When I first heard that renowned hairstylist Kristin Ess was launching an affordable curly hair care line for Target I was over the moon with excitement! I’d been a longtime follower of Kristin on social platforms and was always mesmerized by her swoon worthy hair creations. After listening to feedback from a lot of her customers, she set out to create a line of products that were Curly Girl Method friendly.

The six-piece collection — all of which is under $15 — includes the following

I tried all of the above products, excluding the Co-Wash because I needed a deeper cleanse. Plus I also tried her Anytime Anywhere Scalp + Hair Milk Oil to see if it would be a good sealant for my curls.

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I went into this with moderate expectations. I know her other product lines have somewhat of a cult following so I expected to feel the same way about the curl line. If you’re unable to watch the video above I’ll break down the yay’s and nay’s below.

What We Love

  1. The price point. Finding good quality products for textured hair under $15 is so difficult. The fact that this ENTIRE line is affordable and at stores like Target which are widespread across the US is fantastic.
  2. The design. Both the color, the material and the label designs are beautiful. Classic, simple and stunning.
  3. The shampoo. This was a great cleanser with an awesome applicator tip that made my scalp and hair feel very clean afterward
  4. Moisturizing. Despite it maybe not looking like it was, my hair felt very moisturized at the end of this routine.

What We Didn't Love

  1. Weighed down. My hair felt very ‘product heavy’ when I finished this routine. I could tell my hair was very weighted and had a weird residue feeling on it. Despite not putting a lot of product on my roots and using root clips, the top half of my hair seemed to stay close to my scalp.
  2. Thick. Excluding the shampoo and the leave-in conditioner, all the products were VERY thick in consistency, making it difficult to spread evenly in small amounts across the hair.
  3. Leave-In. I felt I had to use A LOT of this product to effectively cover my hair.
  4. Frizz. I was very surprised at the amount of dry frizz that I had. It wasn’t present when my hair was wet & even though I followed the same styling routing I’ve done countless times, the end results were less defined and full of frizz around my crown and ends. This tells me that both the leave-in and gel did not take root on my hair, not to mention the hair milk + oil didn’t work to seal that moisture.
  5. Not descriptive enough. This one is a personal preference but I love knowing who’s hair type a product was made for and what kind of hold the stylers will provide. Even if it wasn’t made for my particular curl pattern, I know that if a styler is made for coily hair and has a super strong hold then I’m probably going to use less of it versus one with a lighter hold.

Yay or Nay?

Overall, this was a ‘NAY‘ for me. I did end up keeping the shampoo because I felt like it did a great job of cleansing both my scalp and the body of my hair. Sadly, the rest of the products were returned. I’ve been looking at a few reviews online and it appears that I’m not the only one who ended up with less than ideal results.

Have you tried this line? How did it work for you? Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you :)

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