Can L’oreal Wonder Water Really Give You Perfect Hair in Just 8 Seconds? I Put It to the Test…

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I’ve called this post “I tried Elvive Wonder Water so you don’t have to,” but, I mean, let’s be honest here: you probably already have, haven’t you?

Given the speed with which I normally jump aboard any new beauty product bandwagon in town, desperate to believe that THIS bottle of snake oil is the one that’s going to totally change my life, I have to admit, I took my eye off the ball one, and, having typed the words “wonder water buy” into the notes app in my phone a few months ago, I proceeded to do absolutely nothing about that, other than look at it occasionally, and wonder what it meant. (See also the note which simply reads ’69 x 90′. What does it mean? Why was it apparently important enough to write down, but not important enough to remember WHY? So many questions…)

Elvive Wonder Water, you say?

Anyway. I may have been pretty slow on the uptake here, but I’m sure most of you will already known that L’oreal Elvive Wonder Water (Or, to give it it’s full name, LÓreal Elvive Dream Lengths Wonder Water) is a treatment for dry or damaged hair, which claims to work in just 8 seconds, leaving your hair, and I quote, “10x smoother*, with glassy shine and a silky touch.” Here’s what else LÓreal say about it:

Wonder Water is a breakthrough damaged hair treatment, in a rinse-out liquid conditioner formula that’s powered by Lamellar Water Technology. Moisturising agents and amino acids target dry, damaged areas of hair, forming thin layers called Lamella to smooth hair’s surface, instantly transforming lengths for silkier, shinier and healthier-looking hair.

Now, I may not know what “Lamellar Water Technology” is, but I DO know that I’m the not-so-proud owner of exactly the type of dry and damaged hair they seemed to be suggesting would be completely transformed by this product, and, most importantly, at £4.95 (from Amazon), it’s significantly cheaper than the Olaplex treatment I’ve been trying to convince myself I don’t actually need, even though I’m 99.8% convinced I really, really do. So I bought it. Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see, this claims to be particularly good for long hair, which was even more good news for me, because most hair treatments I’ve tried don’t seem to take into account the fact that those of us with hair past our shoulder blades will get through a whole lot more of the product than people will shorter hair. With that said, the bottle doesn’t look any larger than a standard-sized conditioner, say, so I had my doubts: pushing them to one side, however, I hit the shower the next morning, my trusty Elvive Wonder Water in hand.

How to use Elvive Wonder Water

As the name suggests, this product is a water, rather than a cream, and therein lies the first problem for slightly clumsy people such as myself. It’s used directly after shampooing, and the instructions tell you to use “1 dose for fine to medium textured hair, 2-3 doses for thick to curly textured hair, add 1 more dose if you have extra-long hair”, massage for 8 seconds, then rinse out. I worked out this probably meant I should use 2 doses for my fine-to-medium but extra-long long, but how much is a “dose”, I wondered? And do I apply the the two dozes and THEN lather for 8 seconds, or apply the first, then lather, then the second, then lather again? It’s… hard to understand how I get through the day sometimes, isn’t it?

In the end, I simply poured the product fairly liberally over my ginger hair, concentrating on the ends (This was actually harder than you might think, given that it’s watery, and you’re in the shower at the time, so you spend a lot of time wondering if you’re actually getting it on your hair, or just pouring it straight down the drain. Or you do if you’re me, anyway.

The good news is that this smells divine, and massages into the hair easily. You can follow it up with conditioner if want to, but I was keen to see how it would perform on its own, so I gave that a miss and proceeded straight to blow-drying my auburn hair.

So, did it work?

In a word, yes. And also no. For reference, my natural red hair is a particularly awesome of poker straight, and also kind of frizzy and dry. I hate the way it looks when it’s straight, so I always wear it wavy, and, as I’m sure you can imagine, the constant use of heat has NOT been kind to it.

So, first of all, I have to report that Elvive Wonder Water did NOT transform my hair into the smooth, swishy dream hair with the mirror shine I was hoping for. I mean, I’d been hoping to be able to illustrate this review with one of those videos where the person lifts their hair up then lets it drop, and it literally looks like water, it’s so smooth and shiny. But, no, that’s not me, sadly, so no video for you. This was not the kind of transformation that makes you gasp out loud, or have people stop you in the street to ask you where you got your hair done, and, in that respect, I guess Elvive Wonder Water is a little bit of a disappointment, really, because isn’t that what we all want, really?

This was not the kind of transformation that makes you gasp out loud, or have people stop you in the street to ask you where you got your hair done

On the plus side, though, it might not have totally changed the texture of my hair, however it DID make much more of a difference to it than I’d realistically been expecting for a product that cost less than a fiver. The fact is, I have the kind of hair that NEEDS conditioner – and a lot of it. I no longer wash my hair every day (Because, parenthood), but, when I did, I’d easily get through a small bottle of conditioner a week, and, if I ever ran out, I’d emerge from the shower with hair so tangled that I’d barely be able to get a comb through it. Once dried, it would be dull, brittle, and full of static, and that’s why hair conditioner has been one of my biggest beauty expenses for as long as I can remember.

So I did not expect Elvive Wonder Water to work: not without conditioner, at least, and probably not AT ALL, if I’m totally honest. Well, colour me amazed, but I finished the entire bottle without touching my conditioner once. It just didn’t seem necessary: as I said, the Wonder Water didn’t give my hair a glossy mirror shine (I don’t expect to be asked to any more hair commercial auditions, for instance…), but it DID leave it feeling smoother and softer than my usual conditioner does: oh, and smelling awesome, too.

Is it a miracle product, then? Sadly, no, it isn’t. Is it really quite good anyway, though? Yes. Yes it is. But will I still probably go ahead and buy that Olaplex treatment I’ve been hankering after, in the vain hope that IT will be the one to completely change my hair – and therefore my LIFE? You know I will. And I’ll report back when I do…

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