The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

60 Second Beauty: Natural Essentials Nourishing Shampoo, Conditioner and Dry Oil

Natural Essentials review

There's a new hair care line on the scene called Natural Essentials that incorporates ingredients used by traditional cultures around the world for modern-day, naturally beautiful hair. From beauty secrets used by Geishas to superfruit hydration solutions from Central America, Natural Essentials aims to harness the power of so-called unconventional ingredients to target all your hair needs.

Of course, this is nothing new - it seems like every other day, our fave beauty brands are touting the benefits of some new "super" fruit, flower or what have you found in nature, whether it's coconut oil or olives or açaí berries. The list goes on and on. But with summer here, I'm always on the look out for products that will tame my tresses in the most pleasant way possible, so I was eager to test out Natural Essentials Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner as well as their Strengthening Dry Oil and Healing Dry Oil. Whats more, the pricepoints are totally budget-friendly for what sound like premium products. So, here's how it went:

What they say: Natural Essentials Strengthening Dry Oil: A weightless blend of exotic oils and extracts designed to strengthen the hair cuticle or normal to dry hair. Contains bambou, avovaco and maracuja. Provides the ultimate smooth and frizz-free look, resulting in naturally healthy looking hair. $9.99 / 1.5 FL OZ

Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil: A weightless blend of exotic oils and extracts designed to repair dry to damaged hair. Contains monoi, dragonfruit and camelia. Provides the ultimate smooth and frizz-free look, resulting in naturally healthy looking hair. $9.99 / 1.5 FL OZ

Natural Essentials Nourishing Shampoo: A blend of exotic oils and extracts gently cleanses and moisturizes all hair types. Contains coconut, mango and acai. Leaves hair clean, soft and healthy looking. $5.99 / 10.5 FL OZ

Natural Essentials Nourishing Conditioner: A blend of exotic oils and extracts gently conditions and moisturizes all hair types. Contains coconut, mango and acai. Leaves hair protected, soft and shiny looking. $5.99 / 10.5 FL OZ

Free of sulfates, parabens, drying alcohol, phthalates, gluten and artificial colors, Natural Essentials hair care products are designed to strengthen, heal and nourish hair - without any harsh chemicals.

What I thought: You have to be careful with products that claim to be "natural" and Natural Essentials is no different - they do use chemical ingredients, plus all those wonderful sounding botanical extracts.

Having said that, I found all the products to be really solid performers, from the shampoo to the dry oil.

The shampoo worked up a great lather, spread easily and rinsed clean. The conditioner was rich and nourishing and you didn't need a lot of product. Both products smell great, not chemically. My hair felt soft and manageable after using both. The earth toned packaging is a little hippie for me but not a dealbreaker. I really appreciate that none of the products contain sulfates, parabens, drying alcohol, phthalates, gluten and artificial colors. Plus they're made in the USA.

What I'm really excited to share, however, is the Natural Essentials Strengthening Dry Oil aka my new favorite dry oil - hallelujah! I love this stuff. A little goes a long way (in fact, your hair will look dirty if you use too much) and it doesn't leave your hands greasy. Apply to towel dry hair, and you can let your hair air dry in the warm summer months without frizz. Or apply to wet hair, style as usual, and you'll get sleek, smooth tresses.

Mind you, the first ingredient is identical to Moroccan Oil - it's something called Cyclopentasiloxane. The next few ingredients are similar: Dimethiconol, Amodimethicone, Phenyl Trimethicone, C12-14 Isoparaffin. Only after all these ingredients do you get into the natural botanicals, like Monoi extract, dragon fruit and camelia seed oil. And so forth.

So essentially if you love Moroccan Oil, you'll probably love Natural Essentails dry oils, too. This article is pretty good at breaking down the ingredients in Moroccan Oil and explaining how each one works.

Why do I like Natural Essentials more? The lovely scent. Unfortunately, it's not clear that the fragrance/parfum in Natural Essentials is natural, which is a bummer. "Fragrance" as an ingredient can be artificial (source). But I'm very sensitive to fragrances and I really like how the Strengthening Dry Oil smells. It's sweet, subtle and doesn't linger. Moroccan Oil works with my hair but I kinda hate the smell, so I almost never use mine. Previously my favorite Dry Oil was BioSilk, which smells better than Moroccan Oil but still isn't great. So Natural Essentials Strengthening Oil is the new frontrunner.

To confuse you further, I don't like the scent of the Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil. To me it smells more chemically. But that's just me.

The bottom line: Natural Essentials makes a solid line of products that don't contain many harmful chemicals, making them a better-for-you choice than some other products on the market. The Strengthening Dry Oil is amazing for taming frizz, and the tiniest drop goes a really long way, making this a fantastic budget-friendly alternative to Moroccan Oil. The clear bottle is attractive, too. I'll be buying this again once I run out (which shouldn't be for a while).

Where to shop: Select Walgreens and Bed, Bath & Beyond locations. Visit naturalessentialsbeauty.com for more info.

Disclosure: I received the products reviewed in this post free of charge. The decision to write this review and the opinions expressed within are 100% my own.
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