We were lucky to catch up with Bianca Pitman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bianca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?
Quality is something that happens to be super important to me as a brand that currently makes its own products in small batches. Those who know us know that our integrity is number one. Some people would say we are stifling our growth as a brand because we don’t want to skimp on the quality of our products. I’ve experienced working with companies that made products in small batches like ours that eventually had the opportunity to go mainstream and the entire formulation changed. People then complained about the same product they would buy in small batches back in the day now having an adverse effect on their hair and skin. I also worked for product manufacturers that created beauty products and I would see how they cut costs by using the cheapest ingredients, packaging, etc. Be You Beauty was founded once I learned that you only had to put 5 natural ingredients in a product and could label it as an “All Natural” product no matter the number of chemicals. I’ll never forget the conversation because I remember my mouth dropping to the floor! I was angry for myself and the people who buy natural products thinking they’re being health conscious but being sabotaged. Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs 60% of what you put on it in only a short period of time. The average woman alone puts 525 chemicals on her body a day with all the serums, makeup, hair spray, etc. All these chemicals are contributing factors to hormonal imbalances, cancers, and other illnesses that we endure due to low-quality products.
We get messages all the time about how women can’t wait to see our products in Target, Sephora, Whole Foods, or your local beauty supply store, and as flattering as it is that people want to see us in these bigger spaces. It is also nerve-wracking because when I think of vending for bigger stores I think about my integrity as a brand and how I don’t want to skimp my women on the quality of our products. Because then we conform and become just like the people we are trying not to be like. So right now our goal is to be in boutique style brick and mortar locations.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Peace y’all my name is Bianca Pitman aka Divine Mother. I am a women’s health advocate, medicine woman, womb healer, and owner of Be You Beauty. I educate and empower women who are seeking holistic alternatives to their feminine wellness. Spreading awareness by teaching women the importance of womb healing and establishing a connection with the womb as well as how to take their power back when it comes to their reproductive/menstrual health. We provide holistic services that nurture a woman physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Building “Coochie Confidence” we are well known for our array of holistic feminine wellness products starting with our Yoni Bar.
Aside from being in the wellness space, I am a professional hairstylist for production for 12 years. After having the opportunity to work with many different hair brands I was never really impressed by the ingredients or the number of chemicals in the products. Once I learned that you only had to put 5 natural ingredients in a product and can label it as all-natural I was inspired to create my own hair care line of products that had CLEAN ingredients. In 2017 I pivoted into the wellness space after finding out I had Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome which is a hormonal imbalance that 1 in 10 women have where she produces more testosterone than she does estrogen. This is where my missing period stemmed from. After my endocrinologist only prescribed birth control as a treatment. I explained to him that birth control was not a treatment and opted to do something more natural and thank god I did because my life changed forever. Vaginal steaming had already been something that I wanted to add to our line of products because I knew it was natural. However, I had never had my personal experience with it until I went home and created my own blend and after only 4 days of usage, I had a period! Can you imagine going 10 years with little to no period and then getting one just after a few days of squatting over some herbs?! It was like magic and I felt so good! My own experience is what inspired me to enter the feminine wellness space. I then took certifications where I study vaginal steaming as well as how to heal the vagina naturally through Whole Foods and traditional Chinese medicine.
I would say that one of the things that set us aside from other womb wellness advocates or coaches is our brand is a lifestyle. When you join our tribe you join a family, a sisterhood that makes you feel seen, heard, and appreciated in all phases of womanhood. Our transformation takes place on both a physical and spiritual level.
Some of my proudest moments include being able to make a woman appreciate her menstrual cycle by assisting her with a noninvasive alternative to healing whether it’s painful periods, infertility issues, hormonal imbalances, etc. I love being able to show a woman how powerful she is in her own body.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Yes we manufacture all of our products except for the pads, deodorant and toothpaste that we offer on our site. However we do not sell anything that we don’t personally use ourselves.
People ask me this question all the time. “Did they teach you how to make products in cosmetology school?” and the answer is No. For my first product the Cinna Baby Hair and Skin Mask. All the ingredients for that product pretty much came to me in a dream or in the shower. It was like a download from spirit. I would be in the shower getting all these ideas and I would write them down and research them later on and before I knew it I had a whole recipe.
There are some products that we would like to offer in the future that will require a manufacturing company. And because I am so big on quality out sourcing is something that makes me nervous because I don’t ever want to have to bend on the quality of my products. If a company cant make our products how we make them then I don’t want to work with them.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2020 I decided that I was going to move myself and my business to Los Angeles. Yes in the middle of the pandemic I decided to uproot my life and move it across the country. I felt like if I can do it during the pandemic then I could do it. I had always dreamed of moving to LA. Especially during my prime years of being in the hair industry. Doing celebrity hair in LA had always been one of my goals. So in August of 2020 with not much savings I decided that I was going to turn 32 living in California. At the time 32 was only 3 months away. I had no idea how I was going to make it happen but I stayed diligent in what I wanted. By October I had been approved for an apartment. Then Two weeks before my 32nd birthday I moved to Los Angeles! It was crazy how things unfolded. It was A LOT moving myself and my brand across the country. At the time majority of my business was on the east coast. All of my existing clients and customers were in NY. I think at the time I might have had one customer in California. But this is where I wanted to be. I knew that California had the market I was looking for. A holistic lifestyle is the California lifestyle. As of now Be You Beauty is based in NJ but operates out of Los Angeles. We do pop-up shops on both the east and west coast and have serviced almost all 50 states with our products. Two years later pivoting our business and moving to California has been the best decision I’ve made other than starting Be You Beauty.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beyoubeauty.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/beyoubeautyoffficial
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/beyoubeauty