Feleciai Favroth, Oakland, Skincare by Feleciai
Skincare by Feleciai is a luxurious handmade skincare line based out of Oakland, CA and owned and operated by Feleciai Favroth. Feleciai, a Bay Area Native, attended Cornell as an undergraduate and received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. After spending time in the trenches of Corporate America and then working as a realtor, Feleciai decided to follow her passion and pursue a career in the beauty industry. She went to the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center to begin to conceptualize her business and then to Centro Community Partners, where she had a new support system and developed her business plan and financial projections. Feeling driven to provide a product and not a service, Feleciai envisioned a company dedicated to producing only the finest handmade products that were gentle on the skin and the environment. From that inspiration, Skincare by Feleciai was created.
Today Feleciai continues her mission to celebrate diversity and beauty with her fabulous line of products for both men and women. Her line features a variety of soaps and shea butter creams made from all-natural ingredients such as olive oil, essential oils and cocoa butter. She is proud of her product and feels truly successful when customers approach her to share their love of the overall experience they’ve had with her soaps and creams. Such praise is overheard frequently when Feleciai is out selling her line at local markets.
Feleciai participated in Centro’s Entrepreneurship Readiness Program in 2010 where she began to develop her business plan and used the program to access a loan. Skincare by Feleciai has nearly tripled in revenue since 2010 and continues to grow. To learn more about her products, visit http://skincarebyfeleciai.com, follow Skincare by Feleciai on Facebook or stop by the Old Oakland Farmer’s Market (at the corner of Washington and 9th Streets) on Fridays to meet her in person!
Update 5/1/12:
Feleciai just received an interest-free loan through Kiva Zip! The loan will help fund her website, take professional product pictures, upgrade her packaging and prepay five big festivals.
Update 3/25/13:
We are very proud of Feleciai for paying off her Kiva Zip loan!
New Packaging for Eucalyptus Peppermint Soap from Skincare by Feleciai
Feleciai was able to do exactly what she expected to do with the money – buy ingredients to make more soap, introduce beautiful new labels, pre-pay for high-end trade shows and craft fairs, and pay for professional photographs of her products. She was able to increase her revenues by both maximizing the visibility of her products and increasing the durability of her inventory, since the soaps last longer when professionally wrapped.
This year she plans to hire someone to help her with packaging so that she can fully focus on marketing, create new private-label items, fine tune her product line, and eventually move to a larger location. She’s considering taking out another Kiva Zip loan or trying out a crowdfunding site, like Indiegogo to help with the next stage of her growth.