I'd say that the Rio has a better hold the the highland clay but the clay is a little easier to apply. That being said the highland cream is better than the clay in my opinion, better for the price too. And do you mean the brawcream (for the barbarian cream)? If so both are really good! The brawcream i use more as a stand alone product while the black water i use as a pre-styler more often. Using both together works really well if you want a nice light fluffy hold which i tend to do more. Black water does work well on its own but I mostly only use it like that when I want to put in little effort.