Product Review: Beija-Flor Naturals Creme Brulee

First day of school. Three strand twist out right when I dropped her off.

First day of school.

Beija Flor Naturals Creme Brulee

The claim: "This product is for the happy and nappy, cute and coily, wild and wavy, kinky, curly...well you get the picture! No matter what your ethnic background, if the hair that sits on top of your head can be described as such you know that highly textured hair in all its glory tends to be dry, brittle and prone to breakage."


Price: $12.95 8oz or $24.50 16oz


Ingredients: Herbal Complex (Nettle, Burdock, Rosemary, Mashmellow Root). Organic Shea Butter, Aloe Butter, Murumuru Butter, Organic Aloe Vera Extract, Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil, Vegetable Emulsifier, Stearic Acid, Xanthum, Vitamin E Paraben Free Preservative, Fragrance

Review: I bought this product in late July and received it in early August. I'm happy I went ahead and bought the 16oz because I have used it on A's hair several times since then. First of all, this product smells amazing! It kind of reminds me of carrot cake. I'm not very good at describing scents though. Let me just say, it smells good enough to eat! It's nice and creamy, kind of thick, but not too thick. This creme easily absorbs in the hair. Perfect for braid outs and twist outs. It provides a really nice hold. The picture above was the first time I used the creme brulee. I set her wet hair in some three strand twists using this product overnight. Her hair was soft and beautifully defined in the morning. Even better, when I picked her up from school (almost 7 hours later), her hair practically looked and felt the same! See below for more pictures.

First day of school. Three strand twist out when I picked her up about 7 hours later.

Large/medium single braids done on wet hair with creme brulee. Click to enlarge. See the shine?

Boho braid with braid out (from above braids) with creme brulee.

Each time I have used this product her hair has remained well moisturized and her braid outs and twist outs have stayed defined, even after a long day at school. I look forward to experimenting some more with this product. I'm very pleased with this purchase and definitely plan on buying some more. By the way, I did use a discount code when I purchased this product. I think it was for 10% off. Unfortunately it is no longer valid but I will keep you all posted when they have another sale/discount code.

Visit Beija Flor Naturals online!

5 Flat Twists with Braid out

Miss A had her soccer pictures today so I wanted to do a quick but cute down style. I decided to incorporate a few flat twists going to the side in the front with a braid out. First, I parted a square on the top and sections that off. I grabbed large sections with my fingers, wet the hair then applied some Oyin Whipped Pudding, brushed through with a Denman D4 brush and braided. I did this until she had 5 braided sections. When I got to the top section I parted off in the beginning, I used a pintail comb to make straight parts going to the left, I added a little Oyin Whipped Pudding and flat twisted 5 sections until I was done. Flat twists are pretty basic, just part a small section of hair in the front, split it in two and begin twisting each section around once or twice, you will then start picking up a little bit of hair and adding it into each section, twisting around one another the entire time. I tied each flat twist off with a rubberband to make sure it stayed put overnight. Her braid out was a lot more defined when I first took the braids out but after running around outside it got a little poofy. Still very cute. Perfect picture hair, back to school style, etc.

Picture of the Day: Ming Lee Simmons Rockin' A Braid-out

I saw these pictures over at Naturally Beautiful Hair and wanted to share them here! Ming Lee appears to be rockin' a cute braid-out in pigtails when she met President Barack Obama. Beautiful family. I wonder if they read Beads, Braids & Beyond? I doubt it but that sure would be cool! I would love to hear about their routine and what products Kimora's girls use.

Braids in:

Braids out:

You can view more photos here!

Half Up, Half Down Braid-out

The sun is out, potato salad is ready and the grill is goin'! It is a BEAUTIFUL day out today so we're having a little cook out with the fam. I planned on trying a really intricate style yesterday but we didn't feel up to it so I ended up doing something really simple. Read below for instructions.





I spritzed A's hair with some water and parted a circle on the top section of her head (see above photo) so I could make a ponytail. I tied the rest of the hair off and braided 6 braids in the top ponytail. I used Curls Whipped Cream on each section before braiding. After the top ponytail was complete, I untied the rest of her hair and began grabbing medium sections of hair, adding Curls Whipped Cream and braiding. By the time we were finished she had about 13 braids in, including the ones in the ponytail. She slept with her hair like this until the next morning. I removed the top ponytail holder and added a little Eco Styler Gel to smooth down the top then rebanded. I removed all of the braids with my fingers and these are the results.

Do you plan on doing anything special this weekend? How did you style your child's hair?

Braid Out

Let me first start out by saying sorry for the harsh flash. This was just a quick, last minute style. I actually sat down with A hoping to do a more intricate style but ended up with 10 single braids all over, 5 on the left and 5 on the right. Her hair was previously banded so it was slightly stretched out and moisturized with Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer. I grabbed medium sized sections with my fingers, added a little Bee Mine Curly Butter to each section, and braided down to the ends. She slept with the braids in and these were the results!

Side Cornrows with Braid Out

She came up with this pose, lol! What you don't know is everytime we're done taking pictures of a style we goof off and have a "fashion photo shoot". This is one of her many poses. I'll have to make a behind the scenes post one day. :P




She had 8 braids in with flexi-rods on the ends for the braid out.

Instructions:

• A's hair was stretched out from wearing her hair in two braids for a few days. I used Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer to gently "dry" (I put that in quotations because I load her hair up with the luscious moisturizer, lol) detangle her hair. First I used my fingers, then the modified Denman D3 brush.
• After her hair was completely detangled I started parting a small section of hair near her right ear all the way to her left ear. I cornrowed that section then began randomly parting up and down. I didn't have anything in particular in mind, I was just going with the flow. Any design will work. I'm not very skilled with zig zags and such but I think that would be a nice touch.
• After cornrowing about half of the right side of her hair I stopped and started parting medium sections of her hair to braid. This was for the braid out. I added flexi-rods on the end of each braid (8 total) and we were done!
• I took the flexi-rods and large braids out in the morning, fluffed her roots with a comb and she was good to go. :)

Note: This style took about 1.5 hours. I used Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer and Curly Butter.






Look who lost another tooth! The other has already grown back and this one is already growing back in. The tooth fairy hasn't come to pick this one up yet, whoops!

Cornrow Braid Out

I took A's 6 big cornrows out yesterday and she got a cute braid out out of it.

In these pictures below she was telling me she couldn't look up because of the sun. lol

To maintain this look:

• Moisturize as needed
• At night put the hair into a very high, loose ponytail (so the hair does not become flat)
• Have child sleep with satin bonnet/satin pillowcase (optional)
• Take down in the morning and style as desired (down, ponytail, pigtails, you can switch it up during the week)

I apologize for the delay in the Curlformers drawing. We will make the video today after school. Thanks for your patience!