Essence Iman On Building The Award-Winning Body Care Brand, The Established

From hating her job to negotiating with God to having only $200 to start an award-winning body care brand, Essence Iman is one badass businesswoman and, honestly, one of our favorite people.

Keeping it as real and uncensored as possible, we talk with Essence Iman about her brand, The Established. The ups and the downs, what she would have done differently, what it was like to be featured in Vogue, Cosmo, as well as be a winner of the Glossier Grant Program for Black-Owned Beauty Businesses.

How did The Establish come to be?

I wish I could tell you I had some sort of system and strategy behind it, but it completely snowballed organically. IN THEORY, when I think about it, I had only launched about two years ago, but I started conceptualizing around 2017. I felt like the industry had so beaten me up before you guys got to see what the established is; I was like a good two years deep at this point.

I moved to New York when I was 19 and went to college and thought that I would have this insane music industry career, and I thought that that's what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. I wanted to be a record executive by the time I was 30. I wanted to be like the next Simon Cowell. I did start working in music, and I was so cocky like this is it for me. Who lands this EMI job like this quickly? From EMI and I had gone to Warner, and then you know it was just like crickets after some time there. I had been out of school, and there was no real promising career. The music industry was shifting, and even now, we access our music so differently than we did when I started, like getting into the industry so that I couldn't land a permanent job in music. I ended up in real estate because I just had to do something to pay the bills. I mean, it was tough, so I did real estate for a little while in New York, and it was just insane. I loved it at first. I liked the freedom of it. That was really enticing because I always wanted to be a boss. I never wanted to work for anybody else. I'm the worst employee, I will tell. Terrible. I will literally cry in the bathroom an hour before starting my job because I don't want to be there.

I just kind of fell into real estate, and then it just became really toxic. It became revealed to me about my second year in the industry. Like I don't know that this is the career for me. I don't know that this is what I want to do. Sometimes I'm showing apartments at midnight to do a rental deal, and it's like the deal that you think that's going to go through the put everything initial falls through at the lease signing the client doesn't turn up. And it's like this all the time, so your rent is due, your bills are unpaid, like that's, you know, and it's constant stress. And so I yeah, I felt like I just kind of had a moment where I'm like, you know something needs to change. Everything sort of kind of just fell apart in my life like overnight, like my apartment got bedbugs. I couldn't afford it somewhere else like it was just a disaster.

I ended up moving back to Philly with my mom. And I just was like, and I can't do this anymore. Like, I don't know. I think this is just a sign. I was so beat up. And I knew that I wanted to start my own business. I had always known that about myself. I literally one day just got on my knees, and I prayed to God. I was like, literally God, we're about to get real tight. Like I don't know what to do? I know I can't live like this anymore. Like I cannot do this. Let's press a hard reset, but like God, please give me a business and give me an idea. Please give me something. I will do anything; I will not ruin it. I will not mess up. Honey did not expect to be plopped right over the head with a skincare company.

Creating the brand and your hero product, Elixa, also came out of your experience with KP, Keratosis pilaris.

I had really persistent KP. I struggled with KP, the rough bumps behind your arms and legs like the strawberry leg texture. I mean, most of the population has it to some degree or another. Still, for me, it was awful, like I would be uncomfortable just going to the beach or like I had a boyfriend at the time, like just laying next to me made me feel uncomfortable. I mean, it was just a real pain point for me. It was invisible to many people, but for me, it was like something that I had struggled with my entire life. When I was a teenager, I would take these products and put them on my legs. I didn't think I could turn this into a career; it was done totally out of curiosity. I started researching ingredients that I thought were cool, that I didn't see a lot of other brands working with like at the time. I wasn't really interested in coconut oil or whatever Buzz wordy oils out at the time. I only had $200, and I literally took that $200 on a whim and just placed an order. I ended up coming up with our hero product that you now know as Elixa, our three Body Oil serum, but it was completely organic. I mean, I started with, as I said, I didn't have any money, no savings. I was totally unprepared to start a business, and I didn't think I would snowball it into a business so quickly. I just came up with a product that worked for me, and I thought it was unique and interesting. And then I kind of got carried away.

You were the winner of the Glossier Grant Program for Black-Owned Beauty Businesses. How has that changed the game for you?

When you get the grant, you have to be very detailed about what you're doing with these people's money. Like, I need $50,000, so you know I went into it having a very clear plan about what I wanted to do with the money, and so for me, that looked like manufacturing opportunities. I have been handmaking the products essentially myself. People don't realize I make this product in my space by myself. The grant will help me transition to manufacturing because I have these much larger opportunities that I'm sort of keeping at bay. After all, I can't commit to them because, you know, we don't have the infrastructure. So a massive piece of the funds will go towards that, and then I'm bringing on my first real hire pretty soon, so that's exciting. It's just been my mom and me. I was being able to get a little bit more help. It's mostly just like, allowing me to focus more on being a founder and like pushing The Established forward instead of just being so caught up in the throes of the day today.

How has this whole journey been for you and would you have done anything differently?

I mean, it's funny, and many people are not going to expect me to say this. No one's going to expect me to say this, but the only thing I wish I would have done differently, in the beginning is going back to work. I wish I had done that sooner, which is my biggest regret. Of course, everything worked out the way it was supposed to, but that is probably the only thing that I wish I would change. I had $200, and I'm just going to, like, turn it into like this billion-dollar company from there, and that's not how it works. You do need the money to make money. It's so expensive. It's like even the things you don't expect, is more money you make, the more you should expect to sustain it, and that is not something I was prepared for. But also think that I wish I would have been more honest with myself around funding. You know, like if these opportunities are consistently being denied to you like, yes, unfair, but you still got to do what you got to do to get your company to where you want it to be. And for me, that looked like me going back to work, but it took me probably like about a year to decide to do that. Even though I knew in my spirit like that probably would be the best course of action for me to take to put some money into my business. So yeah, I mean, I would tell everybody, I know it sounds good to be your boss or whatever, but if you're not putting any money into your business, to breathe life into your company, it's just not sustainable.

what are your Top three favorite products?

Oh, my gosh, Elixa, for sure. Like you can not talk about The Established without talking about Elixa. I mean, you must have our top-selling product or our most visible products that are award-winning and highly rated; it's a must. After that, for us, the all-day cream is fantastic. It's kind of like a little silent killer. It's not as visible as Elixa, so people kind of like, oh no, like I don't know if this will work the same, but honey still works the same KP girls all get your hands on some because it works nicely with Elixa after a bath. It's super-absorbent like my legs have never been smoother in my life. After using both and then I would say the rose cleansing bar. I'm going to go for the rose cleansing bar because they make a nice three-step system. It's mildly exfoliating, and it smells super nice, and it's like eucalyptus, lemon oil.

Describe your Slay.

Even when I'm going through a challenging period, I always think about the future. I think about the highest version of myself and the person that I ultimately envisioned myself to be, and it makes me get the fuck out of my bed. For me, my morning routine is very ritualistic. I have to do things for myself and put myself in a state of mind that makes me excited and grateful for where I am.

Follow Essence Iman on her Instagram and to stay up to date on all things with The Established make sure to follow here.

To get more on building The Established plus hear, Co-Founders Chauncey and Heather’s hilarious conversation with Essence Iman make sure to take a listen to our podcast episode out now.