Night Cream for the hair (Umberto Giannini Overnight Moisture Balm)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Umberto Giannini Overnight Moisture Balm
Date:	24/07/08 (609 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can leave hair moisturised as long as you dont apply too much

Disadvantages: Will leave hair greasy if too much is applied and it's hard to get the balance right

I recently had one of those '£2 off professional hair care' vouchers that they sometimes give you in Boots when you spend over a fiver. I had fully intended to use it to buy shampoo, but when I was browsing the range of products on offer, I noticed the Umberto Giannini Overnight Beauty Moisture Balm.

Described as being a 'night cream for the hair', I wanted to try it, despite the fact I knew it was a bit of a faddy product. I had seen a while ago that John Frieda had brought out a Frizz-Ease Crème serum that was designed to be left on your hair overnight, but the £15 price tag had put me off. This product was only £4.99, and with my coupon only £2.99. I was still a bit undecided as I have bought a lot of beauty products like this one which I would describe as being a bit gimmicky, and most of the time ended up being disappointed, but I pushed the doubts to the back of my mind and decided to give it a go.

~About the Product~

This is a cream or 'moisture balm' made by Umberto Giannini. It is basically a treatment which you apply to your hair before going to bed. The idea is that the balm works overnight to add moisture to the hair and leave it 'glowing with life.'

~Packaging~

This comes in a white tube which has a flip top cap, and has a blurry watercolour picture of what appears to be a woman, although goodness knows what she's supposed to be doing in the picture. The product is part of the 'Beauty Secrets' range, and the packaging is all quite similar. I think it looks nice and quite stylish.

~Using it~

The balm should be applied to dry hair before you go to bed. When you squeeze it out, you will see that it is like a thick, white, cream. It has quite a strong, floral scent which I thought was OK, but I can imagine it might not be to everyone's tastes.

It says to distribute evenly through the hair, but I found that it was hard to do this just by running it through my hair, so I used a comb to comb it through. It's described on the bottle as a lightweight balm, but I actually thought it felt quite heavy on my hair, and seemed to weigh it down a fair bit.

I was a bit worried about this transferring onto my pillowcases, so before I went to bed, I swapped them with some old ones just in case. Luckily it didn't seem to leave any marks on them, but the smell of the product was quite noticeable on the fabric.

~Results~

It doesn't actually say if hair needs to be clean when this is applied and so the first time I used this my hair had not been washed and had quite a lot of product in it. I found that when I woke up, my hair - although it did feel moisturised, also felt a bit greasy. I couldn't tell if this was just because I had not yet washed my hair, or if it had been caused by using this product.

The second time I used it, I made sure my hair wash freshly washed and dried. When I woke up the next morning, I found the ends of my hair, where I had not applied so much product felt quite moisturised -nowhere near as dry as usual. The roots of my hair, where I had applied more of the product felt quite greasy, and when I brushed my hair, I thought that it looked greasy too.

I have since tried to be more careful with it and have only been applying a very thin layer, concentrating on the ends rather than the roots of my hair. This way I find that it leaves hair soft and moisturised in the morning and not too greasy.

~Price~

As I said above, this costs £4.99 for a 150ml tube and is available from Boots.

~Conclusion~

This was OK, but I'm a bit disappointed that it left my hair so greasy. I found it hard to get the balance right and apply just enough to give a moisturising effect, but not so much that my hair felt lank and unwashed.

Summary: Overnight Moisture Balm