A bit of a disappointment (Asda Smart Price Shampoo)

Member Name: welshfruitbat

Product:	Asda Smart Price Shampoo
Date:	05/12/06 (586 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: See review

BACKGROUND

What with having two children and moving to a bigger house, we have been trying to economise on the grocery shopping.

The shampoo that we were using was a little bit expensive, so I decided to try and find a cheaper one to use.


PRODUCT

The shampoo I decided to buy from my local Asda store is from their ‘Smart Price’ range. It only cost me 29p for a one litre bottle. I thought that this sounded like a really good deal as I normally pay about £1.50 for my regular shampoo, which was only a 500ml bottle.


PACKAGING

The packaging is typical of the ‘Smart Price’ range, using the red and white label. The label only covers the middle part of the bottle. The bottle itself is made of a clear plastic, so you can see the green shampoo through it.

The label on the back of the bottle tells you the ingredients and contact details for Asda.


DESIGN OF THE BOTTLE/EASE OF USE

I didn’t actually pay any real attention to the design of the bottle in the shop, I only noticed when I got home. The lid is of the twist off variety, which I was very surprised at. I have become used to shampoo bottles which have one of two types of lid. One where you lift up the lid and there is a hole where the shampoo comes out of, such as Pantene or Johnson’s baby. The other type is where you push the back of the lid down and the front lifts up to reveal a hole, such as TRESemme.

I found the screw top quite annoying. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the lid unscrewed and there was something inside which restricts the amount of shampoo that comes out. This unfortunately doesn’t have anything. You unscrew the cap and you have a hole which is probably about 1.5cm wide for the shampoo to come out of. Bearing in mind that the bottle is one litre, then it is quite difficult to pour out a small amount.

I found it quite difficult to use in the shower. Normally I get in, wet my hair, flick the lid up on my shampoo, pour into my free hand and wash my hair. With this shampoo I have the bottle in one hand and the lid in the other. I have to find somewhere to put the lid so I have a free hand to pour the shampoo into. Then I have to find somewhere to put the shampoo so it doesn’t tip out whilst having a shower.

I found the design of the bottle so annoying that I only used it in the shower once. I found my old shampoo bottle, washed it out and then filled it up with this shampoo.


FRAGRANCE

I suppose I have gotten used to the variety of different fragrances that shampoo is available in these days; from fruity strawberries and cream to relaxing lavender.

I assumed that because the shampoo is green the fragrance would be a refreshing apple, or a zesty lime. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There was no fruity smell to this at all. The smell is quite plain. It reminds me of how shampoo used to smell around ten years ago, before people came up with different fragrances – all shampoos smelled the same. This is exactly what this smells like. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell – just plain. Saying that it didn’t put me of using it.


CONSISTENCY

Again I have gotten used to shampoos of today which are thick, rich, creamy, and you only need to use a small amount for it to lather up well. This shampoo was the complete opposite. When I pour this out of the bottle, I am again surprised as to how runny it is.

I poured out the same amount as I would have done with my previous shampoo and start to wash my hair. I was disappointed by the fact that there was hardly any lather. It didn’t wash my hair very well. I had to put more shampoo on. In fact I ended up using about three times the amount on my hair to wash it than I did with my previous shampoo, and I didn’t get anywhere near as much lather. It’s not even as though I have very long hair – it rests just above my shoulders.


DID IT WASH MY HAIR WELL

The short answer to this is no. My hair type is between normal to slightly greasy, so I tend to wash it every day. What I found with this shampoo is that even though I continued to wash my hair every day, it looked quite greasy the next day before I washed it – greasier than it looked with my previous shampoo.

Another thing I noticed with this shampoo and to be honest was the final nail in its coffin, was what my hair looked like afterwards. At the moment I’m going through the process of growing my fringe out. Anyone who has gone through this will appreciate that all you can do for a while is tie your hair in a ponytail and spray lots of hairspray on your fringe to keep it our of your eyes. I did this with my previous shampoo and it wasn’t an issue. With this shampoo I noticed that when I dried my hair and went to brush it, I had lots of white bits in my hair. Even though I washed my hair in exactly the same way – in fact with this shampoo I used more of it because it was so thin, it wasn’t getting rid of the styling products residue. I carried on using the shampoo in the hope things would get better, but unfortunately it didn’t.

I mentioned it to my husband to see what he thought. He said that he had also noticed white residue left in his hair. He has short, spiky hair and only uses a small amount of gel.

At this point I went out and bought a different bottle of shampoo and threw the rest of this away.


MY OPINION

I was very unimpressed with this shampoo. I have used many of Asda’s ‘Smart Price’ range of products and have never been disappointed, but this shampoo has broken that record.

Things started off wrong with the bad design of the bottle, but if the shampoo had been good I would have gladly continued to buy it and pour it into a different type of bottle. I could have put up with the plain smell – it was everything else that put me off.

It was too thin and runny, it didn’t lather up very well at all and I had to use a lot of it. It didn’t leave my hair feeling especially clean and my hair looked quite greasy the next day.

It didn’t wash styling products out of my hair and left me with a white residue.


WOULD I RECOMMEND

I have to say that I would not recommend this shampoo, and I will definitely not be buying another bottle of this. In my opinion the bad points by far outweigh the good points.


Thanks for taking the time to read my review, Cath.

Summary: Cheap shampoo