First Impressions: Cream of Nature Sulfate Free Moisture and Shine Shampoo

Ever since Cream of Nature (CON) discontinued my beloved green label sulfate free shampoo so that they could replace it with some sulfate laden mess, they have gotten the eternal side eye from me. So imagine my shock to see this particular shampoo sitting in my local Target. I slowly put my Shea Moisture shampoo down and picked up this shampoo, while praying to GAWD that this shampoo performed like green label CON.

Wanna know how I felt about this shampoo? Keep on reading for the deets!


Price: $4.97+tax for 12 fl oz bottle (at Target)

Ingredients: Water,trideceth-7 carboxylic acid, decyl glucoside, glycol stearate, polyquaternium 10, argania spinosa kernel oil, sodium hydroxide, disodium EDTA, quaternium 15, parfum (fragrance), methylparaben, propylparaben, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, Red 4, Yellow 5


Their Claims (per the bottle): This sulfate free formula nourishes and adds brilliant shine, while gently cleansing and detangling.


I used this shampoo during a routine wash day where I lathered up my hair once with this shampoo (the first lather being neutralizing shampoo since it was my first wash day since my relaxer. I have to say that for a sulfate free shampoo, this shampoo lathered up quite nicely. In fact, it reminded me of the lather I got when I used green label CON. I found that once I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, my hair felt so soft...like BUTTAH! It has been a long time since I've had a shampoo make my hair feel that soft. I also found that my hair was very easy to detangle afterwards. I paid no attention to the shine of my hair because (to be honest)...I didn't really care (lol). The take away from all of this is that my hair felt soft (not stripped) and was easy to detangle. Sounds like a win in my book.

CON Moisture and Shine Shampoo is golden-yellow color and has a somewhat thin consistency. As I stated above, this shampoo lathers up very well for it to be sulfate free. The only gripe that I really had with this shampoo is that it stunk like all to be damned. It has a very medicinal smell to it that could potentially be very irritating to those who are sensitive to scents. Fortunately, the scent doesn't linger once you rinse the shampoo out of your hair.

Another potential drawback for this shampoo is that the ingredient list contains a lot of no-no ingredients that some of you may be avoiding for health reasons like polyquaternium 10. If you are, you may want to leave this shampoo alone.


The Bottom Line: A great sulfate free shampoo that is reminiscent of CON green label shampoo. Although the smell can be a bit much and the ingredient list may give some of you pause, this shampoo leaves your hair feeling clean, soft, and moisturized!

LOTD 3/17/2014: Super Relaxed Messy Bun

Welp. We have another snow day here in the DMV and I'm chilling at the house. Let me just say that I am sick of old man winter. He can go on somewhere with all this daggone snow. I'm really starting to miss those Alabama winters.

Anyway, as I'm sitting around the house, I threw my hair into a messy bun. Although I am loving my freshly relaxed hair, I find the it sucks for bunning. It just lacks the oomph and texture that my hair has when I'm deep in a stretch. Thankfully, one of the ladies on LHCF suggested that I braid my hair overnight so that when I go and bun my hair, I have little texture going. Well...it worked! I think it made my bun look sufficiently messy.

Anyway, check out my chilling around the house messy bun! Also, if you're house bound because of the snow, what are you doing today?

1st Relaxer Update of the Year and More!

Well....I fell off the map, didn't I?

See what had happened was.... This winter has been an uphill climb for my hair (and my skin!). I guess after living in Alabama for 6 years, I had taken the year round humidity for granted. I move back to VA and it was like my hair couldn't hold onto moisture for anything! It was frustrating! So in the end, I wound up just braiding then wigging my hair and leaving it alone until I could figure out what to do with my hair. I didn't want to risk a setback trying to figure out what was wrong.

In the midst of that wigging, I realized that I was way overdue for a relaxer. Then I realized that I don't have a stylist in VA that I trust. I swear, this is the sucky part about moving---having to find a stylist. Part of me wanted to find a good stylist in this area but I'll have to repeat the process AGAIN when I move to NC this summer. :sigh: Ain't nobody got time for that.

So last weekend (March 8th to be exact), I relaxed my own hair (which I have done many times before). I used Mizani Butter Blends, neutralized with Silk Elements Neutralizing Shampoo, DCed with Darcy Botanicals Pumpkin Seed Conditioner, did a final rinse with Roux Porosity Control and then proceeded to straighten my hair. This made for a very long evening.

However, at the end of all of that, I was very pleased. I found that my hair is repeating a pattern: the longest length will reach my goal length, the rest of my hair will play catch up, and then all of my hair will be where I want it to be. Right now, my hair is playing catch up. I think I'm ok with that....as long as I have no setbacks, I'm good. Anyway, take a look at my progress!

The pic on the left was taken last week while the pic on the right was taken in October.


To see where I was last May and October, check out this post.

I've come a might long way with still some ways to go before WL. I swear, folks say APL was the hardest length to get to? Pssh. BSL and beyond have been a struggle for me!