How It All Started
It all started with a Korean face mask brought as a souvenir from her Korean teacher in Nigeria.
Since then, Grace was hooked on Korean beauty products, but found it impossible to acquire. She tried buying products on Alibaba, but found the quality wasn’t the same.
When she came to Korea to study in the master’s program for international trade and business, she began developing the idea to build a platform to bring K-beauty to Africa.
With the help of the Seoul Global Startup Center, she launched Beaufical in November 2019.
Grace immersed herself in the Korean beauty industry and connected with independent cosmetic brands to feature on her e-commerce site, Beauficial.
Targeting her native country of Nigeria, she is showcasing Beauficial as a platform that enhances beauty while being “beneficial to your health, wealth, and environment.”
Given that the current beauty industry in Nigeria focuses on affordable local brands, and expensive American brands, she wants to bring affordable and high-quality Korean cosmetics to the African consumer.
Challenges Overcome
Given that many Korean companies lack information about the African market, Grace had to continuously explain that yes, Africa can maintain logistics in exports and Nigeria in particular is a growing economy with a rising middle-class and ranks 27th in the world in terms of GDP.
Beauficial is continuing to raise awareness of the lucrative and untapped Nigerian beauty market and building connections between Korean and African companies.
Looking Ahead
With the recent launch of its platform in late 2019, Beaufical plans to hold the first Korean-African Beauty Exhibition in 2020.
Grace plans to make this an opportunity for business matching, not only for the export of K-beauty to Africa, but an opportunity to build a market to produce high-quality Korean cosmetics targeted specifically for people of color.
Beauficial is currently seeking Korean team members to join its vision of cross collaboration.
