Wella Oil Reflections Luminous Reveal Shampoo & Conditioner Review

Sometimes Topbox is such a tease with the product it sends out. A couple months ago it sent me two good size samples of a shampoo and conditioner from Wella's Oil Reflections Luminous Reveal line. Within one use I was in love.

Wella states that the "light moisturizing shampoo leaves the hair deeply cleansed" with "instant luminosity" while the "30-second smoothening conditioner locks moisture in, leaving the hair luminous and smooth." Both products contain camellia oil and white tea extract, which Wella says helps to leave you with noticeably smoother hair.

Avon Advance Techniques 360 Nourish Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo & Conditioner Review

I've had some good luck with Avon products in the past so when I was given a bottle of Avon Advance Techniques 360 Nourish Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo and a bottle of the line's conditioner, I had high hopes.

According to Avon, these products use "argan oil, provitamin B5 and vitamin E" to "instantly improve hair’s health and shine." Each one also supposedly, "fights frizz; instantly detangles hair" and "Cleanses and conditions hair." And as a nice bonus, these products are also supposed to have a "creamy, luxurious lather."

They do lather up nicely, I'll give them that. And they washed out easily, leaving me with light, clean hair that was pretty tangle-free. However, the shine that I wanted just wasn't there. And this duo had pretty much no impact on my frizz and flyaways.

Nexxus City Shield Shampoo, Conditioner & Damage Defense Hair Crème Review

Back in June, I attended a Today's Parent-sponsored event at the Joe Fresh on Queen W. that gave me a 25% discount on my purchases, free wine and a swag bag. This wasn't an exclusive event, anyone could go, and because of that I didn't have high hopes for the swag bag. So I was quite surprised to discover that the bag contained, among other goodies, full-sized bottles of Nexxus' City Shield shampoo, conditioner and a leave-in product called Damage Defense Hair Crème.

Even better was discovering that this line is basically designed for me. According to Nexxus, this line "offers a reinvigorating veil of protection against the environment, controlling frizz, making your hair manageable and giving it a natural-looking healthy shine," with the Damage Defense Hair Crème having a "... Salon crafted formula (that) smoothes and defends fine to medium hair " As a city-dweller with frizz-prone fine hair, this line sounded perfect to me.

Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal Shampoo & 3 Minute Miracle Moisture Renewal Deep Conditioner Review

Here's one benefit print magazines can deliver that digital just can't touch: Physical samples. Over late May and early June, I ended up with three different magazines that all contained samples of Pantene's Daily Moisture Renewal shampoo and . It was enough product to get me through a couple weeks' worth of hair washing and gave me the chance to really test out these two products.

According to Pantene, the shampoo creates a "nutrient-rich lather" that "visibly replenishes dry and lifeless hair." It "nourishes and moisturizes for effortless detangling" while also making hair "silky softness from root to tip." Meanwhile the conditioner uses its "Powerful conditioning formula" to "deliver healthy hydration to transform every strand into pure silk."

Boo Bamboo Strengthening Shampoo and Strengthen & Shine Conditioner Review

My sample tubes of Boo Bamboo Strengthening Shampoo and Boo Bamboo Strengthen and Shine Conditioner only provided me with enough product for three hair washing sessions so if these items need four (or more) uses to work their magic, well, I guess I'll never experience that outcome. Instead, what I did experience were decent though not spectacular results.

According to Boo Bamboo, both of these products contain bamboo extract and "organic proteins" to fight "....dry brittle hair..." The shampoo also contains silica "...to help strengthen your hair and create brilliant shine." While suitable for all hair types, it's supposedly an extra-good match for dyed hair as, "it gently cleanses without stripping away your colour, leaving you with incredibly soft healthier looking hair."

North American Hemp Co. Soak It Up Shampoo & Conditioner Review

My July Topbox arrived a couple of weeks ago packed with makeup items and one small tube of shampoo and a matching tube of conditioner. I'd never heard of North American Hemp Co. until then but I was curious to give it a shot.

As the company name suggests, hemp is the star ingredient in these two products, specifically certified organic hemp seed oil. But unlike any other hemp product I've used before, these ones smell lovely. Both the shampoo and the conditioner had a light, almost sweet vanilla fragrance to them, making the scent my favourite aspect of these items.

Dove Regenerative Nourishment Shampoo, Conditioner & Serum-in-Oil

Dove's new Regenerative Nourishment line arrived on my doorsteps courtesy of Influenster, a program that sends out, at no charge, new products to people who supposedly have some degree of online influence. In exchange for these free items, I need to try them and then post my honest opinions on each item's product page. So because of that, this review is formatted a little different than my regular posts.

Regenerative Nourishment Shampoo
Using the power of Red Algae and something called Keratin NutriComplex, Dove claims that this shampoo, "repairs the internal structure of damaged hair, helping it resist breakage and leaving it smooth and manageable." This shampoo also supposedly leaves hair strong with a "healthy look and feel."

L'Oreal Color Radiance Review

Another month, another new shampoo/conditioner/leave-in treatment to test out. This time around the line is L'Oreal's Colour Radiance. While it consists of six products, I tried out the shampoo, the conditioner and a leave-in cream that's called Instant Miracle. These three products were supplied to me free of charge by Influenster, a product testing site.

Now, I need to also state that I only used all three product together so I can't comment on say, the individual cleaning power of the shampoo. But I can tell you that together, the three items worked nicely to give me strong, shiny hair.

A few days prior to receiving these products, I touched up my roots with an at-home touch-up kit. While I realize that's not quite the same as getting a fresh colour, I do think that my touch-up job does allow me to assess this line's impact on coloured hair.

Tresemmé Beauty-full Volume Pre-Wash Conditioner, Shampoo & Volume & Softness Hair Maximizer

The hair care market is a crowded one. To stand out, brands often push a hot new ingredient. But for its Beauty-full Volume collection, Tresemmé has taken a different approach. Instead of boasting about an exotic oil or a patented molecule, the company has revamped the entire hair washing process.

Instead of the usual shampoo-conditioner-styling product process, this line uses something called the Reserve Wash system, which starts off with the Pre-wash Conditioner. That's then followed by the shampoo and then the process is finished off with the styling product. This approach is supposed to result in "soft, touchable, voluminous hair."

Pantene Dry Defy Intense Hydration Shampoo & Conditioner

Any beauty blogger worth her clicks can tell you that one area where you don't have to spend big money is on shampoo and conditioner.  Most of these products, whether they cost $10 or $40, will deliver clean, healthy-looking strands that are packed with shine and hydration.

I've yet to come across a drugstore brand that doesn't deliver on those qualities and Pantene's new Dry Defy Intense Hydration Shampoo and Conditioner products continues in that tradition but not by much. According to Pantene, this new line contains"...a rich formula containing a Triple Amino Complex" that "....helps (to) repair hair strand by strand for a healthy, hydrated feel." The shampoo "...instantly revives chronically dehydrated hair and helps prevent frizz, breakage, and dullness," while the conditioner "...seals in moisture for a velvety smooth feel, high shine, and deep hydration."

L'Oreal Fibralogy Shampoo & Conditioner

A few weeks ago I was at Shoppers Drugmart, picking up a few items during one of those promo events where if you buy $50 worth of stuff, you get a bunch of bonus Optimum points. I thought I'd grabbed enough to hit that $50-before-taxes target but nope, due to some items being on sale, I was under by close to $20. Not wanting to miss out on my bonus points, I looked around to see what else I could pick up. Just a few feet away from the till was my answer: L'Oreal's new Fibralogy line on sale.

According to L'Oreal, "Fibralogy thickens hair wash after wash and expands the diameter of the hair fibre for voluptuous looking hair!" It does this thanks to its use of something called "filloxane" that "penetrates and diffuses in the hair fibre." This ingredient "remains in the fibre and increases application after application. Hair becomes progressively thicker."

Matrix Oil Wonders Micro-oil Shampoo & Oil Conditioner

I received my samples of these two Matrix Oil Wonders product in my March Topbox, along with samples of the line’s Egyptian Hibiscus oil. I reviewed that product on Friday and while I liked it, I wasn’t amazed by the results. Would the shampoo and conditioner do a better job at impressing me?

Matrix describes the shampoo as a “lightweight” product that contains “...micro-sized particles of Moroccan argan oil (that) are evenly dispersed in the silicone based shampoo for gentle cleansing and nourishment while providing softness and shine.” The conditioner is also “…infused with Moroccan argan oil that provides lightweight conditioning while restoring manageability for touchable softness and shine.”

Clear Intense Hydration Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner

I received my bottles of Clear Intense Hydration Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner in my Spark Session swag bag (so yes, they were freebies). At first, I was a bit disappointed that this was the shampoo and conditioner that ended up in our bags. Clear is a brand that has just never captured my attention and had always seemed a bit “blah.”

But since I was now in possession of this brand, I figured that I might as well give it a try. I am very happy that I did.

I’ve been using these products for pretty much a month now and I still love them. My hair is soft, manageable, super shiny, and while there is some frizzy-ness still happening around my crown, things are overall in great shape. Things look so good that a co-worker even asked what brand of shampoo and conditioner I was using.

Pantene Pro-V Ultimate 10 Shampoo & Conditioner

Pantene’s new Pro-V Ultimate 10 collection is a mixed bag of products.  I used its shampoo and conditioner, along with the Pro-V Ultimate 10 BB Crème (which I reviewed last week), for about a week and half and wasn’t impressed at all with the line. But then after I started doing split hair tests with the BB Crème, and then dropped it all together, the look and feel of my hair improved.

Let me back for a minute and make it clear that I received all three of the products mentioned above for free from BzzAgent, an online product-testing club that I belong to. But don’t worry, here at StuffLindsayBought.blogspot.com, free products do not equal a positive review.

Herbal Essences Naked Volume Shampoo & Conditioner

For some reason, the past few months have been filled with free shampoos and conditioners. The latest batch is from Herbal Essences’ new Naked Volume line and was sent to me because I’m a member of BzzAgent, a new-product tryout group.

As the name suggests, this new line is all about the ingredients it doesn’t contain. According to its web page, these products contains “0% heavy residues, parabens, and dyes” but “will restore 100% of your hair’s natural body and your strands will feel revitalized and refreshed.” The shampoo and conditioner are supposed to leave my hair feeling super-soft.

Goldwell Dualsenses Color Fade Stop Shampoo & Detangling Conditioner

Back in February, I got an invite to attend an event that salon brand Goldwell was throwing. Unfortunately I RSVPed too slowly to get in on the event but, much to my pleasant surprise, the PR woman I was dealing with decided to send me a gift pack.

Inside that package were a variety of free, full-sized items including the Detangling conditioner and Fade Stop shampoo from Goldwell’s Duelsenses Color line.The timing of these items was perfect as it arrived shortly before I had my hair re-highlighted. While I don't always use for-colour shampoos and conditioners, I do try to use those types of products for at least a few weeks after I get my hair refreshed, in some attempt to preserve my colour. So once I got back from the hairdresser's, I tossed these two new bottles into my shower.

According to the packaging, the shampoo’s “Superior FadeStopFormula with Pomegranate Essence reduces color fading to a minimum” while the conditioner not only protects colour but also “intensifies color brilliance”  with its own formula that includes a UV filter, something called Instant Microfluid Technology and more pomegranate essence.

Garnier Fructis Damage Eraser Shampoo, Conditioner & Split End Bandage

What could they be?

A few weeks ago, Influenster, the product-trying company that I’m part of, posted a survey to see which of its members should try out a new line of hair products. I immediately took the survey but was told that nope, this new line wasn’t appropriate for me.

I forgot about the whole thing until two Mondays ago when I received a package from Influenster.
It turns out that I was selected and because of that, I was sent, at no cost to myself, small bottles of a mystery shampoo, conditioner and split-end treatment. All I was told was that these products were from a L’Oreal brand, that they were intended for “distressed, damaged hair" and that all would revealed in a couple of weeks.

Until then, I was to use the small bottles found in my mystery box as I would any other shampoo/conditioner as well as apply the split-end treatment after towel-drying my hair. I did just that and overall, I’m pretty pleased with the results. While my hair doesn’t look quite as shiny as when I used this combo, but it still has some shine, is soft and manageable and is impressively smooth.

Dove Nutritive Solutions Daily Moisture Shampoo & L’Oreal’s Power Moisture Conditioner

Are you a brand snob? Or a firm believer that a low price tag equals a low quality product? If so, stop reading now because you’re not going to enjoy this review; it's all

I’ve been using Dove’s Nutritive Solutions Daily Moisture Shampoo and L’Oreal’s Power Moisture Conditioner for close to two months now and my hair is looking fantastic. It’s soft, it’s shiny and I think it’s even a little less frizzy around my crown. Between the results of these products and the excellent highlights I received last month, my hair is looking better than it has in years.

Dove and L’Oreal both have their own “science-y” explanations for why these products work. In the former’s case, there’s a “Pro-Moisture Complex, which goes to the cellular level” while the latter is “enriched with Hyaluronate to infuse moisture deep into the hair fibres and lock it in while Arginine-K Complex helps penetrate.”

Vidal Sassoon Restoring Repair Shampoo & Conditioner

Vidal Sassoon is one of those brands that hasn’t been on my radar for a long time. I remember the brand’s ads from when I was a kid but by the time I was old enough to start buying my own hair products, around the turn-of-the-millennium, it never occurred to me to buy any Vidal Sassoon products.

But recently the company’s been trying to stage a bit of comeback with stronger advertising and a revamped hair care line called Pro Series. Shampoo and conditioner samples from this line’s Repair collection were also included in the Elle Beauty Boxes that were sent around a few weeks ago.

I think that was a smart marketing move because it put this brand in the hands of a lot of people who likely wouldn’t pick a Vidal Sassoon product up off a store shelf (and yes, I include myself in that group). But now that I’ve tried it, I might actually buy these products because they did indeed leave my hair “healthy looking and strong.”

TRESemmé Platinum Strength Shampoo & Conditioner

TRESemmé’s been one busy company this year. Back in March, it released its new Keratin Smooth Collection, which  I reviewed over here. This month this company’s focus is on its Platinum Strength line, which claims to “repair up to two years of damage in just five uses*.”

While this collection contains four products, I only got to try out the Strengthening shampoo and conditioner (I received my free samples in my SampleSource pack). Thankfully, the shampoo and conditioner are really all you need to test out this line’s main claim; at least that’s what I took away from the fine print beside the asterisk (“*In five uses when using Shampoo & Conditioner as a system vs non-Conditioning Shampoo").