Aunt Jackie's Hair Products

I recently came across Aunt Jackie's products now available in SA. At first glance I was not sold. I like the packaging but the unnecessary colouring of the products just put me off. I think I first came across the images on one of my curl friends pages. If I could readily remember who it was I would thank them now. I have since tried to locate that post that I was almost certain was by Amanda Cooke. Still, here is my take on the products.

What caught my eye about these products is that it is geared at curly hair. It states that it is "For Natural Curls, Coils and Waves". I like the idea of a specific product. I also liked the highlights of "enriched with Shea Butter and Olive Oil", "Sulfate-Free/ Paraben-Free/No mineral Oi/ No Petrolatum".

The Ingredients:
Most of the ingredients check out. There are some ingredients in these products that carry a caution:
PPG-1 Trideceth-6 is an emollient that contains polypropylene glycol and thus also ethylene oxide- which is banned in the EU and Cananda for cosmetic use.

The rest of the issues with the ingredients are around he fragrances which can lead to irritation in people with sensitive skin. Polyquarternium-37 and Amyl cinnamic aldehyde for example. The rest of the ingredients are either in the ok or the good category.

The product line:

In control- Moisturising and softening conditioner

Knot on my watch-Instant Detangling therapy

Curl la la-Definign Curl Custard

Oh So Clean-shampoo

The look:

The packaging has a glass appearance but is in plastic. Not that I mind plastic I was actually surprised by how light it was. This means I am paying less and thats a good thing. I did not like the fact that each of the products has a different colour. I hate unnecessary pigment and fragrances in hair care. Unless I am actually trying to change the tone of my hair the added colours are a wasted add-on and expense. I am not a fan of the candy scents in these products. There are much better ways to apply actual oils to give products a good scent. This felt plastic. 

Price: The products range between R50-70 which seems cheap but in actual fact it is not considering the quantities. 

The Conditioner 255 g for R70

The Detangling therapy sells 177ml at R50

The Custard-R60

 All these measures are about 1 cup size at this cost. 

The feel and act on the hair:

The conditioner- Is light in that it is a lighter consistency. It was also light in action and offered a light hold. I did not feel like my hair was getting what it wanted. My curls did not set into place the way it does with a thicker or heavier conditioner. The conditioner felt like applying yoghurt. It seems to have lots of body but ends up applying like a yoghurt (just watery). The conditioner also did not have good slip. It was ok but not great. Also, for me a good conditioner has to be able to be diluted down for a leave-in application. I hate having to get three products to do a conditioning job. 

So, I added detangling therapy to the conditioner already in my hair and at this point I got a satisfactory weighing down-saturated feel. The detangling (er) itself is very light. On its own it would not have done as well as I would have expected. Or I would have had to use half the bottle to get what I wanted. In the detangling what I need is to get my hair completely covered by product to the point that it foams. Too little product ends up being a wasted washday exercise. So the products have to give a good balance between consistency and quality otherwise this becomes an expensive exercise. 

Curl la la- The custard. 

I liked it. As a treatment after the conditioner and detangling it worked well. My hair clumped easily and my curls dried separately. This in part is due to the Curl memory I have built up, still I liked how the product was able to follow suit. It had good slip and worked well. 

Overall- I would use the detangling and the custard for sure but I would not buy the conditioner again. 

Till next time

Love Naturally