Product Review: Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

I'm back with another product review! I recently posted that I got my hands on some Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (SMCES). I used it last week for a dry twist out from a wash n' go.

I love the consistency and slip of it; it's a great product for twisting but I don't know if it would do anything for my natural curl pattern. It's on the thick side and very creamy/watery (those two terms are contradictory but it's the only way I can think to describe it!). It's the type of product that would require you to smooth it in with a Denman brush to get the "enhanced" curls it speaks of.

Starting out with dry hair, and using only my fingers to part and detangle, I worked in smaller sections. I was generous with the SMCES on each section and twisting was a breeze. I used about 1 oz on my entire head...this product definitely goes a long way! It took about two hours to twist my whole head (I watched the movie "Inception" from start to finish) and I let them dry over a days time.

Here's the end result (and the pic at the top of this post). I love the way it turned out! The best part is that it lasted for days and I was able to re-twist at night without adding water or product. I will post more on that next time.

*Smooches*

Product Teaser: Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

See... this is what happens when I have a co-worker who is also natural and brings me products to try at work. You get a Product Teaser!

The random twist-out strand test above is brought to you by Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. This stuff smells good enough to eat/roll around in/use as air freshener...all that good stuff. The results look promising. I applied a little bit to a dry section of hair, twisted, and took it down after about 10 minutes.

My co-worker supplied me with 4oz to try out, so I'll do a formal review later. I also have other products from their line that I have purchased and owe reviews on. I'm doing them as fast as I can, but I'm still without a personal computer for a while. Fingers crossed it shows up in the mail any day now.... *_*

*Smooches*

Product Review: Black Earth Product's African Healing Oyl

Back in February I was a hair model for Taliah Waajid's World Natural Hair Health and Beauty Show, and as compensation, was given a ton of product to try out. During on of her demonstrations, the ladies we raving over her African Healing Oyl (AHO) so I decided to put it to the test. Here I am a whole 4 months later with my review, so you know I know if it's worth the hype or not. The oil is all purpose and is meant to be used from head to toe, so I did just that.

I first tried it as a scalp oil. The bottle has an applicator tip that make scalp application a lot less messy. I do have one tip as to how you can avoid messy spills and such. Simply put, don't open it all the way. Instead of removing the foil safety seal completely, peel it back about halfway (or less) and then screw the applicator top back on. You do have to squeeze a little harder to get it out, but better that than having it tip and spill easily. I applied it to my freshly washed scalp before twisting, along each part. It sealed my hair very well, but over the course of the week I noticed my scalp was itching. More than likely this is because I never, and I do mean NEVER, put oil on my scalp because I've never had to since going natural. I think my scalp just likes to be free, so the AHO was a no-go here.

Next, I tried it as a body oil. It's always best to apply body oils right out of the shower or bath so you can seal in that moisture, just as we do with our hair. Also, the water drops on your body allows the oil to spread more evenly and less is needed. I've been using this oil almost daily for four months and I can really tell the difference in my skin. Some scars that I have had forever look noticeably lighter including (brace yourself) this corn scar that I've had for the longest time. I've been massaging the AHO onto my feet and tucking them into cotton socks every night before bed. My toe finally looks halfway like its normal self. I never did have "cute feet" but corns are not a good look. Ever. LOL!

(Second toe after four months of using AHO. It used to be a lot darker.)

(What said toe should look like...lol!)

As for the rest of my body a friend saw me recently and commented that my skin looked good. His actual words were "your legs don't look as ashy as they used to." O_o I'll just take that as a complement and keep it moving... :) If I'm wearing shorts or short sleeves, this oil give my arms and legs a nice sheen without looking too greasy. Another great benefit of the AHO is that once you rub it in, you don't have to worry about it rubbing off onto your clothes and leaving the dreaded "grease stain" you'd typically get with other oils.

So in my personal opinion the African Healing Oyl is pretty amazing! Definitely try it out. It runs about $8-9 per bottle and I'm *still* working on my first bottle. It's getting close to it's end and I already have bottle #2 on deck. I will not let myself run out of this stuff!

Have you ladies tried Taliah's African Healing Oyl?? What do you think of it?

EcoStyler Gel w/ Argan Oil: UPDATE

As promised, I have still been working with the EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil. "Caracara" recommended trying it alone with no leave in for best results, so I tried my version of that.

I needed to jazz up a 2 day old wash n' go, so I used the gel on both sides before pinning them back to create a faux-hawk. I added the gel only to dry hair and pinned with bobby pins, using a boar bristle brush for maximum smoothing and sheen.

Now my hair did have some Herbal Essence's "Drama Clean" conditioner and EVOO dried into it from my wash n' go, but I'm thinking that neither mixed with the Eco because they were completely dry. Because my hair is prone to dryness and has such a cotton like texture, I'm scared to do the "naked hair" thing underneath a gel. In the words of Katt Williams, my hair would be all types of "crispity, crunchity, crackedy...." LOL!

In the end, I was pleased with the results since I didn't have any flakes and the hold was amazing. Gelling hair always works best when you start with dry hair, but the gel has to be on point to get this look. Each side had one bobby pin, so the gel was doing most of the work which is great. Bobby pins can be bad for your hair and scalp...more on that later..I know from personal experience!

On another note, I'm still playing around with eyebrow shaping and eye color. I'm nowhere near as good as Tdavis, but I'm better than I was before :) I really need more shadow pallets. More than likely I'll be ordering the Matte 88 Palette from Coastal Scents. I have the shimmer palette, which is great, but matte colors have much more pigment and depth to them. The purple eyseshadow below is by E.L.F. and I have on Clinique's "Bamboo Pink" lip color. My eye lashes have grown in a lot more (I think I forgot to tell y'all that they'd fallen out about a year ago) because I have been babying them. All I will say is that waterproof mascara is the DEVIL! Especially when you mistakenly wear and remove it everyday. Now I only use Clinique or Lancome mascara and my lashes love me for it!

*Smooches*

Product Review: EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil

As previously mentioned, I FINALLY got my hands on some EcoStyler Gel with Argan Oil. I'm a huge fan of the Eco Olive Oil gel because it gives great definition, hold, isn't as drying as other gels, mixes well with other products, and most importantly, does not FLAKE.

I wish the same could be said for the Eco w/Argan Oil.

If you know anything about argan oil, you would know that it is an oil with a distinct scent. The Moroccan Oil products are argan based and are heavily scented with it, as are some of the Shea Moisture products. This gel smells nothing of argan oil, nor does it have the "feel" that argan gives products. Argan has a lot of slip...well all oils do, but argan has a LOT! It almost feels like a hair serum, to give you an idea. Argan is the second to last ingredient on the list, as is olive oil in the OO version, but come on now!

I've mostly used the EwAO on my edges and at the end of the day, I would have flakes. I haven't seen flakes like this since my days of using black Ampro gel way back in the day. At one point, I felt the need to add some water to my hairline to get rid of the flakes.

I tried using it for a wash n' go, mixing it with EVOO like I always do and it did OK. The EVOO helped to keep it from flaking and my hair was very defined.

So in all, I won't go so far as to say it was an EPIC FAIL, but the flakes almost took it there. That's a gel's #1 no-no! Eco is obviously running with the "Argan Oil" hype like most of the other national product lines, but I know the difference. Since I have a pretty big tub of it, I will keep working with it to see what works best and report back.

*Smooches*