If you were to dive headfirst into my hair care and style product pile, I genuinely don’t know how easily you’d come up for air. The number of tubs and bottles I’ve tried and tested as a beauty editor is, in a word, vast. However, even with access to the most hyped and expensive buys in the business, when I’m styling my coils, there’s one range I constantly reach for: the Umberto Giannini Curl Collection.

Whenever my sisters snoop through anything new in my beauty regime, they always fawn over the noticeably expensive or trendy brands. They say: “Oh, I want to try that new Olaplex,” and “Hang on, can you use this Chanel oil in your hair?” No one ever seems to notice the bright pink bottles that remain consistent on my haircare shelves. 

I first tried the Umberto Giannini Curl Jelly in lockdown, early on in the pandemic. I decided to put my time indoors to use by getting to grips with my natural texture. I wanted to learn how to style my curls and how to cocktail products for the most defined outcome. In everyday life, I felt nervous to experiment with my texture for fear it would look silly or I would have to wait for my next hair wash in 10 days’ time to reset it. I did twist-outs, wash-and-gos, and Bantu knot-outs and got to grips with what my hair loved and what it hated. 

Not wanting to receive deliveries unnecessarily, I remember finding a tube of Curl Jelly in the back of a drawer, wetting my hair and trying my first braid-out. When I unravelled the plaits in the morning, I was shocked. Frizz-free, bouncy and shiny – my hair was in its glory. It was my most powerful good hair day because it was the day that I realised that I could truly enjoy playing with my hair texture, and since then I have been fully converted to Umberto Giannini curl cult.

The initial product, the Curl Jelly, has a sweet story for its inception. Giannini saw his partner, the brand’s co-founder Claire, struggling to find products that enhanced the beauty of her curls so he created his own. A life-long vegan, Giannini ensured the brand stuck to a vegan formulation for his partner long before it became something that was considered desirable by the beauty industry. 

The USP for this curling gel is that it truly does suit all curl and coil types. From fine curls to European-textured curls such as Claire’s to thick coils like mine: there’s no flaking and you can cocktail away with oils or creams – whatever your hair needs. It’s the reason that someone buys a tube every minute globally. Sometimes you just don’t need to stray from the classics.

With the Curl Jelly being such a hit, of course I had to try more from the range, and I wasn’t disappointed. Here are my top picks.

Main image: Keeks Reid