Hey guys! ralf here, in this beauty review, we’re going to take a look at one of my “eh” gels, a gel i thought was eh, or so i thought, today, we will be reviewin' a gel named stylex.
Now before we start, lets take a look at the company who made this gel, splash corporation, splash corporation is based in BGC (Bonifacio Global City) and is a personal care company thats a subsidiary of wipro enterprises
It was founded in 1985 as RBH cosmetics, and was founded by Dr. Rolando B. Hortaleza Dr. Rosalinda A. Hortaleza, and its current owners are Neeraj Khatri (Chairman and CEO) and Veneranda M. Tomas (President and COO), and it has a wide variety of products, which include Kolours, Maxi-Peel, Shades by Kolours, SkinWhite, Stylex (formerly Control), and Vitress.
vitress has a wide range of products, their most popular product is their cuticle coat, which come in different varieties
Splash Corporation's work environment is known for free samples, and quarterly bonuses, there also seems to be a lot of kindness and welcoming people who treat you like family in the workplace, but reviews also tell stories of long hours, working holidays, and lots of work. and not only that, splash is also known for their zero-waste policy and for the splash foundation, which was established in 1997 and aims to give students scholarships, give communities livelihood projects in order to become self-sustaining, and give medical missions and health seminars they also seemed to have handled the pandemic well, offering shuttle bus services and lodging to their workers, while giving them constant updates and giving them a clean, sanitized workplace Splash corporation also pushes old fashioned beauty standards of white skin through their skinwhite line, a product that aims to give you whiter skin in one to two weeks.
I believe that stylex is one of their earlier products, because my mom remembers using their hair dressing in the 80s.
Anyways, now that we have some background on splash corporation we can now discuss the stylex hair gel itself
What is stylex hair gel and how does it hold my hair?
Stylex styling gel is a clear gel that is non sticky and non flaking that provides a defined look with strong hold, it can be used on towel dried or damp hair, it is manufactured by splash corporation and it may be one of their earliest products, it is manufactured in valenzuela city, philippines, and it has
Aqua, Alcohol Denat, PVP, Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Fragrance, Tetrasodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, and Ethylhexylglycerin
Some of the ingredients, like Alcohol denat. can dry your hair,and not only that but it has fragrance and phenoxyethanol in it which can irritate sensitive skin and also give the gel a soft rosy smell, and it also has triethylamine or TEA, which can be unsafe in large concentrations and can contain nitrosamines, which is linked to cancer, but it is safe in small concentrations and can make your gels jelly and can act as a surfactant, while some ingredients like PVP can provide a film that prevents frizz and absorption of moisture, meanwhile, tetrasodium EDTA attracts the minerals away from the hair shafts, and carbomers can help create a JELLY effect that defines curls, meanwhile aqua which can hydrate the hair, and ethylhexylglycerin can make your hair soft, all of these combine to give you a frizz-free hold that is soft and strong.
Carbomers are a family of hydrophilic polymers with high molecular weight that were first commercialized in 1958 by BF Goodrich and is used to make gel, well, gel, they are also used to stabilize products and improve texture, they are available as white, lightweight powders and are made by polymerizing acrylic acid with cross-liking agents like Pentaerythritol Polyallylether and Polyallyl Sucrose in ethyl acetate, they are found in gel, lotions, shampoo, cuticle removers, and many more products
Dentaured Alcohols is a type of alcohol that was made by the united states government in 1906 in order to make alcohol undrinkable, they are made by mixing ethyl alcohol with a denaturant like castor oil, isopropyl alcohol, etc, they are found in cleaning products and beauty products and are used to make the product absorb fast and to make creams feel lighter.
PVP, or Polyvinylpyrrolidone is a water soluble, inert, temperature-resistant polymer that was made by a BASF chemist named walter Reppe in 1939, it is available in different molecular weights, it comes in white powders and flakes and is used in the cosmetics industry for its binding and film-making abilities, it is also combined with iodine to form povidone-iodine for pharmaceuticals
Triethanolamine is a clear to pale yellow liquid with an ammonia smell that is strongly alkaline and was used in the 1930s to sweeten gas, , it is made by the reaction of ethylene oxide with excess ammonia, this reaction is accelerated by water in order to produce this chemical it is used as a surfactant, ph-adjusting, emulsifying liquid, it is used in paints, cosmetics, and inks
Tetrasodium EDTA is a derivative of EDTA with four sodium cations, its made by neutralizing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid with four equivalents of sodium hydroxide and it is a white solid that is water soluble, chelating, and a good stabilizer. it is a controversial ingredient due to the fact that one of its main ingredients , EDTA, which was first synthesized by Ferdinand Münz in 1935, is derived from formaldehyde and it was also found to contain a carcinogenic byproduct of manufacturing which is dioxane, though it does have little to no risk of causing cancer in laboratory animals, it is found in personal care products like shampoos and conditioners, and cosmetics
Meanwhile, Phenoxyethanol’s first few mentions was made in 1894 by Erns Roithner, where he described the synthesizing processes of 2-phenoxyethanol, which includes the reaction of ethylene oxide with a phenol and medium, it is a oily sticky substance with a rosy smell, it prevents fungi and bacteria from growing, it also works as a solvent and anesthetic in fish productions, it is found in cosmetics like makeup and personal care products like sunscreen
ethylhexylglycerin was first invented in the 1990s by german scientists and it is made by the reaction of sodium salt of acetone glycerol and hexadecyl iodide in boiling glycol dimethyl ether , it is a humectant, surfactant, and emollient, it is found in skin care products and cosmetics.
It is smooth in texture and is thin in comparison to some other gels i’ve used in the past, it glides on my hands easily and again, has a rose like smell.
It is contained in a 125g TDPE and PP container, TDPE or low density polyethylene is chemical and impact resistant and PP or polypropylene is flexible, low-cost, and light, and both plastics can be recycled, though it does not biodegrade in sea or land and turns into tiny plastics, these also cannot be recycled for more than once, due to the fact that plastic degrades during recycling, and the gel itself has a 3 year shelf life, which is really good if you plan on stretching it out.
I personally have not had good memories with the gel in the past, though it may be because of the sticky film that it leaves on my hands and phone, which, looking back at it now, is really stupid, cause it has so many benefits for such a small price.
This gel’s price on watsons website was hovering around the 36-37 php range between 2020-2022, but has since began depreciating to 35php, not only that, but it gives you TONS of benefits for a small price, and can be found in all major outlets, malls, pharmacies, etc.
I recommend this gel if you want an accessible, cheap, rosy gel with strong hold and light, non-sticky and thin consistency.
It provides a thin film of PVP which protects your hair from additional moisture from the atmosphere which is really important for people living in hot, moist areas and it also attracts metallic ions and compounds away from your hair
I recommend this gel if you want an accessible, cheap, rosy gel with strong hold and light, non-sticky and thin consistency.
It's so beneficial, so beautiful, so liquidy, but i do think that it's a bit light for me, i like gel with sticky, and heavy formulas, because they give me so much hold and tight curls, but thats my experience, other curly boys may have different experiences with their gels , not only that, bu some of the ingredients are derived from dangerous things and can irritate skin, but then again, this is 35 php gel, so i cant have good expectations for its ingredients anyways, yeah it gave my hair low definition and loose curls, you may ask yourself….
“But ralf, all of these paragraphs don't mean anything if we can see the results!”
Welp, guess it's time to do some experiments!
We will use strand A as a control group and stand C and strand B as treatment groups, meanwhile, we will use grips gel and stylex gel as treatments. I don't really know what I'm doing here so I'm really sorry if my results and my labeling of variables is messy.
Note:
I am really bad at experimentation and syntheszing data, and no sampling techniques were involved, if you are badexperimentationdonebyadumbresearcherwhoisntreallyaresearcher phobic, you are free to skip to the results.
the amount of gel is static due to the fact that i dont want to wash and condition strands multiple times
Things needed:
The hair tufts were obtained from my head by aimlessly cutting the hair off with a crafting scissor, then the tufts were tied together with bands from a face mask in order to create a hair switch, these switches were then washed using human nature’s green tea + lemon conditioner, these switches were then conditioned using human nature’s green tea + lemon conditioner for 1-2 minutes, they were then sprayed with a leave in conditioner consisting of water and laurat leave in conditioner
Strand A, The control variable in the middle, will not be given any treatment, while Strand B at the left will be treated with stylex hair gel and C at the right will be treted with grips hair gel, both will be using 2.5 grams of gel. they are the dependent variables,the independent variable, the gel, will be applied to the sample via scrunching, these strands will be left to dry for 2 hours, once dried, they shall be put to a 10 hour hold test in order to test the gel’s hold
Once done, pictures shall be taken and the samples will be measured with a ruler, and qualitative observations (a.k.a staring at the strands) using pictures will be used in order to determine the curvature of the strands, multiple pictures will be taken per hour and each picture will be compared in order to obtain the result of said treatments
Results
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I really do not have any idea on what happened to strand C, all i know is that it ended up like that, so, instead of using the big curl, i am going to use the small curl as the reference
As you can see, Strand B on the left has a bit of a hold, but not much curl, whilst strand A in the middle has a little curl, while Strand C on the right has a lot of curl.
Over time, strand C’s curl became looser and looser, whilst strand B retained its hold, though it had less definition than strand C, at least from my perspective.
This gel proved me wrong, it proved to me that it is worth it and its good, but, it did not curl my curls and it kinda has some nasty ingredients, and it also has a nice smell, and its also very cheap!
See you on the other side!
-Ralf