Product Review: Queen Helene’s “Royal Curl” Curl Shaping Creme

Guest post from Baby Big Hair

While in my fav spot to look for all things natural, Whole Foods, I noticed a new line of products by the familiar name of Queen Helene called “Royal Curl” (RC). At first I was very skeptical, as I just promised myself to be rid my product junkie tendencies. PLUS, I only came to replenish some of my Kinky-Curly (KC) products; and that was IT, nothing else!

But I thought about Queen Helene’s products used in the past (i.e., Cholesterol Conditioner) and the amazing results I’ve had going back to college, and maybe even before that! The price was reasonable so I snatched a tub of the Curl Shaping Creme (see link for ingredients) and kept it moving. BUT, not before I also grabbed my Kinky Curly’s Tiny Twirls Styler; love that stuff. I knew I wanted a Big Hair weekend and thought I’d give my BBH the “Royal” treatment, or at least that is how I rationalized it.

At home we washed and conditioned as usual (post coming soon on our updated washing routine) and even though I cracked opened the RC Curl Shaping Creme, I had my good ol’ faithful KC’s Custard right next to it in case things took a wrong turn, trust! First let me elaborate on the following.

• Price: THE PRICE SOUNDS NOICE (check 1, lol!). For a 15oz tube, you can NOT beat the price of 7.99.
• Smell: Pretty straight. Nothing too overpowering. But you can tell it has some ‘juices and berries’ going on…
• Consistency: Something similar to the KC’s Custard, but a tad thicker and more opaque.

* If your curious like me, you can find more about Royal Jelly extract here.

I applied the product in sections on BBH’s freshly washed, detangled wet hair moisturized with KC’s Knot Today (wasn’t ready to try the RC Leave In just yet). I immediately could tell the difference in slip and separation. It was… hhhmm… flawless(?). That probably best describes it. I was literally raking it through with my hands and it was clumping kind of like it does with a Denman Brush. Yes! If it were not so, I would have told you!

What I also immediately noticed was BBH’s hair was it not shrinking nearly as much as when I applied KC’s Custard. RC’s Shaping Cream seemed to be “weighing it” down. Yes, very interesting… I worked it thru the rest of her hair and sent her off to be “sun dried” by Daddy. It looked a lot like we were letting her “Soul Gloo-oo-oow” in the sunlight, LOL! But it did the job. Curls were VERY defined, but somewhat “crunchy” which I don’t mind since BBH is so active, which means the definition will last a few days. The back of her hair did not get as matted as with other defining products. You’ll see a little bit of the ’1st day’ hair in the Hair Drying Daddy post.

Apologies for not having the best of pics in that regard. But the ’2nd day’ hair was amazing (see the leading post pic)! Lots of BIG HAIR; mission accomplished. Here’s another as well, more to be posted soon:)

In summation, me likes… A LOT! I actually went back to the store to get the RC Curl Smoothing Oil (a post about that is coming soon), and I will eventually try the entire line; but mommy’s on a budget:). Feel free to check out some other reviews/threads of this product:

• Curly Nikki Forum/Review Thread
• Naturally Curly Review Thread
• BeautyStat.com Review and Consumer Video

Go’Head Baby, Be Curly!

To see more Baby Big Hair cuteness, don't forget to stop by their blog! I liked BBH's review so much that I went out and bought 2 jars from Health Foods Unlimited so look out for our review soon as well! :)