After exploring the beauty benefits of rice, for the second time travel into Ancient Asian beauty secrets, I chose Camellia Flower Oil. The Camellia sinensis plant comes from China and Japan, but the flower has long fascinated European intellectuals and was associated with beauty (as illustrated by the title of Alexandre Dumas son novel, La Dame aux Camelias – The Lady of the Camellias). Since centuries, Camellia Flower oil, also called Tsubaki Oil, has helped Japanese women shine with incredibly long, lustrous, and beautiful hair. This oil which is packed with oleic acids that are very compatible with our skin, can be used to moisturised hair or as a face and body oil. It also contains vitamins A, B, D, and E, polyphenols, and omega-9 fatty acids as well as naturally occurring antioxidants. Camellia oil is a truly multipurpose product, and was supposedly used by Geishas as a make-up remover and a hair lacquer shine by both Geishas and Samurais.

Today, we have the choice between using a pure extract of Camellia Oil (I am also using this classical Oshima Tsubaki Camellia Hair Care Oil) or products that contain Camellia Oil. For Haircare, I find the pure exact of Camellia Oil too heavy for my extra-thin hair (I only apply it on hair ends or on my body) so I was tempted to discover other options with this legendary ingredient. In this post you will find my review of two Haircare products from the Korean brand Innisfree – Camellia Essential Hair Treatment and Camellia Essential Hair Oil Serum.

Camellia Essential Hair Treatment by Innisfree

At the time of writing this post I have already finished the Camellia Essential Hair Treatment by Innisfree and I am very happy with the results. This hair conditioner contains 7 kinds of vegetable oils, Camellia oil and a green complex from Jeju Island – and whatever the later may be, it works! As you know, my hair is bad. Like really bad. So of course I am super picky with my hair products. Whenever anyone makes a complement on my hair I feel a sense of pride – this is all thanks to my loving care! Because, unfortunately in this department, mother nature was very mean. I have thin, dry, lifeless and naturally blond hair, that I occasionally torture with highlights. When I try to give them extra love with moisturising masks, they respond by being even more flat and greasy. If I don’t moisturise them enough, they are so dry I can’t even brush them normally. As they are quite long and dry, I constantly struggle with split ends, lack of shine and hair knots. I am in a kind of never ending quest for great hair products. And this Innisfree Camellia Oil conditioner is damn good. Moisturising enough for my hair, without weighting them down! It also has a light flowery smell that is quite pleasant even though it doesn’t stay long. The packaging is very practical, because it allows you to squeeze every little drop of this conditioner to the very end (I like that!).

The ingredients:

water, dipropylene glycol, camellia japonica seed oil, behentrimonium chloride, cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, glycerin, sorbitol, lauroyl lysine, amodimethicone, orbignya oleifera seed oil, argania spinosa kernel oil, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, macadamia ternifolia seed oil, elaeis guineensis (palm) oil, hydrolyzed wheat protein, citrus unshiu peel extract, camellia sinensis leaf extract, opuntia coccinellifera fruit extract, camellia japonica leaf extract, orchid extract, hydroxyethylcellulose, isopropyl alcohol, trideceth-10, citric acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, fragrance

Where to get it? I ordered mine directly from the Innisfree official website.

Camellia Essential Hair Oil Serum by Innisfree

Next comes the Camellia Essential Hair Oil Serum also from Innisfree. I was a little bit worried about this one, because usually hair serums weight my hair down as they are too rich for my thin hair. Surprisingly, this Innisfree serum, when applied correctly (for my hair, no more than 2 pumps per application) it worked just fine. The Camellia Essential Hair Oil Serum is advertise as especially good to revitalizes damaged hair affected by frequent perm and dyeing treatments. This serum did a good job in detangling my tired dry hair, and made them softer and more shiny. True, to detangle hair so well, a part of Camellia Oil and Hydrolysed Silk, it does contain silicon (but whatever if it works!). Despite being an oil, it has a relatively dry finish, so if you don’t put too much product it shouldn’t feel greasy (don’t put it near your roots!). Overall it made my hair smooth, glossy and healthy looking. This product is enclosed in a little bottle with a pump, which makes it easy to control the quantity you want to apply. Also a little bit of product goes a long way, and I am still using this serum long after I finished my Innisfree hair conditioner. Similarly to the hair conditioner, the flowery fragrance is very subtle and pleasant.

The ingredients:

cyclopentasiloxane, dimethiconol, isododecane, camellia japonica seed oil, glycolipids, c12-15 alkyl benzoate, fragrance

Where to get it? Also available on the Innisfree official website.

Next time I will be shopping Innisfree product I will try some other products from the Camellia Oil line, such as the shampoo or the balm, the only hiccup is that the delivery fees are high on the Innisfree website if you do not reach a minimum amount for free delivery.

Judgement time! I will give both Innisfree Hair products a 5 out of 5 Kinbeauty rating because they delivered on their promises, made my hair happy (and me happy by association!) and all that for a reasonable price.

(Note – the included links in this post are not sponsored and I won’t get any financial benefit from them – I just added them for your convenience)