Shalom Lloyd MBE | Naturally Tiwa

Women to Watch | Beauty Founders

Shalom Lloyd MBE: Naturally Tiwa founder Shalom Lloyd MBE on purpose-led entrepreneurship, skin health and creating brands that solve real problems.

“We are not a beauty company. We are a solutions company that happens to make skincare and wellbeing products.” – Shalom Lloyd MBE

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Some beauty brands begin with a business plan. Others begin with lived experience.

For Shalom Lloyd MBE, founder of Naturally Tiwa Skincare, it started with a mother trying to help her son. Faced with the daily reality of childhood eczema and frustrated by the lack of effective solutions, she turned to the two things she knew best: science and determination.

A pharmacist by training with nearly three decades in drug development and clinical research, Shalom never set out to build a beauty brand. Instead, she set out to solve a problem. That mindset continues to shape everything she creates today, from Naturally Tiwa’s skin health products to UTÖ, her intimate wellness brand helping to open conversations around women’s health that have too often been ignored.

Awarded an MBE for services to international trade and women in business, Shalom has built a career that bridges science, entrepreneurship and advocacy. Yet what stands out most isn’t the recognition, but the honesty with which she speaks about reinvention, resilience and finding purpose through personal experience.

As part of Darling Magazine’s Women to Watch | Beauty Founders series, we spoke to Shalom about motherhood, building brands with purpose, challenging taboos and why solving real problems will always matter more than chasing trends.

“Products evolve. Conversations change lives.”

1. Tell us about yourself. Who are you outside of your business?

This is a hard question for me, if I am honest.

Outside of my business, I am still figuring that out. I used to think that was a bad thing to say, but I don’t anymore.

I am a mother. That’s the most solid part of me. My children and my family are my anchor.

I am also a sister, aunty and someone who cares deeply about the people around me.

And then there’s the other side of me, the builder, the doer. I genuinely love working. I am at my happiest when I am creating, solving problems, building something from nothing. I used to feel like I had to apologise for that, but I don’t anymore.

I have realised something recently. I am not actually passionate about skincare. I am passionate about solving problems. Whether that’s in the pharma industry, clinical research, The Body Shop Nigeria, Naturally Tiwa or now UTÖ, I seem to find myself drawn to the things people find difficult to solve or difficult to talk about. That’s probably who I am more than anything.

Outside of all that… I’m in a bit of a season of rediscovery. In my 50s, recently gone through a divorce, and just trying to understand who I am in this new chapter. Some days I feel very grounded in it, other days I don’t.

But I am okay with that now.

A year ago, I would have answered these questions and made it all about Naturally Tiwa and eczema. Today, it is about Shalom Lloyd, the mother, the entrepreneur, scientist, activist, pharmacist, MBE, GM of The Body Shop Nigeria, advocate for women’s intimate health, and someone who has been through profound personal change.

2. When did you first realise beauty was going to become part of your career?

I didn’t.

I am a pharmacist by training and spent almost 30 years in drug development and clinical research — that’s my world.

Beauty wasn’t a career ambition. It came through necessity, science, and motherhood.

It started when I founded Naturally Tiwa Skincare because of my son’s eczema. That was the entry point into this world. Not beauty as an industry, but skin, health, and finding solutions when nothing else was working. That’s how it started for me.

Looking back now, I don’t actually think beauty became part of my career. Skin health did. Wellbeing did. Beauty just happened to become the vehicle.

3. What problem were you trying to solve when you launched your brand?

My son.

That’s the simple answer.

He had eczema, and I couldn’t find anything that truly helped him without irritation or compromise. And when you are a mother watching your child uncomfortable in their own skin, you don’t really sit and think about “starting a brand.”

You just try to fix it.

So, I went back to what I knew: science, formulation, ingredients and I tried to create something that actually worked.

Naturally Tiwa came out of that.

“I realised I’m not actually passionate about skincare. I’m passionate about solving problems.”

4. Was there a defining moment where you thought:

“I’m actually going to do this.”

Not really a big dramatic moment.

It was more gradual.

But I remember when the formulation I created actually started to work on my son’s skin. That was the moment I thought hmm okay… this isn’t just something I am trying anymore.

But even then, I don’t think I ever woke up and said “I’m building a beauty brand.”

I was just solving a problem. One step at a time.

5. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve overcome as a founder?

People.

I think I have learned the hard way that not everyone will treat your vision with the same care and urgency that you do.

I used to over-trust. Over-extend. Give too much away emotionally and strategically.

And I am trying to unlearn that.

It has been a journey of understanding boundaries, learning to trust my own judgment more, and not handing over my power too easily, even when people mean well.

That’s been my biggest challenge, and still an ongoing lesson.

6. What’s one thing people assume about running a beauty brand that simply isn’t true?

That it’s light or easy or just about trends and aesthetics.

Or that it is just about “looking younger.”

That’s not my world at all.

For me, this is about skin health, confidence, and helping people who are actually struggling! Eczema, sensitivity, hormonal changes, treatment side effects.

We are dealing with real people, real discomfort, real impact.

It is NOT just beauty. It’s wellbeing.

People assume I am selling beauty products. I’m not. I am solving problems.

My products are almost secondary. Whether it’s eczema, treatment-impacted skin or vaginal dryness, I start with a problem that people are living with every day and then ask, ‘How do we solve it?’

That’s a very different way of building a beauty brand.

7. What does success mean to you today compared to when you first started?

When I started, success was very simple! Build something, sell it, grow it.

Now it is very different.

Success for me now is impact. It is someone messaging me saying their skin has changed their confidence. That means more than anything else.

It’s also personal.

Me learning that I can trust myself. That I don’t need constant validation. That I can sit in discomfort and still keep going.

And yes, I have also had recognition like my MBE, which was a very proud moment, not because of status, but because it represented years of work, contribution, and persistence. It affirmed not just the business, but the contribution to trade, women, and industry.

But today, success feels quieter. More internal. More grounded.

Ten years ago, I wanted people to recognise my products. Today, I want people to remember the conversations we started.

8. How do you look after your own wellbeing while running a business?

Honestly? I’m still learning.

I go through phases where I do it well, and phases where I don’t. I am getting better at understanding that if I am not okay, nothing around me is truly okay.

What I do know now is that I can’t keep running on empty and have learned that the hard way.

I am trying to be more intentional about rest, about slowing down when I can, and about not always being in “output mode.”

I am learning to prioritise myself without guilt. To find peace in my own company. And to accept that my life is busy, complex, and sometimes chaotic, but still beautiful.

For me, wellbeing now looks like reclaiming my power, protecting my energy, and creating space to simply be still. Being still is hard for me so the biggest thing is me learning something simple but hard — that it’s okay to just be. Not producing. Not fixing. Not solving.

Just being.

The Brand

9. Which product best represents your brand and why?

Can I cheat and name two?

The first is Yara Body Food, the product that started it all. It is simple, and deeply effective. It was designed to reduce inflammation, soothe irritation, and support sensitive skin. It has been used on babies, adults, and people managing chronic skin conditions. It represents everything Naturally Tiwa stands for: accessible, effective skin health.

The second is UTÖ, our intimate wellness oil-based lubricant and moisturiser. It represents courage. It opens up conversations around vaginal dryness, hormonal change, and intimate wellbeing, topics that are often ignored or stigmatised.

UTÖ represents something different for me. It represents breaking silence. Talking about things women are often told to hide or accept quietly.

Together, these products reflect our purpose – real solutions for real people. But, if Yara gave me confidence as a formulator, UTÖ has given me courage as a founder. It has challenged me to have conversations I never imagined I’d be leading.

“You don’t need to wait for permission to choose yourself.”

10. If somebody had never heard of your brand before, what would you want them to know?

That Naturally Tiwa Skincare is not just a skincare brand but a skin health and wellbeing brand.

We are not driven by trends, we are driven by solutions.

We support people through eczema, sensitive skin, hormonal changes, menopause, and treatment-related skin challenges. Our formulations are designed to restore comfort, confidence, and dignity in the skin you live in.

We are about helping people feel comfortable in their own skin again.

I often say we are not a beauty company. We are a solutions company that happens to make skincare and wellbeing products.

If we solve the problem, the product has done its job.

11. What are you most proud of building?

Myself.

I am most proud of building myself alongside this brand.

Naturally Tiwa has not only shaped my business journey, but it has also shaped me as a person. The business is one thing but who I have had to become to build it is what I’m most proud of.

My resilience, self-trust, my clarity, my boundaries, the ability to keep going even when things are uncertain and my belief in my own instincts.

And I am proud that I am doing all I am without compromising my purpose.

12. What’s next?

We are expanding the conversation around intimate wellness with UTÖ, our recently launched all natural oil based intimate moisturiser and lubricant, ensuring it becomes part of mainstream health dialogue rather than something whispered about, taking it out of the shadows.

We are also continuing to build Naturally Tiwa as a skin health brand with global reach, especially for people dealing with chronic and underserved skin conditions.

And beyond products, we are building education because real change comes from awareness, not just formulation.

But more than products, I think what’s next is education and conversation.

That’s where real change happens.

Of course I want UTÖ to become a successful product. But more than that, I want us to get to a place where saying the words ‘vaginal dryness’ feels as normal as saying ‘dry skin.’

If we can help normalise that conversation, we have achieved something much bigger than selling a product.

Darling

Complete this sentence…

“Beauty means…”

Beauty means being comfortable in my own skin.

Complete this sentence…

“The one thing I wish every woman knew is…”

That you don’t need to wait for permission to choose yourself.

Why do you think women should continue supporting independent beauty founders?

Because we build from lived experience, not just business opportunity.

We are solving real problems, often from very personal places.

And when women support independent founders, they are not just buying products, they are backing stories, purpose, and innovation that often wouldn’t exist otherwise.

Shalom Lloyd MBE

• Receiving an MBE is an incredible achievement. What did that recognition mean to you personally?

My MBE meant a lot more than I think I can fully explain in one simple answer.

For me, it wasn’t about status. It was about acknowledgement that years of work, sacrifice, and building something from a very personal place actually mattered beyond me.

A lot of what I have done has been very instinctive, very purpose-led, and at times quite lonely. So, to receive something like an MBE felt like a moment of pause… like “okay, I’ve actually contributed something meaningful here.”

It also felt like it belonged to a lot of people around me: my children, my colleagues, my team, the people who have supported the journey in different ways. I didn’t build this in isolation.

But personally, I felt proud. Quietly proud. And a bit emotional, if I’m honest.

• How has your Nigerian heritage influenced your approach to beauty and wellbeing?

Africa beauty is the OG!

My African heritage influenced me more than I probably even realised at the start.

Growing up with my Nigerian heritage, long before clean beauty became a movement or natural ingredients became fashionable, our mothers and grandmothers were using oils, butters and plant-based remedies because that’s simply how we cared for ourselves. We have a deep belief that nature already holds a lot of the answers if you understand how to use it. My heritage taught me to respect those traditions and that way of thinking stayed with me.

Then pharmacy taught me the science behind why many of them work.

Naturally Tiwa really sits between those two worlds for me — science and heritage. Evidence and instinct. Structure and tradition.

I don’t think I could have built the brand without both. Naturally Tiwa exists because I never felt I had to choose between those two worlds.

• What legacy do you hope Naturally Tiwa will leave for future generations?

I want Naturally Tiwa to be remembered as a brand that genuinely changed the conversation around skin health, not just skincare.

A brand that helped people feel seen, especially those who are often overlooked in mainstream beauty conversations — people with eczema, sensitive skin, hormonal changes, and everything in between.

But beyond that, I hope it also shows my children that you can build something meaningful from lived experience. That purpose and business can coexist. That you don’t have to separate who you are from what you do.

“You don’t need to wait for permission to choose yourself.”

And for me personally, I hope it represents integrity, that we didn’t just scale for the sake of it, we stayed true to why we started.

If, in ten years’ time, someone says Naturally Tiwa helped make it easier to talk about eczema, menopause, intimate wellness and the things women often suffer through in silence, I would be incredibly proud.

Products evolve! Conversations change lives!

Quick Fire

Favourite book? ‘Let Them’ recommended by a wonderful friend Aaron

Morning or night?: Morning! I function better when the day is fresh. Even if I am tired, I like the reset of a new day.

Coffee or tea? Tea. Always tea.

One beauty product you couldn’t live without? This is hard because I am going to cheat a little…..again! For everyday skin, definitely a good body food. butter or oil, something simple that keeps my skin calm, nourished, and moisturised. I have lived too long around skin conditions not to respect the power of basic hydration.

But I also have to mention UTÖ. It has been such an eye-opener for me, provocative in the best way, and something that genuinely took me outside my comfort zone. It has opened up conversations I didn’t expect to be having so publicly around intimate wellness, dryness, confidence, and women’s health.

So I’d say I couldn’t live without both — the simple, grounding care of oils and butters and the bold reminder that we also need to talk about the things women are often told to stay silent about.

Favourite place to travel? Africa (Nigeria). It feels like grounding and connection at the same time.

One piece of advice for aspiring founders?: Start from something real, not just an idea you think will sell. And be prepared to stay with it longer than you think you will need to. The journey tests your patience, your identity, your reliance on people as well as your confidence more than your skills sometimes.

But if it’s rooted in purpose, you will keep going.

Listening to Shalom Lloyd MBE, it’s clear that Naturally Tiwa was never built to follow the beauty industry. It was built to challenge it.

Whether she’s developing skincare for eczema, encouraging conversations around intimate wellness or advocating for women to put themselves first, every decision begins with a single question: what problem are we trying to solve? It’s a philosophy that has shaped not only her brands, but her own personal journey through science, entrepreneurship and motherhood.

Perhaps that’s what makes her story so compelling. While many founders talk about products, Shalom talks about people. About confidence. About dignity. About creating space for conversations that have remained hidden for too long.

As Naturally Tiwa continues to grow and UTÖ expands the conversation around women’s intimate wellbeing, one thing remains constant: purpose will always come before trends. And in an industry that often celebrates the next big thing, that’s a powerful legacy to leave.

Visit: Naturally Tiwa