Wednesday, March 21, 2012

[BEAUTY] Review: HBC Color HairSpa in Copper

HBC: How Brilliantly Cool.

Hahaha, I kid, I kid. Needless to say, though, HBC is one of those affordable local brands that garner attention in beauty networks and forums. While their products are apparently not high end, they cater to a whole lot of hair care, body care, skin care, and make up needs of little ladies to the older ones, from your average high school girl to an experienced parlorista. 


Which brings me to my point:



This stuff is one of their more recent releases in their hair care/color line (now in case some of you are wondering, HP means "Hortaleza Professional," one of their home brands that supposedly caters to salons and those who's like at-home salon treatments... but know what they're doing. :P). The product's got a lot of "subtitles" as you can see from the photo, such as:

HAIR + PERFECTION

HENNA + KERATIN

COLOR & REPAIR

And all for a nice price of 249Php.

So, is it a sweet deal? Let's take a look! 



Now, a recent trip to the beach has stripped my once brightly-hued reddish brown hair of its color and shine. IT TURNED A GHASTLY golden-orange. What's worse, the color got stripped in different places, so I've got uneven patches of different slightly red, orange, and brown shades on me noggin. NOT A PRETTY SIGHT. Therefore, no photos of the tragedy. (Considering the wonderful beach trip, however, I do acknowledge that my hair made a worthy sacrifice. :P)

I chose the COPPER color variant in hopes to liven up my dead once-red hair. 


This is its packaging, without the sleeve thingie

Behold, ze ingredients:


It appears to have a number of good and okay stuff, save for dimethicone, which can dry hair out if  used too frequently and excessively. Another ingredient to look out for is methylparaben, but as long as it's pushed back far in the list, small amounts have been used. Well, I was not exactly expecting a  bunch of organic stuff since it isn't marketed as such, but I was pleased to see a couple of natural ingredients in it, such as henna.

Henna is a natural dye from the Henna tree, and yes, it's the same henna used in temporary tattoos that wash off in a week or so. 

Aye, this be the henna tattoo I got at ze beach. ^^


Another noteworthy ingredient this product has is keratin, a naturally occurring protein in the body that makes up hair, nails, and skin. Sad to say, keratin can be derived from animals such as SHEEP, so this is NOT a vegan product. However, the type of keratin in the Color HairSpa is Hydrolized Keratin, which isn't a potent form of keratin compared to the purest of the pure kind. 

 Okay kids, enough with the backgrounder. :P

HENNA dye doesn't look like your typical dye. It says "copper" in the label, but don't expect to peel out the foil seal and find a glob of red in the pot. Instead, expect something like....... this.........


YES I KNOW. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU-KNOW-WHAT. 


Surprisingly, it smells SO NICE. It smells of sandalwood. The mild, powdery scent of sandalwood is a good smell to me, but if you're not partial to incense-smelling stuff, then... you might not like the scent very much. 

The pot came with instructions printed on it (gah no photo...), but since I don't have the pot right now, I shall paraphrase: (1) shampoo your hair and towel dry; (2) apply evenly on hair but not too close to the scalp, (3) leave for 15-20 minutes under a shower cap or hair steamer (those helmet-looking things at the salon), and lastly (4) shampoo hair and condition.

It appears that you have to apply the stuff on damp hair. I recall that henna works that way.

SO, DID IT WORK???

Well, yes.... and no. 

Photos:



Without flash



With flash

No color has been deposited in my hair!!!!!!!! That was one disappointment for me. 

I was trying to justify that my damaged hair could no longer take in color, or "natural" dyes like henna. But oh well, look at the bright side, because THE SHINE OF MY HAIR was restored.


So one of the claims did prove to be true, at least for me. :) The photos may not justify the nice shine my hair got, after leaving my hair in a bun overnight with a bit of hair salve on. Take note it's not the doing of the hair salve altogether; my hair looked definitely shinier than before. :D

We then proceed to the:

PROS

  • Smells nice
  • Isn't harsh on hair  and scalp (but I do recommend a skin patch test all the same... which I didn't do D'OHHH)
  • works on giving hair a nice shine (though not sure how long it'll last)
  • contains natural ingredients such as henna powder
  • AFFORDABLE!
  • leaves hair soft as well

CONS

  • No color deposit whatsoever :((((
  • left an orange stain on my clothes and hands *but goes away afterwards... like the tattoo, IS NOT PERMANENT :P)
  • Instructions did not specify how much henna should be dumped on the hair. In some videos I've seen, when applying henna on hair, it should look like a CLUMP OF CAKE FROSTING... and I mean a HUGE clump on your head. 
  • If that's the case in all henna-based products, then one pot would not be enough for my hair
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Will I repurchase: Sadly, I'll stick to their tube dyes instead. :(



So, have any of you guys tried henna-based hair products before or lately? How did those work for you? :) 



Lurve,


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