Company Name: Darcy Botanicals
Product Name: Coconut Lemongrass Transitioning Creme
Price: $12 8 0z
Ingredients: Distilled Water, Organic Aloe Vera, Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, a mild detangling conditioner, Vitamin E, Panthenol, Yarrow, Sage, Horsetail, Nettle, & Lavender Extracts, Fractionated Coconut Oil, a paraben-free preservative, and lemongrass essential oil.
Consistency: Creamy, not oily
Purchase from: Darcy’s Botanicals
Review:
Obviously, I’m not transitioning, but I love a good moisturizing leave in (which this seems to be) so I jumped right in. I was actually sent this product to try out and never really gave much thought to Darcy’s Botanicals. I mean, I’ve heard of them, but not enough that my PJ brain was saying “Gotta have it, gotta have it”
Well, after trying this product, I realize my error. Can you say awesome??
First, to get the full transitioning experience, I used this one my dry fro pictured here. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t routinely let my hair dry without some kind of product on it. So I really thought this would be a good opportunity to test out this creme. In other words, I wanted to make things as difficult for it as possible.
I used this creme to do twists on my dried afro. (This used to be the way I did dry twists back in the day with a few inches of hair…now? It usually ain’t happenin’!) Although this is not the way I will be choosing to do my twists on dry hair from now on, this product definitily made things easier. It softened my hair, aided in detangling, and hydrated my hair.
Do you hear me when I say “hydrated”? Because I’m not joking about that. I was dipping my fingertips in the product to apply it to my hair and after a few hours of twisting, my fingertips started to pucker. Hydration, ladies!!
I’ve also used this on wet hair (under another product) when doing a twist out. I was also impressed with it then, but not near as impressed as I was with it on dry hair.
Now, as for my twists, I probably wouldn’t use it alone again on dry twists. It does not have as much hold and I’ve noticed a bit more frizziness than I normally do. Which is fine…3 days later, my hair still feels amazing and moisturized.
Company Name: Bee Mine
Product Name: Moisturizing Deep Conditioner
Price: $26.97 16 0z
Consistency: Creamy
Ingredients: Distilled water, Cetearyl Alcohol, BTMS (mild emulsifier), 100% Unrefined Shea Butter , 100% Organic Coconut Oil, Cupuacu Butter, Calendula Extract, Chamomile Extract, Organic Raw Honey, Paraben Free Preservative, Fragrance (Phthalate Free)
Scent: a little like chamomile…definitely smells of essential oils or herbs
Purchase from: Bee Mine
Review:
(FYI: I was sent this product to review)
I’m officially adding this deep conditioner to my list of awesome DCs. I shampoo’d before using this because I feel that’s the best way to test a conditioner. (My hair also just really needed it).
The application is smooth as pie thanks to the creamy texture. My detangling session went well with it.
Kind of looks like a relaxer, doesn't it? LOL!
I left it on for an hour with a plastic bag. As I rinsed it out, my hair felt fantastic. It was nice and soft (as soft as my hair gets). I also noticed a nice sheen before I even applied my leave in conditioner. So two thumbs up from me!
While checking out the ingredients list, I noticed a component I’d not really heard of before. Cupuacu butter. I wondered what this was and found the following information on it:
- Cupuacu is a tropical rainforest tree
- It’s fruit is being touted as the newest “superfruit”
- The ingredients to which these effects are attributed include phytonutrient polyphenols, vitamins B1, B2 and B3, and at least nine antioxidants.
- Creamy and emollient butter, which promotes a pleasant touch, smoothness and softness to the skin and hair, boosting the recovery of its natural moisture and elasticity. Highly beneficial for dry and damaged skin and hair, promoting deep, long lasting hydration.
Hmm, pretty interesting!! And not something I see very often in hair products.
Company Name: Bee Mine
Product Name: Juicy Moisturizing Daily Spritz
Price: $12.97 8 0z
Ingredients: Organic Aloe Vera Juice, Herbal Infused Purified Water, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Pure Glycerin, Ayurvedic Herbs, Select Herbs, Polysorbate 20, Essential oils of Tea Tree, Peppermint & Grapefruit, Vitamin E Tocopherol Oil, Fragrance, Paraben & Formaldehyde Free Preservative.
Scent: Fresh
Consistency: Liquid
Purchase from: Bee Mine
Review:
As a big (and fairly new) Bee Mine fan, I was surprised that I didn’t really like this product.
Let me start with what I did like. The smell is very invigorating and fresh. It’s not overly feminine, so it would be nice for men. As usual with Bee Mine, the ingredients are wonderful. It even contains Ayurvedic herbs, if you’re into that.
It feels just lovely when spritzed on the scalp. Perfect for the spring and summer, this spritz felt nice and light on my scalp. I’ve been using it all summer for this purpose. However, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be enough for the dry and itchy scalp that crops up during the colder months.
Because it is so light, I feel that may be why it wasn’t agreeing with my hair. I generally need my spritzes to be more heavy duty. My son’s fine textured hair, on the other hand, loved this product and was never weighed down by it.
Product Name: Shea Souffle Natural Body Butter
Company Name: Jasmine’s Bath and Beauty
Price: $14.00 80z
Ingredients: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Aloe Vera Juice , Shea Butter, Myristyl Myristate, Palm Stearic Acid, Emulsifying Wax NF, Cetyl Alcohol(Conditions), Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid( organic food grade preservative), (Vitamin C) Ascorbyl Palmitate, (Vitamin A)Retinyl Palmitate , (Vitamin E)Tocopherol Acetate, fragrance optional
Consistency: Very thick, whipped
Scent: Many to choose from, or fragrance free
Purchase from: Jasmine’s
Review:
I absolutely *heart* this stuff. First, as we all always do, let’s start with the smell. I chose the Jasmine Vanilla. I am constantly getting compliments on the “perfume” that I’m wearing. I am anxious to try the other scents!
The consistency was a bit thicker than I imagined, but it melts into the skin quickly. The part of my body that loves this the most are my feet. My feet suffer from standing for hours at a time and all the running that I’ve done. After a good soak and a little of this butter, we were sandal ready.
Talk about soft and smooth skin! Moisture for days! *falls out*
No seriously, I can’t wait to see how this product performs in the winter when my skin really needs some TLC. Right now, it’s definitely a favorite!
Company Name: Jasmine’s Bath and Body
Product Name: Hemp and Aloe Body Wash
Price: $10 80z
Ingredients: Aloe Gel (De-mineralized Water, Xanthan Gum, Aloe), Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Alkyl Polyglucosides, Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil, Cocomidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, fragrance, Vegetable Glycerine, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract (Chamomile), Salix Alba (White Willow) Bark Extract, Phenoxyethanol and Caprylyl Glycol, fd & c color
Consistency: syrupy liquid
Scent: Available in many different scents.
Purchase from: Jasmine’s Bath and Body
Review:
I decided to finally order from this company after reading many positive reviews only to decide that I really needed more bath and body stuff than hair stuff right now. I love fragrant body washes and the description sounded so good that I thought I’d found a winner. From the website:
This gentle body wash contains a generous amount of hemp oil and aloe vera. It’s tough on dirt and daily grime, yet mild enough for children. Hemp Oil contains natural vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and the benefits of Omega 3 and 6…typically available only from fish.
Kcurly’s opinion? I loved the smell; it was just what I wanted in that respect. There are many scents to choose from including Ice Cream Cake, Banana Buttercream, and Vanilla Sugar Cookies (sounds yummy huh?)
The ingredients are fab for the most part. It suds up like most other body washes I’ve used in the past.
However, to call this body wash “gentle” was not true for me. It was very drying to my skin. It wiped away the “daily grime” but immediately left me with that terrible ashiness that I can be prone to. Maybe it’s just me, or the scent that I chose (Clean and Fresh). I’ve used it for about a month now and still have to quickly apply a good lotion to my body or else I suffer from itchy, ashy skin.
I did use this on my son a time or two. The first time, his skin seemed fine: not very moisturized, but not dry either. The second time, I just put some in his bath water to make a few bubbles (probably not the smartest thing to do but I thought his skin was better with it than mine). He complained later of something “scratching him” which is his way of saying that he’s itching LOL!
I won’t be purchasing this again and am just trying to use up the remainder of the container that I bought.
Product Name: Honey Wash
Company Name: Oyin
Price: 8 0z $10
Consistency: viscous liqiud
Scent: Sweet, honeyish (there are several available scents including coco-mango and black cedar fig)
Ingredients: saponified organic oils of coconut, olive, and jojoba, glycerine/vegetable gum extract, organic aloe vera gel, honey, jojoba oil, walnut oil, grapefruit seed and green tea extracts, rosemary extract, fragrance
Purchase from: Oyin, Curlmart
Review:
Oh, Honey Wash…how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
1. Thou art soft on my little boy’s skin and leave him smelling so sweet even after playing in dirt all day
2. Thou leavest my hair clean, but unstripped
3. My skin is never dry when I use you (thou?) in the shower.
Anyway, enough of that. Point being: I like this stuff.
The smell honestly kind of threw me off. Just like with all of my hair products, I sniffed the bottle when it arrived. Of course I was overpowered by a sweet smell. As I’ve found with a lot of products, the smell is not as powerful once the product has been in use.
Consistency Shot--Not very thick, but not watery thin either.
When I use it as a body wash or facial wash, I can still smell a hint of it afterwards. Which is fine, because that faint smell is very pleasant. I’m a fan of honey so I don’t mind smelling of it.
One of the best things about this wash is that it suds up. It doesn’t sud up as much as your average shampoo, but it’s decent (especially for an all natural product). I also did not have to use a lot, either on my hair or skin. The website suggests to use it all within 6 months, so I’ve been trying to keep it heavy in our rotation since I’ve had it a while.
Will I buy this again? Tough to say. I like it, but it’s a bit on the pricey side. I’m using it a lot, but, except for the smell, I could easily substitute something else. I don’t use a lot of gentle cleansers anymore, so I think if I re-buy it will be more for a body wash than for my hair.
