Anyone remember Concoction – the customizable hair care range launched by ex-Apprenctice, Alex Epstein? It launched in the UK to great fanfare but for some reason, just didn’t resonate enough with Brits for it to continue, so it disappeared very quickly. I’d always assumed it just stopped trading, but no – apparently it does very well in the USA and Australia – it’s sold on the American Lookfantastic site for a start. There is obviously something that appeals to a stateside audience about being able to choose your hair care down to the most minute detail that just doesn’t grab us here? I don’t know what it is – perhaps we just aren’t hair obsessed enough or maybe we have enough faith in our hair brands to have done the job already, or maybe it’s because we just can’t quite believe that personalization makes enough of a difference to pay the extra.
I’m not sure that I’m all the way into customized but Function of Beauty, a new brand based in the US that ships (quickly and cheaply) to the UK, has me at least considering there might be something in it after all. Not least because I got to choose my preferred fragrance – I opted for Pineapple and I can’t tell you how much I like it! I even enjoyed filling out the on-line forms that allows you to express your exact hair type, preferences and needs. If you look at the list above, those are all the things I ticked (you’re allowed 5 hair ‘goals) as being things I wanted in a shampoo and conditioner. I can’t fault either the shampoo or the conditioner – they both work beautifully and I had lovely soft and shiny locks post use, but at the same time I can’t specifically say that I’ve noticed less frizzy or more straight strands, or even any ‘replenishment’ which is a marketing word anyway.
I love, love, love the pineapple fragrance – it’s fabulous – and the products are really pretty good and you can choose your strength of fragrance as well as the colour of the products. Things I find weird about the brand are that the writing on the bottle is white and it all but disappears against a white or pale shampoo fill, and also the whole ‘Function of…’ concept. It’s nice that my bottle says ‘Function of BBB’ but it doesn’t really mean anything! It would also be great if you could see how much what you want costs before you have to go through the entire form. The smallest set of shampoo and conditioner is approx £20 I think – that’s the problem right there; I can’t remember what I ‘paid’ (I had a complimentary voucher). In terms of re-ordering, they send you reminder emails (that I didn’t sign up for as far as I’m aware) but it needs a better system in terms of being open about the money. I would be really annoyed to fill in a form all the way through to then discover that I didn’t want to or couldn’t pay for it.
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If you’re a moderate to high spender on hair care, I’d say give it a go – I really do love the products despite there being some ironing out to do with the presentation and the site mechanics. Plus, it’s fantastically Instagrammable! Function of Beauty is HERE.
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