Hair: Original & Mineral Project Sukuroi Gold Smoothing Balm review

I don’t think I’ve met many people that would turn down softer, shinier hair with minimal effort. Let’s face it, it’s pretty much the holy grail of hair. So prepare yourself to get excited about Original & Mineral’s Project Sukuroi Gold Smoothing Balm, as that’s exactly what it delivers.

Original & Mineral are an Australian brand that pride themselves on making quality hair products, all with a natural edge. They don’t use sulphates, triclosan or other nasties in their range and after trying their volumizing shampoo last year, I became a bit of a brand convert.

Project Sukuroi is the newest product to be added to their range and it’s something that crosses the lines between a styling product and a hair treatment. It’s a gold toned, slightly runny crème textured balm that’s designed to be used on wet hair before you blow dry and style hair. Simply apply a small amount to damp hair and then blow dry as normal. You’ll be left with super soft, shiny looking hair that feels like you haven’t got any product on it. #winning

It not only smoothes, but helps to repair hair at the same time, giving long term benefits as well an immediate ‘look at my shiny hair’ buzz. It combines Gold of Pleasure Oil to smooth, repair and add shine; Macadamia Oil (more shine) and keratin to help strengthen.

I had my first taste of Project Sukuroi at a launch event a little while back and combined with a professional blow dry, I felt like I’d stepped out of a hair commercial. But the cynic in me thought it might be too good to be true, so after trying it out with my less than average blow dry skills (aka blast hair with hair dryer while vaguely waving a brush at it) I still ended up with a nice shiny finish and the softest hair EVER. Which I was pretty impressed with. Ok, really impressed.

You do need to use it with some sort of heat – it won’t work very well if used on damp hair which is left to dry naturally, so that’s really the only caveat for use. I tend to use about a 20p sized amount for my medium length fine hair, but if you have more/thicker hair you can tailor accordingly – just start sparingly and use more the next time if it wasn’t quite enough.

While Original & Mineral products do fall into the higher end price bracket, I think that at £26 for a 100g tub, this is a good value product. Even if you use it for every blow dry, you’ll still get a good 4-6 months out of your pot and the silky soft hair you’ll get is well worth the investment!

You can find Original & Mineral products online from Net-a-Porter, Josh Wood salons, and in store and online at Selfridges.

Do you like the sound of Project Sukuroi?

*PR sample