The Good: Inexpensive, Intriguing scent, Cleans hair, Lathers well
The Bad: Scent does not endure, Packaging
The Basics: "Refreshing Waterfall Mist" is an adequate shampoo, but it is not one that lights the world on fire or especially inspires one to buy it.
About two weeks ago, I actually had a few extra dollars, shampoos and conditioners were on sale and I had my first proper haircut in fifteen years, so I felt inspired to take care of my hair. I bought a whole bunch of inexpensive hair care products to use and review and it wasn't until I got them home and began to use them that I came to realize I had gotten Suave products, not the usually similarly priced VO5 ones!
Suave has been expanding its line of inexpensive shampoos and conditioners. In virtually every market in the United States, Suave shampoos and conditioners may be found on sale for $1.00 for a 15 fl. oz. bottle. Refreshing Waterfall Mist shampoo seems is a fairly standard scented shampoo for all hairs that does not seem to rely on gimmicks and is ideal for a staple shampoo. Technically, this listing is for a four-pack of this shampoo; the content of the bottles is identical and often there is little price savings on the bulk pack. The 15 fl. oz. bottle is a cylindrical tube bottle with a flip-top lid that is easy enough to open with one hand, sort of. The bottle is not contoured and does get slippery when wet. Indeed, the shape of the bottle might not necessarily be problematic save that when it is wet, there is very little friction on the bottle and it slips from one's hand quite easily.
Even more problematic is the lid. The lid is a standard flip-top lid and so long as the bottle is not wet, there ought to be no problem with using one's thumb to flip the top. The issue, however, is that the top of the bottle is a pressure ring, not a screw on top. What this means is that when one applies pressure to the top to open the spout, the user is almost just as likely to flip the entire top off. This is annoying and my first experience with this problematic aspect involved carrying the bottles; the top came off of one though sheer force of gravity and perhaps the best advice I might give is to hold the bottles by the bottom.
Inside the bottles is Refreshing Waterfall Mist shampoo and it is a light blue translucent gel. This shampoo has good leg and is refreshingly more viscous than watery. The scent is an intriguing sea scent. "Waterfall" is actually a fair name for this scent as this has the scent of water. The best way to describe the scent is that this smells like everything after one surfaces from swimming in a clear freshwater body. The scent is like having the concentrated smell of water up one's nose.
When in the shower and one's nostrils are opened by the steam (I tend to like very hot showers) this shampoo diffuses reasonably well. Thus, in the shower, one has water scented showers, which seems somewhat redundant. The point, I suppose is that this is supposed to make one feel clean. It works on that level.
When it comes to use, this is a simple shampoo and one need only flip the lid and dispense a small amount into the palm of the hand before applying it to the hair. The Refreshing Waterfall Mist shampoo requires only about a quarter-sized dollop to clean a full head of hair. This lathered up remarkably well, which meant I could get away with using less of it. I have long hair and as a result, shampoo can be an annoying expense when the shampoo I am using does not lather up and clean well.
In the case of the Refreshing Waterfall Mist, it lathers up wonderfully, such that a quarter-sized dollop can easily stretch to coat a very full head of hair, like mine. Used judiciously thus, the 15 oz. bottle may easily last a full month to six weeks with daily hair washings. This makes its value a little greater than some shampoos I've recently tested and a pleasure to use.
And, quite simply, as a shampoo, it works. Hair comes out looking and feeling cleaner after its use than before. I think the most objective test for a shampoo is to see if hair is cleaner using the shampoo vs. rinsing your hair with water alone and for the basic functioning of a shampoo the Refreshing Waterfall Mist shampoo lived up to that basic litmus test.
I tend to like shampoos that leave my hair smelling delightful, like whatever scent they have lured me in with. Given that the Refreshing Waterfall Mist Shampoo barely smelled like anything outside water to begin with, it was little surprise that it left no scent on my hair after it was rinsed out. To be fair, the shampoo adequately cleaned the hair such that other scents were eliminated, but it did not leave anything remotely scented in terms of bouquet behind. So, it being winter as I write this, my hair is often subjected to smoke from the wood stove I use to heat my house. It takes on the faint aura of smoke if it is not washed for a day. The Refreshing Waterfall Mist shampoo removed the smoke smell just fine. But it left my hair smelling neutral and like hair as opposed to anything else. This mostly just means I cannot smell my hair throughout the day to get any sort of energizing effect or be taken away in my mind to somewhere more pleasant.
Refreshing Waterfall Mist Shampoo has no discernible conditioning properties. There is a separate conditioner that has the same scent. As it stands, Refreshing Waterfall Mist works fine as a day to day shampoo that will clean your hair, but for those looking for a bold scent, actual moisturizing qualities, or something that will do more than simply strip away dirt and bothersome scents, this is not the shampoo for you, with or without its accompanying conditioner!
A coin-toss ultimately determined that I would not recommend this very average product.
For other Suave shampoo reviews, please visit my takes on:
Tropical Coconut
Fresh Mountain Strawberry
Ocean Breeze
Juicy Green Apple
Orchid Petal
Suave Professionals Rosemary Mint
5/10
For other health and beauty product reviews, please be sure to visit my index page here for an organized listing of them!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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