One day, out of nowhere, I received a very nice email from a nice company, but one I’d never heard of before, It Factor:
I came across your blog and was wondering – do you review salon products? I work with a company called IT Factor and its products are available in salons in Vermont. Is that the kind of thing you might be interested in?
It’s called Simply It Quick Blowdry Smoothing Lotion. It lets you condition and style with hold, reduce drying time and smooth both wet or dry hair using just one product.
See? Isn’t that nice? They even knew I was from Vermont! So I replied with something along the lines of “Yes, I’m a total hair junkie, and a quick blowdry is on my list of things to sell firstborn children to get.” They have been very patient considering we first starting communicating in October (but guys, I have a pretty serious illness so I’m not a lazyface), and they sent me a seriously generous package with the full line of the Medium to Coarse hair products (shampoo, conditioner, smoothing lotion). They do have another line made just for Fine hair.
Also readers, by now you KNOW I love a good pun
Shampoo
Before you start, remember that I have bleached the absolute shit out of my hair, and check out my special considerations as these will affect my review.
I read a lot on beauty chemistry from my favorite blogs like Beauty Brains and Futurederm so at this point I’m super skeptical of “Claims”. The company website says it can reduce drying time by up to 50%, sounds kinda ridiculous right? It’s a trap?
The hair products are part of a system, and at first I was like “PFFT ignore!” But really none of the products work very well on their own. Together though, I found that surprisingly my hair dry time WAS seriously reduced, and considering my hair is crazy damaged I was rather impressed. I never did the cool “Dry your hair normally, and time it then dry your hair with this stuff and time it” thing. Mostly because I know I’m lazy extra sick sometimes and I vary in my dry times already. Typically though, I expect a straight blow-out to take me about half an hour, usually no less unless I want my hair to have the texture of cotton candy (do not want).
I asked their rep about the chemistry (dry time related) and I was given the answer “It’s able to dry hair so well because of the proprietary VaporBoost System” which is totally useless to me. So I’ll do my best to sort out my own findings about the chem.
Conditioner
While packaging totally doesn’t shouldn’t matter, this company has some extreme-cuteness packaging worth mentioning. When I first laid eyes on it I was like “Well, they definitely chose me to do the review for a reason” haha, it’s pearly pink with cute white whoodly things all over the face. LOVE IT. Also the smell is a bit like green apple, but it is MILD and does not linger in hair. The sads. Well, at least it’s not a gross/sickening smell, amirite?
Let’s talk some shop. First, it’s sulfate-free so it’s not a scrubby lather but that also means your hair color is protected and the formula is less irritating. The shampoo has a good amount of quats (polyquaturniums) which I love because they make my damaged hair smooth (silicones don’t stick nicely to damaged hair without quats). All three products do contain ample silicones so after you shampoo your hair starts to get ridiculously ensmoothened. If you’re thinking of trying the Medium-Coarse formula but you’re worried about silicone and quat buildup it’s a simple matter to solve. Just wash with an anionic surfactant once in a while.
If I wagered a guess as to why it works so well it’d be the smart blending of smoothing ingredients. You should also know there are a number of botanicals in the formula, blah, blah, blah, but I don’t know if any of them do anything. I’d also recommend you carefully choose because the Fine hair and Medium-Coarse hair formulas are different (I did NOT try the Fine hair products).
Smoothing Lotion
The Good:
- Actually works. Damn. So my hair can be straight more often! This is good news for handicapped people like me who can’t spend all day on their prettiness. I think on some days, it really reduced my dry time ~30-50%
- Smell is nice but not scary. For those who hate smells I doubt this will bother you at all.
- Cute packaging, it cheers me up just to look at it. Silly, right? Don’t judge me (:
- Smoothens my hair, looks great after flat-ironing.
- Price is affordable, with each product costing ~$20USD, and you could get by with just shampoo/conditioner if you like.
The Bad:
- Not much of a smell. Scent junkies be sad.
- This might not work on fine hair. Big deal, just try the line made for fine hair.
- Some people hate silicones. This is your enemy, some people.
Bottom Line: For ~$60USD total it’s a good value, I was very happy with results, and I’m not the type of person to be forgiving. I got this set generously for free, but next time I’d buy these unless I found something better.
These products were provided to me by It Factor, but the opinions are my own. Read my disclosure.
Get ready to love me folks, because now you have a chance to try these products too. I really loved them so IT Factor offered to let me host a giveaway for you guys!! Cool, right? This is my first one so be gentle with me.
There are TWO GIVEAWAYS, one is for the ENTIRE Medium-Coarse hair system and the other is for the ENTIRE Fine hair system.
TERMS:
- IT Factor tells me these are only available in North America, so I think we can only offer the giveaway to folks who live there. >:
- Please be 18+ or have parental permission.
- I don’t know how you would cheat but please don’t.
- Share the giveaway on your website:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/YjczZjE2YzRjNGE1MzYxY2M3NGI5MTk4OGE3NWNlOjE=/
You can get an extra entry by answering a question in the comments! Click the option in Rafflecopter to see what the question is!
December 5th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
My fave hair care product right now is my color care sulphate free conditioner, simply because I worry less about what it’s doing chemically.
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December 5th, 2012 at 1:45 pm
That is so cool that It Factor found you and asked you to review their products! Sounds like they’re great products if you blow-dry your hair. Any idea if they speed up drying if air-dry?
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December 7th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Hi, Natasha:
Thanks for your question. Yes, you will see the same faster drying time when air drying!
Best,
It Factor
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December 8th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
How awesome is that!
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December 7th, 2012 at 12:57 am
I really enjoy TRESemme’s Thermal Creations. It is AMAZING! i use it anytime I use any heat on my hair. It keeps it smooth and my fly-aways stay straight all day long.
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December 7th, 2012 at 1:35 am
I am in love with John Frieda frizz ease, it makes my hair super soft while also keeping the frizz down!
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December 7th, 2012 at 5:09 am
Hi Tiffany! I love this giveaway! And the review is great ^^)
I have a love/hate relationship with Head and shoulders shampoo because it heals my dry scalp and I always stop using for a few months then go back to it again so I guess that’s my all time favorite haha!
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December 7th, 2012 at 10:16 am
My favorite hair product right now is my Bumble and Bumble styling cream. It’s lightweight and can be used whether I blow out my hair or let it air dry. Love it! Excited about the giveaways. Thanks!
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December 7th, 2012 at 7:32 pm
My favorite hair product is definitely Moroccanoil! I used to bleach my hair every month in high-school which damaged my hair completely (it has been 2 years and it still doesn’t look healthy)…
This product, however, smooths out the hair a whole lot and you don’t have to use much of it!
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December 7th, 2012 at 9:22 pm
OMG! Yay! I totally want the fine hair system
I would say my favorite hair product is the Macadamia Nut deep conditioner. It makes my hair insanely soft!
And I can’t believe I didn’t figure out that you had a facebook until now! Now it will be easier to know when you update your blog lol.
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December 9th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
My favorite hair care product has been the Got2B Guardian angel heat protect spray. Since I’ve become a mom I haven’t had time to do it so much, but when I had the time (Like the article above my hair is super thick, coarse, and takes way too long to dry and iron) It kept my hair from becoming overly damaged from frequent ironing!
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December 11th, 2012 at 5:14 pm
My favorite hair care product is my Faddy Sculpting Clay. It helps when my hair’s super frizzy or when I need my hair to stay in place. I love it!
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