The old formula, in the white bottle, is just plain awesome. I have very curly (4a/3C)hair and it makes it look perfect year round. I used this for years until I counldn't find it so I spent alot of $$$ trying other stuff. I found some good products but nothing could compare with how my hair looked and felt with this and I never used a leave-in conditioner under it. I bought the new formula, in the black bottle, thinking it was the same....NOT! It gave me hard, cruchy, stringy looking hair...it was still shiney in spite of this though:-) Fortunately, I've been able to find the old formula online so I will stock up.