Founder Sholayide Otugalu named her first brand Joséphine Cosmetics after artist and activist Josephine Baker. Her new brand, Sholayidé, shares her name, which means “blessings all around” in the West African language Yoruba.
Otugalu defines the brand launching Sept. 1 as an “eco-luxe haute” brand. It’s starting with three 50-ml. eau de parfums priced at $200 each, three candles priced at $100 each and three crystal potpourris priced at $175 each. Additionally, there will be a Blessed Life merch collection that will kick off with T-shirts, sweatshirts and robes, and expand later into spiritual journals and homeware.
“I always wanted a second project where I would focus on wellness and body,” says Otugalu. “And for me that felt like doing something with fragrance, with candles, things for the home, and touching a bit on connecting yourself with your spirituality and inviting some calmness into your universe.”
Baker was born in the United States and moved to France in 1925, and Otugalu splits her time between the U.S., where Sholayidé’s warehouse is located, and France. Sholayidé’s fragrances are formulated in Grasse, a town known as the perfume capital of the world, and filled in the U.S.
Otugalu calls the 2-year process of finding a manufacturer for Sholayidé “tedious.” She received nos from manufacturers that weren’t interested in partnering with an emerging brand, didn’t have the bandwidth to take on an upstart and wouldn’t or couldn’t formulate a clean scent. Finally, she secured an undisclosed manufacturing partner with a subsidiary in the U.S.
Heaven, Sholayidé’s first perfume collection, consists of Honored, a floral, woody fragrance with rose, ginger and musk notes; Blessed, a citrus, floral scent with grapefruit, lotus and amber notes; and Sacred, a chypre scent with orchid, peach and caramel notes. The caps of the fragrance bottles are made of amethyst, Olugalu’s birthstone.
“I always wanted a second project where I would focus on wellness and body,”
The candle and crystal potpourri collection includes Exalted, a fruity sweet scent, Favored, floral and fresh scent, and citrus Praised, a citrus and floral scent. Sholayidé will offer a $100 discovery set containing a trio of its scents. Otugalu says, “I know the industry is oversaturated with so many different people doing fragrance now, so we’re just trying to test the best way to penetrate the market as a new fragrance brand.”
Sholayidé is intentionally targeting Black women. “We want to make sure that we’re speaking to them in terms of how you can connect with oneself and how using these products can bring peace of mind in the home and can have you smelling amazing when you’re out with your friends,” says Otugala. “Whoever wants to purchase can purchase and can be a part of our brand voice but for me, visually, I want to make sure that Black women are being celebrated.”
While Black consumers in the U.S. outspend their white counterparts on fragrance, there’s historically been few Black fragrance entrepreneurs. That’s changing, and brands such as Moodeaux, Brown Girl Jane and World of Chris Collins have led the change. The latter launched at Sephora last year, becoming the first Black-owned fragrance brand carried by the retailer. Since launching in 2021, Moodeaux has entered into Credo and Scentbird. It’s a Sephora Accelerate participant and Glossier grant recipient.
For Sholayidé’s retail distribution, Otugalu is targeting upscale boutique retailers like TA and The Conservatory. She plans for the brand to have a pop-up at Showfields and collaborate with partners she’s established through Josephine Cosmetics, including subscription boxes. “I do want to position the brand as a niche fragrance house, so I’m not looking to go knocking on the doors of Sephora,” says Otugalu. I still want it to have that unique feel to the brand, so I’ll stay focused on some smaller niche boutique retailers for now and then see where it goes from there.”
She describes Sholayidé and makeup brand Josephine as “sisters, but with two different personalities.” In the beginning of Josephine, the brand was in Neiman Marcus and Costco. It parted ways with Costco because Otugalu says Costco “didn’t feel it aligned with the positioning of the brand in an attainable luxury category.”
Now, Josephine can be found at places geared to customers searching for clean, vegan and sustainable merchandise such as subscription box and e-tailer Petit Four and Plain Tiger. Otugala says, “I would rather stay focused on concept stores and partners who are committed to actually telling our story and spreading that story in an effective way.”
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