It was such a pleasure and emotional receiving the 3 awards in Berlin on 18th June 2011 for:
* innovative person
* company of the year
* AWE 1st award
AWE stands for African Women in Europe and it is a platform for socialising with other motivational & inspirational women.
I am still trying to recover from the event. I love what I do and just get on with it through trial and error. As a small business, we always insist on quality. We never compromise and this has led us to pursue our other passion which is looking after those at the 1st step of the supply chain - THE FARMERS!
We are pursuing this path because I feel it the right way to "put a little back" into their hard-work even if it means a lot of sacrifice including lack of sleep - I will continue to push along this path.
and while most thought she would fly to her native Ghana, she chose Swaziland to visit Swazi Secrets.
"We are delighted that she is taking the opportunity to come to Swaziland and visit Swazi Secrets," said John Pearce, the International Marketing Manager of Swazi Indigenous Products, the company responsible for manufacturing Swazi Secrets products using the marula fruit.
Wood has another link to Swaziland as she uses her profits from Swazi Secrets sales to sponsor a young boy from Mpaka, Vele Maziya, to attend St Joseph’s School.
Pearce said she was very much looking forward to the opportunity to visit him and check on his progress.
"Akua has been selling Swazi Secrets for four years now and has built up quite a link with Swaziland, both with us and with sponsoring Maziya’s education," he said.
Anyway, yesterday, I managed to finish work earlier at "the cottage" even rewarding myself with a very very rare "me time" at THE BITE in Emmer Green.
I arrived home to a box waiting for me. The box contained copies of the lovely book The Science of Black Hair well written by Audrey.
You can grab a paperback black & white copy for immediate dispatch.
Akua Wood
http://www.sheabuttercottage.co.uk
You can purchase the Brazilian range as follows:
Tucuma butter
Cupuacu butter
Pracaxi oil
Murumuru butter
Akua
The mad kitchen chemist in me loves concocting so in a need of a henna treatment before my next braids, I decided to mix the following - please read through
I never use henna for its colouring effect but rather for its strengthening benefits.
To start this process, I added the nettle leaf to the asparagus juice + water and simmered (not boiled) for 20 minutes. I strained and left it to cool.
I blended the whole cloves of garlic with the shea oil, added the nettle/asparagus juice, blended together before straining into the henna.
I then added a jar of our rosemary leave-in conditioner which had to be used up and left the mix to sit for 12 hours as I was too tired to proceed with the treatment at this point.
I had just taken my braids out so it was ideal to wash it before the henna treatment. I used a small amount of our afro shampoo bar.
Ah - shrunken afro - can't get away from this due to the nature of my hair.
12 hours later, I just love the consistency, not dripping.
Second layer of henna. I never thought I would be using this much henna but I managed to slap everything onto my head.
3 layers of saran wrap + shower cap + 2 hours later:
Time to wash out the treatment. Make sure you rinse it out with lukewarm water before washing with shampoo. What I did to finish off this treatment was to add a dollop of leave-in conditioner to a small amount of argan liquid shampoo and rinse out the treatment. This treatment was much easier to rinse out that my first attempt at henna some months ago.
Towel-dried the hair and braided it.
I am very happy with this treatment although the garlic scent was quite strong, I could feel it working on the scalp together with the rosemary.
More pictures from the process can be found on our facebook fanpage
Akua
Sheabutter Cottage
