L'Oréal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil Shampoo, Conditioner, and Lustrous Serum Review

Disclosure: Affiliate links. Products free from Influenster.
"Hey Lyn, how's that whole 'blog more often' plan going for you?" "Hahahahaha SHUT UP."

Anyway. I got this hair stuff from Influenster, and I like it a lot, so I thought I'd share it with you. (In case you're not aware, anyone can sign up to get free stuff to try from Influenster. You don't need a blog, though I think the more social media followers you have, the more things they send you.)

I was interested in trying these products, because I've had really good luck with some of the L'Oreal Advanced haircare in the past. For example, the Total Repair 5 Extreme line is excellent for getting dry, damaged hair under control. The conditioner feels (and smells) really similar to the magical stuff they include with home hair dye kits.

The Extraordinary Oil line is marketed for "daily care for dry, lifeless hair," and it claims to be, "lightweight" and "non-greasy." This sounds perfect for me, because the lengths of my hair tends to be very dry and the roots are oily, which means that sometimes products designed for dry hair don't clean the grease out well enough or leave my hair weighed down, while those meant for oily hair strip it too much. There are tricks I can do like coating the lengths in conditioner before shampooing and/or shampooing the roots twice, but I would prefer to cut down on the number of steps in my shower routine as much as possible.

My assessment of these three products (shampoo, conditioner, and serum) is that they definitely live up to the claims. They leave my hair very soft and shiny but not weighed down. Here are comparison photos. In the first one, I shampooed and conditioned with some mediocre products that I had in the shower and that I'd been using semi-regularly, and then let my hair air dry. In the second photo, on a different day, I used all three of the products pictured above (the serum on damp hair after washing and before detangling, with which it helps a lot) and again let my hair air dry. I think the difference in shine and smoothness is pretty clear--even though it turns out that it is very difficult to take a photo of the side of your own head.

All three of these products have a pretty strong fragrance that is a sort of warm, amber scent. I'm not great at identifying and describing fragrances, but it's the kind of thing you would expect from products that are supposed to be "exotic." If you're tried the Suave Moroccan Infusion line, it's similar. I know a lot of people love this kind of scent, but I don't usually like it. In this case, however, it's started to grow on me--and it doesn't make me sneeze like some others do. The first day I used the serum, I could smell it all day and it was a little overwhelming. But I have used it many times since then, and now it seems just mildly pleasant. So if you don't like this type of fragrance, it's something to consider, but you might end up enjoying it anyway, apparently. If you are a big perfume wearer, however, it may interfere with the scent you wear. I will usually avoid other perfume on days I use these.

I also tried each of the three products separately in case it was only one of them giving me these good results. That is, I shampooed with the Extraordinary Oil shampoo and used a different conditioner and serum/treatment product, and so forth, with each one. I saw some improvement with each product separately, but not as dramatic as when using them all together. I would say if you want to try just one, you should pick the conditioner if you don't want as strong a fragrance, and the serum if you are fine with the fragrance and want to get the most impressive results from a single product. (There's also a leave-in "transforming oil-in-cream" that I didn't get, but I am now curious about it. I wonder if it would be too heavy for my hair.)

In addition to other oils and silicones, the serum and conditioner both contain a lot of coconut oil, which has been shown to be particularly good for hair. One of the suggested uses on the serum bottle is to apply it to hair before washing to nourish and protect the hair, which is also a great way to use plain coconut oil. The silicones in this stuff add an extra boost of shine and smoothness, in my opinion. (Nothing wrong with 'cones in hair products.)

I like this stuff as much as or more than any of the much more expensive hair products I've tried. The L'Oreal Extraordinary Oil products are about $6 a bottle. If shine and softness are your main hair goals, definitely give one or more of these a shot. The only potential downside I can think of is the fragrance, but as I said, I actually enjoy it now in spite of myself.

What about you? Do you prefer mild scents in hair products or is the fragrance part of what makes you enjoy them? I prefer skincare products to be unscented, but I do want some fragrance in my hair products--I'm just picky about what exactly they smell like.