Former teacher turns love for skincare into booming business

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A local shea butter skincare brand has recently joined the ranks of legacy brands, making it onto shelves of beauty retailer Ulta. It happened with the help of their small business incubator Sparked.

Abena Boamah-Acheampong is whipping something up in the South Loop.

"I started making shea at home, and just making all my body products," she said.

Formerly a teacher in the city, it was her students who sparked her first batch of shea.

"I would always get at my students, like, 'Do you know what you're putting on your body?' They're like, 'Miss Boamah? Do you know what you're putting on your body?'" she said.

She didn't, and decided to find out.

"I had no intention of actually starting a brand, but also was super curious around the production of shea; like the raw materials, starting first, in my kitchen, making products before school, after school," she said.

Her brand, hanahana beauty, caught the attention of Ulta's emerging brand incubator, Sparked.

"It was a green light almost immediately. It truly was a recipe for success for us," said Muffy Clince, director of emerging brands for Ulta.

Sparked supported hanahana's development, getting the product onto shelves in 500 Ulta stores nationwide, from one Chicago company to another.

"The other piece is we love that it's a Chicago brand. We are a Chicago-founded company, and to have a founder right in our backyard, when you meet that founder, and you hear that story that really resonates there, there's something really special," Clince said.

With a focus on sustainability.

"Specifically the ethical sourcing, the thinking of the causes, the behind the story, thinking of what holistically this offers the guest, and how they can feel better in their own skin for the whole circle of production, from the outside in," Clince said.

"It's moreso how can the people that are sustaining the brand be sustained by the brand itself too," Boamah-Acheampong said. "It's about the packaging itself, it's about the ingredients that we use, and just really being intentional about how we formulate things so that Black women are at the forefront."

"I understand what it means for me, myself, to launch a beauty brand; what that looks like for people who look like me see me do that, like, 'Hi, this is for you. Like, I am creating this for you,'" she added.

More than 120 up-and-coming beauty brands have made it to Ulta's shelves through Sparked, and Ulta is looking for more.