining!

A few weeks ago I went to the launch of the new Lauren's Way Darker than Dark Glam tan launch, you can read reviews on it here (I'm currently sat with it on ready for a night out for L's birthday on Saturday!)

I already own the Lauren's way rollers but have never got around to reviewing them. L is a big fan of them and when we go on nights out I quite often take mine to hers for her to use as we are getting ready. You can see the result of them being in L's hair from this old post.

When I saw the dream rollers in the goodie bags I was so pleased as I only got the set of 8 when I originally purchased them and needed more.

You can see from the picture below the one on the top right is an old roller. These are over 20 months old and still in great condition and the foam is still bouncy.

Dream rollers are squishy so they can be comfortably slept in. I'm not going to lie and say you can't feel them in your head because you can! I find if you sleep on your back or stomach you'll be fine. If you sleep on your side I'd recommend putting your hand between head and pillow to initially squish the rollers and then remove your hand. 

Once you get used to the fact you have an extra pillow around your head and find a comfy position they are fine to sleep in. I didn't wake up through the night and even though I'm a fidget they stay in perfectly well and don't need grips in (when I only had 8 I used grips as the rollers had more hair on them and in L's hair I use grips)

When I only had 8 rollers I bought the boots version as they were cheaper thinking they'd be just as good. They aren't don't consider the cheaper alternative as they don't compare. The boots version the foam hasn't held up as well, are slightly smaller, don't grip the hair as well but the hair they do grip they seem to rip out (I'm sure you can see all the hair around the red one! I always felt bad getting these out of L's hair and tugging at her hair!)

Rollers in all ready to sleep. I put them into clean dry hair and just slept!

The result the next morning! Hello huge hair. This was after just pulling the rollers out and no moving the hair around. The rollers give such root boost and also add a lush curl. If you have long hair they would give a gorgeous curl! Apologies for the dark photos on the last two but it was late at night and early morning and my room has crap lighting!

Hair all styled out! I love the subtle wave and the messy look it gives to my long bob. This is the result of them being put in my natural hair (which is a curly frizzy mess!)

If I have straight hair I like to add the rollers in for an hour when I'm getting ready and showing etc as I love how it just adds soft volume and curls my ends under!

I'm so glad I've now got the full set it's much easier! I'm sure L will be wanting these for Saturday too!

Have you tried dream rollers? They are great to sleep in but you still get great results from popping them in for an hour!

Love M

xxx