#NP A Little Bit of Love- Brenda Russell

Saturday, December 8, 2012

A little of a week ago, I posted a question about candles on the Facebook fan page and was told to check out a lady who makes her own scented candles. The woman commented and let me know that she wasn’t making candles right now BUT she did want me to try out some of her natural hair products, so began my email correspondence with Dolores Samuel of K Essentials. I was told to pick out a couple of products and she would sent them to me to try and review. Let me make this VERY VERY CLEAR: this is the FIRST time I’ve ever received a product for free. Any product that I rant and rave over has been purchased by ME!! Let me also say (and I’ve already told Dolores) that this is still MY REVIEW. What I won’t ever do is not be real with y’all. So, as much as I totally appreciate these products and any other product I should ever receive in the future, I’M GOING TO TELL IT LIKE I SEE IT!!!!

Yesterday when I got home, I was greeted by my package from K Essentials (SYCED). I opened my box and found a thank you note and my products. Really quickly, I really like “thank yous” from businesses it adds a humbling touch in my opinion. These are the products I received:

Hair Pudding: Cocoa Almond

Natural Herbal Hair Oil

Get Me Twisted

Caribbean Coconut Bar Soap

Body Butter in Relaxing Lavender **This product I paid for! I was already getting four products for free and since its not a hair product I was totally cool with it.**

My wash days are Sunday and even though I really wanted to try everything that night, I settled for trying the soap and body butter. The Caribbean Coconut bar is a big bar of soap that has a nice smell to it. There is no overkill in a coconut scent which I was worried about and it gives a nice lather. Personally, I don’t like bar soap; it freaks me out. Something about reusing the same bar of soap and sharing it with people grosses me out but I’ll tell you this, I’MMA USE ALL OF THIS!!! Outside of Dove, I’ve never used a bar soap didn’t leave my skin feeling tight. It’s a big awesome bar of $6 natural soap that does what it’s suppose to do, clean and moisturize; THAT IS A WIN!!!

NOW…the Body Butter. Let me tell y’all what LOVE is! Love is sitting at my computer typing this review, touching my skin and feeling how soft it is. My skin, much like my hair, devours lotion (that’s why I added the canola oil to my lotion). The Body Butter is super thick and smells beyond amazing. Last night, my skin felt really, really great and I fell asleep smelling my arm. The first thing I did when I woke up was check for ashiness; THERE WAS NONE!!!!  This Body Butter is the s**t and fully intend of using it for the remainder of this winter and winters to come. I think the next one I wanna try is the Pink Grapefruit but I’ll let y’all know. I’m kind of at a loss for words about this product. As I’m typing this, I keep rubbing my skin and smelling the product (which is front of me). Y’all I’m real smooth and soft over here; my elbows feel all lovely and what not…I’m just really loving this stuff. Definitely a new favorite!

#NP Knob Broke- Jeezy

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Alright, alright, alriiiight!!!! Saturday night my immune system decided to act a fool so I had to switch my wash day from Sunday to Monday…Monday was a stay at home sick day. I washed my hair with my usual conditioner and leave in. By now y’all know I use the LOC method to moisturize my hair; so I used K Essentials Natural Herbal Oil as my oil (duh) and the Cocoa Almond Hair Pudding as my moisturizer. I’m not big of defined curls but I used the Get Me Twisted after my hair was moisturized and sectioned off for a braid out. The oil isn’t too heavy, which is fine, but it does have a slight hint of lavender WHICH I LOVE! Fun fact about me; I don’t like strong overwhelming smells in products, so the light scent was on point. The Cocoa Almond Hair Pudding is pretty nice. Again, there is a slight scent but nothing overpowering. I do like the consistency; it’s a nice slightly heavy feeling cream. The Get Me Twisted is another creamy product with little to no smell. **I know I mentioned I have a cold but my nose isn’t stuffy so I can still give my accurate opinion of the smells.**

Tuesday’s braid out was effin dope!!! Took Ms. Ma’am down without oil, rode my buses to work and when I got there EARLY I might add, she felt pretty good. My commute to work is an hour; so I base a lot of my feelings about moisturizers on how she feels after being out in the cold. Was Ms. Ma’am as moisturized as when I left home…nope!! Did she stay moisturized the entire 8 hour work day…yep!! That’s really all I ask for, moisturizers to moisturize. Let me get into this Get me Twisted; I literally was playing in the braid definition all day. I have hands in hair syndrome or whatever you wanna call it but I spent a good part of the day playing in my braid out. For some reason when I play in my hair I look and sniff my hands (I’m so weird sometimes but y’all don’t judge me). MY HANDS WERE NOT GOOKY OR OILY!!! I hate that nasty feeling that sometimes comes with playing in your hair…..I got none of that, THANK YOU *snaps*!!! Tuesday’s hair I feel was a pretty good success. Ms. Ma’am was moisturized, had definition, oh and boo boo was getting her shine on. I don’t know if I don’t usually pay attention to it or I don’t care BUT I did realize she had a nice shine. My hair NEVER looks dull but I don’t recall having shine…so yea…shine for the children.

After Tuesday’s commute home I already knew I was going to have to add more moisturizer. What I WAS NOT going to do was use anymore Get Me Twisted or re-braid (is that a word?!) my hair. I needed to mess my hair up a little so I sectioned my hair and used the Cocoa Almond Hair pudding and tied a silk scarf loosely around my hair. I woke up this morning, fluffed my hair (I will always be here for fluffing the hair, KNOW THAT), put it in a puff and rolled out. Like yesterday, the moisturizer stood up against the morning commute and I’ve been playing in it all day. This damn definition tho!!! The inside of my puff, because I brushed the outside to make the puff, feels like I re-braided (I’mma keep using it as if it’s a word)it last night. For you ladies who love your twist/braid outs defined and lasting this may be your money. I would use it if I was doing a bantu knot out or oooooop (that was excitement)….if I was curling my hair with perm rods *CUTE*.

Overall, I dig the products I received. The Caribbean Coconut Bar soap I won’t buy because….its bar soap. Now if your into bars, you will love it. The Body Butter is my baby daddy who pays that child support early and gives me something a lil extra!! **Translation (sorry, I’m listening to Jeezy) The Body Butter is something I’m going to use FOREVER AND I F**KIN LOVE IT!!!! I think I want to try the Pink Grapefruit next but I’ll probably buy the Relaxing Lavender too just because I like how it makes me smell when I go to bed. The Natural Hair Oil smells good but I don’t know if I would order it simply because in my head I can go to Giant and buy Canola oil. I’m not an oil girl…like if oil wasn’t the “O” in the LOC method I don’t even know if I’d use it. The Cocoa Almond Hair Pudding I like just not for winter. It would probably do really well with Ms. Ma’am for the Spring, so that’s something to revisit. The Get Me Twisted I would buy because it gives a soft hold and I hate get in my hair. Hold+ no crunch= WINNER!! I plan on getting into bantu knots outs and curly fros for the Spring and I think this product is gonna be great for that. If not, I’ll let yall know. **THE BODY BUTTER THO!!!! LIFE!!!!! **

I really want to thank the wonderful people over at K Essentials for sending me these products to try out and review. I want to shout out Dolores because she was super nice and her turnaround time on those emails (either responding or inquiring) was awesome. FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!!

**UPDATE** December 27, 2012

Hey boos, I have the unfortunate duty of letting y’all know the K Essentials site is currently undergoing maintenance. Products on the site (including the ones in this review) are currently NOT available for sale. I will keep you updated on the status of the relaunch of the K Essentials site.