Ouidad – Curl on a Mission

Ouidad Hair Product Review | Part 2

Published on September 9, 2013July 24, 2018 by Thaïs5 Comments

Back in August I was lucky enough to win one of the Ouidad weekly Unfurl Your Curl contests. The prize was an Ultimate Gift Set of eight products for curly hair. These are high-end, salon quality products, so it’s been a pleasure to be able to use and review them. You can check out my reviews of the Essential Daily Shampoo and Conditioner, the Moisture Lock Leave-in Conditioner, and the Tress Effects Styling Gel here.

For this post, I am reviewing the following:

12 Minute Deep Treatment

Of the eight products, this was the only one I received in the 2.5 oz trial size, and when I looked up the price I understood why. A 2.5 oz bottle regularly sells for $26! Expectations were high. The good news – for long hair this amount is plenty for one deep treatment. For those with shoulder-length and shorter hair, you can get multiple treatments out of it.

I normally leave deep conditioners in my hair for an hour or more, or if I’m short on time, 30 minutes minimum. So I was curious how well my hair would absorb this one in only 12 minutes. I shampoo’d with Ouidad Clear & Gentle Essential Daily Shampoo, separated my hair into four sections, and applied a liberal amount of the deep treatment to each. Normally, my biggest gripe with deep conditioners, even the good ones, is that they lack the “slip” of regular conditioner, making them hard to comb through. Not the case with this treatment; my wide-tooth comb easily slid through as I combed the product in. I put my hair in a bun, put on a plastic cap, and per the directions, heated my hair with a blow dryer and let the product sit on my hair for 12 minutes. Also per the directions, I added a bit of my regular conditioner to my hair before I rinsed it all out, to help seal in the nourishing ingredients.

Even as I was rinsing out the deep conditioner, I could feel the softness of my hair. I followed up with Ouidad Moisture-Lock Leave-In Conditioner and a bit of Climate Control Heat and Humidity Gel. I was starting with pretty rough hair after 3 days straight of saltwater swimming. When my hair dried it was noticeably softer and my curls were so well-behaved! The only downside is because my hair was so moisturized, I lost some volume (we must all make sacrifices sometimes). For a 12-minute deep conditioner, it really did the job!

Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel

This was the product I was most excited to try. I don’t like using a lot of gel in my hair because I hate the tacky, stiff feeling, but I heard that this one worked wonders. I decided to give it a try on my recent trip to Miami, knowing I could really put the product to the test with the tropical weather. After washing and conditioning, I layered a small amount of the gel over my leave-in. The first thing I noticed about this gel is that it is thinner than the Tress Effects Styling Gel, and not as sticky, which was encouraging. As my hair air dried, I definitely felt the hold that gel provides, but once it was completely dry and I scrunched out the crunch, my hair really was soft AND defined. It even lasted through dinner on the patio and night of dancing. (Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from that night because I was too busy having fun.) I liked this gel much better than the Tress Effects gel, and will likely re-purchase it when I run out (which will probably be forever since I use so little at a time).

Botanical Boost Moisture Infusing & Refreshing Spray

I like this product, but I have to say I don’t love it. I am all for refreshing sprays. My curls tend to lose their shape after the first or second day. To revive them, I’ve created my own mixture of water, leave-in conditioner, and coconut oil that I spray onto my hair whenever the curls fall flat or get really dry. This homemade concoction works well for me, so I was really hoping that Ouidad’s mixture worked better. The first time I tried the refreshing spray, I used it on second-day hair on which I had applied one of my staple leave-ins. It did a pretty good job; it definitely gave me a moisture boost and left my hair feeling soft. The second time I tried it, it was also on second-day hair, on which I had applied the Ouidad Moisture Lock Leave-In Conditioner and the Tress Effects Styling Gel. Maybe my hair was already dry from the gel, but the spray didn’t do a whole lot. To be fair, it brought a couple of curls back to life, but overall my hair still seemed pretty frizzy. Here’s a before and after photo:

Before and after using Ouidad Botanical Boost — Only a slight difference

On my hair, it seems to work best when I don’t have any gel in my hair from the previous day. Given the amount of refreshing spray I use, I’ll likely stick with my own mixture once I run out of Botanical Boost (but I will use it all!).

Styling Mist Setting & Holding Spray

The directions say this mist can be used as a hair spray on dry styles or as a setting mist when styling wet hair. I decided to use it as a hair spray when I recently styled my hair using pin curls. After I’d blow dried my hair and rolled and pinned each section, I sprayed a couple pumps of the Styling Mist all over my head. I’d applied it pretty lightly but it still had the hold that I need on dry styles. I then tied a scarf around my hair and went to sleep. The next morning, I took down my hair and had gorgeous, smooth, shiny ringlets. Not hard or crunchy at all. The look I was going for required looser waves, so I combed through the ringlets, and spritzed them once more with the Styling Mist before putting them in a loose pony tail to stretch them. I was flying to Miami that day, and by the time I took down my hair again later on to style it, my hair was still smooth, shiny and frizz-free. This product worked well for my hair, and I can’t wait to try it as a setting mist next.

Overall, I’m a fan of the majority of Ouidad products I tried from the Ultimate Gift Set. My favorites are the Climate Control Gel, Moisture Lock Leave-in, Deep Treatment, and Styling Mist. These products get an A+ from me in terms of moisture, curl definition and light hold. I’ll be scraping the bottom of the bottle with these for sure!

Ouidad Hair Product Review | Part 1

Published on August 19, 2013July 24, 2018 by Thaïs3 Comments

It’s here! The loot of hair products I won in the Ouidad Unfurl Your Curl contest has arrived, and I feel like a kid in a candy store. I was expecting trial size bottles, but the Ultimate Gift Set included 8.5 oz sizes of everything except the repair treatment. Thank you Ouidad! Of course, I wasted no time, and set out almost immediately to sample the goods. Because I received eight products from the line, I’m going to review them in batches. In this post, I’ll review the following:

Clear & Gentle Essential Daily Shampoo
To begin, this product, as they all do, smells very clean. I love a fresh, clean smell, which is especially important if you have a lot of hair that you don’t wash daily. I jumped in the shower, thoroughly wet my hair, then applied a silver dollar size amount to my scalp and worked it in. A little goes a long way! This shampoo is a low pH cleanser, and the description claims that it’s a low foaming formula, but it foamed right up on my hair, which I liked. My scalp tends to get oily and weigh my hair down, so I like a bit of lather. I used a tiny bit more for the rest of my hair and worked it through. I’ve been using a sulfate-free shampoo for the last few months, so I wondered if this would leave my hair feeling stripped. It didn’t. It did, however, give me that “squeaky clean” feeling, which I like after I’ve used silicone-based products, or if my hair is really dirty, but not necessarily on a daily basis. I’d definitely use this again when my hair needs a thorough cleansing, but not daily.

Balancing Rise Essential Daily Conditioner
Conditioner is probably the most important product I use, next to a leave-in. My hair is a beast to detangle, so I like products with lots of slip and nourishing ingredients so I don’t have to apply a ton of styling products afterward. Like the others, this product smells wonderful. Even better, it works wonderfully! It claims to “provide the proper protein balance” and make hair easy to detangle, and I’d have to agree with both. I always divide my hair into two sections to condition, applying a LOT of product, working my way up from the bottom to the top. I used about a fourth of the 8.5 oz bottle. I was surprised that this conditioner had some foam action to it, but even more surprised when it “plumped” my hair! It actually made my hair expand as it filled the shaft with moisture and protein. I’d started with pretty tangled hair, but detangling was easy with a wide tooth comb. I left the conditioner in for 10-15 minutes, then rinsed it all out, though the directions say you can leave some at the ends as a leave-in. I really liked this conditioner; however, I was surprised when I rinsed it completely out and my hair had a bit of that “squeaky” feeling leftover. It didn’t feel dry, but I’m not a big fan of squeaky feeling hair after I’ve conditioned. It was GREAT at detangling so I’ll definitely use it again; next time I just won’t rinse it out completely.

Moisture Lock™ Leave-In Conditioner
Of all the products, this one smells the best to me – a light baby powder scent. As far as application, this was my favorite product of the four! I really don’t have anything critical to say about this product. It felt light, smooth and conditioning as I raked it through, and I could see the curls and waves starting to form. A little goes a long way; I applied about a nickel size amount to each of two sections. Although I used this leave-in with a gel this time, next time I’ll use it by itself to see what the difference is.

Tress Effects Styling Gel
This is the product I was most hesitant to use, because I rarely apply gel throughout my hair. I like a lot of volume, and most times I can’t achieve that with a lot of gel. I do use it; I just smooth a little over the crown and scrunch it into the ends, but rarely do I section my hair and apply it throughout. But I was determined to use the product according to the directions, so I sectioned my hair into four, and applied about a nickel size amount to each. I even attempted Ouidad’s Rake & Shake method! (Yes, I was feeling fancy.) The gel was very light and not too sticky. I was curious to see what kind of hold this would give me, or if it would dry stiff and crunchy, as most gels do. Here’s what my hair looked like with all the products applied:

Review of Ouidad hair products — (L) Hair after applying leave-in and gel; (R) Curls starting to form

The Results
I probably should have chosen a better day to test these products, because it was raining and my hair was taking forever to dry. So after air drying for five hours, I finally diffused it dry. As it dried, it did feel stiff from the gel, but not overly so, and it was just the product doing its job and locking in the curl. Once I diffused and moved my hair around the crunch came out. Here are the results:

Sorry for the low lighting in these pics. My hair took so long to dry I ran out of good light! Overall, I really liked the results; my curls were super defined and shiny without sacrificing too much volume. To the touch, they were pretty soft; I felt only a tiny bit of the dryness that gel usually causes. A little bit of coconut oil will probably take care of that.

Ouidad hair product results — Shout out to my “photographer” aka… husband.

Results from Ouidad hair products — What am I looking at?

In summary, I will be using all of these products again, though some I will use differently now that I know how they work. I’d like to also try the shampoo and conditioner from their Curl Quencher line; I think the extra moisturizing ingredients would take care of the slight dryness I felt. Another review for another day!

Have you ever tried Ouidad products? Which ones work for you?

~Thaïs

The Ouidad Unfurl Your Curl Contest

Published on August 2, 2013June 16, 2018 by ThaïsLeave a comment

Welcome to Curl on a Mission!

I started this blog as a way to document and share my experiences with bringing out the best in my naturally curly hair. I’ll offer suggestions and advice on what works for me personally, and I hope to hear the same from you! After all, we curly girls are in this together, whether we have twirls, spirals, corkscrews or coils. I find that what works for one hair type will often work for another with small adjustments or modifications.

That’s why I started following Ouidad on Instagram. They love all curly hair types! I entered their “Unfurl Your Curl” contest last week and was selected as a finalist (so excited)! The winner and one voter will receive a Ouidad Ultimate Gift Set, and I’m just hoping I get it. I’ve heard great things about some of their products, and I’ve been dying to try them. If I win I’ll definitely do a product review. You can vote on Ouidad’s Facebook page until tomorrow at 12 p.m. EDT. Wish me luck!

~Thaïs