“Necessity is the mother of invention,” the saying goes. In this case, necessity spawned an urban farm in New York.
It was in 2006 that licensed cosmetologist Antonisha Owens developed an impressive number of her own natural and organic beauty products, specially formulated for women of color, under her trade name, AficaPure Beauty Product Co.
Antonisha Owens makes bath and body products with active ingredients she grows on her urban rooftop farm.
“Afica” is the acronym for “All freedom is creativity. Accessorize.
Owens is certainly imitating her company’s name, as it was her creativity that ultimately led her to solve a difficult business problem: the rising cost and availability of natural and organic ingredients. Owens realized that growing his own plants, such as flowers and herbs, would provide a profitable supply for his main cosmetic components. Thus, she founded an urban farm on the land of 303 Gere Avenue in Syracuse, New York, and named it AFICA – Farm to Fabulous, while establishing her salon there, Afica Pure Artisan and Hair Clinique.
But first, although she was somewhat familiar with growing plants, Owens felt she needed more agricultural knowledge. So she completed the six-month Groundswell Farmer training program in Ithaca, New York, which she completed in September 2021. Meeting three times a week for training workshops helped her learn how to grow all the herbs and flowers she needed in the city. Now her rooftop farm includes lavender, peppermint, spearmint, water mint, roses, lotus flowers, aloe vera, hibiscus, lemongrass and lemon balm. Plants provide the active ingredients of its products.
Lavender is one of the plants that Owens cultivates for its AficaPure cosmetics.
“I have a long history of family farming,” Owens said. “My great-grandmother grew up on a farm (and I grew up) with my grandmother and my great-grandmother watching me. My grandmother said they couldn’t follow the farm (because) of the taxes. We helped him in the garden.
Her formal training at Groundswell has helped her learn more about effective urban cultivation practices. And, because she can only grow a certain number of plants in her limited rooftop space, she’s narrowed her produce line down to 48, which she admits is “still a lot,” but she decides what to do based on that. what their customers want. .
Owens has also mastered how to dry her flowers and herbs so she can use her stored ingredients to make cosmetics any time of the year.
The road to entrepreneurship
Before growing her own plants, Owens had learned about natural ingredients while working at a local whole foods and supplement store, as well as working part-time as a hairstylist. She had also realized that there was a lack of natural and organic products for black hair. This led her to start making her own natural products. His clients appreciated the results obtained and told their friends about it. Eventually, word of mouth advertising helped her grow both her salon business and that of hair care products. She left the supplement store and went into hairdressing full time in 2010 under the name Afica Pure.
Edible roses are among the plants that Owens grows as ingredients.
“I started with two of my own products and only used all-natural products to introduce cleaner products to customers,” Owens said.
Its products include soaps, bath bombs, shampoos, conditioners, hair oils, hairstyles, body butters, body scrubs and body scrubs, all handcrafted in small batches. In addition to being organic and natural, all of its purchased ingredients are fair trade and vegan.
She caters to her customers’ needs and wants by selling products she makes, such as gentle cleansers and curl relaxers that nourish and strengthen hair to minimize breakage.
His journey into urban agriculture is the result of many factors. Although she had to close her hair salon in 2014 for family reasons, Owens continued to tinker with her recipes and develop more products. In 2019, Owens was able to reopen her shop, ironically forced to close it soon after due to the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine.
Ever the optimist, Owens has taken advantage of this COVID-19 lockdown to develop even more hair care products and tweak his current formulas. But it was also during this time that she discovered that the cost of her natural inputs would significantly reduce her profit margin. And, as many other people have experienced during the pandemic, the pandemic breakdown in supply chains has made it difficult to obtain certain ingredients. It was these pandemic effects that prompted it to research how it could operate more sustainably and better control its costs by cultivating some of its ingredients.
Cost containment is one of the reasons cosmetologist Owens grows her own herbal and floral ingredients.
“I work with people all the time as a cosmetologist to find the best products to make,” Owens said. “I start researching ingredients, gathering a sample and testing it for six months and recording the tests to see what it does and how effective it is. I call clients or friends and say, “I have this new product and (do you) want to try it? I explain what the ingredients are and they give me feedback. Sometimes I gave it to new people and styled them for six months to a year. These are people who are consistent with me and who are honest. They can say, ‘I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the texture. Other times they love it.
A loan from the Small Business Administration helped her buy personal protective equipment, protect her salary and buy new equipment for the hair care products part of her business. The equipment helps him efficiently and accurately fill the bottles of his products.
Going forward, Owens hopes to further develop its active ingredients and continue to grow its business.
