Have you noticed this trend lately? Have you noticed that most ladies these days are going fair? Every lady now wants to be fair-skinned. The dark ones are going fair and the fair ones are going fairer. That is why Skincare experts are springing up everywhere, attending to the desires of these multitudes of women to look good. On INSTAGRAM today, there are close to a thousand skincare practitioners.
One of the big names in skincare is Edna Kehinde Adeyemi. She is the CEO of Eddy’s Beauty Spa. She is not just a Skincare Therapist but a very effective and experienced one at that. This pretty woman has been in the business for a long while now, long before many others started venturing into the business. She started well over 10 years ago and has since established her brand, Eddy’s Beauty Place and Spa, into such a big brand. She recently got a recognition award at the City People Online Fashion and Beauty Awards held in Lagos a couple of weeks ago and spoke to City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL about how she started her business and why more and more women are going fair these days.
How do you feel receiving this award from City People?
Its an honour, I must tell you. I feel that this is an honour that’s long overdue, but I just want to thank God for making this happen. I am happy.
How did the journey start for you? How did you get into the Skin therapy business?
Okay, in 1997, I visited a friend who is into skincare. She told me a lot about it because she knows I am someone who loves to look good always. In my family, when everyone is shopping for clothes, I am shopping for the best creams to use on my body. So after listening to all she told me about the business, I then asked her if she could teach me and she said, yes, she would. And that was it. She trained me for about six months and shortly after I was done with the training, I travelled to India, the U.K. and the Philippines to learn more about the business. It’s actually a dream come true for me because its a business I really love.
Like how many years have you put into the business now?
This is my thirteenth year in the business, but officially it’s my seventh year. And God has been faithful, I must confess.
I’m surprised to know you’ve been in the business that long ago, long before many people started rushing into the business…
Yes, it’s been a long time and I’ve trained a lot of people locally and internationally. But I’m a very shy person, I don’t like to be dragged out, but I thank God for uncle Seye Kehinde who really talked to me about coming out to let people know what we’re doing. And I really thank God for the kind of husband I have. He works in Shell while I am a business person. He’s a very nice person and even helps in taking care of the home for me because my job takes time, especially when you’re doing a lot of production. There are times I don’t do anything in the home for two or three days. I just focus on my work. That was why I dedicated the award to him.
How was the business at the time you started over ten years ago? Has it gotten a lot better than what it used to be?
Yes, when I started the business, there was nothing to show for it. There were a lot of insults. A lot of people wondered why you would go wash your face and spend money, didn’t you take your bath before leaving home? And I’m like, its called facials. It’s a process that helps you enhance the smoothness and beauty of your face and your body and all that. So, a lot of people now are enjoying that awareness that we helped to create for the business to flourish. That is why every lady, including the old, young, sexy, beautiful, ugly, name it, every woman now wants to look good. And at Eddy’s Beauty Place and Spa, I make sure every lady leaves with a beautiful, flawless, radiant, polished and ageless skin because that is what skin enhancement is all about. Your skin must glow. Even if you’re old, you must glow. Not when you’re looking like a fifty-year-old when you’re actually only thirty years old.
What advice do you have for ladies who just go pick up a particular cream from the store and start using it just because a friend uses the same cream and it works for her?
In my place, I always do a skin test. Even if you can afford the cream or brand your friend uses and it doesn’t suit your skin, I won’t sell it to you because that’s where the professionalism comes in. You need to tell them what is good for a reddish skin tone, a white skin tone and the other types of skin tones. We have about five or six of them. But I do tell ladies, it’s important you know what your skin needs. Know what to feed your skin with because at the end of the day, you have to wear this skin forever, so why damage it an early stage. Sometimes I see a couple and their children are looking fair on the face with a dark-complexioned body. They are destroying that child’s skin at an early age. And I tell them, you must use strictly organic products on these children otherwise you’ll damage their skin. A lot of women have come to me and said, oh, Eddy, you don’t look your age and I tell them its God and my products.
Tell us where you got the passion to look good from. Is it something you picked up from your mum or something?
(Smiles) Okay, let me shock you with the answer. I was never a fair person. I was born dark. I still have a picture of me when I was still in the U.K. There was this day I asked my husband, I sad, ‘honey, why is it that when we take pictures our faces hardly show in the pictures?’ And he was like, don’t you know we’re dark? And was, like, can you just permit me to glow my skin and he was like if that’s what you want.’ And I used to have a very dry skin, so I had to search for what would enrich my skin and make it flawless. From the outset, I never planned to be fair, I just wanted a very glowing and radiant skin, but because of the kind of job we do, a lot of people would come saying I want to get fair and I’m like I can do it. Then they’ll say, but you’re dark. So that actually prompted me, with the permission of my husband, to tone again. Today, everybody loves my colour and I love my colour as well.
So, now, what has been your husband’s impression of the new you?
Every man loves a yellow woman. Even at functions, once a yellow lady walks into the hall, she gets attention and nearly everyone would see her as beautiful. It’s not that the dark ladies are not beautiful or ugly, it’s just that the fairness projects better the beauty that a fair lady has.
