Liquid -Chanel - Mat Lumiere Long Lasting Luminous Matte Fluid Makeup SPF 15 
slidingdoors 5/13/2013 10:25:00 PM
Ever since Lancome's Teint Idole (the 14-hour version) was discontinued about a year and a half ago, I have been on a search for a foundation. The old-formula Teint Idole was perfect for me, but after a fruitless search last year for a replacement foundation, now I'm not looking for a substitute that can give me daily perfection like the Teint Idole did, just one that is moderately suitable to wear occasionally, and I can't even find that. Here is some background about my skin and things I have to watch out for when choosing a foundation: a. My main limitation with foundation is that I can't use any that contain synthetic sunscreens. In my 30s, I began to get a rash from any skincare products containing them. My skin seems to be okay with natural sunscreens like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (as far as I use them, which is sparingly, because I prefer daily-use skincare products that do not have sunscreen in them -- when I need sun protection, I add in a standalone sunscreen). b. My t-zone is oily and has been all my life. I have to blot it throughout the day. My cheeks are normal. c. I can break out with a smattering of pimples and blackheads relatively easily, and I am pretty quickly reactive if a product is going to be bad for my skin. I still have to wear benzoyl peroxide anti-acne medicine to bed every night, and I'm in my 40s. d. I have large pores on my nose, but they appear smaller than they would naturally look because I use glycolic acid serum every day. e. I have fewer wrinkles than the average woman my age. I've always had some freckles, and now I have some moderate sunspots too, but they don't bother me and I don't try to cover them specifically. f. I am sensitive to artificial scents and they can irritate my eyes and sinuses. g. I don't do well with several types of natural oils, either on my skin or hair. h. In the last few years, my lips have been nearly constantly chapped (after years of doing everything I could from an external perspective to fix it, I now suspect it's due to a vitamin-absorption problem in my digestive system, and am now approaching it medically), and many skincare products can cause the lip chapping to get much worse, very quickly. i. I have quite a bit of yellow in my facial complexion. My neck and chest tend to be paler and a little less yellow than my face. In the old-formula Teint Idole, Buff 2 (W) was perfect for me, all year 'round. I was designated at a MAC store to be NC20, as far as I can remember. (I think the sales assistant tried NC15, NC20, and NC25, but none of them were quite right, so I ended up not buying a foundation there.) Last year, I prepared a long list of all the foundations I could find that had no sunscreen, and another list of foundations that had only natural sunscreens. By this point, I have tried nearly all of them - a few were discontinued, some did not have a color match that even came close, some had such bad reviews that I gave them a pass, etc. There are 3 left that I have not tried, all with titanium dioxide, all high-end products. They aren't available to sample or purchase at any retail location in a 75-mile radius from me, so I bought them online last week. The Chanel Mat Lumiere is the first of the 3 that I tried, because I had such a good feeling about it from holding the bottle. :-) Sadly, the foundation has not worked for me. Positives: -Does not have a noticeable scent. -Medium coverage. -Product consistency when first out of the bottle is nice and creamy. -The glass bottle is sturdy, practical, elegant, and functional. -I got the lightest color, which is not normal for me (in a full-range foundation line, usually I'm about the 2nd or 3rd color along from the lightest), and when it first goes on, the color matches great to my facial skin. -Does not make my lips chap. -Does not seem to clog my pores, but I only tried it for 2 full days. -Does not transfer that badly to tissues and phones and such, but there is some transfer, which is understandable. -Is not too hard to blend with fingers, but isn't the easiest, either. Negatives: -After it was on my skin, the shade darkened and yellowed over time. Since I've already got the lightest shade, I have no recourse. (They used to make at least 1 lighter shade in this product line, but not now.) -From the very beginning, this looked bad on my t-zone, especially on my forehead. Out of dozens of foundations I've tried, only one has ever made my forehead look worse (and that one inexplicably had made my forehead look lumpy!) This product highlighted every wrinkle on my forehead, and created wrinkles that were not even there. -This also never looked good on my nose. It didn't create that dreaded "spackled" look with my pores, which some foundations do, but it just looked wrong on my nose. -This applied okay, and I had used a moisturizer all over my face beforehand, and I have an oily t-zone and normal-skin cheeks, but after a few hours this formula sucked up all the moisture that my skin had, and it made little dry flakes appear EVERYWHERE on my skin, even my always-really-oily upper eyelids, my oily nose, etc. As the product oxidized, the flakes began to look more yellow than the skin below them that they were pulling away from. It looked terrible. -Towards the end of the second day I used the foundation, it began to irritate my eyes - the irritation wasn't from a scent, though. -After I washed the foundation off at the end of the second day, my skin was dry and tight, there were still dry flakes all over (especially on my nose), and the skin of my upper eyelids was noticably flaky even after I put moisturizer on it--which hasn't happened to my eyelids since I had contact dermatitis about 18 years ago. ...So maybe this formula actually has a chemical ingredient that my skin is sensitive to. -It did not look "luminous".
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Treatments -L'Oreal - Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Hair Treatment
slidingdoors 5/10/2013 1:39:00 AM
I am on a search for a new shampoo & conditioner after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered at the beginning of 2012 (they took out avocado oil and put in argan oil, and my hair does not do well with that new formula). In the last month, I have tried quite a number of other brands' "moisturizing" shampoos/conditioners - with no luck. (My reviews of some of the other product lines that I've tried recently can be found in my MUA profile.) My experience of L'Oreal Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Shampoo and the matching Conditioner/Treatment/Creme (which have different listings on MUA, but appear to be the very same thing): The day of the first wash with the Nature's Therapy, my hair looked great - shiny, smoothed down, but not lank or dark -- it was on a par with how the All Soft made it look. It did not make my hair feel as soft as the All Soft had made it feel, though - it felt a little stiff. At bedtime, the top two inches of my hair appeared somewhat oily, but I do have oily hair and this happens sometimes. I was really hoping that this could be a workable replacement for the old All Soft products. The next day, in the first few hours after the second wash, my hair seemed fine... it had some volume, it was again smooth and shiny. I became even more optimistic that I'd found a shampoo/conditioner that would work okay for me. However, at the end of that day, my hair looked and felt like it had been dipped in plastic - it was definitely coated. My scalp oil was on overdrive, with a huge oil slick at the top of my hair. There were multiple pimples forming on my scalp. These products are WAY too coating for my hair -- which is no surprise, since they are designed for hair that needs extreme help. The heavy moisturization offered by L'Oreal Nature's Therapy would be perfect for very damaged hair, coarse hair, etc. I think they are good products that do what they claim to do. I would give them 4 out of 5 stars in general, but for me personally, I'll have to give it 1 star. My hair does appear to need a certain kind of high-moisturization. It's also very reactive to tiny differences in shampoos - slightly more oil than it likes makes it go lank, limp, dark, frizzy and static-y; slightly more protein than it likes makes the strands permanently curl up or get crazy permanent kinks in them - and then break off a few days later; slightly more silicones than it likes makes it feel stiff and rough, and look like it has been sprayed with clear glossy spraypaint. I have a decent idea about silicones and proteins and oils, but I don't have a chemistry degree, so I'm not exactly sure what ingredients I need to be searching for! If anyone here can explain to me specifically what chemical ingredients it sounds like my hair likes/dislikes, or if anyone knows of a currently-sold shampoo/conditioner that are similar to the discontinued old-formula Redken All Soft, please leave me a message here at MUA.
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Conditioner -L'Oreal - Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Nurturing Creme
slidingdoors 5/10/2013 1:39:00 AM
I am on a search for a new shampoo & conditioner after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered at the beginning of 2012 (they took out avocado oil and put in argan oil, and my hair does not do well with that new formula). In the last month, I have tried quite a number of other brands' "moisturizing" shampoos/conditioners - with no luck. (My reviews of some of the other product lines that I've tried recently can be found in my MUA profile.) My experience of L'Oreal Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Shampoo and the matching Conditioner/Treatment/Creme (which have different listings on MUA, but appear to be the very same thing): The day of the first wash with the Nature's Therapy, my hair looked great - shiny, smoothed down, but not lank or dark -- it was on a par with how the All Soft made it look. It did not make my hair feel as soft as the All Soft had made it feel, though - it felt a little stiff. At bedtime, the top two inches of my hair appeared somewhat oily, but I do have oily hair and this happens sometimes. I was really hoping that this could be a workable replacement for the old All Soft products. The next day, in the first few hours after the second wash, my hair seemed fine... it had some volume, it was again smooth and shiny. I became even more optimistic that I'd found a shampoo/conditioner that would work okay for me. However, at the end of that day, my hair looked and felt like it had been dipped in plastic - it was definitely coated. My scalp oil was on overdrive, with a huge oil slick at the top of my hair. There were multiple pimples forming on my scalp. These products are WAY too coating for my hair -- which is no surprise, since they are designed for hair that needs extreme help. The heavy moisturization offered by L'Oreal Nature's Therapy would be perfect for very damaged hair, coarse hair, etc. I think they are good products that do what they claim to do. I would give them 4 out of 5 stars in general, but for me personally, I'll have to give it 1 star. My hair does appear to need a certain kind of high-moisturization. It's also very reactive to tiny differences in shampoos - slightly more oil than it likes makes it go lank, limp, dark, frizzy and static-y; slightly more protein than it likes makes the strands permanently curl up or get crazy permanent kinks in them - and then break off a few days later; slightly more silicones than it likes makes it feel stiff and rough, and look like it has been sprayed with clear glossy spraypaint. I have a decent idea about silicones and proteins and oils, but I don't have a chemistry degree, so I'm not exactly sure what ingredients I need to be searching for! If anyone here can explain to me specifically what chemical ingredients it sounds like my hair likes/dislikes, or if anyone knows of a currently-sold shampoo/conditioner that are similar to the discontinued old-formula Redken All Soft, please leave me a message here at MUA.
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Shampoo -L'Oreal - Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture shampoo
slidingdoors 5/10/2013 1:34:00 AM
I am on a search for a new shampoo & conditioner after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered at the beginning of 2012 (they took out avocado oil and put in argan oil, and my hair does not do well with that new formula). In the last month, I have tried quite a number of other brands' "moisturizing" shampoos/conditioners - with no luck. (My reviews of some of the other product lines that I've tried recently can be found in my MUA profile.) My experience of L'Oreal Nature's Therapy Mega Moisture Shampoo and the matching Conditioner/Treatment/Creme (which have different listings on MUA, but appear to be the very same thing): The day of the first wash with the Nature's Therapy, my hair looked great - shiny, smoothed down, but not lank or dark -- it was on a par with how the All Soft made it look. It did not make my hair feel as soft as the All Soft had made it feel, though - it felt a little stiff. At bedtime, the top two inches of my hair appeared somewhat oily, but I do have oily hair and this happens sometimes. I was really hoping that this could be a workable replacement for the old All Soft products. The next day, in the first few hours after the second wash, my hair seemed fine... it had some volume, it was again smooth and shiny. I became even more optimistic that I'd found a shampoo/conditioner that would work okay for me. However, at the end of that day, my hair looked and felt like it had been dipped in plastic - it was definitely coated. My scalp oil was on overdrive, with a huge oil slick at the top of my hair. There were multiple pimples forming on my scalp. These products are WAY too coating for my hair -- which is no surprise, since they are designed for hair that needs extreme help. The heavy moisturization offered by L'Oreal Nature's Therapy would be perfect for very damaged hair, coarse hair, etc. I think they are good products that do what they claim to do. I would give them 4 out of 5 stars in general, but for me personally, I'll have to give it 1 star. My hair does appear to need a certain kind of high-moisturization. It's also very reactive to tiny differences in shampoos - slightly more oil than it likes makes it go lank, limp, dark, frizzy and static-y; slightly more protein than it likes makes the strands permanently curl up or get crazy permanent kinks in them - and then break off a few days later; slightly more silicones than it likes makes it feel stiff and rough, and look like it has been sprayed with clear glossy spraypaint. I have a decent idea about silicones and proteins and oils, but I don't have a chemistry degree, so I'm not exactly sure what ingredients I need to be searching for! If anyone here can explain to me specifically what chemical ingredients it sounds like my hair likes/dislikes, or if anyone knows of a currently-sold shampoo/conditioner that are similar to the discontinued old-formula Redken All Soft, please leave me a message here at MUA.
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Conditioner -Alba Botanica - Natural Hawaiian Drink It Up Coconut Milk Conditioner
slidingdoors 5/8/2013 1:45:00 AM
I am in the search for a new shampoo after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered in 2012, and I have tried many shampoo/conditioner pairs - with no luck so far. Because I'm entering the desperation stage, when I stumbled upon this at Target in the organics-ranges aisle (not the shampoo/conditioner aisles), I thought I'd give it a try. Prior to use, because my hair is fine and straight, I expected that this line would probably provide too many oils for my hair. Because my scalp is really oily (I must shampoo every morning), I also wondered if the lack of sulfates would mean that the shampoo was not cleansing/drying enough for my scalp. The tropical scent of the products is lovely - reminds me of a holiday in the Caribbean! The shampoo doesn't lather as much as those with sulfates, but it does provide an acceptable amount of lather, especially if you use twice as much of the product as you might a sulfate shampoo. After my first wash, when it was air-drying (I usually don't use heat on my hair), my hair felt and looked great. It was soft, shiny, had few frizzies sticking up, and didn't seem to be too weighed down. At that point, I almost let myself think that I might have found a decent replacement for the old-formula All Soft! Sadly, a couple of hours later, I learned that this product isn't it. In only a few hours after the wash, my hair went from looking and feeling great to being really oily, lank, darkened from its normal dark-blonde color, static-y (I don't know why products with a high % of natural oils make my hair really static-y even when the humidity level in the air is fine, but they do), yet looking totally fried and unconditioned on the ends (which is another strange effect on my hair of products that have a high % of natural oils). I decided to try both products a second day, and this time to use less conditioner, keep it farther from my scalp, and to rinse much longer. The result is that my hair is less oily/lank than yesterday, but it has more frizzies and is not as shiny as yesterday. It is still darkened in color and the ends are splaying out like a frayed ribbon. So, this shampoo/conditioner are a big "NO" for me. However, I do find a lot of positives about this product, and for people whose hair does very well with using natural oils (like jojoba, coconut, almond, etc.), or who generally wash with conditioners-only but would like a very mild non-sulfate shampoo, I would recommend that they try this. The formula seems to have a high amount of quality ingredients, it's pleasant to use and to smell, and it does not contain sulfates and some other chemicals that some people try to avoid in haircare products. Note about price: I found it at Target for the list price (which you can learn at the company's site, which also sells their products by mail), but later I saw it on Amazon (with Amazon as the actual seller, which always gives me a bit more confidence in an item's authenticity) for 25% less than list price.
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Shampoo -Alba Botanica - Natural Hawaiian Drink It Up Coconut Milk Shampoo
slidingdoors 5/8/2013 1:41:00 AM
I am in the search for a new shampoo after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered in 2012, and I have tried many shampoo/conditioner pairs - with no luck so far. Because I'm entering the desperation stage, when I stumbled upon this at Target in the organics-ranges aisle (not the shampoo/conditioner aisles), I thought I'd give it a try. Prior to use, because my hair is fine and straight, I expected that this line would probably provide too many oils for my hair. Because my scalp is really oily (I must shampoo every morning), I also wondered if the lack of sulfates would mean that the shampoo was not cleansing/drying enough for my scalp. The tropical scent of the products is lovely - reminds me of a holiday in the Caribbean! The shampoo doesn't lather as much as those with sulfates, but it does provide an acceptable amount of lather, especially if you use twice as much of the product as you might a sulfate shampoo. After my first wash, when it was air-drying (I usually don't use heat on my hair), my hair felt and looked great. It was soft, shiny, had few frizzies sticking up, and didn't seem to be too weighed down. At that point, I almost let myself think that I might have found a decent replacement for the old-formula All Soft! Sadly, a couple of hours later, I learned that this product isn't it. In only a few hours after the wash, my hair went from looking and feeling great to being really oily, lank, darkened from its normal dark-blonde color, static-y (I don't know why products with a high % of natural oils make my hair really static-y even when the humidity level in the air is fine, but they do), yet looking totally fried and unconditioned on the ends (which is another strange effect on my hair of products that have a high % of natural oils). I decided to try both products a second day, and this time to use less conditioner, keep it farther from my scalp, and to rinse much longer. The result is that my hair is less oily/lank than yesterday, but it has more frizzies and is not as shiny as yesterday. It is still darkened in color and the ends are splaying out like a frayed ribbon. So, this shampoo/conditioner are a big "NO" for me. However, I do find a lot of positives about this product, and for people whose hair does very well with using natural oils (like jojoba, coconut, almond, etc.), or who generally wash with conditioners-only but would like a very mild non-sulfate shampoo, I would recommend that they try this. The formula seems to have a high amount of quality ingredients, it's pleasant to use and to smell, and it does not contain sulfates and some other chemicals that some people try to avoid in haircare products. Note about price: I found it at Target for the list price (which you can learn at the company's site, which also sells their products by mail), but later I saw it on Amazon (with Amazon as the actual seller, which always gives me a bit more confidence in an item's authenticity) for 25% less than list price.
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Shampoo -Alba Botanica - Coconut Milk Extra-Rich Hair Wash
slidingdoors 5/8/2013 1:33:00 AM
NOTE: This listing is of a discontinued formula/discontinued product. Their current (as of spring 2013) coconut shampoo is called: Alba Botanica Natural Hawaiian Shampoo Drink It Up Coconut Milk Mega Moisture. If you are here to leave a review for the new formula (as sold in the spring of 2013 and beyond), please do a search on Makeupalley for the new formula's listing: "Shampoo - Alba Botanica - Natural Hawaiian Drink It Up Coconut Milk Shampoo", where there are already several reviews up.
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Conditioner -Alba Botanica - Coconut Milk Extra-Rich Hair Conditioner
slidingdoors 5/8/2013 1:22:00 AM
NOTE: This listing is of a discontinued formula/discontinued product. Their current (as of spring 2013) coconut conditioner is called: Alba Botanica Natural Hawaiian Conditioner Drink It Up Coconut Milk Mega Moisture. If you are here to leave a review for the new formula (as sold in the spring of 2013 and beyond), please do a search for the new title of the Alba coconut conditioner and leave it under that item listing: "Conditioner - Alba Botanica - Natural Hawaiian Drink It Up Coconut Milk Conditioner"
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Conditioner -Matrix - Biolage - Conditioning Balm
slidingdoors 5/5/2013 12:18:00 PM
Quick summary: It was terrible for my hair, not moisturizing at all. --- I am in the search for a new shampoo after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered in 2012, and I have tried many shampoo/conditioner pairs - with no luck so far. As this is a pretty expensive process, I research things online before buying them. I have only done a moderate amount of looking into Biolage so far, but I am somewhat confused by the information I've found about the Matrix Biolage hydrating range. There seem to be two ranges that Matrix calls "hydrating": plain "hydrating" and "ultra-hydrating". Online commenters have said that the ultra-hydrating line has silicones, while the hydrating one does not. Matrix products seem to be sold both in hair salons and regular retailers (such as Walmart), but I'm not sure if they are the exact same formulas or not. Some reviewers on Amazon (on several different listings for these products - I've read all the reviews on at least 20 listings there) have noted that there are several different ingredients lists on the Matrix Biolage Hydrating products (even though the exact same product name is on the front of the bottle) that they have bought there, and some speculated that either Matrix is changing their formulas over time, producing different formulas simultaneously for different market segments/supply chains, or that some Amazon third-party sellers are selling counterfeit goods. Therefore I don't know whether the Matrix Biolage line that I see in my local supermarket is trustworthy, is authentic, and is the same stuff that I could find in a salon, or not. [I know that I could ask for help about this range at a salon, but I've been to so many salons in my town for help in my product quest, and I have bought their expensive, recommended products which turned out terrible for my hair, and I just hesitate to continue bothering them when I'm not a customer of their stylists. (Besides, in all honesty, most of the product advice I've received in my town from salon employees has been inaccurate, and many of the staffpeople I've asked for help don't really know much about hair product ingredients, or about what can cause distress to different hair textures and skin types.)] Other reviewers on Amazon and this site have said that the Matrix Biolage Hydrating formulas have changed over time, but I am not sure how (what exactly was added and subtracted), so I don't know what to look for on the ingredients lists of bottles that I see for sale. I learned that Sally Beauty Supply sells a generic version of this line, and I went to a store yesterday to get their duplicate and try it out first. I have read somewhere on the internet that Biolage had changed their formula in 2011 or 2012, and that Sally had followed suit with their generic version, but the bottles in my local Sally store state that they have the "2010" ingredients list on them. I don't know if these are old products at my local Sally, or if they are freshly-made bottles and actually Sally has simply not changed their "dupe" formula of this line since 2010. I also don't know whether, because some reviewers have complained about reformulations of the offical product in 2011 and 2012, if the Sally 2010 version is better than the Matrix-branded 2013 version that I'd find now in a salon. I would not be surprised if the lines have been reformulated over the years, since Matrix is now owned by Loreal. The ingredients information given on the Matrix website about their products is entirely inadequate. For example, under the ingredients tab for Ultra-Hydrating shampoo are "aloe" and "algae". Under the ingredients tab for Hydrating shampoo it states: "Formulas with algae, sage, botanical aloe vera products or wheat germ helps to nourish and restore the health of the hair ". This is not only confusing (and ungrammatical!), it's insulting to the customer. This gives me no help in understanding their product lines and differentiation. It also makes me suspect that maybe they really do have different versions out there under the same product name (they way they say "algae, sage, aloe, OR wheat germ" is bizarre.) When I do their website's product finder, no matter what answers I enter in many of the questions, I get the same product recommendation each time, the volumizing formula, which is not what my hair needs right now. It seems that the product finder stops listening to me after it hears that I have fine-textured hair. Therefore, I am unimpressed with their website. I am desperate, however, to find something to replace my old-formula Redken All Soft, so I will venture onward into the Matrix Biolage muddle.... My impressions of the Sally Beauty Supply / GVP duplicates of the 2010 Matrix Biolage Hydrating shampoo and conditioner: -I strongly dislike the scent. Yet most reviewers seem to adore it - ? It smells medicinal, woodsy, herbal. The scent is very strong and tenacious, so even 2 hours after I washed my hair, the odor was irritating my nose and throat. I am pretty sensitive to odors, so my experience won't be the norm, I'm sure. -The conditioner was doing 85% of the moisturizing effect of the pair. The shampoo didn't seem very good. -After my 2nd wash with these products, my hair was extra frizzy, breaking off mid-strand, really curling up (which in my naturally straight hair is a sign of protein overload and imminent breakage), and kinking up terribly in the last inch of the ends (again, an indication in my hair of too much protein). This was not AT ALL moisturizing for my hair. -Even Suave Apple 97-cents shampoo, which I had tried 3 times, 2 weeks prior to this, left my hair in better condition than the Sally dupes of Matrix Biolage Hydrating. -Maybe the "real" Matrix 2013 products would have a different effect. However, I won't be trying them because the Sally dupe formulas were so destructive to my hair after only 2 uses.
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Shampoo -Matrix - Biolage - Hydrating Shampoo
slidingdoors 5/5/2013 12:13:00 PM
Quick summary: It was terrible for my hair, not moisturizing at all. --- I am in the search for a new shampoo after Redken All Soft's formula was dramatically altered in 2012, and I have tried many shampoo/conditioner pairs - with no luck so far. As this is a pretty expensive process, I research things online before buying them. I have only done a moderate amount of looking into Biolage so far, but I am somewhat confused by the information I've found about the Matrix Biolage hydrating range. There seem to be two ranges that Matrix calls "hydrating": plain "hydrating" and "ultra-hydrating". Online commenters have said that the ultra-hydrating line has silicones, while the hydrating one does not. Matrix products seem to be sold both in hair salons and regular retailers (such as Walmart), but I'm not sure if they are the exact same formulas or not. Some reviewers on Amazon (on several different listings for these products - I've read all the reviews on at least 20 listings there) have noted that there are several different ingredients lists on the Matrix Biolage Hydrating products (even though the exact same product name is on the front of the bottle) that they have bought there, and some speculated that either Matrix is changing their formulas over time, producing different formulas simultaneously for different market segments/supply chains, or that some Amazon third-party sellers are selling counterfeit goods. Therefore I don't know whether the Matrix Biolage line that I see in my local supermarket is trustworthy, is authentic, and is the same stuff that I could find in a salon, or not. [I know that I could ask for help about this range at a salon, but I've been to so many salons in my town for help in my product quest, and I have bought their expensive, recommended products which turned out terrible for my hair, and I just hesitate to continue bothering them when I'm not a customer of their stylists. (Besides, in all honesty, most of the product advice I've received in my town from salon employees has been inaccurate, and many of the staffpeople I've asked for help don't really know much about hair product ingredients, or about what can cause distress to different hair textures and skin types.)] Other reviewers on Amazon and this site have said that the Matrix Biolage Hydrating formulas have changed over time, but I am not sure how (what exactly was added and subtracted), so I don't know what to look for on the ingredients lists of bottles that I see for sale. I learned that Sally Beauty Supply sells a generic version of this line, and I went to a store yesterday to get their duplicate and try it out first. I have read somewhere on the internet that Biolage had changed their formula in 2011 or 2012, and that Sally had followed suit with their generic version, but the bottles in my local Sally store state that they have the "2010" ingredients list on them. I don't know if these are old products at my local Sally, or if they are freshly-made bottles and actually Sally has simply not changed their "dupe" formula of this line since 2010. I also don't know whether, because some reviewers have complained about reformulations of the offical product in 2011 and 2012, if the Sally 2010 version is better than the Matrix-branded 2013 version that I'd find now in a salon. I would not be surprised if the lines have been reformulated over the years, since Matrix is now owned by Loreal. The ingredients information given on the Matrix website about their products is entirely inadequate. For example, under the ingredients tab for Ultra-Hydrating shampoo are "aloe" and "algae". Under the ingredients tab for Hydrating shampoo it states: "Formulas with algae, sage, botanical aloe vera products or wheat germ helps to nourish and restore the health of the hair ". This is not only confusing (and ungrammatical!), it's insulting to the customer. This gives me no help in understanding their product lines and differentiation. It also makes me suspect that maybe they really do have different versions out there under the same product name (they way they say "algae, sage, aloe, OR wheat germ" is bizarre.) When I do their website's product finder, no matter what answers I enter in many of the questions, I get the same product recommendation each time, the volumizing formula, which is not what my hair needs right now. It seems that the product finder stops listening to me after it hears that I have fine-textured hair. Therefore, I am unimpressed with their website. I am desperate, however, to find something to replace my old-formula Redken All Soft, so I will venture onward into the Matrix Biolage muddle.... My impressions of the Sally Beauty Supply / GVP duplicates of the 2010 Matrix Biolage Hydrating shampoo and conditioner: -I strongly dislike the scent. Yet most reviewers seem to adore it - ? It smells medicinal, woodsy, herbal. The scent is very strong and tenacious, so even 2 hours after I washed my hair, the odor was irritating my nose and throat. I am pretty sensitive to odors, so my experience won't be the norm, I'm sure. -The conditioner was doing 85% of the moisturizing effect of the pair. The shampoo didn't seem very good. -After my 2nd wash with these products, my hair was extra frizzy, breaking off mid-strand, really curling up (which in my naturally straight hair is a sign of protein overload and imminent breakage), and kinking up terribly in the last inch of the ends (again, an indication in my hair of too much protein). This was not AT ALL moisturizing for my hair. -Even Suave Apple 97-cents shampoo, which I had tried 3 times, 2 weeks prior to this, left my hair in better condition than the Sally dupes of Matrix Biolage Hydrating. -Maybe the "real" Matrix 2013 products would have a different effect. However, I won't be trying them because the Sally dupe formulas were so destructive to my hair after only 2 uses.
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Conditioner -TRESemme - Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner
slidingdoors 5/5/2013 12:43:00 AM
I am trying to find a replacement for the old formulation of Redken All Soft shampoo and conditioner, which Redken changed last year (the new formula of that is terrible). One of the ingredients in the old-formula All Soft which is not in the new formula and which is not in many other product lines was avocado oil, and I've been wondering if perhaps that was a magic ingredient for my hair type. The Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner do have avocado oil in them, so I was excited to find this out and give them a try. Normally I give products a 3-use trial because it sometimes takes a few uses for the benefits to build up. However, in the case of the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture line, I'm going to stop after my first hairwash with them because of the negatives I've already experienced. Negatives: Some reviewers have complained about the smell of these products - but I don't find the aromas that unpleasant. They are not particularly pleasant either, but I can live with them, especially if they are only present during the washing of the hair. However, the scent tenaciously stayed in my air-dried hair all day, and I could smell it wafting around my head from time to time, which was a slight negative. As soon as I got out of the shower and for about the first 5 hours afterwards, my facial skin really hurt (like it was burning), and that never happens to me normally, so I knew that it was from the shampoo getting on it -- I was already prepared that this might happen, because several previous reviewers had written that the aluminum lauryl sulfate that is in the Tresemme Naturals (they use it instead of sodium lauryl sufate, which is in most other shampoos) made their skin itch/burn. Most of the reviewers said it took several days before this happened, so I didn't expect it to happen so quickly to my skin. My face didn't get red or develop a rash today, which is good. But this shampoo is not the kind of thing I'd want to use daily, because my skin does get sensitized to things. This is a pretty big negative. [Note: I have come back to this review to say that I have since used a different brand's shampoo that has aluminum lauryl sulfate in it. I have used it for 4 hairwashes, and it does not bother my skin at all, so it is possible that it was not the aluminum lauryl sulfate, but a different ingredient, in the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Shampoo/Conditioner that disturbed my skin so much.] Throughout the day post-showering, my hair condition has morphed several times, which I don't often experience with a shampoo/conditioner. a. When it was first dry (air-dried), it seemed a bit frizzy, but better smoothed-down than it's been in the past couple weeks of trying other product lines out. The best part was that the ends looked much better than they have lately, especially since the last product line I tried (Redken Blonde Glam) made the bottom 2 inches of my strands splay out like the edge of a frayed ribbon. b. Two hours later, you could tell that my hair was kind of flattened/weighed down, because even though it's just chin length and there isn't much excess length to play with, today it appears - no kidding - to be about an inch longer than it has appeared in the last two weeks when I was using other products. Someone who sees me nearly every day exclaimed this afternoon, "Wow, your hair has really grown!" But it's not that my hair has grown so much from yesterday to today, it's that this product line really makes it lie flat. Now, I know that I am a weird woman for thinking this, but I actually don't mind having flat hair. My hair is fine and straight naturally, and as long as the scalp is clean and the hair isn't oily or greasy, I think it's fine if my hair looks smooth and straight. I don't care about volume at the roots, waves, bounce, etc. So I didn't mind that it made my hair look longer today. In fact, I've been trying to grow my hair out for a couple of years, ever since one week of using a new type of Paul Mitchell shampoo made my long, healthy hair all break off suddenly, so if today my hair looks one inch past my chin instead of right at my chin, that's a good thing. This being said, even though it was lying flat, that doesn't mean all the frizziness was gone. There was still some frizziness all along the length, but less frizziness than other recent product lines have caused (though it was more frizziness than I had had with the old-formula All Soft). c. Twelve hours after washing it, I caught my reflection in a mirror in the laundry room, and I noticed that the appearance/behavior changed again. My hair suddenly has a lot of static, even though there is plenty of humidity in the air (it's a lovely spring evening, and the heat isn't on - neither is the air conditioner). It's so static-y that bunches of strands are hovering up of their own volition, and when I turn my head, they cling to my chin and cheeks. The main section of my hair looks dark, dull, and lank. But the bottom 2 inches at the end are now looking pretty dry, and starting to stick out in the frayed-ribbon effect. I've also got several pimples on my scalp, which arrived from nowhere this evening. This is not normally something that I experience on my scalp. Maybe it's not related to the Tresemme Naturals products, but the timing is suspicious. Therefore, the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner are a definite "no" for me. I had already decided never to use them again when they made my facial skin burn for several hours after my shower, but even if that effect had been absent, they do not make my hair look good or behave well. === If anyone knows of a good shampoo/conditioner product line that matches the effects of the OLD Redken All Soft line (before it was reformulated at the beginning of 2012), please send me a message via this site. Thank you!
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Shampoo -TRESemme - Naturals Nourishing Moisture Shampoo
slidingdoors 5/5/2013 12:40:00 AM
I am trying to find a replacement for the old formulation of Redken All Soft shampoo and conditioner, which Redken changed last year (the new formula of that is terrible). One of the ingredients in the old-formula All Soft which is not in the new formula and which is not in many other product lines was avocado oil, and I've been wondering if perhaps that was a magic ingredient for my hair type. The Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner do have avocado oil in them, so I was excited to find this out and give them a try. Normally I give products a 3-use trial because it sometimes takes a few uses for the benefits to build up. However, in the case of the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture line, I'm going to stop after my first hairwash with them because of the negatives I've already experienced. Negatives: Some reviewers have complained about the smell of these products - but I don't find the aromas that unpleasant. They are not particularly pleasant either, but I can live with them, especially if they are only present during the washing of the hair. However, the scent tenaciously stayed in my air-dried hair all day, and I could smell it wafting around my head from time to time, which was a slight negative. As soon as I got out of the shower and for about the first 5 hours afterwards, my facial skin really hurt (like it was burning), and that never happens to me normally, so I knew that it was from the shampoo getting on it -- I was already prepared that this might happen, because several previous reviewers had written that the aluminum lauryl sulfate that is in the Tresemme Naturals (they use it instead of sodium lauryl sufate, which is in most other shampoos) made their skin itch/burn. Most of the reviewers said it took several days before this happened, so I didn't expect it to happen so quickly to my skin. My face didn't get red or develop a rash today, which is good. But this shampoo is not the kind of thing I'd want to use daily, because my skin does get sensitized to things. This is a pretty big negative. [Note: I have come back to this review to say that I have since used a different brand's shampoo that has aluminum lauryl sulfate in it. I have used it for 4 hairwashes, and it does not bother my skin at all, so it is possible that it was not the aluminum lauryl sulfate, but a different ingredient, in the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Shampoo/Conditioner that disturbed my skin so much.] Throughout the day post-showering, my hair condition has morphed several times, which I don't often experience with a shampoo/conditioner. a. When it was first dry (air-dried), it seemed a bit frizzy, but better smoothed-down than it's been in the past couple weeks of trying other product lines out. The best part was that the ends looked much better than they have lately, especially since the last product line I tried (Redken Blonde Glam) made the bottom 2 inches of my strands splay out like the edge of a frayed ribbon. b. Two hours later, you could tell that my hair was kind of flattened/weighed down, because even though it's just chin length and there isn't much excess length to play with, today it appears - no kidding - to be about an inch longer than it has appeared in the last two weeks when I was using other products. Someone who sees me nearly every day exclaimed this afternoon, "Wow, your hair has really grown!" But it's not that my hair has grown so much from yesterday to today, it's that this product line really makes it lie flat. Now, I know that I am a weird woman for thinking this, but I actually don't mind having flat hair. My hair is fine and straight naturally, and as long as the scalp is clean and the hair isn't oily or greasy, I think it's fine if my hair looks smooth and straight. I don't care about volume at the roots, waves, bounce, etc. So I didn't mind that it made my hair look longer today. In fact, I've been trying to grow my hair out for a couple of years, ever since one week of using a new type of Paul Mitchell shampoo made my long, healthy hair all break off suddenly, so if today my hair looks one inch past my chin instead of right at my chin, that's a good thing. This being said, even though it was lying flat, that doesn't mean all the frizziness was gone. There was still some frizziness all along the length, but less frizziness than other recent product lines have caused (though it was more frizziness than I had had with the old-formula All Soft). c. Twelve hours after washing it, I caught my reflection in a mirror in the laundry room, and I noticed that the appearance/behavior changed again. My hair suddenly has a lot of static, even though there is plenty of humidity in the air (it's a lovely spring evening, and the heat isn't on - neither is the air conditioner). It's so static-y that bunches of strands are hovering up of their own volition, and when I turn my head, they cling to my chin and cheeks. The main section of my hair looks dark, dull, and lank. But the bottom 2 inches at the end are now looking pretty dry, and starting to stick out in the frayed-ribbon effect. I've also got several pimples on my scalp, which arrived from nowhere this evening. This is not normally something that I experience on my scalp. Maybe it's not related to the Tresemme Naturals products, but the timing is suspicious Therefore, the Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner are a definite "no" for me. I had already decided never to use them again when they made my facial skin burn for several hours after my shower, but even if that effect had been absent, they do not make my hair look good or behave well. === If anyone knows of a good shampoo/conditioner product line that matches the effects of the OLD Redken All Soft line (before it was reformulated at the beginning of 2012), please send me a message via this site. Thank you!
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Shampoo -Charles Worthington - Moisture Seal Conditioner
slidingdoors 5/2/2013 12:52:00 AM
NOTE: This product was apparently discontinued in the United States several years ago. My 4-lippies rating is of that old product, not of the current product that is still being sold in the United Kingdom, which has been reformulated and now contains argan oil. Previously, I used this shampoo for about 8 years. It worked really well for my hair. My stylist didn't understand why I liked a drugstore brand of shampoo so much, but he agreed with me that my hair did great with it. Sadly, after it was discontinued in the US, I had to seek out a new shampoo, which led me to try a Paul Mitchell product, which shockingly resulted in all my very healthy, soft, straight, long hair breaking off in just one week. That experience was traumatic, and my hair has looked pretty awful for the last couple of years. (Plus, I don't have a head shape or a face for very short styles.) People - strangers who have to look at my ID in airports or supermarkets - always comment to me that my hair in my driver's licence and passport photos looked so much better than my hair does now ---- they say this accusingly, as if I had any choice in the matter! They ask me what in the world made me cut my long hair, and tell me that I look 10 years older than the photos, even though my ID photos are only 3 years old. I explain to them that I tried a new brand of salon shampoo that had a good reputation, and it broke off all my hair in one week. Of course, then they feel bad for telling me that my current appearance is so sub-par. ....It really takes some nerve for strangers to say something like that -- I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had lost my hair due to a serious illness or an assault or something - it would be quite painful to hear this from strangers and to try to explain what had happened (or to try to change the subject). Because my hair grows slowly, it is only chin length now and certainly will never be the same as it was. Anyway, I wish this shampoo had never been discontinued in the US, because my hair trauma of the last couple of years need never have happened! --- Update: I thought I might see if I could order this from Amazon dot co dot uk, so I checked out Worthington's UK website to see if I could find the current ingredient listings of these products, and they say that this line now has argan oil in it -- so they've changed the formula. My hair and skin do not like argan oil at all, so I guess this is out for me.
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Conditioner -Charles Worthington - Results Moisture Seal
slidingdoors 5/2/2013 12:51:00 AM
NOTE: This product was apparently discontinued in the United States several years ago. My 4-lippies rating is of that old product, not of the current product that is still being sold in the United Kingdom, which has been reformulated and now contains argan oil. Previously, I used this shampoo for about 8 years. It worked really well for my hair. My stylist didn't understand why I liked a drugstore brand of shampoo so much, but he agreed with me that my hair did great with it. Sadly, after it was discontinued in the US, I had to seek out a new shampoo, which led me to try a Paul Mitchell product, which shockingly resulted in all my very healthy, soft, straight, long hair breaking off in just one week. That experience was traumatic, and my hair has looked pretty awful for the last couple of years. (Plus, I don't have a head shape or a face for very short styles.) People - strangers who have to look at my ID in airports or supermarkets - always comment to me that my hair in my driver's licence and passport photos looked so much better than my hair does now ---- they say this accusingly, as if I had any choice in the matter! They ask me what in the world made me cut my long hair, and tell me that I look 10 years older than the photos, even though my ID photos are only 3 years old. I explain to them that I tried a new brand of salon shampoo that had a good reputation, and it broke off all my hair in one week. Of course, then they feel bad for telling me that my current appearance is so sub-par. ....It really takes some nerve for strangers to say something like that -- I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had lost my hair due to a serious illness or an assault or something - it would be quite painful to hear this from strangers and to try to explain what had happened (or to try to change the subject). Because my hair grows slowly, it is only chin length now and certainly will never be the same as it was. Anyway, I wish this shampoo had never been discontinued in the US, because my hair trauma of the last couple of years need never have happened! --- Update: I thought I might see if I could order this from Amazon dot co dot uk, so I checked out Worthington's UK website to see if I could find the current ingredient listings of these products, and they say that this line now has argan oil in it -- so they've changed the formula. My hair and skin do not like argan oil at all, so I guess this is out for me.
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Shampoo -Charles Worthington - Moisture Seal
slidingdoors 5/2/2013 12:49:00 AM
NOTE: This product was apparently discontinued in the United States several years ago. My 4-lippies rating is of that old product, not of the current product that is still being sold in the United Kingdom, which has been reformulated and now contains argan oil. Previously, I used this shampoo for about 8 years. It worked really well for my hair. My stylist didn't understand why I liked a drugstore brand of shampoo so much, but he agreed with me that my hair did great with it. Sadly, after it was discontinued in the US, I had to seek out a new shampoo, which led me to try a Paul Mitchell product, which shockingly resulted in all my very healthy, soft, straight, long hair breaking off in just one week. That experience was traumatic, and my hair has looked pretty awful for the last couple of years. (Plus, I don't have a head shape or a face for very short styles.) People - strangers who have to look at my ID in airports or supermarkets - always comment to me that my hair in my driver's licence and passport photos looked so much better than my hair does now ---- they say this accusingly, as if I had any choice in the matter! They ask me what in the world made me cut my long hair, and tell me that I look 10 years older than the photos, even though my ID photos are only 3 years old. I explain to them that I tried a new brand of salon shampoo that had a good reputation, and it broke off all my hair in one week. Of course, then they feel bad for telling me that my current appearance is so sub-par. ....It really takes some nerve for strangers to say something like that -- I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had lost my hair due to a serious illness or an assault or something - it would be quite painful to hear this from strangers and to try to explain what had happened (or to try to change the subject). Because my hair grows slowly, it is only chin length now and certainly will never be the same as it was. Anyway, I wish this shampoo had never been discontinued in the US, because my hair trauma of the last couple of years need never have happened! --- Update: I thought I might see if I could order this from Amazon dot co dot uk, so I checked out Worthington's UK website to see if I could find the current ingredient listings of these products, and they say that this line now has argan oil in it -- so they've changed the formula. My hair and skin do not like argan oil at all, so I guess this is out for me.
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