Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nabila Brabez, PhD. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nabila, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

My story isn’t your typical business story it was a long time in the making.

Once upon a time, about 23 years ago exactly, I had the idea of creating a business that I enjoy and would bring pleasure to people.

Indeed, I had a deep passion for scents, I thought they were majestic, literally could be comforting, exciting, relaxing, could make you feel anything and I discovered the world of chemistry and thought, “wow” it would be great to work on something where I could merge both and serve people with that magic that scents bring. If I’m being honest, I also always had a hard time with authority and believed that it would be nice someday to have a business where I get to be my own boss so that is when the idea seeded in my brain, let’s have a business. Yes, that was the 14 year old in me.

Now I had to devise a plan (hahaha I love board games and strategy) to get the knowledge and resources necessary to achieve that goal.

I landed my first job in the chemistry industry at L’Oréal by an interesting series of events.
I volunteered at a poster session in one of the Paris gardens (I’m from France) and talked about chemistry and fragrances and someone gave me their card and told me to apply as they appreciated my enthusiasm. I didn’t believe I would get selected but I went through the interview rounds and wound up with my first job in the science field.

There, after my bachelor’s degree, I got to learn about toxicology by working as a toxicologist assistant and loved it.

However, I realized I really wanted to make the products, so I followed through with a number of opportunities and ended up with a master’s degree in polymers and formulations.
I love learning and I still felt that my knowledge in physiology (which would be important to make products that would actually be performing) was lacking, and so I pursued a doctoral project involving skin and pancreatic cancer, working on both the chemistry and skin physiology, which resulted in my double PhD degree from the University of Arizona and University Pierre et Marie Curie and articles in peer reviewed journals.

I still was always practicing cosmetic science on the side, developing scents and formulas that would be effective. I now had the knowledge to create great formulas that would support the skin’s natural chemistry.

I recognized that the business I wanted to create would require additional financial resources to start up, and it was important to me to be self-funded so that I could operate with no compromise. I took a position working for a large corporation making lubrication products, the soaps and detergents used to keep machinery functioning.

There I learned a lot about manufacturing and scale-up, the dimension of large businesses, which confirmed all my thoughts about why I wanted to remain small and be my own manufacturer, and also gained a better understanding of product lifecycles, so that I could apply sustainability practices in an effective way.

After a few years, I was ready to pursue the business full-time. The concept was to merge the fun of bath and body products with the performance of clinical products. I had the knowledge, I had the idea, I had the funds, and then it was time, Lancolia was finally 1st born (because then it has to be reborn).

Nabila, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Simply, I develop products that support the skin’s natural chemistry and that are blissfully scented to indulge both body and soul for all.

My formulas use actives such as panthenol, hydrolyzed rice protein (it’s a formidable combo of amino acids, peptides and proteins), allantoin, sodium PCA and antioxidants (in addition to being effective, these can also be upcycled and derived through biosynthesis) and non-overpowering, custom scents with stories!

So basically, you get the fun and soul of exquisite bath and body care with the performance of clinical products.

The way I practice sustainability is by providing long-lasting, effective minimalist formulas, and by planting a tree with every order no matter the amount.

Everything is made in the USA in fresh batches to preserve the product performance and the scent integrity.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My business was finally starting to get in shape so I decided to quit my corporate job as I also had 2 babies (at the time 7 months and 2 years old) and I couldn’t possibly manage to deliver on my business, deliver at my corporate job and deliver to my essentials, my family. So, something had to give and of course it wasn’t going to be family nor the business I’ve been building. I had heard about events in China at work since it’s an international company and we worked closely with our colleagues there but never thought it was that bad and so I gave my resignation and quit my job.
About 2 months later the pandemic was full blown and everything was going down. So I had to stop business activities as well and decided to focus on my children and ensure they had all they needed to thrive while in lockdown.
I had a tough life and other stressful events occurred between opening my business and the pandemic, but never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would be locked with 2 babies for pretty much a whole year, now that’s a huge pivot and it happened to lots of people. And so once everything opened up, I had to restart the business pretty much from scratch and to be honest, I did treat it like a hobby for too long because I had funds to do lots of R&D for Lancolia products. Now it was time to get serious, get busy and move forward. So once the kids went back to school, I restarted everything. And the economic hurdles haven’t helped but I still see my mission clear and bright so I just keep planning and figuring out my next moves. And in business I think it’s essential to be agile and willing to pivot as the environment is never the same. As long as I can serve with integrity and quality, I’ll keep finding a solution and ensure that my customers are treated with the care they deserve.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

My favorite business books that I think are essentials for anyone: 1- Rework by Jason Fired and David Heinemeier Hansson – There are lots of gems in there. Beyond the fact that I agree with them on being self-funded, I do love the way they talk about ignoring competition, the fact that you need to learn and that you can work productively in business without crazy hours (although that one I’m having a hard time executing.) Now I disagree with them in the planning part. They seem to think that plans are harmful. I beg to differ, I think you do need plans, maybe a couple of them, and you need to be flexible as you learn along the way. Otherwise, this book is really interesting and sometimes provoking and I just love it! I actually borrowed it at the library first then bought it because it was that good to live in my library forever!
2- The E-Myth – By Michael Gerber. Believe it or not I was introduced to this book during a workshop at my corporate job. The reasoning was that it can teach you a lot of the WHY behind so many processes. I never believed this book until I actually owned a business myself and realized how putting procedure in places, even small checklists for events are just such a time saver. It all maximizes productivity when done properly.
3- Get Different – by Mike Michalowicz. This book was a part of our book club discussion at the Indie Business Network, a group of Independent American Brands I’m a member of. We always have a great selection but this book stuck with me because the concepts in it are simple and easy to remember. The author has a framework called D-A-D which stands for Differentiate-Attract-Direct and it takes you on a journey to figure out your DAD and I’m currently still working on that one…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lancolia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lancolia/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lancolia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nabila-brabez-phd-phd-53129357/