A shine so greasy you could fry an egg on it.... (Schwarzkopf Gliss Shine Tonic)

Member Name: xxfoxyredxx

Product:	Schwarzkopf Gliss Shine Tonic
Date:	01/11/08 (309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Be great on really, really dried out almost dead hair

Disadvantages: Too many to mention in this little box! lol

I love my hair to appear soft, silky, shiny and glossy. Well who don't eh ladies?! One of the reasons I plonked a black hair dye on my hair one night was for this reason. Black hair dyes seem to infuse shine and patent it better than the majority of hair colours (in my experience). ok some of the reason was cos at the time my hair resembled a badgers bum because I'd messed with it so much (my hair not a badgers bum) and I possessed what could only be described as a multi-coloured barnet so sure a thought was lets even the colour up as well get me some shine!

I love my black hair though it comes at a price of course. Being paled skinned I have to be careful what make up I wear because if I go too pale I look goth and/or dead like. If I fake tan I look like I've been tangoed and one of the problems is frizz and dry split ends really do show up on dark colours. Odd statement I know but in my mind after owning multi coloured hair and being blond, red and purple (along with a few other coloured do's in my chequered past) this colour to me is the hardest to make look nice.

So back to the beginning of the review now I've rambled on! I do love shiny hair and for the most part I do manage to achieve a certain amount of shine naturally with decent shampoo's and conditioner's and alot of my hair care products I purchase contain hair brighteners of some description. However I do own a lot of spray on shine products because when I go on my dates I want that bit of extra shine and glamour!

This Gliss one has been around for years. I can't quote how many years but I'm 34 years old now and remember using this when I was 21 and the can hasn't hardly changed. Of course like many products I religiously bought it once a fortnight for a long time and then for no reason at all....I simply stopped. I have no excuse to make. It was still available, the price never went up and it never stopped working for me. It wasn't even that I changed to another brand or anything I simply stopped purchasing it and forgot all about it overnight! I never have been very loyal!

In the past ten years never did I give this product another thought. I've seen it in chemists and places so maybe I just was happy subconsciously knowing it was there if I ever needed it to be!

In the past year though I have started buying spray on shine sprays once again and at the moment I own Avon Mirror Shine Shine Spray (which I use for daytime) and I own Lee Stafford Spray Shine which because of the price I use for evenings only on a need to use basis. (I have done reviews on both of these products by the way lol).

The Packaging....

100ml shiny white can with gold shimmery aerosol spray action lid/top that covers the whole of top of the can. On the front of the can I'm told it's Schwarzkopf, Gliss Hair Repair, Leave-In Shine Tonic. I'm then told it's repair care for dry, damaged hair (Glossy Shine & Gentle Care). There is a sort of orange and silver scribble on the front of the can but I don't know what it is and the little black head is at the top of the can which is the Schwarzkopf usual branding symbol. On the back of the can I'm told a bit about the product, how to use it, contact details for Schwarzkopf, ingredients are listed, size is stated, the recycle symbol is on there and finally there is a black-bar code. Nice enough, sensible packaging I think. It looks professional and it gives the impression it means buisness rather than being a funky novelty, pointless, trendy item. To me I look at it as a treatment rather than a luxury.

About The Product...

Do you have dry, damaged hair?

This Gliss repair formula cares for the hair without weighing it down.

Brilliant shine
Noticeably more supple

How To Use It....

Spray evenly onto your finished style. for extra care spray onto towel-dried hair after washing. Leave-in. Do not spray into the eyes.

For best results use with:Total Repair Shampoo and Conditioner.

My Experience....

Well firstly let me tell you that I don't use the recommended shampoo and conditioner and I never have and I have used this spray in the two ways described.

My now only usual way to use this is as a spray on shine rather than putting it in my towel dried hair so let me tell you about that first off.

I spray this on totally styled hair and as I'm walking out of the door, over the top of any products I see fit including hairspray if I desire. The spray is clear and I spray it at arms length and it does this evenly no matter what I'm spraying over. Quite a lot of spray comes out which is why I spray it at arms length.

Now this product has changed in my opinion over the years from how I remember it used to be. The spray used to be a none existent sort of mist with a slight chemical smell to it. Now the consistency is more oily and you can feel it on the hair and the smell of it is very floral and sweet. The smell is strong and makes me think of a good quality air freshener somewhat. The smell is highly fragrant no matter what it is of and it holds the smell for hours and hours as it's so strong.

Although this product if you spray it onto the back of your hand feels greasy upon spraying it, it does soak in leaving a sheen behind but it is a little bit on the greasy side and this is what happens on your head and for me this is a now a tricky little product to use.

On greasy areas of my hair (such as roots) this clings to it a shines brilliantly, though so brilliantly it looks like I've smeared a well use frying pan over my head. Them parts of my hair look limp and really do just look very greasy indeed. The drier bits of my hair which tends to be near the back of my neck and the underneath (visible when wearing my hair up) are great sprayed with this as it really does give them extra shine. However touch your hair afterwards to run this product through then you really do make it very greasy. However you are meant to point the can and spray and leave and if I do that then yes it's fine. So I have to be strategic so if you know your hair then this is great for matching up shine. If your hair is dry and brittle this is fabulous. Combination like mine? Hard work, this stuff loves to make hair greasy if it can and do be careful not to spray too much on dry, split ends as yes it sticks them together but they look far too clumped together and gooey!

As for using this on towel-dried hair... on me? No chance. I did it once and ended up with lank locks and even when I gave up and re washed my hair the grease out of this product clung onto my hair and left a filmy residue which only eventually came out within a couple of washes. Again this method would be marvelous for really dried out, over frazzled hair but for me I found it far to weighty and hard to style with all the grease I'd got in there and believe me I only used a light mist of this.

Conclusion....

This product has really changed and for me it's been spoilt. It used to just be a light spray on shine which simply worked and didn't just work for me but seemed to be simple enough to work for the masses, male or female. Now this is really made for very dry/damaged hair and to be fair the can does state that. So me I can only give it 2 out 5 but if you really do fall into the 'I possess very dried out and crying our for moisture hair' then this would be perfection for you. However I thought in my defence I did own this type of hair so I can only conclude that this product is far too greasy as it has too much weight in it therefore dragging down a style and flattening it and stifling the life out of it. The other thing about this is the smell. I really don't like it as that's too heavy as well. My hair smells grannified. That's the only way I can describe it and it makes me feel a little on the sick side as the smell doesn't even have the decency to wear off for hours.

Not recommended by me. too greasy for simply a spray on shine though does seem to weigh down frizz quite alot under the weight of the grease, though so watch for humidity. Warmth does make this go over greasier!

Around £1.89 a can and can be found in Boots and Superdrug and places like that.

Summary: Not recommended by me, it's just awful and the smell is gross!