Beauty Roots
Founder Emolyne Ramlov on how her Ugandan heritage and Danish upbringing inspired her brand.
In Ugandan culture, its believed that makeup distracts young girls from their studies, says Ramlov.
Then she moved to Denmark in the early 90s and had a complete culture shock.
The first thing I put in the basket was nail polish.
[I bought] all sorts of colours, she laughs as she thinks back on the memory.
My mum was like, ‘When are you going to use all those colours?’
I was like, ‘I just need these colours.
I just want to try.
I want to mix them.
I want to make a rainbow.’
So yeah, since then I started investing in makeup and it became an empowering tool for self-expression.
I feel more polished when I match, Ramlov explains.
How did your Ugandan heritage and your Danish upbringing inspire you to launch your brand?
I actually started the makeup brand out of a need that has always been there.
Growing up in Africa, I had the challenge of not being allowed to wear makeup.
And then when I moved to Denmark, I faced a completely different challenge.
The makeup industry was not making makeup for my skin-tone.
It was just horrible.
At the time I was also going to London on the weekends to see my family who lived there.
When I moved to London in 2008, I decided that I was going to look deeper into this.
I remember going to the nail shop to do my nails.
So I went to House of Fraser’s beauty section and I saw they had three shades.
I asked [the staff] if they had a matching lipstick for my nail polish.
They didn’t and instead suggested shades that could maybe work.
I didn’t want a maybe, I wanted a match.
it’s possible for you to’t get your lips to match your nails.
It was actually at that point that I realised there was a gap in the market.
How do you get the shades to match when the textures across the different products are so different?
It took me probably two and a half years to get it right.
The nail polish was harder than matching the lip pencils to the lipsticks, too.
Being Black, my skin-tone changes all year round.
Shades I use in winter aren’t shades that I would use in summer.
So when I was creating the collection, I picked shades that I can use all year round.
I was like, Oh my god!
How am I gonna do this?
It’s not only for Black people, but for other races as well.
Then I came up with this method of creating five colours for lighter, medium, and darker skin-tones.
So no matter which season you’re in, you will have five colours to choose from.
All of the shades are named after African countries and cities.
Why did you choose to name your products this way?
When I was creating the brand, I wanted it to reflect me and my background.
I wanted my African heritage in the brand.
Emolyne currently stocks nail polishes, lip pencils, lip glosses, and lipsticks.
What products would you like to launch next?
We’re going to launch eyebrow pencils and eyebrow waxes this year.
And I’m also thinking of bringing something for men a unisex colour, but not yellow or green.
I’ve had so many men ask, and my job is to take everybody’s feedback.
I know it’s hard to pick, but what’s your favourite shade in the Emolyne collection?
I like these types of vibrant colours because they remind me of Africa.
Ilove[bright] colours!
This article was originally published onMarch 12, 2023
