( ENSPIRE Business ) Afro Unicorn Partners With Magical Beauty To Promote Hair-Care Products
ENSPIRE Contributor: Gabrielle Maya
Afro Unicorn® is a fast-growing Black-owned lifestyle brand that has partnered with Magical Beauty, its first Black-owned global licensing partner. They will offer unrivaled hair care that assists with all textures and tresses. April Showers is the LA-based Founder and CEO of Afro Unicorn® and is the first Black woman to own a fully licensed character brand. These hair products are great for women and children. Afro Unicorn® brings the unique, divine, and magical to the retail scene. On September 10th Afro Unicorn® Magical Tresses hair care products will debut at Walmart stores across the United States.
April Showers’s hair and styling collections are for all curl types and are kid-friendly. With fun vibrant colored packaging and a fruity fresh scent infused with rich exotic fruit extracts a focus on moisturizing strengthening and preventing hair damage. The six products are:
- Never a Knot Detangling Shampoo
- 1-2-3 Wishes Silky Conditioner
- Freezie Free & Shine Curl Refresher
- Sparkle Bright Edges & More
- Bye Bye Dry Scalp Serum
- Swirls & Twirls Curl Cream
ENSPIRE interviewed April Showers to discuss her business journey in creating Afro Unicorn®, the new hairline products, retail business strategy, how the products help children, and the partnership with Magical Beauty.
Tell us a little about yourself and your business journey.
I am living the dream! I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and continue on a successful journey as a multi-business owner.
As background, I was born and raised in South Central, Los Angeles, and attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where my creativity and business acumen blossomed. At 19 years old, I established a personal assistant agency to connect celebrities with personal assistants. By my mid-20s, I went on to have an insurance agency and became a licensed real estate broker; both of these businesses are still going strong.
Founding Afro Unicorn® is another leg of my business marathon to uplift and impact women and children. By doing so, I am creating a movement, striving to be the change that I want to see.
When did the creation of the Afro Unicorn® begin?
I was repeatedly referred to as a unicorn by a friend because I was doing it all at an extraordinary level – running multi-companies, taking care of my two incredible honor student sons as a single mother, and enjoying a bustling social life.
Back then, Afro Unicorn® was an organic, grassroots brand, and I was pressing shirts and selling them through my e-commerce store, adding logos to T-shirts and bags at customers’ request. Everything changed in August 2021 when a video of a little girl named Cassidy Brianna wearing an Afro Unicorn shirt went viral with 5 million views, and numerous celebrities shared it with their audiences, including Oprah Daily, Viola Davis, Alicia Keys, Sherri Shepherd, and Tina Knowles.
Then, I received an email from Walmart with the subject title ‘Afro Unicorn® x Walmart’ collaboration, marking my start with the retail giant. Afro Unicorn® started in the party supplies and apparel categories, receiving prime product placement in 3,800 Walmart stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Soon after, we gained prime shelf placement next to Marvel characters and Disney princesses.
Today, our biggest challenge is competing against Disney, Marvel, and Nickelodeon, which have billion-dollar budgets fueled by content. While Afro Unicorn® is still very much a grassroots brand, Afro Unicorn has now become a household name with plans to surpass Hello Kitty! Indeed, we currently have the #1 luggage brand at Walmart, surpassing industry giants!
What are the benefits of the Afro Unicorn® Magical Tresses?
Afro Unicorn® Magical Tresses is a first-ever hair and style collection designed for all curl patterns, kid-friendly, and mom-approved. It features vibrant packaging and a fun, fruity, fresh scent that makes wash day fun! As an added benefit, it is infused with a rich blend of exotic fruit extracts formulated to moisturize, strengthen, and prevent hair from routine damage. Keeping the braids shining and honoring all textures and tresses, this line truly sets a new standard in the multicultural beauty industry with its six-product line that includes: Never a Knot Detangling Shampoo; 1-2-3 Wishes Silky Conditioner; Freezie Free & Shine Curl Refresher; Sparkle Bright Edges & More; Bye Bye Dry Scalp Serum; and Swirls & Twirls Curl Cream.
What was the overall goal that you wanted these new products to achieve for children?
My goal has always been to normalize Black beauty and encourage Black and Brown girls to feel comfortable in their skin and embrace the crown on their heads. Beyond the products, we are launching our own Afro Unicorn® Foundation to continue our social impact efforts and provide children with the confidence they need to embrace who they are – unique, divine, and magical.
Tell us your business strategies and how they have guided you into building this retail business.
My early challenges taught me many valuable lessons that have guided my growth and which I have imparted to other entrepreneurs and business students. My mantra in life is to help enough people get to where they want to be so I can get to where I need to be.
Mindset is everything! Once you develop the mindset of “all gas, no brakes,” you will be unstoppable. Once you program and condition your mind to believe that there isn’t anything you can’t achieve, you will achieve everything you set out to accomplish. It’s one thing to think you can, but a whole other concept to believe you shall. Most entrepreneurs fail in the first three years of business, not due to resources but a lack of confidence and not showing up to work the plan. That said, anything is possible. And the possibilities are endless.
Today, I am proud that my vision and ideas have directly positively impacted others.
Besides, this new hair care line, what other products is Afro Unicorn® best known for?
Afro Unicorn® is best known for our party supplies, apparel, accessories, toys and so much more. 2023 has been a breakthrough year for creativity and authentic representation. Today, Afro Unicorn® has a strong market presence with 25 categories and 500 products in major retail throughout the U.S. Afro Unicorn now has 45+ licensee partners worldwide, now offering books, backpacks, bandages, collectibles, consumables, costumes, luggage, and toys, allowing kids to live and play in the world of Afronia. My six original Afro Unicorn® books under the Random House Books for Young Readers imprint, will be released widely in Fall 2023 starting with ‘A Magical Day.’
As alluded to above, Afro Unicorn® continues to expand beyond the U.S. borders. In February 2023, we entered the Canadian market with a three-piece travel luggage set and toddlers’ and girls’ apparel in Walmart Canada. Next, Afro Unicorn® plans to expand into the European market. To this end, I will be heading to London this fall to showcase Afro Unicorn at Brand Licensing Europe.
What’s it like partnering with Magical Beauty?
We are thrilled to enter the personal care category and add Magical Beauty as our first Black-owned global licensing partner. As our newest licensee, Magical Beauty offers an unrivaled hair care experience for their loyal customers.
How do you see Afro Unicorn® evolving in the next five years, any new product ventures you plan to create?
With Afro Unicorn® turning four on April 28, 2023, the brand is expanding beyond product categories; I am exploring location-based possibilities from restaurants and hotels to entertainment complexes. My vision for Afronia is an empowering, impactful physical space for authentic representation, where children can be their authentic selves and get over that European standard of beauty. In the near future, I envision a place where families can spend time together in a fun, supervised place to play, create, or relax and where kids can be their true selves, bringing self-esteem and motivating them positively.
This coming fall, children will head back to school armed with Afro Unicorn® books, backpacks, pencil cases, and lunch boxes filled with Afro Unicorn® Fruit Snacks. They will be able to dress in Afro Unicorn® apparel, get ready with our new hair care line, “Magical Tresses,” and then style it with Afro Unicorn accessories.
Everything has come full circle, with our latest venture, Afro Unicorn® Entertainment (AUE), starting a licensing agency to bring urban brands up. Among those authentically represented by AUE is our six-year-old author and the cutest CEO ever Cassidy Brianna–the little girl in our viral video! Her new book, “Thank You… It’s An Afro,” presented by Afro Unicorn®, launched as the #1 new release in the kid’s category on Amazon, and it is now available everywhere books are sold!
The brand continues to be a movement with a social impact as we launch our Afro Unicorn® Foundation. This year, we began a long-term partnership with Girls Incorporated of St. Louis (Girls Inc.), and Girls Inc. of Metro Denver which inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold through educational and cultural programs.
We are a strong supporter and one of only a select few brands invited to do a brand activation for Tiffany Haddish’s 1st Annual Prom: A Night Under the Stars on May 19, 2023, for her She Ready Foundation, founded by my close friend Tiffany to provide resources for youth impacted by foster care.
This summer, our swim line debut coincided with our Learn to Swim Initiative, ensuring every child knows how to swim and has equal access to swim camps with partnerships, including Atlanta-based SwemKids and NY-based Black People Will Swim (BPWS NY).
In June 2023, we released our EP titled Afro Unicorn® Presents Vol. 1 EP, presented by Afro Unicorn® Entertainment and distributed by Connect Music across all platforms. The ten-track collection features Brooklyn Marie, the 10-year-old artist and professional voice-over actor for Cocomelon®; Brielle Mariah, Kayla Webb, Marley English & the All-Star Kids. Every song has a deeper meaning that speaks to Afro Unicorn’s social impact movement, empowering artists of color and expressing the brand’s core values.
In addition to these new hair care products Afro Unicorn® has a new EP via Connect Music which aligns with the latest hair care line and has a song “Magical Wash Day” to give self-confidence and encourage children to embrace hair. Afro Unicorn offers apparel, accessories, bandages, backpacks lunch boxes, snacks, and a Six book series of Afro Unicorn® books under the Random House Books for Young Readers imprint, set to launch widely in Fall 2023. Follow Afro Unicorn on Instagram or follow April Showers for more updates on her brand.
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