* PRODUCT DETAILS *

I have used many Avon products over the years and I have found over time that many of the products will prove to be a little bit 'hit and miss' as far as I am concerned, with the results being average or less than I had been hoping for. This has certainly been the case with some of the products I have tried from the Avon "Planet Spa" range which is a rather luxurious-looking range of toiletries and cosmetics from the brand, offering luxury-branded 'pampering' products. I have found some of the items that I have tried from this range have not performed as well as I had expected and so it has put me off the overall range slightly, finding me instead favouring some 'old favourites' from elsewhere in the Avon brochure.

I was intrigued by a small bottle displayed amongst other Planet Spa products on the brochure's pages recently and eventually ended up ordering the product to try it out for myself. The "Planet Spa Mediterranean Olive Oil Hot Oil Hair Treatment" comes in a small 50ml sized bottle and the normal price for this is around £3, which I think is on a par with most other hot oil type treatments that are available in drugstores. The Planet Spa range regularly undergoes all manner of promotions and 'deals' however, and I managed to purchase the product during one such deal for around £1.40 which made it seem rather reasonably priced.

When the product arrived from Avon, it is fair to say that I was rather uninspired by the packaging. Comprising of a plain bottle made of see-through plastic, there is a sturdy plastic lid on top and the usual 'simplistic' Planet Spa branding is evident on the product too. The liquid oil treatment is a pale green colour and I could see it clearly through the bottle.

Full instructions are provided on the product's bottle, so I was in no doubt as to how it should be prepared and applied to my hair. I don't use hot oil products on my hair very often, perhaps a couple of times a year, but the most common brand that I will purchase this type of conditioning treatment from is the well-known "V05 Hot Oil" range. I was keen to see how the Avon Planet Spa Hot Oil Hair Treatment fared in comparison to these alternatives.


* MY EXPERIENCE *

The first thing I had to do when using the product was to heat the oil contained in the bottle. This posed a slight concern as I wanted to obtain at least two uses from the 50ml bottle and I wasn't sure if the oil in the bottle would cope well with being heated up for the first use, then discarded for a week or two before being heated a second time, and possibly a third, for future uses. This actually turned out to be no problem, and the bottle was heated on three separate occasions without incident.

To prepare the oil, all I had to do was drop the small bottle into a cup of warm water to allow the oil contained within to heat up for around a minute or so, before I applied it to my hair. The water in the cup should not be boiling or even hot as this will obviously make the oil within the bottle become very hot, and possibly make it dangerous to use - so warm water is just fine.

The Avon Hot Oil Hair Treatment has quite a strong smell at first, and this becomes stronger when the product is being used. I found the smell was pleasant enough, but not enough to warrant me repurchasing the product purely on this basis. I found that after washing and conditioning my hair as per my usual 'hair care routine' the fragrance of the product had all but faded.

The oil should be applied to unwashed hair, so I used the 'waiting time' when the product was warming to wet my hair under the shower, squeezing any excess moisture from the hair. I then poured a little of the liquid - about a third of the bottle was ample to 'coat' my shoulder length locks - into my open palm, smoothing the product through the lengths of my hair to the tips. The oil felt very heavy and it actually felt rather unpleasant to have a 'slicked' oily feeling through my hair, I must admit. The smell of the product was quite intense at this point in the process, although it was not overbearing or unpleasant, being a rather 'earthly' smell. The product should be left on the hair for one minute, and as I have heard a few horror stories of products like this one 'clinging' to the hair shafts if left on for an extended period, I will admit to being slightly paranoid about leaving the product on my hair for too long. Needless to say, I hurriedly started to rinse the oil from my hair after the minute was up, just in case!

Whilst I was rinsing the product from my hair, I felt that it was really 'clinging' onto the lengths of my wet hair, although I didn't find it was sticky to the touch or anything, and as suspected, my hair felt quite greasy to the touch. I found that merely rinsing my hair under the shower head didn't feel as if it was actually 'shifting' the product from my hair but I persevered for a minute or so then applied my usual colour-care shampoo and when that was completely rinsed from my hair, I applied my usual conditioner and rinsed it again.


* THE END RESULTS & MY OPINION *

The results were difficult to notice whilst my hair was still wet, but I did think that it felt quite soft and smooth. This led me to worry that my hair would feel greasy to the touch, or worse still, LOOK greasy in its appearance once it had been dried, but persevered and set about drying my hair in the usual fashion.

Once my hair was dried, I could see there was a healthy-looking sheen evident on the shafts of my hair, in addition to my hair feeling thoroughly softened and quite smooth. To be fair, it was not smooth enough to omit the 'frizz-fighting' step from my usual hair care routine, and several frizz-like wisps were still evident around the hairline etc, warranting the application of a separate product altogether.

There was a pleasant shine to be found on my hair, although to be fair this is something that can be achieved quite easily on my dark hair, thanks to the combination of my hair being in reasonable enough condition and me taking care of it as much as possible. I did find that the shine achieved was more noticeable after using the Avon Planet Spa Oil than after using the alternative oil treatment from the V05 range, although not excessively so.

I didn't find that my hair felt 'heavy' or even remotely unpleasant after using the Avon oil product, but I did find that I had to wash my hair more frequently than if the oil product hadn't been used, probably due to the oil content contained in it....... Not the end of the world, but a bit inconvenient for me.

In summary, I felt the results achieved were reasonable, and I liked the healthy-looking shine this product left on my hair. I have had more impressive results from deep conditioning treatments and conditioning 'mask' type products however, so it would not be fair to say that this product blew me away, offering spectacular results. I did think that my hair was softened and conditioned, and I was happy to use up the remainder of the bottle another twice before it was empty. I'm not sure whether I would repurchase the product in the future however, as I have had better results elsewhere. For the reasons outlined in this review, I feel that a three star rating in the product score is more than generous.

As @ the time of writing (August 2012), the Avon Planet Spa Mediterranean Olive Oil Hot Oil Hair Treatment is available to purchase from your local Avon representative, with the usual purchase price being in the region of £3. Alternatively, you can order the product directly online at www.avonshop.co.uk, where the current price is £1.80.