VIP Cosmetics Laboratories

VIP Cosmetics Laboratories is a Soweto community-based business which is 100% black female owned by Vivian Shiburi who is also the founder and Chief Product Developer. She is a professional Analytical Chemist, Cosmetic Scientist and a talented hairstylist. After working for more than 8 years in the cosmetic and environmental field, Vivian quit her job in 2005 while pregnant with her second child because she felt that she had amassed enough experience to independently confront the challenges experienced by black people in dealing with their natural hair. She then formed VIP Cosmetics Laboratories CC in December 2005 which operated from her house manufacturing Shampoos and Conditioners. The company then decided to invest in research and development to manufacture and distribute natural African hair products that encourage Africans to genuinely embrace their natural hair. She became interested in the dreadlocks hair style which was the leading trend back then and decided to team-up with 3 lockticians/stylists and conduct market research to find out the challenges faced by people with dreadlocks. The results showed that a lot of people were suffering from dry itchy scalp, dandruff and did not like the dull looking dreadlocks which also had lots of buildup. This research gave birth to the Sheer Elegance brand which focused on providing products that ensured clean and healthy dreadlocks. Vivian also started wearing her hair in locks to experience and demonstrate the efficacy of her new invention. In 2019 the company purchased its own factory after renting manufacturing space for some time and built an in-house laboratory which came in handy when we embarked on further research to determine the challenges that afro sisters had with their afro hair journey. To further understand the challenges, our chief product developer, Vivian, cut her dreadlocks and started wearing her 4C afro so that she could also have first hand experience of the challenges.