Review: Darcy's Botanicals Natural Coils Curling Jelly

I got this as swap from a forum member on British Curlies. She was offering it at a discounted price so I moved in for the kill.  Was it worth it? Read on…

Regular Price: £10.95 for 8oz.

Availability: British curlies and Etsy. Only available online in the UK.

Ingredients shown in picture below: 

Packaging: It comes in a simple white jar with a white screw top. I personally think the packaging was inadequate. Which brings me to my next point.

The Texture: Very liquidy snotty texture, infact so liquidy that I ended up pouring out the jelly into my hands everytime I need some. Otherwise dipping my hands into the jar would have been as useful as dipping my hands into a jar full of water. On that note I must say this. Do not let the watery texture of this jelly fool you. With this stuff a little went a long way for me.

Scent: I didn’t feel like mine smelled of anything. I think I must have got the unscented version. Despite this  I believe I  still got a faint whiff of something that reminded me of paper glue. The faintness I actually liked because it gave my leave-in conditioner olfactory dominance.

Darcy's Botanicals Natural Coils Curly Jelly On my hair..

Pros: 

On applying this to my hair with my leave-in i.e. Hawaiian silky gel activator +castor oil + aloe vera gel mix, it seemed to get absorbed into my hair almost immediately. I liked that it gave a tiny bit of slip. It dried fairly quickly around my ends, but about 3-4hours later it was mostly 80% dry. It did not give me a flash dry effect. There was no crunch, but there was a light hold. I got second day hair with this. On the second day, my hair had about ½ its definition and some hold.

In terms of elongation, it did not offer any of that. My hair shrunk, but stayed in place.

Cons:

Flaking - I noticed some flakiness whiteness around my part section where I may have possibly being a bit heavy handed.

Price - I wish this was £10.99 for 16oz rather than 8oz. If it was I would put this in my staples list.

Repurchasing probability - I liked the light hold and effectiveness of this jelly. But I shall only re-purchase this if it is on sale at a cheaper price. Because I have other stylers which are just as effective and cheaper.

If you are looking for a  styling product with stellar natural ingredients or a stickler for natural ingredients in your hair products .Then I would recommend this product to you.

Review: Garnier Fructis Style Ultimate Survivor Gel with Cactus Extract

This Garnier survivor gel is not for the faint-hearted it really does have an extreme hold
This gel is serious stuff. If you can't stand hard hold gels, I suggest you stop here.

Garnier Fructis Style Survivor Gel ensures 24-hour hold even in the most extreme conditions. Contains extracts from the cactus plant and a citrus fragrance combined with the non-drying formula keeps hair styled, strong and residue free

Smell: Light citrusy scent. I find it pleasant.


Price: 200ml for £2.50-£3.50 from ASDA/Boots/Tesco/Superdrug. Usually on offer 2 for 1 at Superdrug/ASDA

Texture: pearlescent opaque with a slight grey tone. Not sticky, mucousy or gummy. Almost seems to disappear between my wet palms as I rub them together


Ingredients: Aqua, Polyester-5, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Phenoxyethanol, PEG-40 Hydrogenated castor oil, PEG-70 Mango Glycerides, Triethanolamine, Limonene, Benzyl alcohol, Linalool, Propylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Acylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate copolymer, Pyrus Malus Extract/Apple Fruit Extract, Sorbitol, Disodium EDTA, Citral, Citrus medica, Limonum extract/Lemon Fruit Extract, Opuntia Coccinellifera Extract/Opuntia Ficus-Indica Flower Extract,Amyl Cinnamal, Parfum/Fragrance (FIL C47405/1)
(Actual ingredients on my tubes. I have noticed varying ingredients online.)

Application on my hair: it went on quite tame-like, giving me no indication of its powers apart from showing me some serious coiling/clumping upon application.

This gel did not seem to have a lot of reviews online for women's hair not to talk of afro kinky coily natural hair. I reckon that it may not be considered by most ladies, as going by the video ads alone this gel appears to be  marketed and targeted to mainly men, or people wanting to create 'spiked styles'

 
Garnier Fructis Survivor gel is most likely one of the hardest gels I have tried to date. It claims to resist humidity and frizz and holds that promise.  Even after I went to the gym and had a rigorous sweat-fest my hair was still defined. Most gels would render my hair a straight up fro after a session at the gym. To put this into a better perspective for some ladies- this leaves Ecostyler gel -Krystal (hold 10) behind in the dust.

When it dries, the CRUNCH is CRAZY!! My hair gets very HARD! 
So hard that when I lay my head on my pillow at night I would hear my hair rustling ! In the mornings I would spray a glycerin/oil/water mix to re-shape my hair and it always suprisingly moulded back into place easily. I easily got 5day hair with this and could have easily kept going. The only thing is that my hair just didn't feel nice to touch initially. It felt hard to touch and would not scrunch out easily with just any oil. (After a few days it gradually relented it's hold).

Another surprising property of this gel was how it rinsed out extremely easily with just water from hair. My hair did not feel sapped of moisture or parched as I rinsed.If using this alone I'll be recommending that one uses a much heavier leave-in. (Do the combo test on hand for potential white residue)
The Survivor gel has indeed survived and gradually snuck itself into my styling routine as a 'top-upper'/finisher. Basically after I use most gels to style a wash & go. I apply a wee bit of this on the top of my crown to address the harder to define and easy to frizz areas.

I would really recommend this if you are serious about making your wng style last for ages.This gel would guarantee that longevity  If you want your coils/curls/kinks to stay controlled with military obedience then this gel will do exactly that for you..Plus a little will go a long way. Otherwise, If you can't stand the crunch then run!...... Far away as fast as you can. 

My hair with Garnier Fructis Survivor Gel.

2012 Afro Hair Beauty Show Review & Haul

Afro Show catwalk

1st floor at show centre

It was my 1^st time going to the show, so I went fairly neutral. We went on the 1^st day fairly early as my friend and I had other obligations later on in the day. On arrival at the front door we were met with umbrella bags for our umbrellas. Great reception! Went past security, after checking in with our tickets the samples galore began. It was fairly quiet so it was easy for us to circumvent through most of the floor (which wasn’t a lot ) quickly.

PAK reps (seemed like they were major sponsors) were 1^st to go offering us a mysterious bag supposedly worth £25 worth of products for £5. (Errr nah thanks, dunno what’s in there mate!!). Then it was Miss Jessie’s offering us samples in this fairly dinky orange bag, containing a great mix of their products. We saw the Fair & White Stand looking very quiet (Good!). Walked past that them and were met with the biggest display of Miss Jessies. Miss Jessie’s really did it BIG at the Afro Show. You could see they were intent on making their presence known because by the end of the day. Their orange sample bags were on every corner of the Business Design centre. Their marketing strategy was on point! They had a massive stand complete with salon equipment and all. Funny enough they did not have an actuall stand selling their full sized products. I guess the intent was to demonstrate and create the interest. The sisters themselves were styling clients and demonstrating how to use their products.

£10 for the JC butters?!Unbelievable! The stand attendant had the loveliest WNG fro. She claimed to get that with the curl defining creme.

Mixed chicks repping with discounts!

I noticed a lot of stands aimed at natural hair, plus my friend and I, her with her big twistout and myself with my puff did not pass by unnoticed as they called out to us to try their wares. I liked that there was no demarcation between stalls and stands aimed at natural hair were represented by the likes of Curls, Taliah Waajid (whom was so lovely and humble in person offering great deals), Jane Carter (Amazing deals), Mixed Chicks, Gidore, Beautiful Textures, Sof n Free with their Nothing But Line, ORS with their Curls Unleashed line, MmmHair , Regular brother selling massive tubs of shea butter/oils/scents and the likes.

Taliah herself, demonstrating how to shingle her curl product on dry hair. (I'll be trying that soon!)

Sleek stand

Sleek stylist working on the blue wig

Gidore stand

Sleek Hair also did their thing with another massive stand showcasing stylists doing clients weaves and wigs. I was looking out for their makeup/ makeup brushes but Sleek seemed to offer mainly their hairpieces. 

Loved the marketing tactic on this one. Nice skirt! 

I didn’t notice a lot of makeup stands, I believe I only spotted two. Neither of which I can remember. There was a nail bar right at the back corner. Jewellry by Ry-va. African woman magazine stand, African candy (which unfortunately still wasn’t open by 2pm when we were set to leave). Startup fashion designers were also present showcasing their work on the fashion runway but I didn’t stay too long to watch that as I wasn’t interested in the pieces.

I left with loads of samples, pamphlets, great discounted buys, so it’s quite fair to say that this year’s show was definitely done with natural hair ladies in mind. I hope the trend continues and grows and would be more than happy to visit again next year.

Review: III Sisters Of Nature - Curling Gelo (Comparable to Kinky Curly Curling Custard!) - Errr

Cost : £9.99
Availability: Ebay & Some Local Hair Beauty Stores.


Product Description

III Sisters of Nature Natural Curling Gelo helps to define and elongate your curls and enhance your hair's natural wave pattern.Formulated with all natural ingredients to give the best conditioning, strengthening, nourishing, softening styling treatment, the Curling Gelo naturally brings out the lustrous shine in your curls and waves.
Curling Gelo is very concentrated to give it that added value. The natural humectants inside the Gelo naturally extracts moisture from the air keeping curls/waves/kinks/knots/twists soft to the touch, moisturized, and healthy.


Directions
Apply the Curling Gelo to wet hair. Make sure to thoroughly shampoo and rinse hair. Use your fingers to apply the Curling Gelo all over your hair. Finger style to achieve knots/knaps/kinky/tight coils.

"Curling Gelo keeps your hair frizz free, leaves no greasy residue, keeps hair moisturized, and allows for long-lasting curls,waves, and twists."

Ingredients

Water (Aqua), Vegetable Glycerin, Polyquaternium 37, Polyquaternium 10 and PEG 14, Polyquaternium 7, Polysorbate 20, Sea Grape Extract (Vitis Vinifera), Argan Oil (Argan Spinosa), Avocado Extract (Persea Gratissma), Oat extract (Avena Sativa), Sage (Salvia Officinalis), Chamomille Extract (Anthemis Noblis), Bay Laurel Extract (Lauris Noblis), Phenoxyethanol (And) Caprylyl Glycol, Fragrance (Parfum).

Smell 
Sweet smell-like cotton candy


Texture

Like 'jellified' sprite/7up. It looks like Ecostyler Krystal - with the transparent jelly look.
It's lighter in texture than the former but more filmy. Infact very filmy.




On my hair
Since it claims to match up against KCCC, lets compare shall we?


Like KCCC
Smoothes onto my hair very nicely and even delivers a little slip. (like KCCC)
Excellent coil clumper. (like KCCC)
Gave my hair alot of shine (like KCCC)
Sweet scent (not comparable in notes to KCCC, but sweet all the same)
Goes white on application with most of my leave-in conditioners. i.e. TIGI cherry almond, Andrew Barton, EO conditioner (like KCCC)
Took a long long time to dry. (Definitely like KCCC!)


Unlike KCCC
Clear transparent look (unlike KCCC)
Filmy not slimy/goopey (unlike KCCC)
Smell is sweet, but does not smell like KCCC
This gives no hold whatsoever. Only one day hair achievable with some clumped coils, after that its all frizz.(not like KCCC, KCCC gives hold for a few days at least)
Not comprised of all natural ingredients, though some included.





To maintain and also because it still wasn't completely dry on day 1, I put my hair in a shower cap overnight. The next morning my hair was very "juicy". So mushy that the coils quickly dispersed into fluffy poofness when I attempted re-shaping. By the end of day 2. My hair was very soft. Problem is, I didn't like the film it left on my fingers every time I played in my hair.
This is nothing but another curl activator in my eyes. It defines like one, looks like one, feels like one and lacks hold like one.
It falls short of KCCC in a major way as it fails to deliver the hold /stiffness that partly renders KCCC one of the top natural styling gels. It also falls short on the ingredients. Packed full of polyquats.
I dunno what it is about the product, but every time I use it I just want to wash my hair immediately after. I think the last test would be to try it with some Eco-styler gel on top.
If you want major hold, then this is not for you. If you want softness, shine and sweet-smelling products  then this maybe the one for you.
You can find pictures of my hair with this product here.

Review/Deal: Sally’s Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner

After browsing my local Sally’s beauty supply store looking for a decent ‘on the ground protein conditioner’ (didn’t find any by the way), I decided to make a purchase I’ve been putting off for a while. You see I had been eyeing a 5 litre keg of conditioner. 5 litres? Yes 5 litres. 

Like most curly/coily hair ladies, I can never have enough conditioner. So much that I usually prefer to buy my conditioners in litre sizes. Also with Tresseme Naturals 900ml conditioner offers at shops becoming a rarity and gradually increasing in price. It was time to invest in a better solution for Dafro. With 5litres at £11.99. That works out at 1000ml/1litre at approximately £2.40 for a great quality conditioner!! Thankfully I didn’t need to have a Salon Pro card of sorts to make this purchase.

Product Features of Sally’s Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner

• To be used after any colouring or bleaching treatment
• Formulated with Vitamin E which is a powerful antioxidant with hydrating properties.

This is probably that ‘treatment’ the stylist says is natural and strengthening for your hair whilst she massages your scalp, you know the one in the nameless bottle that you wonder about? (Off course only at the non- exclusive salon, because the exclusive ones only use branded recognized products *sniffs*)

Nehuuu..With this manufacturer recommending that this was to be used after a colouring or bleaching treatment - processes that are potentially detrimental to the hair shaft due to their bond altering effects. I knew I had to be on the right path.

They did not sell smaller samples of this conditioner, so I couldn’t tell it’s efficacy. There were no reviews online at the time of writing, so not much else to go by apart from my understanding of ingredients.

The ingredients list is relatively simple, but what I love even more is that the MAIN agents are within the top 5. This means that these ingredients exist in a much higher concentration. How many times have you picked up a conditioner purporting itself as argan/aloe/shea/potatoe e.t.c based only to note disappointingly that the supposed main ingredient is actually at the bottom of the ingredients list.

Welll that wasn’t the case with this one. What was the seller for me? The aloe vera gel and henna. 

Yes definitely CG, if you are into that.

Ingredients

Aqua (Water), Cetearyl Alcohol (fatty emulsifying conditioning agent ), Steartrimonium Methosulfate (anti-static smoothing agent (STM)), Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera Gel) Lawsonia Inermis (Henna Extract),Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Parfum (Fragrance) Citric Acid (preservatives) Magnesium Chloride Magnesium Nitrate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone (preservatives)  CI 19140 CI 42090 (colouring)

Texture

Medium-light texture.

 

Smell

I think of lime and greens with this one. I guess they were trying to go for a ‘herby’ smell. Either way I like it.

On my hair

It gave me great slip and allowed me to finger detangle fairly easily. Infact it was surprisingly very slippery and sudsy! Wow! I like very much. It smoothed down my hair quite a fair bit too. Overall it did a good job for me far more than I expected. But the killer for me, was the reduced amount of shedding I got. I got significantly less shedding that I usually do. Despite having not washed my hair in a few days.  Whenever this finishes I will definitely be returning back to Sally’s to stock up.

I doubt I shall be having any cold sweats as a result of conditioner shortage any time soon. Tressemme can move over.

Product Review: Komaza Califia Styling Pudding, 1st Impression.

This pudding promises to define curls and eliminate shrinkage with dryness so I was intrigued, as I noticed that quite a few reviews by type 4 coily-heads only had good things to say about this product.I bagged this through a cross-Atlantic swap on a hair forum at a good price. Yes! :D

Price: £27.95 for 16oz/ £16.50 for 8oz at British Curlies.
Ingredients: Distilled Water, Shea Butter, Aloe Butter, Cocoa Butter, Sunflower Oil Dipalmitoylethyldimonium Chloride (A derivitive of Palm Oil) aloe vera, hydrolyzed collagen, acrylates, alkyl acrylates, Sodium Benzoate,Vegetarian Fragrance, Potassium Sorbate, Polysorbate 20, Cinnamom Cassia, vegetarian fragrance.

Smell: reminds me of Toffee.

Texture: definitely like pudding that one would eat. Or a lighter "nutella" It took a lot of resolve not to take a tiny bit and taste it! Smooth and very creamy.

On my hair: I think this product delivered. I used a light leave -in conditioner (TIGI love, peace etc) initially as I wanted to see what the pudding would mostly do by itself. Application was very smooth. Dafro seemed to gobble it right up. I smoothed it on from the roots onwards sparingly. Taking about an index fingers worth of product each time and applying to 0.5 inch thick sections.I say it absorbed very readily because by the time I applied the product from my roots to about half my length the product was gone. So I would scoop out more product and apply to the remaining half down to my ends. I wasn't too crazy about seeing brown marks on my towel. Where I had wiped my hands during application.

Pros: It elongated my coils and they almost dried looking the same way they did when wet.My "bangs" were not stiff but compliant and fluffy without being too frizzy?  I had a lot of volume on day 1 hair?! Smells really nice and seems to apply sooo smoothly!

Cons:  Towards the end of the day I still noticed, lighter brown patches on my hair. Maybe I hadn't applied it sparingly enough or the product just didn't dissolve as readily as I initially thought. Delivers no manner of shine/sheen/glint/sparkle. Nothing.

Now on day 2, I became really disappointed with this product. One, my hair felt soooo dry!! Two, All manner of little definition I got on day 1 was gone. My hair was a straight up Fro. (I don't have a problem with afros for aesthetic reasons but have a problem with them more for maintenance reasons. Frizzy coils = more tangles.)
                                                                                           



The bottom line for this product on my hair is that it didn't really define my coils, but almost eliminated shrinkage and kept the moisture in for a day only.


I think this is one product I would reserve for days when I want my wash & go to look very controlled but not too obvious. At least I know I would get a consistent result by the end of the day with this. i.e. leave it to dry with the assurance that Dafro would stay mostly controlled through the course of the day.With that said, I would not expect it to last past day 1 on it's own.
I am in the middle of the road with this product and nearly gave it away,but have decided to try it with AVG/castor oil mix and my beloved curl activator at a later date. So stay tuned... 
If you have any tips for making this pudding work, do drop them in the comments box.

Review: Andrew Barton SOS Help Me! Twice a Week Conditioner

Price: £4 for a 300ml tub or 2 for £6 during ASDA sales.

Availability: Mainly at ASDA! I can pick it up with some soya milk anytime.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water) , Cetearyl Alcohol , Behentrimonium Chloride , Cetyl Esters , Glycerin , Boswellia Serrata (Olibanum) Extract , Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) , Panthenol , Parfum (Fragrance) , Glycereth-26 , Tetrasodium EDTA , Cetrimonium Chloride , Dipropylene Glycol , Isopropyl Alcohol , Citric Acid , Magnesium Nitrate , Magnesium Chloride , Benzyl Alcohol , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone .

Packaging: Simple black and red jar. With the product name written in bold capital white letters. I actually love the simplicity of the packaging. Plus with red being one of my favourite colours, I can’t help but feel this way.

Smell: Is the only thing I’m a little bit unsure about. I only like it in small doses. For short periods. Any longer and it’s sickening. Notes of gingerbread, vanilla, cookies come to mind when I sniff this from the jar. Though according to the site, it’s supposed to smell like Brazil nuts. (I eat brazil nuts everyday, it’s nothing close to this! lol)

Texture:  Creamy light texture.You see this stuff is so light that I feel they could easily have re-packaged this in a bottle. But I suppose they wanted to go with the ‘mask in jar’ theme so jar it was. Though don’t let the texture deceive you. This stuff is very effective.

On my hair: If your hair tends to get dry, knotty and tangled easily.Then I recommend this conditioner to you  My kinky hair is prone to dryness so I always go for the heavy-duty conditioners. I'm so glad I didn't pass this one up. As a deep-conditioner, this product delivers. It leaves my hair very supple and soft. I couldn’t resist trying this as a leave-in conditioner as well. I knew this stuff was going to be my staple after it delivered over a day’s moisture on my wash & go fro. Even after Dafro dried, she was still so soft, right up till the next morning! (This is no easy feat. Many products have failed at this step.)

I fell in love with SOS conditioner for so many reasons

- It’s so easy to acquire.

-  Really smoothes down the hair cuticles.

-  Has crazy slip which helps me finger-detangle with no hassle at all. When Dafro is tripping I just layer the SOS conditioner on her and she immediately conforms. Like seriously. She just calms down. Immediately.

- It delivers lasting moisture as a leave-in conditioner when layered with castor oil. Unlike my recently upstaged EO conditioners it does not irritate my scalp as a leave-in. Yes!

- Serves different purposes effectively for me. Leave-in, co-rinse, deep-conditioner.

HG/Staple worthy. The end.

Staple Hair Products For My Coily, Kinky Type 4 Hair Easily Bought On The Ground (UK)

I was thinking of following up my initial post March favourites, but thought that maybe redundant because most of the products in my March favourites are also in my April Favourites and will most likely be around for the following months. I have a few new additions, so let me know if you would like a more in-depth review if  there isn’t one already on my blog.

 It’s fun to try new products, but it’s important to have those staples you can fall back on when you can’t be bothered to experiment/just don’t have the time, suffered adverse reactions from past product experiments, are just done with product experimenting (a phase I go through from time to time) or simply broke! Lol.

For new naturals, I understand how expensive it can be to find moderately priced products that are easy to get and effective, I've been there. So for that reason, I would like to share my staples that have been chosen for being: 

1. Effective on my hair. (You know the saying, “What works for me and so on”)
2. Possessing moderate - cheap prices.
3. Easy to pick up on the ground. (Yup no shipping, online transactions. Attainable same day!)

So from L-R; 

Schwarzkopf Gliss Oil Nutritive Shampoo Cleans effectively without stripping. Costs £1 and can be found at Poundshop/99p stores.

Tresseme Naturals Silicone Free Conditioner: Crazy Slip, conditions wonderfully leaves my hair soft during and after rinsing. Between £2.50-£5.00. Lowest during BOGOF sales at Superdrug, Boots, ASDA, Sainburys, Tescos.

Andrew Barton SOS Help Me Twice a Week Conditioning Mask: crazy slip. Effective for Dafro as a co-rinse, leave-in (combined with castor oil) and deep-conditioner. Smells like cookies/gingerbread. Found only at ASDA to my current knowledge and some smaller pharmacies with a much smaller range. Buy mine priced 2 for £6/£8 during ASDA offers

Vatika Egg Protein Hair Mask: Does a good job of strengthening my hair, without giving me hard hair. Ok slip. Suds easily so I use as a co-wash and rinse out. Buy from black hair care shops and even spotted at Superdrug. Costs between £3.50 - £4.99.

Ecostyler Pink Gel: Cheap effective styling gel. Clumps, defines, weighs down & holds my coils in place keeping tangles away during WNG styling. Smells like tea-tree oil. Gives me multiple day hair. Gives firm hold, not too hard hold like Olive/Krystal/Argan versions. Can pull back a decent bun with this unlike the Blue Ecostyler. 946ml massive tub costs £2.99 from my local black hair care shop.

Aloe vera Gel: smooths down my cuticles like no other, especially when they are quite bushy. Gives very light soft hold for WNG. Great base staple leave-in when mixed with castor oil. £4.99 from Holland & Barratt. I bag these and stock up during the BOGOF/ Penny sales.

Hawaiian Silky Curl Activator “Dry Look”: always layered with castor oil, makes my coils clump like crazy and keeps my hair moisturised for at least 2 days. Smells like candy. Costs between £3-4 for a 454g tub. Also available at my local black beauty hair shop.

Castor Oil: All round staple for it's Conditioning/Detangling/Sealing properties. I can buy this stuff from the local shop, but since the dude and myself use this from head to toe, I buy it in litres. Can be found at my local hair product shop in 250ml bottles priced at £2.99. Even spotted at some branches of Tescos in Asian food aisle. (I buy my litres off Ebay/Amazon)

Umberto Giannini Scrunching Jelly:  Lovely styling gel for my WNG. Great effective coil clumper. Gives me multiple day hair. Available from boots just under £5 for 200ml tub. A bit pricey so I stock up during 2for1 offers.

Recent additions not in pic: 1/05/2012
*Sally's Salon Services Herbal Complex Conditioner.
*Taliah Waajid's Mist Bodifier Spray as a refresher.

Wash & Go Trials On Coily Hair 7: Keracare Butter cream & Keracare Defining Custard - FAIL

I suppose a wash & go trial with the Keracare butter cream and defining custard was inevitable. It's usually expected for products along the same line to work together.So here it is!

DRY HAIR!! THE WHITE FLECKS DID NOT DISSIPATE!

                                                Those white specks are dried! Dried! :S

Had to head out to the shops, and didn't have time to wash this mess out, so pulled back it into an emergency bun

                   Looking closely. White flecks still there. This mix was such a FAIL!

I can't get over my hair in the 1st pic! My hair happy looked so good! I could not wait to see how it would dry.  I used Australian Organics conditioner as a light leave- conditioner (I always use a leave-in conditioner. Sorry, I couldn't exclude this.) added the butter cream on top of that to my hair in 4 sections sparingly (even though I know that the defining custard  can be seriously drying). Afterwards went back and applied the defining custard in much smaller sections. Probably 12 overall i.e. each quadrant was divided again into three. I left this to air-dry. I loved the way it dried as the day went by, but the white specks refused to completely disappear. I pressed a towel on the visible white patches, but no change. Diffused on moderate and then cool temperature, I looked about 60 with the white flecks in my hair. I washed it out as soon as I got back home.
Verdict > Keracare defining custard + Keracare Butter Creme = Project Fail!
Click for other past attempts with Keracare defining custard with a only a light leave-in conditioner - TIGI, and then with Hawaiian Silky curl activator .
So far, the best combo with the Keracare Defining custard for me has been to use it with a curl activator.

Wash & Go Trials On Coily Hair 6: Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly & HS Curl activator

The HS curl activator was mixed with some castor oil & Aloe veral gel. This is second day hair. On my way back from Easter Sunday Service.

   

Product Review & Rave: Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly

What? Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly Works on Coily Type 4 Hair?! No way!

Man.. I dunno why I'm even sharing this. As I'm at risk of having entire shelves cleared out completely.  Please ladies, if this works for you as it has for me, do leave some for me. Pretty please.

                                         If those puss in boots eyes don't work. Nothing will!

What brought this to my attention was how revered this jelly was by quite a number of looser curlies. You only had to go on Boots website to see the vast number of reviews to understand that this had cult classic status. Curiosity got the best of me, as I started to notice that I shared a mutual love for certain conditioners with some of these looser curlies on a hair forum I frequent :p. So I felt, why the heck not. This just goes to show that hair type alone is really not a sole indicator of how efficient a product may be on your hair.
When I used to see this jelly on the shelf I would dismiss it for several reasons:
 1.) I didn't think it was thick enough for my hair.
 2.) The puny 200ml pink tube looked like something that would only be enough for half of my head and 3.) Priced at almost £5, for just 200ml, there was no way I was even going to go there.
That was until I meandered into Boots one day, while the 3 for 2 on hair care offer was on. That was it. I had quite a few quid on my advantage card so I was ready for a gamble. That blasted cute bright pink tube had me finally.

Marketing speech
"Long Lasting curl creator for defined sassy smooth curls. Still our favourite look for curls. This long-lasting curl definer will de-frizz, shine and create sexy romantic curls."

Ingredients for Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls  Scrunching Jelly
Aqua, xanthan gum, glycerin, propylene glycol, phenoxyethanol, acylates/palmeth-25 acylate copolymer, polyquaternium-11, peg-40 hydrogenated castor oil, sodium benzoate, dipropylene glycol, aminomethyl propanol, sodium methyparaben, parfum, benzophenone-4, coumarin, butylphenyl methypropional, alpha-isomethyl ionone, linalool, CI 17200

The 1st four ingredients work on my hair.  I must add that Phenoxyethanol the antimicrobial preservative is subject to controversial debates regarding it's toxcity.  I thought I should include this note as it's quite high up in the ingredients list.  (Dastychova, 2008). It was recently followed up on as an alternative to parabens when the parabens scare was at it's peak. So if you prefer natural ingredients, this may not be the one for you. As for me, I am used to debates in scientific circles.  Until evidence is conclusive, then I shall continue to use this. As for polyquaternium build up. I don't experience that with this product. It rinses out quite well & washes out easily for me.


Packaging
Bright pink tube.  I find this quite annoying, I wish it came in a jar or with a pump. Since I tend to apply the product in several sections, I need to return back to the tube each and every time I need some more. This texture is quite slimy so I get it everywhere on the tube each time I reach for it. This bugs me.

Texture
Definitely jelly-like, translucent with a pink overtone. Can be quite sticky, not surprising as xanthum gum & glycerin are two major ingredients so that was expected. Goes on slippery on my hair and gives me enough slip to ensure at least one quick rake before it starts to stiffen my hair. It even foams, but watch out for that. I notice I get foamy bits if I use too much and this may leave a slight grey spot. So use sparingly. You can tell the texture is quite resilient and concentrated, because I really wanted to rinse my hands afterwards because they felt coated. (Though that's how I am with most products.)

Smell
I have a love and hate relationship. On some days, I can't get enough of the scent. On others, I wish they could have gone a bit easy on the scent. It's sweet, maybe like bubble-gum? ( I'll be quick to state that this association could simply be made because of the pink tube. Argh! The power of branding!), then it's slightly reminiscent of vaguely androgynous  musky cologne. Sorry. I tried.

                  Umberto Giannini Scrunching Jelly  Review On my hair

I have been sleeping on this. BIG TIME. Sleep no more I shall!  Why am I crazy about this jelly? Like I said on nc earlier.  To me, It's a posher better marketed curl activator with HOLD. Yes it clumps my coils like a curl activator during application and eventually holds them in place when dried. I love my curl activators, but those babies have virtually no hold alone, So when faced with some shower steam the next morning, it's POOF like that creepy cat from Alice in Wonderland.  Though curl activators go wonderfully with Ecostyler Gel on Type 4 hair especially, I'll save that for another post.
What is the hold like? It's not helmet head mad stiff. But it's stiff and very firm, and has the potential to be crispy if applied too heavy handedly. It definitely leaves some crunch hence the scrunching in the name! Lol! It elongates my coils a lot before drying. I have never tried anything that made my hair  look like this. Ever. It's like it clumps my coils into much smaller groups, more representative of my actual texture. Get it?
Ok, think of what twist out's do. They clump hair into big groups right? Think Chunky Kitkat for twists/twist outs (I dunno why that's the 1st thing that popped into my head, blame Easter Eggs), while this jelly groups my hair into much smaller groups like Twiglets (again blame Easter. And no I do not advocate having chocolate and twiglets together.)
Since it clumps my coils in such smaller groups I know that I need to let this stuff really dry before trying to SOTC, otherwise it's instant coil-orgy = tangles. It gives great shine. I can easily get 3days with this jelly and by the 2nd day any hint of crunch is gone leaving the glycerin to take over resulting in extra soft still defined hair!  Again when it's time to get it out of my hair, I find that it washes out very easily.
Anyways apart from making you peckish or hungry. I hope you get the picture. . It just goes to show again that there are great products on the high street. Not everything has to be brought over from the States or even ordered online! This jelly is joining my Staples Group to be stocked up on during 3 for 2 offers! More pics here 

Reference:
Dastychova et. al. (2008) - Contact hypersensitivity to selected excipients of dermatological topical preparations and cosmetics in patients with chronic eczema. Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina, Panonica, et Adriatica [17(2):61-8]

Review: Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding

Price: £3.99 at Local BSS

Availability: Online and local shops including Paks.

Packaging: happy bright orange psychedelic looking design which is definitely attention grabbing and Funky! Kudos to the design team!

Marketing speech: For mixed textures, curly wavy, kinky-coily, Frizzy. 
The kinky coily & frizzy part definitely sounded like it was for me.
Ingredients:Aqua, Glycine Soja Oil/Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Argania Spinosa Nut Oil/Argan Oil, Cocos Nucifera Oil/Coconut Oil, Olea Europaea Fruit Oil/Olive Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii Fruit/Shea Butter, Mangifera Indica Seed Butter/Mango Butter, Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract/Rosemary Extract, Dimethicone, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract/Aloe Vera, Phenyl Trimethicone, Panax Ginseng Root Extract/Ginseng Extract, Glycerin, Polyquaternium 11, Steareth 2, Steareth 20, DMDM Hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Sodium Carbomer, PEG 150 Distearate, PEG 12 Dimethicone, CI 15985/Yellow 6, Parfum/Fragrance, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, d-Limonene, Hexyl Cinnamal, Lyral, Methyl Ionone Gamma.


Scent: this smells amazing! I don't mind smelling like this all day. That mango, tropical scent just makes me happy. It's for this reason that I have tried to make this work.
Texture: creamy, deceptively seems quite heavy.
On my hair: With all those ingredients, you would wonder how this could possibly go wrong? But it did!As a definer for my Coily hair? This stuff is deficient. It didn't make my coils pop. Infact it was more like a coil wrecker! Because I tried this on wet hair straight after a co-wash when my coils were still popping and BAM Beautiful Textures came and bamboozled them out of the way as soon I smoothed it on. For a wash n go on Coily hair. I wouldn't recommend this. Maybe I will re-visit this in the future for twist or twist-outs. I really really wanted to love this product, but it just wouldn't work for me. Has it worked for you?

Review: Australian Organics Moisture Control Conditioner For Fine Limp Hair.

Price:£3.99 for 8.5fl. oz 250ml from TKMaxx
Marketing speech: Sulphate & PEG free, no synthetic fragrance, no synthetic colours. Made with 98.5% natural organic ingredients
Availability:Online.
Packaging: Squeezy toothpaste style tube with a flip cap top lid.
Scent: I got a lot of lavender notes from this followed by a light citrus note.

Ingredients List of Australian Organics Conditioner

Speaking of ingredients, check this out?! The list is excellent indeed. With aloe vera extract, sesame seed oil, wheat germ and desert peach?! (Eh?)

On my hair:  Firstly let me address what may be burning on your mind. Ok. Now my hair appears thick in collective density, but individually  the hair strands are very weak and very FINE. So I thought I'd try this conditioner just because..........., gosh darn it! well... the ingredients list looked very yummy! But I wasn't ready. Man, this conditioner was an UNDERDOG. I love finding conditioners under the radar like this. This stuff was amazing at moisture control alright!
As a rinse-out conditioner it went on my coils very very lightly but with massive IMPACT.  It literally dissolved into Dafro and made her exceptionally SOFT during & AFTER rinsing! I was very impressed by the softness. So despite its light appearance and texture, it is definitely packed with a lot of punches.
As for slip, it came up a bit short on that front, It doesn't have a lot of slip. Though the softness alone it delivered to my hair, makes up for that.I used it as a leave-in conditioner (as I usually do for more expensive conditioners) with Ecostyler blue gel. It moisturised my coils, but I didn't get maximal clumping with this one. I would put that down to it's lightness, as heavier conditioners are better at weighing my coils down and getting them to stick/merge/clump together. With this one, my hair just soaked it up and felt very airy.This is a great moisturising conditioner for fine hair indeed.  Though unfortunately due to the price : quantity, I shall only purchase this again when it is on sale!