CUSTOMIZED HAIR CARE WITH FORMULATE

I was just about out of my current shampoo and conditioner when I was contacted by Formulate and asked to be part of their brand launch. As someone who switches shampoo fairly often, I was really excited to try this one out. I've never really found a shampoo/conditioner set that I was totally in love with, so I was hopeful that this would be my holy grail - mostly because.. it's CUSTOMIZED! Yes. CUSTOM.IZED.

I reviewed the product for a solid 2 months because I only wash my hair every 3rd day. I wanted to give myself enough time to see results and be able to give an honest review.

Let's get into it.

THE BRAND

Formulate launched earlier this year with a mission to solve the world's hair care problems, and a promise to LISTEN, TO BE REAL, TO EDUCATE and TO WOW! The company was founded by three talented individuals: Osmaan (Ooz), Chris, and Tammy. Ooz is the visionary and coder, Chris is the AI specialist, and Tammy is the lead cosmetic chemist. Together with their team of worker bees (like Abby, who has been AMAZING this whole process - answering all of my questions and checking in on my progress), Formulate is helping give great hair to people who deserve it. They strive to be a forever haircare brand that grows with you:

"Our research is good, your feedback is better. It allows us to continually improve the Formulation until it's practically perfect. Not "just ok" or "the best so far" but truly the best formulation for your hair, all it's needs and all your goals. We feel really strongly about personal care. Products need to do a better job for the individual, not what's best for the masses."

Their customized shampoos & conditioners will always be preservative free, sulfate free, paraben free, and cruelty free. YAY! They use less water and more of the good-for-you, good-for-your-hair ingredients, which leads to better results. It's not just a one-and-done brand, if one formula doesn't work as well as you'd hoped, their team will work with you to adjust your ingredients and ship you the new formula - free of charge. How amazing is that?!

THE PROCESS

To get started, you'll need to take the Hair Test: a quick questionnaire that gets down to the nitty gritty of hair care. Not only does it ask you the basics like "Do you color your hair", "Is your hair straight or curly", but it also asks where you live (to get a sense of climate), how often you use heat tools to style it, and what areas you hope to improve, like frizz control, growth, and anti-breakage. Based on your answers, the formulate system is able to determine the current state of your hair and which ingredients to use in your formula to best achieve your personal hair care goals. Their chemists take that data, make tweaks if necessary, then send it off to be mixed, bottled and shipped to you!

MY FORMULA

I have naturally brown hair that's actually pretty wavy, super frizzy and kind of thick (as in my hair strands, not overall hair amount). I've noticed my hair losing volume (not height, but actual hair count) over the years, so my top hair goals were: Prevent Thinning, Anti-Frizz, Lengthen, Volumize and Hydration. I live in MA so the seasons change... really the days change (you know, 90 one day, 60 and raining the next), so this was taken into account when formulating my shampoo and conditioner. I also put it through heat-hell: blow dryer, straightener, curling iron; and I use dry-shampoo literally every day (my saving grace). You can read more about my formula HERE.

THE PRODUCT

I am going to try to describe these as best I know how. The little guide that came with my box of shampoo said to use 6 pumps of each, lather rinse, repeat (you know the drill). I use 3 pumps, sometimes 4 if I need a little extra, and that is more than plenty. The shampoo lathers like no other, and I am a HUGE fan of that. It makes me feel like it's really getting in there and cleaning my hair. It spreads evenly, isn't too thick and when I wash it out it actually feels like my hair is already conditioned (unlike some shampoos that leave your hair feeling like straw). The conditioner is super weird - unlike anything I've ever used... and I LOVE IT. The consistency is like watery hand lotion and when I put it in my hair it basically disappears. I can't describe it any other way - it just soaks right in, and when I rinse it out, it feels like there wasn't anything even in my hair. This is by no means a negative, just something I've never really experienced before.

THE RESULTS

Like I said before, I've been using my set for about 2 months and I AM OBSESSED WITH IT. For real. My hair has never looked so great. Not only has my hair grown (what feels like) a shit ton over the last few weeks, but it feels stronger, thicker and even dries better. I was never able to let my hair air dry without product (or with product for that matter) and I've worn my hair natural more times recently than I think I ever have in my whole life. I always needed a leave in conditioner or oil to be able to get a brush or comb through my hair right out of the shower, and since I started using my Formulate duo, my brush literally glides through my hair like butter... it's the weirdest, best thing. The only things about my formula that I'm not crazy about is the scent (I got the medium strength "Tidal" and it smells a little plasticy to me), the fact that there is fragrance in it (which I was informed could be removed and replaced with natural essential oils) and that my wet hair feels a little slimy and waxy (which I think is the Keratin in it). None of these things will stop me from using it though - the scent is growing on me, I'll get a formula without the franqcgrance next time, and the waxy feeling when my hair is wet goes away completely when my hair dries. All in all - I am very happy with my formula and I do feel like it's helping with all of the things I checked off on my survey... especially the "lengthen" part - grow baby, grow!! Also, I'm 2 months in and I still have half of the bottles left!

BEFORE

DURING (MY NATURAL HAIR!)

AFTER

BEFORE / AFTER (2 MONTH PROGRESS)

GIVEAWAY!

Ready to start your journey to great hair? I'm giving one lucky winner their very own customized formula - but don't worry, EVERYONE who enters will get $5 off their order! It's a WIN-WIN either way :)

!!! ENTER MY GIVEAWAY !!!

Good luck everyone!!!