Today we’d like to introduce you to Wacera Kamawe
Wacera, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born and raised in Nairobi Kenya and moved to the US where I went to college and graduated from UAB ( University of Alabama Birmingham). For as long as I can remember my passion has always been health and wellness and so I graduated with a degree in Respiratory Therapy and a minor in Polysomnography. I started working as a Registered Respiratory Therapist in Birmingham, Alabama and eventually moved to Atlanta to be closer to family. I worked in my field for about 13 years but along the way I had discovered a new love and passion for handcrafting natural skincare products. This passion was born out of necessity as I have always suffered with very dry sensitive skin as well as lots of allergies. I struggled to find products that worked for my skin without them causing allergic reactions and that made me revert to making my own products using raw ingredients and herbs..things that I grew up using back home in Kenya. These products that I made myself worked very well for my skin and with time I ended up sharing them with those around me receiving great feedback from them as well. My plan was never to sell these products or to have a business but the more I kept doing and sharing my products with others it became clear that my path was changing. I started to sell them with those around me without much thought or great expectation but with time I realized I had created a small business. It grew from selling them to family, friends and coworkers to creating an online store and presence and eventually to now where it is my full time job after quitting my job to pursue full time entrepreneurship.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This has definitely been one of the most challenging chapters of my life because I didn’t prepare for it for years with a formal education like I did for my career as a Respiratory Therapist. Most of my knowledge has come from experience and from seeking and studying it for myself along the way. Another challenge has been trying to stay motivated to keep building something from scratch that only you can see the vision for while most people around you think you should just stick to your career that’s already worked for over ten years. Finances have definitely been challenge because it was a shift from coming from a guaranteed paycheck to fluctuating funds and having to reinvest the money I made back in my business repeatedly before I really started to see a return on my investment. Also creating something merging my Kenyan upbringing, my formal education, healthcare background and personal skin struggles on its own has been a challenge because I am creating all this in a sense from scratch and not following a blueprint.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Kastone Beauty?
Kastone Beauty specializes in handcrafting all natural skin and body products from ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients. Kastone specializes in dry delicate and sensitive skin and therefore we handcraft using all natural, organic, toxin free ingredients. Some of our ingredients are sourced from Kenya and Ghana from through Fairtrade companies. Built on a 13 year healthcare background, health and wellness remains our top priority and our extensive knowledge on the human body is a huge added bonus when we create products. We want to create products that not only look and smell good but products that are healing & nourishing to the body and that do no harm. We do 2 to 3 weekly pop up shops all over Atlanta where people get to meet us and experience our products before committing to purchasing them and that is one of the best ways to interact with us and learn more about our brand. We have grown a community of “Kastone Beauties” who support our mission and who support us and what we do both in person and online.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Receiving positive feedback from our returning customers brings me great joy. When people come back and share in person or online how they benefited from using a certain Kastone product it further affirms that all the hard work and sacrifice is worth it. My mission since childhood has always been to be in a healing space and whether it’s at a patient’s bedside or at a vendor booth sharing my products with strangers…my heart is full.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://kastonebeauty.etsy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kastonebeauty/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/kastonebeauty/
- Other: https://linktr.ee/kastonebeauty
Image Credits
Webrnd Network (Maurice Grady & Andrew Banks)
