The Good: Decent cleaning power, Amazing aroma in bottle and shower, Good lather quality, Comparatively affordable for the quality, Good ingredients
The Bad: Scent does not endure on the hair
The Basics: Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo smells amazing, has great ingredients and works well, but its impressive scent is overcome by the aroma of any conditioner used with it.
Whenever I try something new - or new to me - one of the ways that I can ultimately tell how much I like the product is by how I seek out (or refuse to buy!) more products from the same brand. Not too long ago, I had my first experience with a Maple Holistics brand shampoo. Perhaps the greatest endorsement of the product line would be that as soon as I was out of the Lavender Shampoo For Dry Hair (reviewed here!), my wife and I immediately began hunting for other shampoos that sounded interesting from Maple Holistics. It did not take long before we found one that was instantly intriguing: Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo. As a lifelong lover all things mint, the promise of a shampoo featuring five different varieties of mint was too good to pass up!
Fortunately, the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo lived up to all the hype and quality I could hope for from the shampoo. After a month and a half of use, I'm finally ready to review the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo and it is hard not to sound like I am simply gushing with praise.
Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo is a shampoo that is not marketed with any clear gimmick, outside creating an experience analogous to a "cooling winter sensation." So, instead of making broad promises to fix split ends, restore dry hair or cut through greasy hair, the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo goes for more of a shampoo experience, as opposed to marketing restorative properties. And Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo lives up to its promises, but not in the most obvious way.
When I think of minty shampoos and conditioners that actually work, I often associate the scent with a cool, tingling sensation on my scalp. The intriguing thing about the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo is that it does not have that skin-freezing sensation while it works.
At $13.95 for an 8 fl. oz. bottle, Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo would be considered expensive . . . were it not for the fact that it lathers exceptionally well (requiring one to use less of it) and it lives up to its promise of creating a relaxing shower experience when in use and delivering a rejuvenating effect. In other words, spreads far and lives up to its promise to energize the consumer!
The Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo comes in an opaque blue bottle that is very smooth and can get slippery when wet. Inside the bottle, the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo is a pearlescent white shampoo with a medium consistency - thicker than many shampoos, not quite as thick as a hair conditioner.
Opening the bottle of the Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo, the consumer is greeted with a powerful herbal scent. Apparently, the combination of the five specific mints used in the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo results in an aroma that is most analogous to a peppermint and lavender blend. The aroma effervesces impressively in a hot shower; so much so that my wife has commented on my use of the shampoo from an adjacent room a few times when I used it. The scent is minty and spicy and delightful.
The Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo has interesting directions. After applying the Winter Blend Shampoo to one's hair, one is supposed to agitate it and allow it to set (osmose) for two to three minutes. I found, despite having hair that is more than a foot long in the back, that I was able to get away with using a dollop of the shampoo that was little more than a quarter in diameter. The Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo agitated to a nice foam from that and I was able to spread it through my entire mane.
When used properly, the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo cut through normal hair oils and daily dirt to leave my hair clean, manageable, and smooth. I highly recommend using the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo with a conditioner as it was quite effective at cutting through grease and thus has the potential to dry out hair with daily use. Its cleaning power cannot be overstated, though; periodically, my local grocery store will sell bacon at a deep discount and I will buy it in bulk, cooking up thirty pounds (or more) of bacon in one evening. After such a Bacon Day, I used the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo and neither my wife, nor I, could find a hint of bacon scent in my hair afterward. That is cleaning power!
On its own - without the accompanying Winter Blend conditioner - the mint and lavender scent of the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo does not endure in the hair. I did some objective testing with the Winter Blend Shampoo where I conditioned afterward with a scentless conditioner and later with Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle conditioner (reviewed here!) and a Garnier leave-in conditioner (reviewed here!). With an aromaless conditioner, neither my wife nor I could smell anything in my hair; with the other two, we smelled those conditioners. In other words, for as wonderful as the scent of the Maple Holistics Winter Blend Shampoo is during the shower experience, it does not endure in a noticeable way in the hair. This is not necessarily a bad thing and it was certainly not a dealbreaker for me, but it was peculiar to me that such an aromatic shampoo did not hold its scent even against a scentless conditioner!
All that said, the Maple Holistics Limited Edition Winter Blend Shampoo works well, stretches for thrifty shoppers like me, and creates a pretty amazing, rejuvenating shower experience time after time.
For other shampoo reviews, please check out my analysis of:
Shea Moisture Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Weightless Shampoo W/Imbe Oil & Aloe
Just For Men ControlGX Grey Reducing Shampoo
Vidal Sassoon Pro Series Extreme Smooth Smoothing Shampoo
9/10
For other shampoo reviews, visit my Shampoo Review Index Page for an organized listing of the products I have reviewed!
© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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