My Life as a beauty Consultant, Mrs. Oyindamola Abiona, CEO Honey Glow Beauty World

I have been in this business for five years. I like beauty business because most ladies and women desire to be beautiful. Some men do not like ladies with very dark skin and they complain about it so what we are doing at HoneyGlow Beauty world is a product to tone the skin. We do not produce bleaching creams. We have cream for all skin types. We have the ‘Black and Shine’ and we have for ebony and caramel skin as well.

I do not support bleaching but people can pop their complexion if they want. I do not bleach. I use caramel products. When clients come to me telling me they want to bleach their skin, I tell them I do not have such products. What we have is is pop formula to achieve a flawless and glowing skin.
Nigerian women are beautiful and it depends on where most cosmetologists learn their craft. Some of them mix creams. I do not. I produce my creams myself and I am government approved.

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The business is convenient for me. I did not have any support. I started from my home and I thank God for where we are today.
I faced some challenges as a cosmetologist because I have gone to learn the trade in Lagos before now and some clients complained that the product was not working so Dubai and the Philippines to take some skincare training. I thank God I have thousands of customers’ reviews each day and the product is not damaging their skin. Some clients have been using my product for the last five years.

We have a wide range of products. We have half caste. The half caste is not going to make you halfcaste per say. If a client is light skinned, we advise them to use the half caste to maintain their complexion, even it out and make it flawless. We have the caramel, hot chocolate, ebony and children variants as well.
I recently got a brand ambassador from the Yoruba movie industry. She has been using my cream for three years now and has been consistent with her patronage that is why I endorsed her. I also have a Nollywood actress who has been using my cream for five years.

My products are quite affordable. I have products for as low as N5,000. This is Nigeria and I understand that although everyone wants to look good, not everyone can afford products that are on the high side so I cannot sell my products for an exorbitant amount so people can afford it. I even have products of N2,500.
I pity a lot of students who finish school without employment and that is why I employed as much as seventy of them. From the profit I make, although little, I pay them.

There is no rest in my line of business. My business is run online. After people make payments, they expect you to respond to them so I am always online to respond to them. I sleep between 3.am and 4.am every day.
I love my family and I create time for them. If I don’t want to work, I can take a break for one week so that I can be with them.
Some ladies want money and if you don’t work, you won’t see money.

I started this business with N40,000 five years ago and thank God for today. Young people need to have patience. If you want to do something, do it patiently and have faith that someday God will bless you.
I was a cashier before I started this business and apart from my husband, nobody supported me. I saved a hundred thousand naira from my job as a cashier and rented this one room apartment. The remaining balance of forty thousand naira, I asked myself, ”what can I do with this money?”.

I already loved cosmetics so I went somewhere to learn. And at the time, I was told that the tuition to learn the trade was ten thousand naira. From the balance of forty thousand, I paid the ten thousand required and used some money from the remaining thirty thousand to buy the products required to learn the craft. Then, we used to mix creams. We would go to the market, buy the creams and mix them. That was where I started. People started patronizing me. Then I went abroad to upgrade my skill set until we got to where we are today.

Some people in discouraging me told me there was no gain in my line of business but I told them that I loved it and that I would rather start first. When I started, I didn’t sell much. I would sell some and discard many. The money I got from the few I sold would be used to buy new materials to make new products. It went on like that for a while before I started getting noticed and patronized.

I do not have time to relax because when I go for vacations, people still call me. The products cannot be made without me so when we run out of stock, the production process needs me. I have to know everything they are putting into the production process.

I told my son to come home from abroad to face this business because I cannot do it alone. The business is growing and I rebrand for so many skincare line. I have a hundred and twenty distributors all over the world. I have in Germany, Russia, London and in all the thirty-six states of Nigeria.
My favourite food is eba and eforiro or vegetable soup. My favourite colour is white.

I do not attend to clients personally. I have staffs on ground. We have a spa, a saloon and are currently looking at opening a fashion house. Many times, the customers don’t have to see me. I have a manager and a receptionist. Only on rare occasions when the customer insists to see me and most times, when the product is good, they don’t. they just pick the items or use the service, pay and leave.

My distributors pay money and I sell to them. I do not sell on credit and they are making it as well. They attend to customers within and outside Lagos.
My husband is a very good man and he has stood by me from the times when we had nothing. His name is Abiona Damilare.

W e have Vitamin E serum for face and anti-aging. Our seven days shower bath is also very active. Our student kit is N5,000 for four items- body cream, face cream, cleanser and shower bath- all for N5,000.