We love girl power entrepreneurship at GGF and we recently caught up with Diwura and Temi, co-founders of Compris Beauty to hear all about their beauty business adventure!
Hey guys! Thanks so much for chatting with us today. Can you give us a little introduction…
T: I’m Temi, a co-founder of Compris Beauty. I’m 25 years old and work full time as an accountant auditor in banking, in London. I’m a protagonist and very passionate about what I believe in but outside of work I like to have fun and be spontaneous.
D: I’m Diwura, a co-founder of Compris Beauty. I like to express who I am creatively, am upfront and always say what I believe. I’m currently a student of fashion management which I really enjoy as I love all things fashion and beauty, and soom I will be starting my masters.
So, first of all… what is Compris beauty?!
T: It’s your ultimate beauty best friend! It’s a place where both men and women can find products that give them the results they want and that they can trust in. We want it to become an online community through our website and social media.
That sounds really cool! When and how did you first become interested in beauty?
T: Diwura actually got me interested in beauty. She’s always been really into it and would update me on the latest products was using and give advice on what ones I should try and then I was actually seeing good results from what she recommended. I had loads of skin issues and would hide behind make up a lot and was jealous that she didn’t have to wear any, so that’s when my relationship with skin care began.
D: Like Temi said, I’ve been always interested in beauty. In the media I saw lots of people talking about how they wished they had done things for their skin in their 20s so that really made me want to to lay down foundations (excuse the pun!). I like to try new products to see what works for me because different things work for different people.
And what gave you the idea to start your own business?
T: I’ve always known I’ve wanted to have my own business one day as it allows me to express my creative side. The journey of Compris Beauty started wayyy before it ever actually appeared because in order to start something you need to trust the unknown. But I like to be able to control everything haha, so God needed to work on me first. It was about stepping out in faith and getting over the fear of putting my money into it. I decided to be pro-active and started reading more about business and entrepreneurship.
D: Our initial conversations about the kind of business we would have came from talking about problems in the beauty industry and not being able to find the products that worked for us. I really wanted to help people who had the same problems that we’d experienced.
That’s amazing that you’re pursuing your dreams! You’re business is focused on beauty, in your opinion how do you define beauty? And how do you think the beauty industry can add value to people?
T: Beauty is not a set standard, it needs to be defined by everyone. Whatever your idea of beauty is, that’s it. It’s such a fluid thing, what appears as beautiful to someone might be different for another person. The industry profits from self doubt and tries to tell you what to fix. It has the ability to be really helpful but we need to be careful what we’re telling people. There needs to be more balance so that the industry helps us to be confident in who we are as a person. I suffered with such bad acne and went from not wanting to go anywhere and hated what I saw in the mirror, to being able to have confidence in how I look. That was down to both working on my self esteem and finding products that treated the problem and allowed my skin to be the best version it can be. It’s about taking care of yourself which improves your self confidence and dealing with your issued because if you don’t deal with what’s going on inside then it doesn’t matter what you do on the outside, it won’t fix how you feel about yourself.
D: There is no definition, beauty is whatever is looking back at you in the mirror. Beauty cannot be held to one standard and it isn’t fair to try and make it. The imagery that the industry puts out is very important in how we add value to people and so everyone needs to see people that they can relate to. This needs to be improved on even more than it already has been, I don’t want to be an after thought, I want brands to make products specific to me!
How does your faith influence the way you run your business?
D: We always make sure that God is 100% involved with our values and goals being aligned to our faith. Everything we do is faith first, and that began from the beginning in that we prayed and got God involved first before we did anything to launch the business.
T: We see ourselves as a caretaker of what God has put in our hands. We know we can’t do this without Him and we have always been ready to stop if we ever felt He didn’t want us to continue. God is the one who is constantly giving us the creativity and resource to do what we’re doing and there have been moments where we were going to run out of money and then suddenly we got financial provision. It’s about constantly keeping God first and trusting him and the vision He has given you. I remember reading a quote about how women are waiting for you to step out in what you’ve been called to do, and for me that was a reminder that what we’re doing is important and is going to positively help people.
That’s so good to always think of ourselves as caretakers of what God has given us!! Who has influenced you the most in pursuing your dream?
T: For me it’s my mum. She’s the biggest blessing in my life and has always told me to take an idea and run with it. She has run multiple businesses and raised her children by herself for 16 years and she’s always been a spirit led woman of faith.
D: Yeah it’s my mum too. I’ve always admired the strength that she has and the sacrifices that she’s made since my father passed 9 years ago. She took on a job that she didn’t know much about and has been really successful in it.
Aw they definitely sound like strong women! So, final question… What’s your go-to beauty product?!
D: Onyx Body Polish by Arami.
Soaps are the foundation for everything and it helps with problems with pigmentation. It has really nice ingredients and it helps lay a good foundation for anything else that goes on my skin.
T: Malako Saviour Oil.
I love it because it smells amazing and I’m a sucker for smell. It’s multi functional and as a practical girl I don’t like to have a lot of stuff. For me less is more and my beauty routine needs to be short and sweet so any product that can do more than one thing means I’ve hit the jackpot!
Thanks for the recommendations and thank you so much for chatting to us guys!
All the brands stocked by Compri Beauty are natural and eco-friendly, check out the site at ComprisBeauty.com or follow them on instagram @comprisbeauty