We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dominique Nation. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dominique below.

Dominique , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Starting ‘SheaDeShon was very personal for me. Growing up, I struggled with really bad eczema and I used to get talked about and bullied by classmates and it ruined my confidence. As I got older, I fell in love with Bath and Body Works, Victoria Secret etc and I always just wanted to smell good! I started to notice that the products I was using from those types of stores started irritating my skin and essentially making my eczema worse. It hurt me that I couldn’t use those things anymore and paying ridiculous prices for more natural or medicated products was not the way to go anymore. The wild part is that I started seeing more and more people that looked like me that were struggling with the same thing. They wanted to smell good but they had sensitive skin that couldn’t handle so many chemicals and additives. I knew I needed to create something that would give me and other people (specifically women of color) the best of both worlds while also being super affordable. I did a ton of research of fragrances, herbs, oils and skin/skincare and took a chance and created ‘SheaDeShon Skincare!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

So for those who don’t know, my name is Dominique Nation! I am the owner of ‘SheaDeShon Skincare which is an all natural, edible skincare collection. I am a graduate of the University of Dayton I started my business during the peak of the pandemic after having to leave my job to take care of my family. I was really scared to start just because everyone (myself included) was scared to go outside so I knew for sure that nobody would want to buy skincare from me since I was operating out of my house. I prayed over my last check from my job and started researching what I needed in order to make the products I wanted to sell. I personally think that I’m different from others in my industry because I give the best of both worlds to all of my customers. They get products that are both beneficial and aesthetically pleasing! I made my skincare line specifically with Women of Color in mind just because we don’t have a lot of beneficial skincare products that are affordable. I’ve since been able to expand to other demographics successfully, including men and children! I am most proud of the fact that my products can be seen in 27/50 states! When I started, I honestly never imagined that I would sell my products outside of my hometown, so to know that my business has expanded so much in the last 3 years is mind blowing!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my favorite marketing stories would definitely have to be sending my products to one of my favorite artists! So, I loveeeeeee Monaleo! She’s a newer rapper out of Houston, TX. I had been following her for a while and noticed that she had a PO Box for Fans to send her gifts, letters, etc. I made her a box full of pink skincare products and made a promo video about it. I definitely didn’t expect her to see it or even respond to it BUT SHE DID! That’s definitely a top tier moment for me and my brand for sure!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I do a lot of promoting on my socials, so I always ask my customers to follow me and let me know how they liked their items. Often times I’ll also check in on them and just ask if they are still enjoying everything. I also made a group for my business that allows my customers to invite others and get deals first before the general public.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sheade-shon-skin-and-co.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: Instagram.com/sheadeshonskinandco
• Facebook: Facebook.com/sheadeshonskincare
• Other: Tiktok.com/sheadeshonskinandco