The All Stars

Next week on August 2 I will be celebrating 1 year of being 100% natural.  As I look back over the last year I can tell you I have learned so much about my hair and about myself.  Like so many others what started out as a journey toward longer healthy hair has turned into a journey of self discovery. I have gained so much more self confidence and pride in who and what I am. I have learned to truly love my hair even on the bad hair days. I could never say that about my relaxed hair. And beyond that gone are the beliefs that I need to look like another race to be beautiful or attractive.  Along this journey I have met some of the most amazing women.  I think that is what has made this journey even more fulfilling are the random conversations I have had with people on blogs, YouTube, at natural hair events or even in the grocery store. It is like when other naturals come into contact with each other that we have a special sisterly bond immediately.  That never happened when I was relaxed. No one came up to me asking what product I used or how I got my hair to do a certain thing. But that happens almost daily as a natural. So after a year I am in reflection mode as you can see.  I wanted to do a post listing my favorite products, companies and websites for ordering. (this is a question I get alllll the time ;D)  enjoy

My Favorite Natural Hair Products (things that are always on my shelf)

The Kinky Curly Line will probably always be my favorite line. As a WnG girl nothing but nothing can do what Kinky Curly does for my hair and that is give me banging hair for 7 days!!!! I just did two videos on my YouTube channel (NurekaD) about the Kinky Curly line check it out.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this hair/body oil. I never use it on my body but I do use it on my hair EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!  I know I talk about the Darcy's Botanical Plum Kernel Nectar all the time but I am telling you I love it. I use this between my leave-in and gel when I do WnGs and each day their after to refresh my WnG. It is great and smells amazing. They do have other oils on the Darcy's web site but this is my favorite.

Curls Coconut Sublime Conditioner is my favorite go to conditioner. It smells great, has great slip and is a great value. Really what more could you ask for. This was actually one of the first natural hair products I tried when I was transitioning.  I purchase it at www.curls.biz and it is only $30 for 32oz!!!! Plus if you spend over $50 you get free shipping, so I always order 2. I love this stuff and I am never without a bottle of it. 

BASK YAM Nectar is allllll that. I did a full review on a post a couple of months ago. This is by far the best deep conditioner I have ever used hands down. My hair was super soft and stayed de-tangled for days. How is that even possible?  My fingers were gliding through my hair. My only regret is I did not buy more when I was at the Natural Hair Show. Trust me when my no buy is over I will be stocking up on this stuff.

Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade.  I freaking love this stuff. For starters it smells like hot caramel popcorn in the mall, like exactly like that.  Secondly it liquefies in your hands and is more like an oil. My hair loves it so much.  Whenever I pull my hair back in a puff I use this to slick back my hair and it does a great job and does not interfere with any of my stylers including Kinky Curly. This is another product you will always find on my shelf. 

My Favorite Natural Hair Companies

Kinky Curly -

Really do I even need to say why.

Curls-

They have a comprehensive line of natural hair products.  I have loved every single product I have used from this company. I love that they have a salon line ans a retail line so everyone is able to get their products. Great great customer service also.

Darcy's Botanicals-

Everything just smells so dang good from this company.  I love the Plum Kernel Nectar of course and the Pumpkin seed conditioner is off the chain!!!! I love most of the products I have tried from Darcy's.

Oyin Handmade-

Great customer service and super awesome products.  their website is super cute and I have loved everything I have tried. I keep Oyin products in my rotation.

BASK-

I have just within the last few months started to use BASK products but everything I try makes me want to do a huge order with them to buy more. Great ingredients and they sell out all the time so that should tell you something. 

My Favorite Websites to order from

Other than ordering directly from the company I have found the following to be great sites for their deals, customer service and for getting your order to you quickly.

www.iherb.com

this is the best place to buy Kinky Curly because of the price, free shipping and no sales tax, plus if you spend over $80 you get 5% off!!! And you get your order super fast.

www.aveyou.com

They have sales all the time, great deals on shipping and they have a wide range of products

www.curlmart.com

SALES ALLLLLL the time great deals on shipping and free samples with every purchase

www.sagenaturalceuticals.com 

Absolutely awesome customer service. They are very quick to get your order to you and they have a huge variety of products.

www.nounouboutique.com

Very personal customer service and super fast delivery with samples. 

When Good Products Go Bad

As you know I am currently doing a no buy challenge (check out Naturally Nu's No Buy Challenge page on Facebook), which means I can not buy any new hair products until the Black Friday sales the day after Thanksgiving.  Last night I received confirmation that this is the best thing I could be doing right now. My daughter, Minnie, was going through my products trying to decide what to use on her hair to style it for today. She brought a jar of Darcy's Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme to me and said ,"Mommy I think this has gone bad."  I took a whiff of it and sure enough the smell had changed completely.  When I purchased this product over a year ago it smelled like vanilla cake, now it smells like bad Elmer's glue.  The sad part is the jar is almost completely full and I really liked it!!!! Ughhh Ok I do want to be clear this is NOT a fault with Darcy's Botanicals Products. The products made by this company are amazing and I do use their products each and everyday. I could not live with out my Darcy's Botanicals Plum Kernel Nectar, I literally use it every single day. One thing that is easy to forget is the products I used when I was relaxed lasted for years because they were full of artificial ingredients, additives and preservatives. When you use products with all natural ingredients it's like buying fresh produce at the grocery store it will only last so long. Some natural hair companies post expiration dates on their products others tell you that it will last a certain number of months after the seal is broken.With all that being said the problem in this case is me.  That's right I have to look at the Natural in the Mirror. I have so many products that I open something and then I try something else and then something else and meanwhile because I only use all natural products that are free of the additives and preservatives they can start to go south.  So in addition to a "No Buy" I am making a new rule: If I open something and I like it I have to use it all before I open a new product in that same category no matter how bad I want try another product. SMH I still can not believe I let this happen because I really did like the product. As a matter of fact I have never tried a single Darcy's Botanicals product that I did not love. So let this be a lesson to you if you like it use it and don't open too many at the same time. Lesson learned now time to use up some products. Oh and I almost forgot.. School is out Yiippee. (I'm a High School Assistant Principal) so I will be doing alot more experimenting with my hair and products so be on the lookout for reviews and even some new hair styles.

National Natural Hair Meet Up Day: Presented By Derby City Naturals

May 19,2012

http://www.nnhmd.com

National Natural Hair Meetup Day was a day where beautiful ladies across the country gathered together on the same day to meet, mingle and show each other love all in the name of natural hair.  Locally Haley of Derby City Naturals (check out www.derbycitynaturals.com) organized the Metro Louisville meetup.  There was great food, various vendors, an awesome panel discussion with experts in hair, skincare, modeling and even a nationally known blogger.  There were tons of giveaways (OVER 30!!!) and the best part of all SWAG bags!!!!! There were two levels of swag bags. The was regular admission swag bag that contained numerous samples and 1 full size product and a VIP swag bag that had tons of samples and 2 full sized products. Both bags also had tons of coupon codes for products that were in the bags. Now which level do you think I got... You guessed it VIP!!!!!! Below you can see pics of all my goodies. Haley did a phenomenal job getting sponsors for the swag bags.  She truly went above and beyond to make sure this was an awesome event.  I  am still in awe of all her hard work.  I now have tons of new products to try and review for you guys. Not sure when I will get to all of them but I plan to start experimenting very soon.  So stay tuned between these items and all the stuff from the hair show I should be posting tons of reviews. 

View from the top of the inside of my VIP swag bag

all my samples and full sized products minus the coupon codes

Items I purchased from the vendors at the NNHMD

If you missed out this year no worries, there will another NNHMD next year on May 18, 2013.  Stay tuned to http://www.nnhmd.com for more details.  

Product Review: COCO Curls Moisturizing Styling Cream

Available at www.cococurls.com

8 oz $15 16oz $25

I was able to get mine at the World Natural Hair Show 2- 8oz for $20

It is thick and creamy and smells like butterscotch candy. Yum

From their website

"Coco Curls combines the properties of both  SHINE & MOISTURE, as well as HOLD & DEFINITION. A small amount goes a long way and works best with wet hair. You don’t have to worry about a white residue or greasy after affect – perfect for wearing a 2 strand twist style right out the salon! Coco Curls is made with all natural ingredients, that combine to nourish and strengthen natural hair." 

Ingredients:

Aloe Vera Juice, Shea Butter, Jojoba Oil, Coconut Oil, Cetearyl Olivate and Sorbitan Olivate, Hydroxypropyl trimonium Honey, Lactobacillus Ferment, Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil (and) Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract,  Dehydroxanthan Gum, Fragrance Oils.

Minnie's hair in 2 stand twists with Coco Curls

The back

Twist out results after keeping twists in for a week and a half

Side View- Great Curl Definition

She loved her hair. Yes those are feetie pj's lol 

Beautiful Curls

I stalk YouTube for product reviews.  Before going to the hair show I saw lots of vloggers reviewing the Coco Curls Moisturizing Styling Cream and all the reviews were very positive.  I also knew they were going to have a booth at the World Natural Hair Show so I decided this would be a great time to give it a try because not only could I buy it at a discounted price but I could also get it without paying shipping. Winning! I have to say the ladies that were working the booth were very friendly and eager to help. They were running a deal to buy 1 for $12 or 2 for $20. I love a good deal so I walked away with 2.  When I got home I decided my oldest daughter, Minnie, would be the one to test this product. The label says you do not need a leave-in and that you can use it for wash n go's or twists. So for an entire week Miana tried using it for WnG's  both with and without a leave in. The result was not very good. There was not much curl definition and lots of frizz.  So I decided to try it for 2 strand twists. SUCCESS!!!!! She washed and conditioned her hair and I applied Curls brand creme brulee as a leave-in conditioner and then CoCo Curls on top and I twisted her hair. The results were amazing. The first pictures are of the day after I twisted her hair.  She wore the twists for over a week and a half and then took the twists out.  While her hair was twisted NO extra product was used, no water, no sprays and no oils or butters. Her hair stayed moisturized the entire time.  She did not even add any more product to her hair after she took the twists out.  It was not until day 3 of her twist out that I took a small amount of the Coco Curls and rubbed it through her hair.  Today she is still rocking her twist-out and it still looks really good. Today is day 5 of her twist out.  So lets add this up she had the twists in for a week and a half and so far has had her twist out for 5 days, that is over two weeks on one application of the product and I only had to do her her one time!!! Winning again!!!  I can say we really like this product and will purchase it again. I don't think it works well for WnG's but it is outstanding for twists. I give this product an A+++++++++. 

What is a Product Junkie?

Hello my name is Naturally Nu and I'm a product junkie. The first step is to admit you have a problem.  So what is a product junkie? Someone who loves products and buys products even if they do not need them. As you can see from the picture I love products. I have tons of sweet smelling things that promise to do wonders for my hair. Now before I get into how I have accumulated such a stock pile of products let me tell you my weakness.... There are three things that when you combine them make me powerless to say no to a product. 1. A great smell. 2. Cute packaging. 3. A sale or free item with purchase. When you put all that together its a done deal I'm gonna have to get it. Now that you understand that let's talk about the things you see on the table. I have many products that do pretty much the same thing but they have different scents. I love variety so at any given time I may have 4 different conditioners in My shower and I may love them all. I also love trying different products and seeing how they will work with my hair. Now in my defense much of what I have now is from huge haul purchases made during Black Friday deals. I was like a kid in a candy store. I did put myself on punishment from purchasing new product for a while. LOL yeah right. I admit I have already placed 3 more online orders and made a trip to the beauty supply store. The great news is I can do product reviews on everything and maybe save you guys some money and time. Stay tuned for those reviews

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