A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a member of my beloved Twitter/Facebook natural hair Fam, Emerald Shaw, with a request to test drive a product she was working on.  Of course I agreed since I love trying out new products on my tresses since I discovered that with it gaining so much length certain products that did wonders on short curls don’t work so well now.  Em wasn’t specific on the type of product she was sending, but I knew it had to be something that helped keep hair moisturized since we both have thick grades which take loads and loads of hydration to keep soft and manageable.

The product arrived within a week’s time with a handwritten note from Em which I thought was a cute and personal touch.  I was sure the product was shea butter based, but not quite sure what else was in it.  The smell has somewhat of a tropical aroma to it, as if there was papaya or pineapple in it, but at the time I didn’t think to ask about the ingredient makeup (bad practice for a natural hair veteran, right?).  The consistency of the product is like shea butter but fluffier…  Not quite whipped but well blended and smooth.  I could tell she’d used a far amount of oils to blend it, olive I thought I knew for sure because of the distinct smell. *lol*  Being that I know how serious Em is about her hair I knew there was nothing to fear component wise so even without know exactly what was in it, once I washed and conditioned my hair with Herbal Essence’s Hello Hydration shampoo and conditioner and detangled with a wide tooth comb, I treated my hair to an ample amount (half dollar sized portion) of what I call Emmy’s Elixir (she doesn’t have a name for the product yet, that I know of) and styled in my normal WNG (wash ‘n go) fashion.

First off, on moderately damp, towel squeezed hair my curl pattern immediately responded to the product and became defined:

(click image to enlarge)

In addition to that, my hair felt very soft and pliable, making it very easy to finger style into a WNG ‘Fro.  Throughout the first day my hair resisted shrinkage, which was a plus, and remained soft to the touch and fluffy.  While I didn’t have to add very much the next morning in order to revive my hair, after spritzing my hair with water I did find that the “high” oil content in the product caused me to have to use more water, since we all know oil “seals” the hair cuticles and makes the water “sit” on top instead of penetrating the shaft.  I figured using less would prevent this, which I kept in mind for the second application the next week.

The product worked great on its own, but I was curious to see how well it played with the other products I used regularly, such as Kinky-Curly’s Knot Today Leave In Conditioner, Going Natural’s Herbal Styling Gel and Yonnea’s GPS Oil.  With the Knot Today and about a quarter sized portion of Emmy’s Elixir my hair initially responded well.  It styled easily and shaped nicely.  But as my hair dried the day wore on my curl pattern seemed less defined and there was a tackiness to my hair that I didn’t like.  Not a good duet, to say the least.  With the Herbal Styling Gel, my edges remained smooth and “in place” throughout the day so the two worked very well together. With the GPS Oil as a “warm oil treatment” on my scalp and a “second day booster”, the two products complimented each other very well without leaving a heavily oiled presence as one might suspect.  With products that I use every blue moon, like Kinky-Curly’s Spiral Spritz or Curling Custard and Long Aid’s Curl Activator, the results were less than desired and left the same tacky feel as when used with the KC Knot Today.  Might be merely an incompatibility of the product’s ingredients, the amounts I used or the reactions of my particular hair texture/type to the combinations. *shrug*

As for the ingredients used in Emmy’s Elixir: shea butter, coconut oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, vitamin E oil, grape seed oil, tea tree oil, fragrance and honey.

The only component that might raise a red flag is the one labeled “fragrance” since there’s a great debate about what actually composes this nondescript and generic ingredient.  But for the most part I am in love with the ingredient list as it is.

The one and only drawback with Emmy’s Elixir is that with the “high” oil content combined with the shea butter, by day three of the week it had the tendency to bulk my already thick strands up.  This resulted in a longer than expected style time to get my sleep-packed hair workday ready.  What usually takes me five minutes to “perfect” took upwards of ten to fifteen minutes by day three.  Even with adjusting the amount used my hair seemed to swell by the third day of use, and I found myself having to turn my weekly wash regimen into a twice weekly wash regimen.  I won’t say these are major complaints since the product works so well with my hair, but if you have thick hair this may be something you’d want to prepare for if you ever get a chance to use the product yourself.  Quite possibly Em may want to consider working out the measurements and ingredients for effective long term use on different hair types, which I’m sure she did since she let me know she’d taken climate into consideration when sending out her samples.

So what’s the official JB2M rating:

Emmy’s Elixir:

Overall, the product works as it should, does not have an overpowering fragrance, does not produce an excessive amount of buildup on the hair and keeps the hair from drying out.  Another thing that I considered in respect to the one drawback I experienced, simply testing the product out on one style can not predict how the product will react with other styles and so with that in mind I used Emmy’s Elixir, along with Going Natural’s Herbal Gel, to twist The Lion’s hair and the results were wonderful!!!

NOTE: Don’t you just love a man who let’s you experiment with his hair? *lol*

For a first attempt at concocting a natural hair product, I have to say Emerald has hit a grand slam her first time up to bat!  Keep it up, girl!

Healthy Hair Wishes!