She is a skincare expert, YouTuber, and celebrity. She is the brain behind the thriving brand, candylovenaturecare. Queen Smith, widely known as CandyLove may not cut the image of your regular celebrity lady that runs a big brand doing well in the beauty and skincare industry, but her achievements in the business over a short period, stands her out. She,s got a burning passion in making people feel good about their skin and body. And today, her brand is becoming a household name not just in the UK, (where she is based) but across Europe and back in Africa.
Queen is a skincare specialist/counselor. She attends to different classes of clients with different skin issues She started off from what was then a small beginning 1n 2017, with a commitment to challenge the myth that naturally-derived beauty products are less effective than chemically-made products. It is the naturally-sourced products that have long-term benefits on the skin; whereas, the chemically-based ones only have short-term effects that later don’t leave good long-term experiences for their users. Right now, her products have become highly sought-after by many. In this special cover interview with CityScoop, CandyLove shares her secrets of achieving glowing, radiant skins for many ladies, as well as the success story of her brand, candylovenaturecare. Excepts:
Can you share some of the challenges you encountered before candylovenaturecare became a brand that makes you feel proud?
As you would very much expect, there are a lot of challenges in this industry but one of the most difficult of them all is building an audience by bringing attention to your brand. At first you begin with families and trusted friends. For me to go from having a couple of audience, to tens, hundreds and where we are now as a brand is something I feel really proud of and I am very positive that will only continue. There are a few other difficult challenges like being able to know your market, what the customers really want and very importantly distinguishing your brand from others to stand out. A skin care brand most often than not get noticed very quickly when you have a special connection to your brand. The story behind the brand is always very good.
How much of your personality do you think reflects on your brand?
A lot, I mean a very high percentage. I almost feel like it wouldn’t be very genuine if at least a little bit of your personality doesn’t reflect on the brand, if you know what I mean. I have a bubbly and vibrant personality, enthusiastic about life, so much love for everyone and it all reflects on the brand. I mean the name of the brand has got “love” in it haha. You can also see from the names of different products we have to offer; how vibrant the names are, you know? There is a lot more I can talk about but yeah, my personality does reflect very much on the brand.
What will you say is the unique selling point (UPS) of your brand?
Very important, this one. Every business needs a unique selling point. You have got to find a way to inform customers about how or why you believe your brand is superior to your competitors. The name of the brand, candylovenaturecare says a lot about the brand. All our products are 99% natural and this is what differentiates our brand from our competitors out there.
So, what made candylovenaturecare products standout?
All our products; from simple skin healing cream to snow white lotion are (from the scratch) made with natural ingredients which are 99.9% of the time very skin-friendly. This is a top secret of the brand’s success. Prompt customer care also stands our brand out. Then our procedure also stands us out. My procedure is simple. It all depends on and starts with the skin tone of the person trying to use the product for the first time. Its standard practice that we get the picture of the customer, at least, when physical assessment is not possible. This always is to ensure we make an accurate judgment. I always ask them to use our natural healing lotion for a week or so if they have previously used other skin care products with chemicals, that's always the procedure. We then try to understand what the goal of the customer is, the shade of skin tone they intend to achieve.
How has the response from Africa been, after the brand has made good showing in the UK and across Europe?
It has been excellent really; I have enjoyed every moment of it thus far. As always, in everything you do, there are always going to be a bit of negativity, but the majority of it have been fantastic and inspiring from Africa. Expanding the brand over there is something I have always wanted to do and it has been great. Have I been bothered with the little bit of negative? Not at all, proving people wrong is something that motivates me and as well some of it have been constructive which is very good if you want to keep on improving.
 |
| The candylovenaturecare app available on ios apps and Google Play store |
Are you planning any special project for 2021?
Nothing really special planned for 2021 or at least not for now anyway. It has been a very difficult 2020 for everyone out there with the situation going on in the world and we all hope for a better year next year. As much as there is nothing too special planned for now though, the plan is always to continue growing the brand. Already it is one of the best out there in terms of quality and value for money value you can get out there at the moment and we are doing everything to further improve on that for our fantastic audience out there to show how much we love and appreciate everybody. Be safe and God bless
Tell us about what drives your passion in the business?
It all started from my skin really, I thought it would be an amazing feeling to take control of my health and body. I understood that people's skin react differently to different products but I just wasn't able to find what was excellent for me at that time. One day it just hit me on the head, why don't I learn and start making skin care products for myself, I mean it couldn't go any worse than the one's I have been using and this way I can tailor it specifically to the needs of my body. I learnt a couple of courses and later decided to go get a diploma, and the rest as they say, is history.
From the beginning, that poise to change the impression about natural products spurred me on. So, in 2017 I started my brand; practically doing everything by myself, from making the products to bottling and labelling. I was handling the sales, shipping by myself. But I was shocked to see how things suddenly blew up. The brand suddenly grew big in no time. We started by targeting like-minded customers who we supplied great products and we kept producing more. Referrals started flying in after tons of testimonies were coming from our customers. The quality of my products spoke for itself and in two years, candylovenaturecare has grown into a recognized international brand. I have sort of made it my mission or should I say obsession in understanding different skin types, skin tones and complexion and keeping record of them as it really helps in making products that customers love.