Belated January 'Dobos'

So what did we learn this January? Products not to waste your precious pennies on this year, or actually ever... Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you let your usual research slip for a second in a brief moment of urgency, or whether you've been gathering intelligence on a product for the 6 months prior to purchase – some stuff just ain't good. This month, my disappointing products have been quite limited really with only 4 making it into the pack (and these I'd been testing out for a few months), so I suppose we can call this a good run! Let's hope next month I can get it down to just 3! Or is that wishful thinking?

First up was one of those panic purchases. I'd been squeezing the very dregs out of my old Benefit Porefessional for longer than I care to admit and had not seen anything I was keen to purchase (hindered by my budget at the time). With a voucher in tow, I decided the No7 Stay Perfect Primer felt pretty similar to Benefit Porefessional on my skin and on that basis alone I purchased. When I got home and emptied the box, I confess I was shocked at how small this was. No matter I thought, my Porefessional is pretty compact and that lasts aaaageesss. Unfortunately this does not have the same Mary Poppins-ness about it and I think I used it up in about a month, which is ridiculously fast for me. All in all, not bad for a drug store product  – nice feeling on the skin although it feels a bit basic nowadays. This mainly gets thrown in the 'Don't Bother' pile for running out way too fast! Value for money gets 1 out of 5 stars as I reckon it'd be way better to buy a Porefessional once every 4 months than this every month without fail.

On the hair front, I had wanted to try something from the newish L'Oreal EverPure range after reading many bloggers saying it was pretty good, so having fine, easily damaged locks I opted for the L'Oreal EverStrong Reinforcing and Vitality Shampoo for fragile hair. I had real problems with this and found it far too heavy, particularly at the roots which is odd because when it comes to moisture and richness it tends to be 'more is more' with my hair. I actually ended up having to always use a second shampoo when using this to get rid of the root greasiness which isn't ideal at all! I'm giving the range a second chance though and have selected a different option which you can find more about here.

Biggest disappointment of the month? It's Indeed Labs Eysilix. I'd seen good things about this and had lusted after it since I tried it in Boots and could feel it tingling those fine lines away instantly. I don't know what happened with the one I picked up but this just wasn't the case. I couldn't feel any tingling at all so with no noticeable effect and pretty much convincing myself that I'd picked up a dud, it has turned into a real effort to use this as it just doesn't seem to do anything. A very pricy mistake... Snip snip, out the routine.

Finally, another disappointing product was the Simple Replenishing Moisturiser. How can such a cheap product be so disappointing you say? Well, I actually picked this up after reading that loads of women had blind tested tons of  anti-aging cream and this very simple moisture had actually come up trumps against even £100+ creams. Wowza – obviously I needed no more convincing! This is a very light moisturiser so I can see why it's part of the Simple range, though I really wouldn't expect it to do amazing things for your skin. It's a basic product that matches the price, but given the claims I think I was naturally underwhelmed.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this month's dobos and it's hopefully saved you some wasted cash! Let me know if you have any I should know about.

H x