My Essentials

Not Your Mothers Curl Gel

As a 2b/3a girl with thin but curly hair, I live and die by this curl gel. Unfortunately, curl cream weighs my hair down. So I have started to just use the NYM leave in conditioner and the level 5 freeze gel. The level 3 didn't hold my curls well enough so i opted for 5. I use about a quarter sized amount of product for each side of my hair, rake it through, scrunch, and diffuse!

Vasaline

I will defend Vasaline every day to the aquaphor users every day. I have tried both, and I will always choose Vasaline. I use it every morning and every night on my lips, and I use it all the time in the winter for my knuckles. Another Vasaline life hack is for at-home-hairdye. In high school, I dyed my hair hot pink every couple of weeks, and the only thing that prevented staining on my head and neck was Vasaline. If you put a light layer around your hairline, ears, and neck, you can wipe it right off after dying your hair and there won't be any staining.

Trader Joe's Hair Oil

Throughout my curly hair journey I have tried endless amounts of products. One that I will always go back to is the Trader Joe's hair oil. Do NOT sleep on the Trader Joes beauty items. I have tried a few drugstore brand hair oils as well as more high end oils like ouai, but I have found that the Trader Joe's hair oil works the best for my hair. Its a thicker oil, but as long as you lather it in your hands really well before crunching out your gel cast, you should be good. I literally have no frizz with this oil, I swear its magic (and its cheap)!

Pentel EnerGel RTX

As someone who only takes handwritten notes, these are by far the best pens I've ever used. The ink is super pigmented and wont bleed through your paper or smear. I tell everyone about these pens. One thing that I love is that once you buy the pen, you can buy refill cartridges on amazon for around $5 for 20 refills. I mostly use the plain black, but I also like the colors for underlining important material!

Last updated August 5, 2026

I aim to update this every few weeks!!