I tried the
Beautiful Curls Curl Activating Shea Butter Shampoo,
the BC Shea Butter Deep Conditioner,
the Shea Butter Curling Cream,
the Shea Butter & Coconut Hydrating Curl Oil,
the Shea Butter Curl Activating Leave-In Conditioner (all for culry to kinky hair) and the
BC Shea Butter Curl Defining Gel for wavy to curly hair.
My rating of the products is based on the following aspects:
1) Ingredients
2) Price
3) Smell
4) Use
5) Animal friendly or not
6) How my hair felt afterwards
1)
Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract,
Arnica Extract, Saponified Shea Butter and Virgin Coconut Oil, Decyl
Polyglucose, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline
Chloride, Coconut Oil, Raspberry Fruit Extract, Ylang Ylang Flower
Extract.
Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract,
Arnica Extract, Aloe Vera Gel, Agave Extract, Shea Butter, Virgin
Coconut Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride,
Citric Acid, Emulsifying Wax, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride,
Pathenol, Essential Oil Blend
Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract,
Arnica Extract, Aloe Vera Gel, Agave Extract, Shea Butter, Virgin
Coconut Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Cetearyl Alcohol,
Behentrimonium Chloride, Citric Acid, Emulsifying Wax, Pathenol, Xanthan
Gum, Essential Oil Blend.
Ingredients~ West African Sesame
Oil, Shea Leaf, Infused Sunflower Oil , Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil
, Baobab Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract,
Arnica Extract, Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil,
Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Emulsifying Wax, Panthenol,
Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Coconut Oil,
Raspberry Fruit Extract, Ylang Ylang Flower Extract and Citric Acid
Ingredients~ Chamomile
(Matricaria recutita) Extract (aqueous), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Extract (aqueous), Aloe Vera Gel (Aloe barbadensis), Agave (Agave azul)
Extract, Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii),
Panthenol, Coconut Oil (and) Apricot Fruit Extract (and) Ylang Ylang
Flower Extract , Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid
(all ingredients taken from http://bliss4curls.eu/index.php?lang=DEU&page=SN_Home)
2) first price is where I bought the product, second one is the official website
15,95€ / 12,00$ 14,95€ / 16,00$ 14,95€ / 14,00$ 12,00€ / 8,99$ 15,95€ / 12,00$ 14,95€ / 14,00$
(I bought the products here: http://bliss4curls.eu/index.php?lang=DEU&page=SN_Home
this is the link for the official website: http://www.beautifulcurls.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=10&idcategory=3)
3) Ok, so here I can say that generally every product from the Beautiful Curls line smells (in my opinion!) like chewing-gum (the sweet and candy-like smell a normal chewing-gum has...maybe you know what I mean ;) )
4) It didn't foam up a lot (maybe a tiny bit), but it didn't spread easily so I had to use a lot to
massage it all over my scalp...
Nope, this conditioner is definitly not something to use on thick hair! The product literally fell of my hands into the water... It is really really cloggy!
Actually I only had a sample of that one, so it wasn't enough for my entire hair. Nevertheless
I would say that it is ok, even though there are better ones.
The oil is really good: easily spreadable, nice smell (not that heavy chewing-gum smell, only a little bit). But you should try to use only a small amount of it for your hair can easily look greasy!
Even though the benefit it did for my hair wasn't that great I would say it is a good product to use. (Remember it's always better to use something [that isn't the best, but still sufficient] than nothing!)
The gel was (amongst some few others) the best product I tried out of this line! The only thing annoying is the heavy smell (which sticks to your hair for some hours after applying it)...
--> These are my personal opinions! You can't be 100% sure if you haven't tried them yourself, so if you still have doubts: Go ahead and try 'em!
5) The signs on the packaging are "Allocated to Alaffia Community Projects. 10% of Sales" "Fair For Life. Social and fairtrade certified by IMO".
And yes, they're animal friendly as it says on the back "no animal testing"!! :))
6) This is the daunting part of the whole review... at first my hair felt good and I thought " yep, that's a great product to use!", but after a few more rounds of washing and applying and rinsing out things started to build up...and I mean the product! Everytime I scratched my scalp I found
residues of the products under my fingernails!! For me this is a serious no-go! I just don't feel
clean and the roots of my hair are lying flat without any volume just like if I would wear a really tight hat...Not great...
Anyway the Leave-In Conditioner and the gel are not as bad as the shampoo or the deep conditioner. I would you to try those on your own, but for the others I would say you should overthink if you buy 'em or better save the money.
In the end it's always up to yourself isnt'it?! ;))