Most Loved Products - Hair & Skincare Edition!

As someone who has been openly obsession with beauty products since the age of about twelve, it’s no surprise that over the past nine years (almost ten, I feel so old!) I’ve stumbled across some products that I’ve grown attached to.

I could write and go on about a range of products I’m in love with, but it would make a very long blog post so I’ve decided to focus this post on strictly hair and skin care.

So, lets start with the hair!

Pro:Voke Touch of Silver Range 

I never use to think I was obsessed with my hair, mainly because I'm awful with it and the only thing I can really do to style it is straighten it or put it in a ponytail. It's only since I've had grey/blonde hair that I realised how much time and effort I spend on my hair that I realised that actually, I do care more than I think! 

As I said, I’m trying to achieve a grey/blonde shade, which yes, I love but it takes a lot of work to maintain! I’ve found that the easiest and best way to keep my colour is to use Pro:Voke Touch of Silver Shampoo (both of them, I’ll explain in a moment) and conditioner. I was recommended this by my hairdresser and I’ve been in love with it ever since! 

I won’t go into complete detail about my hair toning routine (it will require a blog post all on its own) but I will say that I wash my hair with the Colour Care Shampoo, put the Brightening Shampoo on and leave on for anywhere between 5-20 minutes (depending on how brassy my hair is and how long I can be bothered to tone my hair on the day) and then finish with the conditioner. 

I love everything about this shampoo from the smell (I’ve received compliments on how nice my hair smells after using this before); to the colour it leaves my hair. Yes, these products are a tad pricey and you can get normal shampoo and conditioner for a fraction of the price, but with purple shampoo I find that you get what you pay for. 

Tip:  All three of these products are available in Superdrug, which also offers student discount if you have a student/NUS card and a Superdrug Health & Beauty points card. So you can save your money and tone your hair at the same time- life saver!

OGX Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil 

I’ve had this product for ages, but only started appreciating it for the past few months. A little background story, I’ve been damaging my hair almost every day for the past ten years! From dying and bleaching to straightening it almost every day (I've only stopped doing this since going grey to prevent colour stripping again, trying to maintain that grey tone!). So I thought it was time to treat my hair right and get a hair oil to put some life back into it! 

I selected this specific oil on a whim because I heard positive things about it and I decided to give it a go, and I’m so glad I did because it has honestly made such a difference. I noticed an immediate difference to my hair the first time I used this product. It makes my hair smoother, shinier and so much softer. Now, if I ever wash my hair and skip this oil my hair is harder to brush, feels coarser and looks duller. I can definitely feel a difference when I don’t use this product and now I hate not using it. You can get this from pretty much anywhere and although it’s not dirt cheap, it’s definitely affordable and I would highly recommend it.

Tangle Teezer

Photo not mine- available here

While it may not look particularly fancy, this brush is a complete game changer and a life saver! I had heard a lot about the Tangle Teezer but wasn't sure if it would work on my thick hair that gets tangled easily. However, after hearing many rave reviews I decided to buy one and I loved it so much I bought another one so I have for when I’m at university and another for when I’m back at home in Essex! This brush easily removes any tangles in my hair with little to no pain/discomfort whatsoever! 

There are many different versions of the Tangle Teezer available. Some for wet hair, some for thick and curly hair and some with long handles that apparently makes the Tangle Teezer easier to hold. They also offer Tangle Teezers that are ideal for blow drying hair and even have a paddle brush. I personally have the original version which starts from around £10.99. While you can buy cheaper brushes, I definitely think that the Tangle Teezer is the best brush I've ever used and I now refuse to use any other brush because nothing has matched up to my Tangle Teezer!

Now it's time for the skin! 

I'll admit, up until recently I hadn't really taken the best care of my skin. I didn't particularly stick to a skin care routine and I don't drink anywhere near enough water! 

However, one thing that I do religiously every single day is take off my make up! As a naive teen, I thought that using a make up wipe would remove all my make up and make my skin clean and fresh. Years later I discovered that isn't the case and it takes more than one wipe to remove all the dirt and impurities on your skin make up leaves behind. Now, I've finally found some good quality skin care products that I love that leave my skin looking and feeling cleaner, fresher and healthier! 

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water

My holy grail and possibly the product I've been the most loyal to ever! I've been using this product every day since I first used it years ago.

The best thing about this product is that it's so quick and easy to use. All I do is pour some on a cotton pad and it wipes it all away in seconds, which is perfect for the nights you don't want to spend what feels like an eternity removing every scrap of make up from your face! This product makes removing make up so fast and easy that I now even manage to take all my make up off even after I come home from a big (drunken) night out! If that isn't a holy grail product then I don't know what is!

Again, this is another product that offers more than one version, you can get a version for sensitive skin and one thats oil based. This product isn't the cheapest micellar water on the market, but it by no means expensive and it is by far my favourite. 

Kiehl's Blue Herbal Spot Treatment

A very new product on my list. Despite the fact I’m no longer fifteen, I still get breakouts! Maybe it’s because of stress, or my skin's way of punishing me for not drinking enough water, or maybe it’s bad karma!  I should make it clear that I am not a skin expert, nor do I have acne (there are different treatments for acne, and although this product says it’s suitable for acne-prone skin, please consult an expert before using any skin product if you have acne-prone skin). I had been after this product for a while, but the price put me off. It’s £15.99, which I know may not break the bank, but 1) I’m a student and 2) the bottle is small and I didn’t want to pay any amount of money for a product that would run out a couple of days after I started using, especially if it didn’t even work! So before I purchased anything I asked a girl who worked in Kiehl's and she advised that out of all the products, this one was the one to go for if I wanted to get rid of 'a few spots'. 

What I will say about this product is that while it didn't make my skin magically clear completely overnight, I did notice a difference after the first use! I had a relatively large spot on my cheek so applied the spot treatment on it overnight and the next morning the spot was not only smaller, but dryer and healing very quickly. I think it's the salicylic acid that makes a difference.

Since buying this treatment, I've used it twice a day and I can honestly say I do see a difference and will use it every time I get a spot from now on. 

No7 Beautiful Skin Pore Vacuum Mask

A massive trend at the moment is charcoal pull of face masks. I’ve seen so many videos of people using these masks on Facebook and YouTube and the results are so impressive that I went on the hunt for one. I didn’t want to buy one online form a website I had never heard of and frankly, didn’t trust. So, I decided to stick with shops that I knew and try and find my new face mask that will leave my skin looking and feeling much nicer. The closest product I could find to what I wanted was No7’s Beautiful Skin Pore Vacuum Mask.

I’m considering posting a detailed review of this product because although I’ve not used it for very long, I’m very impressed with it! Long story short, you put a thick layer of this product on areas you are prone to have blackheads and impurities. For me this is mainly my nose, I also put some on my forehead (the box recommends you do this) and I also put them on blemishes. The instructions say to leave it on for ten minutes, when I did this it wasn’t fully dry and when I do a face mask I like to leave them on for a while and relax. So I leave this on for 20-30 minutes and see much better results. 

After using this mask I can actually see some impurities the product removes, gross I know, but at least it's proof it works! I like to use this twice a week as I wear make up almost every day and want to be sure I remove as gunk and grossness as possible. I totally understand why this product is called a vacuum mask; it literally sucks out the dirt and other gross secrets out skin is hiding. 

The only downside is this product is a bit pricy its £14 for 50ml, but in all fairness, it could last you a long time if you only apply it to areas you need to. There are also plenty of other similar products to this on the market that are much more expensive than this one, so against competitors, it's actually reasonably priced (in my opinion). 

All in all, I genuinely adore all of these products, I’m under no obligation to recommend these products, they are simply things I enjoy using and I feel genuinely work. As a beauty product addict, I love finding out other people’s favourite products and I’m always on the hunt for new products to try and fall in love with! After all, part of the fun with trying out new products is recommending them to your friends, right? 

Until next time, 

Becca x