Shea butter has been used by Africans for hundreds of years, but suddenly it, along with other African oils, is a beauty industry darling. It reportedly does everything from curing eczema and psoriasis to moisturizing hair and body to preventing aging and lessening the appearance of wrinkles. In a story that's becoming quite familiar, Funlayo Alibi first got into shea butter products as her awareness of the chemicals in traditional skincare products grew and her belief in the effectiveness of those products began to wane. 

When both her children were born with skin conditions, nothing seemed to help the two boys. Nigerian-born Funlayo recalled her grandmother rubbing shea butter all over as a child, and the glow she got after the butter soaked in. Funlayo's mother started bringing shea from Nigeria to the United States, where Funlayo and husband Shola immigrated, and Shea Radiance was born. Here, Funlayo lets us in on the birth of a company and how it turned a community in West Africa around.

EndlessBeauty.com: How did Shea Radiance begin?
Funlayo: Using shea butter on a consistent basis on my sons actually improved their skin. We started reading about aromatherapy and thought we’d add some scents in. Then maybe some humectants to keep skin hydrated in the winter. We were treating shea butter like a potato: whip it, fry it, bake it! We were just using the stuff on ourselves and our kids, but before we knew it, friends started asking for it.

As we started looking at it as a business, we didn’t think there was a lot of good quality shea on the market in the States. We thought, we know where it comes from, why don’t we start sourcing where it comes from on the continent? As Africans, it’s the least we can do.

EndlessBeauty.com: How does the shea trade affect women?
Funlayo: The other thing utmost on our minds [aside from a quality product] when we started doing business is that we wanted a business that has a positive impact on the lives of women. If you can empower a woman by making her financially stable, it affects the life of her kids. Empowering women, it’s passed on to the children, affects entire family structure, community, and ultimately the nation. If you bring women out of poverty, you take a nation out of poverty. Women invest in their families.

Women from all over the world were wanting things: African women to be paid well and provide for their families, the western woman wants a product that is effective.

EndlessBeauty.com: What was the scariest thing about starting your business?
Funlayo: As we started going to the farmer’s markets and shows, we felt we had a really good product. The scary part was scaling up and just throwing everything at the business. We know we have a good product, people have said so, how do we get it out? The logistical things became scary.

EndlessBeauty.com: Was there a turning point?
Funlayo: About a year and a half ago, we took a look at our packaging, which was very simple from the beginning. I had been talking to people at my local Whole Foods. They took the product home and tried it and loved it. The bath and beauty manager loved it, said that everyone was raving, but the packaging doesn’t pop.

We came up with a biodegradable jar that could hold our shea butter. But it was a big gamble. We knew it could work, in the market they wrap it in leaves so we knew it could work being wrapped in organic, but for a company of our size to commit to the orders we needed … it was a step of faith. It was a great idea, though: you finish using the butter, toss the jar, it decomposes, no carbon footprint or landfill issues.

[Editor’s note: The Shea Radiance packaging won the 2010 innovative green packaging award at the HBA Global Beauty Expo]

EndlessBeauty.com: How do you define success?
Funlayo: Success is being able to fulfill your dreams and passion, especially if your dream and passion involves investing in the lives of others.

Success for me is, yes, to be able to break even and make a profit knowing that everyone in the life cycle is also being lifted up by my success. It’s more than doing good works. There’s the Multiplier Effect: if I decide I’m going to order 10,000 pounds of shea butter a month, the young guys who hang on the street corner in West Africa find a source of making money, because they package it in boxes and put it in trucks. Then the trucking business hauling it from farm to port is making money. The warehousing guy is making money. More women are involved in making more nut and butter. The whole community is beginning to come alive.

EndlessBeauty.com: How do you define beauty?
Funlayo: Beauty is from within. It is definitely based on how a woman feels about herself, it has to start from within. We maintain our unique beauty, the way we maintain and care for ourselves is a reflection of how we value ourselves.

EndlessBeauty.com: Can you tell us your 5 favorite beauty products?
Funlayo: It’s really quite sad, all I use is shea butter! I always have the leftover stuff here. There’s an incredible lip balm made by Tara Spa. I really like La Bella Donna, they have a really nice lip gloss. I really admire Alaffia, they’re also a shea butter company, they do a lot of good things in Togo, I look up to them.

EndlessBeauty.com: Who are your other inspirations?
Funlayo: There are two companies in Ghana that I look up to, the first is Sekaf. The owner, Senyo, has set up a prototype of a shea butter village in Ghana and he’s been willing to share that knowledge with the people we work with in Ghana, so we’ll be replicating the same thing in Nigeria in the next 18-24 months, because it’s been really successful.

Eugenia owns Nasaakle, she is also in the shea butter business, we’re contemporaries, we could even be competitors! When you talk about integrity, humility, just a quality person, Eugenia is one of those.

EndlessBeauty.com: What advice would give to women who want to, like you, help other women and themselves at the same time?
Funlayo: You can help in a lot of ways, depending on your resources and comfort level. Not everyone has the opportunity to just pick up and go to Africa. Support businesses that support women’s causes. Support other women who are doing what maybe we can’t do. 

Funlayo, who loves chocolate and decadent desserts, ended our interview by reminding me about shea: “It’s dessert for your skin. I’m telling you, the stuff is good.”

Lyssa Myska Allen is editorial director at EndlessBeauty.com