Sunday, February 28, 2010

Jane Carter Solutions


Here is what the website has to say:

After 20 years of experience in working with every different hair texture imaginable and frustrated by not being able to find natural based products that worked effectively for everyone, I decided to start The Jane Carter Solution.

Our products are specifically designed for dry hair. Including curly, wavy, straight, relaxed, natural hair, color treated and locked hair. We use ingredients derived from nature, natural butters, and certified organic essential oils that make your hair vibrant and alive again. Like the thousands of satisfied customers that use our products on a regular basis, I am sure that you will get great results from every use.




I received samples of three products from Jane Carter Solutions






Nourish & Shine
the claim: "Oh My Gosh...You have never in our life experienced a product like this! We Blend all natural vitamins and essential oils to create this incredible hair nourisher. It completely melts in your hair and adds amazing shine. It never leaves your hair feeling greasy! Nourish & Shine helps to reduce dryness on the skin and scalp. Be Careful: daughters and husbands are known to steal this product from you, so order two and one for you."

Ingredients : Shea butter, Kokum butter, Illippe butter, Mango butter, Vitamins A, D, & E, pear and grapefruit essential oils.

My experience: I like this product, it has the sweet and tangy smell of grapefruit that the kids really enjoyed. The product is a solid but melts really quickly in your hands. I use shea butter quite often and I found this product to be a lighter oil and I could see how it would work well in someone's hair that is not quite as textured as my childrens hair.

Nourish & Shine melts really easily into the hair and scalp and did not make my family's hair feel greasy. I ran a little product through the ends of my hair where it tends to be a little dry and my hair looked shiny but not greasy.




Revitalizing leave-in conditioner

The Claim: If you are looking for a light product that is ideal for de-tangling, this is the one! Revitalizing Leave In Conditioner seals in vital panthenol and humectants and acts as a protective barriers against heat styling and sun damage. Use it daily as a rehydrator. Mist your hair in the morning and evening. It’s also great for flat ironing and roller setting fine hair. This product is a must for every bathroom. Revitalizing Leave In Conditioner does the job for you!

Ingredients : Purified Water, Extracts of Aloe Vera, Comfrey, Watercress, Myrrh, Panthenol, Essential Oils, Anthemis Noblis Flower, Symphytum OfficinalLeaf, Equisetum Arvense, Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Humulus Lupulus (Hops) Lawsonia Inermis (Henna), Butoxyethenol, Polyquarternium11, Soyamid DEA, PPG30, Cetyl Ether, Oleth-3 Phosphate, Hydantoin, Glyceryl caprylate, methylisothiazolinone (preservative)

My experience: I received this sample in a bottle but it's meant to be sprayed into the hair. Luckily, I had a small spray bottle left from another product so I could try this sample out. I sprayed this product into my hair and it was super easy to detangle. It's a very light detangler so unlike many products it did not make my fine blond hair look greasy. When I sprayed the products into my daughter's damp hair I noticed it did help detangle but not as much as the products I am used to. I really like the smell and the natural ingredients so I was really hoping this product would work for the whole family. If your child has hair that is not highly textured than this would be a great detangler it just didn't work as well for my daughter's hair type.

I believe my daughters hair is somewhere around 4a, this is not typical for a lot of b/w biracial children but her father is from South Sudan and she tends to lean towards his hair texture.

Wrap and Roll

Great for controlling unruly curls. Wrap & Roll adds control and shine, dries fast and clean, with no stiffness or leftover residue!

The Claim: Wrap & Roll is the best soft mouse, setting and wrapping product available. It dry’s clean, and soft without any residue. It is great for air drying color treated, and damaged hair. The natural glycerides, essential oils and moisturizers leave your hair soft and shiny. For setting or wrapping, dryer time is cut in half. Apply Wrap & Roll liberally to wet hair, and then let it dry naturally, or wrap/set as usual.


Ingredients : Deionized Water, Anthemis Noblis Flower (Camomile), Symphytum Officinal Leaf (Comfrey), Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail), Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Humulus Lupulus (Hops), Lawsonia Inermis (Henna), Certified Organic Essential Oils: Lemon, Grapefruit, Coco-Sultaine, Glycerine, Glyceryl caprylate, methylisothiazolinone (preservative)

My experience: I don't like to see textured hair being described as "Unruly" it's just one of those things that bother me. I don't think we can give our children a positive self-image when we describe their hair as "Unruly" "Unmanageable" etc... So when I saw this description on the Jane Carter Solution site I was a little disappointed. "Great for controlling Unruly Curls"

My second issue is that this product was meant to be a foam applied to hair before setting but yet again it was sent to me in a small plain bottle that does not allow the product to foam. I did not have any foaming bottles small enough for me to sample this product.

OVER ALL:

Though the samples were a little difficult to apply and some products were not right for my children's hair type this is not meant to be a negative review. I do like Jane Carter's philosophy. I like that the products are made with some awesome natural ingredients. I would love to try more of the products in the future to give you a better idea how the products work over all.

The "Ask Jane" Blog has some great hair advice and explanations of why natural products work best on the hair. I highly recommend you check it out!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Aubrey Organics, Honeysuckle Rose



I have been using Honeysuckle Rose Shampoo from Aubrey Organics for about a month now. I love the fact that I can use this shampoo on every member or the family with good results. The scent is very nice, natural, not so perfumed that the males in the house find it too scented. This shampoo cleans well without overdrying and leaves the hair feeling soft.

Here's what Aubrey Organics has to say:


For Dry, Brittle Hair


"The sweet smell of success for your hair. Achieve ultra-softness and manageability with this moisture-intensive shampoo. Restorative herbal emollients rehydrate hair fiber to overcome dryness and brittleness and leave hair irresistibly fragrant and silky-soft. Also recommended for bleached or highlighted hair. "



Many shampoos seem to clean the hair very well and make it feel very soft, AT FIRST. After awhile the shampoo starts to make the hair look dull and weighed down and you have to use a clarifying shampoo to remove all the waxy residue that the shampoo left behind, you hair turns back exactly the way it felt before. All the while you thought that the shampoo was mending your dry or damaged hair but all it was doing was waxing the hair to keep the damaged cuticle stuck down so the hair appeared softer, temporarily.


This is NOT something that is going to happen with Aubrey Organics shampoo!


The only thing I have noticed was that my daughter, J started getting dry scalp again. I bought a scalp moisturizer with tea tree oil and sectioned her hair into small sections and moisturizer her scalp and the problem was gone! Tea tree oil is awesome for dry scalp and dandruff problems!


INGREDIENTS: Deionized Water, Coconut Oil-Corn Oil Soap, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein (made from organic, non-GMO soybeans), Organic Aloe Vera, Carrageenan, Honeysuckle Oil, Organic Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Seed Oil; Extracts of Fennel, Hops, Balm Mint, Mistletoe, Camomile, Yarrow, Ginkgo, Ginseng, Angelica, Chrysanthemum, Magnolia, Horsetail, Coltsfoot and Forsythia; Vegetable Glycerin, Sweet Almond Oil, Linoleic Acid (Vitamin F), Vitamin E, Aloe Vera Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Organic Rosemary Oil, Organic Sage Oil, Aubrey's Preservative (Citrus Seed Extract, Vitamins A, C and E).