It is not often you hear the story any lady leaving a global institution like African Development Bank to start a beauty line. But that exactly is the story of our Woman Crush today. Leslie Okoye is a wife and mother with a Masters degree in Marketing & Management from the University of Bradford, UK. She is also an alumni of Howard University, Washington DC. But in 2010, she decided to switch career path into beauty after being frustrated with the lack of beauty products for women of colour.
Now she owns a specialist skincare range Cookie Skin and also L’Okoye Cosmetics, a line of holistic skincare products specifically created for women of colour. From her base in Lagos, she sells and distributes worldwide to online and physical stores, supermarkets and spas. And she is putting all knowledge from business classes to keep her young brand strong and growing in Nigeria despite inflation rates, importation taxes, and power irregularities.
Her mission is to make L’Okoye Cosmetics and Cookie Skin a household name and then redefine the meaning of ‘beauty’ amongst men and women of colour. But that means she has to start working on one of her worst kept secrets – her fear of speaking to crowds. The shy light skinned beauty would rather escape attention by lugging in her headphones and listen to her three favourite artistes; Calvin Harris, Drake and David Guetta.
Photo Credit: Leslie Okoye
