BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – From Eswatini to the world!
Queen of the internet Gugu Mkhulisi recently announced her partnership with Topicals a New York top face range. She had been looking for brand new ways to keep her skin radiant and healthy, especially during winter.
Mkhulisi is excited about her new signed deal with the Topicals skin care brand, this brand belongs to Olamide Olowe.
The 26-year-old founder of Topicals has made history and is fastly growing her skincare empire. The Nigerian-American founder of skincare label Topicals, recently announced her company has secured E10 million in funding from Consumer Partners. This made the owner the youngest Black entrepreneur to get over E2 million in funding.
The brand was only launched two years ago and has achieved many feats, from being sold in over 300 stores in Sephora to now obtaining this large venture capitalist backing.
Mkhulisi, who will appear in their new campaigns, says fronting the campaign is so much more than skin-deep. Speaking to people, the Social Media Awards nominee star shared her words of wisdom on self-worth, as well as the lessons she’s passing onto everyone who might have skin problems and is not confident.
“The way I landed my Topicals gig, was really heart-warming I received an email from one of their representatives asking me to be one of their ambassadors. The group came across my instagram page and like my content and the way it was put out. ,” she said.
The content creator’s portifio looks pretty clean at this point as she has over 16 brands under her name in the two years that she has been doing her influencing gigs. She is probably the first liSwati to be monetized by Meta.
Worth noting is that Mkhulisi has created a name for herself overseas in the sphere of influencing and has been using her Instagram account to establish credibility and audience.
“One of the reasons why it means so much to me is because I am aware of what my presence means to other people. And not just women of color, women of a certain age. I’m very shy and introverted by nature. I can really shrink sometimes. But when I hear so many people say how much just my presence means to them, I’m really humbled. I always think, ‘Okay, so what is it that I’m doing,” she said when speaking about the face about her Topicals skin care endosrment.
Mkhulisi is not new to the spotlight, having lived in Chicago for years and earning a qualification out of her stay, she continued to live in the city and explore.
She then later started her YouTube channel, she is sitting over 13 000 followers on instagram. Mkhulisi was also honored to be named one of eSwatini’s Top Women Achievers in 2019, only one less than 30 years old.
She further has experience as both a fashion designer and a model; she has worked with multiple brands in eSwatini. Mkhulisi is also known for speaking on gender, consent, sexual and reproductive health and entrepreneurship and business ventures at events.
When advising people who might be interested in becoming influencers she said all they needed to do was to start. She further mentioned that consistency always paid off.
“I learned how to brand myself, deals now reach out to me and that can happen to anyone when you learn to establish your brand. Be authentic as this will bring your tribe to you and lastly do not overthink things just start we all start somewhere,” she said.
