Kiehl's Heat Protective Silk Straightening Cream

RRP: £15 for 150ml

--What does the promo say?--
"Created especially for wavy, frizzy, or curly hair in need of smoothing, our cream helps smooth hair and tame frizz without weighing hair down whilst protecting the hair from breakage."

--Packaging--
The yellow accents on this squeezy tube brighten up an otherwise dull item. The screw-top lid is practical and the overall design is suitably unisex.

--Application--
Run through the ends of wet hair (not the roots) before drying/straightening. Brush/dry as normal. Very easy. A 50p-sized amount should do it.

--Appearance--
A white, glossy cream that melts invisibly into the hair.

--Scent--
Clean-smelling and homely, a bit like fabric softener - which makes sense given the relatively neutral main ingredients (silk, soy and sesame). 

--Texture and consistency--
Beautifully creamy with no lumps or stickiness. As mentioned, it works beautifully with the hair to leave no stiffness after styling either.

--Effects on the hair--
Flyaway hair is tamed and made to feel beautifully smooth, soft and under control. FAB.

--Value for money--
As so little of the product goes such a long way, and there is NOTHING wrong with it (not even the price!), I'd happily repurchase this. Maybe my favourite Kiehl's product ever!

perfect partners
Amino Acid Shampoo, from £8.50
Hair Conditioner and Grooming Aid Formula 133, from £18.50  

All packed and with nowhere to go?

SPONSORED CONTENT

Suffering from the British downpours? Watching friends swan off on their holidays? Feeling even more sucky because the British rain is making your hair frizzy? 

Look no further: Perfumesclub.co.uk are hoping to not only fulfil your holiday hopes but also to sort your hair out with their latest prize draw. To boot, you can be sure you'll also be smelling sweet this year thanks to their other prizes: there are fifty £10 vouchers up for grabs to spend on the perfume site, as well as 100 Travalo refillable atomizer bottles to give away.

But those aren't even the main prizes, oh no! I hear you screaming "but what about my hair?!" The second prize is a pair of GHD hair straighteners (the Peacock model; available in green, blue or purple), ensuring you'll be the envy of your friends for free. The first prize is even better, though: a 2-night trip to Mallorca for two, including travel and accommodation expenses.

Any UK resident can enter via the Perfumes Club website, with winners being announced in October. It is so easy to enter (I just have) and who wouldn't want a free holiday in the Mallorcan sun? (Or GHDs, or vouchers, or perfume...)

And when you've entered the competition, you should take a look around the Perfumes Club site while you're there. As well as selling perfume, they also sell aftershaves and other products for men, and offer highly tailored search options on makeup and tanning products, which allow you to search by price, brand, age, required SPF, skin type, and more. The products are heavily discounted and are from end-of-line ranges by brands such as Shiseido, Piz Buin, and Clarins. In addition, you can consult their own blog, get advice from their resident beautician, use their gift finder, and watch videos. I'll definitely be bookmarking for my future purchases. Until then, though, I'll be sitting back and waiting to see if I won anything. Winning stuff rules :)

Gimme head with hair, long beautiful hair...

No matter how we like to style or wear our hair, looking good is a concern all year round. For some people, making their hair looks good requires the best possible kit at affordable prices - a combination which can be tricky to achieve with new, trendy bits of equipment seeming to arrive in the shops hourly and it becoming harder and harder to make your monthly wages stretch. But there are ways of keeping costs down and still keeping a hold on your style.

I understand the importance of browsing in the shops and having a chance to physically touch, look at, and sometimes even try the item before buying. But sometimes it can pay to browse in store but then buy online; even with postage fees it often works out cheaper. Google Shopping is one of my best friends for this reason.

It also pays at times to look in unexpected places. For a range of hair straighteners, for instance, would you have thought to try Argos? Or Lloydspharmacy for heat protection spray? These places, which are perhaps more famous for jewellery, gifts, prescriptions and TENS machines, also offer a variety of big brands and the latest technology at low prices - the heat protection sprays I mentioned start at just £1.99, for instance, while Argos' selection of straighteners sees BaByliss, Philips and Remington straighteners being offered at competitive prices.

But along with taking care of hair comes times when we want to remove it completely - unwanted body hair and the beach just aren't compatible, after all. I usually wax, as my local salon charges just €4,50 per zone - meaning I can get my legs, bikini line and underarms done for just €13,50. But waxing is often more expensive in other areas and plenty of people are on the hunt for lower-cost or better-value options. Expensive hair-removal creams and constant-maintenance shaving regimes are frequently frustrating alternatives. You can visit Argos for laser hair removal too in the face of costly courses of salon treatment - their options are priced affordably, and even their more expensive hair removal systems, such as the Philips Lumea and the Rio Salon IPL Hair Removal System, still work out considerably cheaper than a professional course of treatment. Plus, there's the upside that you get to carry out the treatment in the privacy and comfort of your own home, at your own pace.

It's things like this that sometimes make me think men have it easier - just a short back and sides at the barber's once a month to deal with, and the idea that body hair makes you more of a man means they can breathe much more easily. This is compared to women, who have to weigh up the costs of at-home hair removal versus the salon option, use four different products on their hair to remove the bed-head look and have to deal with hair dye on towels and ingrown hairs regularly. But luckily everyone - male or female! - can benefit from the one-stop-shop called Argos - complete with its laminated book of dreams - that seems to embody men's general desire to get shopping over and done with. Thanks to the system of ordering online or collecting in store, minimum queues and so much being under one roof, everything from model makeover days to laser hair removal is possible with next to no fuss. Great for those last-minute summer birthday buys and for great hair all year round.

This post was brought to you in conjunction with Argos