By Megan Sayles, AFRO Business Writer,
Report for America Corps Member,
msayles@afro.com
When Diamond Brown’s husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, he, like many others, had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation. The treatments left his skin dehydrated and inflamed, so the Detroit native took it upon herself to research plant-based ingredients that could quell his skin problems.
She looked into shea butter and oils, like coconut, sunflower, hemp and sweet almond, and analyzed how these components could moisturize and hydrate skin.
Brown created her own shea butter, and after a week of using it, her husband’s skin improved significantly. Since her husband benefitted so much from the product, she passed out samples to nurses and patients in the chemotherapy ward.
Sadly, Brown’s husband’s cancer progressed, and he became terminal. At the time, Brown was studying nursing at Baker College in Michigan and working as a medical assistant, so she decided she would oversee his hospice care.
After he died, Brown no longer wanted to become a nurse. Witnessing his health decline and solely managing his care left her exhausted, emotionally and physically.
She also stopped making her shea butter.
Brown switched her major to marketing, and after graduating she worked in Corporate America for 16 years with a leading marketing company.
A year and a half ago, she decided to resign, and now she’s running her own skincare business, Diamond’s Body Care, full-time, which donates 10 percent of its profits to cancer survivors.
“All of a sudden, one day, I was just like, ‘This is not what I want to do.’ But, I never thought that my business could financially sustain me. I never thought I was going to make as much as I make for my salary doing my oils and creams,” said Brown. “My parents were especially against it, as they always are against things that are not traditional, but now I make double of what I was making, and the sky’s the limit.”
Diamond’s Body Care’s top-selling products include the Botanical Body Oil and Shea Butter. The oil is entirely plant-based and combines sweet almond, jojoba, avocado and sunflower oils. It also includes a real botanical flower inside of the bottle.
The Shea Butter includes coconut and sweet almond oil, vitamin A and high-grade fragrance oil. If she were to add a new product to the line, Brown said it would be a body wash.
While formulating her products, Brown ensured to get the perfect amount of oil to create a silky texture that’s not sticky or heavy. She’s also intentionally chosen to forgo having a co-packer, and instead, she’s trained herself and mentored young girls to manage production of the body care products.
“I hire girls that I can mentor, young girls that literally work under me, and they look at me as a mother figure,” said Brown. “To know that I can impact people’s lives directly and give them jobs, that’s more important to me than sending it off for a co-packer.”
Brown has become the first Black woman to have her products exclusively used at JW Marriott Spas. Aside from ecommerce sales, she’s also forged partnerships with hotels and airports in Charlotte, N.C. and Atlanta, Ga. to push out her products to more customers.
Most recently, Diamond’s Body Care was an official sponsor of New York Fashion Week, and her body care was included in the VIP bags.
Brown just purchased a 2200-square-foot warehouse to expand her operations in Charlotte, and she is planning to open up a storefront to house both Diamond’s Body Care and Dapper Body Care, her men’s skincare line.
She said she thinks her late husband would be proud of the business she’s built, but he wouldn’t be surprised by her success.
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