Marc Anthony Strictly Curls Review

Growing up I always hated my curly hair. It never did what I wanted it to do and I felt like an ungroomed poodle with how frizzy and poofy it was. No matter how hard I tried, it had a mind of its own and wanted me to know there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Adults would compliment me and tell me how much they loved it, but all I could think was how badly I wanted straight, tameable hair. Through the years, it’s tamed itself down and I’ve actually grown to love and embrace the curls. It’s very rare that you’ll ever find me straightening my hair now.

Throughout my journey of trying to style the untamable beast, I found that my favorite product to use was the Samy Big Curls Lightweight Curl Creme ($4.79). It was the easiest to work with, it smelled like oranges, made my hair look naturally perfect, and didn’t leave an unpleasant texture. I repurchased it many times, but the last time I went to Walgreens I couldn’t find it anywhere. There wasn’t even a spot for it on the shelf, so with my broken heart I gave up and looked for something new. Thankfully, I found it’s still available on their website! Woohoo!! But when I was at the store, I picked up the Marc Anthony Strictly Curls Curl Defining Lotion and the Strictly Curls Curl Envy Perfect Curl Cream (both $7.99). I couldn’t figure out what the difference was between them and because they were buy 1 get 1 free at the time, I got both to test out.
Curls.jpg
The immediate obvious distinction is that you get more product with the Lotion than you do with the Cream (8.3 fl. oz vs 6 fl. oz). The Lotion says it will eliminate frizz and repel humidity so you have soft, shiny curls. The Cream says it controls and defines coarse, frizzy hair while adding moisture for soft, natural, shiny curls. That basically sounds like the same thing, so what’s the difference??
On my hand, the Lotion is on the left and the Cream is on the right. The Lotion is more like a gel formula. It smells like citrus and is much thinner in consistency. The Cream feels like a moisturizer you'd use for your body. It also has a citrus scent, but has more of a hair care product smell to it than the Lotion does. Usually I worry when a product feels like it has a gel formula because I don’t want it to give me crunchy curls. However, I also don’t want it to be too much like a body lotion since that usually makes the hair look greasy. The texture of the Samy product that I mentioned earlier is like a mixture of both of these products, probably why I love it so much.
  
The pictures above are the results I got when using the Curl Defining Lotion. Thankfully, and to my surprise, the gel-ish formula didn’t create any crunch to my curls. To use this product I applied it to damp hair, scrunched the curls with my fingers, and let it sit to air dry for about five minutes or so. I didn’t want it to air dry completely because I like to dry the rest with the diffuser attachment on my blow dryer. I find it gives a lot more volume and makes the hair feel more lightweight. I did go through afterwards with a straightener for the front section and a curling wand on any pieces that needed more definition just to make it look a little more put together. This lasted me all day without getting oily and the curls didn’t get too heavy and fall straight.
These are the results I got when using the Curl Envy Perfect Curl Cream. I was happy with the results it gave and I styled it in the same way I did with the Lotion. I didn’t use hair spray or any extra hair products when using either of these two creams. The curls stayed all day without falling, but it did get noticeably more oily than with the Lotion. So the moisturizing claims on this product were definitely true. If you have oily hair like me, you might want to be cautious using this around your roots. I did notice a little bit of crunch to the curls, but nothing that was too obvious. Touching my hair throughout the day, I could feel more product in it than I did with the Lotion.

I think both of these products gave me very natural looking curls. If you don’t have very curly hair to begin with, I’m not sure how well these would work for you. They both seem to be more of a curl activator for natural curly hair rather than a curl creator for naturally straight hair. If I had to choose between the two on which one to repurchase or recommend, I would choose the Curl Defining Lotion because you get more product and I didn’t have any small complaints with it as I did with the Cream. Although I will be purchasing the Samy product next time I see it in stores and stocking up!

~Mani Monday~
Although I wanted to go with a lighter color this week since I had the sparkly black last week, I reallyyy wanted to try Cult’s Boneyards ($12) that I received in my Boxycharm this month. It's my first time using this brand, so I’ll update you on the quality and wear of it in next week’s Mani Monday. I did notice that it was a little streaky on the first coat, so you’ll definitely need to apply two coats. The brush was very nice though and the consistency of the polish seemed thicker and more gel-like than normal.
I hope this review helps you if you’re struggling with unruly curly hair. If you would like a separate review on the Samy product, let me know! Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

What’s on your nails this week?

~Christina~



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