Parrish launched Odelia, Marie, & Patrice, also recognised as OMandP, in 2018 after vowing to prioritize artistry. In 2019, she began experimenting with body butter and soap recipes. The company’s name is her grandmother’s center name, her mother’s middle title, and her middle identify in order. When spouse and children users figured out about her venture into soap earning, they informed her about her family’s roots in the magnificence enterprise. Her grandfather owned a barbershop, and her great-grandmother produced cleaning soap.

“I started to understand a deeper history,” Parrish stated. “I recognized my relatives had roots in the self-treatment splendor industry. It was in the aware head and the unconscious head.”

Moreover soap, OMandP also sells lotions, lip balms, bath salts and candles. In March 2021, Candace opened a compact studio room in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The goods are also available on her website and on Amazon. The merchandise are vegan, and Parrish said she is doing work toward currently being 100{362bf5cdc35eddfb2532d3c23e83b41deb229c4410d15cb1127c60150cbd4488} plastic cost-free.

“Given the influence that world-wide warming has on black and brown communities, it’s especially important to have a sustainable attractiveness business, as a black-owned business enterprise,” Parrish claimed.

Merging academia and business

The journey to becoming a attractiveness enterprise owner was long and winding. Parrish graduated from VCU with bachelor’s (2011) and master’s levels (2013) from the Richard T. Robertson College of Media and Tradition, component of the College of Humanities and Sciences, with an emphasis on public relations. Choosing she wished to pursue a job in academia, she entered the Media, Art and Textual content Ph.D. software, a cross-disciplinary application. She graduated in 2016 with her doctorate with an emphasis on visuals used in health conversation.

“I essentially researched how PR functions in the overall health discipline, but with an interdisciplinary approach,” Parrish stated. “I examined throughout communication, graphic style and design in the College of Arts and social and behavioral well being on the MCV Campus.”

Given that, she has been appointed to director and faculty positions at North Carolina Central University, Rollins Faculty in Florida, and Sacred Heart College in Connecticut. Parrish at some point landed at Penn State University as an assistant professor of public relations and promoting. Her research focuses on the use of technology and visual features this sort of as infographics in health and fitness communication and PR. Parrish mentioned she enjoys carrying out exploration and doing the job with learners.

Parrish has considered about starting up an incubator for natural beauty goods at Penn Condition. The software would assistance students discover about the natural beauty business through investigation.

“I want to merge the two worlds,” Parrish claimed. “I want to start off a magnificence incubator exactly where pupils can conduct study and branding. We want significant elegance makes to arrive to us for study.”

A innovative outlet

Philanthropy is central to OMandP, and she created a line of candles to support fund the authorized costs for Marques Profice, a guy sentenced to jail for murder as a teen whose guilty verdict is remaining challenged.

She is preparing to open a more substantial output facility for OMandP in the up coming calendar year and is wanting to increase retail retailers in Philadelphia and Orlando.

“Those are the two cities that have revealed the greatest interest for the products and corporation,” Parrish claimed.

Even if the organization grows, she wishes to stay fully commited to the artisan roots. Everything is handmade, and she says it will remain that way.

“I prefer not to go the production route, since I am pretty severe about the integrity of our recipes,” Parrish claimed. “I want to make certain they are vegan and sustainable. When you contract with a production facility, there are so many things you simply cannot account for regarding sustainability and manufacturing.”

Parrish has usually been imaginative. She was interested in trend at an early age and considered pursuing a vogue design and style degree at VCU. Her splendor products and solutions are a way to faucet into that resourceful aspect – though creating a sustainable enterprise she can be very pleased of.

“Artistry is the issue that retains me happy and sane,” Parrish claimed.