How one hustler started her skincare empire
Written by Marianne Olaleye, JAIKU
Kemi Ola Joseph has been building her social media following on YouTube since 2018. Little did she know this platform would be the foundation for her beauty business, KEM.
Photographed by Krystal Nuevill
Kemi Ola Joseph has been grafting for a long time. At just 18, she began her career as a makeup artist, dabbling with MAC colour palettes, and it wasn’t long before she noticed commonalities with her customers.
“I started makeup because everyone was asking me to do theirs,” she says. “And I started to see trends in Black women's skin – we all had the same issues.”
Turning to YouTube for tips, she soon began building her own community by sharing her story. “I started my YouTube channel when I was in uni,” she says. “We got to 20,000 subscribers by the time I was 22.”
While juggling a 9-5 job, in 2018 she decided to take the plunge and soft-launch her own business. “I’d take 70% of my paycheck and put it into my business and buy stock,” she says. At the time, lip glosses and highlighters were “all the rage.”
But in 2019, a disastrous breakout changed everything. “My skincare routine was like Neutrogena… That’s all we had,” she says. After black soap and a steroid cream dried out her complexion, Ola Joseph discovered the hydration-first method – a principle that KEM still champions today.
She began studying online cosmetic formulation, learning which ingredients truly worked. Sharing her progress on YouTube, requests soon rolled in. Her custom 50-unit order of toners, cleansers and clay masks sold out during the pandemic.
Losing her HR job in 2020 pushed her to fully launch KEM Beauty. With everyone glued to their screens, her YouTube buzz drove real growth. “I’d just made my monthly salary in two days… That’s when I thought: I could really do this.”
On a roll, by 2022, Vogue named her Super Coverage Concealer one of the year’s best products.
Now, Ola Joseph is one of five winners of the 2025 Black Beauty Grant Programme by BGF and Glossier. “What really piqued my interest was the teaching aspect,” she says. “I’ve never had a mentor. I’ve never gone to business school… this is what I need.”
Using the grant’s funding, she plans to scale production and develop AI-powered skincare tools. With strong demand in the US, she’s targeting markets in Nigeria, Ghana, Australia and the Netherlands.
Two new launches are set for this year – a serum and a treatment mask.
“They’re not new inventions,” she says. “But make sure that when you do it, you do it excellently.”
Thank you so much to Kemi for sharing such inspiring words with us.
Connect with Kemi or read more about the Black Beauty Grant programme here.
We’re eager to learn, collaborate, and share knowledge, so if you’re interested in working with us, say hello@blackgirlfest.com
BGF x
