The ones that just didn't make the cut

I may come across as enthusiastic in my reviews, maybe even a little bit too enthusiastic, to the point that I might even appear to be a bit of a suck up to the brands that I review. Well, I thought that I might explain my personality to you a bit so that you understand my enthusiasm, and also list a few products that just didn't work for me, and why so that you don't think that I love every product ever made.

Firstly, my personality. I am an incredibly excitable person. At 30 years of age I still struggle to sleep the night before my birthday, and Christmas - well it is probably a good 3 nights that I am too excited to sleep through (though you will be pleased to know that I have finally out grown being too excited to sleep the night before Easter!). I just go mental knowing that there are presents in the house that I will soon get to open. But it is not just present receiving occasions that I get excited for - I get excited when I am going to get a haircut, or when I remember that my favourite TV show is on that night (for the record at the moment it is How I met Your Mother and the US version of The Office!), or even if I know that we are having something good for dinner that night! My stomach is constantly buzzing with excitement over something or other - it feels like I have a fizzed up can of Coke in there, just waiting to burst!

Coupled with my extreme case of excitism (I might have made that word up...), I am also an incredibly passionate person. I don't experience middle ground emotions such as 'like' - I either LOVE something or HATE it - there is no in between.

The final element of my personality that may explain my overly enthusiastic reviews is that I am also an incredibly laid back, easy going person. Very little phases me or gets me worked up.

So when these three elements combine it often results in a gushingly excited and positive review. My easy going nature means that I don't put overly high expectations on products - as long as they do what they are described to do, leave my skin or hair looking and feeling nice, and smell good, then I am in LOVE! And once I LOVE something my passionate side kicks in, and I just want to tell everyone about it. But then I get overly excited, develop verbal diarrhoea and out gushes an extremely enthusiastic review!

So, now that you understand me, you know to expect that a lot of my reviews will be very positive towards the product that I am reviewing. But there are some products out there that really didn't work for me. I wanted them to work, oh how badly did I want them to work. But, alas, they just were not for me. So here are some of the ones that just didn't make the cut:

Hair

• Tresemme shampoo and conditioner (can't remember which variety, though). I loved the smell of this - the chemically salon like smell but it sent my normally manageable curly hair quite wild. It was frizzy and dry and my curls lost all of their definition. I started using it soon after moving to a new area so possibly there could have been differences in the water that were responsible for my awful hair, but it was only 20 minutes away from where I previously lived so that is unlikely. And when I switched to Lush shampoo and conditioner my curls started behaving again
• John Frieda Colour Glaze This was meant to brighten up your hair colour without having to re-dye your hair - you just shampoo, condition then glaze. Colour and shine wise it made no difference to my hair. I found it hard to rinse out so it left my hair feeling a little strange - almost a bit sticky. Plus, while it didn't manage to add any colour to my hair, it did manage to add it to my bath - it stained the head rest beautifully! 

Skin Care

•  Paula's Choice I got Paula's book - Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me and loved it - it really is a fascinating read. So I thought that her skincare products would be amazing. But ( and this is a big 'but' for me), Paula is very anti-fragrance in her products whilst I adore beautifully fragrant products so I think my main issues were the scent of her products. I really didn't like the lack of fragrance and so this made it difficult for me to bring myself to use them. Anyway, this is what I bought:
• Skin Balancing Toner - this wasn't too bad but wasn't spectacular either. It did its job but just didn't smell overly appealing. I had to force myself to use it each day before I eventually gave up. I got the 497ml bottle and think that there is probably still around 300mls left sitting at the back of my cupboard somewhere
• Skin Balancing Daily Mattifying Lotion with SPF 15 and Antioxidants - like the toner, I really did not like the smell of this at all. I loved that it contain antioxidants and SPF but found it hard to rub in - it left my face looking quite white - as if it had zinc on.
• 2% Beta Hydroxy Acid Gel I bought this to try and treat my blackheads but unfortunately it didn't do anything to get rid of them.
• Joey New York - this brand must have hit Australian shores when I was in my late teens or early 20's as I remember it being promoted heavily in the magazines that I read. I ended up purchasing the following products, but was disappointed with them all:
• Pure Pores Blackhead Dissolver This was the Joey New York Product that I was most excited to try. It really sound like it was going to be the saviour to my blackhead problem that I had been searching for, for years. Unfortunately, not only did it not work, it burnt the skin on my nose. I don't have sensitive skin at all, and used this exactly as described ie I only applied it for a minute then rinsed. It tingled a bit initially on application then the tingle got stronger - but nothing to indicate any damage was being done. I removed it then later that evening noticed that my nose was bright red. Within a couple of days it completely peeled as if it had been sun burnt. Not happy, Jan.
• Egg Cream Cleanser with Egg - this smelt absolutely terrible. I don't even know how to describe it but I really could not stand the smell of it. It was a fine cleanser - non drying, cleansed well, but the awful scent lingered on my skin for ages. I ended up chucking this away as I just could not bring myself to use it. I did buy it from Rescu in its closing down sale, so perhaps I got some dodgy old stock? I guess smell a demo one if you can and if it doesn't smell awful then know that my batch was obviously rotten!!

Body

• Lush Pied de Pepper foot lotion - OK I LOVE Lush so much, so really wanted to love all of their products - I felt disloyal, not to! But I really did not like this at all. It smelt OK - not as lovely as most Lush products, but not at all offensive but it stained my toenails and bedsheets a brownish colour. I probably should have worn an old pair of socks!

Perfume

• Kenzo Flower - I absolutely adore this perfume on other people but for some reason it has a severe nuclear reaction on my skin and smells terrible. It is funny how perfume does that...funny and heart breaking at the same time!

I am sure there have been a multitude of other products that I haven't fallen head over heels in love with but these are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head.

Have you tried and of these products and had better success than I have? Are there any products that have really disappointed you?