Pleasant Glow CEO, Adeola Omowunmi: How I Turned My Skin Care Business To A Global Brand

 She is tall. She is elegant. She is a stunner. Adeola Omowunmi, without a doubt, is one of those women who get heads turning once they step into a place. Just like she got many heads turning in her direction at the recently held City People Real Estate awards when she stepped on stage to present a few awards to the recipients. Adeola got everyone’s attention, she didn’t have to try too hard. With her glittering exquisitely designed gown that fitted her body like a second skin, she oozed pure class. She oozed panache. If you do not fall in love with her enchanting figure (she is elegantly tall), you will love her pretty face and flawless, radiant skin. Call her a walking advert of her business and you can’t be wrong. 

Gorgeous looking Adeola is a serial entrepreneur who has her hands in many business pies. She loves business, it’s what she’s been doing since she was 18 years before she got into the university. She is into catering, she sells wigs, she sells Aphrodisiacs but her biggest business which has evolved into a global brand, is her skin care line called PLEASANT GLOW. Adeola is a skin care expert, but one with a difference. She doesn’t just sell creams, she also offers quality and insightful consultations that have helped many women solve their severe skin problems. She has undergone several trainings that have equipped her to offer such consultations and prescribe the appropriate body creams for her clientele. This very pretty and humble lady spoke with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) and opened up on her journey into the business world and how she has been able to transform Pleasant Glow into a global brand.      

Anyone meeting you for the first time will not be surprised to find that you’re into the skin care, fashion and beauty line, you are literally a walking advert of your business. Do share with us how you got into the skin care business, is it something you’ve been doing a long time ago or you were involved in some other kind of business before now?

I want to say thank you for the compliment, saying I am a good representation of the brand. Naturally, I have passion for beauty and when you talk about beauty, it starts from your skin. Your skin is the first thing people will see.  When people see you, they see your face. When people are not attracted to your face, they will most probably lose interest, so the skin comes first. So, I have passion for beauty generally. I am also a serial entrepreneur, I don’t just do beauty, I am into food business as well. I’m a caterer in the UK.

 What were you doing before you left the country?

Before I left Nigeria, I was into buying and selling. I sell fabrics. So, when I got into the UK and looked around me where I was, because I equally have passion for good food, I realized I could do well going into the careering business in the UK. Personally, I have always enjoyed cooking.  I love good food and I love to cook extensively as well. And you know, unlike skin care business that you must go for training before you start, catering business does not really require that sort of training, once it is inbuilt in you. It is natural. It’s what a normal woman would do every day because you cook every day, but having to cook in large volume now is where the passion comes in. Can you spend 4 to 6 hours just cooking? If you don’t enjoy cooking, you can’t do that, so that’s where passion comes into play. It was later on I realized that the passion for skin care is actually there in me as well. So, I went into different forms of training, both physical and online trainings, and also went into the practical side of it, and then launched the brand, PLEASANT GLOW UK. It was launched about nine years ago. We want you to glow pleasantly. When people see your skin, they see that you’re looking beautiful, you’re looking radiant, you’re looking pleasant, that’s where I got the name Pleasant Glow. And it is one of the popular brands in the UK among the Afro Carribeans. So, we have different forms of skin care product ranging from acne treatment to all manner of skin deficiencies. We have a particular product which is a best seller called the Kiddies Butter. The Kiddies Butter targets any form of blemishes on children and it works very well. A lot of children die because of the hard water and maybe because of the climate, the children tend to have very dry skin and equally suffer eczema, so, with our kiddies butter and kiddies soap, its good bye to eczema. Its works very well. Then, we have treatment for skin repair, we have brightening, we have pimples treatment, we have stretch marks treatment, we have all forms, you name it, in the beauty market in the UK.

Personally, I love the fact that, as a woman you can confidently beat your chest and say you come as a complete package. Often times, you hear people say, oh, she’s a beautiful woman but she’s terrible in the kitchen, she barely can cook a pot of rice. Or on the flip side, you also hear people say, oh, she’s a fantastic cook, but she lacks the ability to dress well. But you have both. You are a gorgeous looking woman and a fantastic cook as well. So, it’s not something that’s common to find women who come as a complete package like you. How do you use this to leverage on your business and use it as an advantage to market yourself?

Like I said before, I am a serial entrepreneur, so it’s very easy for me to be able to speak with you on what I do. When I started catering, I was giving my food out for free because I have the confidence that when you taste my food, you will definitely come back to purchase. And when I cater for your party, I appear, good. I appear neatly dressed, glamorously dressed. I won’t say because I’m coming to serve Amala at your party, I will now look tired and look exhausted, no. I invest so much in human resources when I’m catering for parties because one thing I would not trade with is my appearance. So, where other caterers may hire like six people to do the job, I will hire like eight or nine so that I will have time to leave them to do the finishing while I go to dress up and make sure that the food is well presented when we get to the party.  

Also, for the beauty side, when people see me, they’re always like, oh, I love your skin, what cream do you use and I will say, oh, I use PLEASANT GLOW. And I am Pleasant Glow. I’m the face behind Pleasant Glow. So, its very easy for me to sell the product to the people because I focus more first on myself. I know that its important when I go out that I get people to ask me, what cream do you use and once they ask that question, I take my cue from there and market the brand.  So, like you said, it has to be a complete package. And I also do real estate in Nigeria.  It’s not my company, I partner with a real estate company. They got an award today as well, so I actually came with them. Coincidentally, I’m in Nigeria presently, so they said, oh, since you’re in Nigeria and you represent us in the UK, why not join us in receiving the award, so that’s why I’m here today. So, when you sell real estate, real estate is luxury. You need to appear luxurious, because when you want to talk to somebody to come and buy a property of N200m, you have to look like a million dollars. So, by the time you’re speaking to them, they know that you know what you’re talking about because you look like what you sell. So, whatever it is you’re offering, its very easy for people to buy into it.                            

Tell us about Pleasant Glow’s journey, it’s been how many years now?

It’s been nine years.  Though we have incorporated other things into it like selling of human hair wigs. I sell wigs as well. I don’t make them, I buy factory made wigs or I buy human hair, give it professional stylists that can convert them into wigs and sell to people. I equally sell Aphrodisiacs, and these are products that are very useful in the bedroom for both men and women. I am not talking about Kayamata in the real sense of it, I’m not talking about products used to capture a man or woman, no, that’s not what I’m talking about here. I am talking about something that helps you to balance your hormones, make you get aroused in the other room and basically help you boost your libido. Like I said, I am a serial entrepreneur.

What part of your background prepared you for this because you don’t just wake up one morning and decide that you want to become a serial entrepreneur, there must be a part of you, growing up, that shaped you to do all that you’re doing…

Thank you very much. To be honest with you, I will say that it’s just something that’s inborn, it’s a natural part of me. I think it’s just the way God created me because immediately I finished secondary school, I went into business, even before I got into the university. So, while I was in the university I was doing my business I used to sell under wears. I used to sell second hand clothings. I was living in Ogun state then, so I would come to Lagos, I buy, I take them back to school and sell to students. From time, I have always loved to make my own money, I think that’s where the passion came from. I don’t like to ask people for money, so, I can say right from the age of 18, I have been into business. And I’m forty-five right now, so the experience has shaped me into the woman that God has helped me to become.

How about your passion for fashion, where did you pick that from?

I will still say it came naturally to me. It’s inborn. I can even say I picked a bit of that from my grand parents, not even from my mum. My mum is fashionable but just average. But my mum’s mother, she was a fashionista till her very last breath. And my father’s mum as well. I never met her, but I heard her story. She was a fashionista to the core. When she’s going to a party, she would have two mirrors in front of her, one in front, one at the back. She doesn’t compromise her appearance. I got to know my mum’s mother. Let me share something funny with you, before she died, she actually went to the market to buy a bra that will be worn for her after she dies, she said she wanted to look gorgeous on her way to heaven. And a few days before she passed on, she applied her own nail polish. She died at the age of 86. And she was still a fashionista to the last minute. So, I would say it was all so natural for me. My mum wasn’t into serious fashion, she just loved to dress well and look neat. She doesn’t even wear earrings. But I love jewelries, I love good clothes, I love good bags. I love to look good.

Would you say you have a lot more of your clientele for Pleasant Glow in UK more than you have in Nigeria or it’s the other way round?

For the brand, I would say about 70% of my clients are based in the UK, while the remaining 30% are spread across Europe in countries such as Germany, Italy, Ireland, America, Canada, Australia and Nigeria. Its less than one percent in Nigeria, and that’s largely because of the exchange rate. Its quite on the high side for Nigerians based in Nigeria to purchase our products.

Finally, what are your aspirations for the Pleasant Glow brand? How do you hope to take the brand several notches higher in the next few years?

Well, in the next few years, we expect Pleasant Glow to be more popular and we hope to be able to provide a lot more quality products for Afro carribean skin and also, people should watch out for our clothing line. We are adding a clothing line very soon and it’s going be known as The Empress by Pleasant Glow. So, it’s going to be luxury outfits like what I’m wearing. But we won’t just be selling to people, we will be teaching them and helping them dress well for a party. We tell them the kind of dress you should wear, the kind of wig you should wear, the colour of makeup you should wear, the kind of shoes, etc. We look at your body shape, your height, we look at everything and then suggest to you the appropriate thing for you to wear. The fact that what I’m wearing right now suits me perfectly does not guarantee that it will suit you, especially if we do not have the same body structure, and if you’re not as tall as I am.