No.2 - Cheap Things! - What works and what doesn't!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to instalment Number 2 of Cheap things – what works and what doesn’t! I’d just like to start by saying this of course just my opinion, it’s not definitive! I’m just writing about my experiences with the different things that I mention!..Anyways onto this instalments products!

The first thing I’m going to talk about is a brand I’ve seen in quite a few places, Tesco, Bargain stores, Savers etc., it is Derma V10. I’ve tried a couple of different products of theirs and I’ve never been impressed. A couple of months back I tried a hair dye from their line, I believe it was £1.99 per pack, I always get two because I have long hair. I don’t dye my hair very often, it’s a dark brown – black colour and I love it like that! But around twice a year I like to dye it just a shade darker than it naturally is, to keep it’s dark look. I usually use Nice n’ Easy but at the time I was still a student and so the pennies were tight! I said I would try Derma V10 hair dye. 
It was AWFUL! For a number of reasons; to start the smell, I know most dyes don’t smell good obviously, but this smell was vile (the smell was as bad as what I’ve experienced cleaning out the bed of a 200 kg Tiger – not pretty!). It went onto my hair fine and everything but as soon as it touched my scalp it started to burn, now I did the skin test and I have never reacted badly to dye but this gave a stinging sensation. Not so bad that I was like “GET THIS OFF MY HEAD ASAP!” or anything, but more I guess, uncomfortable. Anyways I stuck with it and left it on for the allocated times, washed it out and used the conditioner, as per the instructions. So when I got out of the shower and dried my hair I was expecting the “Darkest Brown” it said it would be..........So you will imagine my dismay when the colour I actually got was a light ginger tinged brown!! No offence intended to anybody with shade of hair, but it does not suit me and it was definitely not the colour promised by the product! I did consider writing a complaint but I guess with hair dye selling for £1.99, what could I expect?..

The other products from Derma V10 that I have picked up include a moisturiser and an anti-wrinkle eye cream. The moisturiser called Q10 innovations - day cream, it cost no more than £2 I think and it looks like this...

I have normal to dry skin. This moisturiser is quite a thick consistency and it feels very greasy on the skin. I’ve used it in times when my skin was feeling quite dry and although the immediate feeling is fine, it doesn’t last. I want my moisturiser to “lock moisture in”, not to leave my skin feeling dry again within 30 minutes. So in general I wasn’t impressed with this either.

The wrinkle cream I don’t feel I can really comment on; I’m only in my 20’s and I’m not too wrinkly yet! I bought it more as just an eye cream to see how if it worked to reduce puffiness etc. like many others do. It doesn’t do this for me, but to be fair it doesn’t claim that it will, it is an anti-wrinkle cream and so like I said, I don’t think I can really comment on its effectiveness too much.

The other “What Doesn’t Work” product for this post is the skin therapy eye makeup remover. I bought this from Wilkinsons for 79p, and it looks like this.

I usually remove my makeup using a wet wipe, then wash my face, then get any remaining eye makeup off by using an eye makeup remover. This product just didn’t work for me. I would put some on a cotton pad and attempt to remove little bit of remaining eye makeup like eyeliner and mascara; but I may as well have just been using water. It simply didn’t work for me, it left 90% of makeup behind, I wasn’t impressed! I have since discovered eye makeup remover pads – which I love, maybe I’ll feature them in a post soon!

So on to what works then!

Firstly I am going to talk about a bronzer I discovered over a year ago! I originally bought it from ASDA for £1 (since asda have changed their makeup around I’m not sure if it is still available), but I just recently re-purchased (3^rd time) from Dunnes Stores in Ireland for just over €1. It looks like this..

No money wasted on pretty packaging as you can see but the product itself is really nice. It’s a nice natural shade, completely matte and it goes on really well. I use this on my face sometimes just to add some colour and also I’ve used it down the neck and to chest area, again just to give a more “sun kissed” glow.  Here is a swatch...

Overall really nice, really cheap..You can’t go wrong!

AND FINALLY!

My second “What works” product of this post...Perfume! Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing quite as nice as a designer perfume, and until I purchased the bad boy featured here recently, designer brand perfume was all I owned. The reason I bought this is because although I still love the more expensive perfumes, I wanted something that when travelling, or on a night out etc. that I could just throw in my bag and not worry about it getting tarnished or used up really quickly (Yes I worry about getting scratches and things on my perfume bottles..most of them are really pretty!). So I bought this Virtual Brands “D’accord” 50ml perfume for 99p in the bargain store “B&M”. It looks like this..

This is a really nice smelling perfume, I’m not great at describing smells but I will try! It’s not fruity at all, definitely a more classical scent, but without being too old fashioned. It doesn’t last as long as my other perfumes, but I still love it. I worked in bar while I was studying and throughout the night drinks would be spilled, I would use cleaning fluids and all that jazz; so it was nice to have something just thrown in my bag that would keep me smelling good! If you don’t mind taking your more expensive perfumes out with you then that’s cool, but for anyone else like me I think this is a really good option!

So I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it was another lengthy one!

Karen :) x