- 16 hours ago
Shop Essence Live | Kazmaleje founder LaToya Stirrup Shows off her amazing KurlsPlus collection and teaches us the proper way to detangle 4C hair, cut down your wash day time, and cause minimum breakage with maximum results!
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00:00Hello, hello everyone. My name is Noni. I'm vice president in charge of video here at Essence
00:06and you have tuned in to Shop Essence Live. I am so excited to be back with you guys. This
00:13is a new platform for us. We're usually on Facebook, but now we are coming to you every
00:18Thursday at 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and we're bringing you some amazing black owned
00:26businesses, some amazing incredible stories, all in partnership with the New Voices family.
00:33So shout out to everybody that's tuning in live, live, live right now and shout out to
00:38everybody that is tuning in on the replay. I need you guys to do something for me right
00:42now. I need you to tag someone that loves shopping black owned or send it to them. I need you
00:49to tag someone that needs to be inspired because that's going down today and I need you to tag
00:54someone that is an entrepreneur that wants to take their business to the next level. You're
00:59going to be hearing some amazing tips from these entrepreneurs today. I'm going to tell you who
01:04we're talking to in a second. Make sure that you stick around because at the end, I'm going to tell
01:09you how you can become a part of the New Voices family and possibly be featured to sell on Shop
01:17Essence Live. So thank you so much for tuning in. I am going to pin a comment right now. I also want
01:24to tell you guys, you can actually ask your questions. So if you have a question for one of
01:32our business owners, please do put them in the chat. I'm going to make sure that I am paying attention
01:39to that and you can shop right here with us. All right, this is Shop Essence Live. So we're going
01:47to be talking to first, Cosmology. All right, this is Latoya Stirrup. I'm going to look for her
01:54here. Here we go. I see you. I see you. I'm inviting you. Stand by. I see a lot of people
02:00now. Hold on. All right, come on in, Latoya. She has some incredible products. When I tell you,
02:08Latoya, what's going on, girl? Hello. How are you? First of all, thank you so much for being
02:18like number one on our reboot on Instagram shops. How does it feel? Shop Essence Live. We're live
02:25right now. So excited. Love the platform. Essence is everything. Black beauty, fashion. So yes,
02:32super excited to be here and just share our journey and our story with your readers.
02:36So incredible. So why don't we get into that, right? Tell us, how did you get started? Where
02:42did the idea for Cosmology come up? And then we're going to get into these products.
02:47Absolutely. So Cosmology is a company that I launched with my two sisters because we wanted
02:53to change our wash day experience. We were tired of long wash days, breakage while detangling,
02:59and hair tools that just did not work for our hair type. So instead of waiting for a big brand
03:05to like get it and create something for us, we took medicine to our own hands and basically designed
03:10hair tools that adapted the idea of finger detangling into the design of our teeth.
03:16So when you look at our hair tools, they're thicker than your average comb. The teeth are smooth and
03:22round and shaped to mimic your fingers. So that way, when you're combing three of your curls,
03:26your textured hair, your extensions, listen, we go beyond everything. It really doesn't snag and pull
03:33at your hair, which is something that we really wanted to make sure that we addressed.
03:38I love that. And you tell no lies, right? Like everybody drop an emoji if your wash day is like
03:44a full day. Like it takes up your whole entire day. Sometimes the breakage that you see in your
03:50brush feels like it's more than what's left on your head. This is why I absolutely love your products.
03:57Before we get into that, you're a part of the New Voices family. I'd love for you to speak a little bit
04:02about being a Black female entrepreneur, what it's been like for you to be a part of the New Voices
04:09family. Absolutely. So New Voices has been a huge part of our journey and we have really,
04:15really enjoyed being a part of the family. We won a pitch competition with New Voices in 2020
04:202020. And now we are a part of their next Black millionaire program. So we're super excited to
04:27have that support and to be able to connect and work with other Black businesses to really kind of
04:33catapult our journey. That is so incredible. I would love for you, because we do have some
04:39entrepreneurs that are probably watching right now. What is the best piece of advice that you have
04:45gotten being a Black female entrepreneur that kind of changed the trajectory of your business?
04:52Oh, let's say, I know one of the best pieces of advice I've received thus far was actually from
04:58Melissa Butler of the Love Bar. Now, going into retail, as she was just saying, to take your time,
05:05to not bite off the money you want you. Because going into retail is not easy and you don't want to stretch
05:11yourself too thin to where you're in too many places and you can't support it. So I love that
05:16she gave me that insight. I love that. And you know what else is so important about what you just
05:21said? Melissa Butler of the Lip Bar. I have all the shades I feel like available in Target. She's a part
05:29of the New Voices family. That is the community that is built with the New Voices Foundation. You have
05:34Black female businesses that can, you know, learn and inspire each other. And it creates this incredible
05:41community, which is amazing. I'm not going to take up any more time because I know you have some
05:45product demos you want to get into. And remember, you guys can shop right here. You don't have to go
05:50nowhere. I'm going to be popping up the products as she's going through it. So let's take it away.
05:55And listen, we have you. Hi, Diana. She said she doesn't like to wash her hair because of the combing
06:00process. We got you. So actually, I'm going to bring her sister slash co-founder. She's going
06:07to be my hair model as we showcase our hair tools. Come on, sis. Come on, Latrice. This is Latrice.
06:13And so Latrice's hair, so we're using her as a hair model because you can see my hair is short,
06:17so I'm not the best to demo when it comes to combing. So her hair type is on a looser curl side,
06:24but at least you'll be able to kind of see how the hair tools glide through the hair
06:28as we're combing. So let's turn this way really quick. So I'm going to start off by showing you
06:34our Curls Plus Paddle Comb. So a little bit about this one is that we call it a paddle comb
06:41because it is shaped like a paddle brush, but it has the teeth of a comb, of a wide tooth comb.
06:48So I have our cobalt collection up and we have our beautiful rose pink at the top. Yes.
06:55So right here, I'm going to start off by course sectioning her hair so you can kind of see me
07:00coming through. You see, she has gel in her hair, so her hair is not neatly washed. This is actually
07:06a little day-old hair. I'm going to spray it with a little bit of water because you never want to
07:11detangle on dry hair. Teach us. Yes. Yeah. We're giving tips. We're not just doing demos. We're giving
07:19some tips and you start off at the ends, right? So you want to work your way up. So you can see
07:25what the beauty of the tool is that with the teeth being really long, you can see that they're staggered.
07:31You can get sections of hair at once. Yeah, it's incredible. So all the way up to her roots
07:38and you can see it's gliding through. It's not popping. It's not snagging. You can hear
07:46and it doesn't give you that same sort of ouch or like, oh my gosh, what's happening to my hair
07:53while you're combing it. And that's something that we absolutely love. So I'm going to pin this up
07:58really quick so I can share a little bit more about our Curls Plus Paddle Comb
08:02because that's some really cool features that we built into it. So with our paddle comb, we have,
08:09I mentioned really long teeth. You can see the hair that's in here, very minimal, nothing crazy.
08:15Hair naturally sheds. So we want to make sure that you understand the difference between shed hair
08:19versus like breakage. And you want to minimize breakage. That's what we're looking to do.
08:24With our paddle comb, we have a sectioning tip at the end. So I can actually use this to section her hair
08:32clip it up, secure it and detangle another section. So we built this to be functional. So that way you
08:39don't have to switch between like a rat cell comb and then your detangling comb. You can do it all in
08:44one. Let me tell you something about that too, Latoya. I have a four year old. Whenever I go back into the
08:51toolbox to get something else, it's a whole upset. So to be able, this cut my detangling time down so much,
08:59I could just use this one tool section and then comb through. Incredible. Keep it going. Moms, listen
09:04up. And we have moms who absolutely love the hair tool and their kids call it by color. They're like,
09:11mommy, where's the blue comb? Like, I only want the blue comb. And that's something that is amazing.
09:17That it's, it really hurt. It really hits our heart because we're able to really sort of transform
09:21that watch the experience. So yes. So the teeth, as you can see, they're smooth and they're conical
09:27in shape, which is also very gentle on your scalp. So with sort of other brushes or detangling tools,
09:34when you sort of comb, it can kind of hurt. So we wanted to kind of do something that was a little
09:39bit smoother on the scalp that you were able to comb through without a lot of those pain points. Also,
09:45with holding it, we designed this entire thing where you can hold it. So I tend to hold it up
09:51here and use the thumb rest right here to kind of place my fingers because it gives me that really
09:57great control while I'm doing it on someone else's hair or if I'm using it on my own hair.
10:03And it really cradles the palm of your hand, just the way that it's designed. I absolutely love.
10:07Yeah, absolutely. Do you, I know you have some other tools as well. Yeah. I just want to make
10:12sure you can get everything in. Absolutely. So next up, as I move on to the next section,
10:19is our curls plus comb. So with the comb, this one is a really good one. If you're not so much into
10:25thorough detangling, everyone has their own sort of detangling desire or need. And some people just
10:32want a gentle detangle, right? They just want to kind of get out the big clump. So this is a wide tooth comb
10:37that we designed specifically with that in mind. This one too, you can grip it at the top. So when
10:42you're combing through like your daughter's hair or your husband's hair or someone else's hair and
10:47they can sit between your legs, you can go in like that. We of course have a sectioning tip at the end
10:53again. So you can section and detangle all with one hair tool. And you can see the teeth are spaced widely
11:01apart. Again, giving you that really kind of good finger action. Latrice's hair actually has
11:07quite a bit of oil in it. So it's not dry. That's how I'm able to go in with the wide tooth comb
11:12and not put water on it just yet. And with this particular one, the good thing is that you can
11:19use it as a pre-detangler. So let's say you had like a protective style and you want to kind of get
11:25some of the bigger knots out before you wash. This is a good way to kind of like just go through,
11:30get some of that excess shed hair out and then wash because you don't want to necessarily wash with
11:36already tangled matted hair because it just gets worse. I've been doing my hair wrong all my whole
11:43life. Definitely shower with detangling hair. You have one more product to show us? So this is our pick
11:49and I'm going to show it really quick. So this one also can be used, as you can see, the teeth are
11:55very much spaced like the comb. So it works really well as a wide tooth comb on the go. This is actually
12:01my personal favorite because it's very versatile in that you can use it as a comb. When my hair is
12:07blown out and styled, I use it like a rake. So if I wrap my hair at night, I rake it down with my pick
12:13and styled. And then also we live in Miami. It's humid. Our hair changes throughout the day. And so
12:20the pick can be used to really kind of give you that volume without the frizz. Because again,
12:26there's no real, the teeth are spaced widely apart and it's not sort of disrupting the curl pattern.
12:31It's really kind of just giving you the lift. And when you pick, you go in at the root and come up,
12:36you don't comb all the way through. So I'm going to show you real quick how this can also be used
12:42as a mini detangler. If you have little ones and their hair is just starting to grow and you want
12:47to be really gentle with it, the pick is a good way to start. Very massaging too.
12:53Really quick point. The pick is also great for our guys with those Rick Ross beards. They love it
12:59because they can use it as a beard comb. Oh, the bearded base. It won't pop and snag the hair on their face.
13:05Okay. And before we go, I do want to mention, I see a lot of people, I got to get that comb,
13:11I got to get this. You sell this all as a bundle. Yeah. So you can either get the individual products
13:18or you can purchase the curl plus set. So that is up on your screen right now. So as we wrap up,
13:25we still have another business coming up. And I'm going to tell you guys, if you are watching
13:29and you have a small business, how you can be a guest on Shop Essence Live. So stick around,
13:34tag somebody, tag somebody that you know. Latoya, I'd love to hear from you any positive
13:40notes, anything for people. Let's say they do have a business and they're on their last leg. They've
13:45tried and nothing is working for them. What keeps you motivated? What kept you motivated through your
13:51journey? My why, my reason, the reason that we started this brand, we started this brand because
13:58we wanted to address pain points that we felt very deeply and we knew others did. And that's really
14:04what kind of kept us going. It wasn't trying to build a million dollar brand, even though that's great.
14:09But it was really just the idea of bringing something to market that we knew would literally change the
14:14way women, men and kids around the world care for themselves and their curls.
14:19That is incredible. Well, thank you so, so much Latoya for joining us. I'm going to keep this curl
14:25plus set up while I wrap up and tell you guys. So if you are watching right now and you want to be on
14:31Shop Essence Live and become a part of the New Voices family, I need you. There's a pin comment right here.
14:37Go and follow the New Voices family at New Voices Family. And then there's a link in the bio.
14:43You can apply to become a part of the New Voices family, get mentorship, get to be a part of this
14:49community where you're getting advice from people that are already in big box brand stores.
14:54You get so, so there's so much value that you get out of it and possibility to be featured on
15:00Shop Essence Live. And we're bringing the customer straight to you. They're going straight to Latoya's
15:04store. They're not going to Essence's store. They are going to the Cosmology store. So thank you so much,
15:09Latoya. Everybody, we're going to take a quick break and I'll be back with Rosen Skincare. Thank
15:15you so much for joining us and I'll be right back. Thanks, Latoya.
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