Nothing dazzling about this at all (Herbal Essences Dazzling Shine Shampoo)

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	Herbal Essences Dazzling Shine Shampoo
Date:	02/06/09 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant, inexpensive

Disadvantages: Not as good a brand as they once were

I've tried so many different shampoos over the years and still like to chop and change every so often. Recently I've been using Tresemme but just got tired of carrying such big bottles home from the shops- value for money or not! I'd used Herbal Essences when they first came out. I remember they came in sightly bigger bottles than they do now, with a clear front and the shampoo was clear too. On the inside on the back were pictures of flowers and I remember thinking it was great packaging. The other thing I liked abour the products was it had the best smell of any shampoo, really fruity, it was like bubble bath for hair!

Herbals Essences is all change now though, the brand has modernised it packaging and changed it's image. I'm not convinced it's all for the better though.

I bought both the Shampoo and Conditioner in Wilkinson a few weeks ago. They cost £1.89 for a 200ml bottle, but they were on 'buy one get one free' which is really why I decided to try them again. As with all shampoo brands there are many different types for different hair types or that give different results. Liking the promise, I went for the 'Dazzling Shine' shampoo and conditioner in bright green bottles. The Shampoo is labelled as 'Shine Reflecting' and the Conditioner as 'Shine Enchancing.' At the bottom of the label it said that the shampoos contained berry, tea tree and orange flower extracts. I thought, well at the start at least the brand 'Herbal Essences' was about exactly that, the natural flower extracts, and fruits put into the product and that was their selling point. Now it seems, the different tyes of shampoo are sold on all the wonderful things it can do for your hair, the route that all other shampoo brands seems to go down. Herbal Essences seem to have lost that unique selling point.

As I mentioned, the packaging design had also changed. The bottles are now modern looking, with different shocking bright colours depending on which shampoo you went for. The 'Dazzling Shine' Shampoo was a green clear bottle with a curved edge and the conditioner was a similar green, but and opaque bottle. The conditoner was one of those 'upside bottles' and the curve fits to the curve of the shampoo bottle when you sit them next toeach other. As a design I like this, but the shop I bought them from wasn't displaying them like this so it seemed a bit wasted. Also the many toiletries that have the opening at the bottom, so you store them 'upside down' (for ease of dispensing usually, with thicker products) has always worried my mother. She will go round the bathroom and turn the 'the right way up' as she'd scared they'll leak, even though I've told her they are designed to be that way. The fact that with these one's one way and one's the other seems to have either confused her somewhat and she now turns the shampoo 'upside down' to match!!

So packaging aside, does this stuff actually work? Well yes and no. 'Dazzling Shine?' Well no one seems to have been dazzled so far. It's shiny and clean looking but I would say any more than the results I'd get with other shampoos. Definatly not like on the ads! When you take the lid of and smell the product it does still smell good but not as much as I remember from using it before. Maybe it just this particualar variety and the others will smell fruiter but as you lathered it up on the hair the smell faded and didn't last when the hair was dry.

Overall, still a good product but not as unique as it once was. Middle of the road. I think I'll move on to something else quite qiuckly.

Summary: Better shampoos out there