Radio Interview - Genesis Radio

On Sunday I was privileged enough to be featured on Genesis Radio 91.6FM, I was interviewed by Faadah Grimm. I was really nervous about doing the interview and was unsure about what questions were going to be fired my way, but the fact that Grimm is a family friend put me at ease, it was just like sitting at home and conversating. So for those of you who missed out and couldn't stay up here is a link so that you can listen to the interview. We discussed hair, my company BeUNIQUE Hair Care and education and my husband was even put on the spot!

CLICK HERE 

TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

BeUNIQUE Hair Care Launch

Monday is the day! I am scared and excited all at the same time, scared because I don't want anything to go wrong and I want everyone to like the product,s and excited because as soon as the money starts coming in I can start expanding the brand and add more products. Due to the fact that I am funding this venture myself I can only launch with two products, before the end of the year I hope to have at least 7 on the website! It's hard being just one person having to create all the goodies and also having a full time job, but hopefully in the near future this business will be my full time job.

BeUNIQUE Hairstory

Finally a routine!

I haven’t posted in a looong while, and I really should be better at this blogging malarkey , but I just post when I think I’ve something worth writing about, and as for my ingredient a week that’s gone out the window, but also I don’t want to reveal too much about what’s in my products just yet!

Anyhow the reason I’m posting now is because I finally have a hair routine! This will be my 4^th week of my 6 week cycle and I have noticed improvements in my hair. Before I reveal that, something that has drastically changed my hair and the amount I loose on wash day is NOT USING A COMB, BRUSH OR TANGLE TEEZER TO DETANGLE, yes I only finger detangle every week and comb detangle with my Hercules Comb once a month. I don’t get any fairy knots and tangles have drastically reduced. Also since gaining a bit of length I’m enjoying playing with my stretched hair, rather than putting twists in straight from washing, I now braid with a leave in, leave it to dry then the next day play with my hair.

So here is my 6 week routine

WEEK 1

Comb detangle with conditioner, water and veg glycerine – braiding hair into sections - rinse

Leave hair in braids and was with Aubrey Organics GPBShampoo

Undo braids and apply Revive UK’s breakage treatment in sections using Ouchless bands - from Asda (I replace ayurvedic powders that she uses with 5tsp of Kalpi Tone, deep conditioner used Aubrey Organics GPB Conditioner) – leave for 30mins and rinse

Apply Giovanni Smooth as Silk braid hair and rinse

WEEK 2 & 5

Wash hair in sections using Afro Shampoo Bar

Apply Hibisculious Deep Conditioner (BeUNIQUE Hair Care) braid hair, leave for an hour and rinse

WEEK 3 & 6

Apply Avocado Glaze ((BeUNIQUE Hair Care) braid hair and steam

Wash with Giovanni 50/50 Balanced Shampoo

Condition with Tresemme Naturals

WEEK 4

Bentonite Clay Mask

1 Cup of Bentonite Clay

½ Marshmallow Root Powder

¼ cup conditioner

¼ of coconut milk

Up to 500ml of water (can be infused with herbs)

1tsp Jojoba Oil

1 tsp. Castor Oil

Other info

I use Shea Passion Milkshake (BeUNIQUE Hair Care) as a leave in and Mango Twist (BeUNIQUE Hair Care) to style. To moisturise daily I use a herbal infusion with brown algae extract and I also may use Nettle Tea Cream (BeUNIQUE Hair Care) to moisturise and soften the hair.

As you can see I’m trying to use my products on my hair on a regular basis to really see what the effects are.

UK Kinky Curly Hair Care (Market Research)

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Ingredient of the week: Pracaxi Oil

Every week I will feature an ingredient that is used in BeUNIQUE hair products

This week PRACAXI OIL found in Mango Twist

Pracaxi (or “pracachy”) is a tree widely distributed in the lowland Neotropics. It can be found in South America from northern Venezuela to the Guianas, including Trinidad and Tobago and the Amazon rainforest. The pracaxi tree has fruits that contain seed from which the pracaxi oil is extracted. The oil extracted from the pracaxi seeds is used by the Amazonian riverside populations in several ways. Its antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-hemorrhagic properties have made the plant traditional among local inhabitants in the treatment of snake bites, healing of ulcers and surgical sanitation. It also has several applications in the cosmetic industry. As a powerful dermatological moisturiser, the pracaxi oil helps cell renewal and treats stretch marks, skin spots, depigmentation, severe acne, and scars. When applied to hair care products, it provides an excellent conditioning effect, eases combing, and enhances hair smoothness and shine. 

http://www.personalcaremagazine.com/Story.aspx?Story=7738

This oil can be found in The Body Shops Rainforest hair care range and also

Kérastase - Elixir Ultime

BeUNIQUE Journey

So I'm super happy today, I got some feedback on my products from Louloumatou (a fellow YouTuber). I send her stuff primarily because she has tried A LOT of hair products and I feel she is best placed to give valuable feedback, and she draws comparisons to other products which will be useful for some people when the range is released.

I've been in the kitchen today making up other batch of my Moisture Custard, which is highly moisturising, and I have reformulated Mango Twist, hoping to get safety assessment done for 3 products by the end of June. Then I need to sort out the challenge testing.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY...

...or rather lack of it, not sure if I spoke about this before but it's my blog so I write what I want. Feeling a little frustrated I sat down this morning and worked out that I have 7 products that I want to market. The problem is having the finance to get the business off the ground. At the moment costs include; safety assessments and challenge testing at £180 per product! Then having to pay for labels, each jar needing 2 labels each, and then actually paying for the jars to put the product in AND having enough stock of the ingredients to have enough of each product to actually start selling. So it's seeming like I need to win the lottery or have a very generous friend to get this project off the ground. *sad face*. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to market at least one product from my potential range. All the products I'm creating are for styling a maintenance I only created one deep conditioner. Reason being I'm happy using Shea Butter Cottage shampoo bars, Giovanni conditioners and Garnier Fructis conditioners.

BeUNIQUEhaircare.co.uk is now trading!

I've taken the first step of many, the BeUNIQUE website is now up and running and trading, we're selling herbs and powders, including Bentonite Clay and Marshmallow Root Powder that you can use to make deep conditioners, and final rinses, as well as moisturising spritz for your hair. So go along to http://www.beuniquehaircare.co.uk/ and take a look at what's on offer.

BeUNIQUE Hair Care Update

I'm overwhelmed with the interest from prospective buyers for my hair care products, and many people and YouTube subbies have been asking when I'm going to start trading. As much as I would love to just package my products and start trading, it's not as simple as that, there are certain things that I need to do in order to legally comply with cosmetic trading standards. For example, I have to get all formulations safety assessed and challenge tested, this is to ensure that I'm using the right preservation system/ technique (to prevent germs forming!).  All of this costs money, and so although I'm working on other items that I can sell through the BeUNIQUE website, the actual hair products that I'm developing may not be available until early next year. I'll keep you posted.

The ball is rolling...

BeUnique Hair Care is moving from a dream to reality, I have registered the company and it's now officially known as BE UNIQUE HAIR CARE LTD. I'm happy and scared at the same time, scared because now it's a little more real and getting registered is just the first step, and now I can't go back. The next step is to become certified so that I can legally make and trade homemade cosmetics. The plan was to have this whole thing off the ground by this time next year, but due to money being a big factor I don't think that will happen, but, it will happen!

Back in the kitchen...

So I only managed to keep the kinky twists in for a week, they didn't turn out like I wanted them to and were quite annoying, next time I'm going to try crochet braids. Taking out the kinky twists gave me the opportunity to work my version of Smooth and Shine Curl Activator Gel. I was in the kitchen this morning working on it, and it's in my hair now, the formula I made up is not exactly how I want it to be, but it's well on it's way to doing what I want it to do. I co-washed my hair TIGI Moisture Maniac then sprayed with my moisturising spritz then put the gel mixture on. It has defined my curls and I was able to style it in record time. I'm currently waiting to see how it dries. Things I don't want it to do is: dry hard and crispy, flake or dry white, I'm hoping to have a soft hold. I've also used some to hold down the baby hairs so we'll see how it goes.

So, so far in the BeUnique Hair Care range we have:

• Twisted Mango Custard - for twists and braids
• Coconut Cocktail - a moisturising, hair softening spritz
• Shea Passion Puddin' - a curl defining hair cream, with soft hold
• Next will be a moisture lotion and hair butter

BeUnique: The Journey

BeUnique

A few pictures documenting the progress of the hair care range

Making moves..

At church last week the guest pastor was telling us where to find money, he told us 10 places that money is hiding two of those places where in 'problems' and in 'you'. There are always going to be problems in the world and if you can find a solution for them you will have the potential to make money. Money is on the inside of us, because we have ideas and need to take up opportunities when they arise.

I had a problem that was my hair and I know other naturals have similar problems but rather than paying through the nose for hair products I wanted to create my own, to meet the specific problems of my hair. So you see money potentially is on the inside of me. I have spoken on YouTube about hair products that I want to create and some people have shown an interest in purchasing them. So I've decided to be proactive get off my bottom and get the ball rolling, I have 3 products that will soon be ready to sell.

New growth

I don't seem to update this blog that often but when I'm not on here, I'm usually uploading to YouTube. I think if I commit to updating once a month that will do me.

Well I'm feeling so, so right now, I thought that I had perfected the recipe for my hair gel, but I can't seem to get the exact match the same as the batch that I loved so much. So I'm starting from scratch. I did make a new product that I kind of like and I used it to do my twists and twist out, it's a mango butter hair balm which has two different butters in it and three oils one of them being meadowfoam seed oil which is supposed to be good for shine a moisture I used this to do my twists and my hair was really soft when I did the twist out. I also moisturised every day with an oil and water spritz one of the oils was coconut.

I tried an experiment with my hair gel, I melted a small amount of my mango hair balm and mixed in with my gel, it has created hold that defined my curls so I may experiment some more. I also fell of the wagon for a day opting to use shop bought gel but I hated it so much, so like I said I only lasted a day