Product showdown

Up today are two value size L'Oreal conditioners I found:

• L'Oreal Elvital dream length
• L'Oreal Elvital color-vive

I'm going to compare them on a few different factors:

• First impressions
• Effect: Shine and manageability
• Ingredient analysis and interesting ingredients such as "actives": Oils, fruits, keratin, sunscreen

First impressions

L'Oreal Elvital dream length
Has that sort of clean and "soapy" scent. Mr Igor approves of the scent. Good, thick formulation.

It has a pretty cute ad campaign going about "saving the last three centimeters". I've been trying to find the leave in-conditioner but with no luck.

  

The colours used on the package and the name itself really reminded me of the Garnier Fructis Goodbye Damage, but on second look maybe not so much.

L'Oreal Elvital color-vive
Also has that sort of clean and "soapy" scent, that automatically gets approved by Mr Igor. Really thick formulation, almost deep conditioner texture which makes it almost drip free.

Effect

L'Oreal Elvital dream length
This left my hair incredibly soft and slippery, so much that it was actually rather hard to handle for me!

L'Oreal Elvital color-vive
Soft and slippery, but not as hard to handle as the anti-breakage.



Ingredient analysis

L'Oreal Elvital dream length
Aqua / Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dicetyldimonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Niacinamide, Ricinus Communis Seed Oil / Castor Seed Oil, Sodium Benzoate, Hydroxycitronellal, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Phenoxyethanol, Steareth-6, Acetic Acid, PEG-100 Stearate, Trideceth-10, Trideceth-3, Trisodium HEDTA, Chlorhexidine Digluconate, Dimethicone, Limonene, Panthenol, Benzyl Salicylate, Linalool, Benzyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Alcohol, Amodimethicone, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Tartaric Acid, Geraniol, Cetyl Esters, Citronellol, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal, Parfum / Fragrance, (F.I.L. C214649/1)

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dicetyldimonium Chloride, Cetrimonium Chloride, Niacinamide

When only looking at the top five ingredients, this is a emollient and moisturizing product.
Which means I would want to use this as a CO cleanser for the surfactant to dissolve scalp oils. I would also use this as a deep conditioner for a moisture booster.

Interesting ingredients

• Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing.
• Niacinamide aka vitamin B3 is a very effective skin-restoring ingredient against ageing and environmental stress. Not entirely sure what good it would be for hair, but I can't protest against having it in a product that touches my scalp.
• Castor oil is an oil often found in products for the scalp and is said to boost hair growth.
• It has some different proteins in it: Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein and Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein,
• Benzyl Salicylate is a sun screen ingredient and hurray for that. I love seeing sunscreen, any sunscreen, in my hair products!
• Amodimethicone is a cone particularly prone to build up.
• Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.
• Cetyl Esters is an emollient.
• Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Geraniol, Citronellol, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal and Parfum / Fragrance, (F.I.L. C214649/1) are fragrances. Why so many?

I would expect this conditioner to result in some very soft hair from the ingredient list. Unless my hair decides that the proteins are too much.

36 ingredients in total
1 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 3%
3 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger.  8%

18 marked as "green" for safety. 50%
11 marked as "yellow" for safety. 30%
4 marked as "red" for safety. 11%
And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 3%

L'Oreal Elvital color-vive
Aqua/Water/Eau, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Cetyl Esters, Tocopherol, cocos nucifera oil/coconut oil, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Trideceth-6, Chlorhexidine Digluconate, poly (linseed oil), benzyl alcohol, benzyl salicylate, linalool, Benzophenone 4, Amodimethicone, isoprpyl alcohol, alpha-isomethyl ionone, geraniol, citric acid, potassium hydroxide, butylphenyl methylpropional,citronellol, cetrinonium chloride, BHT, hexyl cinnamal, parfum/fragrance.

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Cetyl Esters, Tocopherol

When only looking at the top five ingredients, this is a emollient and surfactant product.
Which means I would want to use this as a CO cleanser for the surfactant to dissolve scalp oils. I would also use this as a conditioner for a moisture booster.

Interesting ingredients

• Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing.
• Cetyl Esters is an emolient and should result in soft hair.
• Tocopherol is an antioxidant. Questions is if it will rinse out or leave on.
• Cocos nucifera oil. Coconut oil. Love it or hate it. For me, it results in closed comedones and irritation. This means I would avoid using this as a cleansing conditioner and getting it on my scalp!
• Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate is a sunscreen ingredient. Nice!
• Linseed oil. Does this penetrate?
• Benzyl Alcohol. Another sunscreen ingredient. Very nice indeed!
• Amodimethicone is a cone particularly prone to build up.
• Benzophenone 4. Three sunscreen ingredients in one conditioner. Very nice!

Also I find it quite interesting how different the two ingredient lists are. Often it's basically just the "active"/selling point-ingredient that has been swapped out along with a few ingredients for stability or scent. But these two have very different ingredient lists.

Since this conditioner contains coconut oil, I would not want it on my scalp. This is a protein-free moisturizer and I would use it as such.

26 ingredients in total

2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 8%
1 marked as a "4" for acne-trigger. 4%

1 marked as a "1" for irritation-trigger. 4%
2 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 8%
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4%
And one marked as a "0-2" for irritation-trigger. 4%

10 marked as "green" for safety. 38%
12 marked as "yellow" for safety. 46%
3 marked as "red" for safety. 12%
And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %



Lady Igor says
I actually like both in each their own way, but... The L'Oreal Elvital color-vive is awesome for the SPF, but since it contains coconut oil I would limit using it to the ends. The L'Oreal Elvital dream length is a good deep conditioner all around and I could use this on my scalp to CO too. However, my hair can be quite sensitive to proteins, so this is not a product I could use too much.

So I guess L'Oreal Elvital dream length wins. But reluctantly, since I really do love SPF in my hair products. The risk of irritating my skin isn't worth it though.

Package II

Since the package made it safely to France and fellow longhair Charlaine, I can reveal the contents.

I found these scalp scalers in a portion of my hair/skin storage and didn't even know I had them laying around. Hmm, says something about how much stuff I have in storage!

Since Charlaine likes scalp scalers and we traded some a few years back, I thought it would be fun to surprise her.

Today's hair

I really like this bun!
It's very flat and creates a good silhouette. It's very comfortable. And as opposed to the nautilus bun, it shows off the thicker part of my braid, instead of the thin ends.
But it really needs that French "layer" instead of a plain English braid to avoid that "blob" sticking out in the middle.

But... What should it be called?
Pretzel bun is already taken and it's not really an infinity shape either (Also taken).
Overhand knot bun? Omega bun? (I feel like the omega symbol would come the closest to describing the motion I do to secure the bun)