Frenchica… Who, why, what and how? 

Hey ya’ll

Welcome onboard. I guess this is not what you were thinking when you imagined French girls or France huh? Let me guess what was on your mind… Paris, the Eiffel Tower, good bread, good wines, beautiful and classy white women walking on the Champs-Elysées… fantastic food, everything but the girls on the picture (except the blond one, lol).

Well France is far from what people imagine, very far from what is between my hands on the picture and sometimes it looks like the 5 french girls on the photo, diverse! By the way, I’m Bilguissa, Frenchica’s founder. So let me introduce myself a bit more: I’m 40… something, born and raised near Paris, my parents are from Guinea (west Africa), the family moved in France in the 70’s. At home, we spoke Fulani and French, ate Mafé and Pot-au-Feu, listened to Claude François and Bah Sadio, yeah, a bit schizofrenic in fact. So all my childhood, I’ve been raised between 2 strong cultures, Fulani and French. As you can’t ask someone to choose between his father and his mother, I’ve decided as a young adult never to give up a single part of what I am, because I am both.This has always been a focus throughout my career. I’ve been a journalist, and an author before diving into beauty. As I look back to everything I’ve done, there has always been a concern to highlight or describes traditions from my identities and basically say: “Things are not as cliché as we think, people travel, share, change and become interesting in the process, because they create new cultures, richer, deeper, and at the end of the day, human being have always done that since day 1”.

So with Frenchica, my focus is to solve your haircare and skincare painpoints through the fantastic power of african ingredients mixed to french beauty excellence (the way french people innovate technologically and infuse elegance into everything they do in the beauty business). I also wish to give back to my original continent the credit for the efficiency of what grows on its soil. This industry rarely credits Africa for its incredible knowledge or traditions and its rich soil that gave wealth to many companies. I want to change that. I want to celebrate my ancestor’s contribution to beauty without forgetting my french identity. As you guess, Frenchica has a double meaning, it’s at the same time a reference to the french chica I am (Chica means girl in spanish), and the contraction of French and ICA from Africa.

Now as you know all about the why, I’m going to tell you what we’ll do: on this space, we’ll propose efficient clean haircare and soon skincare and bodycare, containing african ingredients, manufactured in France, that is known for its great experience in creating super beauty products. We’ll do our best to purchase directly and with fair conditions to african ingredient providers. We are a rooted into strong traditions, welcoming as many people as possible onboard. Since we know who we are and what we stand for, we can be wide opened, specially as the world has 50% of its population with darker skin and curly hair. We propose a diverse conception of beauty where underserved people feel acknowledged at last and overserved people can still find products in our collections that correspond to their essential needs. And we wish to do that with you, to co-create with our consumers. That is why we have published a survey (in the skincare menu), so that you choose what you need us to propose first in our future skin and bodycare line. In the meantime, you’ll be able to discover Nappy Queen, the first brand I created 10 years ago in Paris, for textured hair. It’s made in France, from natural ingredients, sulfate, silicone, paraben and mineral oil free. I’m pretty sure you’ll love it and we will adapt some of its best-sellers into Frenchica very soon.

And by the way, can you refer us to friends and sign up to our newsletter? You’ll have all our exclusive offers, follow the creation of our body and skin-care brand and also have our tips. We will soon create an ambassador and reward program. We’re looking forward to proposing you dope products, created from fantastic ingredients and traditions, with you and for you all. I hope you’ll enjoy.

Have a good day and as we say in french, “à plus” (see you soon)
Bilguissa, founder and CEO