Rachel, our guest reviewer, waxes poetic on products every Friday.
Can’t wait till next week? Check out her blog http://littlegoldenlamb. wordpress.com/
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Yes, beloved readers…I’ve finally tried it. Giovanni’s Direct Leave-in.
After lemming this product for several months, it popped up in my local health food store and I jumped at the chance to use it.
Reviews from this product vary from:
I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! MARRY ME DIRECT LEAVE-IN!
To something more like:
I HATE YOU! DIE IN THE RAGING FIRES OF A THOUSAND SUNS!
…
Okay…I’m exaggerating…a tad…but reviews generally fall along the lines of Love and Hate.
Where do I fall? Closer to Love <3. ^_^
That said, this isn’t my Holy Grail leave-in. It IS one of four leave-ins my hair actually likes, which is saying a great deal for my picky crop of cashmere.
Much of my love for this leave-in lay in its great ingredients:
Aqua (Purified Water), Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis) Oil, Nettle (Urtica Dioica) Oil, Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris) Oil, Birch Leaf (Butela Alba) Oil, Chamomile (Anthemis Nobilis Flower) Oil, Clary (Salvia Sclarea), Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia), Coltsfoot Leaf (Tussilago Fargara), Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium) Oil, Mallow (Malya Sylvestris), Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense) Oil, Soybean Protein (Glycine Soja), Cetyl Alcohol (Plant Derived), Tocopherol (*Vitamin E), Trace Minerals, Citric Acid (Corn), Sodium Hydroxymethlyglycinate, Grapefruit Seed (Citrus Derived)
This list is a bit misleading. You would think this is an oil-laden product. Not as much as it appears. If it had as much oil in the product as the ingredient list makes it appear, this would be a terrible mess. The cetyl alcohol is doing much of the heavy lifting in this silicone and paraben free product.
That said, this creamy, slightly tacky, fairly light and cloudy product spreads like a dream. It wraps around each strand, soaking in and getting right to work imparting plumping moisture, pretty sheen and uber softness. I was highly impressed with how fleecy and cashmere soft this made my hair, which is why it actually made it to my Leave-In list.
With this, beloved readers, it behooves you to only use what you need or you will have soft, shiny, slimy curls that take several hours to dry.
At $10, this’ll get pricey for me once I pass the 6 inch mark which is why this is at the bottom of my leave-in is -for price alone, not quality.
This rinses cleanly, but I’d advise washing once a week at least (if you don’t use any other products or silicone heavy products in conjunction with this in your regimen).
I also appreciated its very subtle, slightly sweet and creamy citrus scent. Personally, I HATE citrus. When I write “appreciate” the scent, I mean it was subtle enough that I could ignore it. It DOES linger. It’s not unpleasant or strong…I just cannot stand citrus scents.
Fine-haired lovelies, you may find this is terribly heavy.
Thick haired ladies, your hair will most likely appreciate the moisture-kiss this’ll impart relaxed and natural alike.
This serves a variety of uses:
Taming fly-aways
Braid-out medium
Baggy aid
Laying down edges over night with a scarf
Keeping puffs and Wash n Goes flawless
I must give a warning about this product however:
IT DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS. Mixing it, even with the gel that is from this brand results in little ELMER’S GLUE LIKE GLOBULES up and down the ENTIRE length of your hair strand. You will need a CLARIFYING poo to remove them.
I speak from experience. SIGH.
Any who! Beloved readers, this would not be a Little Golden Lamb review if I didn’t whine…er…comment…on the packaging.
It’s very chic. ^_^
The shape, font, clean layout, well placed graphics and simple color scheme get the point across. The nice skinny flip top is well adorned with a raised, silver-trimmed leaf design. I would prefer a push tab. Also, the plastic it is made of makes squeezing out the last half of the product torturous. Add to that a design that cannot be inverted and you’ll be working for the last bit.
Thankfully…it is absolutely worth it. ^_^
