The desire to try something new helped Nazinga Henry fuel her entrepreneurial drive. Though Henry enjoyed making fine handcrafted jewellery, she wanted to express her artistic ability through a different medium.
After giving it some thought, she finally decided to take a bath and body works course last year and was able to bring out her very own beauty line called Self Love by Nazinga Treasures.
“My first passion was jewellery,” she told EASY recently during an interview. “I love anything to do with beads, agates and pretty things but I’m, like, ‘Nazinga, you can do much more than selling jewellery’.
“I always wanted to make soaps but when I tried to follow YouTube videos, it didn’t work out. So I decided that I would fully commit and do a course so I could broaden my horizon, so I did the course at the Briar Hall community centre.”
Henry said her soaps were selling so fast that even before she could make a batch she was getting orders. She said the activated charcoal and turmeric, in particular, was the number one.
Less and less satisfied with a particular brand of body care products, as some of the creams still left her skin dry, Henry decided to create body care products from organic compounds.
While displaying her products at a vendor’s market, a customer asked if she made sugar scrubs but she didn’t. The thinker went home, researched the benefits and components of the scrubs and tried her hands at making the exfoliating treatment.
Then when some of her customers, who work in air conditioning, asked if she had any product for dry lips, Henry immediately knew she had to cater to that problem and that is how her idea for scented lip balms was developed.
Henry said she never thought trying something different would evolve into launching a beauty care line, adding that she was glad she committed to her desire, as it opened her business to new possibilities.
In her cosmetic line, Henry tries to cater to different female age groups, offering products made from essential oils and fragrance oils. She said younger costumers liked sweet scents while more mature ones preferred natural extracts.
Henry, who previously worked in the corporate world, advised skilled persons who may be working for someone and are dissatisfied about where they are in life to give becoming an entrepreneur a try.
While she admitted that taking risks and “the startup” could be difficult, she said once the business takes off, the hard work and long hours would be worth it. For the past three years, the small businesswoman was her own boss.
She works six days a week in the hotel circuit, with Friday being her off day. She said that day was allocated for stocktaking and taking orders but at the height of the tourist season it doesn’t always work out that way.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays, she sets up a display of her jewellery and cosmetic products at the Hastings farmers’ market.
The former Springer Memorial School student said that tourists marvel when they see her products because they do not expect such things to be produced locally. Laughing, she said one even asked her if her lotions were rebottled cream from an international company.
However, she said locals gave her “over the moon” support, as other small business owners and customers encourage her.
While it may seem as though the 39-year-old has her work cut out for her, her daughter Subira Wiggins actually assists with the workload. When the 18-year-old student at the Deighton Griffith Secondary School is not doing homework, preparing for studies or involved in extracurricular activities, she is at home helping mum.
Subira said her mum inspired her and she too wanted to learn to use her hands creatively. (SB)
