Beauty: Neuro CTRL Hair Care

Hey All

If you're a regular follower of ours you'll know we are lucky enough to be part of the Styling Society and get to try out some of the amazing Paul Mitchell products. You can see the beautiful marble straighteners we're in love with and our favourite range the Marula Oil range reviews here.

We've both been meaning to share out thoughts on this range for the past month but if you've seen on twitter lately we've both been super busy this past month.

Paul Mitchell Awapuhi Wild Ginger Styling Range

Hello there!

Posts have been a little thin on the ground recently so big apologies for not being able to keep up. We've both had so much on the last few weeks/months, if you don't follow us on social media you should as you can see what we have been getting up to more easily but we will hopefully catch up with things and get more time soon!

Today's review is of some hair styling products from the Awapuhi Wild Ginger range from Paul Mitchell.

If you're a long term reader you will know we are part of the Styling Society so these products were gifted to us, but after using them the last few weeks I wanted to share my thoughts on them. As always they are honest and not influenced by the fact these were given to me.

Marula Oil Light Shampoo and Conditioner Review

Hey all

Sorry so long for a post, L and I have both been super busy with L having her bathroom done and I'm six weeks into a massive change in my house which essentially leaves me living in a building site regularly trying to do work on the house and sometimes left without electric etc!

Anyway today's post is a review I've been wanted to share for weeks, the new Marula Oil Light range (we first shared the original range here which we both loved and shared the styling range here, the hairspray has been a total game changer for us both!) The Marula Oil range is so good at leaving my hair feeling in such good condition.

Beauty : The Body Shop Fuji Green Tea Hair Scrub Review

Hey All

When I first saw that The Body Shop was selling a hair scrub I knew I had to have it. I love The Body Shop Banana Shampoo and Conditioner and have raved about that here.

Paul Mitchell Modern Marble Collection Review

Hey All

Paul Mitchell have absolutely smashed it out again this year, last year they had the amazing Rose Gold collection which we reviewed here, L and I both still use this on a weekly basis and have ditched our other curlers!

This year they've bought out the Modern Marble collection and it's absolutely beautiful.

Cruelty Free Hair Heroes

Well hello there!

The last few weeks I've been feeling pretty rubbish - the flu got me and wiped me out for weeks, and the colder weather has been playing havoc with my skin and hair. So I thought it was time to share my absolute favourite cruelty free hair products to rescue my 'do and save it from turning to straw and looking like something a crow wants to curl up in.

Kenra Platinum Hair Styling Products

Hey All

A few weeks ago L shared her thought on the Kenra Professional Moisturising Shampoo and Conditioner (post here), we were lucky enough to get sent the range to try out and got a few different bits to each other in our boxes, so today we thought we'd share our thoughts on the styling range we've been testing out, we've been trying a few from the professional range including the root lifting spray and the volume spray and a few from the Kenra Platinum range including the silkening mist, revive oil and our absolute favourite the blow dry spray!

Kenra is a brand that is relatively new to the UK, they have some amazing colour ranges (I'm always loving all the brights and pastels on their instagram!) and some great styling products.

The Body Shop Banana Shampoo and Conditioner

Hey all

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now. Whilst wondering past The Body Shop store in Cardiff a few months back I saw an offer where if you bought a shampoo you got the conditioner free, I hadn't actually tried any hair products from The Body Shop so decided to test them out (I have the hair scrub now too which I can't wait to try!)

Since going Cruelty Free I've almost rediscovered The Body Shop as a brand and I'm totally in love with so many products, and obviously I've convinced L too (you can find all of our reviews on The Body Shop Here and Here)

Rare Marula Oil Hair Styling Products

Hey all

As part of our last styling society box we got to try out more of the Paul Mitchell Rare Marula Oil range and we were so excited. We're huge fans of the Marula oil shampoo and conditioner and oil and you can find these reviews here.

Paul Mitchell Tee Tree Scalp Care Anti-Thinning Shampoo, Conditioner and Tonic Review

Hey All

As I'm sure you'll have guessed by now L and I are big fans of Paul Mitchell. We're part of their styling society this year so we'll be sharing some of our favourite products throughout the year and the new bits we love.

L'Avoly - The Special One

Hi all!

Hope you've all got lovely things planned for the weekend - it's my birthday tomorrow so I'm spending today catching up on a few jobs, getting my Mother's Day gifts sorted and I'm going to treat myself to a good bath and pamper session later on tonight! I'm quite excited to try out some new bath bombs, turning into such a grandma with my cosy evenings!

Today's review is of a hair wonder product from L'Avoly.

Batiste Dark Brown Dry Shampoo

Hello there!

I might be a little awol over the next few days as I've just got the keys to my new house! I'm so excited but also terrified, so much to do and moving out by myself is going to be SCARY.

Today's post is based on my favourite dry shampoo ever, Batiste is the best that I have ever tried and so I stick with it, for the effects and the price. Recently I picked up the dark and deep brown dry shampoo.

I absolutely love it! It works just like the normal dry shampoo, absorbs all of the grease without leaving a shed load of residue and also doesn't show up white on my super dark hair.

It's life saver for when I wake up in the morning and my hair is a greasy mess, I can normally anticipate when my hair is going to look like an oil slick and I spray my usual dry shampoo on my hair before bed. This by the way is my number one tip, always spray it on before bed and wake up with super gorgeous voluminous non-greasy hair with minimal effort!

Ever since I've had a fringe cut back in though I find that it can go greasy super fast, even the day after washing. This has been an absolute life saver in the mornings, especially when I'm in a rush for work.
Honestly even with my almost black hair I can spray this on and not even have to rub it in or brush it out, I just leave it there and it sorts my hair out all day. It's like magic!

I don't know about you but my general hair appearance is much improved since dry shampoo came along - my styling might be lazy but at least it will never look greasy!

Which is your favourite dry shampoo? Do you go for the normal, the scented, the voluminous or the coloured?

I think every one of them serves its purpose!

L xxx

Bumble and bumble Straight Blow Dry Cream

Hello there!

I've got a review for you today of a product that I really thought I wouldn't love.

Pretty bold statement to make in the second line of a blog post isn't it?

After attending a Bumble and bumble event a few months ago we were kindly given some mini products to try. The Straight Blow Dry Cream was one of them and I remember thinking 'oh great another hair cream'

I really need to apologise for that!

It wasn't that I thought it would be useless and B&b have rubbish products at all - it was just because I've tried COUNTLESS of these hair creams to no avail. They never work and end up coating my hair and making it greasier, which it needs no help doing at all!

This lightweight and heat activated balm helps to smooth and straighten hair making it sleek and more manageable. It contains a very rare gemstone blend to loosen the hairs natural curves as soon as you add heat, it also improves hair condition over time to make it softer and easier to deal with.

They say this is for anyone with curly, thick, coarse, frizzy and any other kind of unruly hair - however I have to say that mine is none of those things and that I'm just lazy with styling my hair properly.


So how do you use it? Just apply to damp hair and dry it section by section, finishing with straighteners if necessary.

Does it actually work? Here's what my hair normally looks like, this is drying it with a hair dryer and a brush:

It's a bit straggly but mostly straight apart from the ends, nothing straighteners wouldn't solve right?

The next time I washed my hair I did exactly the same thing apart from using the blow dry cream:



Can you believe the difference???

I am honestly amazed at how straight my hair is just by using this product

This could mean that I could potentially completely ditch the straighteners, how amazing would that be?!

My hair would definitely love it if I stopped using anything like straighteners and for £23 for 150ml of the blow dry cream I think this is an absolute bargain to save my hair!

What do you think? This might be the miracle hair product that I've been looking for!

Have you tried the Straight Blow Dry Cream? What did you think of it?

L xxx

Aussie Miracle Moist Leave In Conditioner

Good morning lovelies!

After tweeting recently to vent my despair at my dry hair the lovely Sasha from Ramblings of a Beauty Bird suggested I try the Lightweight Conditioning Spray from Aussie. Aussie is one of my favourite hair product brands as I'm totally obsessed with the 3 minute miracle conditioner.

I went to Boots asap and picked it up in a 3 for £10 deal!

They have a few products in the range of conditioning sprays, there are five in total including Miracle Recharge Shine, Miracle Recharge Colour, Miracle Recharge Luscious Long, Miracle Recharge Take The Heat, and lastly Miracle Recharge Moisture.

I chose the Moisture version as my hair has been so dry, although I have long hair I thought dowsing it in a leave-in conditioner with extra moisture would be a good start.

The spray is 250ml and contains Australian Macadamia Nut Oil which I assume helps to hydrate your hair, though it isn't very clear what it does. It also contains Panthenol (nicknamed the beauty vitamin) and helps to make your hair more manageable.





I've been using this for a few weeks now and my hair does feel better than usual when I use it. The spray is more of a spritz than a fine mist, but it doesn't dispense product into your hair in a dollop, it is fairly well spread.
This is something I'm always aware of, having dark hair means that it can look greasy really easily if you put too much product on even though you have just washed it, massively annoying!

I recently also posted about the Bumble and bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Protective Primer and although normally I am happier to go with the high street range - most expensive products do nothing for my hair - this time the Bumble and bumble product wins when my hair really needs help.

The Aussie Leave in conditioner sprays costs £4.99 each and normally they are on off at 3 for £10 and so very worth it! I use these most times I wash my hair, but on the odd occasion my hair is feeling like straw nothing will help it apart from the Bumble and bumble spray, so I still stand by that one being the best, but I save it for emergency situations!

Do you use Aussie products? Have you tried their Leave In Conditioners?
What would you recommend for an alternative?

L xxx

Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Protective Primer

Hey there!

If you've read our recent post about the Smashbox, Ojon and Bumble and Bumble event in Boots then you will also know that we were really impressed with the products we were shown.

I've been working my way through my stash recently but I'd also been looking for a hair product, preferably a spray that could cover the requirements of a heat protector and also a leave in conditioner. Did such a thing exist? Well I found this little beauty on the shelf:

The Bumble and Bumble (Bb) Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer was something that stood out to me from the shelf; the neon coral is one of my favourite colours and seeing as it was in a spray form I just couldn't resist!

There are 2 sizes of this product available in store,the 250ml bottle costs £19 and there was a smaller bottle available too. On line it shows up as a 60ml bottle costing £7 but I'm pretty sure in store there was a smaller size for a larger price - it's a little confusing!

The protective primer is sold as a sublime pre-styler for a total transformation of your hair.

The product is infused with six featherlight oils to soften, detangle, defrizz, tame flyaways, ease styling, and protect against breakage, heat and UV all in one go.

That's quite a claim really isn't it?

It's therefore claimed to be for people with dry, coarse or brittle hair - mine is definitely dry so I figured it would be worth a go for me!

You need to apply this to damp hair before styling, using the spray was super easy and it creates a mist rather than dumping a load of product onto your freshly washed hair. As I've mentioned many times on the blog I don't use many hair products aside from hairspray when I curl my hair, I don't find they work well with my hair and give much of a positive effect at all. Some oils have been ok, but can seem to coat my hair rather than actually penetrate it and do some good.

So far though, this one has been an anomaly!

Spraying this on my hair after washing and before drying is such a simple thing but it makes such a big difference. My hair feels so much smoother and in much better condition after only a week's worth of usage.

Even though it's just a spray I can't believe how different this product is from so many others I have tried before it. It's supposedly for dry, coarse or brittle hair. My hair is dry from being so long but it isn't generally coarse or brittle, and it can easily become greasy from applying products to it, no matter how 'lightweight' they claim to be.

This spray has genuinely had such a great effect on my hair that I would definitely consider trying out more products from Bb, I will certainly be making a wishlist in time for my birthday later this month!

Have you tried products from Bumble and bumble? What's your favourite?
Do you prefer spray type products or serums?


L xxx

Lush H'Suan Wen Hua Hair Treatment

Happy Friday lovelies!

On a recent trip to Lush in Cardiff for a blogger event I was won over by the sound of the H'suan Wen Hua hair treatment; although I have absolutely no idea how to say it!

This hair treatment claims to improve the condition, lustre and combability of hair; it's protein rich and nourishing containing ingredients used for centuries to help strengthen hair.

It contains free range eggs, bananas and avocados along with a myriad of oils.

It did concern me that it also contains alcohol and SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) which can damage your hair by drying it, but when I asked the assistant in store she explained that the treatment can be so thick that it is necessary for them to be present to help remove it from the hair or it would never come off. This is understandable and hopefully the positive effects will outweigh any effects of the alcohol and SLS.

So as in the image above you apply this treatment to dry hair for 20 mins before washing and conditioning as normal. I normally think of this too late and don't have 20 minutes spare but I've been trying hard to actually use the things I buy and have made special effort to get my hair in good condition for being cut and dyed.

The treatment is thick and cream coloured, with a strong smell of cloves. To be honest i wasn't a huge fan of the smell but it wasn't too overpowering so I put up with it! I'm not one of those people who like strong fragrances at all, I'm that person who likes the 'fluffy towels' or 'clean cotton sheets' type candles so cloves really aren't my thing!

That said it was easy to apply, if a little cold feeling and I pottered around setting up my shower and getting my clothes out for afterwards whilst it worked its magic. It rinsed off really easy and then I shampooed and conditioned as normal.

I really liked this hair treatment, I'm not sure I'd rush to repurchase as it's quite expensive for the £9.75 price tag for what was three applications worth. My hair is very long so it is quite a lot when you compare with other hair treatments which cost around £5 for the same size tub.

It's really nice to know that the ingredients are 100% natural and I know you pay more for it but still, it is something that i have to factor in to my choices nowadays.

If money was no option though i would repurchase because I liked the results, my hair was shinier and appeared to be in better condition. it also felt stronger too and after more applications I'm sure it would improve quite a lot. 

I'd definitely recommend the H'Suan Wen Hua hair treatment, though maybe for individuals with longer hair there may be a cheaper alternative? Who knows, I'll have to investigate!

Have you tried this hair treatment? Which is your favourite? 

My hair needs more suggestions asap!

L xxx

Korres Coloured Hair Shampoo and Conditioner

Morning!

I seem to rarely buy or try hair products, I'm quite lucky that my hair is quite pliable and does what I want it to without much hassle. however it has become very dry after a long summer and lots of highlights. I've been dying it back darker recently and hopefully less of the stripping effects of highlights will also help, but after seeing these Korres shampoo and conditioner on offer at 2 for £10 at Waitrose I snapped them up for a try.

I chose the set for coloured hair containing Sunflower and Mountain tea.

The designs of the bottles are quite simple and standard, its a little confusing to have so many languages on the bottles but it's an international brand and I don't see why more brands shouldn't do this. Although the bottles are standard in design they do feel quite substantial so they won't break easily if you drop them in the shower, like I seem to do all the time!



The shampoo feels quite thick to use on the hair and lathers up easily, this is probably due to SLS being present which is confusing again as Korres are a 'free from' brand and do not use many chemicals that other brands do. Having said that, my hair felt clean but not 'squeaky' and it didn't matt together which it can do with shampoo that is drying.

I can't comment on it's colour protection as mine has faded since being dyed anyway, as it will with blonde hair being changed back to dark brown! But my hair did feel clean and I'd use it again.

The conditioner was also very nice, it was hydrating and felt thick and moisturising on the hair and scalp. My hair felt a lot smoother and silky after drying so it clearly works and I've enjoyed using it.

I also like that Korres list on the sides for each product what the formula facts are including everything that it doesn't contain and who it is catered for.

Having said all of this....finding out that at full price these products are £10 each I wouldn't say that these were worth that. The 2 for £10 was a great deal and I've enjoyed using them as a treat, but I couldn't justify spending £10 on them each as they're just no different to a lot of other shampoo and conditioners that I've tried.

Have you tried products from Korres? What is your favourite? 

I've heard their lip butters are amazing but I've got so many eos spheres to get through at the moment I don't need any more!

L xxx

Lidl Goodies

Good morning!

Today's post is about some bargain treats that I picked up from everyone's favourite cheap food store....Lidl. Their beaut stock is always a hit and miss, shambles of an area but I've been seeking out some hidden gems in the hair products and felt I needed to share these.



I picked up the Oz Botanics Deep Conditioner and the Macadamia Oil Extract Conditioner both of which were £1 each, absolute bargain.

First up under scrutiny was there Oz Botanics deep conditioner:



First off you can't go wrong with a huge post of what is essentially a hair mask. I dived right in with this one as my hair has been looking a bit nasty recently; highlights, a bit of sun and general wear and tear on my long locks have begun to take their toll.

I jumped in the shower and scooped a load of this onto my head, left it for a few minutes whilst showering and scrubbing before rinsing it out.



It sounded so promising; 'manage dry and damaged hair by smoothing split ends and roughened cuticles'

Sadly this was not the case. After applying this to my hair and rinsing it out the product felt quite thick and sticky on my hands, and my hair just felt coated rather than hydrated.

Even after extra rinsing and drying my hair as usual it felt coated and so I can't say I'll be rushing to use it again! It was worth a try for £1 but this would be a miss from me.



My second pound purchase was the Macadamia Oil Extract conditioner, and I tackled this one with a little less enthusiasm than the first but was pleasantly surprised.





The packaging on this one was a little more inventive and decorative but definitely cheap, the wording was hard to photograph as it was so shiny and the writing was stretched but never mind eh!



After using this a few times my hair has felt nourished and revitalised somewhat and feels considerably better than when I used the deep treatment. I've been using this every time I've washed my hair for the last few weeks and haven't experienced any build up so this was the obvious winner of the two for me.

For £1 for each it's worth buying a few things to try even if they're hit and miss! I've not seen these products in my local Lidl since so they were probably the last few palettes in a job lot, not surprising really!

I think Aldi have a more steady product range in the beauty department and having tried out their skincare before I will have to venture into their hair care too as Lidl seems to be a bit of a gamble......but who doesn't like a bit of risk eh??

Have you tried either of these products? Do you have any recommendations for bargain products from Lidl or Aldi? Or anywhere else for that matter!


L xxx

Charles Worthington Intense Rescue Melting Balm

Hey All

After months years of dying and abusing my hair it's not in the best shape anymore. I'm always trying to find the next best thing to try and 'fix' it! I remember hearing FleurDeForce mention this a while back in a video so when I saw it for a third off in boots I had to pick it up (it's still currently on offer!). You can see some of the latest colours in this post!

The Charles Worthington Instensive Rescue Melting Balm is a solid balm that melts to an oil at body temperature. It's also applied to dry hair pre washing. This does seem a bit unnatural at first but as someone who sleeps in oils sometimes it's not too weird. I tend to melt it in my hands the rub it through. I tend to do it in small amounts.

It claims the blend of 7 oils and butters helps to deep condition and rescue thirsty, dry, damaged hair. This does receive a lot of rave reviews. It needs to be left on the hair for 20 minutes. I have slept in it before and it did make my hair a little greasy the next day after washing but it seemed to then settle down again after!

I honestly think I've found a product that beats the Macadamia deep repair mask! Now that is a big claim in itself for me. After using this my hair feels instantly less dry and the feeling lasts a good few days. It's easier to brush and looks better straightened. It seems to calm my frizz and has definitely helped my dry ends.

It also doesn't weigh my hair down at all of make it greasy any quicker (even when I slept in it, although it felt greasy the first day after that it was fine and I went my normal 4-5 days, Sometimes even 6-7. Yes I'm gross but honestly my hair is so trained now it doesn't look dirty!)

I'm a convert and can't recommend this enough. If you have dry hair you need this in your life!

Love M

xxx