Kinky Curly Knot Today

Ingredients: Organic mango extract, organic slipper elm, organic marshmallow root, organic lemongrass, cetyl alcohol, behentrimonium methosulfate, citric acid, phenoxyethanol and natural fragrance.

What the product claims: [It] is a creamy herbal conditioner and detangler designed to smooth the cuticle and remove knots, snarks and tangles from thick curly textured hair.

Retail Purchase Price: $12 for 8oz bottle from Whole Foods.

My Experience: Kinky-Curly Knot Today has a clean, fresh fragrance that is relaxing and not overpowering. The lotion-like consistency of the product goes on your hair very light. It does help in the detangling process by providing lots of slip but it didn't give my hair very much moisture beyond a few hours of applying. I have revisited this conditioner time and time again looking for ways to get it to work for my hair. I have twisted with it, rollerset with it as a leave-in,  flat-ironed with it as a leave-in; and nothing has provided me with enough softness and moisture that lasts.

Keep or Toss: As much as I wanted to love this conditioner, it just didn't seem to do enough overall for my hair. If it detangled AND moisturized, this product would fall into HOLY GRAIL territory. It does perform as suggested, though, so it is a worthwhile product to try if you have issues with detangling. I have found other methods to detangle my hair without needing to use this product so I probably wouldn't repurchase in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Qhemet Biologics Amla & Olive Heavy Cream

Ingredients: Posted above

What the product claims: This thick, rich formula leaves extra dry, coarse hair soft and supple for days!

Retail Purchase Price: $16.50 for the 8 ounce jar.

My Experience: I did not find this cream all that moisturizing in the capacity that I used it. I would apply it as a sealant on damp, freshly washed and conditioned hair . The product seemed to just sit on top of my hair and never really fully absorbed into the strands. No matter how much or little product I used, I would be left with rough-feeling greasy hair.

Keep or Toss: This hair butter is rather expensive to not perform as well as all the rave reviews suggest. My hair loves castor oil but seems to not get along with this product at all. I have had dryness issues with products that contained amla and aloe in the past but figured the castor oil and glycerin would balance out any adverse effects. Well, I was wrong about that. I finished the product to make sure I would come to a fair conclusion about its performance and experienced the same lackluster results each time. I will not repurchase.

Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0