Saturday, December 13, 2014

Power Product Line Review: As I Am Naturally

Hey, beautiful people! As I mentioned in my prior post, I purchased the As I Am Coils & Curls Care Package. Recently, I decided to have an As I Am wash day to try out the products. Since, As I Am has been around a long time and I know a lot of people have reviewed it, I’m not going to do an in-depth review of each product, just the highlights.

As I Am Hydration Elation Intensive Conditioner: If you have been following me for awhile, then you should know by now that my usual routine is to deep condition overnight first. The conditioner itself is light like cake batter, and it allowed me to detangle some, but it left my hands feeling a little weird. As for results, this deep conditioner was nothing to write home about. I felt like it didn’t do anything to moisturize my hair, despite the name. A couple days later, I tried using this in the shower as a regular conditioner, and it didn’t do anything that way either. I would not repurchase this product.

As I Am Coconut Cowash: Next to the SheScentIt Blueberry Cowash, this is my favorite co-wash. It cleanses while moisturizing. In the past, when I’ve had a deep conditioner that left my hair dry, but I still needed to cleanse, I’ve used this and it brought my hair right back. This wash day was no different. I love this stuff! I’m not currently purchasing any more cowashes because I want to see if I actually need them. Otherwise, I would repurchase this in a heartbeat.

As I Am Leave-in Conditioner: This was surprising. Of the As I Am products I tried for the first time on my wash day, this was my second favorite. It was creamy and has great slip. It reminded me a little of Curl Junkie’s Curl Assurance Smoothing Lotion in terms of texture and the effect it had on my hair. I may repurchase this at some point in the future.

As I Am Curling Jelly: This was my favorite of the As I Am products I tried for the first time on my wash day. It had great slip, so it was easy to rake it through my hair. It also helped define my curls while damp. The Jelly reminded me a lot of the way Kinky Curly Curling Custard and Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic (original formula) work on my hair. The only issue I had was when it dried. For some reason, my curls stretched. It could be because I had to diffuse my hair to go outside. This was the first time I ever diffused my hair. I’m going to try using this on another wash day and do another review.

As I Am Double Butter Cream Rich Daily Moisturizer: In the days following my wash day, I tried to use the double butter cream to moisturize my hair. It didn’t work. This product is much thinner than I thought it would be given that you normally see it in a jar. The top 6 ingredients are: Water infused with extracts, Shea Butter, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Cocoa Seed Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, and Emulsifying Wax NF. However, even though water is the first ingredient, this had more of a sealing effect on my hair than a moisturizing one. I also think that my hair doesn’t like Emulsifying Wax. The remaining ingredients also made me dislike this product. Given the price of a regular sized jar of the double butter cream, I was surprised to see hydrogenated vegetable oil in the list of ingredients at all, and definitely surprised to see it as the third ingredient. While I’m sure it works perfectly fine as a sealant simply because it is an oil, I haven’t heard of any great benefits that it has. The cream also has lanolin and some other ingredients that are not so great for my hair. There are a ton of good oils in this product, but they are further down the ingredient list and likely in low concentrations. I won’t be repurchasing this product.

In short, I like the co-wash, leave-in and gel. I would leave the rest.

Have you used As I Am products? What did you think?

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