Bad Pump Action! (Andrew Collinge Mocha Brunette Shampoo)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	Andrew Collinge Mocha Brunette Shampoo
Date:	12/10/08 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells Nice & Left Hair Clean.

Disadvantages: Dispenser Pump was Terrible.

Recently I always find myself offering to go to the supermarket with my mum one evening a week when she does the main food shop. Now I'd love to say I'm just a good daughter who wants to help her mum with the shopping but secretly I go to take advantage of the fact that my mum always lets me put one or two things extra in the trolley from the health and beauty sections. As supermarkets seem to be desperately trying to entice their customers to spend more there are always offers on their products and who am I to ignore them!

A couple of weeks ago a leading supermarket had a few special offers on different brands of hair care. Now I was just about to opt for one of my usual brands when the Andrew Collinge shelf caught my eye, especially as there were big stickers promoting the products on special offer. They seemed to do a range of shampoos and conditioners, suitable for all your usual types of hair including coloured hair and a range of styling products as well. I opted for a shampoo and conditioner which were on a special price offer of Buy One Get One Free.

The Product

The shampoo came in a rather pretentious looking plastic bottle with a reflective silver lid and silver writing on the bottle advertising the brand name. It was advertised as being suitable for brunette hair is most suited to darker shades of brunette (mocha to coffee coloured). The lid is a screw on silver lid although the shampoo was actually dispensed by a push down pump action dispenser. Overall the bottle is quite typical to shampoo; it does look slightly more expensive than brands such as Pantene due to the quite posh looking bottle design.

The shampoo itself looks like very dark honey; it's a deep golden brown that appears to glitter almost in the light. The matching conditioner has a lighter honey colour to it and is opaque whereas the shampoo is slightly more see through if you look through the bottle. It's similar to all other liquid shampoos in consistency and doesn't really have an overly unique smell. When I first smelt it I have to be honest and say that it did remind me of Pantene, it hasn't got an overly "salon" type smell that I tend to associate with the more designer brands of hair care.

To dispense the shampoo you simply need to pump down on the pump dispenser and this is where I started to have problems. If you pump all the way down on the bottle which is only about an inch, it will literally release about two pea sized amounts of shampoo into your hand. Now I have really thick hair that falls below my shoulders and to get enough shampoo to cover my head takes about eight or nine pumps which can be quite time consuming when you're stood in the shower! I find it's easier to actually unscrew the lid and pour it out, rendering the pump useless.

Application of the shampoo is the same as with any shampoo, you simply need to massage it into your hair and scalp making sure you cover all areas. The shampoo seems to lather up okay, not quite as much as I find with other shampoos but enough to keep me satisfied. Washing the shampoo out is the same as it normally is, I have had shampoos in the past that have tended to coat and stick to my hair almost but this one doesn't do anything like that. I always tend to do two washes with any shampoo and then use a conditioner to ensure my hair is really clean.

So after washing it all out and using a conditioner I found that combing my hair through was a little easier than normal, although this was probably due to the condition rather than the shampoo. As for the overall effect after drying well I was pleased, but not overjoyed. My hair didn't seem quite as shiny as it sometimes does when I use other brands but it did feel quite soft. It took about three days to go greasy which is what it tends to do anyway so the Andrew Collinge products were fine on that count. And so onto the science bit and the lasting results...

This shampoo is advertised as enhancing your colour's rich vibrancy and shine. The moisture rich formula is enriched with silk proteins that contain extracts of dark caramel, amber and coffee to cleanse and enhance your colour as well. So after my first wash I didn't really notice any difference to my colour and after using this shampoo for three weeks continuously I didn't really notice any different either. I've not really come across a shampoo that drastically affects the colour of my hair or maintains the brunette tones and this one didn't either.

My Opinion

This shampoo retails in Boots for £3.99 for a 300ml bottle which would normally last me about a month in total. I managed to get the shampoo and conditioner on a BOGOF offer which meant I did save quite a bit of money. I wouldn't exactly go rushing out to buy this shampoo again, however if I saw it on offer again I probably would buy it (or get my mum to!) as it did do a good job overall and did leave my hair feeling very clean.

My main gripe was with the pump style dispenser which was really rubbish, I'd much rather just a flip lid or a screw top which arguably might not look as "salon like" but it would make it much easier for me in the shower! So would I recommend this? Well if you want a shampoo that cleanses your hair and smells fairly nice then look no further, but if you're expecting it to enhance your colour then you'll probably be disappointed.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A shampoo for brunettes from Andrew Collinge.