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Shop Essence Live Episode 18 feaured two small Black-owned businesses, Rosen Skincare and Bella Diosa.
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00:00hello hello and welcome to another episode of shop essence live i am your host noni
00:18every single thursday we gather here we talk to two brand new black female business owners
00:25not only do we hear their stories but we give you the opportunity to support black business and shop
00:31these amazing products so if you are watching on facebook you can go right over to the shop tab
00:38all the products have been loaded there you can shop right here with us you might even see some
00:43pop-ups on the new live facebook tool you can shop right there and don't have to miss a second of the
00:49show if you're watching on essence.com um or if you're watching on twitter you can go to shop.essence.com
00:56and support today's businesses and you can see all of the black owned businesses we have there
01:02they're all essence approved all right so let's meet our ladies today who we got hello so we have
01:08ray wilson of bella diosa hey ray hi and then we have jamika martin of rosa skin rosen skincare i'm so
01:17excited to talk to you guys so ray we're gonna talk to you in a little bit but let's get the
01:22skincare together how you doing jamika i'm doing doing good i'm in california um and it's so smoky
01:31right now so it's kind of weird me about that yeah it's kind of weird but other than that i mean i'm
01:36staying inside so good good in here good well we hope you're staying safe out there um so rosen
01:43skincare really amazing products that you have why don't you tell everyone a little bit about your
01:48background and how you came up with this business yeah so um i've dealt with breakouts since like
01:54sixth grade uh so tons of experience like dermatologists medications treatments all the fun
02:01stuff um and so basically i was a junior in college after my second round of accutane so accutane is like
02:08the most intense prescription drug for acne supposed to take it once and you should be good i took it
02:13twice and uh still was kind of like back at square one after that and so at that point in time i was
02:20really just trying to figure out like what am i going to do about my skin i i have these breakouts
02:24and all this stuff again and um going back to that acne care aisle and like target was super
02:30disappointing it was like the same products i shopped 10 years earlier and so that really inspired me
02:36to one start like playing around with products and and formulating things for myself and then once
02:41i really saw that gap in the market especially in the acne space i decided to you know start taking
02:47it seriously and and start pursuing rosen as something that i could like to share with other
02:51people and and start selling now that is incredible and i do see that trend often on shop essence of
02:59people just trying to find a solution for themselves in their everyday life and then they start
03:03sharing their product that they found that works for them with other people and then it blows up
03:08like so you developed the product for yourself how did you turn that into a business now being featured on
03:17shop essence yeah so it was definitely um a slow build i would say like last year and this year have
03:23been very busy for us but um the first year was just a lot of like trying to figure it out i mean i went
03:29from making stuff in my dorm room and then i would take some like different courses around like
03:35formulating and we use clean ingredients so it really to me i like to equate it to like baking
03:40like just like doing a lot of practice and trying to get a recipe down and so once i started getting
03:44better at formulating and like art i know how to preserve stuff and i know how to like make it stable
03:48then i was like um i started with there's like a small boutique in my hometown and she would carry my
03:54stuff and i was still like so nervous i wouldn't even tell anybody what i was doing and
03:58um eventually i did like an accelerator right when i finished up undergrad and so it's like a startup
04:04you say like summer accelerator they take in 10 brands and so um that helped me think about it as
04:09like a business and like how do i scale this and and you know what are what are the methods to kind
04:14of go further and i started playing around with like influencer marketing on instagram and and that was
04:19really like from zero to like our first year that's all we kind of focused on and all we did
04:24and then we're able to like dabble in other things and and really just continue to build our presence
04:29online and um partner with you know folks like you guys and and we're sold like urban outfitters and
04:35things like that and really just all building it off of like instagram mainly yeah so and you talk about
04:41the the social media presence which i can't imagine now that you know we're in a time of covet 19 and the
04:48pandemic and there have been you know stores shutting down you mentioned urban outfitters how is your
04:53business adjusted or have you um had to adjust like your marketing or anything like that now that
04:59we're in pandemic like how has your business been doing yeah fortunately for us um most of our business
05:06has always been direct to consumer and so that's online and um we did you know have urban outfitters and
05:12um nordstrom just launched a pop-up and we're online with both of them and you know in some doors and so
05:18they've seen demand online increase as well so that has you know been good for us but you know we
05:25aren't a brand who are very much reliant on like in-store sales obviously there's tons of new brands
05:30who is like it's like a 50 50 split and always you know if every sephora shuts down what are you going
05:35to do and so we have primarily been direct to consumer and so you know that's a lot of people
05:41shopping online it's honestly been a lot busier for us um and then with june and everything going on
05:46with sporting black owned businesses and everything like that um got even busier and so it's honestly
05:51been very good for us the last um few months and that's been fortunate and it's it's been nice to
05:56be able to like hire people and get folks jobs at a time like this um yeah so yeah that's that's
06:01definitely just been like heads down on online marketing and kind of continuing where we've been
06:06really really great all right so i know that people want to get to the products right this is a
06:11shopping show you have some amazing things available um on shop essence i want to encourage
06:18you guys you are watching this show with two amazing business women um rose and skin care is
06:25really really great if you have any uh skin problems and you have questions for jamika drop them here in
06:31the comments i will read them and get your questions answered so why don't you tell us what you have
06:36first on shop essence jamika yeah perfect so i'm just going to start with um our bright citrus serum
06:41this is like one of our best sellers for sure it's a 20 vitamin c serum and so um it's super strong
06:49vitamin c is very good for you know helping with i like to think of it like boosting your skin's
06:54metabolism so like dark spots you know things scars things like that that are going to fade it
06:58essentially kind of like speeds up that process um and we do kind of like ph regulate it so it's not
07:04super acidic so it's gentler on the skin um and then the next product we have is definitely our
07:11most universal product so this is our rose water face dew it's a bi-phase mist if you can kind of
07:16tell there's like an oil layer at the top and then a rose water blend at the bottom um you basically
07:21just shake it up and it helps you get super glowy um i honestly made this first product for
07:28a replacement for heavy moisturizers i have very oily skin and i think this does a great job of both
07:34hydrating and sealing in that hydration with the layer of rosehip oil um and that's a great thing
07:40you know when you're thinking about dry skin or oily skin i realized that my skin was so oily
07:45because it was dehydrated and so your skin will overproduce oil and um it was one of my first
07:51things that i started as far as moisturizer goes we have some other moisturizers now but this is
07:56definitely one of my favorites especially in like warmer days i kind of reach for this a lot
08:00and it's such a nice refresher i really love this because not only do i use it you know after i
08:07wash my face before you know makeup i also use it as a refresher throughout the day over my makeup
08:13like right now and there's something so special too about the pump it's such a like perfect mist
08:19sometimes you get other pumps where it gives you like a big old splotch on places this is like
08:24perfection thank you yeah people love this one too like you said just like you can use it over
08:31makeup whenever i put like too much powder on i'm like always reaching for this and um it's just like
08:36so refreshing and it's really if i have any moisturizers that don't do a great job for me
08:42of hydrating i'll go in with this right before my moisturizer and then use my moisturizer over it and
08:47i feel like it does such a better job of like sealing in that moisture i think you know a lot of us
08:51know a lot around like hair care and like how yeah you need to get your hair wet before you start
08:55throwing like creams and oils on it and so it's very much the same thing with skincare you don't
08:59want to just like go in with oil on dry hair because it's not going to seal anything in very much the same
09:04thing so that is a great like way that this does that um a little bit one of our other products is our
09:10tingling mud mask this was actually one of the first products that i ever like formulated um and it's six
09:17ingredients super basic but it's a clay based mask i'll open it up and hopefully you guys can kind of
09:22see i have a pretty old macbook so hopefully the quality is like good enough but you can see it's
09:27it's a thick clay mask um has betonite clay in it zinc oxide which has a lot of astringent properties
09:33um and it also has a bit of tea tree oil not too much just to make sure there's no like sensitizing
09:39ingredients in here um but this is one of my favorites when i'm dealing with very large very regular
09:45kind of like breakouts um this is the strongest mask we have and um a lot of folks will reach to it
09:51if they are like a very frequent somebody who breaks out pretty frequently um and they have like
09:56fairly oily skin um and this we just have the two ounce jar and it honestly lasts a pretty long time
10:03as you can see there's a good amount in there and it's 18 bucks and we like to you know make sure
10:07to give you guys enough to be able to use it frequently so you can start seeing results before you have
10:11to like re-up on another one i love that so how often should someone use this let's say they have
10:17a really bad breakout and they they just got this how often should they use it before you know they
10:24typically will see results usually so for masks i like to mask two to three times a week um and that's
10:31usually what i'll recommend with something like this we do have an earth mask that isn't on shop
10:35essence but it's on our website and that's a little bit gentler it's more of a cream mask and so
10:40that's something i say you can go in with a bit more frequently but with something as strong as
10:45this i would say two to three times a week um because then you know you're giving your skin a
10:50chance like to really like see those results in between days i think if you use it too frequently
10:55like every day or maybe even every other day it kind of um it's hard to see you know it takes a
11:01couple days for breakouts to go away so it's hard to see like do i really need to use it again like
11:05right away um and so that's what i like to do and i always recommend that um if you aren't somebody
11:10who masks and you have like breakouts or acne prone skin it's such a big it makes such a big
11:16difference i was somebody who didn't mask a ton when i was younger and now it's just like the
11:21difference in my skin of being able to mask frequently and i'll still like i've been using
11:26these products forever but i'll like put a mask on i'm like wow like you know our products really
11:30work good and you know my breakout it really helps with the breakouts and things like that and so
11:34i definitely recommend going in and usually with that for me when i have like larger breakouts two
11:40to three times a week i'll probably see um a pretty big difference within like one to two weeks for
11:45those kind of like surface level bumps um and then you know of course other steps in your routine to
11:50like start regulating your skin so new bumps aren't continuously appearing yes oh so before you go on
11:56we do have a question i feel like this is about the um rose water but sansari i hope i'm saying your
12:03name right sansarene jackson um can you use this over sunscreen yes so you can definitely use it over
12:10sunscreen there's no um ingredients in it that would like block out any of like the properties within
12:16sunscreen um and really the main thing to think about when you're doing so using sunscreen and the
12:21ingredients that can go over it is just um something that is going to you know maybe mix in with the
12:28sunscreen a lot of sunscreens are formulated to be like a final stage product right and so if you start
12:33mixing it in you can affect like how the spf like affects your skin or actually blocks uv rays and so
12:39some like thicker products and then you also want to consider um how thick a product is as far as like um i
12:45don't know if any of you guys have ever experienced like peeling so like when you put on a product and it
12:49kind of like balls up and so usually that's when you use something that's a little bit you're supposed
12:54to do products thinnest to thickest and so if you use something that's like thicker than your spf
12:58you might experience that and that might affect how the spf like lays on your skin totally makes sense
13:04makes sense all right what else do you have for us sweet yeah and then um the last one that i wanted
13:09to go over that's with shop essence is our charcoal mask very similar to the tingling mud mask the main
13:14difference is charcoal versus zinc oxide and so like i mentioned zinc oxide is really great for
13:20larger bumps it has a lot of astringent properties in it whereas a charcoal mask is more so for kind
13:26of like smaller bumps oily skin a little bit of texture and charcoal really does a great job of
13:31kind of like absorbing excess oils and helping you know your your pores appear smaller because it helps
13:38to clear out any gunk within the um pores and so i like to use this one if it's something where i'm
13:45breaking out not super severely i might have a few large bumps but definitely some small bumps i don't
13:50know about you guys i tend to get texture right here which is i feel like a very weird spot to get
13:54texture but small bumps always pop up right here for me and so i love this mask for that area um it's
14:00definitely like i would say my middle mask like tingling mud mask a lot of breakouts very like you know
14:06a lot of bumps right now this is my middle mask and then earth mask is something where it's like
14:10yeah my skin's looking pretty good but i know if i take go too long without a mask i'm gonna start
14:15breaking out i'll reach for my earth mask and so this is definitely a good kind of in-between mask i would
14:20say um and it has a lot of very similar properties to the tingling mud mask just a little bit gentler
14:26without that zinc oxide really great so it sounds like you have our skin covered year round so if we're
14:33experiencing one of our moments guys and we need the mask we do use the tingling mud mask and then
14:40it's getting a little better then we get the charcoal and then you also have the earth mask when
14:44we're you know shining and popping and the melanin's popping so great i want to remind everybody that's
14:50watching right she has more products on her website so if there's anything look at all those products
14:56behind her so if there's any skin condition that you are dealing with she may have something for you
15:03so make sure that you are dropping the your questions and any of your skin questions in the
15:09comments um and i will bring her back a little bit later so it's not too late all right thank you so
15:15much jamika perfect thank you yep all right i need to like i was going crazy on this mud mask
15:22so now i know two to three days and we know how we are about our skin and i've you know dealt with
15:28teenage acne and adult acne it just like when your skin is having a moment it affects everything so
15:36we really really have a close relationship with our skin and our skincare and you know this is essence
15:42approved and absolutely amazing and this has tea tree oil and i know that's really really good
15:48uh for breakout so excited to introduce you guys to that so just a reminder if you're just joining us
15:55this is shop essence live this is where we're bringing you black owned businesses every single
16:01week getting to know their stories but then also shopping their products once again if you're shopping on
16:07facebook with us today you can go over to the facebook shops tab all the products available on shop
16:12essence is available right there on the shop tab you don't have to go anywhere if you're watching
16:18this on essence.com or if you're watching this on twitter you can go to shop.essence.com we even
16:24have a promo if you text the number you get a 10 discount and you'll also get um news on who's
16:31going to be on future episodes so you might want to do that all right let's bring on in ray
16:36bella diosa hello beautiful
16:38i can't you can't hear me so all good i'm gonna take you out i'm gonna actually kick her out listen
16:50guys this is live this is what happens we have technical difficulties sometimes um so i just kicked
16:57her out on purpose so that means that she's gonna have to sign back in let's check in with the comments
17:03really quickly and see where people are coming from i see raz i will get that one the charcoal mask so
17:13you know where you gotta go to get it edward shouting out the beautiful sisters we will take that edward
17:18how you doing all right so ray just came back let's see if the audio is good yes see perfect all right so
17:27ray you have some beautiful designs behind you but before we get into that tell the people a little
17:35bit about your journey who you are how you got started in your business okay so this my brand
17:43shop of la diosa has been something that i have been doing in my mind since i was a kid my mom
17:49is a seamstress so she's sewn her entire life she's always been this creative woman i learned to sew from
17:55her so growing up you know making barbie doll clothes and all these other little things but when i got
18:00into high school i kind of started putting more of my my creativity to use i made my prom dresses i
18:07made dresses for um other women other kids and it's always been something that i love i love getting
18:15dressed up i love looking cute i love you know putting something on and feeling good so with shot
18:21la diosa the pieces and the selections that i make half of them are all hand cut hand sewn all of our
18:26swimsuits are hand cut hands on and now we're transitioning more into the custom dresses and that
18:31so eventually we're going to be all custom sewn all hand sewn but we do a little a 50 50 mix so
18:39wholesale hand sewn mixed together um i've been doing it now full time for like three years
18:47which is amazing because before i was working in a doctor's office when i was little i wanted to be
18:53a nurse so it's a kindly like a completely different field but yeah you never know where life takes you
19:00right i legit was in school to be a pre-med pre-med major that was that was and then i completely
19:08changed my direction and got my license got my um my degree in business so that's how shot la diosa
19:16was birth one day i took five hundred dollars and i picked four pieces of clothes none of them sold
19:25none of them sold my first selections did not sell at all like it didn't um but that's just the thing
19:33about persistence and consistency you really love something you have to keep on going you cannot stop
19:40i could have been discouraged when i spent my little money and put the products out and nobody bought it but
19:46i kept on going and now i'm here three years later full time doing what i love doing what i love
19:52enjoying it and i'm just so happy and so blessed to be able to share my products and everything with
19:58the world we've had orders from all over the world africa look at you i love it it's amazing it's amazing
20:06good for you all right so i know you have a lot to get through today reminding everybody you know if you
20:14have any questions about her line or if you have any if you're an aspiring stylist clothing designer
20:21or you want to do what she's doing she's right here live so i will add get your questions answered
20:27so ask them uh drop them in the comments ask anything right all right so why don't you show us what you
20:34have first for us okay so to start let's start with our storm swimsuit set now this set it features
20:45a custom custom made swimsuit so this is hand cut hand sewn and then also a custom cover-up to match
20:54so it can be cute you know you put it on you have you out there there you go a visual for it you have
21:01your your set on put some sandals on and you're good to go cute the next i know people wear that
21:07to the club though you know that's not just the beach thing
21:10our tangerine dream two-piece set so tank top and a midi skirt it's long love that color it's so
21:31beautiful so you can dress it up or dress it down it's a good set to just put on you know what i'm
21:36saying when you want to if if bae says hey we're going to dinner in 15 minutes throw this on you're
21:42good to go yes and i see the little if you're watching on facebook right now you have a bit of
21:48an enhanced experience because they're the products are popping up so you don't even have to go anywhere
21:54we're using the new facebook live shopping tool all right what else you got for us i have
22:00our tube this is brand new we just put it on the site um it's a tube dress rainbow it has a little
22:09cutout right here it's super super cute you can also dress this up or dress this down i like outfits
22:15where i can just throw it on do something to my hair real quick and i'm good to go and it's a moment too
22:22yeah and then next we have this is one of my favorites it is our tropical fringe oh that's cute
22:32yes we custom make this we add the fringe on the side it's such a fun piece when you're in it you
22:38just want to dance and move and everything there we go so cute so cute and next i don't know for me
22:49like anything with fringe give it to me like i need you're a fringe girl like give it to me
22:57so these denim are so much fun you can walk you know when you're walking it's just like a
23:01you can have fun with it i need to do that walk again
23:06i love it
23:13our as if it's like a midi dress it's so cute you can tie it at the top up here
23:20it's very stretchy it's kind of like a burberry inspired this is also hand cut and hand sewn
23:26it's super super super cute um you can dress it up dress it down like i said most of our products
23:32you can dress up or down so it fits amazing it feels like silk on your body
23:38and then we have our brown butterflies i love it this is our one of our top sellers literally
23:49it oh it got a little split it has a little a little shine to it and you know you're not doing
23:56a lot it's just it's super cute put it on right and you're good to go
24:00so cute and then finally which is also we talked about this one yes this is my jam
24:10yes come on now up the wrap love a little wrap dress so cute and for this you know same thing
24:18dress it up put on sneakers put a little purse on and you're good to go throw it on and go
24:25yes so so cute so cute we also have a lot of other pieces on shop essence over i think it's
24:38about 30 pieces on shop essence so if you don't see anything here you can go to
24:42whole wardrobe with
24:44i absolutely love that and then we do have a question i think you touched on this a little
24:51bit earlier but we'll just recap sharon wants to know do you make these or do you use a vendor
24:57i feel like you said it was a combination of both it's a combination of both so 50 percent
25:02hand cut handsome where do we do swimsuits and dresses majority of our swimsuits and dresses are
25:06hand cut and handsome but then we do also have like sets and um some other dresses that we get
25:12wholesale yeah so what kind of things are you looking for when you are curating from wholesale like
25:19what is the bella deosa girl like what do you look for well we the bella deosa girl is
25:27classy and sassy she doesn't want to do too much but you know she's confident so whenever i'm looking
25:35for pieces i always find something that is simple enough that you don't need to do a lot you don't
25:41have to do a lot to look good in it you know what i'm saying you have to do a lot right feel good in
25:45it sometimes you know women think you have to do so much no like a simple dress some flats a nice
25:51little two-piece set and that's it you don't have to do a lot basically right i absolutely love it you
25:59have so many great pieces and i feel like it can cover a spectrum okay wait dr candace wants to know
26:08hold on do you cater to a specific set of sizes yeah so let's talk about sizes and in the range of
26:15how these run right so we do from extra small to extra large our next is to go into 2x and 3x but
26:24you know i want to make sure that they have a good a good variety of things as well like right keep it
26:30so okay yeah well the smaller girls can wear this but the big girls can't no i want everybody to be able
26:35to look bomb good we love that we absolutely love that so i'm gonna bring in jameika right now
26:45and just a reminder to anybody make sure that you are dropping questions in we're wrapping up but it's
26:51not too late i got my eye on the comments don't worry i got you guys if you have any questions for
26:55ray or jameika um you guys have been absolutely amazing i love your products i can't wait to refresh
27:02my wardrobe right um so just a reminder we've had some really really great products available on
27:09our facebook shops or shop.essence.com make sure that you go and you're supporting not only are you
27:15giving back to these beautiful business women um but their products are bomb and they they made it with
27:21you in mind so why not support right and they work uh so we love to end the show in a positive word
27:28so it's time for a positive word so that is basically and this could be for anybody watching
27:36right i just need a little pick me up a positive word whether they're a small business owner or a
27:41single mom or just somebody dealing with covid or dealing with everything that's going on the election
27:47and all of that what is something that you uh say to yourself to keep yourself motivated um
27:55yeah and pursuing your dreams jameika i'm going to start with you uh one thing that i've been
28:01thinking about a lot lately i want i heard it from like a um actors kind of like round table i think
28:07tom hanks said it but it was like time is your ally if all else just wait um and i really like that it
28:13helps me like when things are stressful or when things feel overwhelming i really just kind of like
28:17resonate on that like yeah like time is my ally like you know just wait and we'll be solid
28:22i love that and ray what about you for me i always i always take it biblical i'm
28:30yeah straight to the bible so for me i i will have to say second chronicles 5 7 it says be strong
28:39and do not give up for your work is supported and that is it just hits me because you have to
28:48you have to be persistent you have to be persistent in your pursuit of what you want out of your life
28:54and as long as you keep on going you will for sure be rewarded do not give up do not give up
29:01i absolutely love that and i saw someone ask that question in the comments of when your products
29:08weren't flying off the shelves dr candace i see that you asked that like how did you keep yourself
29:13motivated and i heard from you saying at first you started with you just love what you're doing
29:19and you start there and you just know that you cannot give up which is really really inspiring
29:25and incredible we do have a one more skincare question i know the questions are going to keep
29:29coming in so ladies if you don't mind to visit the comments a little bit later and just hit people up
29:35in the comments that would be amazing we would love you for that um but there's a question from sonia
29:40she wants to know if there's something you would recommend from your line of for acne dark spots
29:45yeah so i would say our bright citrus serum is like the number one that i like to recommend it's
29:50on trop essence it's that 20 vitamin c serum that i mentioned um some of the before and afters that
29:55they scrolled through are um using this product and this is definitely where we see customers with
30:01the most results with our dark spots um we do have curated routines on our website so just so
30:07nobody gets confused they aren't on trop essence um but we have a fade match routine which includes
30:13stuff um that is going to help with dark spots or scarring and also some texture hormonal bumps but
30:19if you're looking for one product i definitely say the bright citrus serum yes vitamin c is so good
30:24that are amazing okay yeah thank you
30:28all right all right well i want to thank you guys so much for uh coming on today's show and sharing your
30:36stories so inspirational and sharing your incredible products make sure you guys are going and shopping
30:42and supporting and hooking yourselves up right this is a gift for you or a gift for somebody um in your
30:48life uh make sure you tune in every single thursday here on facebook and twitter 3 p.m eastern standard
30:56time we'll be here shopping and supporting thank you guys so much till next week
31:02you
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