Vanessa Onwughalu is the CEO of Taos Beauty brand, one of the recognized make-up brands in Nigeria. She became a success story owing to sterling virtues such as handwork and passion.
The Anambra State-born make-up artist lived in the United Kingdom (U.K) for seven years and started her business after finishing a master’s degree in International Law from the University Of Warwick.
“I have had the passion for beauty in general since I was a young girl,” she says.
“I started in the U.K, where I was doing my research on the best kinds of production for beauty products, how on-trend my products could be, and also the best manufacturing factories in the top make-up producing countries such as Canada, Spain, China, and Germany,” she says.
After seven months of starting the business in the U.K, she moved back to Nigeria in 2014 to participate in the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC.). That was when she pushed Taos Products and gave them popularity amongst makeup artists.
The young entrepreneur, who will be 27 next month, has been running her business for five years now. But it has not been easy as she had to do a lot of research to stay at the top.
It was not easy for the Law graduate to start her company in Nigeria as it had its challenges. Although the company, which started in 2014, was making a good name for itself and had good quality products, consumers considered its expensive at the outset. “It was expensive because I didn’t do enough research to know that Nigerians were not yet willing to spend that much on Nigerian brands and needed education on Nigerian beauty brands,” Vanessa says.
“My products were sourced from a private manufacturing company in Canada where I choose my products and they put my logo on them,” she discloses.
Before Vanessa started in Nigeria, she had worked in a make-up firm for 18 months in the U.K. While there, she sought advice and help from experts. They were open to her by helping to connect her to manufacturers who were able to produce the quality she wanted at the required quantity.
“So then, I actually had to do more research on the Ingredients that would not be harmful to the skin and also greatly pigmented for make-up,” she explains.
Some of her products are made locally and others, abroad.
“All our made-in Nigeria products are indicated as such. Some people are dishonest, but I don’t feel like there’s any need for me to be dishonest. I’m a very big fan of made-in-Nigeria products,” she says.
During the recession of 2016 and mid-2017 when foreign exchange (FX) was scarce, many firms struggled to stay afloat. But Taos’ case was different as it made good sales as demand at the time was higher than supply. This was when Taos’ popularity peaked.
“I used all my money to buy dollars then and I won’t say it was a big issue for me because I pay for all my products in six months’ advance,” she says.
She boasts that many Nigerians saw the products as exciting during recession and started doing page-posting on social media.
“Then, no one knew me as the face of Taos. They just knew Taos as the brand everyone had to have. And that really helped us to make sales and when I came out as the face of Taos, people were amazed by my physical appearance, being so young to owned Taos,” she notes.
Vanessa started her business with N150,000 and is more in tune with current trends, thanks to social media platforms such as Instagram and Youtube, plus her relationship with top U.K makeup artists who give her insight into what consumers want.
Despite how tough the industry is, she remains consistent, prayerful, monitoring stores that resell for fake products. She has a brand strategy, anchored on quality and having influencers and make-up artists who help push her brand by recommending to others.
Taos has clients consisting of the upper and middle class. With 40 distributors across Nigeria, it also exports its products internationally to U.K, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, America and Canada on small scales.
“I still want to make Nigerian women believe in Nigerian products at affordable prices and quality,” she says.
In Nigeria, the major problems faced by most entrepreneurs are insufficient capital, difficulties in getting loans, poor state of infrastructure, instability, inconsistent government policies, among others. But for Vanessa, her major problem is shipping.
“When we are bringing in our raw materials into the country either by air or sea, it is always stressful. The charges that Customs officers impose on us for clearing are very high,” she says.
“Like my first three shipments then, I cried so much, because when I brought in products worth like N500, 000, I had a Customs officer charge like N437,000,” she regrets.
Although the industry does not have enough local manufacturers in Nigeria, a lot of people are getting involved as it is a lucrative market. Vanessa believes that there are a lot of investment opportunities in the industry based on the fact that the level of passion and demand for make-up products are increasing.
“The government needs to be more open to investment opportunities. They should help develop the industry by looking into those issues affecting it and think of ways to develop the industry,” she recommends. “I think it is not just funding. There need to be different ideas from different people, female, male, young, old, that can actually come together and provide solutions,” the entrepreneur adds.
Vanessa also has a skincare company called Malichaluxury, which started in 2017, and so far, it is doing well.
Her advice for people who want to venture into the make-up business is that they should not be scared but have the passion and dedication by doing a lot of research before venturing into it.
“The makeup industry is getting more saturated. You have to do your research and don’t be scared that there are lot of people in that business. When I started, I was not really scared because I felt this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life whether or not I got support from friends and family,” she recalls.
Bunmi Bailey
