Product Review: Garnier Fructis Pure Clean Fortifying Conditioner + POTW

I did a video on the magic YT (there's a story behind that name, btdubs :-P ) about this product, but I've decided that YouTube land isn't for me. I like being a subbie only :-) So, I'm redoing the video just for the blog :-D

Here are the ingredients, as promised:

Aqua/Water/Eau, Cetearyl Alcohol, Distearoylethyl Hydroxyethylmonium Methosulfate, Octyldodecanol, Zea Mays Starch/Corn Starch, Parfum/Fragrance, Pyrus Malus Extract/Apple Fruit Extract, Camelina Sativa Oil/Camelina Sativa Seed Oil, Prunus Armeniaca Kernel Oil/Apricot Kernel Oil, Glycine Soja Oil/Soybean Oil, Tocopherol [Vitamin E], Caprylyl Glycol, Benzoic Acid, Niacinamide, Pyridoxine HCI, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Linalool, Hexyl Cinnamal, Citric Acid, Saccharum Officinarum Extract/Sugar Cane Extract/Extrait de Canne a Sucre, Citrus Medica Limonium Peel Extract/Lemon Extract, Camellia Sinensis Extract/Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Malpighia Punicifolia/Acerola Fruit Extract.

Not too shabby ingredients-wise, methinks. Update: I tried this condish as a detangler today in the shower on my back sections. It worked well, but I needed a LOT to do it. I'll try it on a looser section next week.
On the bright side, this product does rinse very clean and leaves almost no residue. It actually rinses more clean than VO5, so a new staple cowash has been born :-D


Ooh! Since I only do my hair on a weekly basis and I don't really moisturize in between wash days, I've decided to add a Products of the Week (POTW) feature every weekend so that y'all can see what I'm using. Here's this week's video :-)

I ended up using all three conditioners to detangle my hair. I had my hair divided into 12 twists, so I used TRESemme Naturals on my first four twists, Garnier on the next four, and Yes to Cucumbers on the last set of four. It worked out pretty well, I believe. Since I didn't use TN for my entire head, I still have a tiny bit left...quite an aggravating amount that's staring back at me at this moment lol. Quick note: Remember how I mentioned the fragrance that the Garnier Pure Clean condish has? Well, it wasn't nearly as strong when I was in the shower detangling. It smelled mostly like an apple-ish type fragrance; I could hardly smell the fragrance. I'm thinking that the concentration of fragrance might be less in this formula than in the other types of Garnier conditioners. Whatever the case may be, I'm really liking this! It's already mixed up in an empty Nature's Gate conditioner bottle with aloe vera juice and vinegar, ready for my next cowash :-D

I also gave the Taliah Waajid PMB another shot, and I'm glad that I did. One curly on CN mentioned that she used it on damp hair. So I plopped for about 30 minutes, and then spritzed each twist 6 times with the PMB. My hair was barely damp, and it worked much better this go! It still doesn't have that slip that I want that the Oyin Juices & Berries has, but it's better than it was the last time.

That's about it for today, chicas!

When is your wash day, curlies? Do you like quickie regimens, or do you like to give your hair a slower, more delectable treat? What were your POTW?

Stash Haul #2: Cleansers + MC Essentials Kit Giveaway!!

Buon pomeriggio, bellas!

I'll start off with the best stuff first :-D MahoganyCurls, one of my favorite CG YouTubers, is having an Essentials Kit giveaway! It's sponsored by MahoganyChic, a fashion and beauty blogger. Entering is super easy, and there will be 3 winners! The contents of the Kit include:

1. As I Am Coconut Cowash
2. TRESemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner
3. Eco Styler Gel
4. Paul Mitchell The Conditioner

What more can I say? It's free products being offered! And, this is an international giveaway, so curlies in other countries could also win the package. What are y'all waiting for? Head over to YT land and tell Jess that you want that Kit!

Alrighty, now on to my stash haul! Yesterday, I went into deets about my DCs, which is the first step in my regimen. Today is the all-important cleanser! Before I go into detail about my stash and what I use, let me give a bit of background:

Cleansing has been one of the most difficult things for me to get a handle on. I'll think that I have a good cleansing method, only to find out a bit later that it's not working as well as it could, and my hair is suffering for it. I have tried shampooing, cowashing, ACV rinses, just water and fingers, bentonite clay washes, Terressentials mud wash...on and on and on. None were sufficient. I liked the way that shampoo cleansed my scalp, but many times it stripped my hair unless I piled on the DCs beforehand. Cowashing on its own left too much buildup on my scalp, making it itchy and flake frequently. And it didn't get the product off of my hair. ACV rinses were good, but I like my cleansers to be thicker. The water and friction mess...*crickets*

Bentonite clay worked well for a while, and I was singing its praises - until it started to get stuck at my roots and wouldn't rinse out. I was horrified and disgusted. Ugh. Terressentials (I ordered the Fragrance Free wash) was great for my hair and cleansed everything, but the skin on my neck, face and shoulders were irritated beyond belief. I think it might have been the nettle *le sigh* I wanted so badly to like it, too. But a no-go it was.


I was desperate for a solution! I felt beyond the realm of help; everybody else seemed to do well with all of the aforementioned cleansing options. But, one day, while browsing Naya's blog on CN, she noted that she was going to try making her own shampoo with aloe vera gel. I forgot about it, until I dreaded my next washed day and her comment popped into my head. I decided to mix my own concoction for a cleansing conditioner with this recipe:

2 tbsp conditioner (something thin and watery like VO5)
2 tbsp aloe vera juice

I mixed them together in a nifty little travel sized bottle I had in my room, shook it up, and then decided that I wanted it to be a bit more clarifying. So I took about a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and added it to the bottle. Since AVJ has to be kept cold, I stuck my little mix in the fridge overnight while I DCed. In the morning, I let my hair cool down, rinsed my DC, and then applied this mix to my scalp to see if it would work. Oh. My. Gosh. Never have I ever had such a thorough, moisturising cleanse! I think the AVJ is a big part of why my scalp was so clean. But, the conditioner also kept my hair moisturised. Not a trace of product, dirt, or gunk, but my curls were moisturised and not stripped of their natural oils. Finally, a cleanser that worked for MY hair! I'm beginning to experiment with adding shampoos instead of ACV, adding both, and whatnot.

This cleanser has been the one thing that I do not (and will not) change in my regimen! The conditioner I use may on occasion, but this has been a cleansing revelation for my curly hair. I love having the best of both worlds! I keep my hair in twists for this step (as I do with most of my regimen). I squeeze the mix onto my scalp and around the base of my twists, and use the pads of my fingers to really scrub my scalp to help get rid of product buildup, dirt, etc. I focus especially in the crown area of my scalp, because it's a more sensitive area, and seems to get dirty rather quickly. If I have any of it left over after my scalp is taken care of, I can run it over the length of my twists. I rinse thoroughly (about 5-6 minutes) with warm water, but I don't unravel any twists while rinsing. I do lift up each individual twist, and make sure that I run the water through the base of each one, scrubbing all the while.

That being said, I really only like to use one conditioner for this for some reason. It's the VO5 Tea Therapy Calming Chamomile Tea Nourishing Conditioner. There's nothing super special about it, but I just don't want to use any other conditioner for this mix lol. The only problem is that this type happens to be one of the least common VO5 conditioners I see sold. *le sigh* So, two other conditioners that could potentially work well with this are shown above: Spa Haus Salon Conditioner (dollar store buy) and VO5 Repair & Protect Strengthening Conditioner. I don't want to use conditioners with dyes in them for this step, because of how much it's being scrubbed into my scalp, and I have sensitive skin.

So, that's my cleansing sob story, stash, and deets...and photos - finally!

What do you use to cleanse your scalp and hair, curlies? Have you ever had a cleansing fiasco?

Vintage Posts from the CN Forums - Part 2

14-08-2012
Hair Regimen Update
I had to go to counseling today, and my mom didn't tell me what time I had to be there until 15 minutes beforehand, so I had to wrap a scarf around my head to hide the DC. I still haven't rinsed. I've had it in since last night, and usually this isn't a problem when I use Aussie as my moisture DT. I can leave Aussie in even longer, and I'm good. But today, I got this insane itch in several spots on my head. I know it's not my grapeseed oil, because I put that on my scalp all the time. So I think it's the TRESemme. The areas where the conditioner got the gloopiest and got to my scalp are the ones that are itching (and burning slightly) now. I think this means that I have to switch conditioners...AGAIN!! Ugh. I try not to get conditioner on my scalp, but it happens. Aussie doesn't make my scalp itch like this, but I think that's because it has little fragrance, and the AVJ is soothing. TRESemme has a few more additives for fragrance (hexyl cinnamal, linalool, amyl cinnamal, etc.), so maybe that's what irritated my skin. I'm going to wait it out and try another DC with it though. I don't want to have to just waste 3 more full bottles of perfectly good conditioner.



15-08-2012
Hair Regimen Update:
I forgot how much I love doing ACV rinses! I made it stronger, using a 2:1 ratio instead of the recommended 3:1. I poured the rinse into two 3 oz bottles with caps. After rinsing out a good portion of my DC, I squirted the ACV rinse all through my scalp and scrubbed my roots and scalp well. I also undid a few twists, poured the rinse directly on to the hair, and retwisted (those were the shiniest twists, btw). I undid every twist, rinsed it thoroughly, lightly removed a few shed hairs, and retwisted again. I made sure that this rinse was with cool water. When I got out of the shower, there was no product in my hair and - WOW! I was amazed! The frizz that I usually have after washing was nowhere to be seen, and I had shine galore from the ACV (and rinsing with cool water). And my scalp still feels clean! I usually have some gunk and build up on my scalp after a DC, but the ACV got rid of most of it, as well as the itching.

After getting dressed for bed, I went through each twist, slathered it in coconut oil, finger detangled, and retwisted. Again, major shine! Today, I'm going to the county fair with my friends, so I'm going to flat twist my hair later this morning.

All in all, I'm pleased with how my DC went. I'm warming up to TRESemme not being a leave in now, and it actually detangles better than Aussie. I also need to stock up again on coconut oil - I'm almost out!

Hair
So I ended up not flat twisting my hair today. I woke up late, and since I'd baggied my hair last night, it was still damp/wet when I woke up this morning. So I just left my twists in, though I took several of the chunkier ones and divided them in half. My hair still looks shiny, and considering that I have nothing except for coconut oil in it, the frizz is minimal. I was easily able to lightly finger detangle my twists, and the curl definition was impressive, too. All in all, a great hair day!  I'm thinking of just leaving coconut oil in my hair for my next TO...hmmm.

Life and Hair Update...

Well, chicas, it's been more than a month since I wrote my last post. Life has been crazy busy since then, and it's getting even more hectic with graduation coming up! Ugh. Anywho, I thought I'd give you a brief life update since I haven't been posting regularly.

1. I was accepted into 6 of the 8 colleges I applied for! A 75% acceptance rate is pretty good methinks, especially with SAT scores as low as mine. God was so faithful during this process! I was fretting about money and how school was going to be paid for, but I was chosen to be a member of a scholars program at my community college, so my first two years of tuition will be totally paid for! I couldn't believe it! And there's a really high chance that after I transfer, I'll be able to get a good scholarship for the last two years of my undergrad degree. Praise God!

2. My weight loss plan was a major fail. I've been so stressed, and I didn't stick to my plan, so I've been gaining a ton of weight this semester. I'm now at 230 pounds :-( *sighs* I'd like to start eliminating sugar, meat and dairy in April so that maybe 15-20 pounds could be dropped by the time my high school's banquet is near.

3. Spiritual growth seems to have been stunted this year too. I've not been reading my Bible as much as I used to, even though I've been praying a lot more (the crazy people at my job are part of that reason).

Sooo, my 2012 resolutions seem to have been a no-go, but I'm determined to start again! I won't quit only a few months in. The year is still new! :-D

Also, I've got a ton of hair updates for you too. In the time that I was absent from the blog, I reevaluated my regimen, and found a few things that weren't working for me. Shampooing for one. It was drying out my scalp and hair, so I decided to try co-washing (using a conditioner like a shampoo). It was okay for a couple of weeks, but after a while, my scalp was full of build up, and my hair looked dull. I asked for help on the CN forums, and somebody suggested that I try apple cider vinegar. So at my next wash session, I mixed 3.5 tablespoons of ACV with 1.5 cups of water. I poured it onto my hair, rubbed it into my scalp, etc. And then I rinsed for several minutes (to make sure that funky smell was totally out). My hair felt so clean and moisturized! I'm hooked and never going back to a regular shampoo! The ACV has helped with shedding, reduced or totally eliminated my scalp's irritation, and helped with curl definition. Unbelievable. I can't believe I hadn't tried this before! I'd highly recommend it to any curly who's willing to try this.

Anywho, I have to go for now, but I'll be back soon to finish my hair update!

Hasta luego, chicas!