When Amanda Noel-Amsterdam and Stephanie Noble were first introduced by a mutual friend four years ago, they did not realize right away how much they had in common. Their mutual interest in hair and skin care, however, has led to them establishing a hair care business last October and now a skin care line. In the coming weeks, Daughters of Zion Hair and Skin Care Products will launch its complete skin care line as the joint owners rebrand their business in time for their first anniversary celebration.
Originally Noel-Amsterdam and Noble were each creating their own hair products from natural ingredients. For years, they shared these with family and friends who were always encouraging them to create businesses. During a car ride one day, the women spoke about their hair products and the support they received from friends and family. This led to the idea of opening a hair care business together and was conceptualised as Daughters of Zion.
Noel-Amsterdam shared that prior to establishing the business, she purchased different oils and created her own blend using coconut oil as a base as well as herbs including aloe vera which she had at home. The idea for blending the oils was conceived while she was studying medicine in St Lucia, and which she brought back home as a hobby after becoming an MD. Every time someone visited her home, she found herself sharing her concoctions with them. Often they would get back to her with great feedback on how well the herb infused oil worked.
Meanwhile, Noble was experimenting with hair butters after deciding to wear her hair naturally. “I started the hair butters because I started to go natural and I tried products, I watched videos, I did research and nothing seemed to work. So I did some more research based on my hair type and the results I wanted and the combination of blends I should use in terms of butters, along with oils, and some other ayurvedic herbs. I had a friend who I would give some of the butters to use on her daughter’s hair and one day she said to me, ‘This thing is really good, you should try to sell this butter,’” recounted Noble.
She added that the blends they decided upon were arrived at after thorough research of what ingredients worked best for growing hair or giving hair volume.
Daughters of Zion hair products cater for men, women, children including clients with kinky hair, dreadlocks, relaxed hair and of Indian or Indigenous descent. There is also a beard line inclusive of beard oil and beard shampoo and conditioner.
“We wanted the hair care line to be as diverse as possible,” said Noble.
Noel-Amsterdam added, “We have customers from different ethnicities that use the products and they have all expressed their satisfaction. We didn’t want it to be exclusive, we wanted it to be inclusive so everyone can use it…”
Initially, Daughters of Zion only made and sold hair pro-ducts. Noble laughed as she recounted that one day she learnt from a customer that she had been using the hair product on her skin and that her skin was well moisturized. The customer went on to admonish them to include a skin care line. Other customers also began asking about a skin care line, after using the coconut milk butter created for hair, on their skin.
As a result, about two months after establishing the business, the women launched their skin care line. Now with the skin care line having its own clientele, the business partners decided to create a complete skin care line. Some of their products cater for people with sensitive skin and even for those with skin conditions like eczema. Noble pointed out that she and Noel-Amsterdam are no dermatologists but based on products recommended by dermatologists, they have tailored the ingredients in their products to cater for such skin conditions. At present, the business partners have the advice of a qualified person who does facials in the making of their face products. Noble’s use of sugar scrubs she made herself often found her at the centre of attention when out with friends as they were always curious as to what she was using that made her skin glow. Noel-Amsterdam was also making her own sugar scrubs and when their friends learnt of this, they asked that they share their secret.
“In our [rebrand] we are now making available the body butter. People were also saying that our face wash was so good, they are asking for a body wash because they have acne…on their skin so they want that full body experience rather than just for their face. I’ve had colleagues who suffered from acne on their face and [eventually] they were prompting me to come up with a formula for the [body wash] so I went to Stephanie and we put our heads together and researched what would be safe and came up with the skin care line to satisfy our customers basically. The start of the skin care line was customer-driven… We’re now extending our skin care line. Before we had only the body scrub, the face serum, the face scrub and now we’re including the body butter and the body wash,” said Noel-Amsterdam.
A lot of their clients, the pair shared, have come through recommendations from other clients. Many of their customers are from various parts of Guyana including Linden and Berbice. The business also has clients who reside in the US.
It is their inclusivity of genders, ethnicities, and being a business that caters for both skin and hair care products and most importantly their dedication to putting quality products on the market that makes Daughters of Zion stand out, the friends point out. Noel-Amsterdam added that products are not designed for one particular age group and shared that she uses the hair products on her six-month-old daughter.
“We are not just making products, we are also putting our love and dedication into these products. Our aim and our mission really is to help people to have their hair and skin experience a little better, more enjoyable…” chipped in Noble. Their customer service is impeccable, agreed the women positing that if their customers are not satisfied with a product or make recommendations, they take their remarks into consideration.
One of the challenges they face is having to rotate their time to run the business. While Noel-Amsterdam is yet to start her internship, her hands are full being a mother and a university lecturer.
Noble, on the other hand, is a final-year University of Guyana student. Initially, marketing of their products was also a challenge but their clientele has grown significantly. Starting in the middle of a pandemic was no easy feat either, as COVID would have impacted markets everywhere and shipping was affected. Noel-Amsterdam also recalled not having a physical location at first, operating out of their homes and taking on the delivery service on their own. She noted that at the beginning of the business, she was heavily pregnant and was driving her car to various locations to fill orders. They now depend on local delivery services in Georgetown.
For the most part, the business relies on other local businesses for ingredients among other things. However, recently they began importing a natural preservative, another of their ingredients and the containers for their products. Packaging and labelling they do themselves.
All of their products are readily available and not made on order. The women shared that every four to six weeks a new batch of their products is created.
With the rebranding of their products and the launch of their complete skin care line, their containers will be bigger to allow more volume as requested by their customers.
They hope to expand their business in the future where they have their own storefront, salon, and factory and the ability to provide employment for others.
“I feel liberated as a young woman. I feel very much humbled by the support that we would have gotten. I feel like a success story. You know, you hear a lot of people taking risks and taking chances with starting up a business and we started humbly and the success that we have seen, we’re very grateful and very much surprised because we did not expect it to turn out the way it did,” said Noel-Amsterdam.
Noble added, “Not only is it liberating, it’s a dream come through. [Our experience] is motivation for other people. I would find myself encouraging other persons once I realize they have talent in a particular field to start a small business. It’s like a leap of faith… It will take time to grow but it’s a worthwhile investment.”
The business has also participated in two pop-up shops: the Mocha Market Day and Linden Business Expo.
Daughters of Zion is located at lot 10 Croal Street next to BM Soat Auto Sales. The products can be checked out on the website at https://www.daughtersofziongy.com/s/shop or on Facebook at Daughters of Zion Hair and Skin Care Products or on Instagram @DaughtersofZionProducts. They can be reached at 647-9852.
