Product Review: Design Essentials Almond & Avocado Detangling Leave-In AND Twist & Set Setting Lotion

A few weeks, okay its now a number of weeks ago - times flies, I decided to put my curling wands  aka flexirods to good use.

The products I used included Design Essentials Almond & Avocado Detangling Leave-In Conditioner and the Design Essentials Twist & Set Setting Lotion.

I have a few products from their Natural range (3 were given to me and the rest
I bought) and I have been hoping to get some reviews up. I will start off with these and get around to the others if I remember to take pics whilst using them (I am almost out of the leave-in - sigh).
Just abit on the method used to obtain the end results.
1)On the Sunday morning of that weekend I deep conditioned my hair with ORS Hair Mayonnaise, placed a plastic cap aka shower cap over this, then a head-wrap aka scarf and went to the car wash.
2) I completed a few other chores and then rinsed my hair and used my old t-shirt to lightly dry. I then got all my tools - wide tooth comb, hair grips, flexirods (I bought these whilst living abroad and brought them back with me), mirror and products. 
3) I took each section I was working with, applied the leave-in conditioner and then sprayed on the Twist and Set Setting Lotion smoothing this down each section together with a curler - I could not find my brush sigh, then took a wand and rolled the hair on making sure I turned the wand in the opposite direction of rolling once I got to my scalp or the start of the hair, to keep it in place.
4) Once the head was covered in wands (I did not use too many), I air dried till bed time and then covered with my satin scarf aka doek and went to dreamland.

5) I took the wands off gently making sure my hands were covered with a little oil and then gently parted each curl to the desired style.

  

The front was cool and there was major frizz in the back but I didn't mind.

The Hair Loves: the scent of both products is on point. The hair quite likes the leave-in and how it adds some layer of protection to the hair. I could actually feel the strands smooth out slightly as I applied it and depending on how I applied it. The bottle says it is 'non-sticky' which indeed it is non-sticky. 'Instantly soften hair and smooth the cuticle', yes I agree. The hair loves the light-medium hold of the setting lotion as the style did hold up for the day - but just for the day. It also appeared to help the hair dry quicker although the hair was not too wet to begin with. A good thing I suppose especially if you hair takes forever to dry like mine.

The Hair Wanted More or Less of: the hair would have liked less frizz but I think this boils down to how you smooth your hair and my roots are kinkier than my ends and also depends on whether heat is used. I also did not use any other butter or oil and may try this next time. I also would have liked the leave-in to be a bit more moisturizing, my hair tends to get quite dry if I don't spritz or anything in the day or after wash day. I don't think I would use this leave-in on its own. 

The Hair Did Not Take Well To:the leave-in conditioner does have some mineral oil in it after the 5th ingredient and I guess this is why it is not as moisturising as I would like it. I am not totally against mineral oil as I believe it all depends on what style you are trying to achieve if any at all and your hair will always tell you about its preferences, if no style is required then I stay very far away from mineral oil. My hair does not like mineral oil and I have tried other products with mineral oil in the top 5 ingredients and my hair will not go past day one without complaining. The setting lotion has some 'cones' in it and you can read up on the good and bad silicones and as you will see below, day 2 hair was not happy at all (and yes I didn't do anything to it in the evening before but still). The hair was not hard but a little on the rough side. I did have to use a shampoo to wash the product out, if you try to use water only or not wash, you can feel the product in your hair. I would say maybe spritz some water and use the wands again on the evening of day 1 but do not spray more product on. I will try this next time and let you know.

 The end of Day One

 Day Two as you can see I have to work at my hair and my final remedy was a wrap 

Overall - would I use the products again, yes, especially if trying to attain a specific style such as that attained with the curling wands. You can get more style inspiration from the web or follow one of Design Essentials step by step guides found HERE. (I have one of the guide booklets and will do a post on a style I have tried from it).

The Design Essentials products can be bought in some salons - speak to Niche Hair Care or Design Essentials South Africa to find out where specifically or they can be bought online from the following sites: (in alphabetical order)
http://www.dehair.co.za/ (keep your eye on this site for the Design Essentials Coconut and Monoi Naturals Range possibly coming out in June).
http://mzansifro.co.za/shop.html
http://www.naturendi.com/
http://www.nichehaircare.co.za/ 

You can get the curling wands for varying prices from Clicks or Dischem and I have recently bought some thicker purple ones from Raf Hair in Joburg CBD for R30 a pack.

Try a new style and as always listen to your hair.