Mrs. Camila Osimi is the CEO of CAMMYZ Cosmetics & SPA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts as well as a Masters Degree in Creative Arts both from the University of Lagos, Akoka, but she says that she is a skin doctor. In this interview with our Correspondent, CHINWE MADUAGWU, she talks about what she does as a skin doctor, among other things
TNE: What do you mean when you say you are a skin doctor?
I mean that I treat skin issues using skin care products formulated by me.
TNE: How did you get into the business of formulating creams?
Before I started making creams, I had been using different products from different so called skin doctors but I saw that they weren’t good for my skin. They caused a whole lot of damages instead of repairing and giving me my desired complexion. It got to a stage that my skin was full of patches. I couldn’t put on slippers because my toes were like ‘coke and fanta’. I had all sorts of discolouration. Naturally, I am fair but my husband had to call me and ask why I was bleaching lecturing me about skin cancer.
When he said all that to me, it dawned on me that I had to stop. I was having all sorts of reactions. It was clear that the chemical substances or steroids in the products I was using weren’t good for me, I had to stop. I had a flair for skin care right from time but I was doing other things. With all I was going through I realised that some other women might be going through the same problem. With the flair I had, I went for trainings so I could be a professional in skin care.
TNE: Can you tell us some of the trainings you underwent?
I trained with a beautician who has been in the business for a long time but I read a lot, do my researches on ingredients and I also experiment a lot. Right now, I’m working towards an online training with a school in the UK for upgrade and certification.
After the training, I carried out some experiments and made some products which I gave some people to test for me. What I do is that before I put any product on my shelf I try it out on my skin or other people’s skin because people have different skin types. I try it and if they say it is good, I produce and sell.
TNE: What is your ultimate objective as a skin doctor?
My aim is for women to have a healthy and glowing skin no matter their complexion. You can be black and beautiful. Everybody mustn’t be fair though everybody wants to be fair now. Some people come to me that they have a party in seven days and they want to go two to three shades lighter, under seven days. I educate them and tell them they can’t achieve that but that I can give them a healthy glowing skin.
Basically, my main focus is to help women achieve a healthy glowing skin and to repair damaged skins; remember I started with my damaged skin, which I had to repair. After repairing it, I continued the process of having and maintaining a healthy glowing skin.
TNE: Can a dark skinned person achieve this glowing skin you are talking about without changing the colour of her skin?
Oh yes; a dark person, a chocolate person, a brown skin toned person can achieve a glowing skin without changing their complexion. If you just want to maintain your natural complexion; maybe due to the environment or the sun your skin had become dull or you went darker, there are products such a person can use from our stable that will give them their desired healthy complexion and they will be healthy; they won’t be looking all bleached out.
TNE: You said everybody wants to be fair and I think this might be because they believe it will make them beautiful or more beautiful, is fairness synonymous with beauty?
Not at all. People don’t realise that fairness is not synonymous with beauty. What attracts someone to a fair person is because she is glowing, because she is bright. You can be dark and glow like the sun and people will be attracted to you. What everybody should have is a flawless glowing skin. When I say flawless, I mean not a “coke and fanta” complexion –the face is fair and the body is black. Irrespective of your complexion, get an even tone and shine. When you see a dark person walking on the street and she is shinning, you will be attracted. Most of the people who bleach do not even realise that their fairness isn’t clean. If you go close to some of them, you will realise that they have patches and that is not attractive.
If you are born fair, you are born fair; if you are not born fair why change your natural colour when with your natural colour you can still glow and look beautiful. I try to make people understand that whatever they use on their body goes to their blood stream and as we age and grow older, if you use anything harsh, it will tell as you age. Why try to damage your skin all because you want to attract somebody? I really don’t believe in bleaching. I just believe in a healthy skin.
TNE: Can you tell us a bit about the process of formulating creams you put on the shelf and some of the things you use to ensure they do not cause damage to the skin?
Let me use the black soap as an example. Firstly, I love black soap because it is natural and it’s African. I source my materials from Ghana. In as much as we have the materials here in Nigeria, there are a whole lot of imitations. Whenever I am formulating my products I try as much as possible to get quality ingredients because when I get quality ingredients it gives me good results. I source my materials from Ghana. I use things like Camode known as Oshun in Yoruba, turmeric, basically things you can find in the kitchen; I use lemon, fresh fruits, Ori, Neem and other herbs. I use all natural products so that when you use our products, you are not changing your complexion but getting a healthy, glowing, natural complexion.
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TNE: Besides cream, what other things do you produce?
I make soaps, body scrubs and face soaps. I make repair creams for those who have used harsh creams before, products that have damaged their skins. We are not particular about fair or dark, we make products that promote healthy glowing skin but not bleaching cream. I also make kids products because a child’s skin is sensitive. You can’t compare a child’s skin to an adult’s skin; adults can apply some things on their skin without any problems, but a child, might react to it.
TNE: Even though you are using natural ingredients?
Yes, a lot of people have different skin types. For example, I made a scrub and one of my clients used it and complained of itching. She was the first person to lay that complaint so I was surprised. One thing I do with clients is that at first meeting I try to find out what, if any, that the person reacts to because people react to different things. I also try to find what the person has used in the past to guide me on what to make for that person. I consult with clients very well so that if there’s an issue in future I’ll know where it’s coming from.
With this particular client though, I didn’t do that. It was after her complaint that we talked and she told me that she reacts to the herb I used in making that scrub so I had to make a sugar scrub for her. I also make products for pregnant women so they won’t look so dark and old during pregnancy.
TNE: You said that you consult before you sell or make cream, does it mean that you don’t have off the shelf products?
Basically I make customized products though I also have some products on the shelf that after consultation can suit a client’s skin type. I equally make customized products for clients who come with particular requests or needs; it all depends on what the client wants. For the black soaps, and scrubs, I make and keep because they can be suitable for any kind of skin.
TNE: Is it safe to assume that if a woman buys your product and takes home the man in the house can use it without fear of any problems?
Not really. For instance, if a woman is fair and her husband is dark, if he uses the wife’s cream, gradually his complexion will change. But if they’re of the same complexion there’s no problem.
TNE: You have said that you don’t make bleaching creams and that you don’t support bleaching, what advice do you have for those who are bleaching and especially those who try to bleach their young children?
With regards to what you said, I have a mother as a client who came to me complaining that her child was too dark and she wanted to lighten her skin. In my mind I was like why would she do that? Maybe it is because of the craze of the ‘fair girl’ thing; but I told her straight away that I don’t make bleaching cream for children. I went to my daughter’s school sometime ago and I saw a little girl of about four or five years with darkened knuckles and discoloured toes and I just wondered what would make a mother do that. My advice to mothers is that if your child is black just maintain her colour. Because their skin is so tender when you start introducing chemicals and steroids and harsh things at that early age, it will affect them and if you put into their head that if they are not fair, they are not beautiful, they grow with it.
Let me give an example, with my seven-year old daughter. One day, she came to me and said she wanted to be fair. I had to talk to her and give her confidence. I told her she was beautiful with her chocolate complexion and that all she needed was to maintain her colour. At the end of the talk, she understood and told me she loved her colour and that was it. With the confidence I have given her as she grows, she will still maintain her complexion. I won’t advise any parent to change their kids colour. It is not healthy. We should always think of our health first in whatever we do. There is cancer everywhere and the sun adds its own damage.
TNE: You said you don’t make bleaching creams for children, do you make for adults?
Generally, I don’t make bleaching creams. I can only make your skin brighter. Instead of using steroids and hydroquinone, there are some ingredients we can use to brighten the skin. Such ingredients like Arbutin and Kojic are safe and natural and can be used to whiten the skin but you have to know how to use it. For instance, if you are using Kojic, it shouldn’t be more than 1% so there are guides too using these things. It’s not just something anybody can do. There are a whole lot of natural products you can use to achieve natural flawless skin from head to toe.
TNE: Are you saying that whitening and bleaching are not the same?
No, they are not the same. If you are fair, you are fair but you can’t as a dark person come to me and ask me to make you fair. I won’t. Brightening is basically for fair people only. Dark people cannot brighten their skin. Those ingredients I mentioned earlier are whitening agents. There’s a difference between whitening, lightening and brightening.
TNE: Can you put us through the differences?
With brightening, the person is not bleaching but simply wants to make her complexion brighter and glowing. Then we come to lightening; when a client tells me she wants to lighten up that means she’s looking at toning one shade above her present complexion; and when a client says she wants to whiten, that’s like the complexion of a half cast, two to three shades off her natural skin tone.
TNE: So is that not bleaching?
Well, it depends on the ingredients used; and remember you have to be a naturally fair person to do these. You can go from black to white. A fair person can go shade higher and it will be flawless. But if a dark person is whitening, she will have all sorts of patches, though it might blend at some point but it will take time.
Another thing ladies use to get flawless skin is injection. They call it Gluthathione injections. Most people go for that because they say it is healthy but I can’t certify that. The injection works from the inside as it goes to the blood. It whitens according to individual desire. In fact, it gives a superb glow and nobody will know the person is using cream. Even a dark person can use that and really become fair without patches. However, it is not a one off thing. The user has to go through a process until she gets the desired result. Then she can stop and simply ‘maintain’ that colour, but if one stops completely, she will gradually return to her original colour.
The injections though are in grades. There are some that go for as high as 600, 000 thousand Naira and above. They stay longer in the blood but those of about 70,000 and 80,000 thousand do not last longer than two months or thereabout in the blood. One advantage the injections have over creams especially those with chemicals and steroids is that if the user decides to return to her natural skin tone, she will not have dark patches as it happens when a person stops bleaching and this is because the injections work directly from the blood and not the skin.
TNE: Doesn’t the injection cause any damage to the user’s blood or even other internal organs?
It is possible, but I can state for sure. However, one needs to be sure where she is getting the injections and whether it is the original. I also believe that an intending user should first ask her doctor whether it is safe to use because I don’t think it is everybody who can use it. For instance, a pregnant woman cannot take it, a breastfeeding mother cannot take it and perhaps people with some other chronic diseases.
Actually, the Gluthathione is meant for cancer patients. The side effect is that it whitens the skin so because everybody wants to be fair, women are now taking advantage of its whitening effect and abusing it. It’s mainly made for cancer patients and the side effect has whitens complexion. Since people noticed it, everybody that wants to be fair, everybody that wants to be clean go for it. Most people using it don’t use cream. They can be using the injection and rubbing Ori, they are still fair and shining. They will tell you they are using Ori and you will believe but they won’t tell you the source of their white skin.
TNE: As a skin doctor, what is your definition of beauty?
My definition of beauty is you loving yourself. When it comes to skin you loving yourself the way you are. Appreciate yourself and take good care of your skin. Skin glowing is not only by the skin care products you apply on your skin. There are other ways you can achieve glowing skin such as eating healthy and exercising. Everybody has Gluthathione in their system, it’s when you top it up with fruits and vegetables and loads of water, healthy living generally, your skin will glow. I always advice my clients to ensure they take at least one litre of water daily. When you take loads of water you see yourself frequenting the restroom and you are peeing out all the toxins in your skin. That way you are getting fresher because everybody wants to be fresh not necessarily yellow or black but you are fresh and healthy. All these complement the skin care products and you are beautiful.
TNE: If some things we eat can help our skin glow, what are some of the things we eat that clog our skin?
Too much of eba is not good for the skin. I am not saying eba is not good but too much of eat is definitely not good. Too much carbohydrate; no protein, no vegetables is not good for the skin. Also, too much processed food is not good eaten on their own but if they are spiced up with vegetables, it boosts their nutritional value and makes them healthy for the skin.
Whatever you are eating, ensure it is healthy. For instance, if you want to eat eba, use soups like egusi, vegetable soup or okro. Portion control is also important.
TNE: So how affordable are your products?
For someone who loves and values her skin, they are very affordable. As the saying goes; better soup na money kill am, so if one really loves her skin, you‘ll spend on it. Most women spend so much on their hair and bags but when you meet somebody, the first thing you notice is their skin. If you have a beautiful skin, even if you wear slippers and jalabia, you will still look good. Skin first because it is your health. If you are not healthy it shows on your skin and on your face. So you take care of your skin, every other thing is secondary. I tell people to invest in their skin because your skin is always with you forever.
The hair and the bag will tarnish someday but your body remains with you and as you age it reflects on your skin so you have to take good care of your skin. That’s what I believe in.
TNE: What’s your plan for the future?
Well, I see myself expanding my reach, first in Lagos where I am based and then to other states like Abuja and Port Harcourt and if possible some neighbouring African countries.
TNE: How long have you been in this business?
Professionally, I have been doing it for about three years. But I can say I have been doing it for life because I have also had a flair for skin.