Want lank, dull, knotty hair? Look no further this is the product for you! (John Frieda Luminous Colour Glaze Choc/Espresso)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	John Frieda Luminous Colour Glaze Choc/Espresso
Date:	30/01/08 (245 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It smells okay

Disadvantages: It stains more or less everything it touches, makes hair look worse instead of better

"What varnish is to your nails...what gloss is to your lips..." - the very time I heard this advert I was absolutely hooked in! An actual gloss for your hair - amazing! I couldn't wait to try it and had visions of the most shiny amazing hair.

So excited I was that I decided to buy the shampoo, the conditioner and the gloss as to get 'best results' although since then I have tried this with other shampoos and conditioners.

So what exactly is this product that got me worked into such a frenzy. Well apparently 'glazing' is something that has been offered in salons for year (though I've never been offered it in any salon) and now you can do it yourself at home (should have been an instant warning of inferior results). John Frieda says it "optimize[s] the look of dull, faded, lifeless hair". It is supposed to add a hint of colour (in this case, boost dark brown hair) whilst also adding multi dimensional shine and gloss and leave hair feeling silky, soft and luxurious. On top of all this it can apparently blend away greys.

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Well in this case you would be right to think that. Despite continued useage (as advised in the instructions) it left my hair dull, lank, with no visible boost to the colour, and with no grey coverage (yes, unfortunately I do already have some greys, tragic I know).

It is recommended that you shampoo and condition your hair (preferably with the matching Brilliant Brunette range from John Frieda for 'best' results) and then squeeze the water out of your hair and distribute evenly from root to tip, leave on for at least three minutes, rinse and style as usual and for the best results to use three times a week as the colour intensifies over time. I really did this all to the letter, and persevered, tried to keep faith and hope that maybe in time the results would improve. They didn't. Things didn't get worse (like they could!) but they definitely didn't get any better.

The product itself is very dark brown in colour and looks shimmery. It has a watery consistency so make sure to cup the hand you are pouring it onto. After applying this to your hair you palms will look like you've forgotten to wash them after applying fake tan and will definitely stain if you don't wash it all off as soon as possible. Not only will your hands be covered in this product but so will your shower curtains, bath and any other surrounding area. This product will definitely stain so mid shower you need to start cleaning up. If you want to look for a positive it's that at least you won't be tempted to rinse off before the three minutes as you'll be scrubbing away at your bath, shower curtains and hands, whilst all the while being very aware of your head/hair so as to not get any more product anywhere. Even when trying to rinse it off things as soon as possible, staining isn't always avoided, usually it's pretty likely you will get brown stains on the shower curtains at the very least. If I had my own bathroom, I don't think this would particularly bother me (I like to think when I have my own bath/shower I will want to use whatever products I like and I won't be too bothered about the stains) but as I live with my mum still, it's not my bathroom to stain so this is quite a stress. I dread to think if it got on the grout bits of the tiles if it would come off whatsoever.

So whilst I'm waiting my three minutes or more and on a frantic mid shower cleaning spree, I'm also feeling quite stressed (every time, despite now knowing better) that this will surely be staining my head/ears/any part of my body my hair touches while this is on. Luckily, I have to say, I've never noticed any staining from this after using it.

The product smells fine, it smells sort of chocolately but (now this may sound silly) it smells like something chocolate scented, rather than if you actually smelt chocolate. I do realise that probably doesn't sound right but I'm sure some of you know what I mean. The smell is fine; it smells similar to the rest of the range so if anyone has smelt any of the other Brilliant Brunette products you will know what it smells like. I don't absolutely lovely the smell but I don't dislike it either.

After rinsing my hair, (thoroughly I might add) of this product it felt awful, it felt like it had an awful product on, it was knotty, tangly and almost heavy. After drying and styling as usual my hair looked drab, dull and not at all shiny, if anything less shiny than if I didn't use any shine enhancing product. It also was really hard to style, and throughout the day got really knotty a lot.

I tried this product using the recommended shampoos, and even tried it using the same range of styling products, determined to make it work but nothing made it okay. I've also tried it with other products and it worked exactly the same either way.

It comes packaged in an outer plastic casing in the shop, which as I can see only serves the purpose of making it look more 'special' and worthy of a higher price tag. The packaging is quite pointless and tricky to open. After that is disposed of it is in a normal cream bottle with the product description and instructions wrote on it - nothing to write home about.

I really can't describe how much I dislike this product. It doesn't live up to even one of it's claims, it is a risk of staining and a major clean up effort to both your hands and your bathroom and it actually makes your hair worse than before.

At £6.99 for a bottle, which you can expect to last as long as any shampoo/conditioner that you were using three times a week would last, it is quite expensive although not as high as some products. That said, it is completely not worth this price as it gives only negative effects. Steer clear of this one.

Summary: At least it makes you combine your house cleaning and hair cleaning routine