We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Artivia Edmond a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Artivia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The word “Indigo” means chosen one, and when I was a little girl my second grade teacher would always tell me that I was going to be something in life and that I was really special. I never knew what she meant then but growing into an adult I felt like I always had to prove her right, I didn’t exactly know about but I knew I was going to. When I started my spiritual journey in 2015, the word Indigo stood out to mean because I always knew I was chosen to be something and do something far more special in life. During that time I also cut my hair and decided to start my natural hair journey. I became so obsessed with hair products and ingredients that would enhance my 4c textured hair in length and strength. That’s when I created shea butter deep conditioner hair treatments, and named my brand “Indigo Naturals” which lasted about 3 years before I decided I wanted to get more into natural products, not for just hair but skin now. That’s when I added the word collections at the end of the Indigo Naturals because I knew I wanted a whole line of products, Started off with lip scrubs removing dead skin and adding moisture to the lips and before you knew it I was making soaps to help my people fight acne and hyperpigmentation. I felt proud that I was able to create products that worked, but it didn’t stop there. I knew I wanted to dive more deep into skin, that’s when I decided to join a trade school to become a skincare specialist/ esthetician in 2021.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As spoke about in the previous question, I started off in this industry by making products for hair and skin and then later decided I wanted to learn the more technics to help and great the skin. My brand provides medicine for your melanin, so we provide and create organic skincare products such as handmade soaps, scrubs, butters, facial toners, beard care and I also provide services such as facials, waxes, lash lifts and tint as well as sugaring services.
What sets me apart from other small business owners and other estheticians is that I don’t see my brand as a business, I genuinely like to make my clients and customers feel confident and beautiful
. I am open and available 24/7 for any free skin advice and I do bi-weekly checkups on my clients to ensure they are following their skincare routine or have any problems.
What I am most proud about is how far I came with being consistent and I’m even more proud to see when it will continue to grown as long as I continue to push. Being consistent is what brought me exposure and clients to begin with.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Yes I manufacture my products, how I got started with that was being into ingredients and really trying to ensure ingredients that would works for me and what ingredients were good and bad. It literally became a habit to read labels, which really did me well because I carry that same habit in today making sure I read labels as far as groceries to make sure I’m not Intaking the wrong things. As far as lessons I learned with manufacturing my products is finding out some oils don’t blend well together, some oils are comedogenic and what works for you don’t always work for someone else.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Lessons I had to learn was “take your time”. I know for most people that was something they always heard in life. For me this was something I had to keep telling myself when I decided to rebrand this year in 2023. Yes most of us want business because most of us want a wonderful source of income, but timing is what I had to learn was truly Important when building a brand. Perfect your foundation before branching out.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.indigonaturals.shop
• Instagram: Instagram.com/indigo_naturals
• Linkedin: Linktr.ee/indigo_naturals