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I wanted to like the Aveno apple cider vinegar shampoo, but unfortunately for me I won’t be looking for this when I am shopping for a shampoo. While it did what it promised, and that was to remove product build up in hair, the end of my hair felt dry and brittle and in need of more nourishment than the Aveno apple cider vinegar shampoo and conditioner were able to do. Other than that little personal critique, I did like the packaging, it felt organic and natural and I do like a bottle where I can see the contents inside. Great for knowing how much product is left and when to look at restocking. The smell of the shampoo was also quite pleasant and not over powering at all. I absolutely hate over fragranced hair products, it is one of my biggest complaints. All in all it was a shampoo that did cleans my hair and remove the build up, the roots of my hair did feel like that had a good scrub, however the ends of my hair were left quite dry and almost straw like and in the need of a good hydrating conditioner.

L’Oréal’s age perfect cell renewal serum was a pleasure to trial. The smokey black and gold ombré glass bottle is just simply delightful, and the quilted impressions in the glass make it feel quite luxurious to hold. The coloured glass does make it a little bit difficult to see the volume of the contents, but that doesn’t really matter too much. I particularly like that it contains a dropper so you know exactly how much product to apply. The 4 drops recommended in the directions is the perfect amount to apply a thin veil over the entire face, neck and décolletage area. The product itself when applied is silky smooth to the touch and feels like it is absorbed into the skin really quickly and doesn’t leave any residue feeling sitting on top of the skin. The pale yellow hue of the serum is interesting and the smell of it is something familiar to me although I can’t quite put my finger on what it is although it is pleasant and not offensive in any way. After using the midnight serum every morning and night for a couple of weeks I can’t exactly say I am seeing dramatic results, but any product that is going to help hydrate and protect my skin from any future premature ageing is worth it in my books.

I’ve been trialling Dermaveen’s newest body sun screen for a little while now. It’s been a little challenging to fully trial out a sun screen product when the sun has been struggling to make an appearance. But when the sun has managed to penetrate through the cloud cover I have seen and felt the effects of the sun screen and the results look very promising. The sunscreen , with its new formulation, is easy to use and doesn’t take forever to rub in like some other competing brand’s with similar SPF can do. What I really liked was that it also included a moisturising component. Cause let’s face it, any time we can have some extra hydration during the hot, warm summer months in Australia is 100 percent beneficial. We spend so much time in the sun in Australia that any thing that takes the chore out of sun protection is always a winner in my opinion.

I was lucky enough to be able to trial Nivea’s sun UV shine control spf50 face sunscreen. Unlucky however in that I had to trial it while Perth had the wettest July in 26 years and the sun very rarely made an appearance. It was a bit hard to give Nivea’s sun I’ve shine control spf50 face subscreen a fully comprehensive trial as I hadn’t seen the sun in weeks and there was an extremely limited ability to actually test its effectiveness at avoiding damaging sun exposure. I did however use it just as a daily spf face sunscreen which I found to be quite pleasant and not too shined as promised. I do normally use a Korean sun gel on my face which is amazing, and still preferable to Nivea’s product, but for an spf50 face sunscreen I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. I didn’t feel like tiit was clogging my pores like regular sunscreens do and it didn’t make me look like a ghost, all white and shiney.

I really liked this eye cream I was given the opportunity to try. Olay’s Retinol 24 Eye Cream has a lovely silky texture that glides over the eye area extremely easily. A teeny tiny bit goes an extremely long way. What I really liked was that there was no residue sitting around my eyes, my skin just seemed to soak it right up. The little pot of eye cream is exactly what I had expected and is exactly the thing that annoys me about the majority of night creams on the market, and that is the fact that there is the risk of introducing contaminated and bacteria into the eye cream as you are dipping your finger directly into the product in the pot. Why is no one able to redesign the eye cream pot to reduce the contamination, a pump bottle or some sort of single dose applicator, or a simple spatula would have given you at least an extra star.

Luckily for me I was able to try out the new Olay Retinol 24 Night Serum. The serum in it self it very light and silky and glides right on the skin effortlessly and without any residue feeling. The bottle dropper syringe application is something I have never seen before, it does work well at delivering the perfect amount of serum without any Potential for contamination of the bulk of the serum. However the syringe applicator is not the easiest thing to screw back on to the bottle once your hands are still slick with serum after applying it to your face. I used this serum for 2 weeks, but can’t say that I see any discernible deference between my skin texture, appearance or features comparing before use and after. Perhaps I just need to use it for a little bit longer to see if there are any true long term benefits.

Glow Haircares Stimulating Scalp Scrub is exactly as it says it is, stimulating. It had quite a strong mint smell about it and when squeezed into your hands looks more like something you would foliage your body with, but alas it is for exfoliating your scalp ( I didn’t know scalps needed exfoliating until now). The instructions direct you to wet your hair then part into sections and massage the product into the scalp. I didn’t know about you, but once my hair is wet, without the use of conditioners or detanglers is almost impossible to part into sections. I did give this product my best go and did receive the experience of a stimulated scalp. It actually felt like I had poured a bottle of mouthwash on my hair. It wasn’t unpleasant, just tingly and cool feeling. The product lathered up fine and I did feel squeaky clean. But honestly if the three products in the trial this was my least favourite.

Grow Haircares Longer Stronger Anti Breakage Hair Mask was my second favourite product I was able to try from the Grow Haircare Range. The first thing I notice after opening the little plastic pouch as the delicious smell of the mask, and it lingered on my hair for days after using. I did have to down grade this product one star as the packaging was not very large. I have waist length hair and in order the get a full root to tip application, I had to use half the product in the pouch. So I only got to use the hair mask twice. Perhaps it was just a sample sized product, but considering the other two products we received were full sized, I doubt it. It was a really really nice mask. It did feel very hydrating and luxurious. My hair did feel better after using it, but it’s hard to get a full appreciation of a product after only 2 uses. I did enjoy it being in a pouch much better then being in a tub unlike other hair masks.

Grow Haircare’s Thicker Volumising Dry Shampoo would have to be my favourite of the three Grow Haircare products I got to trial. I had only ever used dry shampoos in an aerosol can before, and I won’t ever be going back. I loved the pump action application of the dry shampoo powder. It was super easy and dispensed the right amount of product. It blended well with my hair, soaked up the oil and definitely added volume. And to top it off the smell of the product to me was like musk lollies, a childhood favourite of mine. The packaging was tiny in comparison to the other styled aerospace cans and even better for the environment being Chluoro Fleuro Carbon (CFC) free. The colouring of the label was cute, it included all the information it needed and nothing it didn’t. Best of all it’s small enough to go in my handbag and be unobtrusive, and safe to take on air travel (when we can travel again)

I usually love rosewater, how light and fresh it smells without being over powering, but I cannot say that about Pantene Pro V Micellar Series Blends Rosewater Conditioner. It did smell like something that my grand mother would dust herself with after a bath. My husband wasn’t much of a fan of the smell of my hair after using it either, describing it as being a bit old lady. I mean the conditioner wasn’t really a stand out for me. It didn’t really seem to do anything spectacular, just felt like any other ordinary conditioner you can buy off the shelf. The pacakaging wasn’t super appealing. The plastic bottle wrapped in another plastic wrapping felt cheap and not very environmentally conscious. The pump on top of the bottles was a nice touch though. I do tend to lean more towards packaging that is user friendly with a pump over a squeeze type bottle/ tube