Lois Reid-Hines and her husband, Michael, co-founded Tropic Isle Living 20 years ago. “We introduced the community to Jamaican black castor oil. It’s all-purpose healing oil for your skin, and works as a poultice if you have aches and pains like arthritis,” advises Hines.
“My grandmother is a bush nanny, i.e., a medicine woman, who boiled the oil for us to drink and use in our hair,” she remembers.
Starting out, Hines bottled one gallon of Jamaican black castor oil, placed them in her tote bag and visited many business owners in her Bronx, N.Y., community to educate them on its endless benefits. Some health food stores agreed to carry the product. “Little by little, business started growing. It started to really pick up steam when this lovely woman of Jamaican and Guyanese descent found it in Canada and started blogging about it and posted it on YouTube — the response was tremendous. Our clients started asking: ‘Do you have any additional products?’ driving us to expand our product line to add lavender and coconut to our hair food, and many other natural ingredients to develop a collection of hair, bath and skin products.”
According to the brand’s website, the fatty acids and phytochemicals found in Tropic Isle Living’s Jamaican Black Castor Oil address many health and beauty conditions. A bottle can serve as a hair and scalp conditioner; a skin moisturizer and healer; a massage oil for aches, pains, fibroids and lumps in the breasts; a powerful laxative and can be used as first aid for cuts, wounds and burns. Black castor oil seals moisture in the hair with a protective coat. It’s also the only oil in nature with ribonucleic acid. It helps to destroys viruses, bacteria, yeast and molds that cause many skin problem0s, and helps to remove uric acid from body – the source of many inflammations.
“Tropic Isle Living is the original and the best brand out there. We’re tried and true. All of our products are organic and don’t contain any sulfate or petroleum jelly. We’re also giving back. We’ve developed the castor oil industry in Jamaica — providing employment to people to sustain their families. We have an office and a castor oil farm where we will offer invitational tours for visitors to see how the Jamaican black castor oil is made: picked, parched and boiled,” adds Hines. –yvette caslin
For more information on the benefits of Jamican black castor oil, beauty and grooming tips, please visit tropicisleliving.com.
