Flaunt Weeekly
Jamaica-born, Miami-based entrepreneur and dancehall artiste, Starr Dawkins, said her new product, Okra Drink Mix, will be the perfect detox for the ladies after the Christmas season.
“During Christmas, you’re eating bad. Even if you’re a fitness girly, you feel like ‘I can give myself a break, I can drink di sorrel, eat the rum cake. Why get one slice when I can have di whole cake?'” she laughed.
“So I think that it is important to start implementing okra in your routine from now because you don’t wanna get away too far in eating,” Dawkins told THE WEEKEND STAR.
The product, which is inspired from her new single Okra Water came as a result of backlash she said she received across social media.
“I was doing promotion for the song and a video went viral but the comments were mean. All the girls were saying ‘We hate the slime of the okra, how could you drink the slime? The slime is nasty’. Suh as a businesswoman and a ‘carer’ of all vaginas across the world, [and] knowing what okra do for your vagina, I said ‘Hmm, how can I get the girls to drink their okra without the slime?’ Create a powder, a drink mix that can be added to tea and natural juices which will still give the ladies juicy benefits,” shared Dawkins, adding that men can also benefit.
Being the owner of the fully female hygienic Cookie Wash brand, Dawkins said the drink mix is being marketed as a hydration product, not just for the ‘cookie’, but the entire body.
“You’ll notice that your skin is not as dry, when you’re working out you’re gonna heal up faster – so it speeds up recovery,” she said.
While being a big promoter on the importance of having a “healthy vagina” and a good PH balance, while maintaining an overall “fresh odour,” Dawkins was inspired after mixing some home-made products to cure a yeast infection years ago. She shared her health situation online, including what she used to cure the infection. Women craved the remedy and even begged her to sell them the product – an idea she later forcefully tapped into, nurtured and grew into a US multimillion-dollar company. She further shared how she conceptualised Okra Water.
“I was visiting Florida [because I moved back to Jamaica] and I was up late and I typed in ‘Reggae rhythms’ on YouTube and started listening to [them] and I was like, ‘ Okra water, suh if yuh slip up, I slip away‘. I put it on Snapchat and a few people said ‘This sounds nice,’ so I got back to Jamaica and told producer EP I want to make a song about okra water,'” she recalled. While vibing with the producer and others in the studio, the singer said she left with a solid song, with a catchy punchline, that fans are “gonna remember because our culture is big on okra, whether it’s ‘okra body’ or eat okra fi strong up yuh back”.
“I’ve had some negativities towards it but there is something comforting about food songs,” she said, citing the success of singles such as Fry Plantain and Pine and Ginger.
Okra Waterwhich was released on YouTube a month ago, received more than 33,000 views and many positive comments, which the singer said served as a motivation to continue doing music after her start in the field about three years ago.
