Friday, February 8, 2013

Not The Citrus Cleaner We Truly Want, Suave Mango Mandarin Shampoo Leaves Me Unimpressed.


The Good: Inexpensive, (Mostly) Cleans hair, Lathers well
The Bad: Scent does not endure, Faint smell, Does not cut through grease or oily build-up on hair!
The Basics: Mango Mandarin shampoo by Suave does not do all the cleaning jobs one hopes for from a shampoo and it does not sufficiently scent the hair to make it worth trying.


Picking up the Suave Mango Mandarin shampoo was my wife’s idea, but one I eagerly went along with when I smelled the fluid in the bottle and when I considered all the hype that surrounds citrus cleaners. Unfortunately, the bottle of Mango Mandarin shampoo I have been using for the last two weeks is one of the few real flops from Suave shampoo.

Mango Mandarin shampoo is disappointing in that it is not quite adequate at cleaning and it has a scent that dissipates in the shower or pretty much the moment it is out of the bottle. It certainly does not linger long enough on the hair to satisfy those who find themselves looking for an olfactory escape in the mid-afternoon.

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. Mango Mandarin shampoo seems is a fairly standard scented shampoo for all hairs that does not seem to rely on gimmicks. Unfortunately, the lack of a strong scent (out of the bottle) is not what prevents it from even being a worthwhile inexpensive staple shampoo. Instead, it is the fact that Mango Mandarin failed to cut through grease and build-up on the hair.

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 new bottle actually is not perfectly cylindrical, having instead two flatter spots on the sides, which aid the user in holding it. While not contoured, this does make the bottle easier to hold when it gets wet. The lid, however, is problematic. 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 top (on another Suave shampoo) resulted in the top coming off through sheer force of gravity and perhaps the best advice I might give is to hold the bottles by the bottom.

Inside the bottles is Mango Mandarin shampoo and it is a light pink/orange translucent gel. This shampoo has good leg and is refreshingly more viscous than watery. The scent is almost exclusively orange. In fact, there is almost no hint of mango in the aroma as the scent wafts out of the bottle. Mango Mandarin smells good in the bottle, but underwhelms in real-world experiences.

When in the shower and one's nostrils are opened by the steam (I tend to like very hot showers) this shampoo diffuses poorly. I anticipated that in the shower, I would have orange or mango scented showers, rich in a citrus aroma, especially considering the bottle advertises a longer-lasting scent. No such luck. Instead, Mango Mandarin shampoo seemed almost scentless in the steam. Over the course of my two week trial, there was not a single time I opened the bottle to use the shampoo that it wowed me the way it did in the store.

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 Mango Mandarin shampoo requires only about a quarter-sized dollop to clean a full head of hair. This lathered up 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 Mango Mandarin, 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.

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 Mango Mandarin 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 Mango Mandarin Shampoo seemed to smell like oranges in the stores, I was disappointed when it didn't live up in the shower with its rich scent. Once that happened, it was little surprise that it left no scent on my hair after it was rinsed out. Instead, 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.

Mango Mandarin Shampoo has no discernible conditioning properties. There is a separate conditioner that has the same scent. As it stands, Mango Mandarin is one of the few Suave shampoos that did not leave me at all impressed.

For other Suave shampoo reviews, please visit my takes on:
Wild Cherry Blossom
Soothing Lavender Lilac
Suave Professionals Sleek
Suave Professionals Men Deep Clean Peppermint Shampoo
Suave Professionals Almond + Shea Butter
Refreshing Waterfall Mist
Tropical Coconut
Fresh Mountain Strawberry
Ocean Breeze
Juicy Green Apple
Orchid Petal
Suave Professionals Rosemary Mint

2/10

For other health and beauty product reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

No comments:

Post a Comment