Today we’d like to introduce you to Jolanda Jakeyra.
Jolanda, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My skincare journey began in college. As a young adult in a new environment, I found my skin changing from its norm, my new eating habits also did not help. Born and raised in Miami, Florida the cool breeze and the humidity kept my skin moisturized and glowing. After moving to Tallahassee, Florida for college, I found my skin becoming dry, dull, and lackluster to say the least. Lotions did nothing for me but waste the little money I had so I found myself using baby oil and coconut oil to keep my skin moisturized throughout the day. During my freshman year of college, my baby sister was born and she soon developed eczema.
A year later, I decided I want to transition away from chemical perms to grow out my natural hair. It should be noted that I loved changing my hair color to different hues of reds and blonds. Knowing of the different changes I was putting my hair through and being terrified of hair breakage, I began to experiment with homemade protein treatments and conditioners. This is where my love for creating began. My transition from chemical perms to natural was flawless, even throughout the hair bleaching and dying. Over the years, I continued to make various protein treatments, conditioners, and skin moisturizers here and there. After college, I moved to multiple cities until I landed a job, which was not easy. I took the first job offer that paid well with great health care benefits. I worked 12+ hours a day due to my job title and found myself stressed out beyond belief. I was thankful to have a job finally but disliked the person I was becoming. I found myself becoming more and more isolated from family and friends. I began to developed depression during the holidays because I could not spend time with my family as I was in another city and had to work 5 to 6 days straight to support the company.
A couple of years later, a very important person in my life decided he was going to venture out into the entrepreneurship world and sell vintage clothing, Blk Is Rare. Inspired by this, I decided to rediscover my old love for hair and skincare crafting. I began to dive back into my old research and old ingredients. Before there was Sana’s Skin, there was “For Sanai”. Named after my baby sister, I decided if I was going to do this I was going to do it not only for myself but for her as well. I began to sell body butter’s and then body scrub’s on Etsy.com which proved to be extremely helpful in my early stages of selling. I found making products to be extremely enjoying but using social media to capture an audience was the complete opposite. I failed at taking pictures, I failed at making captions, and I failed at growing an audience. The only sells I was getting were from family and my best friends. In all honesty, I was extremely terrified to tell anyone about what I was doing for fear of failure. I was extremely terrified to put myself out there in the world. I knew I wanted to grow my business, but I just did not know-how. I decided any change was better none, so I changed my business name to Sanai’s Skin.
I then researched and ordered new containers that aligned with my new brand. With a new label and logo created by designer Edwin Broadnea (www.ebdesignz.com), I felt motivated and inspired again. I then reached out to an old friend to build my website, Martha Archer of “Smart Web Plans”. I visited home to work with an amazing photographer, Jesikah Jazz of Tread Creatives, to capture amazing photos of my new company. I was ready to take on the world, but my mind was not ready. I needed to change my mindset, find my faith, and change my environment. I transferred with my job to another city and let go of all my insecurities. With a new positive outlook, secured faith in myself, a lot of prayers, and a desire to change, I began my new journey building Sanai’s Skin. It has been an amazing journey to be on but I am finding so much love and support throughout it all. I am pushing new boundaries with my products and constantly adding more products without fear such as bath salts and facial scrubs. I am still in the early stages of building my company and brand, but I am so grateful for it all. I have left behind all self-doubt and I am so happy that I did. Check out my all-natural, unrefined, vegan skincare line at www.sanaisskin.com.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not been a smooth road at all lol. In the early stages, the containers that I was using were not secure so products would leak out after melting if they were left sitting in the hot sun. I overpaid to ship items via the post office which is why I am so grateful that platforms like Etsy exist to determine how much to pay for shipping. My internal struggles were the worst. My friends and family know me as a very loud, outspoken individual which I am but I am also reserved as well. Thing about building something from the ground that relates to all humans is that you have to put yourself out there to the public, that is if you are building by yourself that. I found that to be extremely hard for me. It took a year, literally a year, to get over that fear. Now, I constantly tell myself that I am great because I know am.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Sanai’s Skin is an all-natural, unrefined, vegan skincare line designed to hydrate, nourish, and moisturize all skin types. Created by myself, Sanai’s Skin is named and pays tribute to my baby sister Sanai. Sanai’s Skin consists of Body Butter’s, Body Scrub’s, Facial Scrubs, and Bath Salt’s. I am proud of how many products I have created in such a short time. I am proud that people actually love my products. But I am most proud that my baby sister knows that she is my inspiration. She also thinks she famous lol.
What were you like growing up?
I come from a very large family; raised by a wonderful single mother and a very present father. I am the ultimate daddy’s girl. I have ten siblings and many cousins. I was a tomboy growing up and my mom hated it, I always wanted to play outside with the boys. I cheered I danced, and I played tennis. I regretted not continuing with tennis because I was pretty good. I wanted to be the next Serena Williams. I was always smaller than everyone else but my personality said otherwise.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sanaisskin.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: sanaisskin
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sanaisskin
- Other: https://linktr.ee/sanaisskin
Image Credit:
Edwin Broadnea, Jesikah Jazz
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