Meet Jennifer Nnoli, the innovative founder of Omaricode, whose latest skincare-infused foundation, “Evendae”, is making foundation more mobile and easy to apply.

In under an hour, she engages, entertains, and educates even the toughest audience members about cosmetics and the science behind them. She highlights the importance of understanding the formulation science and what it means to care for skin in tropical climates. At the heart of her campaign is Omaricode, a beauty brand that she has spent the last eight years reshaping expectations for African cosmetics. She is Jennifer Nnoli, founder of Omaricode, a brand that intersects skincare and makeup.

Her desire to simplify daily routines has led her from a digital-first enterprise to a globally recognised African beauty label. Through brilliant product design, a refusal to follow fleeting trends, and a clear vision for regional expansion, Omaricode demonstrates that African brands leading with innovation can earn a permanent place on the world stage.

For her latest endeavour, Nnoli unveils the Omaricode “Evendae Foundation Stick”. As the name suggests, it’s a non-liquid foundation. With this, the brand hopes to redefine the African beauty industry and provide a counter product to the formulas that have dominated the market for years.

In this exclusive interview, Jennifer Nnoli speaks about transitioning from a legal career to the beauty industry, building Omaricode through faith and a skin-first philosophy, and creating multifunctional products for African complexions. She reveals the journey to creating the Evendae Foundation Stick, which marks the brand’s most significant step yet.

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Jennifer Nnoli on the genesis of her beauty path

Jennifer Nnoli’s route to founding a cosmetics brand is as complex as it is insightful. A trained lawyer with a background that spans the legal sector, travel, and tourism. She also holds certifications in branding, product management, and cosmetic science, alongside an executive MBA. 

Despite her dedication to the corporate trajectory, her passion consistently pulled her back toward beauty. She was not entirely a stranger to the industry, as she had previously worked as a makeup artist and beauty retailer.

However, the pivot towards building her own brand occurred during a period of career transition. In a moment of creative block in her corporate trajectory, she recalls, “I started the brand at a point where I was feeling a little bit lost in terms of career.” So she turned to her faith for guidance during moments of uncertainty; she sought a name that reflected her core values. “I’m like, okay, I shouldn’t be leaning into my relationship with God only when I have issues. I should be leaning into my relationship with God and putting him first in everything I do.”

This conviction led her to the Swahili word “Omari”, which translates to “God first.” This was the first step of many that led to the formation of Omaricode. As Nnoli explains, “Putting God first is the code by which — part of our values, our brand as a whole in everything we do — I live by. So that’s Omaricode.”

How Omaricode went from a motto to a brand

Although it was registered in 2018, Nnoli launched the business and its operations in 2019. Initially, Omaricode functioned as a solo e-commerce venture, which Nnoli ran while maintaining her day job. “I run it strictly as an e-commerce business when I come home from work,” she shares. “The orders that came from the website were packaged by me. Everything was done, then I would drop it off with the security person and then book a dispatch.”

Suddenly, she saw herself navigating the early hurdles of starting a business in Nigeria, from funding constraints to volatile exchange rates and logistics nightmares. “When I say ‘the business was built from the ground up and I’ve put in my blood, sweat, and tears’, yes, I did that,” she says. “There is no aspect of my business that I don’t understand because I’ve worked every role.” 

By 2021, steady revenue convinced her to focus on Omaricode full-time, and she listened. So she quit her job and began building an operational foundation established on discipline and product integrity.

Bridging the skincare and makeup gap with Omaricode

Omaricode was born out of personal necessity, Nnoli shares. Living with sensitive, combination skin, she found herself frustrated by the options available on the market. “Most times when I try a lot of beauty products, I end up having breakouts,” she notes. “If you buy Nigerian brands, you won’t really see the ingredients listed. Then a lot of products have limited shade ranges, formulas that don’t necessarily really perform well in our climates, or even products that are just complicated to use.”

This exploration helped her identify a clear market gap: African women needed high-performance, multifunctional cosmetics designed explicitly for their skin tones, lifestyle, and environment. She explains, “I’m like, why can’t I make products that are designed for our skin tones, our lifestyle, our environment, performance, and still have those skincare benefits that I’m looking for that wouldn’t also necessarily break me out?” This centred her mission — making beauty feel effortless and accessible.

Omaricode pioneered a skin-first philosophy. In her words, “Our unique selling point, which was skin-first beauty: skincare-infused makeup products. We were one of the first people to really draw attention to it, and it’s not just a marketing gimmick.” 

Their formulations are engineered with active ingredients like salicylic acid in primers to help oily skin, or green tea extract and vitamin E to calm inflammation. “Those ingredients are carefully created and infused into those products for your skin not to react in any negative way,” Nnoli emphasises.

Furthermore, Omaricode focuses heavily on multi-use functionality. She explains, “Our blush stick, you can also use it like a lip and cheek stick. The bronzer stick can also be a bronzer and contour stick.” While she clarifies that “your makeup shouldn’t replace your skincare for any reason,” this hybrid approach ensures that wearing daily cosmetics does not compromise underlying skin health.

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Introducing the Evendae Foundation — everyday essentials redefined

The latest chapter in Omaricode’s formulation journey is the launch of the Evendae Foundation Stick, a direct response to the heavy, overly matte formulas. When developing the name, Nnoli was deliberate about avoiding derivative industry trends. 

“There was this whole wave — all the foundations were skin something, skin something. And I’m like, I don’t want to come out with a foundation at some point and have it named that,” she jokes.

Instead, she focused on the purpose of the product. “I just wanted to do a product that will ‘even’ out your skin tone beautifully,” she explains. The name “Evendae” evolved into a wordplay where D-A-E stands for “Daily Anywhere Essentials.” As Nnoli defines it, “Evendae is a product you can use daily, you can take it anywhere, and it’s an essential in your makeup kit.”

She opted for a portable stick design offering buildable light-to-medium coverage with a radiant, skin-like finish because she recognised that heavy liquid foundations can feel claustrophobic in tropical heat. “Every brand has a liquid full-coverage matte foundation,” she says of the existing marketplace. 

“I looked at the market critically… what I kept hearing was, ‘Oh, I just want something easy. The foundations are heavy, it’s too cakey, it’s too matte.’ Why can’t we do a product that will address all these issues?” This is where she found her path, in the gap, just like she did all those years ago at the beginning of Omaricode.

Evendae allows users to streamline their routine into a quick 5-to-10-minute application that can even double as a concealer. It launches with 15 carefully calibrated shades targeting medium to deep undertones. Nnoli has always put African women first, and now, Omaricode offers an intentional range built specifically for melanated complexions. Despite this huge feat, she remains open to expanding based on community feedback.

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The new African beauty and the path ahead

For Nnoli, catering to African skin is an intrinsic commitment. She defines an African beauty brand as one that possesses a fundamental, native understanding of its consumers. This includes their undertones, climate realities, and aesthetic preferences. To be honest, she believes no one understands the nuances of African skin performance and shade ranges better than creators from the continent. 

Looking ahead, Nnoli’s vision for Omaricode extends well beyond Nigeria’s borders. Having established a physical retail footprint and built a loyal community, her future five-year roadmap focuses on scaling distribution networks across the African continent and solidifying strategic retail partnerships globally. 

Ultimately, she believes that by prioritising rigorous market research over fleeting trends, African beauty can help shape the future of the industry.  For her, Omaricode continues to set a benchmark for beauty brands emerging from the continent, proving that thoughtful, skin-first innovation has universal appeal.

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The post With Omaricode, Jennifer Nnoli is making a case for skin-first African beauty appeared first on Marie Claire Nigeria.