DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!

Okay, so the title may come across as a little aggressive but I've been meaning to write this post (as always) for ages.

Everyone's got those products that you hear about, spend your money on and end up being royally disappointing because they didn't live up to the expectations 'the hype' set. 

'The Hype' (now capitalised) is a dangerous thing; when beauty bloggers all receive a product that they can't put down and flood your Twitter timeline/Tumblr dash' or Youtube feed with reviews and pictures, raving about how 'awesome' this 'must-have' product is and how you simply 'have to try this!' Well... after a while you feel yourself weakening and giving in. So now you find yourself with a product that either lives up to this biblical benchmark, or you're bundled with a piece of expensive makeup that simply doesn't work for you. It might work for someone else, but it doesn't work for you, and that's who matters when buying these things, right?

As a general disclaimer, I'm going to say the opinions I express in the following post are mine. I'm not slating any particular company, far from it, most of the companies I write about here are some of my favourites and that's why I'm so disappointed. You may disagree, but if you agree, at least you know there's someone else out there who feels the same.

First off is a mascara which has actually won awards it's meant to be so gosh-darn brilliant. I've heard numerous beauty bloggers and vloggers alike praise this product to the high heavens.

When I first bought Benefit's They're Real! Mascara, I was over the moon. £20 for one product is a lot but, after hearing The Hype, I was certain I wouldn't regret the purchase. 

I tried it out and the results were good. I wrote a review where I expressed my mild disappointment but, after using the mascara a few more times, it started to grow on me. I think I even included a paragraph in another post about how I actually quite liked it. But now, after using it for a considerable amount of time, I'm still pretty underwhelmed by it. It's good but not as good as the price would suggest. I've also noticed it really hurts my eyes; it seems to flake quite badly and the particles get collected by my tear ducts. It makes my eyelashes stick out at weird angles without adding any considerable length or volume. It dries out and clumps easily but then practically takes an electric sander to get off. 

I'm currently looking into trying out cheaper products, especially mascara, in a hope of finding something that does the job without costing me my first born.

The next product(s) was one of the first I ever reviewed for this here blog.

Illamasqua is a brand that I both like and admire; their range is impressive and diverse and I go out of my way to research their new ranges. However, I hate their lip glosses. At £14, I find them overpriced for what they are and what they are is sticky, short-wearing, average glosses with very little pigment. This may sound harsh, but I only say it with love considering how amazing the majority of Illamasqua's products are! I know they can do better - and have done - so this product frustrates me.

The next couple of products in my 'don't believe The Hype' list actually cause me physical pain to write about. And when I tell you why, all will become clear. The next two items are from... wait for it... Urban Decay.

I know, I know. I'm an Urban Decay fangirl, something has gone terribly wrong here. And it has.

The Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils are probably my favourite beauty products ever; they're flawless. Unfortunately, their counterpart, the 24/7 Glide-On Eyeshadow Pencils make me want to take said pencil and stab myself in the face repeatedly. I don't know whether I just got a dud or that the colour I got, Morphine, wasn't the greatest but it certainly didn't 'glide on'. The colour is creamy, but not as creamy as the regular pencils, and the pigment is weak and patchy. They do stay on, but that's just about the only redeeming feature. 

I have considered buying more, just in case I got unlucky with my particular pencil, as I desperately want to like them, but at £14 each, they're not a cheap risk. I love Urban Decay so much, but this pencil is just... 'Meh'.

Another string to Urban Decay's 24/7 bow is their Concealer Pencil. Now, admittedly I bought this in a colour that's probably at least a shade paler than me (which is unusual), but the colour itself is strange; slightly yellow and artificial. It goes on very creamy (creamily?) but it's actually pretty dry and takes a lot of work to blend into the skin without it showing creases and lines. 

Now onto the body products. I love Lush. In fact, they've got a couple of items in my 'Forever Repurchase' list (coming soon). And there were a couple of products that I heard so much Hype about that I had to try.

Dreamwash and Dream Cream are one and the same. Dreamwash is a shower smoothie and has the weirdest texture of any body product I've ever tried. It's kind of waxy and solid... think mascarpone cheese... but dissolves into a thin milk when rubbed into the skin with water. I was advised via The Hype to use it as an aid to shaving my legs but I find it too watery and it leaves my legs feeling itchy, something I've never found before when shaving my legs.

Dream Cream is a body lotion that seems to take roughly a decade to soak into the skin. It leaves me greasy all day and didn't seem to make my skin any softer than any other body lotion.  

By far the worst aspect of these two products though, is the smell. I was told by The Hype that they smelled 'amazing' (quote-end-quote). They don't, they smell like the cream my mum used to use on me as a baby to sooth skin complaints. I can make my peace with the lavender, not my favourite but no biggie. But the rest: a combination of calamine, chamomile and rose just don't do it for me. They obviously do it for some people, hence them being so popular, but for me they're sickly. What makes it worse, is that the smell clings to your skin like a bloody leach!

It's actually been hard work trying to use these up. The Dreamwash is £9.50 and Dream Cream £10.95 so no way was I just chucking these down the sink but I refuse to just let them sit in my bathroom cupboard, especially when there's other products in there that I want to get started on. Products that don't smell like nappy rash cream.

The final item on my list is a dry shampoo. I'm always on the hunt for a dry shampoo since I work out around 5 times a week and therefore get sweaty. We all know it's not great to wash your hair everyday so other methods must be called in for backup.

Despite not being the biggest fan of TRESemmé, I needed some dry shampoo recently so picked up the nearest one. This stuff not only lifted the grease from my hair, but every other molecule of remaining moisture that once existed there. It dried out my hair so badly and made it so frizzy (as a curly haired girl, you can only imagine the mayhem) that I had to scrap my hair back and tie it up anyway, just to avoid poking someone's eye out! Not impressed at all, would not recommend and definitely would not rebuy.

Now this whole post might seem a bit moany and even harsh in places, but I guess the moral is, try before you buy, don't take other people's word for it and don't believe The Hype.