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Ingredient Glossary

"Meraki is a high performance fully botanical Hair Care line. Our products are free of synthetic ingredients, parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, phthalates, chemicals, fillers, animal testing, mineral oils, and petroleum."

"Knowing that everything we put on our hair and scalp quickly absorbs into our bodies, we ethically source the finest natural materials the Earth has to offer."

"Every ingredient featured in our gems has a specific holistic property." Amber CEO and Founder of Meraki

 

Below is a complete ingredient glossary featuring the core botanicals, extracts, oils and butters we source to formulate our beautiful Gems.

 

Aloe Vera Juice (Organic)

Our Aloe Vera Juice is food grade, organic and sourced from the United States. It is minimally processed, thus retains high nutrient levels, and is naturally preserved with citric acid.  It is a natural humectant that helps with curl formation, retaining and sealing moisture, and delivers nutrients to deeper layers of the scalp and hair.

 

Amethyst Extract & Gemstone

Our amethyst extract contains actual amethyst and is created in a cutting edge process that uses lactobacillus probiotics, water and the pulverized gemstone. You can read more about the properties of Amethyst below.

  • Renowned ned as a protective stone.
  • Enhances higher intuition.
  • Purifies your mind and clears negative energy.
  • Linked to the Crown Chakra.

 

Amla Extract & Oil (Organic)

Amla fruit, also known as Indian Gooseberry – is one of the top 3 food-based sources of Vitamin C, beating oranges by a whopping 2000%. It is excellent at rejuvenating the cells of the skin and scalp.  It boosts hair growth, thickens hair and has conditioning effects on the cuticle. It also helps you achieve radiant, glowing skin.

Our extracts are organic, either water and oil based( depending on the formulation) naturally preserved and food grade.

The healing and rejuvenating properties of Amla are described above. Most Amla oils are infusions, often done with excess heat. Ours is a combination of cold pressed Amla seeds (which produces the rare Amla seed oil) and a gentle infusion of the fruit into a cold pressed sesame oil. Our Amla oil is extracted and infused in India.

 

 

Argan Oil (Organic)

This precious beauty oil of Morocco, is renowned in the beauty industry as a head to toe elixir for good reason. At Meraki, we only use ethically sourced, virgin and certified organic Argan oil in our products.

It is high in Vitamin E, omega fatty acids, polyphenols, sterols and squalene, making it highly nutritive for hair and skin.  It is known for softening brittle hair, preventing split ends, repairing hair damage and moisturizing both the skin and hair. It is light and soaks in quickly without a greasy after feel.

 

Bamboo Extract

Bamboo is emerging as a very eco-friendly and sustainable source for everything from household products and building materials, all the way to beauty products. It grows extremely fast with very low maintenance required and is highly sustainable.

It is tremendously high in silica, which strengthens the hair shaft, helps with defining curls and coils, seals in moisture and protects hair from heat damage. Bamboo’s versatility can also help very fine hair to look more full, while still helping all textures achieve a sleek and polished look.

Bamboo also adds much-needed slip to natural products for textured hair.

 

Banana Fruit Extract

Bananas add much needed slip and moisture to hair products and leave the hair feeling very soft to the touch. Our aqueous banana extract is derived from the edible part of bananas, allowing you to enjoy the benefit of this fruit, without the mess that a DIY mask leaves you with.Bananas are rich in potassium and Vitamin A.

 

Blue Agave Extract (Organic)

Our organic agave is grown and cold-pressed from the root of the plant in Mexico. This cold processing helps our extract keep its nutrient profile intact. 

Agave is similar to honey in it’s coating and moisturizing properties, but obviously, is completely plant-based and thus vegan.

It helps draw water deep into the hair shaft and to the surface of the scalp, helps curls and coils to pop, and delivers vitamins and minerals to the hair.

 

Buriti Oil

Meraki’s Buriti Oil is sourced from the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. The oil gets its’ gorgeous reddish-orange hue from the beautifully colored fruit of the same color. 

The fruit is harvested without cutting the trees down, which is what makes it sustainable.

Natives in the regions where these large, palm-like trees grow refer to Buriti trees as life tree, as it is used for so many life-sustaining purposes as food, medicine and raw materials for household implements.

The oil is renowned for its’ healing properties, high nutritive profile (rich in Vitamin A, fatty acids and anti-oxidants.)

It is a light, easily absorbed oil that heals, softens, moisturizes and rejuvenates hair, skin and nails.

 

Citrine Gemstone

The healing properties of Citrine Gemstone:

  • Enhance mental focus, joy and positivity.
  • Brings abundance and success.
  • Eliminates negativity, transmuting negative energy into positive.
  • Balances and strengthens the solar plexus.

 

 

Coconut Oil (Organic & Fair Trade)

We are very proud to have our very first Fair rade ingredient. Our virgin coconut oil comes from the Phillipines. It is fast absorbing, antibacterial and is known for nourishing hair and nurturing healthy growth and moisture balance.  Its fatty acid profile includes high levels of lauric and mystiric acids, which penetrate the hair shaft really well.

 

 

Cucumber Peel Extract

The peel of the cucumber is what helps to trap water inside the fruit, keeping it firm. Have you ever noticed how once you cut a cucumber and leave it open, it starts to wither and lose it’s moisture?  Cucumber peel similarly seals water into your hair, and helps you retain the shape of your natural curls, coils or textured style.

The peel is also the part of the plant that is richest in silica, which is excellent for hair growth and strength, which also helps with length  retention.

 

Gluconolactone

A natural preservative that is suitable for certified organic products. It is even Ecocert approved.  Ecocert is the governing body that regulates organic products in the European Union, and their standards are much stricter than those in the United States.

 

 

Guava Fruit Extract

Guava fruit, in addition to smelling divine, also adds softness and moisture to hair products. It is high in vitamin C, and aids in detangling.

 

Hibiscus Extract (Organic)

Hibiscus flowers are extremely beautifying for hair and skin.  In addition to high vitamin C levels, the mucilaginous properties of our aqueous hibiscus extract add slip and moisture to hair products.  Hibiscus is also a known thickener of and growth enhancer of hair.  Our hibiscus flowers are sourced from North and West African organic farms.

 

Hydrolyzed Plant Protein Complex (Soy, Wheat & Corn)

Hydrolyzed proteins are just easier for hair and skin to absorb. Because we have a firm commitment to keeping our products vegan, we have opted to use plant-based proteins instead of animal derived keratin and silk proteins, in every instance where protein is called for in a formulation.

Adding protein to products helps to maintain proper water-protein ratios, which helps hair to stay strong, moisturized and prevents breakage. Proteins also help protect against heat damage.

 

Irish Moss Extract (Wildcrafted)

Irish moss (also known as carrageenan) is a type of seaweed that is excellent for beauty products. It adds slip, enhances your natural curl pattern and helps retain the shape of a braid or twist out. It is also excellent for providing moisture to the hair and scalp, and is chock full of minerals, as all sea vegetables (and this case, a red algae) are, that help to mineralize (strengthen) and grow hair.

 

Mango Fruit Extract

Our mango fruit extract smells so delicious because it is arrived from the aromatic flesh of mangos. This vitamin-rich, water-based extract adds moisture and slip to skin and hair.

 

Plant Hydrosols

The process of creating essential oils is more often than not one of distillation of plant parts, which could include flowers, leaves, fruit peels, roots and stems.

A much sought after by-product, once the essential oil has been removed, is a second aqueous phase, which produces an aromatic, cosmetically beneficial component called the Hydrosol.

We include various Hydrosols in our products in place of traditionally toxic, synthetic, fragrance oils. In addition to smelling amazing, they also lend many healing benefits to the end-product.

 

Prickly Pear Extract (Organic)

Meraki uses a certified organic prickly pear that comes from a pristine biosphere, protected by the government of Mexico, where it grows in the mountains in rich volcanic soil.

We use specifically the pads of the prickly pear cactus(not the fruit) for our extract, which has been used for generations by local populations for healing wounds, burns, scars and fractures.

It is a powerful medicine internally where it helps to regulate glucose in the blood, fight inflammation and cure a myriad of chronic illnesses.

Topically, like all succulent desert plants, it is a supreme deliverer of moisture and nutrients to the deeper layers of skin and hair, while also sealing a pad of moisture on the outermost levels of the skin and hair cuticle. 

It adds slip, enhances curl formation and accelerates hair growth due to its high vitamin and mineral content.

 

Propanediol

Most glycols are toxic and petroleum derived. 1,3 propanediol is an innovative product that is created by fermenting corn.  It has emerged in the last decade as a safe and effective alternative to propylene and butylene glycol which are rampant in most beauty products today. 1,3 propanediol boosts preservative efficacy, enhances moisture, increases slip and boosts nutrient delivery to the center of the hair shaft.

 

Rhodiola Extract

Rhodiola is renowned for balancing the female reproductive system internally. Topically, however, we use it at Meraki to help control frizz in our hair products.

 

Rose Quartz Gemstone

The Healing Properties of Rose Quartz Gemstone:

  • Known for its heart-healing properties.
  • The love and healing vibration helps release toxic emotions and blockages from the heart chakra.
  • Helps balance and strengthen your heart and circulatory system.
  • Enhances self-love.

 

 

Sage Extract (Organic)

Our sage extract is an aqueous powerhouse with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, thus helping reducing dandruff. Sage also smells fresh and herbal, and is known for stimulating hair growth at the follicular level.

 

Sclerotium Gum

This is an excellent alternative to traditional synthetically derived thickeners and polymers common in conventional cosmetics. Meraki has opted instead, for a mushroom gum that still has the benefits of enhancing curl formation and encouraging hold in a product, yet also contributes moisture sealing abilities while being non-toxic.

 

Sodium Benzoate

A natural food grade preservative.

 

Sweet Almond Oil

This is a light, quick absorbing oil that has the pleasantly sweet and nutty aroma of fresh almonds. It is excellent for hair, scalp, skin and cuticles where it nourishes and moisturizes with linoleic acid, proteins and Vitamin D.

 

 

 

Tara Seed Gum

This extract is taken from the seeds of the Tara Bush.  It really helps to control frizz, add slip (for both wet or dry combing) and allows curls and textured styles like braid outs and twist outs to hold up well. Tara seed gum can also protect the hair during heat styling applications, working in tandem with our bamboo extract and hydrolyzed plant proteins.

 

Turkey Tail Mushroom

Turkey tail mushroom is renowned for its immune boosting properties. However, at Meraki we have included this innovative mushroom extract for its heat protecting properties.