Garnier Fructis Fortifying shampoo and conditioner: Sleek and Shine 72H review

Now, onwards with the reviewing!

(I meant to put this one up before I started studying again but I got a bit lost as I'd never even thought of reviewing a haircare product before. Turned out to be a good thing as I had the time to do a little more research)

    Today’s review is on the sleek and shine shampoo and conditioner set from Garnier. This set is supposed to be for thick, dry and frizzy hair and claims to smooth hair as well as preventing frizz, static and humidity effects for 72 hours. The shampoo packaging claims the product provides “97% humidity resistance” and contains “strengthening Phyto-Keratin and argan oil”. The conditioner claims the same humidity resistance, but only contains Phyto-Keratin, not argan oil. 

As individual results will obviously vary based on hair type, I should point out that I don’t suffer from frizzy hair much. Generally no matter what shampoo and conditioner I use, my hair feels more or less the same, thick and slightly shiny. The only thing is I have to use conditioner otherwise my hair will be full of knots in under 1 minute.

    The shampoo is a mostly colourless gel, with a slightly runny consistency. It’s texture is slippery and it’s lather is denser than other shampoos that I’ve used, which can lather like foam. I think this aspect contributes to the difficulty I had spreading the product across my scalp. The surfactant/foaming ingredient in this shampoo is sodium laureth sulphate, which is supposedly not as bad for you as sodium lauryl sulphate, though both have been known to irritate skin. Obviously if you can’t use hair products containing sulphates this pair is a no-go for you. Looking at the ingredients list, argan oil is too far down the ingredients list (18^th) to have much of an effect on hair and argan oil is usually left in the hair rather than washed off immediately, so any potential benefits would probably have been limited anyway. (unless they could somehow bind the oil to the hair but I’m not a chemist so . . . )

 

ingredients list on shampoo

    The conditioner felt like a normal conditioner when I applied it, but the results were unlike my normal conditioners. It was either the conditioner on it’s own, or the combination of this shampoo and conditioner that left me with tangle free hair. My hair was smoother than before, almost slippery in that it slipped right out of the usual tangles. My hair wasn’t completely tangle-free but I was pretty impressed that anything had made a difference. However the conditioner does contain palm oil and according to various sites on “Certified sustainable palm oil” (CSPO), Garnier does not use CSPO. So if the orangutans of Indonesia matter to you, then you might consider boycotting Garnier. I’m certainly considering it now, despite the fact that in the past I’ve generally liked using Garnier products.

ingredients list on conditioner

    Like most garnier fructis products they smell vaguely fruity sweet, but the smell isn’t very strong so unless you have an intense aversion to fruity scents, it shouldn’t bother anyone. The fragrance part of the product is also at the bottom of the ingredients list in both the shampoo and conditioner so it shouldn’t irritate most peoples scalps. Both products also contain tea (Camellia sinensis) extract, and apple (Pyrus malus) extract. That’s tea as in tea leaves, not tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), which is not in anyway related to the plant that produces tea leaves.

    In terms of the packaging, I had issues mainly with the cap of this bottle, which as you can see is a round blob. This meant I had to use my nail between the blob and the side of the bottle to pop open the little cap, which was rather annoying when I’d cut my nails as I couldn’t just push the blob because the bottle was slippery from the water. Another thing was that either the shape of the bottle affected it or the size of the dispenser was too big because a lot of shampoo tended to come out. This wasn’t actually a problem since I needed more shampoo to cover my head since the product didn’t spread very well on me. The conditioner bottle also had a blob for a lid but it was slightly easier to open as it was flattened on one side.

    This shampoo and conditioner together made my hair feel silkier than before, and less prone to tangling, however the packaging and the small bottle size (250ml) for the price ($5.99 at priceline) did annoy me a little. Basically the only reason I’m reviewing a hair care product is that these actually produced a noticeable effect. However the palm oil could prove to be a major sticking point for people concerned about the sustainability of its source. 

Note: the garnier Australia website has thick and thin hair versions of this product, which weren’t there when I bought this pair but based on the packaging I got the thick hair version.

Which is good.

Effectiveness: 8/10

Feel: 7/10

Packaging: 5/10

Would I repurchase?

Maybe if it’s on sale (the palm oil makes the decision a lot fuzzier)

p.s. I've tried to watermark my images so tell me what you think, too big, in the way etc.?