Evelyne Nyairo is the visionary, CEO, and founder of Ellie Bianca, a non-GMO, cruelty-free, and sustainably sourced skincare brand.
If you could give your past self some advice, what would you tell you?
I’d definitely tell my past self to trust the process. Sometimes when things didn’t go as planned, I would stress about it and be hard on myself. Over the time I have realized that things eventually work out the way they were intended to. It’s important to work smart and be intentional, but then ultimately trust the process.
When you first started your career, how did you know you were ready and what made you start?
During one of my engineering projects, I travelled to Chad in Central Africa, and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the women’s skin were – they were tapping into the power of plants and superfoods all around them. I was always into healthy living and eating, and I was blown away by the variety of superfoods that are native to their land, like moringa trees, shea trees, cashews, hibiscus flowers and so much more. During that trip, I also noticed how much women were unfairly treated. When I was purchasing mangoes, I was told to pay the husband when it was the wife that picked the mangoes for me. This was unfair and wrong, and I was motivated to help improve the lives of the women there. That is when I decided to start my own natural skincare company, Ellie Bianca
What or who has been your greatest influence in business?
My parents have been the biggest influence. My father passed away a year and a half ago, but I am always reminded of his words – make an impact and add value – so when the pandemic started, I knew this was an opportunity for me to add value. We ended up launching our hand sanitizers and now have just launched our liquid hand soaps that everyone seems to be in love with. My mom, who now lives in the U.S., started a group with other women to help empower and advance women. From her, I learned barriers will always exist, but you can always find a way to break them.
What is your number one business goal to accomplish this year?
This year my business goal is to be intentional, keep pivoting, staying the course, and coming up with the products that people need in real time.
What do you have going on that you’d like to share?
Unfortunately we could not continue with our intimate boutique soirees this time, but we adapted and have been holding a series of virtual connects and bringing the Ellie Bianca women together to ignite authentic conversations, focus on the positives, and talk about enhancing well being. This year we at Ellie Bianca are living the mantra New Year, Beautiful You and asking you to keep being unapologetically you, BEAUTIFUL YOU- celebrating you as you are without the obligations you feel about making improvements to yourself because you think you should be doing something better.
