I'm a huge fan of hair silicone-oils, but I've only been using high-end ones, with Orofuido being my absolute favourite. It's not hard to justify paying high prices for these silicone-oils, since even with my long hair one bottle can lasts years, but I just wanted to check how the drugstore brands are doing in that department. I checked so many oils and most had completely disappointing ingredients mainly due to high alcohol content or just too many silicones instead of proper oils. Garnier Fructis' one appeared to be the best in the quite a big selection, so I chose the regular version, but there is also a version with added heat protection.
I must say I was quite disappointed when I saw the texture of this. Considering that argan oil in on the third place among ingredients, this is very light and runny. It's closest in texture to Elixir Ultime, which I never considered to be amazing for dry hair, but good for quick fixes like taming the frizz a bit. Due to lightness if you use it on damp hair, it doesn't help tame the hair much when it's blow-dried, in fact it doesn't do much of anything if used like that apart from perhaps creating a layer of protection from the heat due to silicones. On dry hair it makes the hair sleeker and shinier just like any other oil, but on coarse hair it can't quite manage to tame it for very long, plus you need to use several pumps of it. Of course I think that people with thin hair will most likely love this product because it is so light that it doesn't weight down the hair much (quantity is the key here).
The scent is so blah to me. It's like Nivea with a slight fruity twist or some baby cosmetics, so nothing like the rich scents of other oils I've tried. Even after almost a year, I'm not a fan of it and I consider scents in hair products important because my hair is long and everywhere, therefore also close to my nose.
The packaging is a plastic one with a good pump. There is 150 ml of product there, which is a huge amount. However, due to lightness it won't last long if you have thick hair as you'll have to use quite a few pumps, but if your hair is thin this should last you ages.
I used it here on my mother's hair (in internet years an ancient Instagram picture), who has about the same hair texture as me and as you can see it does it's job of making the hair appear healthy and shiny, but as I said it's not the best for dry hair or at least we prefer thicker ones.
I may have expected too much from it. In the mountain of drugstore hair silicone-oils, judging purely from ingredients, absolutely none apart from this one and one other whose brand name I don't recall looked anything particularly special when I was in the shop. Given that the argan oil is supposedly not only in trace amounts since it's placed third on the INCI list, I presumed it was pretty much as good as the professional salon brands ones. It is not. I may be thoroughly spoiled by Orofluido and the likes (I've tried most of the popular high-end ones, which you can read in my Hair Oils Series), but yes, there is a difference between high-end and drugstore treatments that I guess most people won't notice on their hair, but on my dry hair there just is. I consider these silicone-oils more like styling products than care, but thicker ones still manage to keep the hair look nourished longer. This one isn't the best for thick, coarse hair, but those are afraid of these type of products and fear it might make it greasy, might like it a lot.
One "drugstore" oil did impress me. It's Avon's Advanced Techniques Moroccan Argan Oil and that one is close in texture to Orofluido, so it manages to tame thick hair a lot better. Petra, who also suffers from dry hair, gifted me that oil and she loves it as well. If you have a chance to try that one, it's definitely worth checking it out.
I got this oil in Müller for about 10 €. By the way, I saw a different Garnier oil recently and it was much cheaper.
How many of you have tried this and love/like it? Have a great day!