I’ve tested out Garnier Fructis Macadamia Hair Food quite thoroughly on my hair now and used it in the three different ways suggested - as a conditioner, a hair mask and a leave-in treatment. I’ll go into more detail a bit later on in this review about these three uses.
Clearly, with three haircare uses, this product is versatile and economical. You get quite a lot of it, in a decent-sized tub. The tub looks like a big pottle of frozen yoghurt or ice cream! What a novel way to package a hair ‘food’ product! It looks good enough to eat and has a kind of yoghurt-like texture to it too (don’t worry, no haircare product was eaten for the purpose of this review!). The actual smell of it though didn’t blow me away. It’s pleasant enough – it smells a bit like caramel or something sweet enough to eat – but perhaps it’s just not the kind of smell I want to plaster all over my hair. But I didn’t hate the smell as it’s not offensive or overpowering. But a big tick for me is that it’s mostly natural, with no parabens/artificial colours etc. Lovely, natural ingredients make up 98% of it, including macadamia seed oil, coconut oil, almond oil, etc.
Now for the three ways you can use this product:
1) LEAVE-IN TREATMENT: I tried using this as a leave-in on dry hair a couple of times, but it just felt too heavy in my hair and I wanted to rinse it out straight away - not ‘leave it in’ at all! It felt too concentrated as a leave-in. The other thing I found was that I couldn’t really rub it in evenly on to dry hair: it was hard to apply and ended up in my hair in patches, which felt heavy and greasy.
2) HAIR MASK: this was a better option for me as I found it easier to apply to wet hair. Using it as a mask also suited me better because I could rinse it out after applying it (you only need to leave it in for one minute).
3) CONDITIONER: WOW! My hair loves this stuff when I just use it as a simple conditioner! It leaves my hair feeling silkier and more hydrated. This is my favourite way to use this product and I’ll continue to use it as a conditioner.
All things considered, this Smoothing Macadamia Hair Food gets four kisses from me. I didn’t like using it as a leave-in treatment. However, it does a decent job as a mask or conditioner. And you know it must be gentle and kind on your hair when it contains so many gorgeous natural ingredients.
It’s fair to say that, in the past, I’ve not been that complimentary of Garnier products, as is obvious in a previous review I’ve done on this site. But clearly I need to try out a few more Garnier products as I reckon they’re on to a good thing with this Hair Food! I’m keen to try out some of the other ‘flavours’ in this range now. I’ll just have to hold back on the temptation to eat any of them!!
I was very keen to try this product as it is 98% natural and from a reputable brand. I was surprised to see how large the container was... all 390grams, so it will last for ages!! I love the smell and although the product is thick it didn't seem at all greasy. I used it as a mask, and got excellent coverage from just a small amount. I didn't feel weighed down with it and it was super easy to rinse off. I dried my hair naturally and was rewarded with soft manageable hair, that feel like it has been loved, instead of the usual dry unruly mess!!
Tips: It's messy stuff so next time I'll portion out what I need before I get started rather than get the bathroom in a mess!