Willow The Wisp Thickening Serum

There have been times when I’ve truly been tempted to shave off all of my hair and start again. My hair is super sensitive to any change that I put it through, so when a shampoo disagrees with me or a styling product dries my locks out, it’s as if someone has super-glued a bird’s nest to my head and it takes weeks to get it under control again.

Two of the worst traits that my hair possesses is the fact that it’s incredibly thin and it’s super frizzy. Combined, these two factors don’t make it easy to wear my hair down, at least not without a load of product to control the natural wispy nature of my hair. For this reason, when I heard that Lush were bringing out a thickening serum that also promised to control the frizz, I knew I needed it in my life no matter what the cost.

Willow The Wisp is one of Lush’s newest inventions: originally released exclusively for the Liverpool store but recently unveiled as one of May’s Lush Labs exclusives as well. Priced up at £14.95 for a miniature 100g bottle, my initial impression was that this was a rather expensive investment, even if it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Having used it religiously over the past couple of weeks however, and seeing how little of the serum I have actually extracted from the bottle, I can confidently say that this product goes a long long way and is worth every penny, in my opinion.

To use, Lush recommend that you apply a couple of pumps-worth to towel-dried hair and work it through with your fingers. As your hair dries, the high dosage of Epsom salts that have gone into making Willow The Wisp causes your hair to swell, hence giving it a thicker look and temporary volume for a day or two. As salt tends to dry your hair out, there is also a generous helping of extra virgin olive oil to bring that moisture back, along with a dash of lemon juice to add shine and softness.

Firstly, my experience with this thickening serum is that it’s better to brush your hair before applying this. I found that when working into my hair, I was able to create more volume by scrunching my ends and leaving them to dry this way. If I brushed my hair afterwards, it took away a little of this added volume, which is certainly not the look I was going for. 

Once my hair had fully dried, I noticed not only an improvement in the condition of my hair but that my locks appeared and felt noticeably thicker overall. Not only did my hair look and feel shiny, and was far more manageable to the point that I was able to wear it down without adding any other product, but the usual wispy bits at the top of my head had all but disappeared as well. Win win.

The only negative point I will say about this serum is that while my hair did feel softer and smoother overall, I wish there was something a little extra added in to make this super moisturising as well, because my ends still needed a large dose of coconut oil to keep them nourished. However, given the nature of what this product has been designed to do - and how well it does this - this qualm is more of a personal preference as opposed to a product fault.

As if this wasn’t impressive enough, the smell of Willow The Wisp is equally as beautiful, and lingers around for ages like a hair perfume as well. Containing rose absolute, rose oil, rosewood oil, and both lemon and lime oils, this gorgeous serum offers a strong, powdery floral aroma, with a refreshing citrusy after-kick. The rose and rosewood offer a scent not far off of geranium: a musky, naturally sweet and slightly woody cloud of floral; while the fruit ingredients elevate this fragrance and throw in their own uplifting blend of citrus notes.

Obviously, this is only a temporary fix for the condition of my hair and I need to do much more work at building the actual thickness of my locks. However, Willow The Wisp has now become my go-to product whenever I need a little added boost of volume, and I can rely on it to restore my hair as much as it can without the use of magic. This is worth every penny in my eyes and I hope it becomes a part of the permanent range.

Quantitative Ingredients: Silken Tofu, Toothed Wrack Seaweed Gel, Water (Aqua), Propylene Glycol, Epsom Salts, Fine Sea Salt, Perfume, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Ethyl Macadamiate, Fresh Lemon Juice, Fresh Lime Juice, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Rose Absolute, Rose Oil, Rosewood Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Xanthan Gum, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Cetrimonium Chloride, *Benzyl Benzoate, *Benzyl Cinnamate, *Cinnamal, *Citral, Citronellol, *Eugenol, *Farnesol, Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 42090:2.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £15 for 100g.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.