I posted about Cara B Naturally’s excellent customer service here: Natural Hair Care for Children. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to use all of their products, I will be posting reviews of each product. I decided to start with the Baby Bar Soap, because it is the very first product that I used. If I had to describe the soap in one word, I would use the word “light” , because this bar soap is so light and gentle on my toddler’s skin. It has a very gentle, light fragrance, so you’re not overwhelmed with perfumed fragrance as soon as you open the package like you are with some soaps. You can see from the ingredients above that it does not contain any unnatural/harsh ingredients. I also notice that my daughter’s skin is not as dry after using this soap. You get three bars of soap when you order. So far, I still have not finished using the first bar, so each bar seems to be long lasting. I would highly recommend this product. Purchase it from the Cara B Naturally website: Cara B Naturally
I was at Walmart recently when I came across a great set of combs. Priced at around $4, I quickly grabbed a set. The set includes 10 combs that can be used for all sorts of purposes. I’ labeled my two favorite combs below. I now own two sets of these combs; one for me and one for my daughter. These combs have a smooth finish and they don’t snag the hair. I highly recommend this set.
Yesterday I added a post about the latest braids that I did on my daughter. Today, I wanted to follow up with some pictures of a few variations of the braids. These braids had a few styling options. Of course, the braids could just be left done, or they could be worn in a pony tail, half up and half down, two pony tails, etc. Here are a few ways that I styled her braids:
Have you ever gone the long way around, only to discover that there is a quicker way to get to your destination? Well, this sort of describes my last adventure of coming up with a lasting style for my daughter’s hair. I spent at least an hour attempting to learn to flat twist her hair. I had this elaborate plan to flat twist the front of her hair. Then I was going to do two-strand twists in the back. Well, I started the style one night, ran out of time, put her to bed, only to have her wake up the next day with her hair looking like…let’s just say, twists do not last very well sometimes on active 2-year-olds; especially over night. So the next day, I tried to come up with a way to salvage what I had done the night before, so that I could continue twisting. It was not salvageable.
So I had to take each flat twist down and cornrow it instead, thus taking the long way around when I should have just resorted to long lasting braids in the first place. Needless to say, the style came out cute, despite the extra time I spent on taking down twists and rebraiding. Here’s what her hair ended up looking like:
I braided her bangs into four cornrows and added beads. I then cornrowed the rest of the hair at the front into cornrows going back. The back of her hair is box braided. So far, this style has lasted two weeks.
I had just finished styling my hair into a nice stretched afro; when my daughter gave me the best compliment. She pointed to my hair and said, “You look cute” in her sweetest two-year-old voice. It made me feel good to see that she already sees natural hair as beautiful. She then insisted that I do her hair. Since she liked my afro so much, I decided to style her hair in somewhat of an afro (a full afro and my busy 2-year-old don’t always mix). I opted for a high puff. Here’s her puff:
I used a headband that matched her top to hold the puff back.
Here is the back of her puff. You can still see a little of the white leave-in conditioner that I put in her puff.
I have not found a good gel that will hold her hair and doesn’t contain a ton of harmful toxins so it is not really slicked back. I just did the best I could with water and leave-in conditioner.
When the economy is bad, I think that people are more likely to spend money (especially when they don’t have much of it) where they feel appreciated as a customer. Cara B once again shows tremendous customer service and care for their consumers. I recently received the following email from Kristi Booker, Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder/co-owner, of CARA B Naturallywho found my earlier post on Cara B. Here’s what she said:
Good afternoon Ladies!
My name is Kristi Booker and I am the Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder/co-owner of CARA B Naturally. I was doing a google search and found your post! We are so excited to know that you like the products and appreciate the packaging and customer service. My sister and co-founder/co-owner Landra Johnson wrote the note that came with your package. With your permission, we would like to tweet about your review and post a link to our FB page. Please let us know if you are ok with this. Either way, thank you once again for your kind words and we love what you are doing in the support and promotion of Natural Beauty. Have a wonderful weekend and Stay Beautiful, Naturally .
Kristi J. Booker
Chief Marketing Officer
CARA B Natural Products, Inc. kristi@mycarab.com
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I know the time and hard work that goes into starting a business, so it says a lot that the sisters/founders of Cara B have taken the time to write personal notes to me as a customer. If they care so much about the customers, I can only imagine the care that they have taken in putting together their products. Here’s a link to their business page on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/#!/CARA.B.Naturally, and a link to their website, http://www.mycarab.com/, if you are interested in learning more about their products.
Lately, I’ve been looking to slowly convert all of our products over to products with all natural ingredients. The costs of such products are usually a deterent, but the health benefits of switching over to products of all natural ingredients more than makes up for the costs. Well, I figured, what better place to begin than with my precious babies. After seeing a Google Ad, at the top of my website, for Cara B Naturally hair and body products for children I decided to check the company out. This company really did a great job of marketing with the cute little brown children on the packaging, because I immediately purchased every item that they make. (Yes, hubby I splurged a bit). Also, as a fan of theirs on Facebook, I received a discount of 20% off (yay!! $11 off my order), plus free shipping on orders over $25! Free shipping is like my middle name
Well, I was excited to receive my package of products today. They really took time with the packaging. The products were all wrapped in a green ribbon with green and white packaging confetti paper. Also included with the package was a handwritten note… did I say that it was handwritten? A handwritten note, signed by Landra J (co-founder and chief executive officer of CARA B) , was included apologizing that my items did not get here as quickly as possible because of “higher than anticipated order volumes”. Also included was a 10% coupon as an apology. Mind you, I ordered the products on Thursday, August 05 and received them yesterday Thursday, August 12. That is not an unreasonable amount of time to wait for a package coming from California to Tennessee, but I do appreciate the great care and customer service. Let’s say that I am impressed so far.
Anyway, I cannot wait to use the products, so expect reviews soon. I can see big things happening for this company in the near future!
When I have my hair in a braid-out or twist-out, it can last for weeks. However, my daughter’s only last about a day. This is the next day after my daughter wore the braid-out, seen here: braid-out. I finger styled and gently picked her moistened hair until I was satisfied with the shape (I love the messy afro look). I then applied a small amount of ORS Olive Oil Smooth n Hold Pudding* (my review coming soon) to the front of her hair, gently brushed it and finished it with a headband.
My daughter is a very active little girl, so this style did not stay cute for very long. It was a matter of minutes before she started rolling around on the floor and flattening the afro Let’s just say that I may have to wait until she’s a bit older before she gets to really sport an afro. Well, at least I got a chance to take a few pictures!
I discovered an interesting picture effect while visiting a local aquarium. Sitting next to the large aquarium and angling the camera just right, you get a cool reflection effect. Check it out:
Here’s my picture next to the aquarium.
Here’s my sister, Co’s picture
Here’s my dear daughter’s picture. You can actually see one of the fish in her picture.
I also took pictures like this of my mom and son. They all came out pretty cool.
I removed the cornrows and braids from my dear daughter’s hair, and this is the resulting braid-out. She was in the middle of having a tw0-year-old tantrum, but I managed to capture a few good pictures of her hair. (Click pictures to enlarge)
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