What's good y'all, welcome back to another episode of Black in Aquatics Freedom Through Swimming.
I am Tazaria, I'm the host and I go by Coach T on the internet.
Today I'm here with Pearl of Beach Body Butter and I wanted to kind of introduce her product
and her line to you guys because I met Pearl at a Surfing Niagara event, a local non-profit
in Jacksonville Beach.
So Pearl, how are you today?
I'm good, I'm good, thank you.
So can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?
Yes, like you said I met you at a Surfing Niagara event where I was attending with Sisters
of the Sea.
I bring that up because I learned how to surf a few years ago and I came down here and Gigi
of Surfing Niagara told me about that group and I've kind of been hanging with them.
I'm a technical writer, I'm a serial entrepreneur I like to say and this is my latest business
and I enjoy this business as much as I did when I had my own publishing company.
I get up in the morning and I work all day taking breaks but I work all day on my business
and I enjoy it.
It's a lot of moving pieces but once I get a task accomplished I'm really excited about
it.
That's awesome.
And can you tell us because I know you're just starting up the business and you have
two like one product but two versions.
Can you give us a little bit more about that, the names and what not?
So when I was surfing I did not enjoy the lotions and the butters that were out there
that I tried because it either wasn't enough or I didn't like the fragrance.
It's no knock to anybody's fragrance I just didn't like it.
I'm not a fruity person I don't even really drink fruity drinks.
So and a lot of it didn't moisturize long enough so I started like messing with butters
of my own.
I tried I'm not a fan of shea butter just because of the fragrance not because it doesn't
work well because it does but I tried coconut oil.
Coconut oil kind of it hardens and then it gets soft.
I'm a huge fan of coconut oil.
And then you can't really add your own fragrance to coconut oil because the coconut oil is
strong.
Yeah it's so strong.
It's so fragrant so I'm just like okay.
So I was talking to one of my other friends and we were all looking up butters and everything
and we were talking about mango butter because we were looking at all the she was like there's
a bunch of different butters out there.
And so I went and got some store bought mango butter and I think the first one I got had
a mango scent to it.
But mango butter really does really make for scents.
It's really nice it's actually really smooth.
Yeah right it's scent free but the only one I could find at that point in time they had
put fragrance in it already.
So again I tried to put my own fragrance in there which I was using fragrance oil which
is a little bit different from essential oils.
I liked it but it you know wasn't I hadn't perfected it I'll say at that point.
And then I found some I found some non scented which is the original for the mango butter
and then I used that one of my other friends she uses a bunch of different butters and
she was talking about how she melts it down and all this and so I tried that and then
I would take the fragrance oil and I would put it in a different container and I would
drop a few drops in one day and drop a few drops of something else in one day and because
she was like oh I just wouldn't want to go there's too much like chemistry and I was
like I actually enjoy chemistry.
Yeah me too.
I was like but you just have to be patient so like I didn't do it all at once it was
like I would put a couple of drops in one day and another day and I would wait until
I got to the fragrance that I was like this is what I want.
Yeah and I added that to the mango butter and I messed up a few times.
I think one time I did it and it smelled like blue magic.
Walk around smelling like grease.
Yeah.
You know but I tried it a couple of times and one time it was kind of hard and one of
my co-workers she would try this and she was like yeah this is nice and when I finally
got to a decent point my co-workers like you should sell this.
I was just like I'm kind of doing it for myself that sounds like too much work.
And then I went to another Sisters of the Sea event it was their 25th anniversary surfing
contest which there is one coming up September 7th of this year but I was at that one last
year and so this is fairly you know fresh.
And I went to one of the ladies house because she lives like right there on the beach I
didn't have to like drive all the way back home and I was taking a shower and I was oiling
up and I was getting ready to come out the bathroom and I opened the door and she's like
that smells good what is that?
And I was like oh it's just some oil that I you know make up and she was like you should
sell that.
So I was like okay wow that's two people.
So I didn't want to go through the research I remember I started my own publishing company
it was a lot of research just getting started right?
And so I had no clue about how to get started in like butters or making your own cosmetic
product.
But my hairstylist she makes her own shampoo and her own oil and so I was like I'm going
to call Ari.
So I called Ari and I was like hey you know can you just give me some directions that
I'll you know I'll go do it or whatever.
And so she told me where to search and what I needed to search.
Okay.
She was like does she want to make sure that the ingredients are da da da da and I was
like yeah you know that makes sense because even the butter that I was making at that
point in time it still was leaving like a small rash because fragrance oils break me
out.
I don't know about everybody else but it frees me out.
And so I was like let me try essential oils.
Yeah.
So I go in I search for the body butter I search for the fragrance oil because I used
actually I think it was like 10 oils at the time.
Okay.
But she was like you need to make sure that you know they react this way and all you know
so I had to research everything the reaction what they're good for what they're used for
and I was like a lot of them were doubling well and some of them still double the supposed
reaction you're gonna get but I wanted to make sure that I got the fragrance that I
wanted.
Yeah.
So I ordered six of the fragrances and one of them I was like you know what and I still
haven't used it it's in the cabinet now I was just like I'll use that for something
else because I don't really and that was a chamomile.
Okay.
So I left the chamomile out I was using that for relaxation because I had muscle joint
problems and you know I wanted to try to calm my nerves but I was already using lavender
and jasmine was supposed to be good it was it really wakes you up some of the bergamot
the lemongrass you know you always go to the spa.
Yeah I love lemongrass.
You go to the spa.
It's like lemongrass.
Yeah.
So like all of that I was you know using those fragrances and then I always like rose it
just adds a softness to it right and so I made my first batch with the the essential
oils and this is before I even add the butter because the the oil fragrance is the the key
right and before I also had used like I tried olive oil I tried almond oil and I tried avocado
oil.
Okay.
Avocado oil has no fragrance really.
Yeah.
It has a little bit of fragrance if you know how you cook you know how olive oil smells.
Almond oil doesn't have fragrance but people have nut allergies so I kind of left almond
oil and and avocado oil out at that point in time because I was like I you know I'm
fairly comfortable with olive oil.
I had used olive oil on my hair for years I've been natural since 98.
Okay.
So I had used olive oil on my hair for years and so I was comfortable with the olive oil
with that oil you know it was pride and truth for me.
Yeah.
And so I made the fragrances up and I was like this isn't quite what I like.
Okay.
I said you know it smells good but it's you know a bit much for me so I said but other
people might like it.
Yeah.
And I wasn't gonna waste that oil it's just you know.
Yeah well yeah yeah we don't like to waste around here.
So I made a second batch and laid off on some of the you know oils that I figured made that
because once you make the fragrance a lot then you know what adds what fragrance to
you know the the mixture.
Yeah.
It's kind of like cooking right.
Yeah exactly.
You know what it's gonna do when you add it to a meal so a dish.
So I made that second batch and I was like yeah.
Okay.
This is the one.
Nice.
But I mixed both of them up and I took them and I let different people try them and it's
I still get an equal response so I was like I gotta keep both of them.
Yeah yeah so those both of those titles when you came Miami and Venice I have smelled both
and I have actually tried both as well and I really like it and the reason why like people
might be wondering why are you guys talking products.
Okay so one we met at a surfing event.
Right.
Okay so we're two black women and there's not a lot of us in the space.
It is getting bigger.
Two when you think retail products for you know after you get out of the ocean you find
like your basic like lotions and stuff like that and honestly I don't know of many yes
there are many like black people doing the body butters and stuff like that and it's
very but it's very hard to find and so when I found this and you told me about this I
was like oh that's awesome because you can get out the ocean you can do use some butter
a nice butter that smells really good that's made by us as well it's awesome and so that's
why I wanted to have you on.
And it's actually good if you put it on before it doesn't and I've been on in the ocean
you know a couple of hours and my body is still moisturized when I get out of the ocean
you know the ocean is salty so.
Yeah yeah it is very salty.
The salinity here in Jacksonville is unmatched.
Yeah so you have Miami and Venice those are the names of the body butters and then do
you want to tell us like what sizes you have you offer and whatnot.
So we offer two sizes we offer the personal or travel size which is 0.5 ounces and then
we offer the full size and that is 7 ounces and right now we're doing a pre-launch sale
and after that that's you know to get everything make sure everything is working make sure
the the website is working properly the shipping is you know and I have all the everything
together so it's gonna be sent out to friends and family.
Make sure everything is going smoothly.
Yes yes because you know I even did that with Sisters of the Sea that allowed me to come
out to one of their events they did a they do a breast cancer survivors surfing event
and they let me come out and take my butters out there.
Oh nice that's awesome.
Yeah that was cool and I realized that I cannot sell my butters on the beach.
Just because they will melt like we were out there early in the morning about the time
we left at 10 you know I still had them on ice and they would still like you take them
out of the you know this is floor you take them out of the it didn't take long but yeah
it's melting so I realized then that selling on the beach would not be a good deal even
though this is Beachbody but I can sell near the beach.
Yeah yeah yeah.
Some of the shops around the beach hopefully inshallah but you can't yeah selling on the
beach is yeah it's not not a really good thing for the butter and right now we will not be
selling during the summer months but like April through September and we will start
selling in October so it'll be October through I guess April so you know around that time
the friends and family right now they understand that it might melt when it gets on so they
understand the consistency might not be the same but I'd rather for my customers to get
the nice whipped smooth even though it doesn't really separate I think because of the way
that I actually process them it takes me I don't like add all of my stuff ingredients
in it sorry about that it's okay it's okay I don't add all of my ingredients in at one
time I it's a process for me and it take days to make so yeah that to me that's worth the
price because it's handmade it's essential oils it's mango butter it's olive oil so it's
not premium quality right premium quality even to the jars yeah they look nice yeah
they look nice I mean when I made the fragrance and people started and it's like well why
don't you try these jars and you can put labels on them and I was like you know this smells
kind of it's it's perfumey it's yeah it's like an elegant smell so I was like I can't
just put this in any jar yeah it would not do well you got a match yeah and so I have
my I have custom made jars and people seem to enjoy the fragrance they enjoy the feel
the texture of the butter they enjoy the jar the look so I'm hoping that'll continue that's
awesome and then so with your you said you're going into pre-launch so do you have like an
estimation of when you're gonna launch the product October October so that's all we have
for now okay keep us in to pre-launch and then like October but in the meantime do you
want to tell people where they can find you in the meantime oh yeah you can find me on
beach body butter dot com I'll also be doing another podcast with GS1 US if you know GS1
for those of you who makers or artisans of butters or skincare products okay GS1 is the
global standard for barcodes yeah you can get barcodes anywhere but if you want to sell
on Amazon I believe they request that you do use a GS1 barcode okay so GS1 can be scanned
by retailers around the world that makes it easier on you I'm sure like using a universal
standard yeah it makes you more visible and I knew that well I know that eventually I
want to be able to sell global but I want to be able to sell year-round and the best
way for me to do that is for me to find a retailer or something that would you know
that could host my product and in order to do that it needs to be understand it so I'm
going ahead and getting started and I will be on the GS1 podcast September 24th okay
awesome and the workshop is to make 2D a reality steps to success and so so I hope you all
can register and just you know just come find out more about GS1 especially if you have
products and it doesn't have to just be skincare but if you have products and you want them
to be sold in a retail environment you need to find out about GS1 you need to find out
about the standards and it's accessible to small businesses it's really not a lot of
money that's good you can get a stack of barcodes I believe for $200 okay or you can buy them
individually for like 30 bucks that's good to know because I am gonna talk to other small
businesses black businesses it's a lot going on out there and I do want to bring the people
resources so that's great thank you for mentioning that is there anything else you want the people
to know check us out start looking for us around the end of September online and again
that's Beachbodybutter.com and I'll put a link in the show notes and Venice is they're
both the scents are very pungent when you first put them on they hit you but they kind
of wane throughout the day the scent stays on you but it's not as loud but they go on
strong it'll definitely wake you up in the morning well thank you for taking the time
out to talk with me Pearl I appreciate it thank you for having me I appreciate it this
was fun