TRUTH: Call me a hair product snob, cuz it has easily been a decade since I’ve purchased a shampoo or conditioner from a big-box retailer or drugstore (Target, Walgreens, Wal-Mart etc.). I’m the “brandy” type, purchasing my at home hair care products from salons and wanting a more professional level product that’s recommended to me by my hair stylist. So when Influenster sent me a VoxBox with Dove’s new UltraCare Milk Gel Conditioner to try complimentary and review, I thought, “oh that’s a bold move”, cuz it’s going to have to stand up in comparison against a lot of name brands in the hair care industry. My hoard of hair product brands includes Oribe, Leonor Greyl, R+Co, Kevin Murphy, dpHUE, Living Proof, ROIL, Rene Furterer, AVEDA, Balmain, lol what else…? oh and I also have a snobby list of hair brand tools including but not limited to Dyson, YS PARK, Mason Pearson, Ibiza… if you’re a hair stylist you get me.

The Dove UltraCare Conditioner they sent me was their Milk-Gel version, formulated specifically for fine and damaged (aka blonded) hair. Its main objective is to leave your hair full and healthy looking, without weighing it down. It even claims that you can use it EVERYDAY 😮 if you want.

My verdict after giving this a go and a good blow dry at home is that it does exactly what it’s intended to do. You get a decent conditioning ‘treatment’ and your hair will have that nice ‘slip’. So I got to thinking, who is this really going to benefit? Personally, I would stick to my name brands, but there’s a place for this one too.

My recommendation for this conditioner, to make it the most useful, is actually for really active people, swimmers, and people who just HAVE TO wash their hair everyday. You’re technically NOT supposed to do that 😉, but hey, I’ve been there, and especially for oily teenagers I think this product is a great option. It’s definitely an economy price point too, so buying a couple bottles is worth it. For a true, EVERYDAY conditioner, I get why it’s called “Milk Gel”. A lightweight formula is essential in this case to avoid build up and weighing finer hair down.

From the snob of hair products, I don’t think I was too harsh on Dove, right? And for the record, just because I’m not a Dove brand hair praiser 🙌 doesn’t mean I don’t use Dove in other AREAS of my life… my armpits and friends can thank Dove since puberty for keeping me from stinking. 😂