by Marlon Madden
Barbadian-born entrepreneur Shernell Cooke is on a mission to solve the skin issues of black women with her line of skin care solutions – Rinuyu Skincare.
Cooke, who resides in New York, launched her company less than a year ago, a goal she told Today’s BUSINESS she has been working towards ever since she was a child because of her own experience.
“I grew up in Barbados where I got bit by a lot of mosquitoes and I would go to school and when I would go around the other children they wouldn’t have marks, and it turned out I was allergic to the mosquitoes, so I would get a boil
“When I migrated to the United States I was the only one sticking out with all these marks on my legs. So people would ask my grandmother ‘is what she has contagious?’ and that would determine whether they would allow their children to play with me. So I had to find a solution,” recalled Cooke, who left Barbados at the age of seven.
As she grew older and tried numerous products, Cooke was simply not satisfied she was getting the desired results.
“So what I did was I went to skincare formulation school and I graduated and started to learn about how to treat the skin, what active ingredients really work and I did a lot of reading the scientific research. So I started to treat my own skin and I am more confident in myself because now my skin is glowing,” she said.
Cooke said she has been developing her skincare formulation for the past four years and almost a year ago decided that she would allow other women to experience the renewed confidence she has been experiencing.
“I said ‘you know, I could do this for other women’. So that is why I launched Rinuyu Skincare so we are all about renewing women’s confidence through all natural skin care,” said Cooke.
The former St Stephen Primary School student, who spent her early childhood days in Hothersal Turning and Black Rock, St Michael, said she wanted Rinuyu Skincare to become a household name for women of colour around the world.
Cooke said she was not satisfied that most of the existing skin care products were made with black women in mind. “When they are formulating these products especially in the United States they are not thinking about black women or black people, but in the marketing that is when they would put you in there – they put a black model in there – but when you buy the product it doesn’t work for you the same way,” she said.
“Black women are my number one supporter. I feel like white people don’t think that a black woman can solve their skin issues but black women think that white women can solve their skin issues. That is what I notice,” she said.
Cooke, who lost her father due to the COVID-19 virus, said starting her business during the height of the pandemic was perhaps one of the most difficult things she has done to date.
“But I had a goal and I just kept on putting one foot in front of the next. Generally business is great. I have a lot of events that are coming up now that things are opening back up,” she said, adding that she was getting a lot of repeat customers.
Cooke, 40, said while she is able to ship products worldwide, she was looking at the possibility of getting her products in stores in Barbados in the coming months and even opening a shop here.
Having started the testing of the market with the product last month, Cooke said “you can look forward to it happening in less than a year if the reception is great”.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
