Eco Styler Olive Oil Styling Gel, 16 oz

I bought this as I have a lot of flyaway hairs, and my hair is quite frizzy, hairspray just dries it out and makes it worse. I am so in love with it! It holds my hair all day long, it doesn't dry crispy, nor does it look wet, but it looks shiny, silky and healthy and no flyaways. Also fantastic for doing my edges. After using my hair also feels so nourished, the olive oil is obviously really hydrating for the hair, so it has multiple benefits. Highly reccomend!

I'll start by saying that I won this gel along with some other Ecoco products 5 months ago on the brand's official Instagram page's giveaway. It was not required of me to review the product. I had a few samples of the tiny jars of this gel that I had been using and, as far as performance goes, although the product is thicker, i get pretty much the same results as when I use the pink gel. In that I can't get a nicely defined curl 'wash and go' with it but I can do a loosely defined crunchless twistout without any problems. The glitter shine isn't over the top and it's very fine. The problem I have with it though, is that only after 5 month sealed in my closet, the 16oz. jar of it that I opened had started to grow, what I believe to be, mold! Now if you are looking to ... MoreI'll start by saying that I won this gel along with some other Ecoco products 5 months ago on the brand's official Instagram page's giveaway. It was not required of me to review the product. I had a few samples of the tiny jars of this gel that I had been using and, as far as performance goes, although the product is thicker, i get pretty much the same results as when I use the pink gel. In that I can't get a nicely defined curl 'wash and go' with it but I can do a loosely defined crunchless twistout without any problems. The glitter shine isn't over the top and it's very fine. The problem I have with it though, is that only after 5 month sealed in my closet, the 16oz. jar of it that I opened had started to grow, what I believe to be, mold! Now if you are looking to purchase this gel in store somewhere it's impossible to tell whether the gel has gone bad without breaking the safety seal to actually look at the top layer of gel. Whether it be that the product has a much shorter shelf life than what the lable claims (btw shelf life is 24 months and I only had it for 5 months unopened) or I just got a bad batch I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Did the formula change???

I normally order a few bottles at once, but the last batch I ordered all of them are watery. Worthless didn’t hold my hair at all. Terribly disappointed been using this same hair gel for seven years, never had this issue. I went and used an older bottle I had, just to make sure it wasn’t my hair that was changing. But my hair came out perfect with that one. Went back and tried the new bottles again, liquidy. It was a mess hair look terrible. If this is what the consistency is going to be moving forward, I need to find something else. Once my old stash runs out, I’m toast. .

Gel is "Bomb!"

I decided to go natural months ago and watched several You Tube videos on how to care for a natural teeny weeny afro. In all of the videos the ladies were using Eco Styling Gel. I decided to give the olive oil a try (I use olive oil for everything) and let me tell you the gel is "bomb." It smells lovely, is not flaky and does not leave your hair stiff. I will definitely be purchasing this again. I might try the argan oil next time around. I highly recommend this gel. You will not regret it. God bless!

Good value, will buy more

I have baby fine and somewhat thin hair with a mix of 2c waves and 3a loose curls. This gel gives me a light to medium hold. Pros: not crunchy or sticky after breaking a cast, no flaking, hair feels soft, nice shine, not damaging, works with or without a leave in conditioner. Cons: takes longer to air dry than gel with a similar consistency, hold starts to fade by the end of the day, not easy to refresh for day 2 or 3 with without adding lots more gel. In general, I recommend this because it is unlikely you will find something better for the price, and you can probably work with it and get good results even if it is not perfect.

Great for fine curly hair

This gel has been awesome for my fine & thin curly hair. I leave a light conditioner in my hair after washing it, then scrunch this gel in coating well while my hair is still really wet. I let it sit for a few while I get dressed, then scrunch out some of the water with an old tee shirt. Then I usually let it air dry (or occasionally blow dry) and scrunch out the gel crunch. It makes my curls defined and lasts for days without being too heavy. No crusty residue or bad smell. I like the olive oil kind best.

Just okay…

I have a love/hate relationship with this gel. A little does go a long way with this product, and the gel cast scrunches out very nicely. I like that it’s alcohol and silicone free, and the price point is also great. However, I do not find the hold of this gel to be sufficient. I have to use this in conjunction with another gel in order to get the control that I need. It’s incredibly sticky and thick and does make it slightly difficult to work into the hair to adequately style my curls. Overall, I like to use this so that I’m able to use less of my more expensive gel, but I don’t think I’d recommend this as your only product for hold or to enhance your curls.

Ok but not enough hold for curls

I bought this gel to style my curly hair with. I normally use the curly jelly by Umberto Giannini (which is my AMAZING also from Boots) but I wanted to try this out as I know a lot of American curly girls use this, and it's great that boots are stocking more US brands.Overall, I'd say this is an average gel. Not too expensive, and you get a large tub for the price and the ingredients are ok. CG friendly. It feels a bit sticky at first but that goes away quickly and it doesn't make the hair crunchy or dry. There are no flakey bits either, which is a problem I've encountered in the past.My biggest issue with this product is that it doesn't really give my curls enough definition. I ended up with soft waves rather than nicely defined curls. I applied the product to ... MoreI bought this gel to style my curly hair with. I normally use the curly jelly by Umberto Giannini (which is my AMAZING also from Boots) but I wanted to try this out as I know a lot of American curly girls use this, and it's great that boots are stocking more US brands.Overall, I'd say this is an average gel. Not too expensive, and you get a large tub for the price and the ingredients are ok. CG friendly. It feels a bit sticky at first but that goes away quickly and it doesn't make the hair crunchy or dry. There are no flakey bits either, which is a problem I've encountered in the past.My biggest issue with this product is that it doesn't really give my curls enough definition. I ended up with soft waves rather than nicely defined curls. I applied the product to soaking wet hair, which is what I always do, and then scrunched and let my hair air dry for about 3 hours. I noticed that my hair dried very quickly and that the curls were very soft and voluminous but were lacking in their normal definition. This gel doesn't seem to provide enough of a 'cast' and therefore my curls seemed a bit lacking as a result.If you're looking for soft curls then this will probably be perfect for you but if you need a little more definition then this isn't the gel for you. It's not the worse gel I've ever used but it wasn't great either. I think I'll stick to my Umberto Giannini curl jelly instead.*Just wanted to add that on my 2nd day hair, my curls have pretty much all fallen out and now resemble very loose waves, almost straight! So this product definitely isn't right for me.

Tacky texture and good hold, but nothing special.

I have hip length, biracial (South Asian and East African) 3b curls. My hair is fairly low key and easy to maintain, therefore gels with strong holds don’t necessarily appeal to me more than those with more mid-tier holds. Nevertheless, I heard from many people that this gel was considered the “holy grail†of their hair routine. I recently ran out of my tried and true LA Looks Sports Gel and decided to give this a try. Honestly, I do not think this gel is as remarkable as people rant and rave. However, I would never let hype detract from my score. But I do want to emphasize that this gel is nothing extraordinary. It has good hold (but not considerably better than other gels with sports-level hold). It smells nice, and it is not too expensive. However, this gel ... MoreI have hip length, biracial (South Asian and East African) 3b curls. My hair is fairly low key and easy to maintain, therefore gels with strong holds don’t necessarily appeal to me more than those with more mid-tier holds. Nevertheless, I heard from many people that this gel was considered the “holy grail†of their hair routine. I recently ran out of my tried and true LA Looks Sports Gel and decided to give this a try. Honestly, I do not think this gel is as remarkable as people rant and rave. However, I would never let hype detract from my score. But I do want to emphasize that this gel is nothing extraordinary. It has good hold (but not considerably better than other gels with sports-level hold). It smells nice, and it is not too expensive. However, this gel is very sticky and cannot be raked through hair. Instead, I have to apply it by scrunching it into my wet curls. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is worth noting that the texture of the gel is not very smooth or slippery, which is my personal preference. Overall, I would recommend this gel, but I would advise against purchasing with the expectation that this will re-invent your hair routine and leave your curls in noticeably better shape than other gel options. It is a good gel, but it does not stand out to me at all beyond that.

favourite curl gel

I have 2a/3c hair and I absolutely love this gel. I've been using it since I started my curly hair journey and I have used some other gels as well to different things but I always come back to this one. Absolutely amazing hold and definition. I'd be more cautious if you have wavy hair though - it has a LOT of hold and can get quite sticky so I think it serves curly types more. Even for curly hair though it can get too sticky sometimes so I like to put some on my hands and water it down a bit with a few sprays from my styling bottle and remember that less is more otherwise it might get too greasy and crunchy. Drying with a t shirt / microfibre towel afterward does miracles too :)