Quincy Ayodele with daughter, Tobi Keeney
Tobi Ayodele-Keeney is a Biochemist and the Executive Director, Quincy Herbals. Since joining her mother’s company, she has been able to bring in new innovations. In this interview with Our reporter, she talks about skin treatment.
A lot of ladies seem to believe that being fair skinned is the vogue, what do you think?
It is true. A very big challenge nowadays is the younger generation. They want to be fair and they want to be fair at all cost. And they will do anything to get that fair skin even if it means that they are going to develop cancer, they are going to develop burns or even die. I have noticed this for a while.
So what are you doing to correct this?
Well, we have created platforms for people to reach us. The cheapest and most common is WhatsApp. We are on WhatsApp and people can contact us if they need advice. These young ladies you talk about are very daring. They use different things to become fair.
Hydroquinol seems the most popular chemical ladies use to become fair, is this correct?
Hydroquinol is even small. Ladies have gone even more advanced. They now use steroid and it gives them this black knuckles. We are working in line to prevent all these damage to skin. Nothing compares to a natural skin lightning option. The situation is so bad for some women. They can’t even take off their clothes in front of their husbands.
Your brand is known for skin treatment, this is a major market for you then, isn’t it?
We have a complete line for skin treatment. It’s a line from when you are in the bath and afterwards.
Why not just a single product, why a whole line?
It’s better when you produce a product line. This will help you also enjoy the same satisfaction from their soap and moisturizer. It’s better when you do the whole thing so that you can get the best effect.
A lot of people will get the impression that you are marketing a bleaching product, what do you have to say?
Of course people want to be naturally fair, but we don’t target our products to them. Our products are directed at people who have skin problems and need correction. Basically, you just can’t come to Quincy and say you want to lighten my skin for no reason. You have to have a skin problem before we can attend to you. If you have a normal skin tone and we examine you and find out that you are fine we won’t touch you. Except of course you have a damaged skin, maybe sun damage. To just step in and say that you want to bleach doesn’t make any sense because it can even lead to problems such as low self esteem.
Tell us about your clinical trials, how did you conduct them?
We carried out about 150 trials or thereabout. I can’t remember the specific number of people, but we did everybody. We did rich, poor, white, black. It was a thorough trail that was aimed at producing what would suit all kind of skins.
Sometimes back, there was a speculation that you were taking over your mums business because she was retiring, tell us about it
It was a misconception that was created by a story. A healer never retires, they retire when they die. There are doctors who have grown old and still work. Their children also work with them, but they will refer to their dad or mum when they need advise on a special case. My mum can’t retire now because there are a lot of cases that I have not seen and she has. There are cases which I still have to refer to her.
How did your mum feel when the story came out?
It was misinformation, but it wasn’t anything serious. We managed it properly. The wrong impression has long been corrected. My mum is happy that I am contributing what I am doing into her business in her lifetime. It is her joy that she has been able to fulfill part of the definition of African traditional medicine by passing a lot of her knowledge from her generation to mine
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