NOIREJOLIE MEETS NOIR JOLIE

They say that everyone has a doppelganger.  NOIREJOLIE met hers at Brooklyn Pride.  My sister was in town to check out the local scene and I was her straight girl ally. I almost missed it.  After perusing the crowded, booth lined streets, shaking my tail to samba beats and finishing up an animated conversation with the Montreal Pride team, my cup was full.  Heading back to the subway station, my sister tapped me on the arm and pointed to my left, and there she sat.  Noir Jolie Beauty.

The booth was manned by two attractive, friendly black women, who turned out to be a dynamic mother daughter duo, Sylvia Escoffery and Jolie Claire selling their natural skin, hair and bath products.  What?!!  This was like Christmas for a self-professed beauty addict, so I immediately made a beeline up to them and pulled out my card.  We exclaimed over the coincidence, I checked out their line and promised to feature them on NOIREJOLIE in an ongoing effort to profile engaging black women.  Here Goes…..

What was missing from current product lines that spurred you to create your own? “What I felt was missing was natural, organic ingredients.  Everything had chemical names and a whole paragraph of ingredients.  My skin was too sensitive, I’m allergic apparently to a bunch of things and I started making my own products because I kept having reactions to everything that I bought in some way.  Soy is my biggest allergy, apparently they put soy in everything, chewing gum, even things you wouldn’t think they put it in, they do.  I had to do some research and literally started making my own and it turned out I was fine with the stuff that I made.”

Have you always been an inventive person? “I bake.  I’ve been baking since I was nine.  Just being home, bored, my grandmother would have all these cookbooks and I would just take it out and just start making stuff.  With my allergies I have to make my own food.  If I want tuna salad, I have to make my own mayonnaise.  I have to make everything.  It’s chemistry, you have to have a certain taste, a certain nose and know what goes with what.  Making products is not that different from baking.”

How did you start? “I’ve been using my own products for a while and my family would ask, oh make me one and it just stayed like that for a while, making them for my family members.  Then my daughter and I got to talking one day and she said you should sell it.  And I kind of laughed, who would buy it.  Who am I to think that someone would buy it?  They want Clinique and Estee Lauder.  But we kept talking about it and I said, well, let’s try.  And that’s how we got as far as we have, and people have been buying it.”

What was your step by step process? “My daughter was Miss All Natural, she was already into natural hair, I used to straighten my hair, she gave me flack, she kept urging me.  She was always into it and her thing was she wanted to create her own natural makeup, besides what I was doing for myself.  She used to work at MAC.”

“We kept talking and I googled and researched.  As a woman of a certain age, I’m about to be 48, I wanted to know what is going to keep me looking youthful.  What herbs, what oils, what vitamins, and then started throwing them together and testing them out.  And then I’d start adjusting things, adding accordingly.”

“The problems I realized I was having was I would make things without recording it because I don’t cook with recipes.  When people would ask, I couldn’t tell them all the way.  This has been a real challenge for me, to focus myself, so of course I had to measure and write everything so I can mass produce it.”

“I just kept doing a little bit, a little bit.  I started ordering jars, making a corporation, got my license, every week I would do a little something, I just wouldn’t let it go.  I created a website and then it just snowballed.  And then I got laid off from my job, unexpected, having never been through this before.  My husband asked me am I going to look for work and I said what if I don’t look for work.  What if I take all of my own energy and put it all into my idea, instead of working for other people and making their dreams come true.”

Sylvia has been a medical practice manager for most of her career with a passion and interest in science.  She went as far as going back to nursing school as an adult, but didn’t complete the program when she realized she wasn’t good with blood and body fluids.

What’s been the hardest about this process? “Money, I’m not even going to sugar coat it! Every time I book an event, the ingredients, the jars, trying to do this on whatever savings I have.  And also the social aspect.  I’m the quietest, shyest, stay in my house type of person, and I’ve been challenged to come out of my shell to promote and sell the products.”

What’s been the easiest? “The ideas keep coming, we have a million great ideas, but then we’ll ask how are we going to do it.  For instance my daughter has a dog and she wanted to do pet shampoo.  I didn’t see it, I don’t have a pet, but that turned out to be a hit.  I made a beard oil because my husband has a beard.  It’s definitely a collaborative effort.”

Jolie creates and manages their website and packaging design along with their social media.

What is your dream for Noir Jolie Beauty? “My goal is to replace every commercial product in my home.  I can’t trust what you put in something and you tell me it’s okay.  With what’s going on right now, the FDA doesn’t even have to tell us their findings anymore.  We want to extend our product line to include more health more beauty, more spa related type of treatments and makeup.  Anything health and beauty related to make women feel beautiful naturally.”

I can’t argue with that.