Hey beautiful people!  I have been trying to keep my product junkism at bay, and I have been doing a pretty good job at it.  However, courtesy of a tip on Long Hair Care Forum, I got wind of a clearance sale on Mielle Organics products, and picked up a few items.  Here are my thoughts:

Detangling Co-wash - 8 oz. ($11.99):  This co-wash is more of a conditioner than cleanser.  It has amazing slip and did a great job detangling my hair, but it didn’t clean it.  My hair felt coated before I used it, and it still felt coated after using it.  As a low porosity girl, I need a real cleanser.

White Peony Ultra Moisturizing Leave-In Conditioner - 8 oz. ($12.99):  As the name suggests, this product is moisturizing.  It is also light-weight, which is good for low porosity hair.  I just like my homemade spritz better, and it is cheaper.  Also, the spray nozzle on this product bothers me.  It comes out as a stream, rather than distributing across my hair.  I actually ended up transferring it to another bottle to make it easier to use.  However, in looking at the Mielle Organics website, it looks like they have changed the top to a spray pump, so that should fix this problem.

Avocado Moisturizing Hair Milk - 8 oz. ($12.99):  This is very moisturizing, and is probably my favorite product in the line.  My hair felt so soft after I used this.  Unfortunately, it doesn't absorb into my hair right away when I first put it on, but few things do.  The other downside I notice is that it clumps when I mixed it with EcoStyler gel in my hands, which is what I usually use to bun my hair.  Nevertheless, because of how wonderfully moisturized it makes my hair feel, I would repurchase this product.

Mint Almond Oil - 8 oz. ($12.99):  This is a very nice oil, and my second favorite product in the line.  It is lightweight enough for my low porosity strands, and the peppermint smell is heavenly.  The oil essentially has three main ingredients -- Sweet Almond Oil, Soybean Oil and Peppermint Oil, so you could make it yourself if you consider yourself a mixtress.  I would definitely purchase it again at the $7 price point I purchased it for, but it is not a repurchase for me at the regular price.  That being said, this isn't overpriced.  Peppermint oil is expensive.  I have seen a 4 oz. jar sell for $11.  It's just that I already have a bottle of peppermint oil that I haven't been able to use up in the past 5 years, and I typically buy a 32 oz bottle of avocado oil (my favorite straight oil) for about $15.  I do thank this product, however, for teaching me that I can add more peppermint oil to my other products without irritating my scalp.

Honey Ginger Edge Gel - 4 oz. ($12.99):   While I had high hopes, this edge gel suffered the same fate as many others.  It initially slicked down my edges, but that did not last long.  Thus far, it still remains that Eco Styler is one of the few things capable of slicking my edges long term.

I still want to try the Brazilian Curl Cream and the Honey & Ginger Styling Gel.  I guess I will just have to wait for another great sale.

Do you like this line?  What products do you use from it?

Hey, beautiful people!  As I mentioned last year, I purchased a single Curl Collection box when they featured Koils by Nature.  As part of the box, I received the Ultra Moisturizing CocoAloe Deep Conditioner, the Moisturizing Shealoe Leave-in Conditioner, the Peppermint Herbal Soothing Curl Defining Gel, and the Marvelous Mango Hair & Body Butter.

Ultra Moisturizing CocoAloe Deep Conditioner with Argan Oil ($18 for 12 oz) - I love this product!  This and the leave-in are my two favorite products out of the box.  It is a lotion consistency (not overly thick).  It goes on smooth, has a lot of slip for detangling.  It actually makes a great pre-poo.  I was able to use this to detangle my dry hair without any water.  It also revived my hair within a couple weeks, after I had been neglecting it a little.

Moisturizing Shealoe Leave-in Conditioner with Argan Oil ($20 for 12 oz) – I love this product.  It has a creamy consistency, which seems to be best for leave-in conditioners for my hair.  It goes on smoothly, has a lot of slip and is moisturizing.  I’m not sure why, but it smells a little like citrus fruit.  It is a very light scent.  I would definitely re-buy this.

Peppermint Herbal Soothing Curl Defining Gel ($14 for 8 oz) – This was my least favorite product in the box.  I tried it on a wash n go.  I also tried it on a bun.  It smooths on easily, and has a lot of slip (probably because of the marshmallow root and slippery elm), but it has little to no hold and it flaked a little on my wash n go.  My wash n go also shrunk A LOT and frizzed.  My favorite part of this gel was the peppermint.  It smells strongly of peppermint, and leaves a cooling tingle on my scalp, so I know the peppermint is not just fragrance.  Because I couldn’t find a way to use this that worked for me, it is a “leave it”.

Marvelous Mango Hair & Body Butter ($25 for 4 oz) – I took one look at the butter, and knew that I could not use it on my hair.  However, I love it for my hands and elbows.  It is kind of creamy and melts easily, leaving my hands baby soft.  I keep it in the diaper bag, and use it whenever my hands get dry.  In complete disclosure, I also used it on the baby’s legs once when I noticed they were a little dry at the pediatrician’s office.  Do not buy this if you do not like the smell of mango, however, because it does have a strong mango scent.  This would be a “love it”, but my hubby thinks the mango smell is too strong and it is expensive.  Thus, this is a “like it”.

INGREDIENTS:

Ultra Moisturizing CocoAloe Deep Conditioner with Argan Oil (pH 4.5-5.0) – Distilled Water, Aloe Leaf Juice, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Coconut Oil, Aloe Butter, Argan Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Grape Seed Oil, Organic Olive Oil, Mango Alphonso Powder Fruit Extract, Hydrolyzed Oat Protein, Kosher Vegetable Glycerin, Potassium Sorbate , Willow Bark Extract, Vitamin E, Pro-Vitamin B5, Fragrance, Citric Acid.

Moisturizing Shealoe Leave-in Conditioner with Argan Oil (pH 4.5-5.0) – Distilled Water infused with Organic Calendula Flower Whole, Burdock Root, Organic Horsetail Shaved Grass, & Organic Nettle Leaf; Aloe Leaf Juice; Cetyl Alcohol; Behentrimonium Methosulfate; Organic Marshmallow Root Powder; Organic Burdock Root Powder; Organic Calendula Flower Powder; Organic Slippery Elm Bark Powder; Chamomile Flower Powder; Shea oil; Rice Bran Oil; Organic Olive Oil; Macadamia Nut Oil; Tropic Isle Living Jamaican Black Castor Seed Oil; Argan Oil; Aloe Butter; Grape Seed Oil; Mango Alphonso Powder Fruit Extract; Kosher Vegetable Glycerin; Potassium Sorbate; Willow Bark Extract; Vitamin E; Pro-Vitamin B5; Essential Oil & Fragrance; Citric Acid.

Peppermint Herbal Soothing Curl Defining Gel – Distilled Water infused with Organic Calendula Flower Whole, Organic Burdock Root, Organic Horsetail Shaved Grass, & Organic Nettle Leaf; Aloe Leaf Juice; Carbomer; Organic Marshmallow Root Powder; Organic Slippery Elm Bark Powder; Chamomile Flower Powder; Shea Oil; Organic Olive Oil; Macadamia Nut Oil; Jamaican Black Castor Seed Oil; Grape Seed Oil; Mangifera Indica; Potassium Sorbate; Willow Bark Extract; Peppermint Essential Oils, Citric Acid.

Marvelous Mango Hair & Body Butter –Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Kokum Butter, Mango Seed Butter, Avocado Butter, Aloe Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Jojoba Seed Oil, Grape Seed Oil, Organic Olive Oil, Jamaican Black Castor Seed Oil, Illipe Butter, Vitamin E, Pro-Vitamin B5, Organic essential oils & fragrance.

Price:  $29 for 12 oz.

Ingredients:   Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Hydrolyzed Keratin Protein, Sunflower Seed Oil, Panthenol, Keratin Amino Acids, Hydrolyzed Yeast, Glyceryl Stearate, Jojoba Seed Oil, Glycol Stearate, Apricot Kernel Oil, Cetyl Alcohol, PEG-100 Stearate, Tocopherol Acetate, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance, Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

Promise:  Excellent for chemically damaged, weak and brittle hair. Helps fill in cracks in the hair shaft to help give strength and prevent further breakage. Also great for general maintenance of the hair. Makes a great once a month treatment to help keep your hair in top shape!

Scent: Coconut

Consistency:  Creamy, medium thickness.  Not too light, and not too heavy

Results:   This is another favorite.  It has good slip, and leaves my hair feeling soft, yet moisturized, even though protein is high on the ingredient list.  I have used it both overnight and as a traditional deep conditioner under a heat cap.  My only hesitation on this one is the price.  Through my deep conditioner search, I’ve found other deep conditioners that work well and are cheaper.

Price:  $12 for 11 oz.

Ingredients:   Aloe leaf juice, water, cetyl alcohol (from coconut), brassicyl isoleucinate esylate, coconut fruit extract, glycerin, alcohol denat. (38b, lavender), brassica alcohol, glyceryl caprylate, persea avocado oil, shea butter, mango seed butter, caprylic/capric triglyceride, arginine, grapefruit extract, quinoa seed extract*, vitamin C, vitamin E, rosemary leaf oil, alcohol, sage oil*, alcohol, calendula  extract*, chamomile flower extract, balm mint flower/leaf/stem extract, hops flower extract, horsetail extract, fragrance, fennel seed extract, gluconolactone, coltsfoot leaf extract, sodium benzoate.

Promise:  Replenishing conditioner smoothes hair fiber and leaves hair silky and manageable with mango & organic shea butters. Perfect for natural and relaxed styles. Luscious Mango Coconut scent!  Contains 70% Organic Ingredients

Scent:  Like medicated menthol.  It is not the greatest smell, and the smell is strong.

Consistency:  Creamy, medium thickness.  Not too light, and not too heavy

Results:   In full disclosure, I have been using this deep conditioner for a couple years now, and I love it.  Even though I am near the end of my deep conditioner challenge, this is still my favorite.  It is amazing as both an overnight deep conditioner and in the traditional deep conditioning.  This is one of the few conditioners that actually says you can use it as a pre-poo.  It is light enough that it easily spreads through the hair, but it packs a powerful punch as both a moisturizing and strengthening deep conditioner.   For people who cannot use Aubrey Organics GPS (like me), try this one. 

Price:  $12 for 8 oz. OR $18 for 16 oz.

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?

Hey, beautiful people!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to take a few posts and investigate some of the more suspect ingredients in commercial rinse out conditioners.  This is my first one.

If you have been in the natural hair community for awhile, then you probably know by now that silicones have gotten a bad rap.  From what I know, it seems like most of that bad rap stems from the Curly Girl method created by Lorraine Massey.  As a result, many people, including me at one point, have just accepted that silicones are either good or bad without knowing why.  However, the science geek in me can’t just stick with assumptions.

As you may recall from my toolbox post, one purpose of a rinse out conditioner is to coat the hair to make it easier to detangle.  Silicones are great for this purpose because they coat the hair, creating an effective lubricant for detangling.  They also provide protection for thermal styling.

The reason why silicones can be bad for you is that they coat the hair and can cause buildup, preventing good things, like moisture from getting to your hair.  Silicones usually end in "cone," "col," "conol" or "zane."  There are four types -- water soluble, non-soluble that evaporate, non-soluble that resist buildup, and the rest. 

Water soluble silicones can be washed away with water, so if you wet your hair frequently, then water soluble silicones should not be a problem.  Non-soluble silicones that evaporate won’t wash away with water, but they completely evaporate from your hair anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours after application, so there’s no worry about build up or moisture lock out with these. 

Other non-soluble silicones may need sulfates or another cleanser to be washed away.  If you are a regular shampoo user, like me, or clarify periodically, then even non-soluble silicones should not cause a problem.  Here is a great chart from Chemist Tonya McKay that shows what cleansers will remove what silicones. 

The reason why non-soluble silicones are not good for people on the Curly Girl method is that the Curly Girl method discourages the use of sulfate shampoos.  Obviously, if you are avoiding stronger cleansers, then it is probably a good idea to avoid non-soluble silicones that don’t evaporate.  So, with that in mind, here is the list of silicones that I have been able to nail down into a category:

Water Soluble

Non-Soluble That Evaporate

Build-Up Resistant Non-Soluble

Other Non-Soluble (hard to wash out)

Based on this, I am ok with testing out rinse out conditioners with silicones, with a preference for water soluble, evaporative or build-up resistant.  Maybe, one day, I’ll even go back to dimethicone -- GASP!

Do you use conditioners with silicones?  If so, which ones and how do you avoid buildup?