Theme not displaying ps_searchbar text

[wayneoutthere]

Hi there, not sure if i'm posting in the correct forum category.  It's my first fresh post. Feel free to mod it where it needs to go if not...

I bought a PS theme (conifer, very nice by codezeel btw) but the search field requires you to a) click it then b) click somewhere else before the string 'ie. search our catalogue' displays in the search field. 

I checked and confirmed that this bug is not present in the main PS distribution so it's a 'design choice' or a 'bug' (you choose, ha)

My question is this:  how would I over-ride this theme and the way that this element functions? I have a little CSS, html and a tiny bit of JS background but definitely i'm not a 'developer'. 

I assume I would do something like this:

* inspect element to location the class name of the theme's search bar
* find the CSS that makes it do the thing I don't like

* edit / correct?

If I could get a little direction on this that would be great

by the way loving prestashop... getting deeper each day! Thanks to all the devs.