Review: Dove 'Style+Care' Dry Shampoo & Heat Protectant

A while ago, I told you about the new line of styling products from Dove. I've been trying them out for the past few days and wanted to give you a quick review of two products from the line.

The first is the Dove Style+Care Heat Protect Spray, which protects hair up to 230C. Heat protectant is one of those products that you can't really 'see' working... so you just have to trust it's doing it's job in the long-run...

There are a couple of things however, that (in my humble opinion) determine a great heat protectant from a bad one. Firstly, it should be undetectable in the hair once you've styled it, not sticky. Secondly it should help hold your style in place throughout the day, and thirdly, it should smell great (always a bonus, right?!). The Dove Heat Protect spray does all of these beautifully. I've really enjoyed using it and it feels weightless in my hair. I've almost run out of my Tresemme version and I definitely prefer the scent of this one, so it'll happily take it's place.

The second product from the line I'm going to be reviewing in this post is the Dove Refresh+Care Dry Shampoo. Now, I have a very sensitive, dry scalp, so dry shampoos usually send me running in the opposite direction. However, when I went in to try out the line with Dove's celebrity hair ambassador, Christian Wood, he told me he best likes to use dry shampoo for creating texture in the mid lengths and ends of the hair, not to combat grease at the roots. He used this in my hair and it looked great, helped my style last longer, but even better... it didn't irritate my scalp at all as it never came into contact with it! If you like to use dry shampoo to refresh your hair too, this one contains less starch than comes in normal dry shampoos so it doesn't look and feel too chalky. Coming from someone who is very wary of dry shampoo... this is a good one. It actually has a similar effect to using a texturising spray that I like from Oribe, which has a price tag of almost 10x the price, so I'll definitely be using this to create my beachy waves in the future (and saving myself a pretty penny while doing so!)

So far I've been very impressed by Dove's new Style+Care styling range, especially considering how affordable the products are. 

Dove Style+Care Review: The Serums!

This week I've been testing out Dove's new Style+Care soft styling range. It's time to take a look at the other two products in the range, the Style+Care Frizz Free Shine Cream Serum (a bit of a tongue teaser!) and the Style+Care Nourishing Dry Ends Serum. I'm a huge fan of serums as I have long, colour treated hair, so these were the two products I was most excited to try out.

Although it seems a little excessive to have two serums in a collection of only four products, these two are actually very different in formulation and performance and after using them, it can see that it definitely makes sense to have both in the line-up. Here are my thoughts on each...

Frizz Free Shine Cream Serum
First up for the Frizz Free Shine Cream Serum. Now, as the name would suggest, this is a cream consistency and is the lighter of the two. I absolutely love this product, it's without a doubt my favourite product in the range. This lightweight cream doesn't weigh your hair down or make it look greasy, so it's perfect for using on the mid-lengths of your hair as well as the ends. I love using this to finish off my style, whether I've rough dried my hair straight and just need a little de-frizz, or if I've curled my hair and want to define and smooth the curls, this works really well and feels super light in the hair. It's very similar in consistency to some of the 'BB' or 'CC' styling cremes out there... kind of a hybrid between a serum, leave-in conditioner and styling cream. Overall, it's a great all-in-one product and I would definitely recommend it.

Nourishing Dry Ends Serum
The Nourishing Dry Ends Serum, however is a bit of a different story. This is an oil-based serum that is super-nourishing. It's quite heavy, so like most hair oils, it's best applied just to the very ends of your hair, or to the mid-lengths and ends when your hair is wet (my personal fave way to use it!) It adds a lot of shine, so if you have very long hair like me and need to add that extra bit of moisture back into the very ends of your locks, this is a lovely product to use. The packaging is small and really portable too so it's perfect to throw in your bag for on-the-go frizz control! Personally, I find a lot of oil-serums to be much of a muchness, and while I'll definitely use this up, I'm not sure if it's any better or worse than some of my other oil serums. On the plus side, it's a whole lot cheaper for 50ml (over 1/3 of the price of Moroccan Oil ml for ml!) so it's a good choice if you're looking for a more affordable option.

Overall, I have been really impressed with this new line from Dove. It's really nice to see them moving into the styling world. There seems to be so much emphasis on style, often at the cost of your hair's health, it's really nice to see a whole line dedicated to caring for your hair as well as styling.

Dove Colour Live (Nuffnang event)

Last week on Tuesday I was invited to attend a Nuffnang event called, 'Dove Colour Live'. A bunch of bloggers were invited by email to attend this lovely event hosted by Dove and their marketing team, to learn mostly about colour and which ones correspond to hues, and our personalities.


When I got there, i was greeted with some Champagnes, not a bad start, and we were directed to a dark room, with a flat screen TV at the front. Then the lights began to change colour, and a voiceover described what they represented. The lady on the screen then said that colour is a way to incorporate all the senses into life and enhance them, particularly focusing on how colours make her 'feel', at the end of the video it is revealed that she was blind, it made the message of the video a lot more impactful.



                                    


Then we went into this bright white room with a bright purple light, that looked a lot like a studio. We had some great speakers there who talked about colour and hair and little snacks and drinks were served around. They also served a Cucumber Vitality juice which was to promote healthy hair and if you like the nails on hand model, you can go see more fabulous designs on her blog here.

We then split off into little groups for mini consultations with a colour therapist. This was my favourite part of the night. She had us look in the mirror, then proceeded to identify our 'seasons' we corresponded with, and the colours that suit us to wear. According to her I was hard to identify, I'm a Cool Summer/Winter type, Summer are the quiet, highly organised and focused. Winter are the really outgoing types, Autumn people are passionate and Spring is light-hearted and just looking for a good time. Which one do you think you are?

She gave us a lot of information about colours we SHOULD and SHOULDN'T wear. For example, black clothes can be nice, but generally they close people off from you, so people are less likely to want to approach you. Whereas, red makes you more attractive to men and they are more likely to spend money on you. So if you are getting ready for a date and you can't choose between red and black, now you know which to choose!




Apparently I should wear bold bright colours and contrasts. Which is also true for the stunning model below who's blog you can find here.




Another plus is, when we left, we got given Goody Bags. It's a DOVE bag containing products to keep healthy and freshly-coloured hair.

                                                     

I just want to thank Nuffnang for inviting me, and the Dove team for not only providing an amazing and informative night, but also a bunch of great products for me to protect my hair with. Also, thanks to the other girls there that made the night so fun, and I had a great time meeting everyone.