REVIEWSDAY: John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Liquid Shine Illuminating Shampoo

First things first (Iggy Azalea has really ruined that phrase for me), the name of this product is an enormous mouthful. I felt like I had to draw breath after typing the title of this post.I love the John Frieda Brilliant Brunette range – it just feels like luxury to me, even though it’s technically speaking only a mid-range product, and so my hopes were pretty high when I tried this incarnation. 

My first impression (well technically my second; my first was surprise that the shampoo was clear instead of brown like the normal version) was really good. It lathered just as easily with the same gorgeous, gorgeous scent, meaning you don’t need to use very much product (which helps ease the pain of spending £5.99 on shampoo). The shampoo felt really nice to use, and I definitely felt like my hair got clean very quickly and without needing to use too much. There’s a bit of shimmer in the product when you look at it in your hand, and – this might be 7am talking but I swear I saw it – it really seemed like that transferred to my hair, making it look glossier and shinier straight away (even when soaking wet. No, seriously).

I was much warier about trying the conditioner. I often feel like conditioners intended to add shine make my hair feel sticky and filmy, like it can never be properly rinsed out, and as my hair’s quite fine (although dense) it can weigh it down and lose me a lot of precious volume. However, this conditioner felt great to use, without the plasticky texture I’ve found in the past (L’Oréal Elvive is a particular culprit for me). It made my hair feel softer straight away – one of those conditioners where you can immediately run your fingers through your hair with no snagging, which I love – and it seemed to rinse out super easily, so I was very pleased.

I was still pleased when my hair dried. The shimmer wasn’t as noticeable – possibly because it was an early-morning-induced hallucination – but my hair did look glossier generally and it felt soft and not at all weighed down. If you’ve got very dry hair you might not feel like it gives the extreme softening or smoothing that you’re after, but for me, and in combination with a hair oil, it worked well.

My main concern about this product was that it would be lacking some of the things that I love about the normal Brilliant Brunette range, but I didn’t find that at all. It still brought out all the golder tones in my hair, it still had that wonderful scent that stayed in my hair right up until my next wash (two days later) and it was still incredibly lovely to use. If you’re a brunette and you struggle with ashiness or dullness, I definitely think this is worth the investment. My head is so shiny right now. I swear I’m not hallucinating.