Tuesday 23 February 2010

Lush Review - Marilyn



It pains me to write this review. I am a huge fan of Lush, as you may have gathered through some of my recent hauls and my current giveaway, and on the whole i love their products. This one however i cannot possibly give a good review for. But do remember that everyone will have different results so while it didn't work for me it doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Lush describes Marilyn so:
'Softness, brightness and shine for blonde hair. Marilyn is for blondes who would like to stay blonde and become even more so, in a gentle, shiny and natural way. It's not good for your hair to bleach it, so we suggest that you use The Blonde shampoo, then use Marilyn pre-wash conditioner as a regular top-up. We make it with softening linseed gel, chamomile for lightness and to calm your scalp, saffron for golden colour, lemon for shine and olive oil to moisturize your hair. It also lightens hair gradually. All things come to she who waits.'

This retails for £7.60, generally i wouldn't spend so much money on a hair product but i wanted to test out Lush's haircare products as previously i had only tried soaps, bubble bars and other nice smelling bits for in the bath, also i bought this during the 'spend £20 get tonnes o freebies' time, so it seemed like a better deal than buying it another time. This is marketed as a 'Hair moisturiser', used on dry hair before shampoo or conditioner to soften and tame hair. This one is specially designed to help blonde hair. As i am complete bastard Monroe complete with peroxide curls the consistency of straw i figured this would be perfect to control the zombie hair.

So i eagerly scooped into the creamy coloured goop (it smells a bit like tea to me) and slathered it on my head. I don't have long hair, it's not shoulder length yet, and to get the majority of my hair covered (i didn't put much on my roots) used about a quarter of a pot. The pot tells you to 'apply a lot' but i didn't want to because i'd already used so much i didn't want to 'waste' any more. I was a bit disgruntled by the amount i'd used, as £7.60 for 4 washes didn't really sound like a good deal to me.

I left it on my hair for approximately half an hour each time i used it, then rinsed it out and washed, conditioned and styled as usual.

The first time i used it i didn't see any difference at all from after my usual hair washes (using just shampoo and conditioner) but figured maybe it would just take a couple of washes to make an effect. And well i was right.

Somehow this stuff made my hair even more dry and unmanageable than before! I don't understand how, but after every use of this my wet hair would have managed to knot itself together and felt drier than before! It also seemed to break more and was a lot more difficult to style. In fact it made my hair feel so bad i took to drenching my hair in leave-in conditioner after each washing. And i didn't see any lightening, brightening or added shine.

So basically i paid £7.60 for something i only got 4 uses out of and made my hair feel and look worse than usual :/ personally i can't recommend this at all and i definately wouldn't repurchase.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for being so honest, I've seen so many positive reviews but by girls with brown and red hair that isn't bleached within an inch of its life like mine is. I keep thinking about Marilyn and Big shampoo but the prices just seem really mental.

    I use a shampoo by joico in the kpak range and it cost me for 1 ltr bottles, £20 for the shampoo, £25 for the conditioner and £25 for the intensive treatment. Now the conditioner I find myself using lots of but I alternate between that and the treatment and my hair is ridiculously soft. :)

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  2. UGHHH that sucks! That's so expensive for a shampoo (I converted it to dollars LOL). Perhaps a deep conditioning once a week will help? And some biosilk (if you can get your hands on it)

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  3. So...ignore my question on Twitter just now, asking what you're reviewing =P

    I really want to try Lush hair products because I'm finding it so hard to find any other hair stuff that isn't tested on animals. I wouldn't have gone for Marilyn, anyway (I have very dark hair which has never been touched by anything remotely resembling blonde, haha) but I appreciate you sharing an honest review nevertheless.

    I agree that £7.60 for 4 uses is a bit ridiculous, even if the product works. My hair is pretty long and thick, and I wash it most days, so I'm hoping I'll find better value for money than that at Lush...

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  4. Hmm. Maybe you can get your money back and they can recommend something better for you? I purchased the "I love juicy" shampoo once after having tried it before (and liking it), and it made my hair so dry and greasy that I went back to return it. The nice lady suggested I try something else, but the suggestion she made wasn't vegan, so I just got my money back.

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  5. Tillyness86:
    Well it may well have just been my hair, but then mine is bleached to death like yours. I've heard some mixed reviews before, but it really did make my hair feel worse than before! I've heard amazing things about Big but no way am i spending that much on a regular shampoo!
    Wish i could buy huge bottles like that! Sadly theres nowhere near me that sells stuff like that so i just use regular drugstore brands.

    Y:
    Yep, stupidly expensive. I thought maybe if it made my hair brighter and really well conditioned it would be worth it, as it doesn't need to be used every time you wash your hair, but nope. I give my hair a good deep conditioning every few washes, but haven't tried Biosilk, i'll keep an eye out, thanks for the tip :D

    Simone:
    Ha ha, have ignored :P

    I usually use original source hair stuff, which is cruelty free and smells divine :) or i've heard good stuff about the body shops range, which also never test on animals.
    I've actually read some more reviews since writing this and apparantly for long hair they suggest using half to one pot a go! Even if this did work amazingly no way would spend nearly 8 quid for one hair wash!

    Tea:
    Well i wanted to give it a full chance so i used it all up :P I'll definately keep your tip in mind if i find something else that doesnt work for me, though i do get very scared asking for refunds. At least i have an empty black pot now, if i get another 4 i get a free face mask :P

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  6. Yeah, I've used Original Source before and I do like their stuff, but I can never find the scents that I want these days. I guess I need to stop being so picky =P

    Half a pot in one go!? Haha, that's just not going to happen.

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  7. thanks for this review, i was contemplating buying it!

    i recently brought lush's 'big' shampoo (i did a review on my blog), and wasnt completely satisfied with that for the price i paid for it.

    it seems lush are experts in bath and skincare, not haircare!

    www.kerrylouise20.blogpspot.com

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  8. Simone:
    My favourite is something like white pear and avocado, to me it smells absolutely delicious.

    Kerry!:
    I've been trying out some of their conditioners. They're not bad, but not anything special :/
    they do a rocking bubble bar though.

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  9. I know this is an old post, but on the website it says only leave on for ten minutes, so maybe leaving it on for a half hour had that effect.

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