MILWAUKEE — Nakia Triplett has been an entrepreneur ever since she can remember.
Her first business was running a lemonade stand when she was a kid. Now, she’s 20 years old and running her own beauty business, Prima Beauty Organics.
Prima is Triplett’s all natural, organic skincare business, that she started when she was 16. Everything is homemade from plant-based products that Triplett gets herself. She said her target audience is those with sensitive skin, like her own.
“I have very sensitive skin, and I can’t use Dove and store-bought products because they have extra alcohol and preservatives and colors. And my target audience are people with sensitive skin,” Triplett said. “Just to let people know that we really have to take precautions on what we consume as human beings. And we should use plants and herbs to heal us that our ancestors used back then.”
It was not a shock that Triplett wanted to start her own business. She’s been an entrepreneur, like her dad, since she was young.
“I always been a little chemist from making slime. When I was eight, I used to sell it. And I’ve always just been an entrepreneur, making lotions and bath bombs when I was little,” Triplett said. “I’m kind of inspired by Lush, and I just went off that and I was a little scientist in the lab.”
Triplett got her introduction into the business world with help from All About Increase, a nonprofit organization, which helps underserved youth in the city of Milwaukee find their true potential and assist in the transition to adulthood.
With help from Tristaca Patrick-Yarbrough, the founder of All About Increase, Triplett secured her first job at Culver’s after impressing them with an elevator speech.
“She’s always been that entrepreneur,” Patrick-Yarbrough said. “She got her first job at Culver’s with her amazing elevator speech that was built through All About Increase prior to me building.”
To help grow her brand, Triplett hosts pop-up shops three days a week, and through All About Increase, she’s been able to perfect her pitching skills.
“Just connecting and talking to people and just knowing how to pitch things and pitch my business,” Triplett said. “I do pop up shops and I learn how to talk to people the right way, learn how to push myself toward people. Try to sell my products, promote myself, marketing and things like that. Just sharing my story with everyone.”
It hasn’t always been easy for Triplett. After losing both of her parents, Triplett went through a grieving process. She went to Atlanta and came back refreshed, ready to help grow her brand even more. This included doing boomerangs of people buying her products, showing before and after pictures on her Instagram page and having her customers promote her business on their socials.
By having her customers promote her brand, Triplett has branched out to even more people, especially those who can’t use other products.
“There’s always someone looking for organic products, there’s always someone who can’t use scented products,” Triplett said. “And we just need to know that just because it smells good doesn’t mean it’s good for ourselves and our skin.”
As her brand grows and more people use her products, Triplett said she feels extra special she can help people be comfortable in their own skin.
“I always see before and after pics. And I know when someone loved my product when they come back more than one time,” Triplett said. “I have one of my friends, her and her mom have bad acne, and they literally come get a turmeric bar every month, literally every month. And it just makes me feel good as a person, just knowing that I can help people heal themselves in their skin and make them feel comfortable in their own skin without wearing makeup and blush and all the stuff that’s going to clog pores.”
Triplett makes all of her products by herself, so she gets her ingredients from farmer’s markets, Outpost Natural Foods or Whole Foods in Milwaukee. She looks for non-GMO, 100% organic products. With help from Venice Williams, the executive director of Alice’s Garden, she has learned a lot about different ingredients and which ones would work best for her skincare products.
After gathering the ingredients, Triplett goes to work in the lab to construct her different products. Because of the long processes, this is Triplett’s full-time job.
Just one of the turmeric bars, she said, takes two hours to make before it has to cure.
“I have to milk down the soap base. I have to put my essential oils, and I have to measure everything, make sure I was right,” Triplett said. “Then I have to freeze it and let it cure. Soaps take about two weeks to cure.”
Triplett has about 14 products that she sells, including a tea clay mask, an oatmeal bar, lavender glow serum, rose water toner and a turmeric kit. The turmeric kit is one of the biggest products Triplett sells because of what it can do for your skin.
“A turmeric kit comes with the turmeric scrub, the turmeric bar and the turmeric fading shea butter,” Triplett said. “Turmeric is a herb that helps with hyperpigmentation in the melanin in our skin. It can help with stubbles, dark marks, scars, acne, blemishes, wrinkles. And it helps put the moisture back inside your skin.”
For Triplett, this year has been one of her best yet. After going through the difficulties that come with having a local business, she’s proud of what she has done.
“I’m telling you, this year, I don’t know who’s been praying for me, but my business has been first,” Triplett said. “Like last week, I had seven sales a day.”
While her business grows, the one thing that has remained the same is her support system. Without her biological parents here with her, Triplett has had other family members by her side.
“My support system is amazing. My auntie, my grandma and my dad and the help of my grandad raised me all together and they are amazing,” Triplett said. “I couldn’t ask for no better family.”
Patrick-Yarbrough has been one constant by Triplett’s side, and she said it’s been amazing to see people rally to raise a child.
“It takes a village to raise a child. When I can’t do the job, they help her with the job. So I really, truly appreciate them,” Patrick-Yarbrough said. “Even though she does not have her parents here, she has their support and the support of my mom and dad and this I know she’s going to be a millionaire. But I want to let her know that her mom, her dad and Corey are watching over her.”
Her parents might not be here physically, but Triplett said she knows their legacies will live on forever. That’s why she named her business after her mom.
“And the name Prima is actually my mom’s name. My mom passed away last year, but ever since my birth, she had a birth injury,” Triplett said. “So I made this to keep my mom’s name alive. I never met my mom physically. And her favorite color is purple, so that’s why my business is purple. So Prima beauty is something special to me.”
Along with keeping her mom’s name alive, Triplett said being a local Black-owned business is difficult, but now more than ever, it’s important to support them.
“It is very, very important to support a small Black-owned business, because we are starting from the bottom guys, our location, being in Milwaukee, we don’t have a lot of exposure to a lot of people who can really lift us up,” Triplett said. “It’s all about the communication and the community and things like that. We’re all Black trying to make it in life and it’s just hard for us right now. We just all have to help each other get to where we’re going because if I’m going to make it, I’m going to make sure all my sisters come with me.”
Samiah Watts, one of Triplett’s best friends since high school, has seen her accomplishments firsthand. Watts said that Triplett has been one of her biggest influences to follow her own dreams.
“I tell this to her a lot that she really motivates me, because I’m not always consistent with things and I’m working on that, especially in the new year,” Watts said. “So when I see her just achieving these things and her goals, and just stick with one thing and run with it, it just, it really motivates me, just to see how ambitious she is.”
Watts is a content creator and seeing her best friend have this success only motivates her more.
“When I get into my days, like ‘Oh, I’m gonna start doing this’, she’s the one to tell me, ‘well do it. Do what you have to do.’ It’s gonna take time like she said, consistency, but you can do whatever you put your mind to,” Watts said. “She just shows me how easy it looks. I mean, it might not be easy. It’s gonna take time, but she sure is making it look very easy.”
Triplett’s long-term goals include having a mall for Prima Beauty that has estheticians, nail techs and a boutique. But right now, her biggest goal is getting Prima Beauty into stores.
“Our short-term goal will be to get my products in stores, beauty supply stores, Target — to get it over the map,” Triplett said. “I want everyone to know about my products, Prima Beauty Organics. I just want people to know that we really have to treat our skin with natural products and that’s going to be the best for us to really find results.”
You can find Triplett’s products on her website, here.