PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As a Black business owner, Abena Timazee has seen her fair share of challenges.
“I’ve always had to do things, you know, bootstrap,” she said. “I started my business with $1,000, and really, just the need to help someone. I never intended to have a plant-based grooming company. I started with this one product because I had a client that had a terrible scalp condition, and I honestly just wanted to help him.”
That’s how Feng Shui Naturals was created. But as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, there were more challenges for her holistic beauty products, which she sells mainly by testing out samples in a local supermarket.
“Since the pandemic, I haven’t been able to have that engagement to introduce the products to my customers. And so I’ve had to do a lot of different things in my business to help pivot and to still be able to maintain sales of my products,” she said.
Timazee was forced to get creative. DeSean Jackson, Jill Scott and even the late Teddy Pendergrass have sworn by her products, but those high-profile clients aren’t even her proudest accomplishment.
“I’ve actually launched an electric, eco-friendly beauty truck,” she said. “I’m going to be traveling throughout the city — practicing social distancing, of course — but traveling throughout the city to different Whole Foods markets to meet and greet customers and to give out free samples and free information about our products and why natural products and natural living is really something that we should all consider.”
The cosmetologist and hair care expert is spreading moisturized love by taking her first-of-its-kind beauty truck on tour, featuring eco-friendly shampoos, conditioners and body scrubs.
“Part of the reason why we do plant-based products is because a lot of people aren’t aware that chemicals that are used in grooming products are actually being back into our oceans and waters,” she explained. “Those things could possibly affect our ecosystem, meaning our mammals and plants and coral reefs and fish and things of that nature.”
Timazee said even the small efforts make a difference in our individual carbon footprints, which is advantageous for generations to come.
“We’re trying to really push our company as well as our customers toward a more natural way,” she continued. “We want to leave as little of an impact as possible when it’s a negative impact.
“I’m really trying to catapult the company to be more than just about shampoos and conditioners but more of a movement toward doing things that are more cohesive with the environment, because we all have to live here and we all have to share this environment.”
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