Review & Recommendation: Cocoa Pink Bath Products! 5 Products, 9 Scents!

Cocoa Pink is having an early Black Friday sale so I thought I better stop procrastinating and get this review out!

Minkishly, being an awesome friend and the best beauty blogger ever, passed me decants of her Cocoa Pink stuff for me to try out once upon a time. And that's how I got to discover one of the most awesome indie conditioners bath brands ever. After that, I just kept hauling from Cocoa Pink and here is one of my latest hauls:

Had to try everything! This is a group order, so it looks like a super sweet haul!

Cocoa Pink makes all their products from scratch and it shows! They now make some of my favourite products that I can't find mainstream dupes for. Their scents are not all original blends and some are stock scents, but Cocoa Pink is really open about this and denotes which scents are original clearly on their scent list. I'm a huge fan of their honesty!

The owner, Beverly, is also great at responding to all your enquiries promptly so I'm a huge fan of this company. I'm really sad my parents are getting rid of our place in LA, just because that means I'll have to haul less from Cocoa Pink!

So on to reviews! I'm avoiding reviewing scents that aren't in season, so I'm not reviewing everything yet (ok, and I haven't bothered writing up a review for a LOT of them >.<). Since I noticed that the same scent can smell differently in different forms, I'm reviewing the scents under the bath/hair product I tried them out in instead of all in one row. 

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Hair

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Argan Therapy Creme Conditioner

So...about this conditioner....

Beverly wrote this to me:

"Thanks Francesca! I see you really like the Argan now. :) So glad!
Enjoy,
Beverly"

Well....that may be an understatement, because this is my current collection of conditioners:

Yup. I really love these conditioners. The texture is very runny and doesn't look promising at first, but it's definitely almost as good as the L'Oreal hair masks I often use. It's as moisturizing as a very intensively moisturizing conditioner, but just the slightest bit less moisturizing than a L'Oreal hair mask. If you want moisture but hate the feeling of heavy conditioners, this is it. 

The gorgeous scent also linger on my hair until my next wash, so that's a bonus! So here are the scent reviews for the different Argan Therapy Creme scents I've tried:

Cake on Mondays 

"Delicious sponge cake made with almond extract, vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon, then slathered in cream cheese buttercream frosting.  May cause irritation due to the spice notes."

This is an absolutely delicious scent. It smells like cinnamon cream! I need this scent in everything! 

Note: The cinnamon in this is strong and may cause allergic reactions for some people so please spot test first if you're not sure.

Thai Red Coconut Tea

"Aromatic red clover tea infused with creamy Thai coconut milk, hints of ginger root and a delicate splash of bergamot."

I was excited for this because I looove the scent of Thai milk tea, but the scent I got is more of this creamy musky conditioner scent. I don't know if it's the suggestion from the name, but the musk makes me want to describe it as a red musk. It smells more like perfume than dessert, and makes me think of  a mainstream sort of conditioner. I'm sure the coconut's there, but somehow, it just blends together to smell like conditioner. It still smells great, but I was just sad it doesn't smell like I just crashed into a boba store and got drenched in Thai milk tea.

Violet Kisses

"A floral blend of sugared violets, magnolia and sensual sandalwood on a base of creamy vanilla."

This is a powdery sort of smell and makes me think more of scented powders rather than fresh flowers. It's a bit heavy, but I wouldn't really consider it "old lady"-ish. It's actually pretty nice, and makes me think more of a Korean scented powder that comes in very princess-y packaging and will be littered in texts telling you you're a beautiful princess and calling you "my lady" unironically.

Violet Pixie Dust

"Violets dipped in a sugary concoction of berries, plums, pears, strawberries and a hint of citrus sprinkled with sweet sugar crystals."

Oooh...this is the candied violets scent that I just love! If you've tried Conjure Oils' Succubus, it smells very similar. I'm a huge fan of this scent and need it in EVERY form!

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Soulmate Hair Rescue Treatment

The texture of this conditioner is more solid and similar to a soft body butter, so it's easier to get used to than the Argan Therapy Creme Conditioners. 

So this is supposed to be more intense than the Argan Therapy Creme conditioner, but surprisingly, I found it less moisturizing –it's only about as moisturizing as your normal conditioner. It's still good, and it's still moisturizing enough that my colour-treated & bleached multiple times hair stayed normal instead of going plasticky. However, the Argan Therapy Creme conditioner is just better since it actually makes my hair feel so soft! It's probably more than enough moisture for normal hair, and someone who's not a fan of Argan Therapy Creme's texture can go for this instead.

Vanilla on the Rocks 

"A rich buttery vanilla."

It smells like plain vanilla, only there's a strong waxy smell to it. I'm guessing the waxy smell is the smell of the unscented conditioner. If anybody else have tried the Soulmate Hair Rescue Treatment in a different scent, let me know if there's any waxy scent so I know if it's this particular scent or the conditioner in general.

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Body

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Voluptuous Body Butter Review

This body butter is thick and doesn't spread easily, but it gets absorbed in about 5.5-7 minutes, which is not too bad for a body butter. As for the strength of the scent,  you can only smell it close to your skin after you apply it.  

Just Breathe 

"Fresh Vanilla bean, West Indian vanilla orchid, pink lilac blooms, lily of the valley, plump green cactus, exotic fruits softly blanketed in beautiful pale musks."

There's that cotton-ish smell I associate with baby rooms, only there's florals in this, making it smell like a baby's room after someone just placed a fresh bouquet of flowers inside. 

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Soft Bubbles Scrub

There isn't much bubbling going on, so it feels more like a normal scrub that you're using while your skin still has soap that's only partially washed off on it. It's perfect if you want more scrub than soap! Here's a gif of the scrub in action:

You will not believe how hard it is to shoot a scrub in action on yourself while keeping it SFW. Oh and if anyone knows a good app/site for making high quality gifs that lets you crop the video, let me know! 

Tahitian Monoi Cake 

"Vanilla cake batter injected with candied citrus, moist white cake smothered in whipped buttercream icing touched with nuances of Polynesian Monoi oil."

 The scent makes my brain confused...it's a floral yellow cake scent, and I'm not sure if I want to eat it or decorate my house with it. 

White Sugar

"Marshmallow, Vanilla Cream, Sugar Cookies, a drop of Pink Sugar."

I got this as a free sample and was dreading the scent since I noticed that artificial sugar scents often smell like that searing, sweet Pink Sugar scent I hate. This one has that searing artificial sugar scent in it, but the most prominent scent is this delicious strawberry shortcake sort of scent. I actually like it!

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Others

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Linen Spray

Well...you spray it on your linen and you can also use it as a hair & body mist. It's pretty straight forward. It's like spritzing scented water on yourself.

Footprints In The Sand 

"Cool waves of coconut water, coconut meat, Persian lime zest, just a touch of  refreshing peppermint leaves all accented by the soft essence of French lavender buds."

Now, I discovered you have to let this one sit. The first time I tried this 3 months ago, I balked. It smelled weird. After I revisited it 3 months later, omg, it's awesome. After 6+ months, it's still awesome but it changed again. So here's my scent review:

First Use: 

There is something off with this smell, that I just can't place. It smells like gumdrops and liquorice (that tends to smell a bit medicinal to me), with the slightest hint of lemons. It's a very refreshing spray and I actually used it on my model to make her skin glisten during a NSFW shoot. She loved the smell, but agreed there's this weird, slightly cough syrupy scent in it.

I honestly can't guess what's in it and got a surprise when I saw the scent description. I honestly can't smell coconut, peppermint or lavender in it. I guess the combination just makes this scent smell a bit weird. 

Left it alone for 3 months:

And there's the coconut! Now it smells like a coconut lime cocktail!

Left it alone for 6+ months:

The lime part got stronger, so now it smells like a beachside lime spritzy cocktail, with some coconut in it. Looks like this is a scent that just needs a LOT of aging!

Review: Fortune Cookie Soap's Shampoo & Conditioner Bars

I got a $10 gift voucher from my Fortune Cookie Soap (FCS) subscription box (review here), so I had to use it somehow. Someone mentioned they have awesome shampoo & conditioner bars, so I had to try them out. I finally finished these bars so my review also includes how my hair reacted after I switched to different products.

The Sweet Spot Shampoo Bar

"Fresh picked melon, strawberries, and peaches twisted with sour mandarin oranges and pineapple, all sprinkled with a touch of sugar. Guaranteed to hit your sweet spot. ;)"

And this is how I discovered I'm in love with shampoo bars.

They're convenient for traveling, better for the environment since you're not using up plastic bottles and so fun to use! You wet your hair, and then rub the bar against your hair the way you'd rub a balloon over it when trying to showcase static electricity at work.

FCS's shampoo bar is very bubbly and leaves my hair squeaky clean. Too squeaky clean, even. My guy complained about his hair drying out but that's his fault since he won't use their magical conditioner bar (more on that later). I've only tried Clairol's Herbal Essence in early 2000s so I'm not sure if they've improved, but this is at the same level of level of squeakiness. Squeakiness doesn't necessarily mean oil reduction though, since my hair still got oily after 1-2 days like with my usual shampoos.

I'm a huge sucker for novelty, so I kept using this even though I quit using Clairol's after 2-3 washes. It's really that much fun. Unfortunately for me, my scalp disagreed with me on this. After I finished this shampoo and went back to my regular shampoo, I discovered my hair gets oily faster than before. It'll even get oily in less than a day after washing (so if I wash it in the morning, it gets oily at night) instead of the usual 1-2 days. I guess it's a bit too harsh for me, so my scalp has been reacting by producing more oils. However, I like the concept of shampoo bars so much, I'm looking at other brands of shampoo bars in case there's gentler ones out there.

Scent-wise, it's strong. It definitely fills up the entire shower when you use these scents and the drawer I kept the bar in before I used it still has the smell of the shampoo bar 3 months later. Every FCS scent I've tried has been highly artificial and closer to Bath & Bodyworks or Lipsmacker type of scents, and this is no exception. This scent is nice enough -it's a sweet artificial fruity scent that reminds me of Bonne Belle & Lipsmacker lip products. Unfortunately, it's not really for me, but I can see people liking it.

Cupcake Conditioner Bar

"Here at FCS we are not only obsessed with soap, but also cupcakes! I mean, who isn't?! They are sweet, adorable, and you can't help but smile when looking at one! Just like when you smell this delicious fragrance a huge grin will spread across your face!"


This conditioner bar is AMAZING. It's as moisturizing as L'Oreal's hair masks and I haven't found anything indie OR mainstream that's as good. This is why I kept using the shampoo bar even though it dried out my hair like crazy. I had this conditioner bar to counter it with super moisture, so my hair stayed soft and silky. I never knew how drying the shampoo bar was until I ran out of the conditioner bar!

The first conditioner I switched to after finishing this bar was Black Violet's conditioner. My hair felt like plastic after washing and that's when I realized how drying the shampoo is. I switched to Cocoa Pink's Argan Therapy conditioner next and it's much more moisturizing than my Black Violet conditioner, but my hair still didn't feel as soft as it usually does. Finally, I switched back to my L'Oreal hair mask and my hair finally felt like normal. That's how I know how good the conditioner bar is.

Unfortunately, conditioner bars in are a pain to use. This is my first conditioner bar, but I'm pretty sure this problem is across the board and not limited to any particular brand of conditioner bar. To use it, you rub it against your hair to get the oils on your hair, only it often wouldn't melt at all. I kinda expected it to be more squishy (like solidified lotion) at first, but it's as hard as a soy wax tart and almost as hard to melt. So, you just have to be patient and wait until it melts on your hair. I'm impatient so this was driving me nuts..especially since it adds an extra 2-3 minutes to my shower routine, and sometimes I just need a quick shower.

Not only that, the slight "stickiness"you get (think a semi-melted soy wax tart) from conditioner bars drags against your hair. If your hair is extremely fine like mine, this means you keep accidentally ripping strands out every time you run the bar across your hair. My shower drains were definitely more clogged than usual these past few months.

This conditioner bar is so amazing though, that I had to keep using this. My strategy to sort of work around the downsides of conditioner bars is to put the bar in a ziplock bag and sit on it for a while. This warms it up enough to get some of the oils out. Don't worry about smooshing the bar this way, it's so solid, that all it does is bleed out some oil. Once you have some of the oils out, you take the bar into the shower and use it. TMI, but in the shower, I hold it under my armpits to stop it from solidifying again...I'm pretty sure if I let my underarm hair grow out, they'll be so lustrous and glossy.

Scent-wise, this is that metallic sweet smell I get from certain gourmands. I personally love that metallic smell, though I'm a bit weirded out since I always assumed it's my skin chemistry causing certain notes to turn metallic. 

Review: Lather & Lights Hair Products

In my quest to convert my entire beauty regiment to almost all indies, I decided to dive into indie hair care. The first company I tried was Lather & Lights (L&L), and I got a shampoo, conditioner & leave-in conditioner sampler set in the Banana Cream Pie scent. 

Customer Service

I had this sent to my brother so I have no idea about the exact TAT since he didn't pay attention to when packages arrive. All I can say is that I ordered on May 26 and my brother got it before he left for Indonesia on June 15. 

My order came with a lot of free samples of their body lotions (I er..spent quite a bit..), so I was pretty excited about that. Melissa from L&L was also nice enough to prioritize my order when I told her I needed my order to get to my brother before he leaves, so definitely impressed with the customer service.

So here's the review for the hair products...

Should've taken a picture before I used them...

Banana Cream Pie Olive & Honey Shampoo

Scent: This smells delicious! It smells like creamy bananas. A tad artificial, but still pleasant enough. As it rubs on, the banana smell goes and it ends up smelling like sweetened water (my sister says it smells like dates). I like it enough. My sister fell in love with this and says it feels and smell amazing.
Texture: The texture of the shampoo is like aloe vera gel -kinda stiff and slightly bouncy to the touch, but rubs in easily. It creates a nice low to medium lather. 

Does it work? It keeps my hair oil-free for about 2 days, which is the best any shampoo can do for my incredibly oily scalp. Some shampoos can't even keep my hair oil-free in a day! There's a bit of that squeaky clean feeling that makes me worry about the shampoo being drying. It's just very slightly squeaky though, and not enough to make my hair feel plasticky the way Clairol shampoos do.  My 2oz bottle only lasts me about 2 weeks since I was sharing it with my siblings. After those 2 weeks, I don't see/feel a difference. It's completely like my usual shampoo, only with a more awesome and wider scent selection..I'll definitely buy it again when I have the budget! 

Before I comment on the conditioners, I should mention that I have colour treated hair, and my hair has been bleached twice in 11 months. My ends have been dyed 6 times thanks to maintaining an ombré hair. My current hair care routine is also kind of intense.


Banana Cream Pie Brilliantine Cream

Scent: Ok, I don't know what the hell happened, but this smells like melted lipstick as soon as you rub it in. 

Texture: It's very thick in texture and apparently can be used as shaving cream. I used it as a shaving cream and well, it works. Like a normal shaving cream. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever encountered a bad shaving cream. What would a bad shaving cream be like? So thick your razor can't hack through it? Or so drying you have enough razor burns to fit into the cast of a gore movie?

Does it work? Well...while washing off, my hair didn't feel as silky as it does after I use my L'Oreal hair masks, even though this conditioner is just as thick (or even thicker). When I first switched my conditioning routine to this conditioner & the L&L leave-in conditioner, my hair felt dry and plasticky afterwards. 

After just one wash. 

I freaked out and decided to reintroduce my argan oil & CV Water Matrix leave-in conditioner the next wash. My hair felt soft again immediately, but that made it hard to figure out how effective this conditioner is. So I got my sister to try it since she's the perfect control subject -her hair has never been colour-treated, is short, and gets only normal conditioner and nothing else. She used it for about 1 week and quit. Even from day 1, she was complaining her hair doesn't feel silky afterwards and gets tangled a lot. I guess it's a nay from both of us.

Banana Cream Pie Leave-In Conditioner

Scent: This smells like a more plasticky version of the shampoo.

Texture: It's very light and reminds me of a runny hair gel. Disappears completely into your hair and only leaves a slightly sticky feeling on your palms.

Does it work? Unfortunately, I don't think so. After my disastrous first day of switching completely to L&L, I continued using this with my argan oil + CV Water Matrix combo. I don't really feel a difference. I tried using this with the L'Oreal hair mask, and my hair still feels significantly drier than when I used my usual after-shower care. My sister wasn't a fan either. This was the first time she started using leave-in conditioner, and this leave-in conditioner + the L&L conditioner wasn't moisturizing enough for her. Both of us agreed her hair ended up more dry and tangled.

I really wish I can like the conditioners, but unfortunately, they just don't work for me or my sister. I like the shampoo though!

My Hair Care Routine

Today I got asked again about what I do to keep my hair soft and smooth, since people are often surprised by how it feels despite everything I've put it through. Thanks to maintaining an ombré hair between Aug-May, my ends have been dyed 6 times and my entire hair has been bleached twice in 11 months. So yes, my hair high-mantainance in the moisture department.

These are what I use to keep my hair soft:

L'Oreal Hair Mask 

This is what I use instead of a conditioner. I discovered how awesome L'Oreal's hair masks are after I tried dyeing my hair at home with a L'Oreal kit (I failed). The conditioner they included made my hair incredibly silky and soft for the next two days. I immediately got a L'Oreal conditioner, but I'm afraid it didn't have the same results. Then, I tried a L'Oreal hair mask and that was the one that worked. I've tried various types of L'Oreal hair masks and all of them had the same effect, so now I just get whatever's available/cheapest. As long as it's in a tub, it works.

CV-Third Treatment – Water Matrix leave-in conditioner

Best leave-in conditioner ever
Image courtesy of beautility.my

The water matrix leave-in conditioner is awesome, I've been using it since I was 14 (over a decade!). It managed to keep my hair smooth and silky even when I had hair this long:

Yes, pooping was a pain. I had to wrap it around my neck like a scarf.

Argan Oil 

Alas, all the colour treatments got too much even for that leave-in conditioner to handle, so I've added argan oil into the mix since May, and now I'm hooked. Argan oil is amazing. The brand I use is Orofluido's argan oil (scented with vanilla and sandalwood! Smells sooo good!), but I think any brand would do. 

I discovered it when my stylist, Nobu, added some argan oil to my hair right after dyeing it. Once my hair was blown dry, holy shit it's baby unicorn hair soft. I whipped out my wallet immediately. It's only Rp 150,000 or USD 15 when I bought it. And guess what? A little goes a long way so this thing is going to last me forever. It's been 2 months and I still have a nearly full bottle!  

I usually only use a dollop about the size of a quarter (or SGD 50¢ coin, or Rp 500 coin), and work it into my damp hair after showering. I either sleep on it or style as usual, and the only trace the oil leaves is that my hair is now super soft. I used to hate hair oils since they felt oily and weigh down my hair, but argan oil gets absorbed so fast and leaves my as soft and fluffy as the fur of an angora rabbit. 

And that's it. Also, if anyone's looking for hairstylists in Indonesia, I recommend mine:

Nobu Salon
Dharmawangsa Square City Walk, 3rd fl #57
Jl. Darmawangsa VII & IX
Jakarta Selatan 12160

Phone: (021) 9121 4528 or (021) 9121 4504

I usually go to this outlet since I only go with Nobu himself, but they do have another outlet in Citywalk:

Nobu Salon
Citywalk Sudirman
Citywalk Sudirman, 2nd fl #23
Jl.KH. Mas Mansyur 121
Jakarta, 10220

Phone: (021) 9127 1870 or (021) 9722 7377