LLHOMD Beauty Care: Luxury, affordable hair and skincare solutions for women of colour
“I love to see women looking beautiful.” That’s the motive behind entrepreneur Lorna Hawthorne’s foray into the beauty industry, creating her own company, LLHOMD Beauty Care.
“Whether you are in your home or on the job, a woman of a melanated skin tone shouldn’t have to choose whether to take care of her children or to beautify herself,” Hawthorne told All Woman.
“Looking in the market, there are several other products out there for women with a melanated skin tone. But what I realise is that products that are catered to women of colour are less prevalent,” she said.
LLHOMD, which is a family-owned beauty brand named after beauty boss Lorna and her children — Haywood, Omar and Daren Hawthorne — started in 2020.
It provides luxury, affordable hair and skincare solutions for women of colour who invest in their hair and skin and need a quality, affordable product to maintain and beautify their look.
Hawthorne explained that while she used her downtime to start the business when the coronavirus pandemic hit, she always had an interest in developing affordable beauty products for women.
“I had the passion even before COVID-19. There are a lot of beauty products that we use, and what I realise is that there are a lot of products made with natural ingredients that are very expensive on the market,” she said.
“As a mother, when I was working, going to school, and as a business person, seeing how expensive these products are, I said, ‘It doesn’t matter what your pocketbook looks like, women should be able to afford great products for their skin, whether their pocketbooks have a lot or not,” she added.
The beauty care line offers bath and body products, hair products and face products made up of natural ingredients like pomegranate, prickly pear, aloe, avocado, lavender, and rich antioxidants, which provide long-lasting, anti-ageing benefits to improve both hair and skin over time.
While the business is fairly new, Hawthorne said business has been booming, with lots of returning customers.
“All my products are great products, but, of course, we do have different tastes and scents. The products are really hitting the market now; we do the prime skin shea butter, which is a number one hit on the market,” she said.
“The feedback is positive. That helps us a lot because we are getting feedback from our customers who have purchased and we have returning customers,” she added.
When she isn’t busy with beauty care, Hawthorne, who is from Manchester, enjoys doing charity work and spending time in church.
“In 2018 I started a foundation in honour of my late husband which gives scholarships back to educational institutions for children. I am also on the American Foundation for The University of the West Indies board that also does scholarships for students in Jamaica and other countries,” she said.
As she continues on her beauty-care journey, Hawthorne said she is always looking forward to growing LLHOMD.
“Right now we are doing skincare and haircare products. We never close the door, there are always opportunities for new things. Maybe down the road we will look into other products too,” she said.