The Hultian Spring 2017 | Page 27

54 Thrones Luxury in Africa C hristina Tegbe is an entrepreneur born in the US but her roots go back to Nigeria, Africa. In her professions she has combined her love for travel, beauty, luxury and roots together to bring her dream to life. Christina's company, 54 Thrones, dedicates its work to all the audacious, enterprising, beyond beautiful African women To me, success was always about freedom. changing pace, changing landscapes and changing minds. Because "If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire." HULTIAN: Tell us a bit about your company and the industry you’re in. CHRISTINA: My company is 54 Thrones. We are a made in Africa luxury beauty brand. Our mission is to normalize the beauty and luxury of Africa. We encourage trade by curating high quality African made products, all the while chronicling authentic African experiences and changing the "pity Africa" narrative one country at a time. We show the Africa we know, highlighting each country's greatness in the form of journeys traveled, authentic experiences and hand-made luxury beauty products. Country by country we partner with artisans curating high-quality luxury products. HULTIAN: How did you get your idea for your business? C: Not too long ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she beat it. Her doctors advised her moving forward to be extremely careful of the products she used on her skin. This made me re-evaluate the products I was putting on my skin and hair and found that the majority of the products I used had harsh chemicals, parabens and synthetic substances in them. So I began to think of when I would visit my family in Nigeria, my aunts would send me packing with small tubs of handmade pure Shea Butter. This Shea Butter was superb when I compared it to the ones sold at the drugstores, so I knew there 27