I know where I am going because I honor where I am from
Hello Boss!
It's been a while since I last wrote a blogpost and for that, I am truly sorry. Q4 for an e-commerce brand that begins to extend its omnichannel presence into 10 JC Penney stores AND gets handpicked by Oprah Winfrey to be one of Oprah's Favorite Things for 2021 means that you are completely under an avalanche of activity!
Let's be clear, I am NOT complaining.
Last year was truly one for the history books! I can't believe that we managed to grow our sales at Bossy Cosmetics by over 10x from the previous year (thank you bosses!) This is a brand that I started less than 3 years ago and people asked why I thought yet another "lipstick" was needed in the marketplace. I spent much of 2021 showcasing that we are so much more than just a lipstick maker. We are ALL about empowering women to look, feel, and do good in the world and I am so thrilled that we got the chance to do that!
I also got the unique opportunity to debut our limited edition collection lipsticks on QVC and I don't think I have ever been more nervous in my entire life! You can watch my first hit below!
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By the end of 2021, I started to really get in my feelings. I became overwhelmed with an emotion of gratitude. I was grateful to the thousands of people who visited our website, engaged with us on social media, shopped our products directly or via Amazon/JCP/QVC or any of the other independent beauty stores that were our very first YES in retail. I felt so amazed at the fact that we had orders from Canada, the UK, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Nigeria, South Africa, to name just a few! I wanted to enjoy the feeling of creating something special that touched the hearts and minds of ambitious women all while ensuring that a sense of narcissism or entitlement never crept in.
I don't take anything that we have built so far for granted and I am so excited about what we have in store for 2022! As the team works on preparing for an amazing launch of new products and content this year, I decided to create some content that honored my roots in Nigeria and how we came to use and love the name "BOSSY."
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And so we shot this amazing campaign that was designed to celebrate my Nigerian heritage while paying homage to the global nature of the brand. I wanted to showcase the colors, vibrancy, culture, and brilliance of Nigeria all through the lens of being an ambitious modern woman. Two of the participants are professional models and two of us are not. In fact, my sister in law is the other non-model and she indulged my fantasy of creating this campaign to celebrate African womanhood through makeup! She's a mom, wife, daughter, friend, fashionista, energy finance professional, and so much more. In essence, she's BOSSY!
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We had so much fun shooting this campaign and I hope you love it too! Some of the images are below and you should follow us on Instagram to see more as we unveil them.
Happy New Year!
Love,
aisha
