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ABOUT ISLAND POTIONS
Home > About Island Potions
HISTORY BEHIND THE CREATION OF ISLAND POTIONS
My name is Trish Croke and I am the owner of a homemade hair product called Island Potions. I work a full time job as a Legal Executive Assistant and I just absolutely love assisting others. While I enjoy my full time job I may also add in that my true passion is really creating natural homemade hair products. I’ve always been artistic and in fact it is a family trait I’ve so happily carried on. Growing up I sketched, painted, drew pictures with charcoal, painted ceramics, sewed and knitted. As a child I would say I didn't have the easiest experience with my hair I would just call it interesting. As I was growing up my hair had gotten a lot thicker and longer making it unmanageable for my mom. My mom being black Bermudian and father made my hair a different texture from my mom. With the struggle my mom had with my unique hair type she took me to the hairdresser and I got a perm. My father was furious! I continued to perm my hair until August 2014.
My hair had many complications due to me having my hair permed. It became unhealthy, dry, lifeless and had lots of split ends as well as it continuously kept breaking off. I even noticed my hair being extremely flat on the top and thinning out. When it came to the winter time my hair color would be dark and as for summertime it would become reddish. To each visit I had to the hair salon I took note to the price going up as they used more product as my hair got longer, had many times when the awful smell of the perm would cause a headache and as my scalp would burn even worse each visit.
One day as i was getting out of my car my hair got caught in the door. This was one incident to when my hair was growing long but damaged. Still after all of the struggles I had with my hair I still went to another hairdresser in hope to just do something different with it. I went to get my hair straightened and was asked why was my hair permed. She advised that I should try to grow my hair out since I had good grain. I took her advice and I'm so glad I did. Till this very day I thank her and may she rest in peace, Renee Carter as she passed away in 2016 and I’ll never forget her kind heart and the simple advice that changed my life.
I started my transition August 2014 and did the Big Chop also known as the BC in September 2015. Before and during my transition I researched for hundreds of hours including entire weekends and lunch hours. I also researched carrier and essential oils and how they react with certain products. I was interested in all benefits to the scalp and hair and taking note of those suffering from allergies. I spent hours in pharmacies looking at the labels, packaging and ingredients. I would even be interested in smelling them and trying them out only to become a “product junkie”. Nothing worked. I got tired of spending not only money but ending up with hundreds of products that didn't work and of course time as well. I sat home one night just thinking and asked God to give me a way to use my creative talent that he blessed me with and to do something I enjoyed, helping others and that I could possibly make a bit of money out of it.
I joined hair groups, forums, newsletters, websites and enjoyed them. With the research I did I decided to go to my local natural store and purchase the ingredients I needed and try a natural remedy with a twist. Viola! Then I made several bottles and gave a bottle to close friends, family, co-workers, as well as my son’s friends and before I knew it people were requesting the product and I branched out to purchasing jars, ribbon, named labels etc. Anyone can Google “how to make a product” but each mixologist will have a different end result. All of my products have a twist of just my own. It cannot be duplicated or replicated to be exact. I researched more and had my family including myself to try each product. The name “Island Potions” was created by the beautiful Kristina Cassandra Burrows. The names of two of my products came from a good friend of mine Tracey Thompson. I then had a Banner created by Sherelle Campbell. Now I have a line of my own products. My very own homemade line consists of Flaxseed Gel, Flaxseed Custard, Tropical Ice Gel, Aloe Vera Gel, Protein Treatment, Natural Infusion Treatment, Tropical Revitalizer, Hibiscus Tea Rinse Treatment, Horsetail Tea Rinse, Tropical Refresher, Tropical Revitalizer, Tropical Rip-Tide, Co-Wash Tropical Bar, Men's soap, Beard Oil, Scalp Relief Oil, Tropical Growth Oil, Neem Oil, Hemp Oil, Low Tide Oil, High Tide Oil, Soy Candles and always creating more products. I use the branch of social media to advertise my products. I have the following social media sites such as a Facebook page, Instagram, email address, logo and my Web Page. My goal is to educate others about the serious chemicals that they may be introducing into their bodies via their hair and scalp with perms, hair dyes and products used in hair in general. I also hope to reach a demographic of people that are not on social media as well. I hope to do so that they too can benefit from my products. I will continue to promote, market and create. The purpose of my product is to have an end result of my clients being happy and satisfied with what I do for their hair.
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