Stacey and Martin Clarke have lengthy used their gross sales and enterprise improvement expertise to assist shoppers create profitable firms throughout South Florida. Now the husband and spouse workforce have used their experience to work for themselves as the brand new house owners and operators of Asili Magnificence and Wellness retailer positioned in Hollywood, Fla., the place they provide cutting-edge, sustainable, carbon-neutral magnificence and wellness merchandise from all over the world.
“You’ll be able to’t have actual magnificence with out wellness,” Martin stated in defining the philosophy behind Asili (pronounced Ah-sill-lee), which suggests “pure” in Swahili.
“What makes us distinctive is that we’ve got mixed magnificence and wellness in the identical house with equal focus” Stacey stated.
“Nowhere else can you discover magnificence and wellness merchandise introduced as trigger and impact.”
It’s a pure pairing, Stacey stated, one mirrored within the merchandise offered of their 5000 sq. foot flagship retailer positioned at 2014 Harrison Road, in Hollywood, Fla., simply north of Miami.
“We supply merchandise which might be good for you,” Stacey stated.
“We incorporate a wellness side in every little thing we do. In our purchasing technique, we supply merchandise which might be clear, made with social accountability, and have a restricted carbon footprint.”
“Ninety % of the merchandise we provide are a hundred percent vegan.”
Asili carries the Clarke’s personal luxurious traces, together with 15 fragrances of herb and oil based mostly pure soaps, an all-natural skincare line that includes cleansers, every day cream moisturizers, and wrinkle restoration serums fortified with vitamin A and vitamin B.
In July 2022, Asili will debut a luxurious uncooked human hair line together with cranial prostheses and customized, glue-less hair models (wigs) that may be reduce and styled to the shoppers desire.
Asili merchandise are sourced from the U.S. and nations all over the world.
“You will discover merchandise right here that you could’t discover wherever else,” Martin stated.
“Many are made by up-and-coming firms which have devoted themselves to producing a high quality, a hundred percent pure product.”
Asili’s males’s division incorporates a vary of private {and professional} hair care merchandise, skincare and shaving lotions, in addition to sun shades, high-end, vegan leather-based laptop computer circumstances and water bottles that may maintain bank cards throughout exercises.
“We made a acutely aware determination to hold males’s merchandise which might be vegan and cruelty free,” Stacey stated.
“Our males’s care stock has been outselling many different merchandise.”
One bestseller — the self-explanatory males’s “Crown Jewels Dry Balls Powder.” Asili Magnificence and Wellness carries yoga mats, private care merchandise for expectant and new moms, and different arduous to search out maternity and nativity objects, together with stomach lotions and lotions to assuage sore, breastfeeding mothers.
A lot of their objects have informational notes or movies fastened to the show case, so the client can be taught concerning the product earlier than they purchase.
Seeing the massive variety of canine house owners strolling pets previous the shop prompted the Clarkes to supply a variety of pure pet merchandise.
Married in 2011, the couple stated they’re dedicated to offering distinctive merchandise and customer support prospects of all races will admire.
“Too typically folks assume a Black-owned retailer caters solely to Black folks,” Stacey stated.
“We’re Black-owned, however we supply merchandise that cater to all folks.”
“Plenty of magnificence provide shops that focus on Black or ethnic ladies don’t cater to the client,” Stacey stated.
“It’s virtually like they assume you don’t have any place else to go so we don’t must work on your {dollars}.”
And since many of those shops usually are not Black owned, “they don’t care concerning the merchandise they carry,” Stacey stated.
“There is no such thing as a social accountability. Regardless of how poisonous the product could be, they’re promoting it if individuals are shopping for.”
Whereas some Asili merchandise are made by firms that is probably not well-known, that doesn’t replicate the merchandise’s high quality, Martin stated, however solely that they’ve but to say sufficient market share to draw consideration from the massive field shops.
“The Black greenback is a serious driver for the wonder trade internationally, and the primary development setter,” Martin stated.
“Black folks purchase up-and-coming manufacturers when firms are nonetheless promoting the merchandise in unmarked jars. As soon as the massive firms take an curiosity in them the native, unbiased Black-owned magnificence provide shops can now not promote these manufacturers. Then the client has to take their cash to those huge field shops to purchase a product our neighborhood helped develop.”
“Meaning {dollars} that had been circulated in our neighborhood by that enterprise and people Black-owned magnificence provide shops are now not obtainable. We wished to create an area the place established manufacturers might really feel that they had been working with a black-owned retailer that match their model ethos.”
Asili has a well-trained, educated workers, and the Clarkes are proud that the shop’s esthetics present a luxurious purchasing expertise and present prospects they’re welcomed and appreciated.
The Clarkes have scheduled month-to-month in-store consultations and demonstrations by vendor companions to extend neighborhood engagement and consciousness.
The couple has an extended private and enterprise historical past in South Florida, combining stable careers in advertising and marketing and promoting, Stacey’s grasp’s diploma in healthcare, and Martin’s years of expertise in mergers, acquisitions, and enterprise improvement.
In 2016, they left the company world to launch Clarke Sensible Options. Their shoppers included the Metropolis of Miami, Aetna, the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), and extra.
Asili Magnificence and Wellness is open and doing enterprise in retailer and on-line at AsiliBeauty.web.
This text first appeared on Blackbusiness.com.
