Bebe Akinboade
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“WHY I’M FLOATING A LIVE-IN MAKEUP SCHOOL”- BUNMI OYENIYI

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Bunmi Oyeniyi, the founding Director of UNVEIL STUDIO has been dedicated to enhancing the beauty of her clients with her signature makeup. She has a B. Sc. In Estate Management from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and is also trained and certified makeup artist from The London School of Make up, London. Bunmi has successfully grown her business from a humble beginning into a world acclaimed international standard makeup studio. And in just 5 years, her growth has been trajectory. In 2006, she added sales of wedding rings as a backward integration of the make up business. In 2007, she hosted a beauty pageant named “FACE OF UNVEIL”. In 2008, she launched her brush line called “THE UNVEIL PROFESSIONAL BRUSH”. The latest coming from her stable is The Unveil Institute (Beauty and Makeup). It’s a live-in school which is different from the other makeup school. It’s actually the first of its kind in this part of the world. The aim behind The Unveil Institute is to drive the imperative for a makeup artist to have multiple skills to meet the demands of the industry and increase their earnings potential. Thus, TUI is conceived to provide the highest standard of education in all aspect of beauty and make up. While TUI is a live-in institute, it additionally caters for day students to create a flexible plan for those staying in Lagos. Recently, City People Fashion Editor, BOLA AKINBOADE, met with this talented artist, and she opens up on why she is floating a live-in makeup school plus how she has sustained her business for years.

What led to the idea of you floating a makeup school?
I actually wanted to do something different from what everybody else was doing. It’s actually a live-in school. I have a mini school here (referring to her Makeup Studio, on Toyin Street, Ikeja). And over the years, we have been dealing with different questions like where can I stay? They keep asking me, please can I stay with you? Do you have a place for us? I know that Lagos market is saturated, but we don’t have enough makeup artists in Benin, Abuja, Kaduna and all those places. So I was like instead of us going all the way there, I was like why don’t we have students that will come here to be trained and become professionals. It’s like training Amateurs to become master stylists. So that’s how I came up with a live-in school, something different from what anybody has ever done.

How long did it take you to turn the idea into a reality?
It took me 2 years, and we have been on this for like 6 months. We have meetings everyday. We have to do our websites, we have the curriculum already, and we have the time table. We have everything intact. School resumes first week in February.

You mentioned earlier that it’s a first of its kind school. So what are those things that make the school very unique?
It’s a live-in school that caters for day student, entrepreneurial training, and vocational courses. Its home away from home. It’s the first of its kind. We have well trained staff already. The ambience is fantastic, the atmosphere is good. The rooms are been named after makeup colors. And its not just about makeup, we have interactive skills, girls will go out movies, we will have different activity nights and other activities

No doubt, the school is a massive project. So how did you bankroll it?
Like I would always say, I will always give thanks to God. And my rings have suffered a lot; I won’t lie to you, because you know how it works. Now the banking industries are a bit unsettled, if I’m permitted to use that word. So the banks are totally out of it. I have gotten helps from my friends. For me, I started bit by bit, because I didn’t want to rush. So it was bit by bit, from getting the house, to doing the fittings. Because for me, details, every little details count. So that’s the way I did it. We are still working on it, but we have done majority of the job. It’s almost over.

So how many numbers of students can the school accommodate?
We are looking at 50, both boarding and day student. For day students, because have different classes and we re not going to put them all in one class, we have about 4 classes, at each point, everybody is doing something. They are not under the same roof. For the hostel, we are looking at most 25, for the day students, we can accommodate more than 25, but we don’t want to jam pack the place. So we are looking between 40 and 50.

Last year, unveil clocked 5, but you didn’t celebrate it. A lot of people were expecting a celebration party since you have done so well for yourself just in 5 years. Why didn’t you celebrate?
We were actually going to launch with our new makeup line. And then the school thing came up again, so we were like okay, let not bite more than we can chew. There will always be time for celebration. For me, I don’t believe in people coming to eat for nothing, I believe in investing in something and launching it. So that’s why we didn’t celebrate it as people expected. But we did something small though, for every customer that came in, there was something.

You also started a catering outfit last year. How far did you go with that as little or nothing is heard about it presently
I must confess to you, I almost lost my money to the catering business (Laughs). I don’t know why, I can’t even remember who advised me, because I’m still looking for the person, I need to burn the person down. It’s quite lucrative for people that are not as busy as I am. That food business was an insane market, but I got to meet different people on another note. People couldn’t place me and the food business. So in most cases when I ‘m talking to them, they don’t even know I’m the one they are talking too on the phone. And you know how it is with food business, you need to be there. The catering outfit is still there, they have been able to stabilize right now, but I think I’m going to let go, and face my makeup business. This is me.

What about “Face of Unveil”, did you also let that go because it’s meant to be an annual event. And nothing has been heard since the first edition.
For me, for “Face of Unveil”, this part of the world, they like cheap labor and everybody knows. I was looking for an icon to represent my brand, that’s why I came up the “Face of Unveil”. She will always be Unveil baby, but we will also get her jobs from other multinational companies, like MTN and others. I realize that, everybody had an agency that they were always going to. But “Face of Unveil” was a huge success, everybody kept talking about it. But now, I want to give back to the society, and I need to correlate with what I do. That’s why I put a comma, because it’s not a full stop per se to “Face of Unveil” for now.

You also mentioned earlier that you will be launching your makeup line. How soon is that?
It’s actually in the making. It’s really nice. We have smackers, we have glazers, and we have the pencil, mascara, lip glosses. Foundation. But we are going to launch fully in 2011 by God’s grace.

You have trained over 200 makeup artists, some of them are doing so well in the industry now. How does that make you feel?
I feel fantastic because I’m like oh, that’s my product and she is doing pretty well. I feel very good, and I feel honored. And God has really given me the strength and the power to do that. We have empowered a lot of them and anytime I see them now, I bless God.

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