Its been ten years since their initial discoveries and now, Dr. Amaka, 33 and Dr. Onyeka, 32, are both licensed pharmacists with their own all-natural hair and skincare line called Omalicha Naturals. In August, Omalicha (which means beautiful in Igbo) Naturals was chosen to be featured on Walmart’s website, and have their products placed on shelves in the near future. The brand currently boasts items such as the manuka aloe facial cleanser (Dr. Amaka’s favorite), a sweet rose brightening serum for hyperpigmentation, grapefruit citrus burst hydrating shampoo (Dr. Onyeka’s favorite), plus a complete bundle of goods for men’s beards. Looking back on the days when they shared their creations solely with family and friends and dished out healthy hair advice on their blog, “Omalicha Curls,” both sisters are elated at how far they’ve come. Now, they are the tour guides, following in the footsteps of their Nigerian grandfather’s way of life and utilizing their formal Pharmacy school teachings, to provide education to men and women who want to take a natural hair care or skin care journey.”
DOJO DC: How did you both get into pharmacy?
Dr. Onyeka: Our mother is a pharmacist. We started working in a pharmacy at age 16, both of us. We thought, “hey, this is a great way to provide healthcare, other than just being a doctor or nurse. It was our mother who got us into this.
Dr. Amaka: We both journeyed into pharmacy by our mother who inadvertently introduced us to the field. If you have friends who are Nigerian descent, you know you can be one of five things: a doctor, lawyer, pharmacist or engineer. We chose the pharmacy route. Culturally, the idea behind it is, you always want to have a career that is always needed. That was our parents ideology. We’re grateful for that because it allowed us to fund our business and still be able to manage our households and all of our expenses. That was a really good teaching point that our parents provided us. We’re able to now be a profitable business.
Where do you both currently work?
Dr. O: I’m employed by Keiser Permanente
Dr. A: I work with CVS pharmacy and I also work for United Healthcare.
Where did you both go to college?
Dr. A: Hampton University undergrad, where I studied cellular molecular biology, and the University of New England for pharmacy school which is in Portland, Maine.
Dr. O: Hampton’s School of Pharmacy six year track program.
How did you both become interested in hair and skin care?
Dr. A: The field of natural healing; skincare and hair care peaked our interest many years ago. While we were at Hampton University, we began transitioning to wearing our hair in its natural state. At that point in time, we really wanted to understand why Black hair couldn’t grow long or why Black women had an issue retaining length. Through our journey, we discovered we needed to stop relaxing our hair because that was a major contributing factor. During that process, there weren’t many products available for natural hair (this was like the early 2010’s). We also were trying to transition to a more natural life. While I was venturing into my natural hair, I shared a lot of that information with my sister. My sister was venturing into taking care of her skin more, so I was doing haircare and she was doing skincare naturally and we were making our own products, sharing it with each other and sharing it with our friends and family. We did that for the last six - seven years until we finally ventured into business.
Dr. O: This was always something that was directly related to us. We knew that other people must have this issue. So, as far as haircare, it was more of a self growth. Everything about this was a journey for us. We were growing as individuals. We were at a point in our lives when we knew better, we were learning about all these chemicals in chemistry, like how you have to wear gloves when you touch lye and how you have to wear goggles when you're in chemistry class, but this is also a product that is mixed and put directly on your scalp. So we knew that something was wrong. With that knowledge, it was like you know better you have to do better. That was the defining moment for us and then we learned more about natural hair natural skincare through just reading. The information is out there, but actually reading it, comprehending it and taking what you know and doing better, and doing better not just for you, but for your people, for everybody. It’s bigger than us.
When did you begin creating your own products?
Dr. A: This has become something that is bigger than us. We started forming our own products and really formulating them not just mixing things together d.i.y.- style but actually applying the principles of science and making sure things are stable and preserved well. Then we gave it to our friends to try out. At that point we were just giving it away, we were like “hey can you try some, see if it works for you?” Tell us what you like, tell us what you don't like. That was a turning point for us when people were actually giving us positive reviews. We were like okay it's not just working for us but also for you. Then, we can help other people as well.
This was early 2018, when we really, really got serious. At that point, we only really had one product that was ready to be sold. We didn't have a website, we barely had social media. We were just really hustling. We started doing pop-up shops, events, different things, whatever we could, that’s how we got started and we started doing really well at those pop-ups and we were selling stuff and then we developed more products and we had a line of six products and then we were pushing our six products and we've been going from there. Our goal is we want to utilize our family background to also provide education to men and women who want to take a natural hair care or skincare journey. We would love to leave Kaiser and CVS and focus on Omalicha full time but we're still going to use our pharmacy background to provide care to our customers through our business.
Dr. O: Around 2010-2011 is when it first piqued our interest and when we began sharing with our friends and family. We always knew that we wanted to go into business but around that time life changes started happening. My sister got married first then two years later I did. We were having children, then fast forward to a point in 2018 when we thought we were ready and we had just given birth to our third and second child (my third, her second) and we were on maternity leave together. And that's when we were able to take a deep breath and say, ‘we need to do this. It’s time.’ So after all the life changes we finally were in a place where we were ready financially and mentally and physically to really dive into this business.
How have you both used your pharmacy backgrounds to create your products?
Dr. O: Basically, in the pharmacy field we learned about these chemicals and compounds. I’ll give you specific examples: We learned about retinoic acid, which is a retinol. It’s one of the most commonly prescribed treatments for acne. What they do is, there are natural ingredients that they use but then they chemically alter them to make them more stable, maybe not even stable just to extend the life of it and to get the most out of their money. They make these products with the cheapest ingredients but they charge so much because they have to do testing, they have to go through a process with the FDA and all these other things, so everything costs money for these companies. There are natural ingredients in them but they are chemically altered to make them work the way nature has already made them work. Instead of opting to go with those chemicals, which would be the easier route, because they are cheap and readily available, we decided to take those completely out. And we said, “hey let's formulate these natural alternatives that may cost a little more.” But they are just as effective and are safer and work just as well.
Dr. A: They actually work better!
Dr. O: And they also don’t burn off your skin. There's no photosensitivity, which is caused by a lot of these chemical products. A lot of those little nuances are what we saw a lane for. That’s our lane. We’re not going to water down anything. We’re just going to give it to you from nature to your skin to your skin.
Do you have to charge customers more because you are using natural products?
Dr. A: I wouldn’t say we charge more because there are companies who charge way more than us and dont have the quality that we have. I feel like our prices are fair. Our prices aren’t extremely outlandish.
Can you explain more about the harmful ingredients in hair care products?
Dr. O: Circling back to relaxers, that’s what my sister was referring to when she stated chemicals that are applied to our scalp but we need to use gloves in the lab in the pharmacy. That chemical is called sodium hydroxide. It's a lye and that is what they use in relaxers so in relaxers, the pH is high. It’s very alkaline, so when applied to the skin, it definitely will cause burning. There’s been a link to relaxers and fibroid problems in black women. This is something that is actually killing us that we’ve been conditioned to use since we were children. We didn't even really have a say in whether or not we wanted our hair chemically altered but these harmful chemicals were applied to our scalp at a young age and a lot of women now in their 30s and 40s are having fibroid issues and there's a direct link to that, so that was also another very important issue. We want women to feel comfortable wearing their natural hair, so that they don’t feel that they have to be reduced to using harmful chemicals to achieve a hairstyle that they can achieve with natural products.
Did your hair care and skincare journey begin at Hampton or before college?
Dr. A: At Hampton, honestly, natural hair wasn’t popular ten years ago. It wasn't something that we see everywhere now. it was a personal journey for the both of us. Speaking specifically for my skin, I was having a lot of issues with my skin breaking out when I was at Hampton. I just dedicated time to finding out more information about natural hair care. It kind of coupled together. If you have all these natural alternatives for your hair, there's information about skin as well. So, when we were finding information about hair, we were also finding information about skincare. One spring semester, I just dedicated time ordering all these natural ingredients, formulating them, masks, cleansers, and oil cleansers. That was how my skin cleared up. I have so many pictures of my journey. That was how my skin cleared up. That was like an ‘aha’ moment. this can be done with natural ingredients —that was around 2010.
Dr. O: We both have very unique stories. They kind of intertwine in different parts of our journey. I was less concerned about my skincare, for a while, until recently. I was more concerned about my hair. I knew that my hair was growing because my new growth would come in but my hair wouldn’t get any longer. I googled how to grow black hair long. We went to this website, it was like a forum where there were other women like us who were also looking for the same answers, ‘why can't we grow our hair long?’ A lot of those women were doing a lot of d.i.y. recipes. Earlier, There weren’t really a lot of products out there for natural hair. There were a few products on the market — Shea moisture came out a little later. A lot of women were mixing their own things, applying their own treatments. We started doing our own thing and then we started fine tuning it and then we added our pharmacy background into it. In pharmacy, you take a class called pharmaceutics. In that class we learned about compounding. We learned about how to make emotions, how to make so many different topical applications that we use now. I graduated pharmacy school in 2012, my sister graduated in 2017. So, we utilize a lot of that knowledge to begin formulating and that’s how we fine tuned our recipe to what we have today.
Tell me more about how your grandfather creating natural products in Nigeria influenced you both.
Dr. A: Our grandfather, on our father’s side, he used to take the oil from coconuts and he would make his own soap. This is something that is in our lineage, this is in our ancestry and they were doing that with just nature. He didnt have any additives or any preservatives, he just made enough for him and his family. That was what my dad grew up using and essentially, the information was passed down from generation to generation. We definitely utilized that skill into our process as well.
Dr. O: And it trickled down, because growing up, our father never used lotion. He never used commercial lotions that are available at CVS. He would always say, “why would I rub that junk on my skin, it's not natural?” We used to think our Dad was crazy when we were kids. Now, as adults, we don't use lotion either. We create our own products that we use on our children. We create body butter and body oils that we use on our family. Now, we understand why he had that mentality because it was passed down from his Dad and that now rubbed off on us. We have the understanding, as well.
Was it inspirational to find out your history and learn about your grandfather creating natural products in Nigeria before you were alive?
Dr. A: We learned that several years ago. When we first started formulating, our Dad told us that story: You know your grandfather used to do this. It was an inspiration. It’s one thing to work a job and have a passion for something and to really love what you’re doing. It's never really a job, it's just something that you love to do. Anytime, we’re formulating or we are creating new formulations or new recipes which is what we call them, we find so much joy in it. We knew that that joy came from somewhere. And then to discover that that joy came from our ancestry is even more confirming that we were meant to be doing what we were doing.
Dr. O: It’s quite divine. I like to think our grandfather has been guiding us spiritually. Sometimes, we come up with things that are so amazing, we can't even believe it's a recipe we came up with. We know that we’re under the guidance of God (first of all) and secondly, I like to believe that our grandfather is also guiding us along this journey as well.
Why did you choose the name Omalicha Naturals for your company?
Dr. O: The name Omalicha is Igbo. It means beautiful in the Igbo language. Back in the early 2010s, we actually had a blog called Omalicha Curls. We blogged about our journey transitioning to natural hair and we blogged about some of the d.i.y. recipes that we had come up with back in that time. We were basically giving other women advice on how we transitioned and how they can do it. We also dabbled in the skincare side as well. We posted about skincare, motherhood, we just shared our life, then we had to put a pause on that when life changes started happening. That’s where the Omalicha name came from. The blog is [archived] when it came time to name our brand we decided to change it from Omalicha Curls to Omalicha Naturals because we knew we wanted to provide more than just hair care we knew we wanted it to be all encompassing, haircare, skincare, men’s hair care, we’re offering so many different things now we didn't want the name to be misleading that's why we put naturals because at the forefront all of our products are naturally formulated.
When you create products, are you looking to solve a specific problem that your customer may have?
Dr. A: All of our products are aimed to solve a problem that people still face, even with the many options they may have on the market today. I'll give you an example, we have a beard care line for men. What we’ve noticed is that even though men have multiple options for beard care, they still complain their beard is itchy or it's dry or they’re having problems with connecting. First, we have a beard wash that is not going to completely strip your beard of all of its natural oils. It's just going to deeply cleanse it but without leaving it extremely dry which is a lot of problems that I’ve heard from my friends, and my family about their beard. Second, we learned when it's dry it can be itchy and irritating. To eliminate the itchy irritation, we added a beard butter and a beard oil, which also helps eliminate the itch and also keeps the beard moisturized to prevent the itching and aid its growth and thickness and fullness.
Dr. O: We recognize there are several problems that our communities face and we like to listen to our followers and we like to listen to our friends. So, for skincare a huge problem is acne breakouts and also the scars it can leave behind. Hyperpigmentation, that's a huge problem in black skin. And that's something our products address, as well as acne breakouts. For hair care, our products are specifically formulated for type 4 hair. We want to be specific, this isn't just a general product for anybody. There’s other hues and textures if you want to give it a try that's awesome but we see a need in our community for type 4 hair to get representation. Type 4 hair is the kinkier, coily hair type, traditionally, African-American or African hair types, which is severely underrepresented. And there are products that don't necessarily cater to type 4 hair. We’re filling that need. For skin care, we’re filling the need specifically targeting hyperpigmentation and active breakouts. Specific to hyperpigmentation, everything that’s on the market right now, is more or less a bleaching cream that can leave you looking ghostly and dull in appearance. Our products give you a nice even glow and nice even skin. Those are the problems in our community that we felt were very important to target.
Do you both use all of your products?
Dr. A: Absolutely, I don’t use any other brand for anything. In addition to that, we also formulate other products, so like Onyeka mentioned, we have body butters that are not released yet because we test them on our friends, and our family. These are products that we use everyday. My favorite product from the haircare line is the shampoo. We have a grapefruit citrus burst shampoo. It’s very hydrating, I have type 4 hair. Shampoos that I used in the past have been very dry which makes it more difficult to detangle and work through my wash day. Our shampoo is very hydrating, very meticulously formulated. I loved the shampoo, thats my favorite. The scalp oil that's also my favorite is the rosemary replenishing hair and scalp serum. I love that as well. On the skincare side, we have a lavender cucumber bliss facial toner which is excellent for hydrating the skin and preventing breakouts. The moisturizer which is our sweet little love serum, that's my favorite moisturizer. Just feeling all that moisture, if I exfoliate and my skin is a little irritated, it helps calm it and keeps it smooth and clean.
Dr. O: My favorite product on the haircare side is our avocado mango deep clean. That is our deep clean conditioner. It’s intended to wash your hair, soften it and make it more manageable and make it easier on wash day. That one revives dry and thirsty strands. It’s the perfect renewal for your hair. On the skincare side, I have two favorite products: it’s a tie. Our manuka aloe facial cleanser, the smell of that alone is divine. its formulated with honey, aloe vera, white tea extract. It gives such a nice gentle cleanse but it also leaves your skin feeling super soft and amazing. I love our face wash. My second favorite product is our sweet rose brightening serum for hyperpigmentation. We formulated that one specifically for hyperpigmentation because we know it's a huge problem in our community. The brightening serum gives you an amazing glow to your skin and gives you an even glow on your skin and you'll notice the first week you use it. I love it because it has turmeric. Turmeric is a known skin brightener. Those are my favorite in our line. We definitely use only our products. Whatever we don't have that’s missing, we’re going to formulate something that will take the place of whatever we haven’t formulated yet.
What has the overall feedback been from your customers? Are your products being received well from the people you don’t know?
Dr. A: Yes, we’ve had nothing but positive feedback on the quality of our products. I will say the journey of entrepreneurship has taught us a lot about packaging and making sure that we follow through with USPS once the products are out the door. You have to follow that USPS truck where we manufacture it all the way to the patients doorstep. There have been a few times where products/packages have gotten lost, so we now have protocol to make sure that we follow that journey. Just as the customer is tracking the packages, we are also tracking the packages. Just to make sure everyone is getting everything in a timely manner. We typically try to ship the same day, if not the next day. We are just constantly building a repertoire of delivering and making sure that the package makes it there safely. We changed our packaging to make sure that nothing gets damaged on the way. As far as the quality of our products we’ve received nothing but good feedback.
Dr. O: It’s a wonderful thing! We’re getting text messages from family and friends and we're getting e-mails from customers saying my skin has never felt better. A friend texted me today, on Thanksgiving day she received her order. She bought a facial toner and a brightening serum, so she’s been using those products along with her regular face wash that she had been using.
Since thanksgiving, her oily skin has disappeared already. She was afraid of using an oil based serum on her face. We encouraged her. She told me today her oily skin has ceased, her skin is actually brighter, her complexion is more even. That’s been since thanksgiving, so we really have some good products that actually work. We deliver on our promise.
How did the deal with Walmart happen? What was that process like?
Dr. O: I gave birth in May. I was home on maternity leave the majority of this pandemic. It was great for my family because i got to be home with all my kids and my husband but it was also great for our business because there were so many opportunities throughout this pandemic for Black owned business. The whole George Floyd movement and throughout that time, a lot of big brands were opening up their catalogs to Black owned businesses and they were reaching out so I came across a post somewhere in one of my social media feeds to Walmart. They were having an open call this summer and they were looking for Black owned brands to put on their shelves. I wasn't quite sure if we were ready for shelf space but I said you miss 100 % of the shots you don't take, so i'm going to shoot my shot for Omalicha Naturals. So, I put our name in there. I uploaded our catalog to this website Walmart has for brands. Walmart then reached out to us a few months later around the end of August. I applied in June, they told us that they wanted us to work on a few things before we could reapply to be on their shelves physically but they wanted us on Walmart.com immediately. That was just a crazy experience. I cant even explain the way we felt when we saw that email. It was a wonderful thing. It was an amazing opportunity that I'm glad that I just went ahead and applied for. Had I not shot my shot we wouldn't be there.
Is the plan to eventually also be sold in their stores?
Dr. O: Yes, we’re still working on that.
Dr. A: Ultimately, that is a goal. But right now, due to the circumstances of this pandemic and everyone kind of shifting towards an e-commerce type of model, we think that it's more important right now to refocus more on being an online store. Our main focus right now is online. The limitations are growing in stores. People are not really going in stores to purchase things. Even more so, they want to stay at home, we feel like it's better for our business right now to focus on the online.
Dr. O: We have other partnerships in the works that we can't really announce yet but we do have other partnerships that will be announced at another online company. That’s also another exciting opportunity. We’re looking forward to expanding our online presence as well as our physical presence once the circumstances of the pandemic get back a little bit to normal.
How does Omalicha Naturals differ from a Shea Moisture or a Carol’s Daughter and other brands targeted at Black consumers?
Dr. A - The way our products differ is that we specifically are not trying to be like anybody else. We are Omalicha Naturals and that's where we want to differentiate ourselves. Shea Moisture, their products were okay but they didn't give me everything that I needed. After I would wash my hair it would be completely dry which is not ideal for the type of hair that I have. So when we see that lane that is a mark that some of these other products have missed that is our lane for opportunity that is where we found our niche. We were looking for lanes that aren't being met and so we inspired us! We knew that girls were also having these issues, so we wanted to meet people's expectations but not just meet them we wanted to exceed them by working out these marks that other companies might have missed. That's for hair care. For skincare, there are hundreds of brands out there. There are brands that claim to be for melanin rich skin but again, them just missing the mark and us finding a lane and an opportunity and seizing the opportunity like hyperpigmentation which are dark marks, acne scars, those are issues that every single black person has faced but somehow they didn't have the solution for it. And that's where we try to close the gap.
What does healthy lifestyle mean to you?
Dr. O: It’s an all encompassing thing that we are also learning as well. We’re learning that you can't push a natural skincare or hair care lifestyle but then not also practice other wellness principles like getting your exercise 30 minutes a day. l will let Amaka speak more about her diet and her journey she's going on with her dietary choices. I’m on a non-dairy lifestyle but I'm in the process of transitioning to a pescaterian lifestyle. We’re seeing the effects of meat and dairy and the effects they can have on our gut and our whole body and even cancer has been linked to some dietary choices as well. It’s important to not only be worried about what you're applying to your body topically, but also what you're taking in internally and also what you're putting out for your physical health, physical fitness is also very important and also big for my sister and I.
Dr. A: I am vegan. I've been vegan for a year and a half now. Of course, I don't see myself going back ever. Aches and pains and inflammation, even being able to run longer, they all, are directly linked to what you eat. There’s definitely a link.