D-I-Y Nappturaliciously: Mixtress Magic - Curl Recipes from NaturallyCurly.com

When I worked at Carol's Daughter years ago (in their Customer Service department), I had a few opportunities to chat with Founder Lisa Price. She's a very sweet, and down-to-earth woman, who knows her sugar-honey-iced-tea when it comes to the D-I-Y approach to hair care!

Because of this, I was not surprised in the least when I read on NaturallyCurly.com that they had partnered with Carol's Daughter to provide a one stop shop for a bit of Mixtress Magic on Demand!!! Not only does Lisa share some of her favorite recipes, but readers are invited to add their own!!! Here are a few of my favorites:

Hair Rinse

This rinse is ideal to boost shine and soothe the scalp. Made with chamomile flowers and lavender it's as beautifying as it is relaxing.

Ingredients:

2 cups water
Chamomile Flowers (handful)
Lavender Buds (handful)
Fresh Peppermint Leaves (small bunch)
Chopped Fresh Parsley (small bunch)
1 large Lemon
Chopped Rosemary (small bunch)
10 drops of rose geranium essential oil

Directions:

Chop herbs and flowers and place in 2 cups of water. Squeeze lemon and add juice. Boil and let cool. Strain mixture to separate water Pour throughout hair after cleansing and conditioning. Do not rinse out. Style as usual May also be placed in the fridge in a spray bottle to freshen curls in between shampoos.

Scalp Exfoliating Treatment

These are one of my favorite recipes to make. Outside of it smelling good enough to eat, its fun to make. In order to have healthy hair, you have to start with a healthy scalp. I like using sugar for the scalp because its gentler than salt.

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1/4 c. Coconut Milk
2 Tbsp Grated Coconut
2 Tbsp. Honey
Lemon Zest from 1 Lemon
Oil Elixir:
2 Tbsp Sunflower seed oil
2 Tbsp Soy oil
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 drops of lemongrass, grapefruit and geranium essential oil

Directions:

1. Empty dry contents into a bowl 2. With a spoon, stir together and mash any clumps of brown sugar 3. Stir in coconut milk and honey 4. Once thoroughly mixed, slowly stir in 2 tablespoons of the Oil Elixir.

Key Tips for Mixtresses from Lisa Price

1. Always write down exactly what you do when you make a recipe, even if it's rough notes. It can be annoying because you want to be creative and grab things, but if it comes out glorious and you can’t remember what you did it's hard to recreate steps. If it comes out horrible, you can figure what went wrong and fix it.

2. Never be afraid to experiment. If it sounds interesting, go for it.

3. Two of my staples are shea butter and cocoa butter; they are like butter and eggs. You can make a cake without them, but it’s not going to be as good. There’s simply a texture and richness that the combo of shea butter and cocoa butter brings to things.

4. When it comes to oils, opt for ones that don't have a heavy odor associated with them. You can blend them and not have the base oil interfere with the fragrance. Some good oils to work with are wheat germ oil, coconut oil and macadamia oil. You get effectiveness without weight.

5. If you're a new mixtress, avoid recipes with glycerin. It tends to be sticky and tacky, which can be challenging.

6. If you're working with a recipe containing bananas and avocados, it needs to be used right away. Even if you're putting it in the refrigerator, it can turn bad too quickly.

7. A lot of times people think they can infuse fragrance from real flowers, but buying botanical oils are cheaper. It takes about 4,000 pounds of rose petals to distill one ounce of attar of rose (essential oil of rose).

8. Some of the easiest recipes for beginning mixtresses include hair oils, scalp exfoliation treatments and herbal rinses.

9. If you’re making products as gifts or to sell, you need to disclose ingredients on the label. You never know what somebody’s allergic to.

10. Some good books for beginning mixtresses include:


"The Art of Aromatherapy: The Healing and Beautifying Properties of the Essential Oils of Flowers and Herbs" by Robert Tisserand


"Aromatherapy Book: Inhalations and Applications"by Jeanne Rose


"Aromatherapy Workbook" by Marcel Lavabre

To check out all of the recipes, be sure to visit the Curl Recipes homepage at NaturallyCurly.com

D-I-Y Nappturaliciously: Carol's Daughter Monoi Collection Review

When I still worked for Carol's Daughter (in their Customer Service Department), I remember a lot of buzz around the company about the Monoi Collection they were developing and how it was going to be a game changer in regards to their hair care lines. The key ingredient in this line, of course is Monoi, (pronounced "muh-noy") a 2,000 year-old sacred, Tahitian ingredient that (according to their website) " undoes and prevents damage for fewer breaks, snaps and splits."

Since Frizzeeda 2.0 has been running things on top of my head for most of June, I thought this would be a good time to invest in the Monoi collection, because for me frizz=dryness=shedded hair & breakage, and I need all the protection I can get during the rest of summer.

What I bought:
Monoi Repairing Shampoo
Monoi Repairing Conditioner
Monoi Repairing Hair Mask

Since my usual summer staple, Kizzy "Stay Put" Hair Pomade is not in stock, I also snatched up a jar of Mimosa Hair Honey (Kizzy fans - this and Loc Butter are both good alternatives)... And boy I miss my employee discount!! LMAO

A little info about each product from the Carol's Daughter Website:

MONOI REPAIRING SHAMPOO

Monoi Oil provides all over conditioning from root to tip
Hibiscus Extract helps improve detangling when hair's wet
Coconut-derived Cleansers gently cleanse your without stripping away moisture

MONOI REPAIRING CONDITIONER

Monoi Oil intensely conditions your hair
Bamboo Water helps reinforce your hair's structure from the inside

MONOI REPAIRING HAIR MASK

Monoi Oil deeply nourishes your hair
Bamboo Water helps reinforce your hair's structure from the inside
Hydrolyzed Silk helps fortify your hair against future damage

Excited to put my newly acquired goodies to use, I headed home and after separating Frizzeeda into two sections, I stepped into the shower to apply the shampoo and conditioner.

After rinsing out the conditioner, I wasn't really bowled over at how my hair was feeling.. it felt a bit frizzy and stripped, but I chalked it up to possibly applying too much.

If you can believe this... this is my wet hair just out the shower!!

I followed up with the Repairing Mask, which my hair really seemed to like as I was applying. It had some great slip, but on my thick, shoulder length hair, I had to almost use the entire jar!

Side-by-side comparison of my freshly washed and conditioned hair, with my hair after applying the mask.

After applying the mask to my entire head, I covered it up with a conditioning cap and let it stay in my hair for about an hour and a half.

After rinsing, I noticed my hair felt very soft, but still extremely frizzy. Using the Mimosa Hair Honey (and sealing my ends with some Vatika Oil), I braided my hair as usual...

All in all, I wasn't thrilled with the results of using the Monoi Collection. It seemed to make my hair excessively frizzy, and once I let the braids down and rocked my usual braid out for the week, the frizz only got a lot worse, which made detangling my hair this past weekend a lot more difficult.

I think that the Monoi Collection might be a better winter option for my hair, and I will definitely try it again during colder weather to see if the results improve. Have you tried Carol's Daughter Monoi Collection? What were your thought?!?! Leave a comment and dish!

D-I-Y Nappturaliciously: Carol's Daughter Black Vanilla Frizz Fighter Set Results

Last week, in my never-ending quest to tame the frizz, I used Carol's Daughter Frizz Fighter Set.

This was my hair Sunday, when I let down the braids for my braid-out. I was very happy with the results!




As I promised, I periodically took pictures of my hair during the week, to show the progression. This week was pretty hot, but not ridiculously so. I did manage to get caught in the rain once this week. Here's the forecast from this past week in NYC:



So did I win in the battle against the dreaded "Frizzeeda"? Let's see:

Each night, I applied a small squirt of Hair Balm to my hair and separated it into two sections. I then pinned my hair into kitten buns (that's what I call 'em.. if they have another name, let me know! lol), covered with a scarf and proceeded to BED-fordshire!



See what I mean? Kitten Buns! LMAO

Here's how my hair looked Monday evening after work:



Not bad, huh? Here is how my hair looked on Wednesday after work:



And this is how my hair is looking tonight (AFTER riding home on the C Train with no air-conditioning!!!)



So all-in-all, I think that the Frizz Fighter Set did what it claimed it would do... While it didn't eliminate my frizzy hair entirely... I still had curl definition after a week of sweating up a storm. And most importantly... my hair didn't feel like a tumbleweed with dryness!!! As my usual ritual, I am going to finish using the set until it runs out and decide if it is ultimately worth the expense.

D-I-Y Nappturaliciously: Carol's Daughter Black Vanilla Frizz Fighter Set Review

My hair has been taking on a life of its own the past few weeks.... a life I have come to name "Frizzeeda". While I love the way the frizz makes my hair look, I do not like the excess of tangles and dryness. For the past few weeks, I've been searching and searching for a product that would curtail the excess frizz without weighing my hair down and causing a lot of product build up, some I've actually liked for other reasons, but none has really done the job.


It's super cute, but the tangles and dryness I had at the end of the week were no bueno!! I want my hair to look good and feel good!

I remembered that last summer I did a braid-out using Kizzi 'Stay Put' Hair Pomade from Carol's Daughter (using the remnants of a HUUUUGE 16 ounce tub of the stuff from my days working for the company!) and loved the results. So I decided that this weekend I would get myself over to Carol's Daughter and get some tout suite!

I ended up getting the Black Vanilla Frizz Fighter Set ($46, Carol's Daughter)



This set includes:

Black Vanilla Shampoo, 8 fl. oz.
Black Vanilla Smoothie, 8 oz.
Hair Balm, 4 oz.
Kizzi “Stay Put” Hair Pomade, 2 oz.

I also got the Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner, primarily because I love it! I have never used the Black Vanilla Shampoo before, so I was excited about trying it out.

Recently I my Natural Hair Tips for the fantabulous blog Everything She Wants where I shared an epiphany I had recently: I don't need to lather, rinse and repeat as my hair cleanses thoroughly very easily. Since recognizing that... the stripping I've experienced with shampoo in the past has been a thing of the past.

So I separated my hair into four sections and braided them down, got into the shower, unbraided a section, applied the Black Vanilla Shampoo, lathered it up, and rinsed thoroughly. The first thing I noticed is that the shampoo lathered a lot more than I am used to with Carol's Daughter shampoos, which made me have to check out the ingredients:

Water (Aqua), Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamide DEA, Lauramide DEA, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Leaf Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Melilotus Officinalis (Sweet Clover) Extract, Rosa Canina Flower Extract, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Glycerin, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Potassium Cocoate, Polysorbate 20, Polyquaternium-7, Polyquaternium-10, PEG-150 Distearate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Caramel, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance (Parfum)

Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate is supposed to be a milder alternative to SLS, perhaps a "lesser of two evils" sort of chemical.

Once I washed each of the four sections, and braided each section, I applied the Black Vanilla Hair Smoothie. The consistency was a lot thicker than I remembered, which I instantly loved because in my mind thick conditioner = more concentrated conditioning.



Yikes!! I need to get my eyebrows waxed!! LOL

Anyway -- I left it in my hair, under conditioning cap for about two hours, rinsed thoroughly and proceeded to doing the braids for my braid out.

I sprayed each section of my hair heavily with the Black Vanilla Leave-In Conditioner, which is just dope as hell. I then parted my hair in rows, applied the Kizzi and braided my hair down. I did this Saturday night, so I had to use my Mum's trusty hooded blow dryer just to ensure that my hair will be dry in time for work on Monday (Yeah, that's right.... MONDAY!!!!!!! LOL)



So far I noticed that after every step in the process, my hair was noticeably shinier and easier to work through. The Black Vanilla scent is addictive..... and I've missed the high! But what about the frizz fighting? We shall see on Friday, for my follow up on this review.

During the week, at night (possibly every other night) I plan on applying the hair balm to maintain the shine. I will be sure to take pictures during the week for the final results!!