Offers
Reviews
 |
Boots Smooth Care Hair Lightener
by Graygirl Although I now have grey (I prefer the term Arctic Blonde) hair, the hairs above my upper lip seem to have a life of their own and have remained stubbornly dark(ish). I've always had a little moustache there, and it has always bothered me. About ten years ago, I finally decided to do something about it. A quick trip to my local Boots ... store showed me their 'Expert' range of products, and a Hair Lightener was among them. I bought it, and took it home, eager to try this fairly budget treatment. Since then, I have tried electrolysis (over the course of a few months) to try to get rid of the hairs, but this was expensive, didn't work effectively enough for me, and it meant a round trip of twenty-six miles to the nearest beautician who offered this service. And it hurt. So I eventually gave up on that. I have also tried waxing the hairs away - not by myself, I hasten to add, as I once tried to wax my bikini line and the horror of that event stays with me even now. I go to a lovely lady here in our local town, who charges only £5 for the honour of ripping the little blighters from above my upper lip. The feeling afterwards, of having perfectly smooth, hair-free skin, is wonderful. However, it doesn't last for ever. So I decided to buy myself either another hair bleaching cream - or even a hair removal cream if I could find one that I could trust. I did quite a lot of online research, checking out quite a few products for either the removal of or the lightening of facial hair, and I couldn't find anything else that inspired as much confidence as the Boots 'Expert' product. Although many products had many good reviews, there were always one or two that left me with a bit of doubt about their suitability. However, I saw that Boots Smooth Care Hair Lightener had many good reviews, and further investigation showed me that this is the same as the 'Expert' product from some time ago, but with a different name and prettier packaging. This product provides you with two tubes of cream - one is a lightener cream, and the other is an accelerator cream. You are also provided with a firm plastic spatula, and a little tray for mixing the two creams together. You can buy this product in two sizes: 2x25ml tubes for £3.99, or 2x50ml for £5.99. I bought the smaller, cheaper version, and I believe this to be excellent value. The product is good for six months after opening, and I fully expect that my purchase will last me quite some time. I alternate using this hair lightening cream with occasional lip waxes, and together they keep my moustache area (and me) lighter and happier. You are first presented with a pretty, greeny-blue box with a large white circle on the front that contains the name 'Smooth Care Hair Lightener'. You are also given the information that this product 'lightens excess dark hair', that it is 'quick, easy and safe to use', and that the treatment takes ten minutes. The products of the box are two tubes - the lightener cream and the accelerator - one spatula and one mixing cup. This is more like a little tray, about 4.5cm square, with 3.5cm of space at the base of the tray for mixing. The firm plastic spatula is gently curved (to make it easier to hold, perhaps), and this is about 10cm long. When you open the package and get out the two tubes, you will see that the Hair Lightener cream is labelled Step 1, while the Accelerator Cream is labelled Step 2. The contents of these tubes should only be used together, not on their own, and not for any other purpose other than bleaching your hair. You are advised to follow the instructions carefully. Both the tubes and the outer box are recyclable. I began my preparations by getting everything ready - both tubes, the tray and the spatula. I read the instructions very carefully, as I did not wish to suffer from any adverse skin reaction. I unscrewed the lid of Step 1 and gently squeezed a small amount into the tray, and then repeated the process with Step 1. Take a bit of care when doing this, as sometimes the creams are quite eager to escape their restraints. It helps if you unscrew the lids carefully and with a degree of caution. I tried to make sure that I had fairly equal amounts of both products, and then gradually mixed them together with the spatula. Once you have blended the cream, it should be used within thirty minutes. The next stage is to wash the area you will be applying the product to with soap and cold water, and then pat dry. You should then use the spatula to bring the mixed cream to the area of hair you wish to bleach - in my case the hairs above my upper lip. Some people use this product to lighten the hairs on their arms or stomachs. If using this product for those areas, I think you would either need to mix the creams in the tray a few more times, or perhaps find another, larger receptacle for mixing. I carefully applied the cream to the hairs, making sure that I had covered every last little one. When I'm having that area waxed, my beautician gets me to push my tongue against the inner corners of my lips, as this gives access to those pesky little hairs that reside near the sides of your lips. I used the same technique when applying the lightening cream. You are advised that you should not rub the cream into your skin, so I don't - but I do make sure to apply a good thick layer of cream, going over any areas where the coverage seems a bit patchy. The 'fragrance' of the two creams is not the loveliest in the world, but I didn't find it unpleasant, and it disappears once you have rinsed your face at the end of the process. You are advised to leave the product on for ten minutes, then remove the cream from a small area to check that the lightening process has worked effectively. If necessary, you can leave the cream on for another five minutes. If you have very dark, coarse hairs, you may need another application of the cream, but if so, you should allow at least 24 hours before applying it again. After I've applied the cream, I hide myself away from my husband while the product does its work (I think there are some things in married life that don't need to be shared). I usually lie on the bed and have a little rest, while keeping an eye on the clock. Once I'm happy that the hairs are light enough, I scrape the product away gently, using the spatula. This process isn't included in the instructions, which simply says that you should rinse the cream away with warm water, and then pat your skin dry. I just find it quicker to get rid of the cream that way. I am always delighted by the results - my hair now looks so fair that it can barely be seen. I have never had any adverse skin reaction, and - unlike waxing, which leaves the area affected bright red for a little while - there is no redness. There are certain precautions given with the instructions: 'Do not use immediately after a hot bath or shower'; 'Do not used on irritated or broken skin or on sensitive parts of the body'; 'Always wait 24 hours between applications'; and 'This product can stain. Do not let the product come into contact with fabrics, furnishings or household items'. You are told to keep this product out of the reach of children, and you are also given the warning that it contains hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. 'Avoid contact with eyes. If product gets into the eyes rinse well with water immediately and seek medical advice.' As I mentioned earlier, you can buy this products in two sizes. The 2x25ml costs £3.99, and the 2x50ml costs £5.99. There is currently (as of 14th February) an offer of 'Buy 1 get 2nd half price on selected Booth Smooth Care'. There are twenty-one products available in that range. I checked on eBay to see whether a bargain could be had, but no luck - there is only one entry for this product, and it offers no saving. I think my £3.99 purchase is excellent value for money. There is a lot left in the tubes, and I believe (as before, when it was the Boots Expert version), that this is going to be enough to last me for a few months. I find the whole process to be quick and easy, and I am happy to give Boots Smooth Care Hair Lightener five stars. I wholeheartedly recommend this product. I've been using it for years (in both its incarnations), and it always performs really well. (This review is also on Ciao, under the same user name.) Read the complete review |
 |
Boots Eyelash Curler
by amyboosimpson THE PRODUCT ___________ This is a metal eyelash curler with rubber pads. Its from Boots own range and is priced at £4.50. They are designed to curl lashes and make eyes appear wider and make lashes look longer. MY EXPERIENCE _____________ Well I was attracted to these because of the price, and I needed to ... quickly replace my old ones. I find metal ones better than plastic one and I think they metal onces last longer. This pair from Boots are about 4-5 inches long and are actually blacky/grey in colour. The packaging it came in is very basic, just a clear bag with a hook. Nothing special, but its good because you can see the curlers. The curlers also come with an extra rubber piece incase you need to replace it. Using them- 1) make sure your eyelashes are clean and free from old mascara. 2) open the curler and insert over lashes near to the root. 3) hold the curlers closed for 10-30 seconds. Repeat if more curl wanted. 4) apply mascara. Tips- I like to heat my curlers with the hairdryer for a few seconds as I find it keeps the curl longer. Never apply mascara first- it will make the eyelashes clump together and stick to the curler. Cleaning- You can use a make up wipe or cotton bud with make up remover on to wipe the curlers clean and to clean the rubber of any eyeliner. You can replace the rubber if it becomes unfirm, by using tweezers to pull on the corrner, that will pull all of the rubber out. Then just place the new one in and firmly push down. MY OPINION ____________ For me these curlers have little figer and thumb holders, making it difficult to hold to them and use, and also after a few weeks of use I found the metal arms to be bending which makes them less efficient and lead to not curling the lases so well. I also find the gap to put your lashes in too small. Meaning that some of the lashes dont get curled. They do however work dispite these little flaws. They do give a nice effect and do curl lashes well. I give these curlers 3/5 because the durability isnt very good in my opinion, because of the metal arms. They are easy to use but the sizing could be better to make them more effective, and the lash gap could be bigger. They work so I havent needed to buy new ones, however I wouldnt recommend them, I would say its better to spend your money on a better pair. Thanks for reading and rating. AmyBoo Read the complete review |
 |
Sanctuary Trim and Tone Body Wrap Set
by ladyofcampfires The Sanctuary Spa now do a 'professional' range of products which aim to give people spa treatments in the comfort of their own home saving time and quite a bit of money. When I saw a number of products from this range knocked down to ridiculously low prices in Boots a while back I couldn't resist trying a few products for ... myself. A few years back I lost just under five stone of weight and as a result have been left with a much slimmer but still quite flabby body! Toning exercises appear to require much more motivation from me than cardio exercises do though and the results of toning seem to be much slower than the initial weight loss and, whilst I am achieving my required results slowly, this trim and tone body wrap treatment just sounded very appealing to me and I was willing to give it a shot! At full price this little kit costs £26 from Boots and Sanctuary's website. I will be honest, I didn't really expect this to work so I wouldn't have paid that much for it at all. I managed to get it for a much more appealing £6.63 when it was on offer in Boots though and for that price I was willing to try it just on the off chance. Even if it didn't work, it would have still given me an excuse to have a full pamper day at some point. In the kit you get a 475g pot of 'Trim & Tone Body Clay', four rolls of 'Trim & Tone Body Wrap Bandages', an exfoliating loofah mitt, a 150cm tape measure and a usage instruction leaflet complete with tables for recording your before and after measurements. You also get a transparent, thick plastic zip up case to conveniently store all of this stuff. The body clay and bandages can be bought separately from Sanctuary's website when they need replacing. My initial problem for this though was the price of replacing them. Obviously I wasn't going to stock up on cheaper kits whilst still on offer at Boots before I'd tested this a few times to ensure it was something I would want to continue using. Having said that, this would have to work really well for me to pay £10.21 for extra bandages and £12.25 for another pot of clay when I paid less than £7 for the full kit in the first place. The instruction leaflet explains this kit should be used in five steps and I think the best way to review this will be to go through my experiences each step at a time. Step one: Measure. In order to see if you've lost any inches you obviously need to measure the area you're treating beforehand. The leaflet suggests measuring the circumference of four different places, a couple of cm apart, of the area you'll be treating. I have done my 'bingo wings', thighs and stomach with this so have been doing a lot of measuring! The leaflet suggests taking a pen and lightly marking where you've measured to ensure you measure in the same place when checking your results although this is completely pointless as when you take the bandages and clay off your pen marks are no longer visible. Step two: Prepare. You then need to place the rolled up bandages in warm water to allow them warm whilst the skin is prepared. I just fill my sink up and leave them to soak. Then, taking the dry loofah mit, you need to exfoliate the area you'll be treating. This apparently stimulates circulation which allows the clay to 'penetrate more effectively'. The loofah mit has a handy handle across the back and once I've slipped my hand into this the mit covers my hand nearly entirely so it's a decent size. I do find this mit is extremely effective at exfoliating my skin but also quite rough so I don't find myself applying much pressure when using this. I do really like the loofah mit though and quickly found myself taking comfort in the fact that even if this didn't do anything for my body, at least I got a nice, effective loofah mit out of it! Step three: Apply. Now it's time to apply the clay to the areas you'll be 'treating'. The clay is, as you'd expect, quite a dull grey colour and quite thick too. You need to apply a thin layer of this which is easily done as it spreads across the skin really easily. The clay dries really quickly too and I usually find it has dried on the bits I have applied it too first before I've finished applying it to that particular body part. I do quite like this about the clay as it means there's less time for me to get it everywhere before I've wrapped myself in bandages. Whilst I haven't got this on clothes or on my sofa etc, I can't imagine it being very easy to get out if you did so probably best to apply the clay away from anything like that. I somehow managed to get a little bit of my dog's ears and he needed a good scrub in the bath to get out it again! Once you've applied the clay to the relevant places it's time to wrap your body up. You need to remove your bandages from the water they're soaking in and squeeze out as much water as possible. Once you've done this you just need to wrap them around you in the same way you would wrap a bandage around an injured part of the body. Nice and tight to keep it in place but not to the point where it becomes restrictive. Putting the warm bandages on feels absolutely wonderful, very relaxing! I'm not sure how long the bandages are exactly but they're a decent length. One bandage will wrap one of my arms or one of my thighs although this would obviously vary person to person. I think you'd have to be very slim to wrap your stomach in just one though and I personally use two rolls for this area. A strip of Velcro is attached to the end of each roll so you can just stick the ends of the bandages down - very handy! I've also found they stay in place too. Step four: Relax! Now you just need to sit around for at least an hour and let the potential magic happen. The instruction leaflet emphasises the importance of keeping warm whilst doing this although I find this quite difficult. Obviously once those bandages which have been soaking in warm water hit room temperature they start to feel quite cold. The idea is to relax whilst doing this anyway but you really can't get anything done whilst doing this as you just need to lounge about under masses of duvets to keep your body warm. Not that I'm complaining much about that mind you! Providing you've wrapped the bandages around yourself properly then sitting in these never becomes uncomfortable. It is, however, near on impossible to slouch when wrapped up around the torso which can only be good for the posture! Step five: Remove and Rinse. After at least an hour it's time to remove the bandages, rinse off the clay and get that tape measure back out to see if you've lost any inches. The clay is easy to remove. By this point the clay has dried although it doesn't turn into a crumbly mess fortunately. I tend to take a wet flannel and just wipe it over the parts of my body covered in the clay. This removes it quickly and easily and the clay doesn't stain my flannel and after a quick rinse it's good to be used again. The obvious next step is to dry off and once you've done so you may be impressed. Not so much at the fact you look two dress sizes slimmer but just as how soft and smooth the skin feels. The clay really does a wonderful job at making the skin feel baby soft and if all else failed, I took comfort in this. I'm always exfoliating and moisturising but I've never gotten results in terms of how soft my skin is as good as this clay wrap gives me. Step six: Measure. One last step and you're all done. Take out that tape measure again and compare your before and after measurements. I firstly tried this on my legs and I have to say although I didn't lose any measurements worth writing home about (a mere cm on each thigh) I did notice my skin looked much fresher and healthier. I was a little disappointed in the lack of inches lost but was really impressed at how good my skin looked and felt and I was definitely willing to have another go whilst I still had clay left so I could get my skin looking this wonderful again. The next time I tried my stomach. My stomach is the area which needs the most work toning up wise. This is the area most of my weight disappeared from and this is the area I tend to neglect when doing my toning exercises as I just find them so hard and painful the next morning! I was quite interested then to see if this would work any better on my stomach. To be honest my thighs are already quite toned. I do an awful lot of walking and regularly use my exercise bike which helps tone this area so wanted to see if my results would improve on the area where there definitely was plenty of room for toning up. I did get slightly better results from wrapping my stomach. After this I lost an inch from my hips, an inch from my waist and another inch from just under my bust. Furthermore I was also left with the same beautifully soft, smooth and healthy looking skin I was left with after doing my thighs. However, I still didn't feel the area looked any more 'toned'. Granted the skin did look an awful lot better which was pleasing but those inches I lost were quickly gained again (after all, all this does is reduce water attention so as soon as you have a drink it goes back on again) and I didn't feel I had toned up any. No reductions happened in my arms either nor did these look any more toned. Again, however, my skin was left in its best ever condition. So to conclude, I'm happy enough with my less than £7 purchase and feel this was well worth the money just for the amazing results this body wrap has on my skin. I don't think it's worth its full price though I definitely won't be purchasing another pot of clay when mine runs out unless I find it significantly reduced in price. Unfortunately this kit doesn't perform where it claims it will. 'Trimming' can be achieved very slightly for a very short amount of time and this would perhaps be best used if you were looking to slip into something a little daring for a while although I can't see it being very useful in any other situation. Likewise, 'toning' results are virtually impossible to see leaving me a little disappointed. I love how relaxing this kit is and I love how wonderful it makes my skin look and feel and if it were advertised for that purpose then it would be getting five stars from me. Unfortunately it isn't so I'll have to give this a low rating. Read the complete review |
Other Beauty Product |
||
|---|---|---|
|
4 reviews Brand: No.7 / Other Beauty Product / Type: Eyelash curler |
|
|
1 review Brand: Wilko / Other Beauty Product / Skin Care Type: Self tan wipes |
|
|
1 review Brand: Lush / Other Beauty Product / Type: Bath Ballistic |
|
|
4 reviews Brand: The Body Shop / Other Beauty Product / Type: Nail File |
|
|
Brand: Perfect 10 / Other Beauty Product / Type: Artificial Nails |
|
|
2 reviews Brand: Derma V10 / Other Beauty Product / Type: Nail Polish Remover Pads |
|
|
1 review Brand: Paul & Joe / Other Beauty Product / Type: Brush Holder |
|
|
1 review Brand: Elemis / Other Beauty Product / Type: Room Mist |
|
|
1 review Brand: Boots / Other Beauty Product / Type: Nail Care - Cuticle Trimmer |
|
|
3 reviews Brand: Avon / Other Beauty Product / Type: Nail Care - Peeling and Brittleness Solver |
|
| Other Beauty Product recommendations 1 ... 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ... back next | ||
| dooyoo Results 71 - 80 of 279 | ||
