I have never used a hot oil treatment before and always drooled over the lovely, thick consistencies shown online, however with Marilyn I accidentally added far too much water. This rather spoiled the fun of slathering it all on and left me dripping with water whilst it sat on my hair. The water I added also wasn't quite boiling as it was left over from a cup of tea, so it didn't fully dissolve and my hot oil treatment ended up with the consistency of watery sick (yum)

I would absolutely love if LUSH altered the design of the stick ever so slightly with a graphic of the suggested amount of water to add, as the hot oil treatments are £6.50 each, and I do feel like I managed to ruin and waste mine through lack of proper instructions. It did actually annoy me a little to be completely honest as I had really high hopes for this product.

Back to a positive, the scent of Marilyn is absolutely gorgeous. I have previously used a solid shampoo called The Blonde from the LUSH Kitchen which smelt exactly the same as both contain chamomile oil, lemon juice and sea salt.

I really didn't mind this treatment trickling down the sides of my face as it just smelt so good. I left it on for 2 hours as opposed to the recommended 20 minutes, thinking it would do no harm as the entire point of the treatment was to fix hair. How wrong I was.

I rinsed the treatment out of my hair without shampooing it (again, no instructions) then attempted to blow dry my hair to see the finished results. My hair simply would not dry and felt so damn oily, yet almost straw-like on the now white (lemon juice?) ends, so I looked the product up online. I read the full description and how it was supposed to be washed out, then jumped back in the shower with a sigh.

Here is where it becomes a horror story. As soon as the shampoo touched my hair, it matted into a horrifying, fused-together mess. I tried to run my fingers through it to separate it, but was honestly terrified that it was going to snap off. I eventually managed to comb it out again by using a whole 250g bottle of American Cream conditioner on it then went to bed with it still wet, anxious from not knowing what it would be like in the morning.

In fact, my hair actually looked pretty good in the morning. It had a gorgeous glossy fullness to it and the colour looked amazing with the brassiness gone, but I'm not sure whether it was due to Marilyn, or the abuse of conditioner.

I also had a message from the LUSH customer care Twitter account as they had seen my distressed tweets. I was worried that they would blame me for leaving it on far longer than I was supposed to, however they were really sympathetic, and offered to replace my bottle of conditioner.

Overall, my opinions on this product are very mixed. Marilyn really toned and lightened my hair, and it was lovely and shiny the next day (if a little dry), but for all the anxiety caused, I'm still not sure if it was worth it!

Ingredients: Cetearyl Alcohol & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Guar Gum, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Cream of Tartar, Soya Lecithin, Fine Sea Salt, Citric Acid, Lemon Oil, Dried German Chamomile Flower, Perfume, Chamomile Oil, Linseed Powder, Saffron, Lemon Juice, Dried Roman Chamomile Flower, Gardenia Extract, Propylene Glycol, *Citral, *Limonene, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Colour 19140

Scent type: Floral, Uplifting, Summery

Price: £6.50 / Each