A few Friday favourites!

As its Friday and I have an unheard of but very well deserved day off work, I thought I'd do a small review and share some of my current favourite products!

Boots Coconut & Almond Intensive Hair Mask - £1.99

The first product is not actually a 'recent' purchase, I've been using it for over a year now, but I've never raved about it other than to my close friends. Boots Coconut & Almond Intensive Hair Mask retails at only £1.99, which is amazingly cheap for such a brilliant product. I use this as an alternative to regular conditioners and have found that it not only smells beautiful but it also leaves hair feeling light, clean and silky soft after every wash. The reason I initially bought this is because my hair was in need of a deeper treatment than regular conditioner as I had been dying and bleaching my ends for quite some time, leaving it in a dire condition. However, after using this product a few times, I found my hair had been repaired somewhat, feeling much more nourished and a lot less frazzled! Since then, I have carried on using it and I can't see myself changing back to conditioner anytime soon. I have recommended it to all my friends and some work-mates who have also bought it and had the same results.

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Lee Stafford Treatment for Hair That Never Grows Past a Certain Length - £7.99

The next item is another hair product, which I'm sure most bloggers will have heard of by now, if not tried for themselves. Lee Stafford Treatment for Hair that Never Grows Past a Certain Length, is a treatment that promises to 'fertilize' hair follicles in order to help hair grow to its full potential. It is quite an expensive buy, at nearly £8 and I had read many mixed reviews before purchasing,  but with such a promise, I felt the need to test it out for myself. I have hair that struggles to get past my shoulders and therefore flicks out really annoyingly, so anything to give it that little push is worth trying in my book. 

With this product, you shampoo your hair as normal, and then whack some of this on and leave for about 5 minutes, massaging it into your roots and ends while you wait. You then rinse it off and condition as you normally would. The instructions suggest that after using it for a while, you should decrease usage to once a week, but I have been using it with just about every wash for the last month or so because I wanted to see results. While I knew I'd be waiting a while before I saw any growth, the condition of my hair improved instantly, leaving my hair feeling glossier and healthier after the first use. 

Now to the vital part - has it made my hair grow at all? To be completely honest, I do feel that it has grown a little. Some days its really noticeable and others not so much, but thinking back to when I first started using it, I believe that it has grown more than it usually would. I'm not in any way claiming that after using this you will suddenly be a rival to Rapunzel, but for me personally, there has been a slight change. I have just about finished this tub now and if I can conjur up another £7.99, I will be repurchasing, so hopefully after two tubs, I will be able to give an even clearer indication of hair growth. Overall, worth trying if you can afford to do so!

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T-Zone Clear Out Nose Pore Strips - Around £2.99 (I could be mistaken) 

I found these at work (Poundstretcher) and decided to give them a go, as I have massive pores that often get clogged, especially around my t-zone. With this product you simply wash your face, making sure its sufficiently soaked, and place one of the strips over the top of your nose, leaving for about 10 minutes or as long as it takes for it to dry. As the strip dries, it becomes quite solid and stiff, which might alarm you, but this is how it drags the bacteria out of the clogged pores. You then quickly peel off the strip like pulling off a plaster. If like me, you are a little bit gross, you can see just how much grubbiness the strip managed to pull out by looking at the other side. I was amazed to see just how much bacteria these strips pulled out, and because of this, I now regularly use them after showering. Because of the great results these strips gave me, I am dying to find something similar but for my whole face. If anyone knows of any cheap face masks made of a similar material that can be pulled off in the same sort of way please let me know! But in all seriousness, if you also have blocked pores around the nose, give these a go.

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Soap and Glory 'The FabPore' Cleansing Wipes - £3.00

On the subject of pores, I came across these Soap and Glory cleansing wipes in Boots. They contain something called 'Poreshrink-4' which is supposed to help minimise pores for a fresher face. I am already a big lover of Soap and Glory products so I decided to try these wipes out, as like I said earlier, I have huge pores which could definitely do with minimising! The instructions tell you to use the wipes in any areas which cause problems blemish and spot-wise, but I just used them all over like a regular face wipe. After about 2 minutes my face started burning a little which alarmed me at first, but after reading the packet, it does warn that the face might tingle due to the presence of 'Poreshrink-4'. Despite the tingly feeling, once my face dried, it did feel really soft and fresh. I have only used these a few times up to now, but I really like the softness of my face afterwards. As for the minimised pores, I will have to report back after more regular use, but I have every faith in these beautiful smelling cleansing wipes.

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Seventeen Off the Wall Graffiti Nail Effects in 'Monochrome' -  £3.99

The final product I've been loving lately is one that I only bought this week, but I have used it 3 times already! This Nail Effect paint from Seventeen is a clear polish with big bits of black and white confetti in it, which makes for a great effect over your favourite nail colour. Here are some examples of colours I've teamed it with:

I love the finish of this polish, and would love to see Seventeen bring out a bigger range of these Graffiti Nail Effect paints, such as a gold/silver or a pastel one that would look great over black polish. The only criticism I have of this is that it is an absolute nightmare to get off. Like glitter polishes, it takes a lot of scrubbing. But other than that I really like this and if you're a polish collector like me, you should definitely invest!