Meet Jada Buford-Singleton | CEO of Naturally Bodied Body Care

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jada Buford-Singleton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jada, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I created Naturally Bodied Body Care out of my own personal frustrations with eczema. I’ve had eczema my entire life, which primarily shows up on my hands but will also flare up on other parts from time to time. Over the years I’ve had many struggles with finding skincare products that didn’t irritate my skin and break me out. Alongside having eczema I was also extremely acne prone. I had a lot of frustration looking in stores for products because either I’d come across multiple products within the same brand that seemed to be the exact same product in different packaging (which caused me to struggle with deciphering what the actual difference was across product lines), or the product itself irritated my skin, or I would just completely not trust the ingredient list. I enjoyed researching ingredients in my spare time and discovered that many of the “lab appeal” ingredients you’d see on the front of the package would actually be in the product list near the bottom. Which said to me that it wasn’t used in the amounts I’d think considering it’s the marketing point of the entire product. Due to these frustrations I’d developed a “fine I’ll do it myself” attitude, and chose to make my own products so that I knew what exactly was in everything I put on my skin or even in my hair as I was really into natural products for both. I loved DIY skincare for years prior to my business, and loved making my own products from scratch. Granted, I started out getting recipes from Pinterest which, in hindsight, was not the best way to produce skin and hair care for myself. However, When I started Naturally Bodied, I was in my 2nd year of college, and COVID had just hit. I’d got sent home for the rest of the school year with virtual learning. With all of the extra free time I had, I’d been experimenting with natural hair and skin recipes and reading up on what types of ingredients weren’t good for ethnic hair and such as I usually do. During this time, My mother once asked what I think I wanted to do with all of the excess time I had being in virtual learning, and I told her I’d like to make a business. To be be able to make money in my sleep. After that question, I kept having the same struggles with beauty products even more so now because I’d started wearing my hair in it’s natural curly state by this time and really wanted to make sure I was taking great care of my hair. Since I was older I’d actually created some products for myself that really helped with my eczema and made my skin and hair feel so great that I stopped going to the store for those product types. it hit me shortly after that conversation with my mother that my business could be natural skincare. That I could offer the products that I made for myself that helped me to the world and potentially help someone just like me. After that realization I invested in my cosmetic education more. I was already a biology major in college so reading up on scientific articles of common cosmetic ingredients was easy for me to understand. I took courses on cosmetic formulation and started my journey of building a luxury plant based skincare brand!

What should our readers know about your business?
I created Naturally Bodied to be a plant-based, unisex brand. Since it’s inception, my vision for it has changed dramatically. I’m gearing towards affordable luxury. I want to offer people high quality products with effective ingredients, and I want to do that using the earths natural resources as well as offering them at price points that are more sustainable for the average consumer as opposed to other luxury brands who the average person may be able to afford once or twice, but not on an ongoing basis.

I vision for this brand is also for it to go past skincare. At its peak, Naturally Bodied will be a one stop shop for all of a person’s self-care needs, whether it be skincare, hair care, home fragrance, personal fragrance, wellness accessories, or bath and body care products.

Being a unisex brand is also important to me because there’s been a stigmas that really investing in your skin is for girls. I want to create a brand that makes it normal and comfort so for anyone regardless of gender or race to incorporate our products into their lives. I believe luxury shouldn’t be based on exclusivity, but rather inclusivity. I want people to gravitate towards us not because we’ve portrayed ourselves at this out—of-reach brand that’s only for elites or people with significantly high disposable incomes, I want people to gravitate to us because they see themselves in our story, because we truly help them with this problems, and because they trust us. I want Naturally Bodied to be a household name one day.

The journey has been extremely challenging especially in the realms of finances. I started my brand as a sophomore in college and to date have only recent graduated. I’m always limited by how much money I have on hand to get things done, but I keep going because I know that God has placed the vision for this business on my heart. I know this is what I’m meant to be doing, and even in its hardships my business continues to inspire my creativity and I genuinely enjoy building it. Even if it’s brick by agonizing brick. I couldn’t leave this brand even if I tried haha.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First place I would take them is Eclipse di Luna. I’d also take her to my favorite spa, SpaLand or JeJu. My idea of a good time is eating delicious food and relaxing, but I also love some adventure too! I’d probably suggest we do escape rooms since I love solving puzzles and such. I’d take her to Atlantic Station, Halcyon Avalon, or my special favorite, Ponce City Market. Maybe even the Georgia Aquarium is we had the budget to do so!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my parents. Who have supported me in my efforts to build this business from the very beginning whether it be motivationally or financially. I also would like to recognize all of my friends and family members who have been consistently supporting me as well and talking about my brand with their social circles, giving me advice, or even purchasing from me consistently. Finally I’d like to recognize Ethan Green. Without him (and God) I would have given up on my brand several times over. But he continues to uplift, motivate, and support me in all the best ways. I’m forever grateful for the support system God has blessed me with.

Website: NaturallyBodied.com

Instagram: @naturally.bodied | @jada.ricquel

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@NaturallyBodied

Image Credits
Ethan Green