Review: Lush R&B hair moisturiser

This is the first of our reader and blogger dual product reviews. This is the long and more detailed version. A mini version is available here.  The product delivered to us was Lush R&B moisturiser (product sent to me and the lovely Bajan Lily). I highly highly recommend that you look at her post which is linked here as she did a very through review of her own and tested in on three heads of hair!



There was no conferring on our findings and here is our review



Q1: What product would you normally use in a similar way and how much does it cost?



BL: Based on texture/consistency alone, I can’t say that I have a product like this. This is like firm mayonnaise - thicker than a hair milk (which we do use), but thinner than a whipped butter or hair cream (which we also use). Since this sits somewhere in between and the suggested use is for moisturising hair, I’d say the equivalent product is Almocado Hair Milk (£9) and/or Almond & Avocado Cocoa-Shea Brulee (£7.50 for 200ml)



Jc: Giovanni Leave In is my standard leave in conditioner. I would probably add that I do not actually think Giovanni but its ingredients are fine and it does not build up which is good for me. It costs around (£10).



Q2: On a scale of 1-5 where would you rate this product?

1-Poor   2- Fair   3. Good   4. Very Good   5. Excellent



BL: 2 -Fair




Q3:  How easy was it to use the product? 



BL: Easy enough I suppose, just scoop out the required amount and distribute through hair. The instructions say ‘smooth into freshly washed hair’, this gave me the impression that it would melt into the hair but it really took a while to ‘disappear’ into my children’s hair regardless of how small an amount I used.



Jc: Yes it was easy, it has a nice consistency but the scent is quite strong (then again if you have passed outside Lush you will know all about strong scents)








Q3: How well was your hair moisturised by this product? 



BL: Not very well. I tried this on both of my daughters - they have different hair types. The tighter coils drank this up and looked shiny for a couple of hours but looked dry and unkempt by the next morning. The looser wavier hair type gained some definition but felt a bit sticky. I also tried this on my (2 yr old) son’s very short hair and took forever to ‘rub in’ with no lasting (beneficial) effect



Jc: I played a little with this product and when applied to dry skin or hair, it was quite sticky. This led me to realise that it probably had a lot of glycerin. I followed the instructions on the jar and to be honest the result was only just ok. I then decided to use the product with the Oyin method. The Oyin method is simply apply the glycerin containing product to wet or dry hair and then have a shower allowing the steam to 'activate' the glycerin. This resulted in heavenly soft hair which I kept for 3-4 days, I loved it! 



Q4: This product retails at £9.95. Do you think it is good value for money?




BL: It is reasonaby priced when compared with competing products, however, it didn’t work for my family, so no.



Jc: It is similar in price to my (former) staple Giovanni and works better than it. I am yet to try the cheaper option of curl activator which may work just as well but sadly I live too far away from the African braiding shops which stock these products. Lush is literally 1 minute away from my office!



Q5: Would you add this product to your regular staples?



BL: No.



Jc: Yes, I already went to check in the Lush shop to see if it is there and it is (Side note, I also took the opportunity to scope out the other hair products in there . The staff were really nice and offered me some wine too! Sadly enough one of their conditioners actually has SLS! So while I would definitely repurchase the R&B, I would not try the conditioner).



Q6: Do you like the ingredients in this product? 

BL: Yes, it’s packed with goodies (oats, avocado, olive, coconut, jojoba and cupuacu derivatives) although the essential oils seem to be there for fragrance rather than therapeutic benefit.



Jc: Yes, I like glycerin. I have found it difficult to get a good mix in a product (whether made by myself or store bought). This R&B moisturiser actually works really well for my hair. I only need to resteam if I want a little more 'action'.



Thanks to Lush for providing the product for testing. Thanks too to Bajan Lily for reviewing it! I hope you all enjoyed reading this review and I would really encourage you all to try the Oyin method and see if it works for you with glycerin containing products!!





For more reviews on this product - here is the company website (over 100 reviews there!).

For more on the active ingredient glycerin - see it here in our ingredient dictionary!