Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding Review

So once I realised this brand existed after reading this blog post, (and after spending 55 minutes oogling, sniffing and comparing everything in my local hair shop), I decided to buy the Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding. I'd never heard of Beautiful Textures before but then again I've only recently properly discovered Pak's range. There's too much choice!

Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding

Before trying it, my first impressions were alright. Not exactly inspiring confidence am I? Let me explain. I'm on the fence about the jar's mad colour scheme and at first it didn't strike me as being targeted towards adults so I wasn't really sure what the range was all about. You can't miss it on the shelves though so I guess it's serving its purpose. The jar itself is wide mouthed which makes it easy to access the product whether you use a spoon or your fingers. Of course a spoon is preferable but when you're in the shower and have forgotten your spoon, you're kinda screwed and this is great in comparison to tiny jars that squish fingers. The texture of the pudding is very thick and creamy quite like body butter, yet similar to jelly. A bottle or some kind of pump dispenser would have been amazeballz but the Curl Pudding is very thick so it's probably impractical. I can't say I'm a fan of the texture because it's so firm but I usually associate this with serious moisturisation so I had high hopes for it. It's actually a very pale peach which is a lot better compared to other mud-like concoctions I came across in Pak's. At least it's not candy floss pink like Boot's Curl Cream (we've got a love-hate relationship - I'll spare you). The product has a mouth watering-ly juicy melon scent definitely 'made' me buy it. Although I hate melons, I could eat one if it actually smelt this good.

Hmm on second thoughts nah, I still hate melons.

Despite the ups (and downs) I'd noted before even trying it, my results were bad the first time I tried it and unbelievably worse the second time round!

For my first attempt, I applied Tresemme Naturals as a leave-in conditioner, then layered it with the Curl Pudding. I ended up with odd, waxy feeling hair which was probably due to the amount of oils and butters in the product, not to mention the small amount of silicone it contains. Despite this I carried on applying it only to realise that the pudding had reacted with the Tresemme and had formed a small number of white clumps in my hair. ARGH! They were easily dissolved by smoothing water on them but still annoying because you never know when you've missed one and end up walking around looking like you have coagulated bird droppings in you hair. As usual, my hair took ages to dry but was not crunchy which was surprising. Regardless, I still like to scrunch my hair for maximum softness and found that my hair felt very moisturised and hydrated. I was really surprised because my hair is normally bone dry and highly porous. Having said this, sadly I didn't get an adequate amount of hold or definition on my curls at all. After a few hours they had turned into frizzy waves which was a huge disappointment.

Fast forward a few days later, I decided to try it without the Tresemme.

It looks okay so far, right? HA! We've both been fooled.

It doesn't look too bad here and there is a decent amount of curl definition but this disappeared as the day progressed. My hair was sticky for hours after it had dried and it ended up feeling so dry, hard and like plastic, which is usually the result I get with silicones. I was expecting the natural ingredients to do something but there was no moisturisation to shake a stick at. Then, shock horror - I grew sick of the scent and the following day, it had turned slightly sour. Mmm tasty.

Beautiful Textures Curl Definition Pudding Directions and Ingredients

As for the claim Beautiful Textures make, I do think my curls were elongated ever so slightly. This could probably have been down to the extreme lack of hold though. I can confidently say I didn't notice an increase in shine but then again I rarely do. I do like that the instructions on the jar were so detailed. I can't be alone but I love reading the labels on products. The ingredients don't look bad but surprisingly without a separate leave-in my hair was parched when in fact I had expected the ingredients to be my leave-in.

Sometimes I feel as if cosmetic companies really prey on people's hair insecurities or 'problems' as many curl products promise the earth in exchange for a hefty price. The Beautiful Textures range however is reasonably priced (the pudding was £3.99 for 425g) which should last me quite a while should I choose to use it up (which at this rate is unlikely).