Cleansing Oil Shampoo

Intriguing yes?

Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil

In this month's Birchbox I received a sample of Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil shampoo.  I expected a runny emulsifying oil, you know, like the ones you wash your face with.  But that's not what came out of the sample packet.  What did come out was a clear looking, well shampoo.  So it's not an oil, it's just formulated with oils like jasmine, musk rose, and camellia, but also included is black cumin, onsen and depsea water.  Depsea water is interesting, it is water that is obtained "200 meters below the seas of Japan."  Hmm...

It has a very light scent, that you do catch a whiff of throughout the day, which I was surprised since the scent was so light.  Anything with rose, I am game.  It lathers nicely, pretty thickly actually, I kept adding a splash of water to continue the lather down to the ends of my hair.  I concentrate on my scalp as it tends to be a bit oily.  So if you like bubbles, Shu Uemura has you covered.  It is also paraben and silicone free- I like that.

The Cleansing Oil Shampoo feels luxurious.  Now I have normal thickness hair, but I have a lot of it.  It's also quite heavy as I have grown out most of my layers.  It is dyed and I did have highlights as recently as last November, Black Friday to be exact.  My hair bleaches significantly in the strong North Carolina sun.  What I am getting at, is that it can be quite dry if I use the wrong products, which I am using right now.  I know I am using the wrong products for my hair, but I'm trying to use them up.  Makes sense right?   No!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am using isn't completely bad but it's not working right now.  I have been loving L'OREAL's Cleansing Conditioner for 2 bottles now, talk about commitment right?  But I noticed with the last bottle, 2-3 weeks in, it starts to build up in my hair.  No worries, just use a clarifying shampoo 1-2 times a week and that should remedy the problem.  And it did, sort of.  So this month with a new bottle I haven't been using it every day.  I switched on and off with Pantene Beautiful Lengths and John Frieda Highlight Activating Shampoo.  Well my hair just kept dryer and dryer.  And I've only been washing it maybe 3 times a week but at the same time my scalp is oily so I can't go too long in between washes.  Hello dry shampoo but 2 days of that and I can't run a brush through my hair.

So enter Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil into my life.  One wash, I'm hooked.  I'm really impressed.  It left my hair soft and moisturized.  I just need a little serum on my ends, but that was more out of habit than a possible need.  Second day hair, just as nice as the first.  No oily scalp, ends still feel moisturized, unlike my usual second day hair, oily scalp, super dry ends.  Do you ever do the dry end test, squish your ends in between your fingers and you hear some dry crispy crackles?  Well I did it after using Shu Uemura and no dry crispy crackles.  Hey, it's a real test.  Try it!

The downside, it's $55 for 400 mL.  Ideally I would like to try a shampoo of this price a couple of times before I purchase but on the upside, I have some Birchbox points banked up and I can get free shipping.  Fact is, this one shampoo will still cost more than the amount of money I spent on shampoo all of last year, thanks to coupons and savvy drugstore shopping.

However the needs of my hair have changed and I am really enjoying the results of this cleansing oil shampoo.

Do you try out She Uemura yet from your Birchbox?  How did you hair like it?