There’s been a lot of talk recently surrounding Mielle Organics and their partnership with Procter & Gamble, also known as P&G. Many consumers of the brand took to social media to express their disdain for the partnership, in fear that the beloved OG natural hair company would stray away from the things that made us fall in love. While this is a valid feeling because we’ve seen this before, it may not be the case for Mielle Organics.
Co-founder, Monique Rodriguez, expressed the goal is to not only “level up” but to continue serving Black and brown communities with innovative products. As a long-time lover of the brand, I’m here to tell you that they’re doing precisely that, and the new Avocado & Tamanu collection is proof.
The Avocado & Tamanu line is an anti-frizz system that uses cold application technology which requires you to refrigerate some of the product before you use it. This helps to close hair cuticles and reduce frizz. The five-product collection uses active ingredients like avocado to add moisture, while the tamanu encourages stronger and healthier hair. I tried the collection, and here’s my honest review…
The Avocado & Tamanu Anti-Frizz Shampoo
Courtesy of Krissy Lewis
The shampoo is very clarifying and moisturizing, which is great for removing build-up without stripping your hair of its natural oils. The shampoo has enough slip to help you detangle from the very start of your wash day. As you can see, my hair looked very dry and brittle, but with water and shampoo, my hair had already started to get its moisture back.
I always recommend for naturals who have thick, colored, or dry hair use shampoos that cleanse and add moisture. Incorporating one like this will make a huge difference in your overall hair health and wash day routine.
The Avocado & Tamanu Anti-Frizz Conditioner
Courtesy of Krissy Lewis
The conditioner has a ton of moisture, especially if you leave it in for at least 10 minutes. I need, more than anything, a deep conditioning treatment since I have colored hair and went several days without refreshing it. The thick and creamy conditioner has so much moisture and slip, it makes detangling really easy, and it acts as both a regular and deep conditioner.
It’s recommended to leave it in for 10 minutes, then rinse it out with cool water. I left mine in for 20 minutes without heat, I usually don’t rinse with cool water, but it did help lock the moisture into my strands. The only downside to the conditioner is the smell. For some reason, this product had the most potent scent out of the collection, and I didn’t enjoy it. Luckily, the smell dissipated after I rinsed it out.
The Avocado & Tamanu Anti-Frizz Slip & Seal Leave-In Conditioner
Courtesy of Krissy Lewis
I’m not going to lie, I pre-judged the leave-in, but I’m glad I was wrong. I don’t like liquid leave-in. I prefer a light creamy texture because my hair soaks it up better. The leave-in comes in a spray bottle, so I assumed it would be water-based. However, to my surprise, it has a serum-like texture that melts right into your hair to moisturize and seal the hair cuticle.
This is one of the products that require you to refrigerate before you use it to activate the product. Refrigerating the product helps seal in the moisture and prevent frizz as you apply and style your hair.
The Avocado & Tamanu Anti-Frizz Curl Perfector
Courtesy of Krissy Lewis
In my opinion, this is the all-star of the entire collection. I was very surprised and impressed by the curl perfector. It had everything I look for in a styling cream: moisture, slip, creamy texture that melts into your hair, lightweight, and hold. Initially, I was disappointed that there wasn’t any gel or mousse included, but honestly, the line doesn’t need it. The cream has enough hold to make your style last for days! Most curling creams require a gel or holding product to give your style longevity, but this one is a stand-alone product.
This is another product that requires you to refrigerate to activate its potential. When I say moisture and slip are undeniable… if nothing else, you need to give this a try. My hands even felt softer and smoother after using it. This is perfect for my chemically treated hair. If you don’t know, any processing done to natural hair requires you to keep it moisturized to keep its health. The product isn’t marketed for colored hair, but it’s perfect for lasting moisture.
My Overall Thoughts
I give this line a 9 out of 10. It delivered everything it claims: moisture and frizz-free hair. The price of the collection is $45, which, to me, isn’t bad. Individually, each product is about $14. Mielle Organics has always done a good job with affordability and decent-sized bottles, and that hasn’t seemed to change.
I really enjoyed the forward-thinking and innovation in the collection. I had never even heard of a cooling technology, but it does work wonders. I know it's better to rinse my hair with cold water, but let's be honest, most of us wash our hair in the shower, and who’s trying to have cold water touching their skin…definitely not me. I like my shower scorching hot! The fact that you can cool the products without having to sacrifice your preferred water temperature is convenient. Also, I love that I don’t have to keep the products cold, just pop them in before wash day, and your good to go.
Lastly, fighting frizz isn’t just in the products you use but also in technique. The instructions on each product help when achieving frizz-free curls. A few things you’d also want to avoid when fighting frizz is over manipulating your hair and picking your hair unless you desire volume and fullness like me. Both of these can cause frizz and would undo all the effort you put in, so keep that in mind.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for daily love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image courtesy of Krissy Lewis
RELATED
So, we handpicked one hundred It Girls who embody that palpable It Factor moving through us as young Black women, the kind of motion lighting up the world both IRL and across the internet.
It Girl 100 became xoNecole’s most successful program, with the hashtag organically reaching more than forty million impressions on Instagram in just twenty-four hours. Yes, it caught on like wildfire because we celebrated some of the most brilliant and influential GenZennial women of color setting trends and shaping culture. But more than that, it resonated because the women we celebrated felt seen.
Many were already known in their industries for keeping this generation fly and lit, but rarely received recognition or flowers. It Girl 100 became a safe space to be uplifted, and for us as Black women to bask in what felt like an era of our brilliance, beauty, and boundless influence on full display.
And then, almost overnight, it was as if the rug was pulled from under us as Black women, as the It Girls of the world.
Our much-needed, much-deserved season of ease and soft living quickly metamorphosed into a time of self-preservation and survival. Our motion and economic progression seemed strategically slowed, our light under siege.
The air feels heavier now. The headlines colder. Our Black girl magic is being picked apart and politicized for simply existing.
With that climate shift, as we prepare to launch our second annual It Girl 100 honoree list, our team has had to dig deep on the purpose and intention behind this year’s list. Knowing the spirit of It Girl 100 is about motion, sauce, strides, and progression, how do we celebrate amid uncertainty and collective grief when the juice feels like it is being squeezed out of us?
As we wrestled with that question, we were reminded that this tension isn’t new. Black women have always had to find joy in the midst of struggle, to create light even in the darkest corners. We have carried the weight of scrutiny for generations, expected to be strong, to serve, to smile through the sting. But this moment feels different. It feels deeply personal.
We are living at the intersection of liberation and backlash. We are learning to take off our capes, to say no when we are tired, to embrace softness without apology.
And somehow, the world has found new ways to punish us for it.
In lifestyle, women like Kayla Nicole and Ayesha Curry have been ridiculed for daring to choose themselves. Tracee Ellis Ross was labeled bitter for speaking her truth about love. Meghan Markle, still, cannot breathe without critique.
In politics, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Jasmine Crockett are dragged through the mud for standing tall in rooms not built for them.
In sports, Angel Reese, Coco Gauff, and Taylor Townsend have been reminded that even excellence will not shield you from racism or judgment.
In business, visionaries like Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye and Melissa Butler are fighting to keep their dreams alive in an economy that too often forgets us first.
Even our icons, Beyoncé, Serena, and SZA, have faced criticism simply for evolving beyond the boxes society tried to keep them in.
From everyday women to cultural phenoms, the pattern is the same. Our light is being tested.
And yet, somehow, through it all, we are still showing up as that girl, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Because while the world debates our worth, we keep raising our value. And that proof is all around us.
This year alone, Naomi Osaka returned from motherhood and mental health challenges to reach the semifinals of the US Open. A’ja Wilson claimed another MVP, reminding us that beauty and dominance can coexist. Brandy and Monica are snatching our edges on tour. Kahlana Barfield Brown sold out her new line in the face of a retailer that had been canceled. And Melissa Butler’s company, The Lip Bar, is projecting a forty percent surge in sales.
We are no longer defining strength by how much pain we can endure. We are defining it by the unbreakable light we continue to radiate.
We are the women walking our daily steps and also continuing to run solid businesses. We are growing in love, taking solo trips, laughing until it hurts, raising babies and ideas, drinking our green juice, and praying our peace back into existence.
We are rediscovering the joy of rest and realizing that softness is not weakness, it is strategy.
And through it all, we continue to lift one another. Emma Grede is creating seats at the table. Valeisha Butterfield has started a fund for jobless Black women. Arian Simone is leading in media with fearless conviction. We are pouring into each other in ways the world rarely sees but always feels.
So yes, we are in the midst of societal warfare. Yes, we are being tested. Yes, we are facing economic strain, political targeting, and public scrutiny. But even war cannot dim a light that is divinely ours.
And we are still shining.
And we are still softening.
And we are still creating.
And we are still It.
That is the quiet magic of Black womanhood, our ability to hold both truth and triumph in the same breath, to say yes, and to life’s contradictions.
It is no coincidence that this year, as SheaMoisture embraces the message “Yes, And,” they stand beside us as partners in celebrating this class of It Girls. Because that phrase, those two simple words, capture the very essence of this moment.
Yes, we are tired. And we are still rising.
Yes, we are questioned. And we are the answer.
Yes, we are bruised. And we are still beautiful.
This year’s It Girl 100 is more than a list. It is a love letter to every Black woman who dares to live out loud in a world that would rather she whisper. This year’s class is living proof of “Yes, And,” women who are finding ways to thrive and to heal, to build and to rest, to lead and to love, all at once.
It is proof that our joy is not naive, our success not accidental. It is the reminder that our light has never needed permission.
So without further ado, we celebrate the It Girl 100 Class of 2025–2026.
We celebrate the millions of us who keep doing it with grace, grit, and glory.
Because despite it all, we still shine.
Because we are still her.
Because we are still IT, girl.
Meet all 100 women shaping culture in the It Girl 100 Class of 2025. View the complete list of honorees here.
Featured image by xoStaff
So, we handpicked one hundred It Girls who embody that palpable It Factor moving through us as young Black women, the kind of motion lighting up the world both IRL and across the internet.
It Girl 100 became xoNecole’s most successful program, with the hashtag organically reaching more than forty million impressions on Instagram in just twenty-four hours. Yes, it caught on like wildfire because we celebrated some of the most brilliant and influential GenZennial women of color setting trends and shaping culture. But more than that, it resonated because the women we celebrated felt seen.
Many were already known in their industries for keeping this generation fly and lit, but rarely received recognition or flowers. It Girl 100 became a safe space to be uplifted, and for us as Black women to bask in what felt like an era of our brilliance, beauty, and boundless influence on full display.
And then, almost overnight, it was as if the rug was pulled from under us as Black women, as the It Girls of the world.
Our much-needed, much-deserved season of ease and soft living quickly metamorphosed into a time of self-preservation and survival. Our motion and economic progression seemed strategically slowed, our light under siege.
The air feels heavier now. The headlines colder. Our Black girl magic is being picked apart and politicized for simply existing.
With that climate shift, as we prepare to launch our second annual It Girl 100 honoree list, our team has had to dig deep on the purpose and intention behind this year’s list. Knowing the spirit of It Girl 100 is about motion, sauce, strides, and progression, how do we celebrate amid uncertainty and collective grief when the juice feels like it is being squeezed out of us?
As we wrestled with that question, we were reminded that this tension isn’t new. Black women have always had to find joy in the midst of struggle, to create light even in the darkest corners. We have carried the weight of scrutiny for generations, expected to be strong, to serve, to smile through the sting. But this moment feels different. It feels deeply personal.
We are living at the intersection of liberation and backlash. We are learning to take off our capes, to say no when we are tired, to embrace softness without apology.
And somehow, the world has found new ways to punish us for it.
In lifestyle, women like Kayla Nicole and Ayesha Curry have been ridiculed for daring to choose themselves. Tracee Ellis Ross was labeled bitter for speaking her truth about love. Meghan Markle, still, cannot breathe without critique.
In politics, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Jasmine Crockett are dragged through the mud for standing tall in rooms not built for them.
In sports, Angel Reese, Coco Gauff, and Taylor Townsend have been reminded that even excellence will not shield you from racism or judgment.
In business, visionaries like Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye and Melissa Butler are fighting to keep their dreams alive in an economy that too often forgets us first.
Even our icons, Beyoncé, Serena, and SZA, have faced criticism simply for evolving beyond the boxes society tried to keep them in.
From everyday women to cultural phenoms, the pattern is the same. Our light is being tested.
And yet, somehow, through it all, we are still showing up as that girl, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Because while the world debates our worth, we keep raising our value. And that proof is all around us.
This year alone, Naomi Osaka returned from motherhood and mental health challenges to reach the semifinals of the US Open. A’ja Wilson claimed another MVP, reminding us that beauty and dominance can coexist. Brandy and Monica are snatching our edges on tour. Kahlana Barfield Brown sold out her new line in the face of a retailer that had been canceled. And Melissa Butler’s company, The Lip Bar, is projecting a forty percent surge in sales.
We are no longer defining strength by how much pain we can endure. We are defining it by the unbreakable light we continue to radiate.
We are the women walking our daily steps and also continuing to run solid businesses. We are growing in love, taking solo trips, laughing until it hurts, raising babies and ideas, drinking our green juice, and praying our peace back into existence.
We are rediscovering the joy of rest and realizing that softness is not weakness, it is strategy.
And through it all, we continue to lift one another. Emma Grede is creating seats at the table. Valeisha Butterfield has started a fund for jobless Black women. Arian Simone is leading in media with fearless conviction. We are pouring into each other in ways the world rarely sees but always feels.
So yes, we are in the midst of societal warfare. Yes, we are being tested. Yes, we are facing economic strain, political targeting, and public scrutiny. But even war cannot dim a light that is divinely ours.
And we are still shining.
And we are still softening.
And we are still creating.
And we are still It.
That is the quiet magic of Black womanhood, our ability to hold both truth and triumph in the same breath, to say yes, and to life’s contradictions.
It is no coincidence that this year, as SheaMoisture embraces the message “Yes, And,” they stand beside us as partners in celebrating this class of It Girls. Because that phrase, those two simple words, capture the very essence of this moment.
Yes, we are tired. And we are still rising.
Yes, we are questioned. And we are the answer.
Yes, we are bruised. And we are still beautiful.
This year’s It Girl 100 is more than a list. It is a love letter to every Black woman who dares to live out loud in a world that would rather she whisper. This year’s class is living proof of “Yes, And,” women who are finding ways to thrive and to heal, to build and to rest, to lead and to love, all at once.
It is proof that our joy is not naive, our success not accidental. It is the reminder that our light has never needed permission.
So without further ado, we celebrate the It Girl 100 Class of 2025–2026.
We celebrate the millions of us who keep doing it with grace, grit, and glory.
Because despite it all, we still shine.
Because we are still her.
Because we are still IT, girl.
Meet all 100 women shaping culture in the It Girl 100 Class of 2025. View the complete list of honorees here.
Featured image by xoStaff