April 1, 2024 • 17 mins
Alexus Edmonds, creator of Made Gentle, LLC is here!
Made Gentle, LLC is a natural hair care company that focuses on helping you keep your hair at its healthiest, with high-quality vegan products. It comes highly recommended! See why everyone loves Made Gentle and how it all got started with the latest episode of Brilliantly Black.
Made Gentle, LLC is a natural hair care company that focuses on helping you keep your hair at its healthiest, with high-quality vegan products. It comes highly recommended! See why everyone loves Made Gentle and how it all got started with the latest episode of Brilliantly Black.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Putting the spotlight on chicago Lands growingblack businesses. iHeartMedia Chicago presents the Brilliantly
Black Podcast. Here's our host,Jasmine Bennett. Hello everyone, welcome back
today. I'm here with Alexis Edmondsof a Made Gentle LC. How are
you today? I'm good? Howare you, Jasmine? Oh I'm just
gentle, no fabulous today in yourpresence. Thank you for joining me today.
(00:23):
Thank you for having me. Ofcourse, So well, we have
to talk about what made Gentle is, so let's get into that and then
kind of like the story behind whatinspired that. Okay, sounds good.
So May Gentle is a vegan andcruelty free haircare line that I started in
twenty twenty one. Well really intwenty twenty is when my first formulating and
mixing started happening. I create allthe products myself. I'm a cosmetic formulator,
(00:48):
neuroscience and medical scientists as well,so I have a lot of science
in my belt. But I've alwaysloved hair. So during COVID, when
everybody was home and we're just tryingto figure out stuff to do, I
kind of went back to some ofmy passions, which was hair, and
I started creating different products. Iwas making shampoos and conditioners and all different
kinds of things. And so thenmy sister was kind of like, you
(01:11):
should really do something with this,you should like make it a business.
But the way Made Gentle became MadeGentle, where I specifically only use clean
products and clean ingredients, is frommy grandmother, my mother's mother. Her
name is Shirley Curtis. She's myinspiration. She has some sorry stage four
(01:32):
breast cancer. So she is afighter and this is her second time with
it, and so at that time, she had lost her hair, was
scared to use different products on themarket, and so me having all that
science background, I started to pickout ingredients that would be more gentle for
her scalp but also give her theresults of hair growth and length retention and
all that. So that's beautiful.Yeah, and that's where that came from.
(01:56):
I know you guys can't see it, but the hair is giving,
so the products are definitely working.Okay, So partially, like why you
said you you started it, itwas about your your grandmother. So is
that part of like your personal missionwith Made Gentle. Yeah, I definitely.
We strive to target towards sensitive scalppopulations. So I have clients who
(02:19):
do, who are going through cancer, chemo treatment, or alopecia, postpartum
hair loss. I was one.I had my daughter and started losing my
edges like crazy, but not likeJenny. I know we need those,
so you know, it is forthat, but it's really catered to anyone
because if it's gentle enough for someonewho has a scalp condition, then you
know it'll be fine for someone whodoes not, you know, right,
(02:40):
But that is our focus and sowe Our flagship product is our signature hair
and Scalp oil, and that productswere all hair types. And I always
tell people they get nervous, they'relike, oil makes my hair so greasy
and heavy, but it's really not. It's just how you use the product.
So you know, I really believein education, educating on the product
as well. If I have heavierhair, thicker hair like me, you
(03:01):
know, a little oil is notgonna hurt too. Yeah, exactly,
thinner hair. Then I like totell people to typically use it before they
shampoo, and they can kind ofuse it as a pre shampoo treatment.
So there's a lot of different ways. And then of course men love it
for their beard. It's a nonsense. It's non perfumed or scented. It's
all natural. So it's over twentydifferent oils in there. So we have
(03:23):
all the good stuff, so rosemary, lavender oil, avocado oil, grape
seed oil, jjoba oil, allthe good stuff are again and it's safe
for everyone. I say ages oneand up, just because when they're really
little, you just kind of wantto see, yeah they have any allergies.
But my daughter is too and Iuse it in her hair and it's
thick and long. So okay,it was Yeah, I love that.
(03:46):
So you say you started this inlike twenty twenty one, pretty much right
after the pandemic, So yeah,how was that for you when you were
like mixing stuff up during the lockdown? Like, yeah, it was real
breaking out of that. Yeah,how was that? It was? So
it was fun for me because,like I said, it was kind of
a hobby something I always loved andhaving science. As a kid, I
(04:08):
used to mix up stuff in myparents' kitchen. They hated it. I
loved it. Everything was an experimentto me. Yeah. But really,
actually, in twenty twenty one,when I got the confidence to really get
an LLC and put that in place. That was really my sister. She
pushed me to. She was like, you know, this is too good
to just be something you do forus, Like you should really push it
(04:29):
out there and see how it goes. And then my mom has a business
background and acumen, so she kindof took the ranks on, you know,
all the financial and the documentation,and I just got to keep mixing
and playing with the chemicals. Youknow, that made it easy for me.
Yeah, so I was really blessedto have them to help me with
that. And then also I hadreturned back to the hospital. My plan
(04:49):
was I would go back to thehospital. I was working in neurology and
I was doing research for stroke andaneuris and patience, so I was gonna
do that. And I found outI was pregnant and then COVID was high,
so I was like, I can'twork, I see you and have
a baby. Yeah. So itkind of just all divine timing, I
guess worked out where I left thehospital before I had my baby, and
(05:12):
then I just never went back andbeen made gentle sense Okay, yeah,
sometimes I mean as a business owner, like pivots are gonna happen, and
it's like it's all about like howyou deal with it and what happens after,
and it seems like you you tookit and you rant with it.
I'm trying, you know. Ibusiness is a roller coaster. I'm learning
as I go. It's very differentfrom me. For me because you know,
(05:34):
when you're in the science world,everything is black and white. It's
either yes or no. Business it'slike yes, no, maybe loopy loopsy,
you know, getting confident and comfortablewith pivots, like you said,
I think that's what I'm learning tobe comfortable with that. Yeah, So
how do you deal with like theself doubt or even like doubt from other
(05:55):
people. That's something we all strugglewith, especially we have business it is.
I think what I've been trying todo is to be gracious with myself
and give myself the space to knowthat I don't know it all, but
that I really truly believe that Godput it in me for a reason.
So sometimes other people don't understand it, and they're not gonna understand it because
(06:16):
He didn't give it to them,And I have to just kind of certain
things, you know, they dosting, you know, certain people say
certain things. It kind of getsyou and you have your moment. You
know, I have my moment.I'm human like anybody else. But then
you just shake it off and you'relike, all right, well I'm gonna
keep trying. Yeah, I'm gonnaget truck all we can do. Yeah.
So some days I do I haveto take a break from it and
(06:36):
like, you know, maybe nomore work, no more emails that day,
I'll just shut down and go dosomething with my daughter or watch something
on TV. But then I alwayscome back to it. It just keeps
pulling me back, so I alwayscome back to it. Yeah, And
that kind of leads me into mynext question. So work life balance is
always crazy for a lot of businessowners and entrepreneurs. Like usually when I
(06:58):
access they're like, well, I'mstill working on it. So how do
you kind of like navigate in theworld of balance. I'm also still working.
I don't know what balance is.It's so crazy because it'll be like
right now, for example, peoplewill say, well, what did you
eat today? And I'll be like, ugh, and some coffee, right,
you know, like I don't know, I took one of my daughter's
crackers from her lunchable what is that? So I don't know. I'm still
(07:23):
learning balance with a two year old, she comes first and all of it.
So really her schedule is my schedule, and I think what I'm learning
is to maximize the time that Ido have. So if she's taking a
nap or she's having you know,playtime with a relative or cousin or something,
that's like my max time. LikeI got to maximize that time.
Yeah, and just try to createto do list and prioritize things. So
(07:46):
I think my type a personality helpsme on that side. But sometimes could
be a downfall too when you knowyou have a to do list and you
don't mark everything off that day.So learning again giving myself some grace,
asking for help that's a big part. Asking for help that is a big
one because I know me, Idon't like to acts either. Yeah,
(08:09):
but it's like it's so necessary.It's like you have to realize at some
point, like, Okay, you'renot superwoman. You you feel like you
are sometimes, but you're not,and you can't do everything by yourself exactly.
Is tough, yep, it is. So I'm still learning. When
the other business owners tell you howto do it tell them to tell me
or sharing the wealth in the knowledge? Okay, yes, so you're your
(08:31):
family. Do they like help youwith this? Are they like a part
of your team or you more likea one woman show. No, they
definitely help me. I am notthe one woman show. No, not
at all. So, like Isaid, when Made Gentle first started,
I was really blessed because so it'sme and my sister, we're just us
two and so she is the creativeof the family. I'm the nerd of
(08:52):
the family. I'm learning and creative. But when I told her I wanted
to do Mai Gentle, she reallyhelped me with branding and shameless plug.
You guys go check her out atNavy Pier at Flyover Chicago because she's doing
all that cool marketing over there.But she helped me with all of my
branding, so help me kind offigure out, like what are the brand
guidelines? What does this world mean? And then my mom has over thirty
(09:16):
years of business experience, and shecomes from an entrepreneur family. So really,
when I would kind of piggy,going back to your original question,
when I would get doubtful, she'salways a person who kind of reminds me
like, no, this is it, this is business. You're doing it
right. Like if you're not havingmoments when you're like what am I doing,
then you're not doing it right.So I was blessed because I had
both of them, and then whenwe launched last April, it was the
(09:39):
three of us together. And thenmy dad he's always cheering me on like
it's like, I'm your number onefan, whatever you need, like cheering
me on, passing out flyers,wearing the Mad Gentle hat, and so
I was really blessed with family.They were my first trial run people.
I had them all testing the productsand helping me pick out the sins and
the fragrances and all the different things. So yeah, it's definitely not just
(10:01):
me yep. And help is needed. Help is needed. So when you
were going out to try the senseand the different like things like that,
if somebody was thinking about maybe startingto do something like this, like what
should they do? Like I'm surethat's crazy. It's just trying to make
those decisions. So there, Okay. So I picked up a cosmetic formulator's
(10:24):
course because I didn't want to justcreate something that I didn't have some knowledge
on myself. I really like,I really stand behind the product. So
if somebody just calls out an ingredient, I can tell you why it's there
because I researched it. Because Ithink it's important for you to know.
You know what's in your body andwhat's on your hair and everything. So
my first step would be, whatis it that you're trying to do?
Do you want? Because there's differentways to do it. I mean,
(10:46):
like I took the more hands onapproach where I crafted my own products and
I make the formula, but youdon't have to. You can always reach
out to manufacturers who do it foryou. You just tell them what I
want, like oh, I wanta shampoo or conditioner, and they'll do
it. But do your research first. I think even what I would do
is some of the products I wasalready using that weren't mine and just kind
(11:07):
of take an inventory, like whatdid I like about this one or what
did not like and then you kindof just see and you recreate that or
know what works for you. Sofor example, for me, coconut oil
is not in my products because itdoesn't work for me. I don't think
it's a good ingredient for your hair. Some people do, they love it,
so if they, you know,start there. And then once you
create those short term goals for yourselfand you decide, is this going to
(11:28):
be something where I do just locallybecause you can do pop up shops which
really doesn't require as much money ortime to put into it, or do
you want to hopefully be in targetednorse stream and alta. That's where I'm
trying to be, So you know, you put a little bit more into
it, a little bit more time, money and energy. But you would
start that way and then make itfun, have fun with it. You
(11:52):
have to have fun. Like Ihave a whole notebook of different sense that
I thought like, oh, yeah, this is the one, and then
I smelled it and I was likethat is not the So I have fun
with it, and then I don'tuse any fragrances. All of my sense
are from the essential oils. Soif you're not a person who likes essential
oil, you might not go myroute. You might take the perfume route,
which is both fine, Like youknow, they're both options. So
(12:13):
yeah, I guess just deciding whatis it that you're trying to do that
would be the first advice. Yes, so majin. So what would you
say you love the most about yourbusiness. I love the most about the
business is really when I hear frompeople who've used the product and they tell
me how it's helping them. Ilove that so much because to me,
that's the biggest reward that I knowthat it's really doing something for you.
(12:37):
It's making you feel better. BecauseI believe that you know, our hair
or our crown or whatever that bringsus confidence. And so whatever your hair
is, short, long, inbetween, curly, straight, it should
be what makes you feel most beautiful. Right, And so if someone comes
to me and they buy from me, and then two months later they're like,
oh my gosh, my hair iscoming back, it feels so good.
(12:58):
I can you know it's more manageablethis and that I'm so happy because
I'm like, oh, great,we succeeded. It's something you know,
and the goal. So that's myfavorite part, I think. And then
also now you know hear more peoplesaying oh, yeah, I heard about
you, Like that's crazy. Yeah, the community is like the ears are
open. I love it. Yeah, that's amazing, God is amazing.
That's all I can say. It'sa blessing and you're leaving your mark,
(13:22):
You're leaving a legacy. So that'sa beautiful thing. Yeah, thank you.
That's what I want from my daughter, you know, give that to
her. And you know, thisis what mom was doing when you were
dancing in one room and I wasin this room mixing up stuff. This
is what we were doing, buildingsomething for her to have for sure.
So alexis brilliantly black. What doesthat mean to you personally? Oh,
(13:45):
brilliantly black. It's just so Imean the culture, right, Black people,
we are brilliant, absolutely absolutely brilliant. I love it. Like we
I think every time I'm around blackculture or black businesses, I learned something
Like I'm learning like how you broughtit into integrated into your community, or
into your family, or where itcame from. Like we have such cool
(14:07):
stories. I was just talking witha friend yesterday about origin stories and I
just think Black people we are notmonolithic. We are so diverse in our
own subset, you know what Imean. Like you could tell me your
background story, I could tell youmine, and we could have so many
similarities yet so many differences. AndI think that is amazing. And like
when we were here in October atthe awards and I got to meet all
(14:28):
the other business owners, I waslike, wow, this is amazing.
Like one, I don't want toquote their business name wrong, but they
do a coffee and for a coffeeaddict like myself, Like, that is
amazing. I love that. It'sjust so many cool things out there.
And yeah, brilliantly black. It'sbeautiful. I love it. And congratulations
(14:50):
on the war by the way,thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you to the tribe who kepton voting for me. They were awesome.
Yeah, you need those people,those supporters, the people that love
you, that see your vision,that feel the vision too. So that's
always amazing to have that support system. Yes, yes, so of course,
(15:11):
Made Gentle. We need to knowwhere to follow, We need to
know where to order. Let thepeople know, Okay, let the people
know. So we are on Instagramat mad Gentle Beauty, and then we
are on TikTok at mad Gentle aswell as Facebook Made Gentle, and then
you can purchase from us at magentledot com or Walmart dot com and Amazon
(15:31):
dot com. And if you're inthe car, Amazon, come on quick
link right there and then if youare in the Chicago area, you can
check us out at Yahia Hair andCo. Design on Dearborn. If you
are out in let's see, inthe Rockford areas, we are at Impress
Beauty Lounge. We We're just alittle bit everywhere and that's a beautiful thing.
(15:54):
Yeah. We're also at Reflection Radiancein Rockford, Illinois. And these
are all amazing ing business owners whocare about their clients and their customers,
and so I love collaboration, Ireally do. I believe there's enough room
for all of us to be inhere, you know. So, Yeah,
you can check us out at anyof those places. My personal at
(16:15):
Lex is at lex Edmonds on Instagram, so you sometimes will see me tagging
made Gentle on my page, soI try to always answer if I can.
Yeah. So that's where you cancatch us. You can find us,
and we also have our sale rightnow going on for Women's International Women's
Month. Yeah, so everything isfifteen percent off. Yeah. Oh well,
(16:36):
thank you so much for sharing yourstory with you today. I enjoyed
it and I know somebody else willbe inspired by Thank you for having me.
It was a great conversation. Goodanytime. Thanks for listening to the
Brilliantly Black Podcast Produced by Jasmine Bennettand Ryan Lincoln. Executive produced by Eco
Robinson and Derek Brown. If you'rea black business and would like to be
featured, register your business or servicenow at V one o three dot com
(17:00):
slash brilliant. The Brilliantly Black Podcastis a production of iHeartMedia, Chicago,
Putting the spotlight on chicago Lands growingblack businesses. iHeartMedia Chicago presents the Brilliantly
Black Podcast. Here's our host,Jasmine Bennett. Hello everyone, welcome back
today. I'm here with Alexis Edmondsof a Made Gentle LC. How are
you today? I'm good? Howare you, Jasmine? Oh I'm just
gentle, no fabulous today in yourpresence. Thank you for joining me today.
(00:23):
Thank you for having me. Ofcourse, So well, we have
to talk about what made Gentle is, so let's get into that and then
kind of like the story behind whatinspired that. Okay, sounds good.
So May Gentle is a vegan andcruelty free haircare line that I started in
twenty twenty one. Well really intwenty twenty is when my first formulating and
mixing started happening. I create allthe products myself. I'm a cosmetic formulator,
(00:48):
neuroscience and medical scientists as well,so I have a lot of science
in my belt. But I've alwaysloved hair. So during COVID, when
everybody was home and we're just tryingto figure out stuff to do, I
kind of went back to some ofmy passions, which was hair, and
I started creating different products. Iwas making shampoos and conditioners and all different
kinds of things. And so thenmy sister was kind of like, you
(01:11):
should really do something with this,you should like make it a business.
But the way Made Gentle became MadeGentle, where I specifically only use clean
products and clean ingredients, is frommy grandmother, my mother's mother. Her
name is Shirley Curtis. She's myinspiration. She has some sorry stage four
(01:32):
breast cancer. So she is afighter and this is her second time with
it, and so at that time, she had lost her hair, was
scared to use different products on themarket, and so me having all that
science background, I started to pickout ingredients that would be more gentle for
her scalp but also give her theresults of hair growth and length retention and
all that. So that's beautiful.Yeah, and that's where that came from.
(01:56):
I know you guys can't see it, but the hair is giving,
so the products are definitely working.Okay, So partially, like why you
said you you started it, itwas about your your grandmother. So is
that part of like your personal missionwith Made Gentle. Yeah, I definitely.
We strive to target towards sensitive scalppopulations. So I have clients who
(02:19):
do, who are going through cancer, chemo treatment, or alopecia, postpartum
hair loss. I was one.I had my daughter and started losing my
edges like crazy, but not likeJenny. I know we need those,
so you know, it is forthat, but it's really catered to anyone
because if it's gentle enough for someonewho has a scalp condition, then you
know it'll be fine for someone whodoes not, you know, right,
(02:40):
But that is our focus and sowe Our flagship product is our signature hair
and Scalp oil, and that productswere all hair types. And I always
tell people they get nervous, they'relike, oil makes my hair so greasy
and heavy, but it's really not. It's just how you use the product.
So you know, I really believein education, educating on the product
as well. If I have heavierhair, thicker hair like me, you
(03:01):
know, a little oil is notgonna hurt too. Yeah, exactly,
thinner hair. Then I like totell people to typically use it before they
shampoo, and they can kind ofuse it as a pre shampoo treatment.
So there's a lot of different ways. And then of course men love it
for their beard. It's a nonsense. It's non perfumed or scented. It's
all natural. So it's over twentydifferent oils in there. So we have
(03:23):
all the good stuff, so rosemary, lavender oil, avocado oil, grape
seed oil, jjoba oil, allthe good stuff are again and it's safe
for everyone. I say ages oneand up, just because when they're really
little, you just kind of wantto see, yeah they have any allergies.
But my daughter is too and Iuse it in her hair and it's
thick and long. So okay,it was Yeah, I love that.
(03:46):
So you say you started this inlike twenty twenty one, pretty much right
after the pandemic, So yeah,how was that for you when you were
like mixing stuff up during the lockdown? Like, yeah, it was real
breaking out of that. Yeah,how was that? It was? So
it was fun for me because,like I said, it was kind of
a hobby something I always loved andhaving science. As a kid, I
(04:08):
used to mix up stuff in myparents' kitchen. They hated it. I
loved it. Everything was an experimentto me. Yeah. But really,
actually, in twenty twenty one,when I got the confidence to really get
an LLC and put that in place. That was really my sister. She
pushed me to. She was like, you know, this is too good
to just be something you do forus, Like you should really push it
(04:29):
out there and see how it goes. And then my mom has a business
background and acumen, so she kindof took the ranks on, you know,
all the financial and the documentation,and I just got to keep mixing
and playing with the chemicals. Youknow, that made it easy for me.
Yeah, so I was really blessedto have them to help me with
that. And then also I hadreturned back to the hospital. My plan
(04:49):
was I would go back to thehospital. I was working in neurology and
I was doing research for stroke andaneuris and patience, so I was gonna
do that. And I found outI was pregnant and then COVID was high,
so I was like, I can'twork, I see you and have
a baby. Yeah. So itkind of just all divine timing, I
guess worked out where I left thehospital before I had my baby, and
(05:12):
then I just never went back andbeen made gentle sense Okay, yeah,
sometimes I mean as a business owner, like pivots are gonna happen, and
it's like it's all about like howyou deal with it and what happens after,
and it seems like you you tookit and you rant with it.
I'm trying, you know. Ibusiness is a roller coaster. I'm learning
as I go. It's very differentfrom me. For me because you know,
(05:34):
when you're in the science world,everything is black and white. It's
either yes or no. Business it'slike yes, no, maybe loopy loopsy,
you know, getting confident and comfortablewith pivots, like you said,
I think that's what I'm learning tobe comfortable with that. Yeah, So
how do you deal with like theself doubt or even like doubt from other
(05:55):
people. That's something we all strugglewith, especially we have business it is.
I think what I've been trying todo is to be gracious with myself
and give myself the space to knowthat I don't know it all, but
that I really truly believe that Godput it in me for a reason.
So sometimes other people don't understand it, and they're not gonna understand it because
(06:16):
He didn't give it to them,And I have to just kind of certain
things, you know, they dosting, you know, certain people say
certain things. It kind of getsyou and you have your moment. You
know, I have my moment.I'm human like anybody else. But then
you just shake it off and you'relike, all right, well I'm gonna
keep trying. Yeah, I'm gonnaget truck all we can do. Yeah.
So some days I do I haveto take a break from it and
(06:36):
like, you know, maybe nomore work, no more emails that day,
I'll just shut down and go dosomething with my daughter or watch something
on TV. But then I alwayscome back to it. It just keeps
pulling me back, so I alwayscome back to it. Yeah, And
that kind of leads me into mynext question. So work life balance is
always crazy for a lot of businessowners and entrepreneurs. Like usually when I
(06:58):
access they're like, well, I'mstill working on it. So how do
you kind of like navigate in theworld of balance. I'm also still working.
I don't know what balance is.It's so crazy because it'll be like
right now, for example, peoplewill say, well, what did you
eat today? And I'll be like, ugh, and some coffee, right,
you know, like I don't know, I took one of my daughter's
crackers from her lunchable what is that? So I don't know. I'm still
(07:23):
learning balance with a two year old, she comes first and all of it.
So really her schedule is my schedule, and I think what I'm learning
is to maximize the time that Ido have. So if she's taking a
nap or she's having you know,playtime with a relative or cousin or something,
that's like my max time. LikeI got to maximize that time.
Yeah, and just try to createto do list and prioritize things. So
(07:46):
I think my type a personality helpsme on that side. But sometimes could
be a downfall too when you knowyou have a to do list and you
don't mark everything off that day.So learning again giving myself some grace,
asking for help that's a big part. Asking for help that is a big
one because I know me, Idon't like to acts either. Yeah,
(08:09):
but it's like it's so necessary.It's like you have to realize at some
point, like, Okay, you'renot superwoman. You you feel like you
are sometimes, but you're not,and you can't do everything by yourself exactly.
Is tough, yep, it is. So I'm still learning. When
the other business owners tell you howto do it tell them to tell me
or sharing the wealth in the knowledge? Okay, yes, so you're your
(08:31):
family. Do they like help youwith this? Are they like a part
of your team or you more likea one woman show. No, they
definitely help me. I am notthe one woman show. No, not
at all. So, like Isaid, when Made Gentle first started,
I was really blessed because so it'sme and my sister, we're just us
two and so she is the creativeof the family. I'm the nerd of
(08:52):
the family. I'm learning and creative. But when I told her I wanted
to do Mai Gentle, she reallyhelped me with branding and shameless plug.
You guys go check her out atNavy Pier at Flyover Chicago because she's doing
all that cool marketing over there.But she helped me with all of my
branding, so help me kind offigure out, like what are the brand
guidelines? What does this world mean? And then my mom has over thirty
(09:16):
years of business experience, and shecomes from an entrepreneur family. So really,
when I would kind of piggy,going back to your original question,
when I would get doubtful, she'salways a person who kind of reminds me
like, no, this is it, this is business. You're doing it
right. Like if you're not havingmoments when you're like what am I doing,
then you're not doing it right.So I was blessed because I had
both of them, and then whenwe launched last April, it was the
(09:39):
three of us together. And thenmy dad he's always cheering me on like
it's like, I'm your number onefan, whatever you need, like cheering
me on, passing out flyers,wearing the Mad Gentle hat, and so
I was really blessed with family.They were my first trial run people.
I had them all testing the productsand helping me pick out the sins and
the fragrances and all the different things. So yeah, it's definitely not just
(10:01):
me yep. And help is needed. Help is needed. So when you
were going out to try the senseand the different like things like that,
if somebody was thinking about maybe startingto do something like this, like what
should they do? Like I'm surethat's crazy. It's just trying to make
those decisions. So there, Okay. So I picked up a cosmetic formulator's
(10:24):
course because I didn't want to justcreate something that I didn't have some knowledge
on myself. I really like,I really stand behind the product. So
if somebody just calls out an ingredient, I can tell you why it's there
because I researched it. Because Ithink it's important for you to know.
You know what's in your body andwhat's on your hair and everything. So
my first step would be, whatis it that you're trying to do?
Do you want? Because there's differentways to do it. I mean,
(10:46):
like I took the more hands onapproach where I crafted my own products and
I make the formula, but youdon't have to. You can always reach
out to manufacturers who do it foryou. You just tell them what I
want, like oh, I wanta shampoo or conditioner, and they'll do
it. But do your research first. I think even what I would do
is some of the products I wasalready using that weren't mine and just kind
(11:07):
of take an inventory, like whatdid I like about this one or what
did not like and then you kindof just see and you recreate that or
know what works for you. Sofor example, for me, coconut oil
is not in my products because itdoesn't work for me. I don't think
it's a good ingredient for your hair. Some people do, they love it,
so if they, you know,start there. And then once you
create those short term goals for yourselfand you decide, is this going to
(11:28):
be something where I do just locallybecause you can do pop up shops which
really doesn't require as much money ortime to put into it, or do
you want to hopefully be in targetednorse stream and alta. That's where I'm
trying to be, So you know, you put a little bit more into
it, a little bit more time, money and energy. But you would
start that way and then make itfun, have fun with it. You
(11:52):
have to have fun. Like Ihave a whole notebook of different sense that
I thought like, oh, yeah, this is the one, and then
I smelled it and I was likethat is not the So I have fun
with it, and then I don'tuse any fragrances. All of my sense
are from the essential oils. Soif you're not a person who likes essential
oil, you might not go myroute. You might take the perfume route,
which is both fine, Like youknow, they're both options. So
(12:13):
yeah, I guess just deciding whatis it that you're trying to do that
would be the first advice. Yes, so majin. So what would you
say you love the most about yourbusiness. I love the most about the
business is really when I hear frompeople who've used the product and they tell
me how it's helping them. Ilove that so much because to me,
that's the biggest reward that I knowthat it's really doing something for you.
(12:37):
It's making you feel better. BecauseI believe that you know, our hair
or our crown or whatever that bringsus confidence. And so whatever your hair
is, short, long, inbetween, curly, straight, it should
be what makes you feel most beautiful. Right, And so if someone comes
to me and they buy from me, and then two months later they're like,
oh my gosh, my hair iscoming back, it feels so good.
(12:58):
I can you know it's more manageablethis and that I'm so happy because
I'm like, oh, great,we succeeded. It's something you know,
and the goal. So that's myfavorite part, I think. And then
also now you know hear more peoplesaying oh, yeah, I heard about
you, Like that's crazy. Yeah, the community is like the ears are
open. I love it. Yeah, that's amazing, God is amazing.
That's all I can say. It'sa blessing and you're leaving your mark,
(13:22):
You're leaving a legacy. So that'sa beautiful thing. Yeah, thank you.
That's what I want from my daughter, you know, give that to
her. And you know, thisis what mom was doing when you were
dancing in one room and I wasin this room mixing up stuff. This
is what we were doing, buildingsomething for her to have for sure.
So alexis brilliantly black. What doesthat mean to you personally? Oh,
(13:45):
brilliantly black. It's just so Imean the culture, right, Black people,
we are brilliant, absolutely absolutely brilliant. I love it. Like we
I think every time I'm around blackculture or black businesses, I learned something
Like I'm learning like how you broughtit into integrated into your community, or
into your family, or where itcame from. Like we have such cool
(14:07):
stories. I was just talking witha friend yesterday about origin stories and I
just think Black people we are notmonolithic. We are so diverse in our
own subset, you know what Imean. Like you could tell me your
background story, I could tell youmine, and we could have so many
similarities yet so many differences. AndI think that is amazing. And like
when we were here in October atthe awards and I got to meet all
(14:28):
the other business owners, I waslike, wow, this is amazing.
Like one, I don't want toquote their business name wrong, but they
do a coffee and for a coffeeaddict like myself, Like, that is
amazing. I love that. It'sjust so many cool things out there.
And yeah, brilliantly black. It'sbeautiful. I love it. And congratulations
(14:50):
on the war by the way,thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you to the tribe who kepton voting for me. They were awesome.
Yeah, you need those people,those supporters, the people that love
you, that see your vision,that feel the vision too. So that's
always amazing to have that support system. Yes, yes, so of course,
(15:11):
Made Gentle. We need to knowwhere to follow, We need to
know where to order. Let thepeople know, Okay, let the people
know. So we are on Instagramat mad Gentle Beauty, and then we
are on TikTok at mad Gentle aswell as Facebook Made Gentle, and then
you can purchase from us at magentledot com or Walmart dot com and Amazon
(15:31):
dot com. And if you're inthe car, Amazon, come on quick
link right there and then if youare in the Chicago area, you can
check us out at Yahia Hair andCo. Design on Dearborn. If you
are out in let's see, inthe Rockford areas, we are at Impress
Beauty Lounge. We We're just alittle bit everywhere and that's a beautiful thing.
(15:54):
Yeah. We're also at Reflection Radiancein Rockford, Illinois. And these
are all amazing ing business owners whocare about their clients and their customers,
and so I love collaboration, Ireally do. I believe there's enough room
for all of us to be inhere, you know. So, Yeah,
you can check us out at anyof those places. My personal at
(16:15):
Lex is at lex Edmonds on Instagram, so you sometimes will see me tagging
made Gentle on my page, soI try to always answer if I can.
Yeah. So that's where you cancatch us. You can find us,
and we also have our sale rightnow going on for Women's International Women's
Month. Yeah, so everything isfifteen percent off. Yeah. Oh well,
(16:36):
thank you so much for sharing yourstory with you today. I enjoyed
it and I know somebody else willbe inspired by Thank you for having me.
It was a great conversation. Goodanytime. Thanks for listening to the
Brilliantly Black Podcast Produced by Jasmine Bennettand Ryan Lincoln. Executive produced by Eco
Robinson and Derek Brown. If you'rea black business and would like to be
featured, register your business or servicenow at V one o three dot com
(17:00):
slash brilliant. The Brilliantly Black Podcastis a production of iHeartMedia, Chicago,
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