킴씨머리 (Kimshi Meoli) | Caprylyl Glycol vs. DMDM Hydantoin: What's in Your Bottle of TRESemme Naturals?

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If you have been in the natural world for longer than a day, you have likely heard of or experimented with the TRESemme brand of conditioners. A self-described "affordable yet professional" line, TRESemme carries a wide range of products - shampoos, conditioners, serums, hairsprays, dry shampoos, mousses, gels, heat protectants, deep conditioners, etc. It was one of the first product lines I used during my transition and ongoing natural odyssey; for 2.5 years I have used a various assortment of their shampoos, conditioners and deep conditioners with great success. Though the majority of the TRESemme lines offered were not free of sulphates or silicones, they still had Tightly Curly (TC) friendly ingredients most of the time, and their low fragrance (and comparatively low price) appealed to me.

Since going fully CG over the past few months, I transitioned from using the regular TRESemme conditioners and shampoos to the highly acclaimed conditioner sitting in many naturalistas' shower caddies: TRESemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner. Though it came in a smaller 25 oz. bottle and was silicone free, it still had the same great slip and moisture available in the regular conditioners from TRESemme's regular lines. I have used it for deep conditioning, detangling and conditioning, and even as a leave in on occasion. For the price (about $3.50-$5.99 in most Targets, Wal-Marts and drugstores), it has relatively good ingredients. The fragrance does not bother me much and it is free of dyes and many other potential irritants. It sounds almost perfect, right? That's what many curlies and coilies thought, as well. But apparently the chemists at TRESemme felt that something was left to be desired in the 2011 reformulation of the product. Yup...they've changed it again, folks. The second one in less than 5 years (it was reformulated back in 2011; the isopropyl alcohol [drying, short chain] was removed, and more avocado oil and aloe vera were added to the formula).

Anytime I'm in a store with a hair care aisle, I stop by and see what they have. Last week, I was in Wal-Mart with one of my friends, and as I glanced over the TRESemme section, I noticed that the bottle design for TRESemme Naturals was different. With dread, I picked it up, flipped it over, and felt my heart sink to my toes as I saw the new list of ingredients:

The new ingredients list for the TRESemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner: Water (Aqua), Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Behentrimonium Chloride, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Brassica Campestris/Aleurites Fordi Oil Copolymer, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Fragrance (Parfum), Dipropylene Glycol, Potassium Chloride, Lactic Acid, Disodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, PEG-150 Distearate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Lauroyl Lysine, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone.

Here's the previous ingredients list for comparison: 

Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Brassica Campestris/Aleurites Fordi Oil Copolymer, Fragrance, Caprylyl Glycol, Aspartic Acid, Lauroyl Lysine, Distearyldimonium Chloride, Benzyl Alcohol, Citric Acid.

In the new list, the ingredients highlighted in blue were in the previous formulation, but their proportions have been changed (the AVJ and water are about the only things that stayed the same lol). The ingredients in red are new additions. In the list of ingredients just above this paragraph, the bolded ingredients are the ones that remained in the newest formulation. I did a bit of research on these ingredients, and here's some info I found on TightlyCurly.com about the newest additions to the formula:

Cetearyl Alcohol
Used as an emollient, emulsifier, conditioner, and thickener. Not the same as SD alcohol or ethanol. This is actually a mixture of Cetyl Alcohol and Stearyl Alcohol [Hunting (Conditioning) pg 142].

Behentrimonium Chloride
Used for detangling and as an anti-static ingredient and emulsifier [Begoun pg 75, Winter pg 100].

Dipropylene Glycol
Similar in function to propylene glycol. Humectant. Pg 211, 428. (Propylene glycol: Humectant. This is a clear, colorless, thick liquid. Can penetrate the skin better than glycerin, but is less expensive. Second in moisture-carrying abilities only to water. Can also be used to dissolve ingredients (in the way that water can dissolve them). Winter pg 428. Rumors have circulated that it is bad, but there is no research validating this. For more information, check out Propylene Glycol Begoun pg 1326.)

Potassium Chloride
 Used in products as a cheap thickener. Considered to make the product a bit more stable than using Sodium Chloride as a thickener instead. Potassium Chloride is a salt. Comes in colorless crystals that are salty in taste. Used in food as well as in cosmetics [Winter (7th ed) pg 426; Hunting (Conditioning) pg 339].

Lactic Acid                 
Lactic acid is used in hair care products mainly to adjust the pH, but may also be used as a humectant. Lactic acid occurs in sour milk through fermenting lactose, but it's also prepared commercially. Since it is considered safe (in small doses), it is often used to adjust the pH in products. Since it also somewhat increases the moisture content in hair in small amounts, this is an added benefit to including it. In high enough concentrations, it can harm your hair, but in the small concentrations usually used in hair products (it usually appears at the bottom of the ingredients list, meaning there isn't much of it in there), it's fine [Hunting (Conditioning) pg 258].

Disodium EDTA
 Chelating ingredient that attracts the minerals away from the hair shaft and helps them rinse away. Good to use after swimming [Begoun]. Aso used as a preservative. Considered harmless in cosmetics at low levels. Sold as a water soluble white powder that is slightly acidic [Hunting (Conditioning) pg 185].

 DMDM Hydantoin
Preservative. (Preservative:  Used to keep microbes such as bacteria, mold and fungus from growing in your products. Though many are controversial, it's believed to be much better to use products with them than without. For more informaiton, see Paula Begoun’s Problems With Preservatives?.)

PEG-150 Distearate
Thickener.                                

Methylchloroisothiazolinone/Methylisothiazolinone
Most research that's been done on these two preservatives have been done on how Methylchloroisothiazolinone (and) Methylisothiazolinone work together. These preservatives are known to be corrosive to skin, irritating to eyes, and toxic to fish. However, in the low doses of it used in cosmetics, they haven't been found to be irritating so long as it isn't used in concentrations above 0.12 percent. The reason these two ingredients are so often found together is because when they are combined, the kill off nearly all microbes, and not much of them are needed to do so. They also work over a wide range of product pHs. When these two ingredients are sold as a ready-made mixture, Magnesium nitrate (as well as a little Magnesium chloride) is often added to them (though it's not usually listed in ingredient lists as being there) [Hunting (Conditioning) pgs 276-277].

 From all appearances, it seems like TRESemme's chemists were trying to thicken up the formula. Some of the changes make sense to me. The switch from stearyl and cetyl alcohols to simply cetearyl alcohol, for example. And moving the avocado oil from spot #5 (after water) to the number 4 slot. Even adding more stearamidopropyl dimethylamine (the main slip ingredient in much-loved Aussie Moist) seems like a positive change to me. Others, however, I'm not so sure about. All of the preservative switch-ups, as a prime example. The several preservatives grouped together at the end of the old formula were traded for less gentle ones, and even one that has the potential to be formaldehyde-releasing - DMDM Hydantoin. I'm also not thrilled about the potassium chloride. My hair is particularly sensitive to short-chain alcohols and drying salts, so I may not be able to use this as my staple rinse out conditioner any longer.

As disappointed as I am that it looks like TRESemme fixed something that wasn't broken, only time will tell how this newest formulation pans out in the textured hair world.

A shot of the TRESemme products section in the Target near my house. The newly reformulated conditioners have a black background against white letters, as seen in several of the bottles above. As you can see, the Naturals line isn't the only one that received a makeover. I checked the back of all of the shampoos and conditioners, and TRESemme added harsher cleansers to the shampoos like TEA-dodecylbenzenesulfonate, and potassium chloride, mineral oil and/or isopropyl alcohol to almost all of the conditioners. It just looks like a downgrade in product quality, which is saddening.

 

Do you or any of your family members use TRESemme or TRESemme Naturals? Have you tried the reformulated conditioner? Does it work the same on your hair? If you haven't tried the newest formula, do you think that you will purchase it and try it, or will you look for another product? Let me know in the comments below, bellas!

Product Review: Sally's GVP Conditioning Balm + My Sister's First Successful WnG

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On Saturday, I convinced my sister to give the CG method a try. She'd been watching MahoganyCurls and loved her flaxseed gel twist out. We didn't have flax gel, so I decided to help her with a WnG instead. My sister has always had a hard time wearing her hair out. Though she has waves and loose curls, her individual strands tend to be fine and feather-light. She needs heavy products that can keep her hair weighed down, but that are still moisturising and help with definition. Using the Denman on her hair could sometimes be problematic, because it separated her hair into too many sections.

With this in mind, I stopped by Sally's and thought that this conditioner might be heavy duty enough to keep her hair moisturized. I picked up two bottles of it.

Once at home, my sister did one last silicone condish DC with the TRESemme Platinum Strength Deep Treatment (she lurves this stuff!), left it on for a bit, and then shampooed with her TRESemme Vitamin E Moisture Rich Shampoo. She loaded her hair with the GVP Balm, let it sit for 20 minutes, and then we both started to finger detangle ( I usually help my sister with her hair because she has so much of it, and it's overwhelming for her sometimes.). HUGE mistake. This conditioner is uber thick and has almost no slip to it! I had to drench every section with water before trying to rake it through her hair. I finally started to add some TRESemme Naturals to a few sections, and that helped with detangling immensely. At any rate, after about 30 minutes of raking, I asked my sister if I could add gel to make it a true WnG. She reluctantly agreed. So I took some of her Fantasia IC Fantasia gel and raked it through a few sections. The parts with TRESemme Naturals instantly started to get white flakes and balls (meh!), so I ran and grabbed my Herbal Essences Set Me Up gel, which is a much heavier styler. I just kept adding more gel (especially to her roots, ends, the underside, and the top layer of her hair) and raking, raking, raking. Her definition was amazing! She never got these results doing the TC method or using the Denman. The GVP balm was really moisturising, and added much needed weight to her thick, lightweight waves.

Next, I took my Turbie Twist and scrunched some of the moisture and excess product from her hair (to give her a bit of a jump start on drying). And then I diffused her hair (high heat and speed) using the PixieCurl method, holding each section up for about 90 seconds (not all at once lol).

These are her results at about 70% dry:

Her thoughts on the balm? Totally sucked. She liked the fact that it was moisturizing and could keep her hair weighed down, but she didn't enjoy spending so much time trying to get it through her hair. She's also much more of a fragrance person than I am, and she didn't like the fact that the balm had such a light scent. I'd have to agree with her (except for the scent part); it was a nightmare trying to use this conditioner! Adding all the extra water just to get this stuff to comb more easily was a pain.

My sister's rating: 1 out of 5 curls


I returned both GVP balms to Sally's on Monday, and we haven't looked back. She's looking forward to using the normal silicone conditioners and sulphate poos that her hair knows and loves. She might try the MC flax gel twistout this weekend though (I made a batch of flax gel), so we'll see.

안녕!

How about you, curlistas? Have you ever tried the GVP Conditioning Balm? How did you use it? Did you like it?

Productos nuevos (New Products)!!

Buonasera, ragazze! :-D

My aunt paid my sister and I today, so I went shopping for supplies for the rapidly approaching semester, and, of course, hair products! I did go over my allotted $30/month budget, but I wasn't spazzing out in the aisles and picking up everything in sight and just going crazy. I stuck to what I knew, for the most part. Soo, up first, here's my video from the magic YT sobre los:

And here are the deets below on every product in the video:

1. Shea Moisture Hold & Shine Moisture Mist

Price: $9.99
Size: 8 fl oz/237 mL
Purchased from: Target
Ingredients: Deionized Water, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Silk Protein, Essential Oil Blend, Neem Seed Oil, Algae Extract, Hyssop Extract, Sage Leaf and Field Horsetail Extract, Honeysuckle Flower and Japanese Honeysuckle Flower Extract, Vitamin E.


2. Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

Price: $4.99 (it was part of the BOGO 50% deal)
Size: 12 oz/340 g
Purchased from:  Target
Ingredients: Deionized Water, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Macadamia Seed Oil, Mango Seed Butter, Avocado Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Silk Protein, Ammonium Salt, Neem Seed Oil, Carrot Seed Oil, Sorbitol Esters, Pro-Vitamin B5, Caprylyl Glycol, Essential Oil Blend, Honeysuckle Flower and Japanese Honeysuckle Flower Extract, Vitamin E.


3. Herbal Essences Set Me Up Gel

Price: $3.39
Size: 6 oz/170 g
Purchased from: Target
Ingredients: Water, Laureth-23, Polyquaternium-4, Hydroxyethlcellulose, Benzyl Alcohol, Acrylates/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Copolymer, Aminomethyl Propanol, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance/Parfum, Acrylates Copolymer, Disodium EDTA.


4. TRESemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner

Price: $4.48
Size: 25 fl oz/739 mL
Purchased from: Wal Mart
Ingredients: Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Avocado Oil, Aloe Leaf Extract, Brassica Campestris/Aleurites Fordi Oil Copolymer, Fragrance, Caprylyl Glycol, Aspartic Acid, Lauroyl Lysine, Distearyldimonium Chloride, Benzyl Alcohol, Citric Acid.


5. Eden BodyWorks Jojoba Monoi All Natural Deep Conditioner

Price: $9.47
Size: 16 fl oz/473 mL
Purchased from: Wal Mart
Ingredients: Water, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Stearalkonium Chloride, Coconut Oil, Tiare Flower, Glycerin, Behentrimonium Methosulphate, Cetrimonium Chloride, Polyquaternium-11, Jojoba Seed Oil, Carrot Seed Oil, Chamomile Flower Oil, Melaleuca Leaf Oil (Tea Tree Leaf Oil), Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Seed Oil, Vitamin E, Aloe Leaf Extract, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Disodium EDTA, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid.


6. LeKair Cholesterol Plus Strengthening and Conditioning Cream

Price: $1.89
Size: 20 oz/567 g
Purchased from: Wal Mart
Ingredients: Deionized Water, Cetearyl Alcohol and PEG-40 Castor Oil and Stearalkonium Chloride, Cetyl Alcohol, Mineral Oil, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Cholesterol, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Tetrasodium EDTA, Vitamin E, Jojoba Oil, Citric Acid, Yellow #5, Red #4, Aloe Extract, Vitamin A, Vitamin D.


7. Nuance Argan Oil Glossing Conditioner

Price: $8.76
Size: 10 fl oz/296 mL
Purchased from: CVS Pharmacy
Ingredients: Water, Isododecane, Isohexadecane, Behentrimonium Methosulphate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, Fragrance, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Acai Fruit Oil, Argan Kernel Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Passion Flower Seed Oil, Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Algae Extract, Camellia Leaf Extract, Glycerin, Tetrasodium EDTA, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate, Citric Acid, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Benzyl Benzoate, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone.

8. Honey
Price: $5.68
Size: 24 oz/680 g
Purchased from: Wal Mart


I'm so excited to try these! Especially the HE gel; I'm nearing the bottom of my container of Xcess and hadn't gone to the dollar store to stock up again, so I hope this will be another product to add to my styling arsenal.

Purchased any new products lately, curlies? Gone shopping through your stash of late? What did you cop? :-D

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 #3: Conditioners/Detanglers

Buenos dias, chicas (y chicos) rizadas!

In this third installment, we move along to one of my potentially favorite parts of my regimen: conditioning and detangling. Depending on the product used and your technique, this aspect of your regimen can either be heaven or hell. I choose the products for this part scrupulously, since a little will inadvertently be left in. That being said, I tend not to use products with salts (sodium chloride, potassium chloride, etc.) or short-chain alcohols in their formulas for this step. However, if I like the product enough, I will add a lot of oils to it to counteract the drying alcohols (hey, it works in my head, right?). I haven't ever really had issues with this part of my regimen. I just need a conditioner with plenty of slip for this step. Before CG, the Herbal Essences Honey, I'm Strong Conditioner was my ISH for detangling. I had to rinse it totally out because of the sodium hydroxide, but honey boo boo chile - that detangling ability was like none other! Even Suave Almond + Shea Butter didn't compare! But, sadly, that conditioner is not CG *sniffles*

Buuutt, thankfully, I can still use products from my abosulute most favorite hair product company in the entire world - TRESemme! For a year now, I'd been hearing curly girls everywhere sing the praises of TRESemme Naturals. I was skeptical, but I found a bottle of the Nourishing Moisture variety at Wal Mart and decided to try it. Oh. My. Word. It is no HE HIS, but for a non-silicone conditioner, it is amazing! I could easily detangle my sections with my Denman, and even finger detangle (another long story lol). It is my HG conditioner and detangler, and I don't see that changing any time soon! My only problem with TN is difference in the old and new formulas of the Nourishing Moisture Conditioner. I first tried the new one, but when I went to the Rite Aid in Essex and bought more, I didn't realise that it was the old formula. I think I can tell the difference between the two, though. The old formula bottles say "NEW" above "Silicone-Free Conditioning," but the new formula bottles don't, which makes sense. So, since I have the old formulas, I had to add a lot of oils to my bottles. I added EVOO to the old Nourishing Moisture conditioners, and grapeseed oil to the Radiant Volume conditioners. Then, today, I added a capful of canola oil and sesame oil into one of my Nourishing Moisture condishes.

Besides those, I also purchased two great conditioners from Safeway last month: Yes to Cucumbers Color Protection Conditioner and Nature's Gate Aloe Vera Moisturising Conditioner. I don't think that the Nature's Gate condish will be a good detangler, but I'm eager to try the Y2C condish

After cleansing my scalp, I slather globs of a rinse out conditioner into my twists and finish up the rest of my shower. Once I get dressed, I take down one twist at a time, divide each twist into halves, and then detangle each half. Then I rinse out most of the condish, apply my leave in mixture, seal with an oil, and style.

What's your conditioning/detangling regimen?