In the latest episode of Plant Based On Fire, Bryan interviews Niambi Cacchioli, a historian of global Black culture, esthetician, and founder of Pholk Beauty, a skincare brand that uses superfoods to nourish the skin while providing financial opportunities to Afro-Appalachian farmers. What sets Niambi apart is not just her expertise in skincare but her deep connection to her heritage. Growing up in Kentucky among Black cultivators, she learned early on that Black folk are inherently green folk, and that connection to the land runs deep in her blood.
Pholk Beauty was born out of this understanding—Niambi’s passion for both cultural preservation and skin wellness fused with her mission to uplift overlooked farming communities.
"I grew up really thinking that all Black folk were green folk. We didn’t call it sustainability or green living. It just was,"
she shared during the podcast, recalling her early memories of gardening with her grandfather and how mint, aloe, and honeysuckle became part of her wellness routine.
A Journey from Historian to Accidental Founder
Niambi never set out to be a skincare founder, but her journey organically unfolded as she moved from Kentucky to global cities like London and Paris. After struggling to find products for her reactive, melanin-rich skin, she began crafting her own skincare remedies using natural botanicals. What started as a personal necessity became the foundation for her business.
"I didn’t really travel much until my twenties, and it wasn’t until then that I realized not everyone had the same connection to the land that I did,"
Niambi explains. While in Europe, she frequently visited apothecaries, sourcing ingredients like witch hazel and cocoa butter—elements reminiscent of her upbringing.
It wasn’t until friends began to notice her glowing skin and asked for her creations that Niambi considered turning her passion into a business. For years, she made products for friends, refusing payment until they insisted on at least covering the cost of ingredients. That’s when she realized the power of her formulations and Pholk Beauty was born.
Insights You'll Gain from This Episode:
The Connection Between Melanin and Skincare: Niambi explains that melanin is more than just a pigment—it's a key part of our immune system. Pholk Beauty aims to educate consumers about the importance of nurturing melanin-rich skin with ingredients that work with, not against, its natural defense mechanisms.
Sustainability Rooted in Heritage: Pholk Beauty sources ingredients from Black farmers in Kentucky, Africa, and the Caribbean, adding value to local crops and supporting cooperative farming efforts.
The Importance of Starting Small: Niambi offers business advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the need to start with one product, perfect it, and listen closely to customer feedback.
Soul Food for the Skin
Pholk Beauty’s ethos is centered around one powerful idea: skin nourishment that goes beyond beauty and into the heart of cultural heritage.
“I love to think of Pholk’s ingredients as soul food for the skin,” says Niambi.
Sourcing ingredients like hibiscus from Senegal, moringa from Ghana, and shea butter from Nigeria, her brand is about more than just skincare—it’s about reconnecting Black communities with their agricultural roots.
Niambi’s drive to create clean, melanin-focused products is reshaping how we think about beauty. She explains,
"The beauty industry has latched onto insecurities about dark marks and hyperpigmentation, but instead of addressing root causes, they suppress melanin. My mission is to reclaim melanin as a wellness superhero."
Lessons for Plant-Based Entrepreneurs
Niambi’s story is a reminder that building a successful plant-based business starts with understanding your roots. Her advice to fellow entrepreneurs is simple but profound:
"Start with one product. Focus on quality and packaging. Listen to your customers—they are the heart of your business."
Pholk Beauty is not just about making skin glow; it’s about empowering communities, respecting the land, and nourishing the spirit. As Niambi moves forward, her goal is to continue this mission by expanding Pholk into the wellness category, exploring new products like supplements and beverages that align with her “soul food for the skin” philosophy.
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Episode’s Transcript
Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.
Bryan (00:00)
Hello everybody and welcome to Plant Based On Fire where we are talking about plant based businesses and their inspiring stories to thrive in our industry. I am your host Bryan and joining us today is Niembi Kekyoli, a historian of global black culture, an aesthetician and a fifth generation of cultivator from Kentucky. She is also the founder of Folk Beauty where they repurpose superfoods for skincare and provide
awesome financial opportunities in overlooked Afro -Appalachian communities. So welcome to the show, Niambi.
Niambi Cacchioli (00:36)
my gosh, that was such a mouthful to hear it back. Thank you for sharing my story. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me today.
Bryan (00:42)
Yeah. mean, congrats on all these successes. I would love to unpack it for our listeners who are just getting to know you. Like what started you to create Folk Beauty and how does it like talk about your background as a historian and influence your business? Unpack it for us a little bit.
Niambi Cacchioli (00:45)
Thank
Yeah, sure. So I'm an accidental founder for sure. I like I like you said, I grew up in Kentucky. I was born in Atlanta and I grew up around black folk that either had farm lineage or were farmers. Every black person I knew had a garden. And so I grew up really thinking that all black folk are actually green folk.
I thought it was, you know, I honestly thought that all black people were like that because I didn't really travel until I was in my twenties. And so we didn't really have words for it. We didn't call it sustainability or green living. It just was great. And so I learned how to nourish my insides and my outsides with these very pure
everyday ingredients like aloe, honeysuckle, a lot of rose. I had a lot of rose gardeners in the family. And especially my grandfather, he was a country boy and he had a plot of land out in the country and I would just love to like hop in the back of his pickup truck, you know, they wouldn't know seat belts back in the day. And we would go out during like the gardening season and I would just get my hands and my nails in the dirt.
Bryan (02:05)
Mm -hmm.
That's right.
Niambi Cacchioli (02:28)
And my grandfather, his... I associate mint with my grandfather because he loved mint. Like his wild mint would wrap all around my grandmother's rose bushes. Mint is also like very sweet and it also helps with mental clarity. you know, I had so many attachments like instead of cooking soul food when I...
Bryan (02:44)
Great.
Niambi Cacchioli (02:56)
would travel, I ended up like making a lot of skin remedies. so yeah, so that's how I grew up. And I went to school in St. Louis, I did my undergrad in St. Louis, actually did Middle Eastern studies. Iran was like, I did deep dives into Iranian culture, I learned Iranian literature and language. And that took me to grad school in London, where it was really like Bryan, my first
Bryan (03:00)
Mmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (03:26)
My first experience living in a big city, because I grew up in Lowell, which is city from Kentucky, but I was so homesick the first year that I lived in London. And one of the things that made me feel close to home is that London had apothecaries all over the city and they were very accessible. Herbs were affordable.
Bryan (03:31)
Yeah.
Yes.
Niambi Cacchioli (03:56)
go into an apothecary, you pick up a little basket, and then you just buy botanicals like you buy groceries in the States. And so I would, you know, like once a month I'd go to my local apothecary and I would get my witch hazel and my cocoa butter and my aloe vera and all these things that evoked the kinfolk that I grew up with. I was still, I was working on my my graduate research.
Bryan (04:04)
Hmm.
You
Niambi Cacchioli (04:26)
And so I was, you know, very in my head, but I would have this like little secret garden every once in a while, like every month I would, I would make skin remedies for me. And that was, was like my secret garden. Like I didn't really tell anybody I was doing it. and I lived in London and then met Mr. Cacchioli where I get my last name, who is Italian. I met him while I was living in London.
Bryan (04:42)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (04:56)
And we eventually moved over to Paris and it just honestly never occurred to me that being a skincare founder was a career because I grew up with people, especially women, who would use these like very pure family ingredients to heal their skin. So I never bought those kinds of ingredients. I never bought those remedies. I would just...
Bryan (05:08)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (05:25)
buy the ingredients and make it myself. And so.
Bryan (05:28)
And it's, it like, we've interviewed so many people on the show that have started, you they've, they've sort of wandered into this founder thing. Like you're talking about, like, did it grow organically? It's like, can I try some of that? Or now I have to have that. Can you make me more of it? Like, how did it, how did you realize like, I should sell this or turn this into a thing?
Niambi Cacchioli (05:49)
So I, it took a while. I actually took 15. Yeah, because I grew up, you know, in, so I'm 50, I'm almost 51. And I grew up in a time and a place where I'm the first generation to really go to integrated schools. My mom, yeah, that's a whole different podcast.
Bryan (05:52)
Yeah, it always does. People think it's instant overnight, but it doesn't, but it grows organically and
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (06:18)
I grew up around a lot of community organizers and community builders. And so for me, I couldn't really understand how you can use like skincare for community building. And so, so I was deeply involved with like, outreach and cultural programming. But when I moved to Paris, I had been making skincare for about, I had been making my own skincare for like,
five years regularly. And what I've what I found is that my friends would be like, how is it that you're looking younger each year? And you're looking older? Like, what are you doing? And I was like, I make my own face cream. I make my own this I make my own that. So they were like, please, can we they were asking me to make some and I refused payment for like three years. And finally, they said, Can we at least buy the ingredients?
Bryan (06:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (07:15)
And so I was like, sure. And so while I was in Paris, worked for UNESCO and I got to travel a lot. And I loved like going to like India and Turkey and Morocco and seeing these community builders who both men and women would use like aspects of their
Bryan (07:18)
Yeah
Niambi Cacchioli (07:44)
heritage, whether it was like sewing or food, but like everyday things and they were changing the lives of people in their community. And I was, you know, as an academic, I was in awe of how much change they were able to cultivate.
Bryan (07:59)
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (08:12)
And I just, you know, I still didn't think that it was something for me. But fast forward, when I moved back to the States, I had been out of the States for 12 years. And I was teaching at Rutgers, the state school in New Jersey. I was five months pregnant. And the stress was all over my face. Can we curse on this show? What did you say? It was all over my fucking face. I mean, I had...
Bryan (08:34)
Yeah. We can. can.
Niambi Cacchioli (08:42)
I had dark marks, had breakouts, I had fine lines, and you know, I was trying to shop natural skincare the way that I had adopted in London and Paris, and in the New York, New Jersey area, it's either too expensive or...
What I was running into a lot in natural skincare stores is that the ingredients were too, they were too heavy for my skin type. They would clog my pores and break out. They were too gritty, had too much alcohol. And also like as a historian of African diaspora, like global black culture,
Bryan (09:20)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (09:34)
who had traveled to Senegal and Iran and Turkey and India and all over the South and all over Europe, I knew where these ingredients were coming from. I knew that hibiscus was coming from Senegal and moringa was coming from Ghana and shea was coming from Nigeria. But whenever I would go into organic stores or clean beauty stores, there were no roots. They were all called tropical.
Bryan (10:01)
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Niambi Cacchioli (10:03)
ingredients. so, you know, people, consumers didn't realize that they've been using black cultivated ingredients for decades. They didn't know where they were coming from. And so when I would go into stores, you know, I was asking for different, I had different needs, different concerns. And many of the stores didn't even know what melanin was. They didn't know the name of the pigment.
Bryan (10:15)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (10:34)
that we all have and so I was like, huh.
Bryan (10:37)
that's something I really want you to focus on, because that's what I was, when I was doing my research on folk and what you're doing. Like, can you explain the significance of really focusing on that? Like you said, people don't realize that's the secret ingredient that gives us all the shades of the rainbow are on this planet in so many different ways and how we have to take care of that and everything else. So help unpack that for some people.
Niambi Cacchioli (10:40)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was so me, you know, having to really like folk story. The origin story is about me coming back to the States and me finding a place for myself in wellness and having this idea of what American the American wellness industry is. My idea of it was really based off of
Bryan (11:13)
Mm -hmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (11:30)
my upbringing with black and brown folk who had been in the South for like 300 years. so folk initially was about telling the story of how black folk in the US, Africa and the Caribbean and all over Europe have infused our
world with so much healing and really giving the roots, giving the cultural roots back with ingredients. And so, you know, initially I just would make like very basic ingredients because I had two young kids. I was making it in my house. These ingredients were, were, like they all, all of my products smell like food. And so my two year old and five year old, they wanted to eat it.
Bryan (11:59)
Mm
They're sampling.
Niambi Cacchioli (12:26)
So initially, at the beginning, coming up with a vegan skincare line was me making sure that if I'm making any products around my kids, that it's not going to them in danger. And what I found is that it's so much easier to take care of your skin, less is more. Like the more natural, the plant -based, the fresher the ingredients that you're using are.
Bryan (12:37)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (12:56)
the better the results are gonna be. so, so initially I set up a brick and mortar in Jersey City and it was almost like a cafe. People would come in and they would tell me what their skin needs are and I would basically create a skincare line, like a seasonal skincare line around what they were asking me for. And, you know, it's hard to scale when you're doing custom. And so I said, well,
Also, I had so many black and brown women coming in and talking about their skin like it was a problem. They would always start the conversation with, have problematic skin. I don't know what's happening with my skin. I tried everything and my acne, my dark marks, my ingrown hairs, it's getting worse.
Bryan (13:43)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Yeah
Niambi Cacchioli (13:56)
And for them, you know, they're buying like eight times the amount of skincare as the aggregate. Right? Black and Latino women, they will buy $800 versus $100 of skincare. And I wanted to figure out why that is. And so I am a researcher. And also like as...
Bryan (14:04)
Great. Yeah. Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (14:24)
As a social scientist, what I was hearing is that they were saying, I'm the problem. I have the
Bryan (14:30)
Yeah, that's yeah. It's so fascinating because like, you know, the thing that, that I find like when I talk to people about this too, it's just like, well, look, you know, what you eat is going to affect your skin and everything you do too. So like, I always say like, have you tried the plant based diet for 30 days or something like just to see what, I know my skin cleared up when I went vegan on that front. Like I had this stuff on my cheeks and this, that, the other thing I really,
Niambi Cacchioli (14:44)
Right.
absolutely.
Bryan (14:58)
Like the two aspects I want you to help me unpack just on the business side of this a little bit is you were talking about it I'm just curious how, how you've incorporated like the sustainability pieces of this. But then I also want you to unpack for us a little bit. you know, the, the real men eat plants side of this fence for us is like the women get the skincare and, honestly, like I, we just met for this, for this podcast recording and I,
When I first saw you, I'm like, this is a young founder. She's probably 28, early thirties maybe. And like, so your skin looks amazing. Mother of two, like I've got three kids and you and I are about the same age pretty much. And like, I look older. I've got my gray hair sneak into your, whatever you're doing is working amazing for you. So congrats. So I want to, I want to help men realize the value of, taking good care of their skin and following some of these treatments and also.
Niambi Cacchioli (15:33)
Yeah. Yeah.
Great.
Bryan (15:55)
the sustainability angle, like you're sourcing these ingredients from these amazing places and you're showcasing them. So just help unpack both of those topics for us.
Niambi Cacchioli (15:58)
Mm
So we're both agreed that it is healthier and it's easier and it's more affordable to use plant -based skincare. I think where the industry struggles for both men and women, but particularly people of color, is that they don't understand what melanin is. Melanin is a polymer that's in our skin.
Bryan (16:15)
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (16:33)
it's super under researched, but cutting edge research shows that, it actually is part of our immune system. I mean, the skin is the front line of the immune system, right? Melanin it, everybody has melanin. I can see your melanin right now. Like melanin is in your eyes. It's in your eyebrows. It is in your skin. Anytime you're getting a tan, your
Bryan (16:45)
Mm -hmm.
Yes.
Right.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (17:00)
You're saying hello to your melanin, or your melanin is saying hello to you. So everybody from, everybody of all hues, we all have melanin. Because it's associated with people of color, it is profoundly under -researched. And, you know, my mission is really to reclaim melanin as a wellness superhero because melanin is the adaptive part of our skin.
Bryan (17:01)
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (17:30)
So it helps us detect pathogens, it protects from UV rays. This is one of reasons why people who have melanin -rich skin, the signs of aging are like 10 years delayed. We have other signs of aging, like our skin gets thicker, we get moles, but in terms of like wrinkling, we're about 10 years behind other people.
Bryan (17:56)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (17:59)
And that's because we have more melanin that is shielding some UV rays. Now we still need to use sunscreen. But because melanin is an adaptive pigment, it protects us. I like to think of melanin as like that aunt that is always doing things for you, even when you don't want them to. And so...
Bryan (18:26)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (18:28)
If melanin detects an irritation and inflammation, if it detects too much sun, if there's too much stress, if there's too much sugar, it's going to go on the defense. And that defense is called hyperpigmentation. So what the beauty industry has latched onto is that black and brown women feel self -conscious about having dark marks after,
an acne breakout or, you know, if somebody has waxed us too roughly, or even like stress can show up with hyperfeminitation, they've kind of latched onto this insecurity that we have. And so instead of addressing the root causes, they're just like, let's suppress melanin, which for me, just, as you know, when I talk to immunologists, they're like,
Bryan (19:21)
Mmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (19:25)
Your industry is suppressing your immune system? Like what? You know what mean?
Bryan (19:27)
Yeah. And you'd think with all the money, like you said, pouring into this, that they spend on it more than your average person, that there'd be a tremendous amount more research in that space, right? So.
Niambi Cacchioli (19:39)
I think that in five years there will be sunscreens with melanin in them. think once the challenge that wellness is going to have is re -educating the consumer on melanin and letting people, like encouraging all hues to really
Bryan (19:46)
Hmm. Hmm.
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (20:09)
rethink melanin. For men in particular, ingrown hairs is such an issue for those that are shaving, especially if you have curly, coarse Mediterranean hair, kinky, black, African, Latinx hair. Part of it is that, you know,
Bryan (20:13)
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (20:39)
Part of it is the direction that men are shaving in. But also, if you think about it, when you have tightly coiled hair, when it's coming out of the follicle, it's winding, right? So if you have straight hair, it's just gonna be able to come out of the follicle. But if you have coily hair, it might get stuck here, and then that's gonna cause inflammation, and it's gonna clog that pore, right? So a lot of men will prefer to either keep their beard
Bryan (20:58)
Mm
Yeah. Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (21:09)
grown out to mask the one in their hand. Or they're starting, they're also starting to shave and use these hyperpigmentation treatments. What I would say for them is first go to an esthetician and get some, like, get some counsel on like the direction that you're shaving. Before you're like,
Bryan (21:12)
That's right. Yep.
Niambi Cacchioli (21:39)
trying to fade your marks, really get to those root causes of what's causing your in -broom hairs. Right?
Bryan (21:48)
Yeah. What and help unpack the sustainability side just a little bit. And then I want to hit you with a three or four like business specific questions to help other people that are entering into this skincare space. So talk to us about how you source things and yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (22:03)
So sustainability is a really interesting question because the majority of Black and Brown founders are already sustainable because we're coming from cultures that either live really close to the land. A lot of us are introducing our heirloom botanicals. I love to think of folks' ingredients as soul food for the skin.
Bryan (22:31)
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (22:33)
And I had, you know, I'm a plant nerd, I'm an ingredient nerd, and I'm also a farm girl. That's where I am the most myself. And initially I was sourcing primarily from Senegal, from Ghana, North Africa, and even got to travel to Senegal and like meet the producer. my God.
Bryan (23:00)
So cool, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (23:02)
It was so fun to like, you go in and they have a test garden, is it's growing all of the botanicals that they process, right? Going through like this little sliver of paradise and there's a group of like 12 women, they're all sitting on the floor and they're all processing one ingredient at a time. They were doing Moringa at that time. And so I got to see like,
Bryan (23:14)
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (23:33)
from like the stem to the final product. So they process it, then they dry some, then they powder it. They're also pressing the seeds. And that is scaling. They're taking one plant and they're using it from seed to leaf. And they're doing it one plant at a time. And for me, I was like, why aren't black American farmers doing this?
Bryan (23:36)
Mm
Yeah.
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (24:03)
Why aren't we doing this? And so that really led me to my calling. Because when we look on the shelves of, you know, organic, clean beauty stores, now we see a lot of ingredients coming from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, but less than 1 % of
Bryan (24:12)
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (24:32)
founders in skincare and wellness are sourcing from homegrown Farm less than one percent and of that one percent Why? Yeah, and so I was like why what's what is the what is the obstacle for? Afro Appalachian farmers and I say Afro Appalachian because When I go to Kentucky when I go to North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia
Bryan (24:40)
That's right. We have to, we have to get back to that core basics for sure. Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (25:03)
On the ground, farmers are working cooperatively together. Right? Like there are a lot of coalition building.
Bryan (25:08)
Mm
And that's still a strong farming belt of America right there. It's just like, how do we teach them some of these things? And how do we say like, if you do this, you can 10 extra revenue because it's such in demand and everything else too, right? So, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (25:15)
Right.
Yeah. So I started going to like farm conferences. I'm a researcher, so I met people in the field and I was, I, instead of going to a farm and saying, do you have lavender? Do you have hibiscus? Do you have these ingredients? I reverse engineer it and I go to the farm and I say, what is growing that is
Bryan (25:29)
Mm -hmm.
Niambi Cacchioli (25:53)
relatively easy to harvest, process, store, and has like a long, like multiple growth and harvesting cycles. So it's more about what's already growing their fields and how to add value to that. That for me is sustainable. And also for African -American farmers in particular, our heritage is cooperative.
farming. You if you look back post slavery, newly freed Black folk who, you know, had been farming for generations for their plantations were coming together and they were building one farm at a time. And so, you know, as a historian to go back into those records and really see, I guess the question for me was like,
Bryan (26:44)
That's right.
Niambi Cacchioli (26:53)
It was done before with people who had way less means. How do we get back to that? Right? And so I am obsessed with cooperative farming. think just in my, know, I'm headed back to Kentucky, to Lexington in early September for the Black Soil Kentucky Conference. And, you know,
Bryan (26:56)
Yeah. Yeah.
I love it.
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (27:22)
me and the founder of that CSA, what we're really trying to figure out is what is the equipment that we can invest in that motivates black farmers to pivot from farmers markets which have such... there's like... they're so precarious because you have to go ahead and harvest all of the... harvest and process and wash all the crops.
And if you have a bad market, what are you going to do with all those crops? You have to eat it or feed away. Whereas
Bryan (27:55)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't think, I don't think people, least, you know, I grew up in the suburbs and, know, I grew up next to the farms and got to play in the farm, but I didn't grow up doing it like you did. And it's so interesting to see, like to talk about community supported agriculture, just in general, like these collection of farms that can come together and I'll grow the watermelons and you grow the peaches or whatever it is on that front.
Niambi Cacchioli (28:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan (28:23)
That is such a powerful thing. I encourage everybody who's listening to check out your local CSA support them because they're doing exactly what your mission is. They're helping create ingredients for the beauty products. They're helping create fruits and stuff for the local supermarkets, all that stuff. Plus you can just sign up and get a box of food delivered once a week. Well, it's in season. Like it's just an amazing thing. I want to unpack a couple little things with you about the business side of it. Like what is.
Niambi Cacchioli (28:45)
absolutely.
Bryan (28:51)
What's the one piece of advice that you'd give to aspiring entrepreneurs trying to get into this plant -based beauty industry?
Niambi Cacchioli (29:01)
I would say do your research first. If there are brands that are already making products that you have in mind, don't do it because it's so over saturated. The other thing is start with one product. Just do it with one. Start with one, like go full force. The packaging has to be like, get a graphic designer, have dope packaging.
Bryan (29:17)
Yeah, I think that.
Niambi Cacchioli (29:31)
and focus on launching that one product.
Bryan (29:33)
I agree completely. Where do you see folk beauty going in the next five years?
Niambi Cacchioli (29:40)
So we want to definitely expand into the wellness category and our Full Food for the Skin mission is begging us to go into either, we're trying to decide now if we're either going to do a beverage or a supplement. If you check out my Instagram, I have a very healthy obsession with okra.
Bryan (30:06)
It's pickled okra is one of my favorites. People, if you haven't, I have the little jars of it I get at the farmers market of the pickled okra. It is addicting. So be careful.
Niambi Cacchioli (30:15)
Yeah. I'm so jealous that you even have okra. Like when I was in North Carolina, they were like 16. So I mean, Whole Foods has okra now, but it is insane. But like, they're not growing okra yet. But I would I would invite all of y 'all to go onto Folk Beauty's Instagram and just
Bryan (30:20)
You can't get it up north. Yeah. Yeah.
That's true.
Niambi Cacchioli (30:43)
start scrolling our, we have an okra water series. I'm inviting my followers to like get creative with their okra water because 50 wear. You know what I mean? Like, right?
Bryan (30:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. I've not tried that. I'll have to give Ochre Water a try here and experiment with that. I like the pickled one, but that's a good one to try out. Last sort of businessy question, and then we'll get into a couple wrap -up type things here. How has customer feedback shaped some of your product development and some of your direction for folks?
Niambi Cacchioli (31:04)
Yeah.
Customer feedback, our customers are the heart of our business. They will DM, they feel...
Bryan (31:39)
It's their favorite, right? All right. I mean, you find a good product, like you take it into the family with you, right?
Niambi Cacchioli (31:39)
territorial.
Thank
Yeah, it is their brand and I actually discontinued a product because I made it into a larger size and it was an eye roller and I made it into like a 50 mil pump but people are still trying to understand like they just ran out of their eye nectar with the eye roller.
And I got a DM, somebody said that their husband was crying because they couldn't find it on my site. And I was like, I mean, I take that seriously and I'm going to come back with the eye roller. know, people, especially like my writer dies, they will give me feedback like,
Bryan (32:17)
Hahaha.
Yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (32:42)
your featherlight skin nectar is the duct tape that holds my skin together or your face washes my crack and so I wouldn't have a business without my customers. am such a nerd and an introvert despite I mean I'm in my room so you're getting like you're getting at home Niamh B but you know my customers have like really reached into my business and
Bryan (32:45)
Wow, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (33:12)
they, I formulate for them. Like I, yeah. I formulate for them.
Bryan (33:14)
Yeah. Well, we, I mean, we all want to, we all want to make enough money to, to, know, to live and to eat, but to, you know, take a nice vacation down that I don't think the majority of us are not greedy and trying to be billionaires, but we do want to have that impact on our customers. We do want to change the world. We do want to let people live a healthier, happier life. And we want to make a little bit of money along the way. and it sounds like you're, you're doing that in spades, Andy. So congratulations on.
Niambi Cacchioli (33:30)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan (33:44)
on building it. Where do you sort of see the legacy of folk beauty going and the beauty industry in general, like as the future progresses? And then tell us.
Niambi Cacchioli (33:57)
Well, one, so I'm going to start formulating with Chaga to really unpack the understanding of melanin because Chaga has natural phyto melanin in it. I'm super excited. I'm a little nervous about that because people of color, like they are very, like we have a cultural understanding of melanin and I'm pushing back saying actually melanin is
Bryan (34:11)
Okay.
Niambi Cacchioli (34:25)
part of nature, watermelon seeds have melanin. Yeah, I think my legacy is being a rebel and really filling out this notion of inclusive skincare and starting with inclusive formulations, but also lancing some of those taboo issues that we have of particularly
Bryan (34:26)
Everything, yeah, yeah.
Niambi Cacchioli (34:54)
what melanin is and who has it and where we get it. think that yeah.
Bryan (34:55)
It's spot on because like I'm fighting on the real many plant side that masculinity is tied to meat and bacon and stuff and it's not. You know what mean? Like how do we get more men to come plant based on that? Because there's such a cultural stigmatism that if I don't eat meat I'm not manly enough. So I feel your pain on a big, big level there.
Niambi Cacchioli (35:05)
Mmm.
If you ever come to New York area, please let me know. I'll take you to some Afro diaspora spots because in the black vegan community and black veganism is the largest, the fastest growing. There could be a tendency for it to be hyper masculine.
Bryan (35:36)
It's the fastest growing. Yeah, I know, exactly.
Mmm, that's good. want to see how they've I have to unpack that with your historian type Perspective on it is like how do we bring that to the general masses? So yeah, there's something we should we should do a whole episode on just that and unpack that some more so It has been awesome talking with you Obviously we could keep talking for a long time, but I want to make sure we summarize this I hope you come back on the show when you launch some of your new
Niambi Cacchioli (35:50)
Yeah.
Mm
This is good. This is good on that. Yeah, yeah.
Bryan (36:13)
new products and stuff and you can talk to us all about it and we'll have you on some other episodes to unpack some other angles that we've uncovered here. What can we do as a community to help all the people that are watching this show and what are the best ways to get in touch with Niamh B and Folk Beauty?
Niambi Cacchioli (36:32)
So definitely go onto folkbeauty .com. We have our glow, we call it glow maintenance, our glow maintenance essentials. And my 16 year old teen boy uses the glow water. So for men and for women and days and thems as well. And...
Bryan (36:50)
Good.
Mm
Niambi Cacchioli (36:57)
I would actually, like you can find me at Folk Beauty on Instagram, but I would also love it if you could, you know, find out a little bit more about your local CFA, find out more about Black Farming Movement. are cooperatives in the South and they're doing such good work to raise awareness with Black
hillbilly indigenous farmers on the resources that are available to them to add value to the crops they're already growing. So definitely it would be fantastic for us, yeah, check it out.
Bryan (37:37)
Yeah, the sustainability of our planet depends on us getting back to understanding seasonality and local organic stuff that you can get. So I strongly encourage that.
Niambi Cacchioli (37:46)
One.
Yeah, and there's exciting, there's exciting innovation going on. So it's not all doom and gloom. They are literally regenerating, reinventing farming. Yeah.
Bryan (38:00)
That's right. And it's folk beauty, but that's a P -H -O -L -K. So don't be using the F on that. Put the P -H on there and you can find out a whole bunch more of folk beauty. It has been a pleasure having you on the show now. Thank you for joining us, sharing your insights. I love it. That's such a great little saying.
Niambi Cacchioli (38:11)
Just say, love.
Thank you. It has been so amazing to be here.
Bryan (38:28)
That's great. Well, that is all the time we do have for this episode of Plant Based on Fire. Again, thank you, Namby, for joining us. I hope you come back when you launch a new product and tell us about it, and we will be in touch for sure. Until next time, everybody, keep the fires burning. Thanks again, Namby.
Niambi Cacchioli (38:29)
Yeah.
Thank
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