Despite the pitfalls that I'm constantly struggling with regarding my hair, I never remember to fit in time to really work on improving the condition of my locks. Many of Lush's hair products work wonders on my hair, most noticeably Jasmine And Henna Fluff Ease Hair Treatment, which makes a huge difference to my hair each and every time I use this. After using this hot oil hair treatment, I've convinced myself that this should become a staple part of my weekly routine, as my hair has never felt so amazing.
Ironically, Lush introduce Hercules Hot Oil Hair Treatment by saying that 'if there's a prize for doing damage, I guess you've already won that!' and it is so true. My hair is constantly crying out for attention and yet on a daily basis I tend to ignore its plight in favour of doing something else, which I consider to be more productive. I think I'd probably be charged for full blown neglect regarding my hair, as opposed to simply winning a prize!
After using this only a single time, this Liverpool exclusive had wonders for my hair, and it's all thanks to the incredible ingredients that have gone into creating it. Featuring hydrolysed wheat gluten, this beautiful treatment features a very high dosage of protein, which helps to both repair and strengthen your locks and add a little extra volume for those of us with thinner, finer hair.
As my hair began to dry, it was noticeable how much thicker it looked and felt, and also how much softer and more manageable it was as well. I couldn't believe that I was able to run my hands through my hair without needing to brush it first, and given how frizzy and brittle it had looked and felt a mere thirty minutes beforehand showcased to me exactly how powerful this treatment is.
A large dosage of argan oil here not only helps to create the popular Rose Jam scent that consumers love very much, but the oil also helps to soften your hair even more and leave it looking more moisturised and healthy. Finally, the inclusion of the olive oil helps to increase the tensile strength of the hair, while the lemon oil adds a healthy shine to finish it off.
To use, you simply have to fill a mug with boiling water, leaving a small space at the top. Add in your block of treatment and continue stirring until all of the product has fully melted. By this stage you'll have a thick, foamy gel that needs to be left to cool for about 10-15 minutes before it can be applied to your hair.
Once it's ready, massage across your whole scalp and down the lengths of all of your hair and then leave in for a good 20-30 minutes. My hair is down past my shoulders and I found that I only needed to use half of the product with each treatment. As I was planning to use both halves within the space of a week, I chose to melt the whole block down in one go. However, if you want to prolong using all of this at once, I suggest you cut off half of the block and only melt half at a time.
Either way, the left over treatment can be stored in the fridge to limit the number of bacteria that could grow in between uses. And while you're waiting for Hercules to work its magic on your locks, you may even want to wrap a plastic bag around your head to retain the heat and possibly make it a little more effective. Once the time is up, simply rinse the treatment away under the shower head and then shampoo your hair as normal before towel drying your rejuvenated locks and seeing how amazing they look and feel.
Not only was my hair completely transformed after using this, but the wonderful sweet, rose scent lingered on my hair for a good many hours afterwards as well. My hair looked and felt more manageable; felt super soft and with a beautiful shine; and I was able to wear it down with little intervention for the few days following the treatment.
Hercules Hot Oil Hair Treatment is a product that I would happily travel all the way up to Liverpool just to stock up on, and I can only hope that Lush choose to bring it back again online very soon. This is now going to become part of my weekly routine in the hope that my hair will begin to show signs of life once again.
Quantitative Ingredients: Cetearyl Alcohol & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Guar Gum, Sodium Bicarbonate, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten, Argan Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Citric Acid, Perfume, Rose Absolute, Rose Oil, Geranium Oil, Sicilian Lemon Oil, Water (Aqua), *Citral, Citronellol, Coumarin, *Eugenol, Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 45410, Colour 17200.
Vegan?: Yes.
2019 Price: £7.50 each.
Year Of Original Release: 2019.
So lost have I been with the excessive amount of new products coming out across the globe, I wasn't even aware that Lush had brought out a vegan version of American Cream Conditioner until I saw it plastered all across instagram. While perhaps not the format I would have liked it to have been in, I was still really excited to give this one a go.
What I noticed when it first arrived was that the scent was slightly removed from the regular American Cream that we all know and love. To my nose, there was still the wonderfully warm and mildly fruity presence of the strawberry; coupled with the vanilla absolute to give it the 'milkshake' fragrance that this aroma is famous for.
However, I immediately noticed that the presence of the clary sage was far more dominant than it has been in perhaps any of the other variations that Lush have released over the years. There is something more herbal about the smell that this conditioner bar radiates, and I can imagine that this fact may upset a few loyal fans.
Yet, I happened to really appreciate this change. With one bath bomb, two shower gels and two body conditioners released with this scent over the last few months, it was a pleasant change to try something a little different. Ultimately though, the scent was the least of my worries; how it performed on my hair would be the ultimate test of its worth.
For those who have never used a solid conditioner from Lush before, you need to understand that the bar won't lather like a shampoo disc will. In fact, when you're using this in your hair, you may even think that it isn't working due to how little 'product' you can see being transferred, and this may tempt you to revert back to a liquid conditioner as a back up plan.
What I will say is that this bar doesn't release a lot of lather at all, and it's not a product that you can really feel in your hair once it's been applied. However, I can vouch from experience when I say that the results you will heed are incredible. A little bit of faith goes a long way...
I found that the best way to use this bar is to rub it between my wet hands first, where you'll find that American Cream Pressed Conditioner will release, what I can only describe as, a thin cream-like gel. This can then be massaged into your locks, starting with the ends and working your way upwards. Less is definitely more in this case, and I can tell you now that you won't feel the presence of this once its been applied. However, rest assure that it is working and doing its job.
Once I had left the conditioner on for a few minutes, I rinsed my hair under the shower hose and set about letting it dry naturally. Firstly, what I found was that my hair was suddenly far more manageable Although still heavily frizzy by nature, my hair sat in a way that felt more controlled, which doesn't happen very often with my hair.
Secondly, I found that my natural highlights were a little more intensified and there was a wonderful shine to the outside of my hair. My hair also happened to feel really soft and smooth, and appeared in much better condition than it had been before. Finally, the curls that usually sit around the crown of my head, and make it look like I have permanent devil horns, seemed to settle after using this conditioner only once. To me, I could see an improvement within minutes.
What I will say about this pressed conditioner is that it certainly doesn't leave a wonderful scent on your hair afterwards. Unlike the non-vegan liquid counterpart, this one left all but nothing in the way of smell afterwards, which is not a problem for me but may be a priority for others.
After using this three times already, I can safely say that the small little bar is going to last me a lot longer than the liquid conditioner would do, if I was able to use it. This is definitely an amazing introduction into possible future hair care items from Lush, and I'm super excited to see if more pressed conditioners, like this one, make into stores real soon.
Quantitative Ingredients: Cetearyl Alcohol, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Polyquaternium-81, Polyquaternium-88, Guar Gum, Perfume, Water (Aqua), Behentrimonium chloride Cetrimonium Chloride Ethyl Macadamiate Propylene Glycol, Vanilla Absolute, Clary Sage Oil, Lavender Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Fresh Strawberry Juice, Fresh Orange Juice, Organic Agave Syrup, Titanium Dioxide, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten, Tin Oxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Coumarin, Colour 77491, Colour 45430:1, Colour 17200, Colour 45380:3, Colour 45410:1.
Vegan?: Yes.
2019 Price: £8.50 for 55g.
Year Of Original Release: 2019.
During the showcase last year, one of the products I was most drawn to was the 'hair marshmallows': a brand new invention that felt as light as a feather, yet claimed to have all of the ingredients needed to leave your hair looking and feeling superb. After managing to secure the majority of the ones available, it didn't take me very long to realise that Lush were true to their word: these odd-shaped blocks were the perfect remedy to my hard-to-please hair.
After disappearing from the showcase in a matter of minutes, I assumed that this would be the last I would see of these bars. That was until a couple of months ago, when Lush released four completely different ones through the Lush Labs section of their website.
What I will start by saying is that there is definitely a difference in the consistency of these new designs. Although still as light as a feather, there is something a little more sturdy about both Fix, and the other three variations. After arriving home from the showcase, I was gutted to find nearly all of my marshmallows were in pieces, and it was a nightmare trying to store them between uses. However, these new editions need only be stored in a container and they wont leave a stain, or crumble as soon as the bar makes contact with water.
Out of the four new protein bars, Fix was definitely at the top of my list to try, despite the fact that it had been designed for those with lighter coloured hair - much like Daddy-O, which it appears to share its scent with. It would definitely be interesting to pair this up with the liquid shampoo, as I can imagine it would work wonders if the two were used in unison.
Smell wise, the inclusion of both the violet leaf absolute and rosewood oil gives Fix a naturally sweet violet aroma. A little grassy, yet naturally sweet at the same time, this limited edition is like a tame version of Kerbside Violet. There is something slightly warming and woody about the aroma; but equally there is also a delicate floral aroma that stops this from being overly strong or sickly.
To use, you simply need to wet your hair and then massage the whole bar across your head, very much like you would a bar of soap across your skin. Fix begins to lather up immediately and will coat your hair with a layer of thick, fragrant lather to massage across your head and scalp. You barely need to use this before you'll have enough to cover your hair in its entirety, so it's worth doing this out of the way of the running water so that you can preserve the product for longer.
Once on your hair, you can use your fingers to massage it around, as you would do a normal shampoo, before rinsing it out and using a conditioner as per normal. If, like me, you fancy stepping away from using conditioner for a while, this protein shampoo bar will leave your hair looking and feeling really clean and crisp to the touch.
While not particularly moisturising, at least not to my hair, I did notice a huge improvement in my split ends after the first few times of using it. There was something about my hair that made it feel stronger, a more resilient, and this was most noticeable when I returned from being in India and found that this was the only shampoo bar that made a difference to my dried-out mess.
What was great about Fix was that the inclusion of the lemon juice really did both leave it feeling soft, and offered up a delicate shine to my hair, which I find really difficult to achieve with most products. Furthermore, I found that I barely had to use any of the protein bar to get the results that I wanted. This meant that a single block, while initially expensive, actually lasts many months - perhaps even a little longer than one of Lush's regular cylindrical shampoo bars.
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed using Fix Protein Shampoo and I am definitely glad that I stocked up on a few of these before they disappeared from the website. If these make their way into a store near you, I would highly suggest that you pick up a sample and experience it for yourself: it's a great way to restore and replenish your hair in a new and exciting way.
Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Coco Sulfate, Glyceryl Stearate, Aquafaba, Roman Chamomile Flower Extract, Marigold Flower Extract, Propylene Glycol, Water (Aqua), Ethyl Macadamiate, Perfume, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Arginine HCL, Leucine, Fresh Organic Lemon Juice, Guar Gum, Rosewood Oil, Violet Leaf Absolute, Ylang Ylang Oil, Jasmine Absolute, Cetrimonium Chloride, Behentrimonium chloride, Alpha-Isomethyl, Ionone, *Benzyl Benzoate, Citronellol, Geraniol, *Linalool, Colour 60725.
Vegan?: Yes.
2019 Price: £15.95 for 250g.
Year Of Original Release: 2019.
UP
Ironically, Lush introduce Hercules Hot Oil Hair Treatment by saying that 'if there's a prize for doing damage, I guess you've already won that!' and it is so true. My hair is constantly crying out for attention and yet on a daily basis I tend to ignore its plight in favour of doing something else, which I consider to be more productive. I think I'd probably be charged for full blown neglect regarding my hair, as opposed to simply winning a prize!
A large dosage of argan oil here not only helps to create the popular Rose Jam scent that consumers love very much, but the oil also helps to soften your hair even more and leave it looking more moisturised and healthy. Finally, the inclusion of the olive oil helps to increase the tensile strength of the hair, while the lemon oil adds a healthy shine to finish it off.
Either way, the left over treatment can be stored in the fridge to limit the number of bacteria that could grow in between uses. And while you're waiting for Hercules to work its magic on your locks, you may even want to wrap a plastic bag around your head to retain the heat and possibly make it a little more effective. Once the time is up, simply rinse the treatment away under the shower head and then shampoo your hair as normal before towel drying your rejuvenated locks and seeing how amazing they look and feel.
