Beauty Souk Fair Rocks Lagos

Yinka Olatunbosun

The heavy floods did not stop the beauty enthusiasts in Lagos from congregating at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, for the “Beauty Soul”, a beauty fair with fringe benefits. Sponsored by Diamond Bank, it was initiated to connect the various players in the beauty industry in a relaxed atmosphere. Featuring Nigeria’s finest beauty brands, the vendors offered a wide range of products and services including make-up, hair, wigs and hair extension, cosmetic medicine, skin care products, lashes, brows, nails and spa.

Lately, the trend in beauty for many Nigerian women is to source for high-quality organic products from trusted indigenous brands. As a result, the air of competition among beauty brands has resulted in improved standards and competitive prices. One advantage of this fair is that customers get to meet beauty specialists that offer free beauty tips along with souvenirs after the purchase of original products. The master classes that ran simultaneously with the fair at the same venue consolidated the knowledge of the participants in the understanding of emerging beauty trends.

The convener of the fair and CEO, Eventful Limited, Yewande Zaccheus expressed her optimism in the fair with a hint that it may continue as an annual event in Lagos. Riding on the success of previous events organised by Eventful, Zaccheus remarked that the event filled a vacuum in the beauty industry
“There is an appetite for this kind of fair. So I thought let’s put the experience and expertise that we have gained from the fiesta of flavours to the beauty industry. I know women love everything beauty and there are lots of them in the entrepreneurial space. This is a fantastic platform to bring the professionals together and for people to come and shop,” she said.

In the same vein, the Head, Corporate Communications, Diamond Bank, Chioma Afe, revealed the reason for the bank’s collaboration with Eventful on this beauty fair.

“We are here because we have a strong belief in empowering entrepreneurs which is a big thing for Diamond Bank. We love SMEs. We offer financial advisory services to them and also open the access to the market. If you have a business in Agege and your market is at Victoria Island and you are great at what you do, what Diamond Bank has done is to partner with the event organiser to activate an event that will bring hairdressers, massage parlors and the likes together.

“It is also an opportunity to open an account and get a loan. Beauty is a huge industry. It’s over half a billion naira in terms of worth. A lot of women are looking for locally sourced ingredients and everyone is going more natural and organic. The beauty industry is benefitting from that boom and the value of it. Here, small business owners can meet with big business owners. There is an opportunity for mentoring,” she said.
The average young woman has basic make-up skills while a large number have acquired professional make-up skills which have become a huge source of livelihood today. Afe observed that even women who have regular office jobs engage in beauty jobs as “side hustle”.

“I have girls in my office who do makeup on weekends. The advantage of being here is that you can get original products,” she said.

Some of the topics discussed at the master classes include the science of healthy hair; the pros and cons of bleaching; dealing with acne and hyper pigmentation; tapping into Shea butter business amongst others.
One of the highlights of the beauty fair is Celebratory Make-over session which featured famed personalities such as Adesuwa Onyenokwe, Joke Silva, Lala Akindoju, Kate Henshaw and more. This session attracted bystanders and photographers who watch patiently as the human facial features were enhanced to create a stunning glow.