Make-up artist taps African women for a niche

Suzie Wokabi, a professional make-up artist, is tired of expensive yet ineffective products. After more than a decade working with imports, she is launching her brand — SuzieBeauty.

Ms Wokabi has been working on it since January 2009 and has found a processor.

For the last one and a half years, she has been exclusively using the new product in a test phase. So far so good, she says.

Her range includes foundation, concealer, eye-shadow and liner, mascara, lip-gloss, blush, lipstick, powder and a full line of applicator brushes.

“I wanted to make sure that I got it right. It has been amazing. There have been no skin reactions.”

SuzieBeauty colour tones and textures have been specially formulated for the African woman, she says. It also takes into account the Kenyan environment and climate.
“I want African women to say ‘This is what I have been looking for’ when they use SuzieBeauty,” says Ms Wokabi.

Market gap

She saw a gap in the make-up segment and realised that her dream of owning a make-up company could fill it. Clients using SuzieBeauty products are assured of good quality and prices that are significantly lower than those of imported brands.

Euromonitor International — a UK-based strategy research for consumer markets — reports that the use of make-up is growing trend in Kenya and the majority of consumers are in their mid-20s and below.

“This age group shows growing focus on their appearance and grooming”, Euromonitor wrote in an August 2010 report, dubbed ‘Colour Cosmetics in Kenya.

Ms Wokabi’s itinerary is so full that sometimes she has to turn down work. Her clients are mostly participants in fashion shows and local productions whose organisers have come to appreciate the value of make-up.
“Kenyans have become more aware and realise that image matters and it helps a lot, if not everything,” she says.

With very few local make-up companies, most of the products in the market are imported. Although the import duty on cosmetics is just five percent, the retailers mark up the price of the good brands by upto 200 per cent. The few brands that are affordable are not of good quality.

Make-up artists pay a pretty penny to replenish their kits locally. And this is one of the reasons why Ms Wokabi wanted her own product line that is accessible, good quality and affordable.

She has channelled into her products the qualities of MAC (Make-up Art Cosmetics) – a leading make-up brand that she has worked with previously. Ms Wokabi has been working with make-up for 10 years.
She started out with Clinique for one and half years before she began to freelance as a MAC make-up artist. Trained by MAC, she is also a certified media make-up artist.

After doing make-up part-time in the US, she returned in 2007 and has been doing it full-time and working on getting SuzieBeauty into the market.

In a market research she commissioned, Ms Wokabi found out that Kenyan women opt for what is affordable, which most of the time is not of good quality. Many women also do not know how to apply various products are hesitant.

There is also the cultural aspect of make-up, the research found. The baby boomers generation of women did not make themselves up as they feared being seen as morally decadent.

Private investors

Although Wokabi has a solid background of what her products would represent, getting funding has been an uphill task, forcing her to delay the product launch for months.

No commercial bank was willing to lend her the capital she needed to set up the business and therefore she turned to private investors.

Many she spoke to could see the huge potential of the company but she had to be careful to pick one that would allow her a free hand in product development.

“I wanted an investor that would understand what SuzieBeauty was about. I did not want to sell out on my dream,” says Ms Wokabi.

She plans to educate women on make-up application. She envisions enlisting flagship stores where women can walk in and get practical advice on make-up like it’s done in western countries.

This will require a team that is properly trained and experienced. Unfortunately, she feels local beauty schools do not offer training on the latest techniques and she will therefore have to train them afresh.

Good training

The industry has a lot of “professional” make-up artists, she says, but not many have what it takes to do a good job.

“You cannot just wake up and decide to be a professional make-up artist. It has taken me ten years to hone my skills,” she says.

She is now looking forward to the launch, set for later this year, having already established the distribution network for the SuzieBeauty products.

“Kenyan women need access to good products and SuzieBeauty is a fantastic solution,” says Ms Wokabi.

mwikalilati@gmail.com