chistaya liniya – Beauty Playbox

For those who don’t know, Chistaya Liniya (Чистая Линия, translates as Clean Line) is a very affordable skincare and hair care line from Russia. As with any brands of its caliber, some of the products are outstanding, others atrocious, and many are nothing to write home about. Today, let’s take a look at a couple of products from my empties box.

First up are two hair conditioners: Chistaya Liniya Phytotherapy Phytobalm-Elixir Impulse of Youth 25+ with Chicory and Chistaya Liniya Phytotherapy Smart Balm #1 Strength and Freshness for Greasy Hair and Scalp with Buckwheat.

Them brands really need to tone it down with their names.

The hair conditioner with chicory is a newer line. I really liked its scent. The effect on my hair wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it did its job just fine. The packaging is OK. My only gripe was its top – I love using every last bit of the product, and it’s hard to keep a bottle balanced whilst upside down with a top like that.

The hair conditioner with buckwheat (the one in the white bottle) is not as sleek-looking. It also doesn’t smell as nice as the revamped line, but it performed better. Moisturising without weighing the hair down. I used it up fast, but for its price, I’m OK with that. The only reason I don’t buy it all the time is its scent. It’s not offensive, but it just doesn’t agree with me.

Chistaya Liniya Phytotherapy Foot Cream with Lavender

One of those products that you don’t quite know what to say about, but that did its job quite well. I loved using it before bed. Whether I’d put on socks or not, it would leave my feet very soft the next morning. This cream had a rather thin consistency and absorbed quickly, which is also good. I would probably buy it again – once I run out of the army of foot creams I’d bought in the interim.

Chistaya Liniya Phytotherapy Soft Scrub with Raspberry and Lingonberry

I came into the shop and asked for a lip scrub. This is what the saleslady recommended I buy. I bought it because it was cheap and I could use a scrub. I knew from the start I wouldn’t be able to use it for the purpose I bought it for – even though it’s marketed as a ‘soft’ scrub, it’s not soft enough for the gentle skin on the lips. I tried using it on my face, but unfortunately it broke me out like a mother. So this ended up as a body scrub. It was soft enough to use on the decolletage. Will I buy it again? Probably not.

AVON Naturals Hair Care Essential Balance Mango & Ginger 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner

Can I just say… Tone it down, brands. All y’all name your products in a way that’s not at all Twitter-friendly.

I bought this product for its scent alone. Previously I had a shea butter and apricot one from the same series, and it smelt so good, I never wanted to do anything but wash my hair over and over again so I could just bathe in the scent. That’s saying a lot, because washing hair is one of my least favourite beauty procedures. This scent doesn’t disappoint either, but somewhere in the middle it became tiring. Not sure why I buy these ten-gallon packages, because commitment to one particular scent or formula is totes not my thing when it comes to bath products.

Shampoo-wise, it’s a good product, but didn’t match my scalp and hair exactly. It’s a hard thing to do, though, so I hold no grudge against it. It’s a 2-in-1, and if you’ve got short hair, or maybe even well-behaved mid-length hair, then I dare say the 2-in-1 will work, at least occasionally. Everyone else would need to use a conditioner with it.

Maybe I will repurchase it, but in a smaller size.

P.S. How many convincing words can one fit unto one label? Natural, science, technology, essential, care, balance… It’s either natural or tech, tho, but whatever.

Dove Hair Therapy Nutritive Solutions Daily Moisture Shampoo

I love Dove hair gels, deodorants, and body lotions — in fact, I’m going to do dedicated posts about each of these things soon enough — but their shampoos are horrible for me. The scent is harsh. The product foams up a whole lot. It’s not ‘moisturising’ in the slightest, rather, it stripped my poor scalp off of all oils, sending it into an overdrive each time, leaving me with greasy roots in something like 12 hours. The formula is thick and feels soft during the application, but it was very harsh afterwards. This is one of the worst shampoos I’ve tried in a long while. Will not repurchase, will not recommend.

Eveline Lip Gloss

This thing is old. It’s so old, I can’t even tell you the colour and the correct product name. I bought it on a sale long, long time ago, used it as long as it was usable, and then I just kinda forgot to discard it. It had a lovely vanilla-ish scent, and it was one of the less stickier glosses. They have since then discontinued this particular product, I think.

Oriflame All-Over Makeup Remover

(FYI, that’s not a piece of gum holding it. It’s an unfortunate bunch of sticky tack.)

Needed a make-up remover, and this was on some epic offer. I was a little hesitant, because the previous variation of Oriflame makeup remover (green rectangular bottles) was not good. It wasn’t particularly offensive, it just… didn’t remove much. This one is a certain upgrade of the formula, but if you need a heavy-duty remover, then this is still not your guy. I want to check out their waterproof makeup remover, see if it’s any better. Will probably repurchase if on offer.

Oriflame Volare Perfume

Very rose-scented, a little too much for me. The bottle was redesigned, however, and I’m going to buy that thing just for the bottle alone, because it’s in a shape of a crystal rose, and who doesn’t want a crystal rose on their vanity?! No one, that’s who.

Chistaya Liniya 48 hr Phyto-Deodorant in Calendula

Rather on the wet side, and a little bit harsh smelling, but overall I was pleased with it. What I loved most perhaps was the packaging. It is upside-down. How brilliant is that?! No weird balancing acts required to use up all of the product. I wish it were in a bit of a less… cone-like shape, though, because at times I found it hard to grip. Might try other scents, but I think calendula is the lightest of them all.

Pur-Lisse face cream sample

This came with my Lip Monthly bag. I hesitated using it at first, because it’s for normal to dry skin, and I’m as oily skinned as they come. However, this was a very nice cream. It moisturised well enough and didn’t leave any greasy residue. It smelt pretty much like nothing — an odd trace of non-offensive dust, maybe?.. Don’t know how to describe it. Anyway, these non-smells are a huge plus in my book, and I rather more prefer them to any kind of artificial or natural fragrance. No irritation, no break-outs, no rough patches. I cannot say this was an ideal match for my skin, though.