Photo by Chris Lassiter
It started as making a strawberry mask for her niece. Now Nadia Ware, founder of Honey Sweet Face and Body LLC, is reaping the fruits of her labor.
“I don’t know how it really started,” Ware said. “I just know that my niece wanted to do skin scare stuff with me one day. It needed to be clean and all-natural. I googled strawberry masks, and in that (google search), scrubs came up. I said, ‘Let’s make a strawberry scrub, kid.’”
The initial strawberry scrubs came out so well that Ware decided to make cranberry ones later that year as Christmas presents. “It started with the Christmas gift,” she said. “Everyone loved the gift. It went from that to, ‘OK, let’s do a few more different ones.’” With that, Honey Sweet Face and Body LLC was formed.
“All my scrubs are natural,” Ware said, “and they all have honey in them.” With the forming of her own LLC, the entrepreneurial spirit was awakened within Ware. She’s now looking into real estate investments and some entrepreneurial endeavors within the healthcare industry. And, of course, she wants to continue to grow Honey Sweet Face and Body LLC. “I needed a purpose,” said Ware, who wasn’t cut out for a job where she clocked in just to get a check. “I didn’t feel like I was contributing to anybody. I was just a number. In my mind, giving someone a piece of me that I worked on – and that I was proud of – and seeing them hyped about it, that was enough for me.”
Ware is learning how to balance work in the healthcare field, work at a nonprofit, and her own entrepreneurial endeavors. She’s also mindful of the entrepreneurial example she’s setting for her son. “I’ve learned that just having one income in our society doesn’t work for any household,” Ware said. “I’m not rolling in dough by any means, but I am able to save money. When my son says, ‘Let’s go out to eat,’ I’m putting money to the side, and we can live comfortably. And that’s what I want to instill in him.”
You can support Nadia by following Honey Sweet Face and Body on Instagram and Facebook, or shopping her products at www.honeyssweetllc.com.
Nadia's story is part of a series on Black-owned businesses in the Shenandoah Valley written by Chris Lassiter, the Director of Engagement and Inclusion at the Community Foundation of Central Blue Ridge. Learn more about the work of the Community Foundation's work here.
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