Loreal Paris Hair Expertise Extraordinary Oil Voxbox

Get ready for another sponsored post. Disclaimer: Products were sent to me by Influenster for review purposes. God, I feel like one of those famous YouTubers who gets everything for free but preaches that “all opinions are my own.”

SO In my VoxBox, I received the new Loreal Paris line of Extraordinary Oil Shampoo + Conditioner, plus a deep repair mask. Let us go over some quick details

Packaging: Looks super luxurious, love the gold tones.
Scent: Reminds me of a musky candle (in a good way) but the smell isn’t going to be obnoxious throughout the day
But does it lather? Heck yeah it lathers and feels majestic, which is when you can really get the smell. Suuuper relaxing 30 seconds in the shower.
Wait.. did you feel any different after? My hair definitely felt softer and more manageable. My hair is pretty processed (bleached,blown dry, straightened, curled, YOU NAME IT). I had this really dry/tangled spot near the top of my hair that was so hard to brush through. After using this set a couple times, it was back to being soft and normal hair (if that makes any sense).
But it has the word oil in the title…. Yes the word oil scares me too. Whether that be a face oil or hair oil. My thin hair usually can’t handle too much product without looking oily so the oil in the title definitely scared me. Let me be the first to tell you my hair does not get oily from this, it only provides impeccable shine and softness.

BOTTOM LINE, WOULD YOU BUY THIS WITH YOUR OWN HARD EARNED DOLLARS???
Absolutely. I have no problems with this line, only positive things to boast about. There is also nothing worse than buying a shampoo and conditioner set, hating it, and then being stuck with it. Thankfully, I like this so I would definitely buy this.

 

Thanks for reading my review of these products, let me know if you try them out!

Battle of the Brands: Loreal vs Urban Decay Setting Sprays

On my latest trip to Target, I discovered that Loreal had released their own makeup setting spray. As a tried and true lover of the Urban Decay All Nighter spray, I decided to purchase Loreal’s version in order to do a comparison (and also a great blog post topic!). Lets jump right into a side by side comparison of the two products on different scales.

PRICE

The drugstore makeup setting spray retails for around $14 CAD at Target for 3.4 fl oz, while Urban Decay’s spray retails for $36 CAD for 4.0 fl oz. Although you do get more product in the UD bottle, it’s not enough to make up for that extra $22 price gap.

CLAIMS, DIRECTIONS, INGREDIENTS

Both products claim to make your makeup last longer and both are oil free. UD Spray also claims paraben free and temperature control technology. Both products directions are almost word for word identical: Shake well, hold 8-10 inches away and spray on face in a T and X motion. As for ingredients, I was almost shocked to see that the ingredient listing is near identical in both products. I had a previous hunch that Loreal and Urban Decay were owned by the same company/connected in some way. It just seems slightly outrageous given the two differing price tags that there is no significant difference, ingredient wise, between the two. From their logic, consumers will always buy Urban Decay though as it is a luxury brand compared to Loreal (a little bit of business wisdom for the day).

PERFORMANCE

After testing the Loreal Infallible Makeup Extender Setting Spray (what a mouth full!) for the first time today, I do have some conclusions. In application, I did notice that the spray nozzle was not quite as good as the UD one. The mist was fine but the nozzle distributed the product slightly uneven, but I think I only noticed because it was different from the UD spray, which I am more familiar with. Secondly, the smell is SLIGHTLY different from the UD one. The smell isn’t unpleasant in any way, but the Urban Decay one has a more fresh scent but I personally do not mind the Loreal one, just noting the difference in scent.

  
  

After my own personal test of the Loreal product, I have to go ahead and say… THIS IS A DUPE, THIS IS A DUPE. My makeup did not break up through the day, as it does when I do not wear setting spray. The pictures really do not do justice, I just didn’t think to use flash when I had daylight.. but now the two have completely different lighting so I apologize. As I’m looking in the mirror, my bronzer and blush is still on, oh, and did I mention it has been approx 12 hours?! Yeah. I definitely give this spray a two thumbs up. I will probably be using both interchangeably since they both do the same thing from my perspective. I hope this spray stays permanent in Loreal’s line because it would be nice to not break the bank sometimes and not have to “settle” for the cheaper option.

Hope you enjoyed the review, and let me know what you think of the spray if you pick it up!

Influenster VoxBox: Mystery Brand

I received another Influenster VoxBox in the mail about a week ago. This box contained three Loreal hair products but did not contain labels. The purpose was to test out the products and guess which Loreal brand it could belong to.

When I first opened this box, the literal first impression I had was the smell. It is probably the best smelling shampoo + conditioner set.  It’s hard to describe but it was just a pleasant, fruity aroma that you would want your hair products to have (and that smell does last on your hair by the way.)

The shampoo was good. I absolutely hate when shampoos do not lather up but this shampoo did not have this problem. As mentioned before, it smells great and the scent is a good pick-me-up for your morning shower!

The conditioner also did well. It has a consistency that was between thick and thin. Thin conditioners are basically useless for me. I do prefer a thicker one, but this one was a good happy medium. I didn’t feel like it was weighing my hair down after I styled it, which is always a plus.

I’m still on the fence about the split end treatment that came in this box. It smells good and has a similar consistency to other split end products I have tried. I’m just not sure if this is a holy grail product just yet. It does work well in conjunction with other products  I use. On its own, It does not really make my ends feel more moisturized but it also doesn’t make them dry and lifeless.

Overall, this is a good set of products. I just wish I knew what the brand was!! When the brand is revealed, I will be sure to let you know!