•Reveals Why She Is Different
Fifi the moon is one of the leading Skincare experts in Nigeria today. She runs a Spa in Lekki that all the women and men rush to for their Spa Treatment. Fifi who will readily tell you she is the best Skincare Specialist invested a lot in that Spa that gives you a feel of being abroad. She is proud of what she has and she is happy that she is on top of her game. Her Spa is world-class.
She has been at it for years. She is a skin doctor or skin mechanic. Not too long ago, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE speaks quality time with Fifi The Moon, during which she spoke about why she is the best in that sector. Below are excerpts of the interview.
A lot of ladies rush to your Spa for their beauty treatments. But what’s the big deal in going for Spa Treatment? Why should they take it seriously?
Oh, its important for women to go for Spa Treatment. We, women, need to give ourselves a treat. In our Spa, we do both, Wellness and we have a Section for Women to handle their feminine part. For a woman that is very particular about her complexion, about her skin, she needs to do Exfoliation. This is not done by just going to a store to buy a scrub, (because they have a lot of scrubs to scrub your skin), you need to go through a process of going through steam, to open the pores of the skin, to enable the scrub to be able to penetrate into the skin. It needs to be done by a professional. The professional knows how to handle the pores with the Spa utensils, scrub the skin, do the facials, (and handle things like Acne,) and then close the pore back after the procedure. Some treatment may be just for exfoliation some treatment might be for wellness. Some procedures might be for acne, breakout, rashes.
For the Feminine touch, if you want me to be very explicit I will be. If you don’t mind. There is what is done in the Asian tradition, you put some herbs inside a pot. There is a way it is done. The woman will be made to sit on top of that. There is a technique. It helps to take in these herbs into the woman’s vagina, to make it tight, sweet, and make she and her partner have a sensually nice experience. Its been done in so many traditions, especially in the Asian tradition and in the Hausa tradition and the Sudanese, and even the Kanuri. A lot of Sokoto women go through this. They all have their particular medication they put together to achieve what they want to achieve. All these things are done in our Spa.
Then also, we have Wellness for people who have inhaling problem. There are mentholated herbs you put into their skin that will make it go into their system and it will clear their air. For people who want to lose weight. For people that want to relax. For the men, after having had a hard weeks job, the hectic week, you are supposed to go to the Spa, relax, exfoliate, be pampered, be massaged. We have a very good masseur that does very good massage. It makes the nerves relax.
At the end of the day, what sort of a person is Fifi?
I don’t know. I am crazy. I am an eccentric. I am so many things in one person, so much so that sometimes I don’t know what sort of a person I am. I know I am nice. I know I am kind, if nobody tells me, I know I am a kind person. I think about people. I have feelings for people. A lot of people don’t understand me. They misunderstand me. Sone says that girl is difficult. some say that girl na witch. some say that girl is in a cult, some will say that girl is so sweet, some will say I don’t understand that girl, some will say that girl na Asewo, See as she dress. See as she dey roll her bum bum. How can she dress like this? They make me laugh. Some will say that girl, she is tough ooo. You don’t know her ooo! She is a decent girl. I am what I want you to believe I am. You can’t control me. I have a strong mind of my own. I do what I want to do. That is my No 1 problem. You don’t tell me what to do. I always come home to sit down to think of what I want to do. I am not someone that can be influenced by anybody. I love everything. I love tradition. I am a traditionalist. I attend festivals a lot. I am a herbalist and I am a child of God. I am adventurous. I do everything. I can do everything. I like to go everywhere and see for myself.
I want to know what is at the end of everything. I am an eccentric. I am crazy. I like to know what is next. I like to be different. I believe that there must be something in that everything. I believe everything shouldn’t just be ordinary. There should be something new, something spontaneous, something exciting, about whatever it is, like love, marriage. I am so crazy that I can see my husband shagging somebody and I will say give her money let her go. Thank you for making him come. I will continue from where you stopped. That is the kind of person I am. I don’t take life so seriously. I don’t take life as serious as everybody. I can decide today I want to walk, or I will wear bathroom slippers and enter Okada to that jungle. I am me. You are who you are. It doesn’t change your place in the VIP. It doesn’t change your class. It doesn’t change who you are. I believe you need to carve a niche for yourself and know who you are.
Like I see a lot of people suck up to others. No. I can’t do that. I don’t do it. I am unique in my own way. I am a superstar. I am a mega superstar. I know a lot of people cannot stand me for that. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. What makes me special is that I am happy every day, that I can wake up and be me, that I can wake up and enter Okada, that I can wake up and enter my Bentley. It does not change who I am. That I can wake up and run around with the masquerades at all the festivals in my long white regalia as if I am mammy water. I can be in church dancing and speaking in tongues. I can be everything. Why I should I be limited to what people want me to be or what you want me to be. No. who are you? A lot of people do not understand me. They can’t see what I see. So, they have no choice than to hate me, because you cannot be me. You cannot understand me. You don’t know where I am coming from. I sell my cream to everybody. It doesn’t change me. It does not change who I am. It doesn’t make me less a human being. I can go and sit down with that woman selling Ogogoro in the market and ask her, Madam, how far now? How the market go? That is how life should be. So that if you find yourself in any situation, you can carve a niche for yourself and be happy. Why do I have to be sad? why? Because of what? I just want to be happy, I want to make other women happy. I want to resolve their beauty & skincare needs. I want my cream to work for them. I want to listen to all their complaints, challenges and problems and help them find solutions. Life is real. Life is easy. I know that. It can be what you want it to be if you have that zeal. I just want to be happy. I want to be able to eat what I want to eat. Simple things of life.
Tell us about the products you sell…
We don’t have specific products. What we do is sell everybody’s products. We travel to different countries, gather different things that can work for different people. I recommend products that will work for different problems. My job is to go and find the only things that work and give it to you to use.
So, I am a problem-solver. I have some Indian cream. The truth is I am a skin-mechanic. My work is to go and gather everything and bring to the people. So, bring all your problems to me and I will solve it if I can. So, that’s how I operate. I work with international Skincare brands also for people who can afford it. All you have to do is to pay me and I will pay them. That is it. If you tell me what I can get in Yola State that works for women you will see me in Yola State tomorrow. I go around to source for what works for my clients. In some of the places I go to, they don’t even speak English. I usually get a Translator that will speak their language. They will communicate. I buy it. And they will give me the magic and I will give to my people. What else? So, I can’t say I produce anything. What I offer is giving the best in Skincare to my clients. All you need to do is to come to me and I will help you find them. I do a lot of research on the Internet. I check out what India has or other countries. Information is Power. you can get a solution from the weirdest. Many people have problems. Big men have problems. Big women have problems also. So, they can’t go to many places looking for solutions. I always tell them, send me. I will find solutions for you. Send me. I will go for you. That is what I take my time to do. A lot of people trust me with their problems. They just call me, Hello, Fifi, I have this problem. I usually have a lot of private consultations. They trust me. So, I end up giving them what to use and it works. If you need me to consult an Ifa Priest that knows or understand traditional medicine that can work for my client, that needs it, I will help out. But in Nigeria, people tend to misinterpret or misunderstand things. People copy me a lot. That is why I hardly grant interviews. I have said too much, to you. I am talking too much.
How do you react when you see other Skincare Specialists copying you and doing what you are doing?
I get angry at times. There are many people in the Skincare Industry that know I am their madam. They know that Fifi na dia madam, they know. But there are some that are illiterates, stark illiterates and those ones get me angry the most. These are people with no form of Education. They have nothing upstairs. These people didn’t even go to any University in Nigeria or abroad, not to talk of a Beauty School. So, how did they become a beautician? They call themselves celebrity skincare guru, such thing can only happen here in Nigeria. It can’t happen in the U.S. In the US, you need to have a Certificate. Don’t get me wrong when I talk about an illiterate. A mechanic is not an illiterate. He went to learn handwork. They learn from their Oga and they do Freedom. I used to look up to people like Chief Mrs. Opral Benson. She has a Beauty School. She has taught a lot of Beauticians. You have to have some form of Education. You have to go to a proper school to learn and get a Certificate. If you don’t go to school how are you going to know the fundamentals, like the chemical reactions, of what happened? That is why you see all these skin burnt by chemicals.
