Sophia Momodu is the mother of Imade Aurora Adeleke, the daughter of popular Nigerian Musician, Davido. In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke, the entrepreneur, fashion designer and influencer speaks about her and her daughter’s brand new line of organic hair care products called ‘Aurora by Imade.’
Can you tell us about yourself and your daughter?
My name is Sophia Momodu, I’m an entrepreneur, a fashion designer and an influencer. My daughter’s name is Imade Aurora Adeleke, she just turned 4 a few days ago and we are celebrating her growth by launching a brand new line of organic hair care products called ‘Aurora by Imade‘. We’re so excited to share what we’ve been working on.
What is the idea behind the new hair line and why have you chosen to go into this line of business for your daughter?
When Imade was born, she didn’t have a lot of hair, and I had to find creative ways to help her hair grow fuller and look more healthy and vibrant. I used to mix all sorts of concoctions together and post about them on social media and people were always so interested in what I was doing. Sometimes they’d think I was cooking some sort of stew, but really I was just mixing hair care products for my daughter. It was really effective too. Everyone loves her hair, it’s shiny, it’s bouncy and other moms have told me that it inspired them to experiment more with natural hairstyles, not just for their daughters, but for themselves too. So we figured, why not put out a hair care line with the kinds of products that Imade uses so that other people could have their hair looking fuller and more vibrant too.
Do you think there is a market for your product in Nigeria and what features does your product offer differently from other competitors?
There is definitely demand for a product like this, but supply has been low. I know how much I struggled to find great quality hair care products for my daughter, especially ones that were healthy, safe and organic. It’s so important in this day and age to be super conscious about what we put on our kids’ bodies and in their hair. For Aurora by Imade, we used 100 percent organic products and completely avoided things like sulfates which are very common in these types of products, but have harmful long-term effects. This is so important to me, and so we made sure we did lots of market research in advance. Even if Nigerians don’t know that they want it, they need it, and we’re going to give it to them. Thankfully, we’ll be shipping internationally too, not just in Nigeria, so we’ll be able to share this great product with people all over the world.
Knowing the class of Davido, will your products be affordable to the average person?
One of the hardest things about any quality business is finding that balance between affordable prices and quality-consistent prices. It’s really important to us that these products are available to as many people as possible, especially since we’re trying to promote healthier and more organic products, so don’t expect ridiculously high prices. Different products will have different prices and that will always correlate with the quality of the product. The products come in different sizes too.
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Has your daughter in any way shown her interest in this business or is it solely your influence in getting her to do this?
I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many people have been directly or indirectly involved in this. From all our friends who constantly send us hair tips to our cousins who keep recommending new products, to our personal hairstylists who have been kind enough to share some of their secrets with us, Aurora by Imade is really a family invention, and it’s a way of welcoming the rest of the world into our little ecosystem. My mom was a beautician, so I grew up around a hair salon. I’ve always bonded with my mom on hair-related things, and she raised me to love and embrace my hair, and I’m so grateful that I get to share that legacy with my daughter. The product obviously wasn’t Imade’s idea originally, but she’s been so involved every step of the way – sitting through meetings, smelling the products, picking her favourite colours, her favourite logo – she’s been so into it from day one. It’s not just her name that went into this product, it’s her essence and her heart. This product is 100percent Imade.
