Community and Sustainability with Asili Naturals' Trenise Watson

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Photo credit: Dave Zylstra

Trenise Watson is the founder of vegan online skincare company Asili Naturals.

At a Colectivo coffee shop in Wauwatosa, amidst the din of conversation, Trenise Watson pulls out a bag full of skincare products. The smell of citrus wafts out of a container of body butter as she shows it off. Starting her vegan online skincare company, Asili Naturals, has been a 10-year process. It all began back when she was a teenager frustrated with harmful chemical skincare products, not only failing to improve her blemished skin, but leaving it dry and unhealthy. Enough is enough, she thought, so Watson went to the kitchen to make her own solutions, concocting mixtures by using everyday things like bananas and avocados.

Since meeting her fiancé, a chemist, she has been able to make her passion her full-time job. Though getting the Asili Naturals off the ground has made for a difficult two-and-a-half years, Watson has achieved success. Watson’s products and the company have appeared in both local and national news outlets like MSNBC and even on television on programs like the “Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch” show.

What difficulties have you faced getting Asili off the ground?

It’s been very difficult, I’ll tell you that. It’s very hard for people of color and especially women of color to find funding for businesses; that has been one of my biggest struggles. So far, we've been really bootstrapping, I've been using my personal finances to keep Asili Naturals growing. Luckily, we’ve been having a lot of success, so we can live and survive off of that.

I also live in Milwaukee. As you know, this is a very segregated city, so the opportunities for me are very slim, versus if I went to Atlanta or Huston, where there would be a bigger pool of resources and opportunities to interact with investors that are more likely to invest in companies owned by women of color.

So, why do you choose to keep the company here, in Milwaukee?

Because this is where I’m from. One of the things is that I wanted to do, knowing that we have this stigma around African Americans here, with our income being low, was to create a company here to show other people that it can be done. Just because you’re African American doesn’t mean you can’t survive and thrive here, because it’s possible you just have to work harder.

That’s what keeps me here instead of going to Atlanta, where there are so many people who are doing stuff like this. But who’s actually staying here and growing the economy? So that we can create jobs and empower these young kids and show them, “Hey, look at me. I was just like you, I went through the same stuff you went through, I grew up in the same neighborhood you grew up in, and I was able to get out of that and that’s how I got where I am today.”

How does the company work with the local community?

That is one of the initiatives rolling out next year. But we’re doing a little bit of that this year, though, with the holiday season. I am linking up with Community Advocates and the Milwaukee Women's Center. They help women who are being abused, who have been on drugs and are going through recovery and those that are low income and just don’t have the resources. So, the center and Community Advocates provide resources, housing and food for these women.

I wanted to partner with them, to help give them some resources, whether it may be some soaps for personal hygiene, a face mask or funding. I want to show people that we can help and that things can be done.

What got you interested in sustainability, and how does that play a role in your business?

I knew that I wanted to make a brand that makes products with purely natural, plant-based ingredients. So, when you look at Asili Naturals, it’s plant-based, vegan and cruelty-free; those are principles that I have expanded upon knowing that I want this to be natural. I want this to be clean. From day one, we have built it up as a sustainable company as far as the packaging, the ingredients and what we stand for.

How do you hope your products will affect your customers? Have you received any feedback?

Actually, I just got some feedback today, from a mother of four. She’s really busy, and she’s like, “every time I get to use your products, it just makes me feel so beautiful. When I have five minutes to myself to put on a face mask and then wash it off,  I just feel so relieved and content with myself.” That is a driving factor for us.

We want people to feel beautiful, we want people to feel confident and empowered, whether you’re a mom of four or whether you’re low income, this is for everybody. But, I want it to be affordable so that everybody can use it and have access to it, so they can all have that same feeling beautiful.