Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Battle of the Drugstore Hair Mousse: Aussie Instant Freeze Sculpting Mousse and L'Oreal Vive Pro Glossy Curls Mousse

Another product battle!! I love writing these posts that suss out the differences between two seemingly similar products!

Those of you with wavy or curly hair that need some hold to define your style without the crunch factor should try using hair mousse this spring rather than a gel (save it for the summer) or a cream (which tends not to have hold). Coating your strands with a bit of mousse is a good way to keep the frizzies at bay especially during those April showers. So which drugstore mousse won when I ran my experiment?



Aussie Instant Freeze Sculpting Mousse

Don't you love it when something you have very little expectations of suprises you?! When I grabbed this Aussie mousse at the drugstore, I was really just in need of a basic mousse that delivered hold. Well, this mousse delivers that and more. First, while there is hold with this product, there is surprisingly no crunch factor despite the term "freeze" in the name - I was left with soft, yet defined curls. Second, and a plus factor, is that I felt that the product moisturized my hair better than a lot of styling products that I have used in recent months. As a result, my hair looked shinier than normal while retaining some body.

Ingredients: Water , Isobutane , Polyquaternium-4 , Propane , Hedychium Coronarium Root Extract Australian White Ginger , Prunus Serotina Bark Extract Wild Cherry , Humulus Lupulus Extract Hops , Propylene Glycol , Fragrance , C9-11 Pareth-8 , DMDM Hydantoin , Disodiium EDTA , Panthenol , Citric Acid

L'Oreal Vive Pro Glossy Curls Mousse

I almost always get tricked by packaging of beauty products - I was almost certain that the gold-tinted exterior of the L'Oreal mousse would result in better hair results than the Aussie mousse. Boy, was I wrong! Now, to be fair, the L'Oreal product was not bad -just mediocre. I found that it did not provide as much hold as I would have liked and it did not provide much moisture - in fact, it had a tendency to dry out my hair like a hair gel. And I'm always disappointed when the name of the product does not match up to the results - no glossy curls here unfortunately!

Ingredients: Aqua/Water, Isobutane, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Acrylates Copolymer, Propane, Phenoxyethanol, Triacetin, Polyquaternium 4, Aminomethyl Propanol, PEG 40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Parfum/Fragrance, Polysorbate 20, Methylparaben, PEG 40, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hydrolyzed Wheat protein, Amodimethicone, Linalool, 2 Oleamido 1, 3 Octadecanediol, Quaternium 87, Trideceth 12, Limonene, Citronellol, Alpha Isomethyl Ionone, Hydroxyisohexyl 3 Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Cetrimonium Chloride

THE WINNER: Aussie Instant Freeze Sculpting Mousse

4 comments:

  1. I was in a similar situation, I ran out of the sutff I normally use (Herbal Essence curling mousse) nd I picked up Cheapo Suave Max Hold and I was plesantly suprised... Great hold, and I used very little product, and it gave me soft and bouncy curls!

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  2. Thanks for coming by, Mish! I'll have to try the Suave mousse next!!

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  3. My personal drugstore fave is Herbal Essences mousse because it also acts as a leave in conditioner & is the BEST detangler out there. But, I will definitely give this Aussie one a try!

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  4. Thanks 20something! I'll have to try that one as well...its definitely an advantage to have a hair styling product that also works as a moisturizer!

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