natural coils curling jelly
distilled water, organic aloe juice, vegetable glycerine, organic coconut cream, organic castor oil, sea moss extract, organic brown rice extract, hydrolyzed oats, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, citric acid, and fragrance.
i got this little gem from a quaint meetup at least two months ago with chebaby and charzboss of lhcf. che was selling because she didn't like it, so we decided to meet up and swap. i'm glad it was free. i'd been eyeing darcy's botanicals (link) for a while now, but i couldn't quite get over the price and size, not that either were unreasonable. this cost $12 for 8 oz, which isn't too bad in regards to natural hair care products. still, 8 oz is actually a lot of product and i didn't want to commit to that size (and this was months ago when my twa was still very teeny) without knowing if i would like it or not. so i was more than happy to relieve che of her burden. :]
first off, i have to say that out of all the handmade products i've tried so far, darcy's botanicals is by far the most polished and professional. an extremely clean and simple site to navigate, with thorough information on each product. presentation is flawless and each product looks delectable. the product comes in a nicely sized jar, with a silver screw lid (which i really like; you might be able to see the details in the picture above). the light green label is a fresh, faint green, adding to the kind of muted, pastel summer day theme of the line.
the coils jelly is scented very richly... a juicy, summer peach scent is clean, light, and pretty much perfect - i have never had a product with such a crisp, candy scent like this one. the consistency is wiggly and jiggly, and much looser/thin than regular gel; you could pour this out of the jar. i was a little surprised at this, as i've never had a product with this consistency. i would compare it to kinky curly curling custard (which i have never used, but i've seen videos on youtube) but a tad bit looser.
so, the day i get home, i dampen my hair with my trusty spray bottle and decide to spread a little of this in my hurr. and that same day i put it in storage. it made my hands vaguely sticky and ain't define a thing and peaches aren't even my favorite fruit, so whatever. in retrospect, i realize that i did have about 2-3 products in my hair already and just running my hands through my hair never do a thing.
i decided to revisit friday because i was cleaning out my room (to make space for my new stash).i was going to pass it on to a newly natural friend, but i would give it another fair try first. from my first experience, i was fully prepared to hate it. so ready to toss it in my bag and hand it off. i was braced for my hair to be a frizzy, nothing-special bush.
and dammit if it didn't do the exact opposite.
i co-washed my hair friday morning so i could shingle on fresh, clean hair. this is also my first time shingling in earnest and it took me maybe 15-20 minutes, which i think is really good. i hopped right out the shower, and got to work. i put nothing on my hair but the coils jelly. i started from the back, parting small sections with my fingers and taking a generous glob of product and running it through my hair, smoothing my fingers over the section to combat frizz. i ended up using a lot of product because i am too heavy handed for my own good.
my hair was soft, moisturized, perfectly defined, fragrant... and pretty much perfection. i was floored. my hair dried not hard, but not soft either; medium. my curls weren't crunchy or stiff at all, but it's hard to describe. they were sculpted, i should say. majority of my hair dried with no residue, except the front, where i really globbed it on because i was rushing and didn't section properly. and even the front didn't dry into that embarrassingly obvious flaky residue. it just made my hair look wet. but apart from that, my entire head was sheeny, soft, and well defined.
and get this.
my fro was a perfect circle. this never happens. lately, my crown has just exploded into an uncurly mess - no pattern at all, it just all sticks straight up, and i really don't like it. and my halo is a looser curl than the rest of my head and the area right before my crown likes to curl up tightly, so my head looks so uneven and bumpy. not this time. it even got the thumbs up from my boyfriend, who is always telling me to pick it out.
funny how a product i was fully prepared to hate turns out to be the best product i've tried thus far. so would i repurchase? sigh. yes, yes, and yes.
