A Beautiful Tale — How nyakio Founder Nyakio Grieco Honors Global Beauty Traditions Through A Marriage of Storytelling And Natural Skincare Formulas
According to Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees, “Stories have to be told or else they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” This quote kept popping into my head as I chatted on the phone with Nyakio Kamoche Grieco, founder of the prestige natural skincare line nyakio (pronounced Neh-kay-oh). After all, each of her products’ formulas corresponds to a poignant story — perhaps a piece of family folklore, an oft-repeated tale passed down from a previous generation; maybe an anecdote of a fortuitous journey abroad; or perhaps a story a close friend related to her in vivid detail. “Storytelling is a huge part of me,” Grieco says from her home in Los Angeles. “I love hearing people’s stories, telling stories, and sharing stories so I think that’s a big part of the brand as well.”
When asked about her own journey into the beauty space, the Oklahoma-bred entrepreneur quickly shifts into raconteuse mode, recalling how at the tender age of 8, she learned her first skincare secret during a trip to Kenya, the birthplace of both her parents. While spending time with her paternal grandmother, who cultivated coffee and sugar cane in her farm at home, Grieco watched rapturously as her elder crushed a handful of coffee beans, then added natural oils and sugar cane extract, blending the ingredients together to create a special exfoliant with which to polish her skin. Not only did the image compel her to begin experimenting with her own skincare concoctions upon her return to Oklahoma, but it eventually served as the impetus behind the creation of her skincare line. “I knew about natural beauty and the sophistication of Africa, so I wanted my products to convey that,” Grieco says. The nyakio Kenyan Coffee Face Polish ($32 at Ulta.com), Kenyan Coffee Body Scrub ($35 at Ulta.com), and Kenyan Coffee Lip Polish ($24 at Ulta.com) served as the foundation for her namesake brand, which she launched over a decade ago as a clean and green indie brand before eventually joining the Sundial Brands family. The partnership has allowed Greico to expand her brand considerably — all while maintaining her initial vision of using only ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients and of honoring ancient beauty traditions in a culturally authentic way, all principles shared by Sundial Brands. Currently, nyakio offers 16 products that contain natural oils sourced from 13 different countries all over the globe including Kenya, Brazil, Spain, China, India, and Peru.
Recalling the first iteration of the nyakio brand, Grieco says her original product line-up was heavily influenced by her African heritage and served as an homage to her grandparents — not only to her paternal grandmother, but also to her maternal grandfather, who had been a medicine man in Kenya. Throughout her childhood, Grieco heard stories about her grandfather’s ability to treat numerous ailments using botanical extracts — among them acne flare-ups. “As an adolescent, I experienced some of the breakouts that result from all the hormonal changes that happen at that age, and I remember going to the drugstore with my mom and reading the labels of all these anti-acne products, then turning to her and asking, ‘What did you use for your skin when you were young?'” Grieco recalls. “My mom said, ‘Your grandfather knew exactly which herbs to use so he’d make this concoction, place it on a leaf, and then he’d press the leaf against my face. When I woke up the next morning morning, my pimple would be gone.'” The story stuck with Grieco — so much so that, after her Kenyan Coffee products, she developed a range of nyakio face oils as a nod to her grandfather.
As the years passed, Grieco started to look for inspiration in other countries and cultures. “I started by honoring the continent of Africa and then, as I grew in my journey, I realized I wanted to cultivate all of these beauty secrets that were entrusted to me by my multicultural group of girlfriends and my family members, as well as those I’ve learned during my travels, through this green and clean, ethically and sustainably sourced, cruelty-free, beautiful and efficacious skincare brand,” Grieco says. One of her closest friends, for instance, is of Indian descent and told her about the skin-healing and rejuvenating powers of tamanu oil, which is extracted from the kernel inside the fruit that blooms on the Calophyllum inophyllum, known colloquially as the tamanu tree. “What I discovered through her and through my own research is that, in India, tamanu oil is viewed almost in the same way as we think of aloe vera here in the Western world,” Grieco says. “Aloe vera is seen as having medicinal benefits, being very healing and calming, helping to treat sunburns, and so on, and that’s exactly how tamanu oil is used in India. And I love aloe vera, but what I love even more about tamanu oil is that it’s so deeply hydrating and so incredibly soothing.” The ingredient can now be found in the nyakio Tamanu Firming Face Balm ($45 at Ulta.com), a concentrated balm that reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and gives the skin a supple look.
By listening intently to the beauty secrets shared by her multicultural group of friends and celebrating the skin-loving natural ingredients prized in their corresponding cultures, she hopes her brand will be a reflection of the power of female solidarity. “I grew up far away from much of my family, so the ability to connect and to build authentic friendships where you build each other up and you support each other through the ups and downs, that’s been a key part of my life,” Grieco reflects. “Being able to incorporate that girlfriendship into the brand, that idea that great things happen when women come together, that’s huge to me.”
Even the nyakio products’ packaging cleverly speaks to the brand’s core values — all while telling a story in the most playful of ways. How so? Well, the products’ boxes open in a highly unusual way, unfolding from their square or rectangular shapes so that they resemble bits of origami, with each fold and crevice containing a helpful tidbit of information about thee brand’s socially and ethically responsible principles, about the key ingredients found in that particular product, and more. As it turns out, the packaging was inspired by the paper fortune teller many of us played as kids. For those unfamiliar with the game, it involves folding a piece of paper into an origami-like shape, so that eight flaps remain on the inside, each concealing a different hidden message, and the exterior portions of the origami shape contain numbers and colors. One player would typically hold the origami like shape and ask the other to pick a number or color and, depending on their choices, a specific answer would be revealed. “I always wanted everything to have some sort of connectivity, like a road map to life,” Grieco says, “so I was obsessed with that game as a kid.” When working with Sundial to create the perfect packaging for her products, Grieco came back to that childhood memory. “It’s a storyteller game, and it was the perfect reference for the boxes because I want this to be a brand that tells a story. It’s bigger than skin. I’m telling my story. I’m telling other peoples’ stories. I’m sharing the stories of everything that we stand for. When you open up the products, you kind of get your own passport to beauty: we give you the latitude and longitude of the [countries from which we sourced the] key ingredients, we tell you what we stand for, and give you a little background on us.”
As a beauty secret curator, then, Greico is helping to keep ancient beauty traditions alive for future generations, making her the foremost storyteller in the natural beauty space.
Find out more about the nyakio product line at Nyakio.com and scoop up your favorites at Ulta.com. I’m obsessed with the Chinese Rice Exfoliating Powder ($26 at Ulta), which is gentle enough for even the most sensitive skin and leaves the complexion smoother and brighter, and I’m currently smitten with the Maracuja & Yangu Soothing Oil ($42 at Ulta), which has been bringing my skin back to life after a facial peel gone very, very wrong. Another favorite is the African Baobab Youth Infused Daily Defense Creme ($35 at Ulta), which restores the skin’s natural glow while defending it against free radicals.
Have you tried any nyakio products? Which are your favorites?
And what are some of the beauty secrets you’ve learned from your own parents, grandparents, aunts and cousins, and your close friends?
