Shalom Lloyd

Tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to set up your own business?

 Naturally Tribal Skincare was born from personal experience. In 2014, I was blessed with the birth of my twins. My son, Joshua, had miserable eczema – scratch ’till you bleed’ irritation and I did not want to smother his sensitive new skin with chemical emollients and steroids.

As a qualified pharmacist I understood the values of these treatments, however – our skin is a huge exchange organ which absorbs a lot of what we put on it. So, when you think about it, what we put on ourselves, and our family’s skin, should be just as important as what we eat.

I looked to my African heritage for inspiration, recalling recipes containing all-natural ingredients, which have been used in Africa for generations. Experimenting in my kitchen, using high-quality Shea butter as a base, after I stumbled across the right formulation and within three days of application Joshua’s skin was softer and the scratching had significantly reduced.

What has been your greatest achievement?

Building a company that is value-driven, it allows us to make a difference and be unique. We are proud that we are creating a community, that we call our Tribe, that allows us to see the impact our products are having.  

Efficacy – Nourishing  Our products contain no nasties and are non-toxic and free from chemicals. We are proud to be Vegan and Cruelty-Free.

Empowerment – Trade Not Aid  Empowering the women who produce our ingredients in the Kingdom of Essan, Africa as well as the people who use our products.

Ethical – Sustainably We ethically source, with our ingredients sourced in a responsible and sustainable manner

Planet Hugging  Our products are packaged in planet hugging glass jars, which are fully recyclable with recycled plastic lids. This allows us to do our part in reducing the amount of waste ending up in landfill.

Traceability  We can demonstrate our end to end supply chain control which means that a customer can purchase a jar of our product and trace the journey of our main unique ingredients back to source.  

What do you love most about running your business?

Skin conditions affect so many and in the UK 1 in 5 children will be affected by eczema at some stage. I love seeing the before and afters as well as the customer reviews. It’s incredible to see how much of an impact our products have had on people, especially those that have a skin condition like eczema, psoriasis or rosacea.  To have an impact on someone’s life means a lot.

What advice do you have for people / business owners now that our lives have changed so much with COVID-19?

It is so easy to give up because COVD19 has hit us all from a personal level and as SMEs. As entrepreneurs, our resilience, our strength, our value, our USPs have been put to the test.

A wonderful friend asked me a question recently – ‘given the current situation and the impact on your business, what would you do differently?’

The answer came surprisingly easy to me – ‘Not much! If anything, this has shown me that we were doing the right things. Our foundation, our journey, our business model, our products – are all built on sustainability, ethical sourcing, diversity, giving back value, loving our planet, efficacy, robust value chain and love for what we do’.

My advice would be to keep going, this is really the right time to put ourselves out there. All this hard work cannot be for nothing!

What is the best advice you have received?

Everything we do in life is about relationships! That is something I have come to learn from my husband. David, my husband, taught me that how we relate to, communicate and interact with others – how we make them feel is important. So, his best advice to me is a Maya Angelou quote – “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

I try to make sure I leave everyone I meet with the feeling that ‘they matter’.

I also try to live by three principles in this order:

• “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible” (Saint Francis of Assisi)

• Secondly, it is better to be prepared and not have an opportunity than to have an opportunity and not be prepared (Whitney M. Young)

• Lastly, there will always be obstacles and barriers as we go through our life journey however, I do believe that ‘Failure’ is an option! Failure is the first step to success; multiple failures are multiple steps towards success. Name an idol, a mentor, someone you admire who has not failed multiple times to get to where they are!

As always Shalom, you have inspired and imparted so much wisdom here – thank you so much for sharing all of this with us!

To find out more about this wonderful skincare brand, visit the website below or follow Naturally Tribal on their social media and be part of the tribe.

Website: https://naturallytribalskincare.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NaturallyTribal

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/naturallytribal/