Celebrating Love with Carol’s Daughter

It is often said that when it comes to hair, all women can relate. From the kinky to the perm and agonizing over how to wear it, long or short, colored or black, straight or curls, there is always a constant battle. The struggle even deepens in the search for the right product to keep your hair in its natural state and still have the feel and texture that you want.

On our own individual hair journey, we are often in search of organic beauty products that have natural ingredients blended with benefits that our hair needs above all one that is “made with love”.

Carol’s Daughter is made with love by Lisa Price who was encouraged by her mother Carol to begin making hair and body products from home.  It all started in her Brooklyn kitchen in 1993 where she began creating these products and selling them in the local markets and at festivals.

After successfully selling off her homemade recipes at various places in New York and receiving positive feedback because it worked for her family and friends, Lisa transformed the natural haircare world making major moves out of the kitchen which began with directly selling the products to customers in its own boutique and later through her newly launched website.

One of the major moves Carol’s Daughter made in 2014 was to joining the L’Oreal family; the world’s largest cosmetics company with high profile brands to its name.

With February being the month of love, Carol’s Daughter a pioneer of the Natural Hair Renaissance born in Brooklyn, made with love is now in Africa, Ghana making history by being the first country in West Africa to officially launch its two new collections: Hair Milk and Black Vanilla.

Built on values relatable to the African Woman, Carol’s Daughter shares an inspirational story of a Mother and Daughter’s love and beautiful relationship; an aspirational woman; an entrepreneurship story, a celebration of love and heritage; following your passion, women supporting women and success.

At the tea and conversations event held with fellow beauty and fashion bloggers and influencers at the Luxury Living in Accra, Carol’s Daughter was officially introduced with sample testing.

Category Brand Manager at L’Oreal, Adeline Esi Asante-Antwi, introduced the newly launched products while sharing the journey of Carol’s Daughter from her founder’s kitchen in Brooklyn to Accra Ghana. On why L’Oreal decided to include Carol’s Daughter to its product, she explained that “Carol’s Daughter satisfies an ethnic community of women looking to have quality and organic beauty products for their hair need as that is what this brand serves” She added that Carol’s Daughter was able to meet the standards in terms of the quality.

Carol’s Daughter’s ingredients are carefully selected and cautiously tested by experts with a strict formula charter to ensure that it is rich in texture and delivers on its brand promise. Excitingly these products have no sulfate, no parabens, no mineral oil and no artificial colors.

The products launched for the Ghanaian market are the Hair Milk and Black Vanilla. The Hair Milk is made up of blended Agave Nectar, Cocoa, Shea and Sweet Almond Oil which adds deep moisture texture for all curl types.

And the Black Vanilla is a mix of blended Vanilla, Sweet Clover extract, Aloe Leaf Juice and Shea butter all of which together softens and revives dry and brittle hair.

For all textures, all types and all your beauty needs, there is certainly a Carol’s Daughter for you.

Lisa Price

Carol & Lisa

This post was originally published in the Business and Financial Times Newspaper 16/2/2018

Faith Senam Ocloo 
Fashion Public Relations 
Fashion I Beauty I Lifestyle I Arts

Embracing your skin with Nokware Skincare

 

A beautiful skin is a woman’s pride. It radiates beauty and makes one look and feel confident. Keeping a good skin doesn’t come easy as one needs to engage in daily habits to guard the skin and maintain its natural state.

With issues such as discolorations, uneven skin tones, eczema among others staring in the face, one will go every mile in search for a skin care product that will clear all those issues. For many women, it’s such a relief to find that ideal skincare product that works on your skin.

Also in our part of the world, getting people to appreciate and embrace their own skin tones amidst all the challenges of dealing with skin issues is an ongoing discussion as people still think having a lighter skin is preferable and prettier.

On this premise, Nokware Skincare was recently launched for people looking to find a product that is not only natural and organic but one that encourages people especially Africans to embrace their own skin and natural beauty.

Tutuwa Ahwoi, a Ghanaian and Thato Tau, Motswana both founded Nokware Skin care range of products. Nokware translated in Twi as “Truth” is not just your regular skincare range of products. It is 100% organic made from the finest ingredients sourced from sustainable local farms in West Africa.

Sharing their journey on starting Nokware Skincare products, Tutuwa explained that while studying in Paris sometime in 2014 they had problems with their skin but couldn’t find any product that worked. Upon using our very own Sheabutter and Alata Samina their skin began to take shape and fell back to its natural state. This birthed the idea earlier this year to start a Skincare product to cater to the many people who needed a natural and organic product especially for those living abroad.

Few years down the line, Nokware was launched in September and has since then made an impressive entry onto the Ghanaian market and has been received well by many consumers. The more exciting and hearty bit about the brand is its organic product and sustainable beauty packaging which is increasingly appealing to consumers in recent times.

It has Calabash which is the cut and dried fruit of the gourd plant and is recyclable. The Calabash covers are made from natural jute fibres from the jute plant. The raffia is derived from a palm tree native to tropical Africa and the brown paper is made from the unbleached wood pulp and is recyclable. This certainly makes Nokware products as eco-friendly as possible.

Currently being sold via online and in shops such as Elle Lokko and Juben House of Beauty and Healthy Shops in Labadi as well as some major outlets in Botswana, plans are also underway to begin selling in Nigeria and other African countries.

Tutuwa stated that “Nokware is made for anyone with skin, babies, children, men, women as there is a product for each skin category be it oily skin, dry skin but not for anyone looking to have a lighter skin tone”

Nokware beauty soup product offering comes in four (4) variants namely the Original African Black Soap, Neem Oil Black Soap, Activated Charcoal Black Soap and Shea & Baobab Oil Black Soap all of which are handmade and sourced locally. Other additions introduced include the organic Loofah Body Exfoliator and Sponges which makes bath equally an eco-friendly experience.

As a young brand, challenges are inevitable as Tutuwa mentioned trading among other African countries as one of the hurdles they have had to cross so far. She said “our biggest challenge is getting the product out of Ghana to other countries in Africa where unlike the EU countries, it’s easier to trade among each other; it is very difficult to do same here in Africa”.

She added that Social media has played a significant role since their launch as many orders and purchases were made via their Instagram account.

In the next coming years, Tutuwa discloses that there will be new more additions such as the Sheabutter to the range of products while working to make Nokware a global brand. At the core of this is for Nokware Skincare to be available for anyone looking for a natural and organic product that appreciates and embraces ones’ own skin color.

Founders (Tutuwa & Thato)

Nokware Skincare

This post originally appeared on my column in the Business and Financial Times Newspaper on November 17, 2017

Faith Senam Ocloo 

Fashion Public Relations 

Fashion I Beauty I Lifestyle I Arts