Nyakio Grieco is a beauty entrepreneur and advocate for clean, inclusive beauty that suits all skin types, tones, and needs. She is a veteran beauty founder and trusted industry voice, since launching her first successful business, the award-winning brand Nyakio, based on her family’s Kenyan roots and beauty secrets launched in 2002.

She co-founded Thirteen Lune in 2020 as a first-of-its-kind retailer that inspires the discovery and education of brands created by BIPOC founders. Thirteen Lune carries over 180 brands and reframes how Black and Brown beauty brands are perceived from both an industry and consumer perspective, giving each brand a platform to engage a wider audience and each consumer the opportunity to discover new brands. Thirteen Lune has since partnered with retailer JCPenney for inclusive beauty shop-in-shop locations in over 600 stores nationwide.

Founded in 2022, Relevant is a clean, high-performing, ultra-inclusive line that prioritizes innovation and tech-led formulations to work on all skin types and tones. Relevant products are melanin-seen but made for everyone and effortless and joyful to use as the key part of a daily beauty regimen. As a veteran beauty founder and trusted voice in the industry, Nyakio has made Relevant a one-of-a-kind champion for inclusion in beauty.

BeautyMatter caught up with Nyakio Grieco, Co-Founder, Thirteen Lune; Founder, Relevant; and BeautyMatter 2024 NEXT Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. 

The most common trait in entrepreneurs is passion. What fuels your passion as an entrepreneur? 

With Thirteen Lune and Relevant, I have been able to align my passion and love for beauty with my purpose for uplifting founders of color and creating space for inclusive beauty. Creating Relevant has been a dream realized! Our clean, high-performing and tech-led skincare, cosmetics, and fragrance are inspired by my Kenyan family heritage and love of efficacious products to help all feel seen at shelf. I am so grateful that I have been given this opportunity to co-create something where I'm helping others who are also deeply passionate about beauty get to success much quicker than I ever did. Helming an organization that is working to uplift and empower other founders of color is what fuels my passion as an entrepreneur.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? 

I am infinitely grateful for what we are building with Thirteen Lune, but it's the journey it has taken to get here that I am most proud of. As a beauty entrepreneur of over 20 years, I have certainly had my share of ups and downs and stops and starts. It's starting again and standing back up to try and do better by myself and my community that I think I am most proud of. 

On the flip side, failure is part of being an entrepreneur. What is the best mistake you've made?

Because as entrepreneurs, everything is a learning opportunity and a chance to do different and better, my best mistake has been “not to truly value my self-worth and non-negotiables in business.” I’m grateful for the times that I played small, took less than I deserve, cared too much about people pleasing, etc., because I learned the lessons that behaving that way will only stand in the way of my ultimate success, happiness, potential, and better opportunity to serve the collective.

In the past decade, the word "entrepreneur" has been glamorized and romanticized. In reality, it's really hard and comes with a lot of ups and downs. What keeps you going? 

What keeps me going are the many beauty entrepreneurs at various stages of their business that are friends, mentors, mentees, and the beautiful founders whose brands we carry at Thirteen Lune that inspire me daily. 

Being a beauty entrepreneur can be a lonely journey. Creating a space with other founders allows me to be a part of a tremendous village of helpers, doers, and change makers all working together to support one another. It's this exchange of ideas, resources, ups, downs, and in betweens that we share and support, that fuels me to keep going. There truly is no finish line. As a community we are in this together and have to keep empowering each other to grow and learn from the process and from each other.

Being an entrepreneur isn't something that can be taught in a classroom. What's been the biggest learning from being in the trenches and operating a business you wish you'd known? 

To prioritize my self-worth, that it is OK to say "no,” and that the only failure when you fall, is not getting back up.

The dark side of entrepreneurship can be isolation, loneliness, and burnout. How do you take care of yourself? 

Self-care goes beyond the physical. Strong and healthy relationships ARE self-care. I surround myself with amazing women and friends who are like family to me. I really value my village and how we show up for one another. My family time with my husband, kids, and friends is imperative to ground each day, find a sense of renewal, and remind myself what is truly important. Also, “going easy on yourself,” finding plenty of laughter, love, and joy, getting enough rest, and prioritizing your health, are paramount. You have to fill your own tank, to be of best use to yourself and others.

What is the best piece of advice you've received that has guided you? 

Align your passion with your purpose. I think this has been my North Star through a lot of the winding road that has been my beauty journey.