Monday, August 29, 2011

Too Subtle The Scenting Sinks Honeydew Smoothie Moisture Milks Shampoo!

The Good: Decent scent, Leaves hair generally clean
The Bad: Does not leave hair feeling clean, Scent wears off very quickly, Does not condition.
The Basics: This subtle-scented shampoo wears off too quickly and leaves the hair feeling less clean and light than it actually is.

VO5 shampoos and conditioners consistently rate as some of the least expensive hair care products on the market. They are often a good value, have pleasing scents and can be found virtually anywhere in the United States. I refrain from using the word "cheap" when referring to these shampoos which may often be found on sale for $1.00 at major retailers everywhere. Cheap implies a lack of quality to go with a low price and VO5 Shampoos often do not suffer from any quality issues.

Eager to try something new, I picked up the shampoo and conditioner from the VO5 Moisture Milks line called Honeydew Smoothie. The Moisture Milks are characterized by having a more milky (non-translucent) color and the claim that is moisturizes. I'm always somewhat at a loss to understand what the point is of a moisturizing shampoo. I mean, I understand wanting to have hair moisturized, but why the shampoo isn't just produced as a shampoo and conditioner baffles me. It seems like an odd half-step and in the case of Honeydew Smoothie, that there is a separate conditioner makes me wonder just how much the shampoo is supposed to moisturize!

I tend to like shampoos that both clean and leave hair smelling good. The Honeydew Smoothie seemed like it would do that, but it had a few issues that will prevent me from purchasing it again and make it impossible for me to recommend it. I tend to have hair that gets dry quickly when overwashed, so the idea of the moisturizing shampoo possibly preventing split ends and cracking appealed to me.

With a cost of approximately $1.00 for a 15 oz. bottle, Honeydew Smoothie is affordable. The bottle is smooth and does not have any ribbing or other texturing to it, so it does slip out of the hands easily, which is not great for a product one is using in the shower. The cap has a flip-top that makes it very easy to get the shampoo out with only one hand. I've found that once the bottle is half empty, it's easy to do this one handed without dropping the bottle.

The scent is a light honeydew smell. The scent is actually quite precise and retains the scent of a freshly sliced Honeydew melon and it is a delightful scent. Over the course of the weeks I used this, the scent of the product did not diminish in the bottle; this milky-green shampoo does smell like honeydew.

Like most shampoos, there is nothing mysterious to using this product. You wet your hair, lather it up with this shampoo and rinse. Most VO5 products I can get away with using about a quarter-sized drop, but not so with the Honeydew Smoothie. This may or may not be indicative of all the Moisture Milks line, but I quickly discovered I needed about a half-dollar sized dollop to get the shampoo to work through all my hair. I do have long hair, but the problem here is the lather.

Despite the claims on the front of the bottle, this shampoo has very poor lather quality. It takes a lot to work it up to get it to the point where it is an actual lather instead of like a gel. Indeed, with average usage, the product was more like putting hand lotion in my hair than shampoo. This required a lot of agitation to lather it properly and the results were not spectacular for the efforts. Indeed, I notices no appreciable difference between the times when I worked the Honeydew Smoothie into a proper lather and when I just worked it in until it was on all my hair.

This shampoo rinses out poorly and leaves the hair with an extremely mild scent of honeydew that lasts, at best, fifteen minutes after it is rinsed out. The Honeydew Smoothie required more effort just to simply rinse it out than to get it into a lather! Interestingly, when lathered up properly, it still too quite a bit to rinse all of the Honeydew Smoothie out of my hair. I believe this might be a function of the Moisture Milks line as I have not previously had this difficulty with any other VO5 products.

The Honeydew Smoothie makes my hair feel very heavy when it is still wet, but once dry, the shampoo lives up to its promise of moisturized, healthy-looking hair. I find myself wishing the scent lasted longer, though. In the bottle it is a subtle, honey-laced smell that is quite nice. That the smell is gone so quickly, especially while my hair still feels wet, heavy and ugly, is problematic to me.

And this does not dry out my hair, nor does it leave it with any greasy residue. It moisturizes well, though not well enough that it actually repairs the hair and protects it in the way a conditioner does. It does leave the hair feeling heavier and the first three times I washed using it, I found as I was drying my hair that there was still shampoo that had not rinsed out and I had to re-rinse my hair. That's problematic.

Ultimately, that's what sinks this shampoo with the soy milk proteins; it's a high maintenance shampoo. I want something that does not require additional tools or a long rinse to get all of it out. I found myself wanting something lighter and being quite glad when the bottle of Honeydew Smoothie was finally empty.

Honeydew Smoothie might work for those who want a subtle scent that is quickly gone and a shampoo that compels them to work longer on their hair, but for an active person who likes a decent smell and one that might last, this is a poor choice.

For other VO5 shampoo reviews, please check out my takes on:
Sun-kissed Raspberry
Healthful Green Tea Tea Therapy
Vanilla Mint Tea Tea Therapy
Nectarine Orange Surge
Kiwi Lime Shampoo
Split Ends Anti-Breakage Shampoo
Passion Fruit Smoothie Moisture Milks Shampoo
Blackberry Sage Shampoo


For other hair care product reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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