At Peak Results PR & Marketing, we are passionate about supporting independent brands. During World Vegan Month, we caught up with Shalom Lloyd who is the Founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare, a natural, vegan, ethically sourced and African heritage skincare brand that uses only Mother Nature’s gifts to create a range of innovative, enriching and nurturing skincare products. Here Shalom shares her inspiring journey on creating a successful vegan skincare brand and reveals what is next for Naturally Tribal Skincare!
Tell us about your business, what do you do?
My name is Shalom Lloyd and I am the founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare. Naturally Tribal Skincare Ltd is a proudly British company, using only Mother Nature’s gifts to create natural skincare products for the whole family without the use of synthetic chemicals. We import personally selected natural ingredients from Africa for research, testing, formulation and manufacture in the United Kingdom. Our end products are beautifully packaged for global distribution and export whilst empowering African women in the process.
What is your company ethos?
Our company respects nature’s ability to support clean beauty and wellbeing, enabling a healthy body and a happy mind. Our brand ethos is built on valuing healthy, ethical and sustainable living, simplicity and transparency whilst maintaining luxury.
What did you do before you launched your own business?
Prior to starting my own business, I had spent the last 24 years building my career in the pharmaceutical industry. From being a sole contributor to leading teams locally and globally, working in an industry which brings miracle medicines to patients lives will always be a passion
What inspired you to start your own business? What was your lightbulb moment?
Naturally Tribal Skincare was born from personal experience. In 2014, I was blessed with the birth of my twins. My boy, Joshua had miserable eczema – scratch ‘till you bleed’ irritation and I couldn’t bear the idea of smothering his sensitive new skin with chemical emollients and steroids. As a qualified pharmacist, I understand the enormous value of medical treatments; however, after going through four IVF cycles, I wanted a natural remedy for my son. I looked to my African heritage for inspiration, recalling recipes containing all-natural ingredients, which has been used in Africa for generations. I started to experiment in my kitchen, using high quality Shea Butter as a main base, stumbled across the right formulation and within three days of application, Joshua’s skin cleared!
When did you start your business?
I started experimenting when my twins were born but registered Naturally Tribal Skincare Ltd as a business in January 2016.
What has been your biggest challenge?
There have been several challenges through my journey, and they differ depending on the stage. The big ‘F’ !!!!! Is the biggest challenge I have faced to date. For any start up, Funding/ Finance can be the difference between success and failure. Yes we’ve had to raise funds to get to where we are today but it was a significant challenge.
Today, another big challenge is access to key buyers and stockists because as we all know, you can have the best product in the world but if no one knows about it or has access to it, the product/ business may well be non-existent.
What has been your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is building a business which stands on solid pillars (Efficacy, Planet Hugging and Ethical Sourcing), a business that has impact in its DNA – doing this whilst being content and at peace, a good home, a successful career and being comfortable in my own skin with nothing to prove.
Tell us about your work with the community of Essan in Nigeria.
Our main ingredient is unrefined Shea Butter and I also discovered that the Shea industry has women at its core with over 16 million rural African women collecting and processing shea kernels as a main source of income.
I needed to find a sustainable and quality source of Shea butter and other natural ingredients. Being a control freak by nature, I also needed to understand the ‘ingredient journey’ and in some way control my end to end supply chain.
This search for my key ingredient led me to the Kingdom of Essan, Niger State, Nigeria from where our high-grade Shea Butter is sourced from today. In the middle-belt and northern part of Nigeria, I was welcomed by the King and women of Essan and saw first-hand how the women of Essan make quality ingredients with real dedication and genuine pride.
Expertise and heritage are integral to the Naturally Tribal brand, so our collaboration with the people of Essan goes way beyond making ‘just another shea-based skincare product’. Our ingredients and products pay homage to a rich African cultural identity and provide an opportunity for everyone to recognise the significance of the women of Africa.
I founded a sister company, Naturallytribalnigeria through which we are currently supporting the Kingdom of Essan, Niger State with infrastructure, employment and giving back to communities – underpinning our mission and vision. We aim to provide sustainable, fair and enjoyable sources of income for local producers of our ingredients, their families, villages, communities and local areas, thereby empowering the women.
There is a well-known proverb that Naturally Tribal truly believes in – “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Naturally Tribal Skincare’s belief is in ‘Trade not aid’.
What is next for Naturally Tribal Skincare?
So many exciting things happening! We are rebranding and due to launch our new look in the last quarter of this year. We are adding a Body Wash to our range which completes the ‘Exfoliate / Wash / Moisturise’ regimen and kicked off the formulation stage of our hair care line this July. From expanding our product portfolio to expansion into new channels and markets – our focus is just that – Growth and expansion!
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter your industry?
The market is saturated in this industry but don’t let that put you off – stay Passionate, Positive and Persistent! Remember that everything we do in life is about relationships! How we relate to, communicate and interact with others, how we make them feel is important. So my best advice is a Maya Angelou quote – “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I try to make sure I leave everyone I meet with the feeling that ‘they matter’.
How do you relax and unwind after a busy working day?
The switch from entrepreneur to mum helps me to relax and unwind after a busy working day.
About Shalom Lloyd
Shalom Lloyd is an award-winning, senior business professional, with over 24 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. A British-Nigerian with a BSc and MSc in Pharmacy from the Ukrainian Academy of Pharmacy in former Soviet Union, and an MBA from the University of Liverpool, resulting in a cross-cultural background which has enabled her to push for diversity and cultural awareness in the global business place at every opportunity for herself and others. Shalom is the Founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare, a natural chemical-free skincare company built on valuing healthy, ethical and sustainable living whilst empowering African women. Shalom is a DIT Export Champion, a Mentor and strong believer in the fact that anything is possible! https://naturallytribalskincare.com/ @NaturallyTribal
We would like to thank Shalom Lloyd, Founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare for undertaking an interview with us. We have had the privilege to work with Shalom to launch Naturally Tribal Skincare in the UK who is an incredible and inspiring female entrepreneur.
Peak Results PR & Marketing is a Sheffield PR Agency that specialises in Public Relations, Digital and Content Marketing for SME’s and global brands in the beauty, leisure, lifestyle, retail consumer, manufacturing and corporate sectors. For more information, please visit: https://www.peakresultspr.co.uk/