- 1 week ago
Ourside story is anything but ordinary! Deliberately designed for non-conformers, free thinkers and external dreamers, Ourside combines unique experiences with familiar ingredients to create unconventional fragrances.
Each blend is an exact and delicate balance of multi-layered story unfolding in perfect harmony.
Each blend is an exact and delicate balance of multi-layered story unfolding in perfect harmony.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shop Essence Live in partnership with the New Voices family.
00:07So this is a show where we bring you two new Black-owned brands to shop right here with us.
00:13If you're watching on Pinterest, I'll be pinning the comments, I'll be pinning the actual products there.
00:18And if you're watching on Essence.com, you'll see a little pop-up that says click here to purchase.
00:23That'll take you directly to these Black-owned brands sites where you can shop right here with us.
00:28Now, I say it every week, but every week is true.
00:32These products today are so incredible.
00:35In a little bit, we are going to be joined by Khadijah.
00:39She is CEO and founder of Dosso Beauty.
00:42She's going to be getting our lives together with these protective styles.
00:47She has created a hyperallergenic hair extension line, and it is organic.
00:54It's just so incredible.
00:56And she's going to get our lives together and teach us how to really do these protective styles the right way.
01:01We're all DIYing right now, myself included.
01:03So I'm so excited about that conversation.
01:06Okay, but up first, we're going to be hooking you guys up, okay?
01:10I don't know.
01:12I feel like this might be the first time I've talked to a Black-owned fragrance line.
01:18And when I tell you our side, this line is so incredible, and it's right in time for the holidays.
01:25So stick around right now.
01:27I want everybody to welcome Kata Burke-Williams to the show.
01:31Welcome her!
01:33Hello!
01:34Hey!
01:34I'm so excited to have you on.
01:38When I got your products, oh my goodness, like, it was just so, so incredible.
01:44But I want you, before we get into everything, tell us, how did you come up with our side?
01:50How did I come up with our side?
01:52Well, there's the long, long story, right?
01:53All of these moments that culminated in creating our side.
01:56But I would say the short of it is, I am that girl who never fit in.
02:02So, like, imagine it's your first day at a new school.
02:04You step foot in the classroom.
02:05You immediately sense you do not belong.
02:08And as a child of an immigrant mother growing up in an all-white neighborhood, I felt this all too often.
02:13And so, for me, I escaped into stories and into scents, like my mom's memory of night-blooming jasmine
02:20or the smell of her cooking with bay leaves and cloves.
02:23But even though I loved scents, traditional perfumes gave me headaches and really upheld ideals I couldn't embrace.
02:29And so, I founded our side to change all that, to create a space for outsiders like me
02:34and to do it through scent because it's our most powerful sense.
02:37So, that is the little long and short of how our side came to be.
02:41That is so good.
02:42And I want you to say a little bit more about it being our most powerful sense.
02:49I always say sense is the thing.
02:51It has such power to bring you back to a memory or bring you, like, make you happy because you're, you know,
02:58connected to something via scent.
03:00Can you say a little bit more about that?
03:02I mean, it's really what you said.
03:03I think scent is interesting because it's this language that all of us can understand, right?
03:08There is no right or wrong.
03:09That's our box.
03:10It looks so cute.
03:11I'm just looking at that neon green.
03:14But scent really is the thing where we can all understand it, right?
03:17But we don't often have the opportunity to speak it.
03:19And so, that's why I created our side to really change that so that we get to share our stories
03:25because so many of our memories and emotions are wrapped up and tied up with scent.
03:30I could go on for days about, you know, how to make memorable moments using your perfumes.
03:35But it really is this scent that I feel like, especially during COVID, people realized it's important
03:41and we started to tap into it.
03:42And so, that's why I'm so excited to be talking about what we do.
03:46Ah, I'm excited.
03:47Okay.
03:48So, we're going to go through these scents.
03:50She's going to be as descriptive for you guys as possible.
03:53I wish we had Smell-O-Vision for you guys' experience.
03:57But she's going to help us out.
03:59So, what's the first that you want to review?
04:00We can go through Moondust first.
04:04All right.
04:04Let me add that.
04:05So, this is basically all of our fragrances come in a 50 ml, which is a typical like spray
04:11with this awesome like heavy cap, which feels super luxurious.
04:15And then a 10 ml, which is great for like on the go.
04:19But Moondust is our first scent.
04:21So, I would say it's a very bright and uplifting scent.
04:24And then it kind of has this earthy finish.
04:26And that's because it starts out with cedarwood and grapefruit and jasmine.
04:31And then it kind of goes into these cooling spices of peppermint and anise before it hits
04:37the groundingness of the vetiver, the juniper berries, and the palo santo.
04:42So, it almost gets this like mystical vibe.
04:44And I would say people really use this for an awesome like everyday scent.
04:48Say you're going into the office and you don't want to scent up the whole place, but you want
04:52to know that you smell good.
04:53Moondust is a perfect one for that.
04:55If you're just like, I need something uplifting for myself and I want to smell good, but not
04:58necessarily like I'm wearing perfume, Moondust is the one for that.
05:03You ought to see this too.
05:04Look at all these things.
05:05Yeah.
05:06Look at all the ways they take care of us.
05:08All of our perfumes are made in the Bronx.
05:10They're all formulated and manufactured in the Bronx with a woman-owned manufacturer.
05:15They're all cruelty-free certified.
05:17They are vegan friendly.
05:18They are free from parabens, nitromescent phthalates, basically all of the endocrine disruptors
05:23that they put in the stuff they tell us to buy that we should not be putting in our bodies.
05:27That is what our perfume does not have because I felt like it's time for black people to have
05:31something of luxury that's created for us and like by us.
05:34We've seen that, but not in fragrance yet.
05:36And so that is why we do what we do.
05:38But yeah, that is Moondust.
05:40That's the first cent.
05:42Luxurious.
05:43And before we go any further, this is a shopping show.
05:46I know that y'all are putting this in your cart right now.
05:49I know that's already happening.
05:51So if you can, you have a promo code.
05:53So as people are watching and they're shopping, can you let them know the promo code and how much?
05:58So in all caps, put in N-V-V-I-P for 15% off your order.
06:03So good.
06:06All right.
06:07Let me put this, let me fly this up so everybody knows.
06:10All right.
06:10Now smelling it.
06:12I love it.
06:13And I can imagine it on my husband too.
06:15Is this a unisex?
06:16Are your, your sons unisex?
06:18They are.
06:20And I did that because, you know, growing up, I liked smelling my dad's Burberry for him
06:25cologne.
06:26I liked smelling my mom's Gap Dream perfume, right?
06:28All of those things where I didn't only want to smell like Britney Spears.
06:32And there's nothing wrong with wanting to smell like her, but I wanted to have all that
06:35nuance.
06:36And so I think it's time for us to say, okay, if I like this, it's for me.
06:40And that's, you know, that's that.
06:42So no questions asked.
06:43That's why we created unisex scents.
06:45I love it.
06:47Okay.
06:48What's your next scent that you want to add?
06:50What's next?
06:51We'll do Dusk.
06:52So Dusk is a very, how would I describe it?
06:57It's a very sultry scent.
06:58It's a very come hither scent.
06:59And I would say it is sort of juicy and smoky and juicy without being super sweet.
07:06So it really starts with these juicy berries and fig, and then it kind of meanders into
07:12this really soft green floral because of the bay and the lily and a little hint of musk
07:18before really drying down into this smoky goodness because it has amber and frankincense
07:24and just a hint of patrulling.
07:27Dusk is like, I say it's like if you were going into a bourbon bar wearing a leather
07:32jacket, you know, someone was smoking American spirits in the background, and then you decided
07:37to have a sip of bourbon.
07:38You left the bar.
07:39Someone was, you know, had a bonfire there in the distance.
07:42Like that is the Dusk, you know, experience.
07:45It's kind of like that bougie night out that turns into the dawn that you might or might
07:50not remember.
07:51So that's Dusk.
07:53That you are the best.
07:54First of all, I'm here.
07:55I'm in the place that you're telling me where I am.
07:57So this is great.
07:58I'm smelling it.
08:00This is so good.
08:01Okay.
08:02So that is Dusk.
08:04Yeah.
08:05Goodness.
08:05It's just so.
08:07That one is our crowd pleaser.
08:09I would say all three are always fighting for like what's going to be the bestseller.
08:13That one is definitely a crowd pleaser.
08:14But the one coming up, Nostalgia, this is one that we won a Cosmopolitan Holy Grail Award
08:19for.
08:19So it's an award-winning fragrance.
08:21And yeah, this one, Nostalgia, is inspired by my mom's story, actually.
08:27And it's one of the stories that inspired me to create Our Side.
08:30So it is based on a story of her getting to go to Tunisia and experience night-blooming
08:38jasmine for the first time.
08:39And she always described this.
08:41This happened in like 1985.
08:43But she always describes this experience of stepping out in the night, opening this white
08:48gate and being greeted by all the jasmine, which kind of like grows in like trellises
08:52and bushes.
08:53And she said she just smelled all this jasmine wafting, but it was by the water.
08:57So it was kind of like the salty air.
08:59And it was like the earth was damp.
09:01And so like that is literally the experience that I tried to recreate with Nostalgia.
09:05So it's a jasmine, but it's like not your grandma's jasmine.
09:08It is kind of like this cocktail sweet, kind of creamy jasmine because it has jasmine.
09:16It has violet leaf.
09:17It has mimosa.
09:18It has a little vanilla and ylang ylang to sweeten it.
09:21And then it has this really sticky kind of woody dry down because of the Peru balsam and
09:27some amber.
09:27So it's also a really beautiful scent.
09:30And I love the story, of course, that goes along with it.
09:32Oh, this is so good.
09:35Yeah, I love Nostalgia.
09:37I also love the Rolly, too, because you can really get some precision there.
09:43Exactly.
09:44And if you're like me, like I live in New York City and I'm on the train a lot.
09:48And so sometimes I'm like, I don't want to bother everyone with a big spray, but I'm
09:52like, it's been eight hours and I need to freshen up before I go somewhere.
09:55So I like literally pull this out of my bag and I just, you know, apply, apply and you're
10:00good to go.
10:01So this is like perfect for if you travel a lot, if you're on the go like me and you
10:05don't want to bring a huge, huge bag.
10:08So I love having this kind of travel size as well, to your point.
10:13So good.
10:15And one last thing we have, which I don't know if I sent you or not, but this is basically
10:20our little discovery kit, which we have exactly on our website for if you're like, these all
10:26sound so good, but I literally don't know where to start.
10:30This is the perfect place to start because it has two milliliter sprayers of each of our
10:34three cents so that you can test it out.
10:36Try it on your SIM, see what's your favorite, and then go and invest in your full size.
10:41And what's great about this is you literally spend $35 on this and that $35 you get off
10:47of your full size purchase.
10:48If you're like, Hey, I found that nostalgia is my favorite.
10:51This purchase goes towards that.
10:53Exactly.
10:54So it's really kind of a great way to test and experience our sense.
10:57If you're like, I don't know where to start.
11:00That is so smart.
11:01And Hey, we know we need some stocking stuffers for Christmas.
11:05Exactly.
11:06Exactly.
11:07Really good.
11:08So then if you don't know, if you want to have it as a gift, but you don't know which
11:11scent the person would like this, and then they get $35 off on the full.
11:16So good.
11:18Love, love, love.
11:19So, I mean, this is so inspiring.
11:22I would love to know you are a member of the new voices family.
11:26I love what that journey has been like, how being a part of that community has supported
11:30you and you don't have a lot of black women in the fragrance space.
11:36So even what that's been like and having the support of a new voices to cut through.
11:40I think it's been amazing to your point.
11:43Fragrance is very, I like to say pale and male to put it nicely.
11:46And so when we're trying to break through and bring this different experience of fragrances
11:51that are good for you, but that are also long lasting and beautiful fragrances with depth
11:57to them that have these stories that accompany them, it's hard.
12:00And so for new voices to help us on our journey, to provide the mentorship, to provide the resources
12:05that I might not otherwise have, and to always be a listening ear and willing to help in any
12:10way they can.
12:11I think like we couldn't ask for more, right?
12:13It's just incredible that they exist.
12:15So I'm super thankful for them as part of our journey.
12:18Oh, so good.
12:20But I am so excited for our side and what you guys are going to do in the future.
12:27I know you're doing everything right now, but this is how we need to support so that she
12:31can grow and scale and get some more people to help her scale.
12:35But I'm really excited.
12:37I hope to see you in the future in person at an Essence event.
12:41You guys make sure once again, here is the promo code.
12:44We're putting it up.
12:46If you're clicking into our website, make sure that you're using this.
12:50Everything that you shop at Shop Essence Live goes directly to these Black-owned brands.
12:54So please do experience, promote, support.
12:59And these products are made for us by us and they're incredible and hyperallergenic and all
13:03the organic things.
13:04So we want to be conscious of all of this that we're putting into our systems.
13:09Thank you so much, Kata.
13:11Thank you for having me.
13:13Bye.
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