- Source: Alikay Naturals’ / Alikay Naturals’ Lemongrass Collection
A week after letting my defined curls bask in a self-made mixture of Urban Hydration’s honey collection daily moisturizer, carrot and tea tree oil and NUELE Hair Serum, my hair and I decided it was time for a wash. Instead of waiting to style my hair overnight or failing at a twist out for the thirteenth time in a row, I decided it was time to just do a simple wash-and-go. More like wash-and-don’t-go, since I won’t be going anywhere.
A few weeks back, I received a pretty yellow package filled with goodies and a cute note from CEO Rochelle Graham-Campbell and the rest of the Alikay Naturals team. It was the Style & Slay Box Set from their new Lemongrass Style Collection. This was the perfect opportunity to try all of these products out.
After washing my hair with Urban Hydration’s honey collection shampoo and conditioner, then deep conditioning with CURLS’ Blueberry Bliss Reparative Hair Mask, I shirt dried my wet curls from under the kitchen sink then ran back upstairs to the bathroom. I turned my attention to the mirror in the corner and began to section my hair into four parts – which oddly allowed me to recognize that no two sections of my hair are the same length and I need to do something about it immediately.
I worked through each section with Urban Hydration’s leave-in conditioning detangling spray and unscented almond oil. I opened the jar of Alikay Naturals’ Lemongrass Super Twisting Butter to reveal what looks like a souffle. I brought the golden lid to my nose and I instantly smelled a childhood memory of lemon meringue pie. I stuck my finger in the jar, or at least tried to, and what I thought would be a water-based moisturizing product was a hard souffle. I rubbed it together between my fingers and noticed it beginning to get softer between my warm hands.
I Birdman-rubbed my hands together and applied the twisting butter as a pre-gel moisturizer throughout my hair. Needless to say, my hair currently smells like iced lemon pound cake from Starbucks – and I don’t mind it.
Next came the Lemongrass Hold It Styling Gel, which I was a bit hesitant about because I was never a fan of gel in my hair. Whether it be name-brand or off-brand, gel always leaves my hair crunchy and hard. I took a dime-sized amount of gel into my hands and applied it to a small section of my hair in the front from root to tip. I was thoroughly impressed.
Even though this product smelled like absolutely nothing, I wasn’t upset about it because it didn’t overpower or clash with the scent of the twisting butter. The gel was light, eliminated any frizz that I did or would have had otherwise, and it didn’t take much at all to cover my entire head. The gel elongated my curls, but didn’t stretch them too much to the point of lost definition.
Last came adding in the Sleek & Shine Finishing Oil for the final step of my wash-and-go process. At first when I sprayed it into my hair, I thought it would be a mist, but a burst of oil fired out of the bottle. I opted to spray it into my hands rather than my hair and apply it manually via finger detangling. It left my hair shiny, sleek looking at the roots and smelling, of course, lemony.
I took the Slay and Lay Edge Gel to my “baby hairs” to give myself some sort of indoor lewk and bam, I was done. All-in-all, Alikay Naturals’ lemongrass collection is light, effective and smells fantastic. Perfect for summertime wash-and-go’s and easy indoor quarantine styling management. Two lemony thumbs up!
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