Each morning, I massage a drop of this oil throughout my hair. It makes it look so shiny in between washes, rather than greasy.

The moisturizing mix of ingredients, including argan oil, moringa seed oil, chia seed oil, and vitamin E, has also been helping my hair recover from when I ironed it daily while I was teaching.

Speaking of ironing, the oil is also designed to help protect hair against heat damage up to 450°F.

Some beauty fans even say this is comparable to the popular Ouai hair oil that costs about $30 for 1.5 ounces. Meanwhile, a 1-ounce bottle of Trader Joe's costs $6.

At just $4 for a 4-ounce bottle, I was skeptical about Trader Joe's Enrich face lotion.

However, I've lived in Florida my entire life and have never found a facial moisturizer with SPF that doesn't break me out — until this one.

In addition to SPF 15, the fragrance-free lotion also contains vitamins A, C, and E.

I've been using Enrich under my makeup in the morning, and since it's so inexpensive, I don't feel bad applying it to my arms as well for some extra TLC.

I've been on the hunt for the perfect body oil to apply after the shower when my skin is damp. This is the first one I've tried that leaves me feeling moisturized, not like a layer of grease is sitting on top of my skin.

It's made with lemongrass oil, virgin coconut oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, and olive oil, and I appreciate the natural ingredients.

The scent feels cheery and uplifting, and many consider lemongrass oil to be a natural mosquito repellent. With summer around the corner, that's a real perk.

Best of all, Trader Joe's body oil feels super affordable at $4 for a 4.8-ounce bottle.

This shampoo and conditioner duo from Trader Joe's leaves my hair feeling utterly healed from that aforementioned heat damage.

I wash my scalp first with a gentle dandruff shampoo, then shampoo and condition with Trader Joe's bonding set. This is a strategy my dermatologist told me to try — the medicated shampoo cleans my scalp, while the regular shampoo nourishes my hair.

This routine makes my hair feel and look like I got a salon wash and blowout when it's dry. It may be because these products contain ingredients like hydrolyzed keratin and silk, which can help strengthen hair and make it shine.

At $8 per 12-ounce bottle, this duo cost me $16 total, but the quality reminds me of the expensive salon sets I've bought from my hairdresser in the past.

Some shoppers even swear these are dupes for more expensive bonding shampoos, which can cost twice (or even three times) as much.

I couldn't believe how luxurious Trader Joe's Next to Godliness oatmeal-and-honey vegetable soap feels when I wash my hands with it. After all, I paid only $1 for a 4-ounce bar.

Since I've started using this as a hand soap, I haven't had to use as much hand lotion — it's that moisturizing. I love the lather, too, but it's the scent that stole my heart. This soap smells like oatmeal-spiced cookies right from the oven.

If I ever see this on shelves again, I'm stocking up.

I've been looking for an affordable fluoride-free toothpaste that leaves my mouth feeling just as clean as its fluoride counterparts for some time — and this one from Trader Joe's has been a winner for me.

The 6-ounce bottle of peppermint toothpaste costs $4, and I appreciate that it has calcium hydroxyapatite, which some studies suggest can help protect teeth from erosion, cavities, and decay.

My favorite part is that it tastes like York Peppermint Pattie filling, but leaves my teeth feeling clean all day long.

Keep reading Trader Joe's diaries to see what other must-haves shoppers have in their carts.

One of my family's favorite meals is Trader Joe's Mandarin-orange chicken, so I make sure to buy four packages each time I shop.

This chicken, battered in a delicious orange-ginger sauce, is great on its own or with stir-fry noodles.

If I'm feeling fancy, I'll serve it with broccoli, carrots, and white rice, sprinkled with some sesame seeds on top.

Even though my son has never been a fan of fettuccine Alfredo, served in a restaurant or cooked at home, he absolutely loves Trader Joe's take on this dish.

For my family of five, I typically heat up two packs of the frozen pasta. I also love adding Trader Joe's breaded chicken tenderloin breasts for extra protein.

To elevate the dish even more, I add some high-protein milk and butter, then top it with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and parsley. The result is always a resounding success in our household.

I'm originally from Egypt, so I always make sure to pick up a bag of Trader Joe's Middle Eastern-style kebabs, which remind me of home.

A bonus: my oldest daughter loves them, too.

These kebabs take about 20 minutes to grill and are my secret for whipping up shawarma in a flash.

I like combining them with tomatoes, a homemade tahini sauce, and onions seasoned with sumac and parsley. Then, I pack it into the Trader Joe's Egyptian-sourdough Baladi pocket bread.

My secret indulgence is Trader Joe's chocolate-covered wafer cookie bars. This sweet treat tastes exactly like my favorite childhood snack I had back home in Egypt.

Each bar costs only $1.20, so I normally grab anywhere from five to seven during my grocery trips.

My haul always includes Trader Joe's fat-free vanilla meringues, which are my youngest daughter's favorite treat.

At only $4.50 per container, these fluffy meringues offer the perfect amount of sweetness in each bite.

My son loves Trader Joe's chili-and-lime-flavored rolled corn tortilla chips, so I always make sure to pick up a bag whenever I visit the store.

I highly recommend these extra-crunchy chips for anyone who likes spicy snacks, since they're packed with zest and heat.

My teenage daughter's favorite item from Trader Joe's is the store's mango juice smoothie.

These non-dairy smoothies are made with mango purée, apples, banana purée, and lemon juice, and are a staple in our fridge.

Along with great flavor, each smoothie is full of vitamins A and C, and costs only $3.

Whenever we have guests over, I love to serve Trader Joe's pork gyoza potstickers.

Each pack of these potstickers has about 20 pieces, making it the perfect appetizer for any get-together.

I like to pair them with some soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar, and garnish with green onions.

So many of my favorite Egyptian recipes rely heavily on butter, so I'm always on the hunt for one that's high-quality with an affordable price tag.

Trader Joe's cultured salted butter is my personal favorite, as it tastes amazing, softens in minutes, and elevates every dish.

Trader Joe's offers several types of marinara sauce, but the organic version seemed to be the most basic of them all. It had a mellow sweet-tomato flavor and a pretty red color, but other than that, there wasn't much going on.

The consistency, like most marinara sauces, reminded me of salsa because it was simultaneously chunky and watery. It poured easily with minimal effort.

When I tried this sauce with penne, I wasn't a big fan. In my opinion, the meager amount of herbs made it taste like more like ketchup than a pasta sauce.

That said, I think it might work as a cocktail sauce with some added horseradish.

Because Trader Joe's sells several more flavorful marinara sauces, though, I personally wouldn't buy this one again.

When I first tasted the tomato-basil marinara, I had to check the label on the sauce to make sure I didn't buy the organic marinara twice.

To be fair, there wasn't much of a difference between the ingredients in the two sauces, other than the fact that this one had more basil in it, which made it a touch brighter and more interesting.

Unfortunately, the basil flavor in this sauce was faint, so it still tasted like something was missing.

I think it could be vastly improved if you're willing to doctor it up with some extra herbs. But at that point, it might defeat the purpose of using jarred pasta sauce.

However, I think it would be good as a dip for breadsticks or pizza crust.

Cacio e pepe is typically made with a few simple ingredients like butter, pepper, pasta water, and Parmesan. So, having a jarred version of such a simple sauce seemed a bit unnecessary to me.

Straight out of the jar, the sauce had a thick, creamy consistency, almost like a white gravy you'd put on biscuits.

For me, Trader Joe's cacio e pepe sauce was too heavy on the salt and pepper.

I didn't like how the flavor lingered in my mouth even after washing it down with a glass of water. Plus, it seemed more oily than buttery.

In my opinion, this one tasted like a jarred Alfredo with a ton of black pepper mixed into it. It lacked the yummy, pure cheesiness I get when I make the dish from scratch, so I find it hard to justify buying it again.

In a sea of marinaras, Trader Joe's chunky-tomato and pepper sauce stood out for its spice.

In my experience, Trader Joe's items that are labeled as spicy can be pretty mild, so I was pleasantly by the mellow burn from this sauce.

It was a true standout with its layers of complex, spicy seasonings, bright-tomato flavor, and textured consistency. I'd buy it again, I just wouldn't pair it with pasta. In fact, I think it would be really good over some black beans and rice.

I'm not usually a huge fan of jarred meat sauces, but I was pleasantly surprised by Trader Joe's Bolognese.

For a premade Bolognese — especially one without wine or added sugar — it was quite good. The sauce contained a nice mix of dried herbs including thyme, oregano, fennel, and basil.

Texture-wise, Trader Joe's Bolognese sauce was thick but not as chunky as I expected. The beef is minced into such fine pieces that it felt inseparable from the sauce.

However, the sauce didn't have quite the same slow-cooked, full-bodied flavor as fresh Bolognese.

That said, a good Bolognese can be time-consuming to make from scratch, so Trader Joe's jarred version is a great substitute to make meaty pasta in record time.

In my experience, most Alfredo sauces taste like under-seasoned cream. So, I was pleasantly surprised by the version from Trader Joe's.

I'm not a huge fan of Alfredo sauce, but I thought Trader Joe's version was pretty good. It wasn't overly seasoned and got most of its saltiness from the cheese.

Although the Alfredo was a bit too rich for my liking, fans of extra creamy, cheesy flavors would probably dig it. 

Overall, it tasted like a more mellow alternative to Trader Joe's cacio e pepe sauce.

Trader Joe's vegan Bolognese combines plant-based protein crumbles with tomatoes, vegetables, and other dried Italian herbs to form a concoction that captures the iconic beefy sauce without animal products.

In my opinion, this is a really well-made, delicious sauce. It packed a pleasantly bright tomato flavor with basil and oregano.

The pea-protein crumbles did a nice job replicating that ground-beef texture and the subtle porcini-mushroom powder in the seasoning added a tasty layer of savory, meaty flavor.

I was still missing that wine taste typical of a Bolognese sauce, but then again, this flavor was also absent in Trader Joe's beefy Bolognese.

My only complaint was that it was very thin and watery — almost soup-like — so it didn't cling to the pasta as well as the other sauces.

Pesto rosso is a variation of the typical green pesto, made with sun-dried tomatoes.

The consistency of Trader Joe's version was thick, like tomato paste, so it seemed better suited for spreading on sandwiches than mixed into pasta. However, I tried it with penne.

The pesto rosso had a smooth, sweet-tomato flavor with a strong cheesy overtone. The balsamic gave the pesto rosso a sharp bite that made it distinct from other tomato-cheese sauces I tried.

Trader Joe's pesto rosso is one of those sauces where you need a just dollop to get the flavor you're looking for.

Overall, it's a great ingredient to have on hand when you need an extra boost of tomato flavor without using a full liquid sauce. I'd definitely buy it again.

There's a lot to love about Trader Joe's pesto alla Genovese, but my favorite part is that I could actually taste every ingredient that's supposed to be there.

In my experience, some store-bought pesto is overwhelmingly oily or drowning in so much salt that you can barely taste the basil.

On the contrary, Trader Joe's pesto alla Genovese had a pleasant basil flavor with a nice balance of nuttiness and salt. It was also surprisingly potent, so I think a little goes a long way.

At first, the ultra-blended consistency and tiny jar made me think the pesto was more of a condiment than a sauce, but it tasted great on pasta.

However, I think it would also be great on top of chicken, grilled vegetables, paninis, and soups.

Though it's not as fresh tasting as the stuff in the refrigerated section, this sauce gets the job done when you're craving pesto. Plus, with the added convenience of a longer shelf life, you really get your bang for your buck here.

"Pomodoro" translates to "tomato," which should serve as a reminder of who the star of this sauce is.

Trader Joe's three-cheese pomodoro sauce, which included Romano, Asiago, and Parmesan, was splendid. For me, the most notable quality was the delicate, yummy sweetness of the tomatoes that I didn't get from many of the other sauces.

I also loved that there were large chunks of tomato and that the sauce had a rustic, home-cooked feel to it. I'd buy this again to ladle over stuffed shells with even more cheese.

The pomodoro sauce is probably my personal favorite of the roundup, but because it might not be as versatile as Trader Joe's other options, I can't say it's the best sauce from the chain.

Where the classic tomato-basil marinara left a lot to be desired, Trader Joe's creamy tomato-basil sauce had me wanting to lick the bottom of my plate.

This sauce was incredibly rich, flavorful, and delicious. I found it to be similar in consistency and taste to a tomato bisque because it was lusciously creamy with bits of the fruit popping up here and there.

Though the sauce was creamy, it didn't feel heavy. It definitely tasted more decadent than a typical marinara, but it didn't stick to the sides of my mouth like other cream sauces do.

The Parmesan was more prominent than I anticipated, but I thought it added a much-needed layer of salt to round out the sauce. Add a sprig of fresh basil to bring out the herbs even more, and this stuff is pure gold straight out of the jar.

Trader Joe's roasted-garlic sauce had the same consistency and, for the most part, the same ingredients as the other marinaras I tried.

However, the roasted garlic truly elevated this into a league of its own, adding an extra dimension of irresistible flavor. Even the smell of it warming up on the stove made my nostrils flare in anticipation.

Though the flavor was prominent, it didn't overshadow the tomatoes or other herbs, so it tasted quite well-rounded.

It's not too sweet or salty, so unless you really hate garlic, I think this would be palatable to pretty much anyone.

Plus, this marinara earns high marks in my book for versatility. Sometimes, you just need a sauce that goes with everything to make your pasta nights easier.

Overall, I think Trader Joe's roasted-garlic sauce is a great-value, good-quality marinara you'll use over and over again.

I never leave Trader Joe's without at least two cans of white albacore tuna in water. It's incredibly versatile and can be prepared with just about anything.

Whether I'm making a tuna and avocado flatbread or a tuna hand roll, this fish is my secret for low-effort, anti-inflammatory meals with minimal cleanup.

Another tinned seafood I love is Trader Joe's lightly smoked mussels. Not only are they delicious, but they're also a quick and easy way to upgrade a snack board when hosting.

Trader Joe's pan-fried mini chicken-cilantro wontons are my current lunchtime hyperfixation.

I've been a fan of these for years, but even more so now that I'm on my own, since the standard serving size is four pieces, which is perfect for me. Plus, they only take around 10 to 15 minutes to pan-fry.

Even though I sometimes forget that it's hiding in the back of my freezer, the Trader Joe's spaghetti cacio e pepe always ends up being a dinnertime lifesaver.

Whether I've had a late night at work or am just not in the mood for making dinner for myself, this frozen pasta — with its creamy sauce and black-pepper seasoning — is my go-to for a quick, delicious meal.

I'm half Armenian, and try to stick to a Mediterranean diet, so lamb is one of my go-to sources of protein.

One of my favorite ways to eat lamb is in a gyro, and the Trader Joe's frozen gyro slices make it so easy to enjoy.

I love to pair these beef and lamb slices with red onion, feta, and garlic-cucumber tzatziki dip, then combine them all into a sourdough pocket bread.

Although I'm normally not a fan of spice, I've been adding Trader Joe's sweet chili sauce to just about everything.

Whether it's leftover chicken, canned tuna, or even kimbap, this sauce adds the perfect amount of zest to every dish. And, this is coming from someone with a nearly nonexistent tolerance for spice, so you'll just have to trust me.

If I were left alone with a box of mac and cheese, it'd be gone in about three seconds.

Luckily, Trader Joe's reduced-fat mac and cheese, which has 45% less fat than the store's regular version, helps me enjoy one of my favorite comfort foods in moderation without feeling deprived of my craving.

Plus, I don't even need to boil any water and can just heat it up in the microwave.

I love Trader Joe's Unexpected cheddar, and now that I'm shopping for one, the single-serve version has only deepened my appreciation for this product.

Pairing this cheese with Trader Joe's Everything But The Bagel-seasoned crackers creates the perfect mid-day savory treat. However, it's just as tasty on its own.

In my opinion, nothing is more satisfying than an individually packaged single-serving item.

Not only is Trader Joe's Atlantic salmon with lemon-herb butter delicious, but it's also the perfect single serving, preventing excess waste or leftovers that are unlikely to be eaten again.

Another bonus: this salmon tastes like a restaurant-quality dinner, in the comfort of my own home, for only $6.

I love Thai food, and Trader Joe's offers flavorful, convenient options I can enjoy without ordering takeout.

I particularly enjoy the store's pad see ew, which is made with tofu.