Face, Hair and Hands - three recommended products

Three products tested over the last three weeks for face, hair and hands, enjoy!

Healthy Hands

I don't know about anyone else but once the central heating goes on my hands completely dry out.  It doesn't matter that I wear gloves outside and washing up gloves inside when cleaning or washing up but somehow my hands always end up looking 20 years old than I am.  Not pretty.  Last year they were sore, the skin was cracked and they felt and looked awful.  So this year I've decided to start as I mean to go on, I am now on a Soft Hand Scheme which started two weeks ago and will end in about April, when it warms up outside (hopefully).  The only soap in the house is moisturising and I went out and bought several handcreams, and I've put a handcream in each room in the house and in all my handbags and in my car and hubbys car too.  There is NO excuse not to use handcream any more!

Of course, I guess we all know that handcreams are much of a muchness, personally I can't bear the greasy ones that take ages to sink in but they are the ones that seem to really help the dry skin aren't they?  I never know what to buy even if I read all the reviews in magazines and I've been on the look out for a cream that sinks in quickly, isn't greasy, smells great and instantly softens the skin and guess what?  I found one.

Hand & Nail Cream by Sainsburys

The winner is "Hand & Nail Cream by Sainsburys".  Yes, a supermarket brand people, its great.  This cream has got Vitamin E in it, the smell is a bit like cocoa butter or vanilla (I can't decide which), but anyway its a warm smell and it lingers too, like a perfume.  The cost is just £1.00 for a 75ml tube, when compared with a Vaseline 50ml tube of handcream (although they are always lovely) which costs at least £3.00 so there is quite a saving here too, always a bonus!

Aldi Lacura Face Wash Gel

Fresh Face

The next product I'm going to rave about is another supermarket brand - Aldi.  Who knew that their Gentle Face Wash Gel was so fab? Seriously. I am usually a Nivea facewash girl, I have been for years but when mine was running out I was doing a supermarket shop and I saw this and thought "why not"?  Its called Lacura, which is the Aldi skin care range (they also do moisturisers, eye cream, shower gel etc, none of which I have tried yet), its got Pro-Vitamin B5 in it, its 100% soap free, its not perfumed, not coloured, and its paraben free ... its actually a bit like the Simple range but I think its better and you don't need very much to wash your face either so it lasts a long time.  It also gets rid of make up brilliantly (I'm talking every day make up, not sure how it would fare with waterproof mascara, I'll try it).  Again, the price is right, 150ml (pictured on right) costs just £1.29, considerably less than the £3.59 I usually pay for Nivea Daily Essentials Face Wash Gel.  Incidentally, I should say that my Mum has been championing Lacura for ages, I'm just off to ring her to tell her she was right!


Fight against the Frizz!

Aussie Miracle Frizz Remedy

My last product test was prompted by a week of school runs in the rain.  We don't live far from the school so we walk whenever possible.  Unfortunately, when its raining even though its not far, it is a total hair disaster.  My hair is long and wavy/curly.  Does anyone remember that episode of Friends where they go to Barbados and the humidity gets to Monica's hair and it goes massive?  Well that's like me, except my hair is red, not brunette.  Anyway, whilst frizzy hair can only be described as a 'first world' problem it is quite annoying so I set out to find something to tame the dreaded frizz regardless of weather conditions.  I was in Boots and saw a new spray from the Aussie range.  Its called Aussie Miracle Recharge Frizz Remedy, its a leave in conditioner (perfect for me who hasn't got a lot of time in the shower in the mornings) and its got Australian jojoba seed oil in it.  So I thought I'd try it. To be honest I didn't really know how it was going to work out, I'm normally quite sceptical about products that claim to "tame frizz" because I've tried quite a few and none of them have ever really made much of a difference but I was pleasantly surprised because this
new Aussie product does do what it says on the label!  It can be used on wet or dry hair (though I've only tried wet so far) it gets the tangles out immediately and smells lovely, my 4 year old asked me what my new perfume was, bless him.  I didn't put any other product on my hair, just dried it on a mid heat setting, ran my barrel heated hairbrush round the ends and that was it, as well as helping frizz it also acts as heat protection so you can use curling tongs/straightners without feeling guilty about doing bad things to your hair!  I did two damp/wet school runs at either end of the day and only minimal frizz!  So this product can definitely be recommended.  The cost is £4.49 for 250ml (pictured right).