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Thursday, February 7, 2013

DARK AND LOVELY AU NATURALE LINE

What Ethnic  "Black" woman has not heard of Dark and Lovely? Now come on son, you know that in your permed days Dark and Lovely was a trusted brand for that chemical process that ensured our hair was laid down, silky, straight, shiny, and bouncy lol.  Dont Fake!!!!!  Well, I am happy to announce that Dark and Lovely has heard the cry of so many women out there that are opting to wear their hair "Au Natural" and has thrown in their hat, hell let me be BOLD they have jumped in body and soul into the natural hair products market with their new line designed for kinks, coils and curls called  Au Natural.



I recently had the pleasure of receiving these products to review from Naturallycurly.com and I must say that I was extremely excited since I had already contacted the company for samples and at the time none were available which made me a bit sad :( . Lol those of you who live in the Caribbean are well aware that products get to us months after they have launched on the mainland, thus, being the product junkie that I am I was afraid that the long wait to test these products was going to render me insane from anticipation and pure old needing to have them in my little grubby hands!!!! However, the universe lined up for me and Naturallycurly.com came through big time by sending me the entire line to review! Now let me state this loud and clear...I did not pay for these products they were sent to me free of charge by naturallycurly.com and Dark and Lovely to test and review.  My opinion is my very own and a true representation of my experience using the product(s)...O.K. now that I have made that clear lets get into the good stuff.

The products arrived at my office just at the right time, it was Tuesday and my wash n go had been in need of a re-do so I rushed home filled with joy and  expectation to get right into the matter at hand and start testing these products.  Let me tell you, before I could get these products safely to my car my co-workers were all in my bizzznesssss! The opened every bottle and jar and had their noses promptly all into the products oohing and ahhing about the lovely tropical smells that were permeating their senses and hitting me with all kinds of questions:

  • Where can we get this?
  • How much does it cost?
  • Is it on island?
  • Who sells it on-line?
  • Can we have this...?
  • How does it work?
I know we work in the Court system but why was I feeling like a defendant that was under cross examination for stealing the cookie out of the cookie jar?  O.K. so I responded as best I could packed up my box and safely got it out of their hands.


The first product I put in my hair was the Knot-Out conditioner
Ingredients :AQUA / WATER / EAU, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, ELAEIS GUINEENSIS OIL / PALM OIL, BEHENTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, PARFUM / FRAGRANCE, GLYCERIN PHENOXYETHANOL, ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL, STEARAMIDOPROPYL DIMETHYLAMINE, MANGIFERA INDICA SEED OIL / MANGO SEED OIL, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, CITRIC ACID, CHLORHEXIDINE DIHYDROCHLORIDE, BENZYL SALICYLATE, LINALOOL, BAMBUSA VULGARIS EXTRACT 

Did I already say that my hair was on its 3rd day of a wash n go and was THICK as a an unkempt Forrest? Well, after stepping into the shower and finger parting my hair so that the water could saturate the strands all the way down to the roods I applied a generous amount of the conditioner to my sections (I finger parted my hair straight down the middle into two sections).  I read the instructions and it said to apply to hair and let it sit for 10-15 minutes so I applied it and continued on my bathing routine thinking hmmm lets see if this stuff is going to tame the wild beast! My, my, my, ha! As I scrubbed my skin and sang a song in my head I could feel my hair slowly relaxing its tight grip on those coils and I could feel the hair brushing up against my shoulders, back, and nose as the coils separated and began to hang free of the density that was binding them together and making them comfortably cling to my roots. For those of you who are on the CG method the product is silicone, sulfate, and paraben free.

As you can see from the pictures above the coils were hanging and yet very defined.  The top picture shows my hair completely saturated with the product, you can also see how there is no white stuff on my hair and I am telling you that I used a "generous" amount but my hair just seamed to soak it all in.  As I felt my hair relaxing under the magic of the substance I felt confident that I could now attempt to finger detangle my tresses safely and proceeded to do just that.  The Knot-Out conditioner provided great slip allowing me to safely and easily finger detangle my sections. I rinsed the product completely out of my hair as seen in the bottom left picture and my coils were left soft and elongated.

I then decided to style with the Coil Moisturizing Souffle' since what I wanted was a wash n go and even though I have all kinks, coils, and curls shooting out of my head in my opinion the coils overpower the curls and kinks.
Ingredients:Water, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl esters, glycerin, amodimethicone, behentrimonium chloride, parfum/fragrance, phenoxyethanol, isopropyl alcohol, mangifera indica seed oil/mango seed oil, trideceth-6, cetrimonium chloride, benzyl salicylate, methylisothiazolinone, linalool, benzyl alcohol, limonene, CI 19140/yellow 5, CI 15985/yellow 6, geraniol, bambusa vulgaris sap extract

This product is of a creamy consistency and smells like mangos/papayas to me.  I followed the directions of course, and raked it through my coils in medium sized sections ensuring that all of my strands were coated in product.  I also applied the product to wet hair in order to make the application smoother and save on the amount of product that I used.

Top picture my hair is 80% dry bottom picture product was freshly applied and hair was still wet.  This product would not be CG approved due to the amodimethicone that is listed 5th in the ingredients list. However, it is sulfate and paraben free.The following is my hair in its completely dried state,


Overall I am pleased with the results of these products! I am on second day hair with my wash n go and my coils, kinks, and curls are holding their definition well with minimal crunch an no dryness to the touch.
I am pleasantly pleased to have the trusted brand of Dark and Lovely back into my hair product life.

PROS:

  • Products can be purchased on ground, I have received  sightings of the products in target stores
  • Products price point is affordable at 9.99 for a little of 14 ounces of product
  • Product application is easy
  • The smell is fruity and while it attacks your senses at first it diminishes and simply leaves a subtle scent of fruit behind that is pleasant and noticeable by others
  • Products are mineral oil, paraben, and sulfate free. Some are GC friendly some are not but you be the judge of that for yourselves.
  • Products are manufactured by a trusted hair product brand Dark and Lovely who has been around for  a number of years
CONS:

  • Not all products in the line are GC friendly
  • While the styling product claims to elongate your coils I did not experience elongation, which in essence is no big deal to me because I embrace my shrinkage and actually love it
Overall, I give these products 4 curls out of 5 and I would recommend you give them a try and see how they work on your kinks, coils, and curls.  Would I purchase them? Yes, I would I would most certainly purchase these products with my own money and add them to my rotation especially when I can walk right into a BSS and get instant gratification of not waiting for the mail man to grace me with his presence so that I can get my kinks, coils and curls in order.

Thank you for reading curlies! And remember to comment and ask questions below.  It has been my pleasure sharing my experience with you.  Remember "sharing is caring" and "Twirl a curl" today!!!!!