Balsamo di Bellezza Argan Oil conditioner

I apologize. This is a foreign brand and I can't for the life of me figure out what the brand is. I googled it, nothing. I'm guessing it's Balsamo di Bellezza, and that it's italian.

I picked it up at Ross for $8.00, the bottle says it retails for $16.00. I picked it up because I ran out of my SamyPure conditioner (*tear*) and needed some conditioner to last me while I used up the SamyPure shampoo.

This one looked good. Giant bottle with a pump, argan oil is the 3rd ingredient, and no cones! No isopropyl alcohol (which really dries your hair out)!

I wasn't expecting much, it wasn't from a big brand.

Oh geez, was I wrong.

This stuff sinks into my hair. It isn't watery but it isn't creamy either. It just...sinks in. I didn't feel like it did much while I was putting it in, it just disappeared into my hair.

But then, I waited 3 minutes, rinsed, and wow! Such slip! And not from any cones. Nice. Even as my hair dried, I could feel the silkiness of my hair. When my hair was completely dry, it felt so soft and so light and fluffy. It felt conditioned, but not weighed down, and so silky.

My only issue with the bottle is the packaging. Yes, the pump is nice, but it barely dispenses more than a dime size amount. I have to pump it 5 or 6 times at least to get how much I need for my shoulder length thick hair. Irritating. But it works so well!! *sigh* maybe I can buy a pump from Ulta or Sally's that will fit.

My rating: 9/10

Mask Treatment for Totally Fried Hair review

I'm sorry guys, this is the second bad review in the same day. Today's just not my day for hair products :(

I have no idea what the brand name is for this. I tried googling it, everything. Nothing. I picked it up at TJ Maxx for 10 bucks, although the suggested retail price is $35.00 (or so it says on the container). It's made by Luxo Laboratories, is paraben free, and has argan oil AND keratin protein. My two favorite ingredients!

The container says this is a mask treatment, deep reconstructor, and frizz tamer all in one. It's supposed to defrizz, protect, nourish, detangle, condition, repair, shine, and restore.

The instructions say to use it once or twice a week for 20 minutes. That's all it says. So that's what I did. I used it twice in one week. The issue with this is that the texture is so thick and almost waxy, you can't tell if all your hair is being covered. It's almost annoying. But it doesn't drip off my hair, so that's nice. It smells so strongly of fake coconuts, it almost made me feel sick.

I left it in for 20 minutes the first time, then rinsed. It felt like it would never fully rinse out. Then I let it air dry.

Now, my hair is NOT totally fried. But it is damaged from a couple highlights I got last year. This product made my hair frizzy, poofy. I couldn't stand it. It felt like I didn't use anything on my hair at all, and yet it made my hair actually curl at the ends. Maybe I rinsed it too thoroughly?

So, my second try.
I left it in for 30 minutes this time, and didn't rinse it so thoroughly. I thought, maybe this will help.

Nope. Now my hair took forever to dry and felt sticky. There is simply no middle ground. Maybe if my hair really was fried, this would help. As it is, my hair feels worse than when I started. I think there might be too much protein in this (it is a reconstructor and keratin is one of the first few ingredients), which caused my hair to frizz and curl. It might work for someone else, but there was too much protein in this for me. 0/10

Chi Keratin Leave-In Conditioner Review

I got this little 2 fl oz. spray bottle at TJ Maxx for 5 bucks. CHI is a great brand, I love their silk infusion. And who doesn't love keratin? My hair is very dry so I need a good leave-in conditioner.

I can honestly say... I don't like this. It sprays evenly onto my hair, sinks in, and smells like cologne....but as soon as my hair dries, my hair feels STICKY. It feels waxy and gummy. I can't stand it, I have to wash my hair AGAIN which is the ultimate no-no.

I give this a 1/10, utter disappointment. Sorry :(

Organix Anti-Breakage Keratin Oil shampoo and conditioner review

Did I mention that I'm getting more into keratin-infusing hair products? Hair has to be strong to grow longer.

This is a relatively new product in the Organix field. This line promises keratin proteins that "reinforce each strand, increasing elasticity to resist breakage caused by brushing and styling, while argan oil conditions and smoothes creating a luminescent shine." Sounds good right? Retails at Target for $8 each.

Considering my past history with Organix products, I'm surprised I picked this up, but I liked that keratin was further up the ingredients list compared to the other keratin products I picked up. More keratin, sounds good to me. And no sulfates!

The packaging is just like the other Organix products, sturdy and won't break if I drop it in the shower like I tend to.

The smell is kinda strong...and too sweet. But the product itself is really nice! Lathers nicely without sulfates and conditions well without leaving residue. My hair is so soft and fluffy, I don't need to put in any other product afterwards. Cool :)

My rating? 8/10 -- if only it didn't smell like that.

Not Your Mother's Way To Grow Shampoo and Conditioner review

I picked these up at Urban Outfitter for about $8.00 each for the shampoo and conditioner....and then found out I could've picked them up at Walmart for $3.00 each. Bummer

They are sulfate free and promise longer hair faster, to strengthen hair, and to contain an anti-breakage formula. I used them for about a month and a half and I can honestly say I hate them.

The packaging is bright, very cute, and makes it very easy to get the shampoo and conditioner out. The smell is gross, like a very very fakely sweet strawberry smoothie. Thankfully, as soon as my hair dried, the smell dissipated.

The day before I started this system, I shampooed with Neutrogena Clarifying shampoo, to make sure I got a fresh start. Two days later, I shampooed, and noticed the shampoo left my hair a weird straw texture, odd for a sulfate-free shampoo, although it DID lather nicely. I rinsed, and then left the conditioner in for 3 minutes (as instructed). The conditioner has the texture of a mousse, I don't feel like it really sank into my hair. I rinsed, air dried my hair, and my hair was very soft. Yay!

That only happened the first time, though. Every time after that (about 12 - 15 washes), my hair was matted, tangled, and extremely hard to brush. I have never had this issue with my hair before. I tried using just the shampoo with a different conditioner, thinking that the conditioner wasn't strong enough. Nope. Didn't work, even with a deep conditioning treatment.

Into the trash this one goes. Thoroughly disappointed. My hair didn't really grow much faster, maybe an inch in 1.5 months, but so much of it seemed to fall out while I was using the system, the growth wasn't even worth it. I saw the regular number of split ends, so I'm not sure what happened with that, but the constant tangling couldn't have helped.

I'm rating this a 0/10.

Organix Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo & Conditioner review

I picked these up at CVS while shopping with Claudia. Yeah, I go shopping at CVS instead of the mall. That's what I do.

We were actually there to find a hairspray for Claudia and she wanted a sample size because she wanted to try it out before she bought the full size. Smart girl. Well, right there next to the sample hair sprays were the sample shampoos and conditioners. I saw these and got excited. Organix is supposed to be a brand with no sulfates. That plus the moroccan argan oil = heaven for my hair, supposedly.

I tried this two times, getting what I could out of the sample sizes. Each time was horrible. The shampoo didn't lather up much, which was understandable due to the lack of sulfates. However, I've tried sulfate free shampoo before. It was nothing like this. The Organix shampoo left my hair feeling stringy and tangly. So I put on the matching conditioner. It was thick and smelled pretty gross. It did detangle my hair. It took about 2 minutes to rinse everything out, that's how thick the product was.

Even after all that, my hair felt so gross. It felt greasy and thick and heavy :( It smelled HORRIBLE too. After work, I rushed to wash it out with my regular CVS clarifying shampoo. Much better. But my hair still smells bad after 2 washes.

My rating? 0/10. Ugh. Don't bother.

TIGI Bed Head Superstar Volumizing Leave-In Conditioner review

I need to save my hair. I've bleached it, highlighted it, and then got so annoyed at the constant re-dying I had to do to keep up, that I dyed it back to brown. I rarely blow dry my hair, but I do like to heat style it because I love curls :-)

 

As a result, my hair is dry. No, wait, let me re-state that. My hair is weird. My roots get oily easily but my ends are extremely dry. To try to balance it out, I only shampoo the roots and I only condition the ends. I read somewhere that your hair gets washed anyway from when the shampoo gets rinsed out through the ends. I'm always, ALWAYS on the lookout for something that will restore my hair. My hair is also thick enough that when it gets long, I don't have much volume up top because it's so heavy. So, when I came about the Bed Head Volumizing Leave-In Conditioner, it was like YESSSS!!!

 



I got it at Ulta on clearance for about $6, but I think it retails for $11 - $18.

 

I read the reviews, some people raved about it and some people complained about the scent. It was on clearance, so why not?

 

I opened the bottle and sniffed it. Strawberries, ok, I can deal with that.

Then I sprayed it. Because I have so much hair, it took quite a few sprays. After the second spray, the smell was overwhelmingly horrible. Have you ever smelled rotten, fishy strawberries? This is what the conditioner smelled like. When it dried, the smell went away, but that took about 10 minutes. This smell is nauseating.

 

As for the conditioning effects, I saw none. My hair went limp, my roots went greasy, and my ends were still dry. Maybe I didn't use enough, but there was no way I was risking even more of that smell.

 

I thought it was just because my hair was too thick, so I gave it to Claudia. It didn't work for her either, and she hated the smell too.

 

Bad, bad product. My rating? 1/10.