Today's hair

Figure 8 bun that immediately started slipping and acting up on my freshly washed hair. Argh.

Today's hair

I attempted to make a five stranded braid where I start off with three strands and then add two more out of the neck hair. Sort of as a Dutch braid thing, only less "layers". But for some reason my fingers/muscle memory just can't figure this method out and it turns out really fuzzy and messy?
So I made a Nautilus to hide the result.

Hair food

Mr Igor got me started on chia seed puddings and honestly, it's pretty good. Especially for how little effort it is! He is more into the nutritional side of foods than I am, so we learn from each other. He has actually been doing chia seed puddings for some years now, but I always thought it looked pretty sad and unappealing until I tried it.
Mr Igor likes to add lots of fruit to his, but I really enjoy the clean and simple flavour of this almond version.

Three-ingredient chia seed pudding

• 400 ml coconut milk (One can)
• 70 gram chia seeds
• 100 gram almonds 

Nutritional value
There are huge differences from coconut milk to coconut milk, also based on the season! The light versions are perfectly tasty and less than half the calories.

• One can of coconut milk is 280 calories and a sad 2 gram of protein, but is full of vitamins and minerals. Coconut oil is perhaps the best oil for hair externally and internally.
• 70 gram of chia seed is 115 calories and a sad 7 gram protein, but it's one of those "superfoods" that is praised so much.
• 100 gram of almonds is 600 calories and 20 gram of protein. Almonds is one of those foods that are commended for hair, skin and nails a lot. It's even said to prevent grey hair.

So if you make four portions like I did, it is less than 250 calories and 7 gram of protein each portion. But lots of fiber, vitamins, minerals and some very, very good fatty acids.

Basically you just

1. Mix up the chia seeds and the coconut milk and
2. Add the chopped, blanched almonds on top of it

Done! 

Easy and tasty breakfast for four days made ready in just ten minutes or so. Good for hair, skin and nails too.

Ridiculous longhair problem #60

...When hair products are on sale, but the shampoo bottle is bigger than the conditioner, so you have to pay more to CO wash. Groan.

Ridiculous longhair problem #59

Having a million little papercuts from a printer acting up (Ouch) that gets caught in your hair (Double ouch)

Product showdown

Up today are three conditioners I found at Lidl. They're from the house brand Cien (Which I always want to think is "dog" as in French, but is probably from "one hundred" in Spanish?) This stuff is known for being pretty good, along with the rest of the Cien line. I have used it before a few times and have liked it.

 

As a side note: I was very unimpressed with the Cien "Hair oil serum" though.
Look at this:

Cone. Cone. Perfume. Sunscreen with a bad safety rating. Conditioning ingredient. And then as the sixth ingredient finally the promised macadamia oil. Meh, not cool.
I love my cones, but I don't like false advertising. Call it something else, anything else and I would be fine with it.

Anyways. The conditioners up for review are:

• Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey)
• Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil)
• Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil)

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

My truly first impression is a mild anger over the "rebuilding" conditioner. 

The Cambridge definition of "rebuilding" is "to build something again that has been damaged or destroyed".
The Cambridge definition of "repair" is "to put something that is damaged, broken, or not working correctly, back into good condition or make it work again".
Seems a little redundant to me. But maybe that's just me nitpicking.

Second I find it interesting that the conditioners have only Danish writing on the back of them. Usually the manufacturers save themselves some trouble by letting the back do double duty by having Norwegian or Swedish (or both) on them. Since Lidl is also in Sweden, it's a little strange that they don't have the Swedish on it as well.

Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey)

Has that sort of clean and "soapy" scent. It actually smells like honey, sweet and nice. Good, thick formulation.

Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil)
Good, thick formulation. I can't really place the scent. Maybe it's because it comes in a green bottle, but it does smell "green" somehow.

Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil)

This one smells quite a bit like the honey-one. Clean and soapy, but with something sweet on top of it. Good, thick formulation.

Effect
I should probably have tested them on each a third of my hair. I could honestly not tell them apart.

Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey)
This left my hair nicely soft and shiny. It was reasonably easy to rinse out and my hair felt clean and good afterwards.

Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil)
This also left my hair nicely soft and shiny. It was also reasonably easy to rinse out and my hair felt clean and good afterwards.

Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil)
Well surprise: This conditioner left my hair nicely soft and shiny. It was also reasonably easy to rinse out and my hair felt clean and good afterwards.

Ingredient analysis
Here's my first point about the ingredient analysis: None of the conditioners have those unnecessary extracts of questionable value. I like that!

Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey)

Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Glycerin, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Isopropyl palmitate, Cetrimonium chloride, Panthenol, Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Dicocoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Parfum, Silicone quaternium-22, Ppg-3 myristyl ether, Propylene glycol, Castor isostearate succinate, Limonene, Benzyl alcohol, Linalool, Benzyl salicylate, Coumarin, Citric acid, Tocopherol, Mel, Ci 15985, Ci 47005, Pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Glycerin, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Isopropyl palmitate

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.

Interesting ingredients
Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing
Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.
Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.
Mel is honey. Almost at the bottom of the list!
This conditioner is protein free.

26 ingredients in total
1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 4 %
2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 8 %
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

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

14 marked as "green" for safety. 53 %
7 marked as "yellow" for safety. 27%
2 marked as "red" for safety. 8 %
And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4%

Silicone quaternium-22 is not listed on COSDNA, so there is a missing ingredient for the statistic.

Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil)
Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Isopropyl palmitate, Glycerin, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Cetrimonium chloride, Panthenol, Parfum, Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Dicocoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Quaternium-80, Propylene glycol, Olea europaea fruit oil, Castor isostearate succinate, Benzyl salicylate, Limonene, Hexyl cinnamal, Citric acid, Benzyl alcohol, Tocopherol, Ci 47005

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Isopropyl palmitate, Glycerin, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate

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.

Interesting ingredients
Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing
Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.
Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.
Olea europaea fruit oil is olive oil and pretty far down the list.
This conditioner is protein free.

22 ingredients in total

1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 4%
3 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 13%
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%

13 marked as "green" for safety. 59 %
7 marked as "yellow" for safety. 32 %
1 marked as "red" for safety. 4 %
And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil)

Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Isopropyl palmitate,  Glycerin, Cetrimonium chloride, Panthenol, Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Dicocoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Quaternium-80, Parfum, Propylene glycol, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Castor isostearate succinate, Limonene, Linalool, Citronellol, Benzyl salicylate, Benzyl alcohol, Citric acid, Tocopherol, Ci 47005, Ci 14700

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"
Aqua, Cetearyl alcohol, Distearoylethyl hydroxyethylmonium methosulfate, Isopropyl palmitate,  Glycerin

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.

Interesting ingredients
Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing
Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.
Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.
Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil is argan oil and pretty far down the list.
This conditioner is protein free.

24 ingredients in total

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

13 marked as "green" for safety. 54 %
9 marked as "yellow" for safety. 37 %
1 marked as "red" for safety. 4 %
And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

Further ingredient analysis
This is the first time I feel the need to talk further about ingredient lists.
Usually when I compare ingredient lists, there is some difference, but also some similarities between ingredient lists in the same line or brand.
Usually there is the distinct "featured ingredient" on the list, but otherwise the products have a lot of the same ingredients.
Usually you can tell that the products belong to the same line just from the ingredient lists.

But wow, the Cien Nature's Beauty conditioners are practically clones.
Here are the three conditioners with the ingredient list put into a table. I have removed water and perfume from the ingredient lists to make them simpler. So many repeat ingredients and many of them are even placed in the same order in the ingredient list!

Now here are the ingredient lists, this time sorted in alphabetical order:
And this really shows how few of the ingredients aren't repeated.

Lady Igor says
This is pretty hard to conclude on because the ingredient lists are so identical.

Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey) also has Silicone quaternium-22 which is not listed on COSDNA, so there is a missing ingredient for the statistic.

(Also I see I made a typo: Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey) has a green to yellow safety rating of 4 %, not 5 %)

But even listing the conditioners like this doesn't help much: 

Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey) has the most ingredients in red for safety. 

Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil) has the worst acne trigger rating but has the most ingredients in green for safety. 

Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil) has the most ingredients in yellow for safety. 

So... Ehhh....?

So should I judge them on what number on the ingredient list glycerin comes in on? That's a good moisturizer and emulsifier. In that case:
Cien Nature's Beauty rebuilding conditioner (With Manuka honey) is number one because glycerin is ingredient number 3.
Cien Nature's Beauty moisturising conditioner (With olive oil) is number two because glycerin is ingredient number 4.
Cien Nature's Beauty repair conditioner (With argan oil) is number three because glycerin is ingredient number 5.
Or maybe the one with the best scent wins. Because it's after all nice to have a nice scent in your hair. Meh.

Today's hair

Same French braid base, held with a AKCwoodworking Celtic knot hair stick

Today's hair

Same French braid base as yesterday, now slightly messier.

The Flexi 8's tend to fall out of my hair tool rotation because they "need" to be placed horizontally, and usually a bun will slip a little...

Today's hair

Braided cinnamon bun held with a Ron Quattro starlite

Look what my dad made for me! Part IV

Dad did a bit of work more on the deer antler hairsticks.

Mostly just smoothing them down.

They are so awesome!

These are by far the coolest hairsticks I own.

Dad did a really great job of getting that "skull shape" in them for maximum comfort!