Haircare: 30 day hair challenge day #3 - Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment

What is it: A 10-30 minute conditioning treatment, this is the third product in the Liz Earle Haircare range.

Price point: £14 for a 150ml tube, this comes in much cheaper than salon competitors. Regular readers already know this is going to be a rave review, so I’d say it’s damn good value.

USP: It’s a hair treatment by Liz Earle. Basically, they had me at ‘hello’.

Would I recommend it: It’s the same old story with me and Liz: I just can’t find a bad word to say about any of their products. You need a relatively small amount, you leave it for a while, you wash it out, and you find that somehow, and without you noticing, someone has neatly grafted Giselle’s hair onto your scalp. Beyond this, the entire Liz Earle line just strikes the perfect pitch – natural, ethical, innovative and then there’s the shopping  experience: fabulous staff, beautiful packaging (don’t get me started on the perfectly wrapped mail order products – it’s like shopping origami) and now with a loyalty scheme, I really wouldn’t mind if I was never allowed to shop anywhere else.

Would I repurchase: Given that I have repurchased every single product I’ve ever bought from Liz Earle, the answer is a very predictable, yet no less emphatic ‘YES!’ 

Review: 30 day hair challenge day #2 - John Frieda Three Day Straight

Ok, this is the second post in my 'month of happy hair' blog challenge. I wonder if I'll make it to 30...?

What is it: Three Day Straight is a spray-in straightening product that’s used when hair is still wet. It works in the same way as Brazilian blow dries, using straightening irons to seal in the treatment, allowing three days of straight hair-wear.

Price point: Cheap. £6.99 for a decent sized bottle. The product also acts as a heat protectant meaning you don’t need to double up on that.

USP: It’s an accessible way of getting sleek hair without the hefty salon price tag for a Brazilian blow dry or the hassle of an at-home treatment.

Would I recommend it: Yes, I’m in love with it! I’ve been contemplating trying to manage without my Brazilian blow dry treatments and after three weeks of use, I’m really impressed with this. I have to confess that I’m not always using straightening irons as I had previously only used them very infrequently in my quest for healthier locks, but the effect has been a natural looking blow dry that I can now style with some curl whilst maintaining sleek hair. It’s not quite Kate Middleton, but it’s the closest I’ll get, and I like it!

My long-ish, thick hair takes around fifteen spritzes of the product, which is combed through clean, towel dried hair. The resulting blow dry is incredibly simple, and if it’s followed with straightening irons, the finishing look is glossy and sleek. I have left it three days without washing and with a bit of a Batiste refresh, the style looks perfect.

Would I repurchase: Absolutely. I’d especially recommend this for those of you with thick, dry hair who are aiming to limit the amount of heat styling to improve your hair’s health. The product is a complete winner.

Inspiration: Disney Princesses Vogue Covers

How amazing is this illustration of Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid? I love the style, attitude and the 'Thingamabobs? She's got 20' cover story (I was such a Little Mermaid nut when I was younger!). You can see the rest of the series, drawn by Dante Tyler, here. Who's your favourite?

Review: 30 day hair challenge day #1 - Rahua shampoo, conditioner and finishing treatment

It's haircare month here at The Beauty Hall and I'll be sharing with you some of my favourite new finds and old favourites. I'm also trialling a new review format so let me know what you think!

What is it: Pronounced ‘Ra-wa’, it’s a haircare range based around four products – shampoo, conditioner, finishing treatment and the eye-wateringly expensive Elixir. They’ve recently introduced a volumising line to the range.

Price point: Expensive. The shampoo is £26, conditioner £28, finishing treatment a cool £36 and then a staggering £135 for the Elixir.

USP: The range is entirely organic, and contains Rahua oil used for centuries by the Quecha-Shuar tribe in the Amazon.  The women of the tribe credit the oil as the reason for their thick, lustrous hair and the aim of the range is to improve hair strength to enable growth with less breakage. I’m desperate to get my hair a few inches longer so anything that can help with that sounds good to me!

Would I recommend it: I’ve read mixed reviews of Rahua products, and my first experience wasn’t especially exciting. With such a hefty price tag, one can’t help but expect great things, and I have to say I was disappointed. I used them twice more and then switched back to my old favourite, occasionally spying the Rahua bottles in the cupboard and wondering how something so expensive could be so average. I resolved that it couldn’t be, so I tried again and something good happened: my hair got some serious gloss and the kind of bounce I’ve only seen from a salon blow dry. It was silky, manageable and has looked the best it has done in years. So why the initial poor results?

For me, this is definitely a range I needed to persevere with, and I have been astonished at the results. I was perhaps a little heavy-handed with the applications the first few times, as less is definitely more. I shampoo my thick hair twice as I can never get a decent lather on the first wash, even when my hair is soaked, but need only a minimal amount of product. The conditioner is rich and again, a little goes a long way. The star of the range for me has been the finishing treatment. A little applied to the lengths and ends seals the cuticle and leaves you with a glossy, gleaming mane.

Would I repurchase: Firstly, I feel it’s important to note that I won these products rather than buying them or receiving them from a PR company. I don’t normally disclose that, but given the price point, I wanted to share that I’m not sure I would ever have bought the entire range without some seriously good reviews. I’ve not included the Elixir in this review for the simple fact that I haven’t been using it, but I'll soon be putting it through its paces.

That said, I will definitely buy the finishing treatment, which I’ve been using for around three weeks, compared to two weeks using the shampoo and conditioner. It’s been eight weeks since I last had my hair cut, and normally, I’d have needed to schedule a chop two weeks ago. The finishing treatment and another ‘to be reviewed’ product are the only things different in my routine, and at £36, the large-ish pot seems a sound, long-lasting investment.

I’ve seen a big difference since using the shampoo and conditioner, but the thought of spending £54 on these products seems to me a little excessive. That said, if you’re desperate to grow your hair and find it getting to the point where it looks too damaged and you’re prepared to invest, I’d recommend giving this range a try. I don’t think I’ll use it all the time, but perhaps alternating this with my other favourite range will help me to justify the investment!

What do you think? Is spending this much on haircare madness?

Review: St Tropez Naturals

I'm currently looking out at a very flat grey sky which seems a far cry from the beautiful sunshine we had in London a couple of weeks ago. I'm just back from a few days in Wales and couldn't believe that on our third day, we were driving through a snowy blizzard! Why isn't it summer already?!

It's about this time of year that I start getting excited about long, leisurely evenings outside with friends, lunchtime in the park and investing in some summery additions to my wardrobe. In my head, I have visions of myself bronzed and relaxed in an endless sunny haze. The main problem with this fantasy is that I am pale, almost to the point of transparency. A tan for me is a few freckles and a slight darkening to off-white. 'So what?' you think. 'Get some fake tan on!' This is where the story takes a cruel twist. Yep, I'm ghostly pale and I'm allergic to fake tan. Allergic.

The chemical in fake tan that reacts with skin to turn us beautiful bronze - DHA - is what I'm allergic to. Once the tan has developed, I'm left with itchy white bumps across my skin which no amount of antihistamine can clear. I resolved last year after trying L'Oreal Sublime Bronze that there was really no hope for me. That was, until I discovered St Tropez Naturals.

Naturals uses Vegetan - a 100% natural, vegetable-derived tanning agent - and happily for me, no DHA. It's not completely without irritation for me, generally giving me tiny patches on my shins, but it's nothing a preemptive antihistamine won't solve. 

As with the main St Tropez range, the colour is beautiful, although much lighter (it can, of course, be built up for a darker tan). As well as being perfect for sensitive skins, this would also make a great choice for those without allergy who are just very pale. While the campaign image would never be considered a tan by TOWIE standards, for pale skinned redheads like me, it's a perfect glow that looks both healthy and natural.

One thing I'd really hoped for was a move away from that weird fake tan smell that lies somewhere between biscuits and sulphur. Well, it certainly doesn't smell like that: it smells a lot like aftershave. I've not quite got into a routine with tanning at night yet, so I spent a Saturday wafting around the park smelling like a teenage boy on his way to the school disco. That said, the sun was shining and I was watching my skin turn a beautiful light golden brown. The next day, all traces of aftershave scent eradicated, I went to Zara and tried on a cream blazer over my knee length black dress. I stood looking in the mirror for a good five minutes, quite unable to believe that the honeyed limbs in front of me were mine. Thank you, St Tropez, for bringing some colour to a pale girl's life!

I used the St Tropez Naturals Self Tan Lotion available here at £26.55.