little white truths

I'm lucky enough to be on a couple of review teams, and ages ago we were sent these products to test and review. 

We didn't have long to use them before submitting our thoughts, and I wanted to give them a longer testing period before I wrote them up on this blog.

So now that I've been using them for around six weeks, I'm ready to write this post. I have two main things to say about these: first, they smell so pungent that I can hardly bear them; and second, they've been inconsistent for me so I can't give them a glowing review. 

But I don't think they're bad products and they seem to work pretty well for others (see eg beautyheaven), so it's worth considering this range if you're after some new haircare that doesn't cost the earth.

Schwarzkopf claims/product details:

• Enriched with Omegaplex
• Salon-inspired technology helps seal and restore broken bonds, and stabilises the inner hair structure from the inside out
• Offers long-lasting resilience and protection
• For hair that's renewed and touchably smooth
• RRP $5.49 AUD for 250ml or $6.99 AUD for 400ml

Verdict (shampoo)

Note that my hair is dry, damaged, long and frizzy/wavy - plus the ends have some lighter streaks in them from a bunch of highlights I had done years ago that are still growing out. 

The first thing I noticed about this product was the scent. I can't stand it. It's sickly sweet and heady, and the first time I used these products, I got a bad headache and felt like I was going to faint. Armed with this knowledge, I kept them well away from my nose and held my breath during future uses, so I could focus instead on the effect of the products.

Next, the packaging. I love the purple and black: it just looks fancy, and using products that look good always helps me feel a bit special : )

As for effect, I think the shampoo is the better product. It washes beautifully without stripping my hair, and I've used some pretty bad shampoos lately so I was glad to find a good one.

After use my hair feels clean and looks shiny, without feeling stripped or dry so I know the shampoo isn't too astringent. 

My hair also feels a bit stronger since I started using this product so I do think it helps restore/repair the hair without weighing it down or leaving it feeling coated.

I guess the only thing I don't love about this shampoo is that, when combined with the conditioner, I don't always get a consistent result: sometimes my hair is left feeling knotty; sometimes it's more frizzy than usual; and sometimes it just feels good. I can't work out why I'm not getting the same result each time, but that's something to note because if you're anything like me, you'll want products that do the same thing every time.

Overall, though, I do really like this shampoo - I just wish the scent agreed with me more (but of course fragrance is so personal and I'm sure that some people will love it).

Verdict (conditioner)

Sometimes I review shampoo/conditioner combos together and sometimes I separate them: in this case I'm separating them because I think the shampoo works better for me than this does, and I wouldn't be surprised if my issues with these came from this conditioner more than they do the shampoo.

I should state first what I said above: my hair is dry, damaged, long and frizzy/wavy - plus the ends have some lighter streaks in them from a bunch of highlights I had done ages ago.

Again, the scent. The same comments apply to this: I can't stand it. I'm sure there must be some people who really enjoy the smell of these products, but it doesn't agree with me at all.

My comments on the packaging apply too: I really like it and I reckon I'd be drawn to these colours if I saw the products in the chemist. The bottles just look good.

As for effect, there's been a bit of a learning curve with the conditioner and my hair didn't like it on the first two uses, but it handled the next couple better - but then after that it's been hit or miss and I never know what I'm going to get.

On the first use, I think I didn't use enough because my hair was soooo knotty afterwards that I had to go in with oil and detangling spray to fix the problem. On the second use, I think I used too much (!) because my hair felt so heavy and coated afterwards that I had to wash it again shortly after, just to remove the residue.

On the third use, I found a happy medium and my hair felt better - not tangled and not coated. So if you've struggled with this product, you may need to play around with the amount you use, just to get it to perform at its best.

On subsequent uses, I'm still trying to find that happy medium: it's like I can't get the right balance so my hair is often left knotty after washing because the conditioner isn't doing enough on its own.

We're in winter now so my hair is drier than usual, which might have something to do with it - but if I use too much conditioner, the result is so much worse that I'd rather err on the side of caution.

As noted above, after using these products for a while, my hair now feels a bit stronger so I do think they help restore/repair the hair. 

Mind you, the conditioner doesn't manage frizz as well as I would like and I need to use a leave-in product to handle that issue, on top of the detangling spray I need to manage the knots.

Overall I think these are ok products for the price, but I need consistency in my products so I wouldn't buy them - even if I could stand the smell.