Welcome to Behind the Magnificence. Right here, we highlight black ladies in magnificence who’re taking the business by storm and making historical past in their very own proper. Everybody from rising magnificence model founders to behind-the-scenes PR specialists focus on their profession journeys, greatest inspirations, and way more.
Nyakio Grieco takes 13 Lune in a brand new route (actually). After being acquired by SNR Capital in 2024, simply 4 years after co-founding the inclusive magnificence model, Grieco took over possession just some months in the past. Now, as CEO, she’s increasing the model from Los Angeles to South Africa later this month, in an surprising transfer.
Partnering with multi-billion greenback platform Takealot, “it’s a really full circle second,” she advised ESSENCE. Because the nation by which her late father, a historian, advocated for the combat towards apartheid, “I would like our neighborhood, particularly ladies of colour, to know that we’re nonetheless right here, that we’re standing, that we’re getting even stronger and taking on extra space.” »
Nyakio Grieco tells ESSENCE about her wins, her losses and why she’s increasing 13 Lune to South Africa.
Beneficial properties, losses and acquisitions
“It’s been fairly a journey during the last two years,” says Grieco. Based in 2020, 13 Lune was born from her want to make the wonder business extra inclusive. However “between all of the stops and begins, till the acquisition of Nyakio Magnificence from Unilever, it was a problem.”
Though she says the previous few years have been marked by nice victories, “falling down and studying to simply accept failure and understanding that the one failure was not getting again up” was a lesson she needed to study. As a fast-growing platform, 13 Lune featured over 160 various manufacturers. Then, after the DEI was withdrawn on the finish of 2023, many of those identical manufacturers closed their doorways.
“It nearly made our job extra necessary as a result of we have been now in a scenario the place a few of our most culturally various manufacturers have been closing their doorways, not having the ability to meet their stock, not having the ability to keep on cabinets,” she recollects. To the extent that, in December 2024, 13 Lune was purchased by SNR Capital as a part of an alternate process to chapter. Then, in 2025, the retailer’s partnership with JCPenney ended.
Take again possession of 13 Moon
Now, as of August of this 12 months, Grieco is again as CEO of the retailer she co-founded six years in the past. “By selecting to take over what I’ve constructed, to entry the CEO seat with the assist of my traders who’ve accompanied me at each stage of 13 Lune, [and] It’s laborious to place into phrases what it means to me to proceed constructing my very own workforce,” she says.
Staying true to the identical objective she set for herself in 2020, creating generational wealth by means of magnificence is what continues to drive her enterprise ahead. “ our shoppers, particularly Black and Brown ladies who purchase essentially the most magnificence merchandise, we simply should maintain going and be even bolder.”
Enlargement in South Africa
For Grieco, the subsequent step in rebuilding 13 Lune is taking the Los Angeles retailer to a completely completely different continent. “13 Moon is heading in the direction of Africa,” she mentioned. South Africa, to be actual. “We’re going right into a enterprise with the biggest retail platform, a multi-billion greenback platform known as Takealot.” The digital platform has been round for round 15 years and is akin to Amazon. Besides that in South Africa, Takealot is far larger, she says.
The partnership will start with 19 manufacturers on November 18, adopted by pop-ups in Cape City and Johannesburg, just like their flagship retailer on Larchmont Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Grieco’s private relationship with South Africa
Born in upstate New York to Kenyan immigrants, Grieco’s father labored as a historian in the USA. “My father, after I was rising up, spent loads of time preventing towards apartheid,” she says. Whether or not he was writing books in South Africa or instructing on the College of Johannesburg throughout his sabbaticals, “it was a spot the place he noticed the way forward for fairness.”
After her father handed away, she says she did not lose sight of the truth that she was launching into a rustic the place his affect lay. “On a private degree, it means quite a bit to me,” she says. With Takealot hyper-focused on inclusivity and a good round economic system, she says her South African clients are hungry to get their palms on manufacturers, from A-Magnificence and Okay-Magnificence to celebrity-founded manufacturers.
His recommendation to black founders dealing with challenges
“I had the good privilege of discovering the best traders,” she says, after greater than 20 years of expertise as an entrepreneur. As she actively launches a $15 million fundraising spherical, she says her most necessary recommendation is to know what a nasty investor seems to be like, but in addition to know who your persons are.
When she began elevating cash for her very first model, “I felt like I used to be coming from a spot the place I wanted the verify simply so the model might survive,” she says. “However, in some instances, I verify my price on the door.” As a founder, she acquired loads of no’s, however traders like BrainTrust and Fearless Fund caught by her from the beginning.
“I inform my mentees on a regular basis: There’s good cash and there’s silly cash,” she says. “And, as somebody who took silly cash, you earn each penny.” As we speak, for greater than 20 years, defending your fairness means surrounding your self with the best kind of traders. A lot in order that it’s even contemplating increasing to New York subsequent.
The merchandise by which it invests
“I used to be the founding father of A-Magnificence since 2002, earlier than anybody known as it A-Magnificence,” she says. Each product she has developed for the reason that starting of her profession comes from the wonder secrets and techniques she discovered from her grandmother, who was a espresso farmer, and her grandfather, who was a healer.
In her newest launch for Related Magnificence, for instance, the Pucker Up Lip Oil Therapy is formulated with the therapeutic properties of the hydrating oils she discovered about over 20 years in the past. In the identical breath, it relaunched its authentic skincare merchandise with much more African substances than earlier than, together with vanilla espresso, sugar cane and papaya. “They’re higher than ever,” she mentioned. “I actually lean on my heritage.” In any case, “that’s how it began.”