Having long, thick, curly red hair I often get complimented on it and people always tell me they're jealous of my hair and wish they had it. Anyone else with long, thick, curly hair will know how difficult it is to care for and how time consuming it can be if you get too obsessed with trying to tame it! I don't particularly want or like my hair to look neat and tidy and well kept because this is very difficult to achieve, but I do like to feel like I'm achieving some level of control over the frizz and managing to define my curls more instead of them just being one big matted mass. As a result, over the years, I've spent much time, money and energy trying to find the perfect combination of products that together make my hair look how I want it. I've tried dozens of different things and will usually give anything a go once if it promises to smooth, defrizz of sleeken my hair but I also have numerous products that I have tried in the past and now trust and so will fall back on them if nothing else takes my fancy. One such item is the Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance Leave-In Conditioner.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

I usually buy my Aussie products from Boots as they frequently have them offer. When I last stocked up they were on a 3 for £10 deal which I think is very reasonable as the full rpp is around £4.50. Obviously, buying from Boots earns you Advantage points as well and if you're canny and wait until a special event weekend you can earn yourself up to triple points too. Another tip, if shopping in a larger Boots store, is to use your advantage card in one of their special machines (they look like a cash point) where you will be offered coupons for other money off/special offers according to your previous purchases. They don't sound like much but can add up and if you get an extra 10% of haircare products plus your advantage points it works out to be quite a discount all together!

Aussie shampoos, conditioners and other hair care products are generally widely available and so you can normally pick them up from pretty much anywhere that sells that kind of thing; supermarkets, Superdrug etc so it is always worth shopping around to see who has the best deal on at the time.

PACKAGING

The packaging for the leave-in conditioner is pretty much as it looks in the picture shown above. It comes in a creamy white bottle with a pump action spray nozzle on the top. The branding is quite attractive but not especially eye catching and has contrasting colours of a deep purple and sort of a very pale custardy yellow. The lable tells us that it contains jojoba oil which helps detangle and protect your hair from every day wear and tear. As you would expect from the Aussie range, there is also their little kangaroo emblem at the top!

The rear of the bottle provides the usual information you'd expect to find including directions for use, a list of ingredients and contact information for the company. All in all I'm quite ambivalent about the packaging really - it's nice enough but nothing fabulous. Whilst this isn't a hugely expensive brand, I would consider it to be more of a luxury than the basic bog standard ones and so think that more thought could possibly have gone into the packaging. That said, I'm not usually swayed by the outside of things like this, only whether they do what I want them to or not, hence why I keep buying this conditioner.

IN USE

This leave-in conditioner is very easy to use. I simply wash my hair as normal and then roughly towel dry it. I then spray this conditioner liberally through my hair from root to tip and brush through with my tangle teazer, following with either mousse or some kind of smoothing cream. The conditioner comes out easily enough in quite a thick mist, which I like as I have so much hair, and it coats all my hair evenly enough this way.

One thing that can be quite annoying though is that once you've sprayed the pump action nozzle once it can sometimes drip which means your fingers can get coats in the conditioner, especially the one you use on the nozzle itself, which makes your finger slippy and it can be harder to push the nozzle down for subsequent squirts. I frequently find myself having to stop to wipe my finger on a towel between sprays which, as I said, is slightly annoying but nothing major and seems to be a problem with most products that use this kind of spray action.

MY EXPERIENCES

Firstly, one of the nicest things about this leave-in conditioner is the fragrance of it. I am usually much more swayed by the smell of a product than its appearance and if I don't like the smell then will struggle to even finish the first bottle let alone be tempted to buy it again. This one however is very pleasant. It has quite a sweet, slightly floral fragrance also with a hint of fruit about it. I find it to be really quite feminine and pleasant to use and it does linger for quite a while afterwards too so, especially if I'm being lazy and haven't done my full styling routine and end my hair washing with this conditioner, I can smell it for several hours afterwards and often find myself swishing my hair around to get a waft of it!

Another major benefit for me is that it really does leave my hair feeling softer and more manageable which, for me, means it's easier to get my tangle teazer through it and it isn't left all matted together in one big clump. After I've sprayed this conditioner onto my hair and let it coat it thoroughly it is a much nicer experience trying to get it all detangled and knot free and also much quicker. The combination of the tangle teazer and the leave-in conditioner means it only takes me a couple of minutes to get all the knots and tangles out of my hair which may sound like a long time to people with shorter hair, but believe me, that is nothing short of a miracle for me!

After I've used the Aussie leave-in conditioner my hair also feels much softer and bouncier, although this usually doesn't last long for me as I tend to follow up by coating it in another product ready for styling. I can't blame the conditioner for that though as I can't really expect it work to its full potential when I don't let it! But, on the lazy days when this is the final step in my haircare routine, I can feel the softness of my curls for a couple of days afterwards which is really saying something as my hair can be quite dry and coarse.

CONCLUSION

I would thoroughly recommend this leave-in conditioner if you're looking for something that will help keep your hair tangle free and make it feel much softer. It's not often that I only use this and no other products on my hair, but when I do, the difference is notable and and my hair is left feeling softer and silkier, although it doesn't really tame my curls - but then again, that's not what I use it for nor does it claim that it will do that either. I think for the price you pay when it's on offer, it is very reasonable and this is a product that I return to time and again when I can't find anything else that takes my fancy.